• Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  publishing

    Some Nifty Updates

    And a Fun Book If We Get There… On the Pulphouse Fiction Magazine Kickstarter campaign, I had added a Christmas anthology of Pulphouse stories at the top level. Yesterday, Allyson reminded me that we had a Christmas collection of Pulphouse stories as a stretch reward before that we never got to. It was titled JINGLE MY BELLS (love that title) and we even have a cover for it. (Cover below…) So I added that into the top level of the Kickstarter and put up the cover on the campaign. This time I hope we get to that level and I honestly think we have a shot. We have eight days…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Nine Years

    Talking About the Power of a Streak… Nine years ago today, 3,285 days ago, I started a blogging streak. The idea was to blog about something, anything every day. (I had been doing a few blogs before that on the Star Trek boards and so on.) No excuses. Traveling, sick, computer failures, other more important things to do. None of that mattered. Blog had to be done. And for some reason that got into my DNA and now every night Kris even asks me if I got a blog done. As with all streaks, I had other motives at the start and never, in a billion years, did I think…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Massive Move Day

    Gaining On It… The goal is by 1 week from today, when the movers show up, everything will either be in place in this new condo or ready to go to our new storage unit. Almost no furniture except shelving will go to storage. Just a dining table and chairs, and one desk, but a ton of boxes full of books and files. Basically all our extra author books is the biggest mass. And we will move the digest collection from the other smaller storage unit to this new larger one since the larger one is air conditioned. So everything needs to be boxed and either upstairs in our new…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Sucked Down a Copyright Hole…

    I Do That To Myself At Times… I am such a copyright junkie, when given the excuse, I find myself going deeper and deeper into legal articles and having so much fun. That’s where I lost a few hours tonight. If you have no idea why I would think copyright is fun, take the Magic Bakery classic workshop. Or read my book on the topic. Copyright is magic and is why WMG Publishing exists, five employees have their jobs, and Kris and I live in this fantastic new place. One place I played tonight was the 35 year rule. For example, I signed maybe 60 Work for Hire contracts in…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  publishing

    Massive Movement on Move Stuff…

    Not a Lot of Writing… But Kris and I completed at lunch the first class for the Business Master Class. All I got to do is record it now and get it up. I will put a couple new introduction videos on the Business Master Class as well explaining everything. So as promised, starting up here in the middle of July. I think I have one of our old condos down to only a few hours of work left before the movers come in to take boxes and stuff to storage. The other one Kris and I will tackle together. I think our hardest problem in that one, our old…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    A Challenge Out of Nothing

    I Can Make A Challenge For Myself Out of the Stupidest Things… A month or so ago I moved my office from our condo upstairs in this building to a bedroom in the condo on the ground floor. We will be using this condo for workshops in 2022, we hope, if a few more pieces fall into place. But for this last pandemic year, Kris and I used this condo for various things and for good reasons too many to mention, I decided to move my office down here. And it has been fantastic. With the move and such, I worked on a bunch of projects, but not a novel.…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    A Fun Combination Idea…

    Got This Question From Two Writers Today… And I realized it was a really fun idea I should tell everyone about. We have a series of “Collection” classes. The classes are 9 weeks long and from week 2-6 the writers taking the class write five stories that by the 9th week will be published in a collection as part of the class. In essence from nothing to a five story collection in two months. They are fun and you can get a bundle of all six classes that will last you a year and you will write 30 short stories, or you can buy them one collection class at a…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Following Up on Yesterday’s Post…

    With a Personal Story… I wrote a novel for fun back in January of 2014 called KILL GAME: A Cold Poker Gang Novel. It came out in Smith’s Monthly in March and then as a stand-alone novel in May of 2014.  It sold very few copies, maybe three or four a month, maybe. (That’s what I have been told.) Then in November my creative voice said “Write another.” I did, a book called COLD CALL: A Cold Poker Gang Novel. Again it was in Smith’s Monthly and out stand-alone a month or so later. Sold very few copies, maybe three or four a month. I did not care and paid…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Get a Master’s Degree In Publishing

    A Real Master’s Degree From Real Writers and Publishers… Not kidding. You can do it and in a year and the new year is about to start. This is the Masters Degree program taught by Kevin J. Anderson. You know, the New York Times Bestseller and half owner of Wordfire Press. That Kevin J. Anderson. And helping him is Allyson Longueira, the publisher of WMG Publishing Inc. (I also get to help a tiny bit every year.) It is almost all online, except for a week at the start and a week or two at the end in the summer. It was full before I got a chance to tell…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    Amazon Buys MGM Film Studio

    An Interesting Bit of News… In a month with a lot of entertainment news, this event sort of stood out. But here is a paragraph from Jane Freidman’s newsletter called Hotsheet that I found fascinating about the purchase. (You should subscribe to the newsletter, trust me.) “The $8.45 billion acquisition includes a catalog of 17,000 TV shows and 4,000 films. The press release quotes an Amazon executive as saying, “The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of IP in the deep catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team. It’s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling.”” You…