By the end of Tuesday, UK time, the new week’s videos still weren’t up for the 50 murder mystery prompts workshop. First thing Wednesday morning, I looked, and there they were.
The poet was working from home yesterday and he had 2 Teams calls first thing. So over my dirty cup of tea (he had a clean cup of coffee), I watched the new videos using a lap tray to lean on and making notes in the exercise book I have designated ‘workshops’. This is my second exercise book for the workshops, and I’m coming close to the middle of this one.
By the time the workshop was over for the week, the poet had finished one Teams meeting and the other had been postponed until the afternoon. So as soon as I hit my desk, I actually did this week’s assignment. There’s no story to write this time, it’s just an exercise. So I rattled it off and was able to tick most of the scheduled allocations for this assignment for this week. The only one left is ‘submit’, and I’ll probably do that on Friday to give me the weekend free.
Next job was finalising the short story I’d finished the day before for this month’s 12 stories in 12 months. I gave it a quick polish and uploaded it to the website, and that was two more ticks on my to-do list. I collected the next prompt, which is for 750 words exactly, and that’s due on 16 July. Seven hundred and fifty words is tight, but it’s another Wordsworth Flash Fiction length for me.
By then it was time for our midday breakfast. And then I started today’s blog post.
The next job was supposed to be outline The Ace of Pentacles. I knew I’d brainstormed this story, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Instead, I found a load of material for The Fool that’s now already in The Body in the Lake, so all of that could go in the bin.
A big surprise was almost an entire Stevie Beck novella with already more than 16,500 words. All handwritten. I know I wanted to write a story based on the hanged man tarot card, but I completely forgot I’d written the best part of a story. It will need a bit of editing, as the Stevie Beck novellas have changed a lot from my first perception of them.
Otherwise, I could start typing that up and it can be Book 5 in the Stevie Beck series of novellas. I have 3 short stories too.
I opened up the master Scrivener novella file, and there was the brainstorming for this character’s backstory. Phew! So I was able to flesh that out and work on an full outline after all.
The poet went into his postponed Teams meeting, so I put my headphones on and worked on the client edit. I could have typed something, but I have a noisy, clackerty keyboard and I didn’t want to interfere with his call, when there were 5, I think, other people on the other end.
I would have carried on with End of the Rainbow when he went into the other room, but my head was hurting, so I called it a day. I’ve had a productive few days, so I didn’t beat myself up.
I’m out of photographs from Croyde, without practically duplicating another one. So back to stock photos.
The magic bakery
A few years ago I stumbled across a book called The Magic Bakery by Dean Wesley Smith. Originally written in 2017, this book turned on a lightbulb inside my head and enabled me to see copyright in a whole different glow.
One of the first things I did, after reading this book, was start my own magic bakery. And in one 12-month period, I published around 56 books: short stories; collections; novellas; novels; and non-fiction books. Fifty-six of ‘em. I’ve added to them since, but those books now provide me with a steady trickle of income. Passive income.
Well, the magic bakery is back, but this time Smith is updating it, chapter by chapter, first on his website, then in a class, and then in a new and updated book. Here’s chapter six.
I’ll carry on linking to the chapters, as they appear, so that you guys have some understanding of what I’m banging on about when I persist in talking about my magic bakery. And I’ll repeat this bit of blurb every time for first-time readers.
For those of you who’d rather read them as Smith posts them himself, rather than when I get around to it, you can go straight to his website here.
Excellent work! You deserve a rest after all that!
Thank you!