Been Going Steadily All Day…
Took out about forty Black Cat Magazines from 1895 to 1900 for Billy at Pop Culture to sell. That was fun. They are very rare and mostly in fantastic condition. They are a digest-sized magazine that Kris and I have had for a very long time and neither of us have any reason to ever look at them. So off they go.
Then I worked up at the office the rest of the afternoon and then home to do email and other stuff all evening.
Got a few more brave souls signed up on the challenges starting in October, but still room. Any questions, feel free to ask on that. Information below.
So an early night for me tonight.
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The book I have in this new bundle is a pure western young adult called The Life and Times of Buffalo Jimmy. I hope this winter to write more Buffalo Jimmy novels for Smith’s Monthly.
I’ll talk more about this bundle coming up, but if you like young adult fiction, including one from Kris and a Fiction River full of young adult stories, and eight other great books, this is the bundle for you to grab while it is available.
Challenges
There is still room in the short story and the novel challenge as well. Details over the last few days. If you have questions, write me.
If interested in signing up, just write me. They are going to be great fun.
SHORT STORY Challenge:
— Write thirty short stories in 60 days. You can take the full time or you can write them in a month. Up to you.
— I will charge $600 to be your first reader. If you finish 30 stories in 60 days, you get two online workshops of your choice, a $600 value. (In essence, I will read for free if you do the challenge.)
— If you feel the challenge is not working for you, I will offer you an off-ramp at various points and you can take it and get the two online workshops. So you can try this risk free.
NOVEL Challenge:
— Write three novels between October 1st and January 15th. You can take the full time or you can write them quicker. Up to you.
— I will charge $600 to be your first reader. If you finish the three novels in the time, you get two online workshops of your choice, a $600 value. (In essence, I will read for free if you do the challenge.)
— Novels can be any length over 30,000 words and at least half of the first one must be written during the time of the challenge.
— If you feel the challenge is not working for you, I will offer you an off-ramp and you can take it and get the two online workshops. I also will give you two online workshops if a life event comes up and you can’t finish.
October Online Workshops
Information at
www.wmgpublishingworkshops.com
October Workshops Available
Class #37… Oct 3rd … Writing into the Dark
Class #38… Oct 3rd … Endings
Class #39… Oct 3rd … Point of View
Class #40… Oct 3rd … Writing Mysteries
Class #41… Oct 3rd … Speed
Class #42… Oct 3rd … Teams in Fiction
Class #43… Oct 4th … Depth in Writing
Class #44… Oct 4th … How to Edit Your Own Work
Class #45… Oct 4th … Character Development
Class #46… Oct 4th … Writing Secondary Plot Lines
Class #47… Oct 4th … Advanced Depth
Class #48… Oct 4th … (TBA)
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Dean, I know you get a lot of your short story ideas by combining titles from old magazines. But I can’t remember how you acquired the lists you used. Or do you simply thumb through old magazines?
Yup, just thumb through old magazines taking half titles and writing them in lists on a piece of paper.
For those who want to see the titles of the Black Cat stories so they can make one of those lists Dean mentioned (along with the stories), a large portion of the Black Cat archive is online at the Hathi Trust digital library here:
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008893741
The quality of the scanning is passable. It’s not like holding an actual 100-year old magazine in your hands, but the information is there.
Also, the ads from 100 years ago are … interesting. Nuxated Iron (tonic containing iron plus a bit of strychnine) seems to have been very popular, along with mail order brides at various price points for every budget. To misquote someone famous: the past is a different country, with strange people and stranger customs.
Yeah, it was great having those issues. Most were in mint condition so I never took them out of the bags. (grin)
Just in case anyone else follows that link, it didn’t work for me. To access the issues, I had to visit the main site at https://catalog.hathitrust.org/ and then search Black Cat.
Nope. Here’s the actual URL if anyone wants it: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008893741?type%5B%5D=all&lookfor%5B%5D=Black%20Cat&ft=ft.
That’s what I was looking for. Thanks…