This coming Saturday starts the first of two workshops covering the last few days of February and the first four days of March. I’ve been spending all my time the last two months, and I do mean almost all my time, getting the new WMG Publishing offices ready to hold 20 plus writers while dealing with the last of the estate issues. The new offices and workshop home has turned out even cooler than I imagined. But wow, morning, afternoon, night, all I’ve been doing is sorting and hanging art and doing all the details. It’s not going to be completely done, but close enough.
After the workshops, I’ll post some pictures of how this all started and how it now looks, with some stages in the middle. Dealing with 4,500 square feet and a couple libraries full of books and magazines has been great fun and daunting at the same time. I put in there 15 large truck loads of books and such into the office. That’s right, I said Fifteen!! Large trucks. Thank heavens I had professional moving help.
To give you an idea of how big this project really was, I bought just over 1,000 (one thousand) Staples filing boxes, had another thousand plus boxes already, plus I have emptied and reused many of the boxes a number of times.
The estate is done and (except for my right eye) I survived it. And the lawyers made a ton of money. I now own a house in Eugene, Oregon, that needs to be sold cheaply. But beyond that, it’s done.
I have signed up to do a work-for-hire project with a major game world that sounds like it’s going to be a blast to get me back writing again. Real world deadlines can help force someone like me back to my writing computer. That and the promise of a lot of money. (grin) Then I go back to the challenge. Stay tuned for some new stories coming in March.
Workshops
This spring is going to be a blast for me doing workshops. On Saturday, Scott William Carter and I are teaching a workshop we called Promotion, but it actually is “Tools for the Indie Writer to Make More Money.” Four days. Then on Thursday professional editors Denise Little, Kerrie Hughes, and John Helfers join me and Kris for a short story workshop called “The Anthology Workshop.”
In March I’m teaching, with Kris’s help, a workshop called “Character Voice and Setting.” A very intense writing workshop. No spots open in any of the first three workshops now, but it’s looking like we will do all three next spring again. Official announcement for the fall workshops will be out in March and official announcement for the Spring 2013 workshops will be out in July.
In April no workshops here on the beach, but Kris and I are traveling for two. We are chipping in at the Writers of the Future in mid-April in Las Angeles and I suppose presenting awards.
Then from April 30th to May 2nd we will be in Las Vegas for the SuperStars Writing Seminars with Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Eric Flint, David Farland, and Brandon Sanderson, among others. They have openings so check that out if you are interested.
The SuperStars workshops are great fun from everything I’ve heard and with that cast, it could be full of great discussions.
In May here at the coast we have two 4-day workshops back-to-back from May 12 to May 20th. One workshop is called “Cliffhangers” and the other is “Story Genre Structure.” You can do either or both. Descriptions are under the workshop tab above and both workshops still have a few openings.
In June, Kris (Kristine Kathryn Rusch) teaches the short story workshop for a week from June 16th to June 23rd. If you really want to push your short story writing to the next level, come work with the only person to ever win a Hugo Award for her fiction and for her editing. Not counting dozens and dozens of readers’ choice awards from many magazines. This is an intense writing workshop. There are some spots still open. Write me for more details if serious.
And then finally in July we have two four day workshops over the week of July 14-22. The first one is helping you learn how to write “Pitches and Blurbs,” plus tags and back cover copy and so much more. The second workshop is “Think Like a Publisher” taught be Scott William Carter and myself. Everything you need to know to be a publisher. Very updated from the first one we did over a year ago now. Again, information under the workshop tab at the top of the page or write me directly and put “Workshop” only in the subject line to avoid my spam filters.
In a few days I will post a new blog on ebook pricing and my 2012 opinions on that topic. Get your hate mail ready. (grin)
Dean said: “I have signed up to do a work-for-hire project with a major game world that sounds like it’s going to be a blast to get me back writing again.”
I’m curious as to what you mean by “a major game world” – does this have anything to do with video games?
Todd
http://www.toddtrumpet.com
Hey Dean, this sounds really cool. Sounds like it’s all coming together. Any chance of some pictures?
The WMG Publishing offices sound totally awesome. I can’t wait to see them! End of March is coming fast. I’ve had a few stress dreams, but not too many!
I really want to attend that superstars seminar! Hopefully I can get the money drummed up before april 1st. Either way, I’m excited to attend your two workshops in July!
I read your blog regularly through an RSS feed, but I never seem to hear about these workshops (the one you’re doing on Saturday would have been right up my alley) until it’s too late. What am I doing wrong? Is there another place these workshops are promoted? Or am I just missing your promotion of them somehow?
Meg,
On my web site, at the top along the tabs, there is a tab called “Workshops” and that has a list and descriptions of the workshops we are doing this spring. I will update that for workshops this fall sometime in March. So checking the actual site is a good idea if you are interested in the workshops.
The “Promotion” workshop, which we are calling “Tools for the Indie Publisher to Make More Money” I think will be taught next year at about this time. We’ll see how this one goes first. (grin)
Looking forward to seeing the new place. FIFTEEN trucks of books. MMMMMMmmmm, books.
And I thought I was having trouble trying to work out how to make it back for the short story workshop. NOW THERE’S A GENRE WORKSHOP.
The short story workshop with Denise (and John, and now, Kerrie) is quite good. I’ve done it twice and have not only enjoyed myself enormously, I’ve learned a lot too, and I’ve sold stories out of the workshops to boot. So in a sense they have “paid” for themselves, over time. In fact, one of last year’s workshop stories not only got published, it’s up for the Nebula this year! “Ray of Light,” December 2012 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Yup, Kris, Dean, Denise, and John all saw it first. Hard to believe how far that story has come in just a year. The other one is sitting on a different market’s “probable buy” list, while a story from 2010 was in Analog in 2011. Great workshop. Can’t say enough good about it. Wish I were going this year. Alas, funding….
FYI, I should mention that I’ll be at the Superstars workshop in April, just one week after being at the Writers of the Future workshop. Only WOTF winners can go to Los Angeles, but Superstars Writing Seminars combines some of the best content of the WOTF workshop and is taught almost entirely by WOTF judges such as Kris, Dean, Kevin J. Anderson, Dave Wolverton, Eric Flint, and so forth. Plus you have occasional “proof of concept” people like me, to show you that, yes, it can be done. If you work hard. I am very much looking forward to seeing Dean and all the others in Vegas (and L.A.) and I hope some of you reading this can attend.