• Cave Creek,  Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Shared World and Directed Study

    Both Directed Study and Shared World Now Available… First, Shared World… The shared world in the second class is for THE SILVER LADY, a hotel and casino just outside of Vegas. There will be two initial volumes set in THE SILVER LADY. One mystery volume of mysteries set there and one ghost stories. It is a nine week class starting on January 22nd. Yes, it will have assignments. And yes, we will give plenty of time to write for the two anthologies. You can still sign up for the first class and go through it at your own speed and write for the two new Cave Creek anthologies coming later…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge,  On Writing,  workshops

    A Second Shared World Class

    SHARED WORLDS: Part One and Now Part Two What Are Shared Worlds, How to Do Them, and Why?  Part Two… More Information and Advanced! For years now, Kris and I have tried to figure out how to teach shared worlds as a topic to writers to get the most benefit for writers. Both of us have written in so many shared worlds, we couldn’t begin to count. From the major shared worlds of Star Trek and Star Wars, to the more subtle shared worlds of say the WMG Holiday Spectacular. And everything in between. There are thousands of reasons indie writers and publishers would want to set up one form…

  • Cave Creek,  motivation,  On Writing

    Write Only For Yourself…

    Something I Teach All The Time… The great artist Bob Eggleton put up a post on Facebook tonight. A quote from Andre Malraux the French novelist (among other things he did.). Malraux said, “An artist discovers his genius the day he dares not to please.” I am constantly talking with young writers who are doing a number of things that I try to convince them are not critical. And often deadly. 1… Writing to market. (What is supposedly hot in sales, what you have already done, what others tell you to write.) 2… Write for beta readers or first readers or workshops. Just pretty silly when you stop and think…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge,  Recommended Reading

    Fantasy Steampunk Bundle

    On Storybundle.com This is a great bundle folks. Kris put this one together and it just launched and it has ten amazing books in it. (Yes, I am calling my novel CARD SHARP SILVER amazing. It is in my opinion.(grin)) Three of the books are original to the bundle. Here is what Kris said about the bundle after she put it together… The Fantasy Steampunk Bundle – curated by Kristine Kathryn Rusch: The best steampunk gives us fantasy with an attitude and weird mechanical somethings or other. When we expect magic, we get machines. When we expect machines, we get magic. Sometimes we get both at the same time. We called…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge,  Smiths Monthly

    Smith’s Monthly #48…

    Now Published… This one has the short novel in it, CARD SHARP SILVER: A Cave Creek Novel. Here is the blurb… ———– More than fifty-five thousand words of original fiction from USA Today bestselling writer Dean Wesley Smith. Introducing Card Sharp Silver, a novel in the new Cave Creek series, a shared world “Where the Unexpected Meets the Real World.” Also included are five new short stories in some of Smith’s most popular series: “Whistle for Help: A Marble Grant Story”, “Half a Clue: A Cold Poker Gang Short Story”, “Remembering the Last Laughter: A Bryant Street Story”, “Cat in a Hole: A Pakhet Jones Story”, and “Pleasing Pearl: A Sky…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge,  On Writing

    More Reading To Buy

    All Done Now… Finished just as I lost an hour, vanished into some silly idea called “Annoying Savings Time.” I’ve been reading about time travel to different timelines now for a week, so that was kind of creepy. (grin) I wanted ten stories per volume in the Cave Creek Anthologies of Past, Present, and Future. Ended up (since this is getting turned in tomorrow) with nine, nine, and eight stories per volume. That works great, actually. I was thinking I could write a few stories to fill the gaps, but now no time. Into the publishing chain they all go. Deadlines. But there will be more Cave Creek volumes in…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge,  On Writing

    Reading To Buy…

    Editing… A Very Different Mindset… Right now I am reading Cave Creek stories for three different anthologies. I am most of the way through all the stories and will be turning the anthologies in on Monday to WMG with my introductions. A lot of work and it has been a lot of reading as well. But honestly, I have loved it, because Cave Creek is a shared world I came up with and all these great writers are writing in that world. That, by itself, is a strange feeling. Cave Creek has some pretty set rules and I need different stories to be in the book inside these set rules.…

  • 70 Book Challenge,  Cave Creek,  Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign

    Ramping Back Up Exercise

    Got So Crazy Busy, I Let It Slide… Also had some blood blisters that I kept making worse (wrong shoes, fixed that problem). So finally today I got back up to 4 miles, and will keep that and ramp up a little more to 5 miles plus a day starting Monday. Then in a few weeks after that ramp up to six miles a day minimum. (Starting a streak.) Also starting Monday cutting back to 1,200 to 1,500 calories, with a lot of protein to start dropping a few of the winter and injury pounds. Like a lot of us, I have gained a few pounds since the marathon in…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge,  publishing

    Lots of Fun Reading This Week

    Got Cave Creek Stories In… I need 30 stories for the three books. Ten per book. And got just about that number in total not spread that evenly over the books. So looks like I will have a second call out to those in the Shared World Class. I had no doubt that would be the case, but was surprised at the low number. Also, a note: The Shared World class originally said nine months, but now it will be going for at least another year. Lots of stuff already there, more videos on putting these together, and more anthologies down the road. And yes, it is still possible to…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge,  On Writing

    Herding Cats (Writers)

    Totally Insane… I have learned this lesson now over 15 years of trying to help writers with workshops and other projects. And I learned the lesson way before that, back in the late 1980s as an editor. The lesson? Writers as a class are pathologically incapable of following even the simplest instruction. When it comes to writers, I do try to be clear as much as I can. The other day I talked here about manuscript format and just a surface reason for it in fiction. I even went so far as to give a link. Made little to no difference even on manuscripts I am getting for classes since…