-
Topic of the Night: Ground Effect in Writing
Ground Effect in Writing The definition of Ground Effect: In fixed-wing aircraft, ground effect is the increased lift (force) and decreased aerodynamic drag that an aircraft’s wings generate when they are close to a fixed surface. When landing, ground effect can give the pilot the feeling that the aircraft is “floating.” M.L. Buchman once said that when the writing is steady and going at a good pace, pulp speed pace, it feels so, so easy, as if there is a ground effect under the words being produced. Wow, did he have that right. I felt this a few times last year, once in July, another in the fall during a month…
-
Another Month Down
ANOTHER MONTH DOWN For those of you who have been following along with my writing adventures over the last 34 months (986 days in a row or so), you know that this May was my worst month by far writing fiction in all that time. My worst month before was just under 30,000 words. This crushed the old record, and it was all purposeful. My focus and energy went to starting up our new store and I had a blast doing that. So I did what I advise others to do, when the focus is elsewhere, don’t force the writing, let the writing remain a fun place, not a place…
-
Topic of the Night: Restarting Your Writing
Restarting Your Writing All of us, for one reason or another, stop writing for a time. Sometimes it is health reasons, sometimes it is family reasons, or sometimes it is because we just forget, which happens right about now for a vast number of writers. For me, I stopped about thirty days ago to focus on opening a new collectables store, comic book store, and book store combined. Great fun. And even though I thought about writing along the way since I was teaching and still around numbers of writers who were writing, I really flat didn’t want to write. And I didn’t force myself. And I had no illusion that…
-
The Battle of the Restart
Great bundle with two of my books in it. And a wonderful book by Lawrence Block and a great book by Kris. Don’t miss it. http:/storybundle.com/writing The Battle of the Restart Back writing. So easy to say, so difficult to do for almost all of us after a layoff. I am no different. Annoyingly so. More in the Topic of the Night post above. ————- The Day Managed to get to the WMG offices and the new store around 2 p.m., after nine hours of sleep. I think I needed that. Ran a bunch of errands, including my third trip to the sign shop to pick up…
-
Some Fantastic Writing Books!
Writing Bundle Folks, there is a new writing bundle that just started with ten writing books. Two are mine. Another by Kris, another by Lawrence Block, another by Gerald Weinberg, another by JoAnna Penn, and so on. Trust me, you don’t want to miss this one. I’ve read all but two of these books and trust me, they are worth a lot more than what you would pay in this bundle. Those of you who want to learn, this is the cheapest education you can get from people who know what they are talking about. The Write Stuff 2016 Bundle Here is Kris’s blog about the bundle: The Write Stuff…
-
The Voice
The Voice If you did not watch the finals on The Voice tonight, you missed not only some amazing, stunning music, but some good writing moments. And I’m not talking about the original songs they wrote. More below in the topic of the night. ————- The Day Lots and lots of running around, took the stray cat to the vet, left her for surgery tomorrow. She might not make it through, but it’s the best choice we and two vets think she has in making it. I’ll let you know. Spent a lot of time today fighting glass shelves over three windows into place in the new store. Also a…
-
Three New Smith’s Monthly Titles
Three New Smith’s Monthly Titles Monday, the third issue in one week of Smith’s Monthly will go out. It won’t get me completely caught up yet, but getting closer. Issue #28 went out last Monday to subscribers and Patreon supporters. Issue #29 went out Friday. Issue #30 will go out today (Monday). The reason for the delay was me, and not on the writing side. So the wonderful folks at WMG convinced me to give up where I was getting delayed slowly over the winter and just let me focus on the new store and then writing. Thanks, Allyson, Judy, and Dayle for making these three issues possible so quickly. Now…
-
Bundle Ending
Bundle Ending in One Day!! So if you want to read my novel HEAVEN PAINTED AS A POKER CHIP, you can get it in a bundle with eleven other novels from other writers from Bundlerabbit. Click on the image to go to the bundle. Trust me, there are some great writers and great books in this bundle besides me. Just click on the picture to go to the bundle. Don’t Miss This One! The Day The door of yesterday’s battle continued the fight into the office. And at one point it bit Allyson, but she is all right. The door will find a home shortly, but there may be more…
-
Distracted
Distracted In case you hadn’t noticed, I haven’t written a word of fiction or nonfiction this month so far. I’ll talk about it in the topic below. Patreon Supporters and Smith’s Monthly Subscribers As planned, I got a recent issue of Smith’s Monthly out to subscribers and up on Patreon. The next issue should be out to subscribers and up on Patreon on Friday, and then with luck, the third issue in this run will be on Monday. Now it’s going to take me some writing to get caught up. ————— Topic of the Night: Distracted I haven’t done a word of writing this month. But honestly, that’s normal for me and…
-
Topic of the Night: Can’t vs Don’t
Can’t vs Don’t Over the last month or so I’ve been seeing tons of writers talk about how they can’t do this or that aspect of publishing. All I have been doing is shaking my head and mostly turning away. I kind of equate this to saying I wanted to be a professional fiction writer when I started in 1974, but I couldn’t mail a manuscript to an editor. Pretty much a terminal problem for a career when I started off. So let me start off with giving you one thing you absolutely can’t do (in my opinion.) You can’t do your own copyediting. We writers just can’t see our own mistakes.…