Friday 4 July 2025: Still getting through stuff

When I got up on Wednesday, my response to Assignment 3 for the 50 MURDER mystery prompts workshop hadn’t come back, although he did acknowledge my submission early Sunday evening. I went to watch Week 2 of the 50 CRIME mystery prompts workshop, but that wasn’t up either. These were already a day late, and it does worry me slightly when there’s no activity in case, well, something might have happened.

Instead of doing that, then, I finalised yesterday’s blog post, chose the picture, and scheduled it to post. I’m trying to get back in the habit of doing this again, but I’m still a day behind on the scheduling. That will no doubt sort itself out next week.

I did some social blog work and checked again, and my assignment was back, again with some good remarks. I had a look at the workshops page, and Week 2 was up now. So I made a dirty cuppa and settled down to watch that. Just like the 2^nd assignment on the first workshop, the 2^nd assignment for this one was something I could do quite quickly. But I put it to one side while I tackled the next job on the list.

This was finishing the pre-writing for Christmas at Whitehorse Farm. I finalised all of my suspects and victims, settled on the names, updated the Scrivener file, and saved the Scrivener file as an emergency novella file on the portable hard drive, just in case. I’ve been trying to remember to do that every time I work on something in case the power goes off again. I can’t guarantee it will always be the absolute latest version, but it will usually be late enough to carry on working on it.

I broke for my midday breakfast before going back to the assignment, which I gave a quick look over, I re-named it, and I sent it off. It’s not due in until midnight on Sunday, but as I’d done it…I saved the file and saved the emergency file too. And I started today’s blog post.

And then I went back to The Ace of Pentacles. This story needs to be written before the next bookazine comes out, so I did my best. But before I’d finished it, we realised we needed to go out to get me something to wear for this boat trip in Stratford. So I had to abandon it. 

Unfortunately, we got back too late for me to carry on with it. But I was already in credit with work by doing the assignment for the crime mystery prompts workshop, which was originally booked in for Sunday. Now I’ll just use that time for this instead.

Happy 4^th of July to my US pals. I wish things were brighter over there at the moment for you all.

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 ten. 

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.