• Challenge,  Cover Fun,  motivation

    Motivation

    Getting Back to Writing… After so much time away because of the eye injury, I am getting uneasy each day if I don’t get back to my writing computer. That is pushing me a lot, remembering the fun of just sitting down and making up a story for myself. And I am pretty much out of the focus on the words because of the injury. Got the computer and screen set so I can just let go again and write stories. Yay. But I also noticed that the challenge is making me more conscious of getting there as well. I still have to be careful to watch my computer time…

  • Challenge,  motivation,  On Writing

    Challenge Starts!!

    9 Months Left In The Year! If you get focused, you can get a lot done in the next nine months. And learn a lot and have a lot of new books and products out for readers. That’s what these challenges are all about. Even though I am writing this on the 1st, I won’t start officially counting until after I wake up. Here is how the challenges will work, both half and full. Every week on Monday (My week will be from Monday to Sunday night), I will post my consumable words written here that week on this blog to the right. They will be total from April 1st…

  • Challenge,  motivation

    October 1st…

    Coming Up In Three Days… So many, many writers had really bad writing summers. And October first is a chance to save the year. Three months until the end of the year. You can get a lot of writing done in three months. Set a new challenge, focus on some project that will be fun and get you restarted. October 1st is a wonderful date. Wash away all the “I wish I had…” from the spring and summer and just sit down and have fun telling stories. Stupidly enough, it really is that simple. I will follow my own advice and let you know what I am going to do…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Restart Motivation

    October 1st Just Two Weeks Away! So I got two weeks to figure out some new challenges, new motivation, maybe pick up the short story challenge I fell off of earlier in the year. October 1st is a great time to do that. A challenge I am thinking of is 100 short stories in 100 days. That will bring my total short stories up over 200 for the year. Not 365 as I had set out to do, but still not bad. (grin) Today I was working on getting the new 2023 Collection Classes posted and live for the coming sale. All six from the first year will be available…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Thinking About Motivation

    And What Motivates Each of Us… As I put the final touches on the BRAND NEW FEY NOVEL Kickstarter campaign that will launch on Tuesday, I got thinking about motivation because in the story in this new campaign, Kris talks about how it was the first Fey Kickstarter and all the backing that got her motivated to tackle the monster project of getting back into the Fey books and cleaning them all up and writing new ones. Link to the Fey Kickstarter Promotion page is: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/403649867/brand-new-fey-novel And I tried to do a short story per day challenge as motivation going into this year and it had all sorts of issues…

  • Challenge,  running

    Exercise and Weight Update

    First 5K Run Is In One Month… Yikes, not having the weight-loss success I had hoped. In fact, I suck. I even gained a pound this last week. I have been eating much healthier. And fewer calories. The problem is the exercise. I get started, then get focused on something else and just flat forget. Start a streak, miss, forget. Two months now of that. Some good things are that my muscles and skin are tightening up, and it is getting easier to run, even though I am still heavier than I want to be. But wow, the intense discipline I thought I could bring to this has not arrived…

  • Challenge,  motivation,  On Writing

    Heinlein’s Rules

    Just Finished Recording the Last Week… Heinlein’s Rules workshop was an eye-opener again for me. By teaching the rules this way, talking about aspects of each rule for six weeks, I could start to see the beauty in the simplicity of the rules and why they boil this incredibly complex business down to such a simple foundation. And why Heinlein called them “Business Rules.” They really are business rules. And motivational rules. And thinning-the-herd rules. I was so lucky to stumble on them in the fall of 1981 and decide to just do them without missing starting January 1st 1982. Over 40 years ago… (yikes) I would have been thinned…

  • Challenge,  motivation

    An Amazing Attitude

    Athlete on American Ninja Warrior… Kris and I both watch the show, not only for the amazing athletic feats, but the incredible stories. One story this year was a 16 year-old girl named Katie Bone. Now Katie Bone is a nationally ranked rock climber, and she has had type one diabetes since she was eleven. She wears insulin pumps on the back of her arms. The night she ran the Ninja first stage course, up until her, no one, not even major pros, had made it through the 5th obstacle and I was telling Kris I thought it was too tough, no one would make it. And then along came…

  • Challenge,  motivation,  running

    Running Pictures

    Motivational Monday… Since in the Motivational Monday videos tomorrow, I talk about my running and how just not stopping is the key in running and writing, I figured for Sunday I would post some running pictures I promised last Monday. So here they are. All copyright Rock and Role Marathon except the last one. First one about a mile after the start. I’m still running fine. Damn this was crazy fun. Second picture is somewhere in the middle of the miles…Pretty much everyone around me was walking. Third picture is nearing the finish of the 13 miles… I’m back running again, if you call it that… Picture just after the…

  • Challenge,  motivation,  Recommended Reading

    Something Added to Motivational Mondays

    Three Learning and Motivational Videos Every Monday Morning… And the first ones are about to go up, since it is now early Monday morning. For those signed up, they are in the first quarter, of course, even though this is still December. But on a whim, I added something more for most every Monday. A pithy, motivational quote in a 4th video. Sometimes it might have something to do with the three other videos. Sometimes not. This first one not so much. But a good one to focus on for the new year. So the first Motivational Monday is today. I will finish and post this blog, then go make…