Publisher's Note
Publisher’s Note: Never Pass up and Opportunity to Learn
I’m traveling again this week. This time, I’m on the gorgeous mountain campus of Western Colorado University, where I’m a Lecturer in Publishing for Western’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing.
I’m a lifelong learner, and I love being on a college campus. The energy that courses through them is palpable. You can just feel all the brain cells firing.
I love being able to share my knowledge with graduate students. Degrees in publishing are relatively new, so it’s an exciting field to be teaching.
And it’s an extension of the teaching I’ve been doing for a decade, but to professionals rather than graduate students, through the workshops and lectures we offer at WMG.
Publisher’s Note: When Weird is a Good Thing
This is a weird summer. We had a very long, wet, cold winter. It finally ended in July.
Now the sun comes out most days, at least, and the temperatures are our summer normal (low- to mid-60s). But the flora and fauna are, well, weird this year.
I’ve lived on the Oregon Coast for 17 years, but this is the first year I remember dealing with mosquitos. And not just any mosquitos. Huge mosquitos. The size of large houseflies. It’s ridiculous. We even had one make it into our bedroom (thank goodness for my husband the master mosquito hunter, because I was ready to burn the place down and start over).
Publisher’s Note: Christmas in July!
I’m not sure when Christmas in July became a thing, but this week is definitely feeling very much like Christmas in July.
First of all, I have a brand-new front porch. The contractor and his crew spent last week ripping off the old one, which, thanks to the old deck clearly being installed by someone who did not understand Oregon Coast weather (or basic deck-building requirements…the joists weren’t even pressure-treated lumber), was so deteriorated, my contractor was shocked no one had fallen through it. Fun times.
We went with Trex® Composite Decking this time. The color: the ever-so-coastal Foggy Wharf. It’s so pretty!
Plus, my contractor got the job done on time and below the contracted price! That never happens!
Merry Christmas in July to me!
Publisher’s Note: The Subscription Drive You’ve Been Waiting For!
Last week, we had a plethora of Pulphouse stories to talk about with the publication of Jingle My Bells and Pulphouse #18. But we’re not done with Pulphouse yet. Not by a long shot.
That’s because on Tuesday, July 5, our Pulphouse Fiction Magazine Subscription Drive 2022 Kickstarter launches!
Pulphouse Fiction Magazine first launched in 1987 and flourished for 20 issues under the editorship of Dean Wesley Smith until it was put on hiatus when Dean and Kris’s writing shut the rest of the publishing company they founded, also called Pulphouse, down.
Twenty years later, in 2017, WMG brought Pulphouse Fiction Magazine back, once again under Dean’s unique editorial curation.
And wow, has Pulphouse thrived!
Publisher’s Note: A Plethora of Pulphouse Stories
I spent the weekend grateful for the fact that I live in Oregon and enjoying the natural splendor of the Oregon Coast. It was unseasonably warm (for the coast) at 80 degrees and sunny. There was a light breeze blowing instead of the usual cold wind from the 50-degree ocean water. It was truly lovely.
We’ve had a long, long winter here (like, it seems like it just ended a few days ago…), so this taste of summer was glorious.
I spent a good bit of time at my favorite overlook (on a cliff about 100 feet above the beach) enjoying the weather and the view and the sound of the ocean. And I was reminded of how much I used to enjoy reading a book on the beach when I used to live on the East coast.
Publisher’s Note: An Essential Celebration
Today, we observe Juneteenth, which has finally become a federal holiday. Like most federal holidays, Juneteenth is officially observed today (Monday) because the holiday fell on a Sunday.
There are many ways to celebrate Juneteenth. One of the activities I was personally involved in was a community activity I lobbied for myself.
The Kiwanis Club of Lincoln City, of which I’m past-president and a current board member, puts up American flags along the highway on a number of key federal holidays, such as the Fourth of July and Memorial Day.
Publisher’s Note: Milestones
This is a milestone blog for me. According to my numbering system, this is my 500th blog. That’s a lot of weekly blogs. I hit another milestone last week. On June 8, I hit three years of walking at least 5,000 steps a day. Every single day. Rain or shine. Even in rain...
Publisher’s Note: License to Learn
I mentioned in last Monday’s blog that I was flying to Vegas, but I didn’t say why. I was there for the Licensing Expo 2022. It was awesome! If you’ve ever wanted to see how you can expand your IP (intellectual property) into new areas, the Licensing Expo is a great place to brainstorm and make deals.
Many people don’t realize that they’re creating IP. The definition of IP is: a work or invention that is the result of creativity, such as a manuscript or a design, to which one has rights and for which one may apply for a patent, copyright, trademark, etc.
Obviously, we hold a lot of IP at WMG, in our case, in the form of copyrights. But the written word has so much more potential that just sitting on a page.
Publisher’s Note: In-Flight Entertainment
I flew to Las Vegas yesterday, the first time I’ve been able to return here since the pandemic shut down the world.
And it’s only the second time I’ve flown since the pandemic started. The only other flight I’ve taken was last summer from Portland to Denver. Back then, we were in that blissful reprieve where the vaccines were highly effective against infection and the Delta variant had not yet taken hold.
Even so, it was weird.
Flying is still weird.
Publisher’s Note: What a Way to Get Started!
Kristine Kathryn Rusch loves to write in series. She says so herself. As her publisher, I keep track of all of her series. That’s no small feat. Some of them are complex, more like series within series. Some of them of more abstract, with a recurring character but not...