Changes In The Last Quarter Of 2026 / Happenings In The Outhouse 18-Sept-2026

I am looking ahead to 2027.

Really, Mark?  2027?

Yes, really.

In doing so, I need to set myself up for success.  This quarter, my main goal was to write and publish two full-length novels.  One is done and the other is so close, it will be by next week.

Although I will not share what I have in store for the last three months of 2026 to lead into 2027, rest assured that it'll be good.  I will still be publishing stories in the last three months of 2026, but I will not have a major challenge like I did for this quarter.  I do have a story in mind to write.

Stay tuned.  It's going to be a fun ride!

Distractions And Focus / Happenings In The Outhouse 29-May-2026

There are a lot of distractions keeping you from achieving your goals.  Social media.  The news (is 24/7 news media really necessary?).  Politics.  Global events.  The stock market.  Funny videos/reels.  Online browsing, looking for deals.

You name it, it can distract you.

That is, if you let it.

I recently read a blog post (geared toward writers) about distractions and "how the world is right now" blah, blah, blah . . . 

Again, let me repeat: IF YOU LET IT.

What separates those who achieve their goals and those who do not is getting things done?  Finishing that novel.  Building that website.  Setting up that newsletter.  Submitting that proposal to whatever gatekeeper you name.  Finishing something, whatever that may be.

The phrase "how the world is right now" threw me for a loop because it all comes down to perspective.  Sadly, for many, their world revolves on who is sitting in the White House.  If "their person" is in there and "their people" are in Congress, then life is peachy.  If not, then it's all gone to hell.

For me, I don't like discussing politics (even with my wife, we don't like to discuss it, and we hold the same values and voted for the same) and don't like discussing politics with people who also hold our same values.  There are other things to talk about.  Family.  Dreams.  You name it.

Keep an eye on what is distracting you.  If it is demanding more and more of your time (there is a certain game on my phone that does that, and I am more purposeful on what time I devote to it) then you might ask yourself, "What's important to me?"

Is it your dream?

Or the distraction?

3rd Honorable Mention from Writers Of The Future / Happenings In The Outhouse 02-Jan-2026

First, this blog post is my 1200th post!  I honestly can't believe I have been posting so much, and for so long.

Late November, I received news that I achieved my third Honorable Mention from the Writers of the Future contest!

Writers of the Future 4th Quarter Winners Announced for Volume 42 | Writers & Illustrators of the Future

This, of course, is huge news and I am so honored!

Mission Accomplished! Goals Achieved!

I did it!

Over the weekend, I finished publishing a horde of short stories to accomplish my 4th quarter goal of publishing a short story a week.  I will be posting a separate blog post for each story over the next number of weeks.

Now, I am in the process of starting on my next 5 things for the first quarter of 2026.  I still have a goal of publishing one story a week, whether it's a short story, novella, or novelette, and I have enough inventory to accomplish this.

What did 2025 look like for you?

What will you accomplish in 2026?

Always Keep Learning / Happenings In The Outhouse 14-Nov-2025

No matter your age and experience, it is always important to keep learning.

I listened to a training video by bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith who has been in the publishing business for over 50 years.  Yes, five decades!  One of the points he made in the video (well, truth be told, he makes many great points but I'll limit to just one right here) is to keep learning.  Always.  So many authors came onto the self-publishing scene 5, 10, 15 years ago, and . . . where are they now?  They stopped learning.

Even many traditionally published authors seemed to have vanished.  Not all, but many who were considered the greatest at the time, have now gone bye bye.

Why?

I can only speculate, but it's possible that they also stopped learning.  They stopped reading and expanding their knowledge.

I learn more with each and every story that I write, no matter if it's a short story or a large novel.  There is so much to learn that I yearn to stretch myself even further.

What are you doing to expand your knowledge?

What are you practicing on to get better and better?

I Could Never Do That / Happenings In The Outhouse 24-Oct-2025

A few weeks ago, one of my daughters ran in her first full marathon.

When others hear about her accomplishments, their first thought is: "Oh, I could never do that!"

My question back at this is: Why?  Why could you never do that?  Barring any physical disability, what is stopping you from accomplishing and achieving your dreams?

I have heard the same thing about writing for all my life.  Others were so flabbergasted when they heard I was writing a novel back in college.  They'd ask, day after day, how much I had written and how long the novel was so far.  When it got past the 500 and 600-page marks, one even stopped believing that it was true.  She thought I was joking.  I wasn't.

Could I run a marathon?

Yes.

Not today.  But I could train for it, if that was what I wanted to accomplish.

Can I write a novel?

Yes, absolutely.  I've done it.  Several times.

Some tasks you do easily while others look at as insurmountable.

What's stopping you from doing something you want to do but somehow can't?  Want a hint as to who or what it is?  Look in the mirror.

Busy Vs. Productive / Happenings In The Outhouse 10-Oct-2025

"I'm busy!"

"Boy, am I productive!"

Both of these words seem to be used interchangeably, but truly mean something completely different.  Let me give you an example: you want to clean out the garage before winter.  Okay, seems reasonable.  You have a general timeframe, and you know what the task looks like.  To prepare for it, you want to line up a dumpster and have a plan for disposal of the larger items (i.e. city dump, etc.).  Busy in this sense may be knowing who to call for the dumpster.  Productive is actually making the call.  Now that the dumpster is there, you go out on a Saturday morning and start cleaning it out.  Productive.  If you let the dumpster sit in your driveway for weeks on end without filling it up but are planning on doing it soon, that would be the busy department.

Get the picture?

Let's take the creative types out there.  Because this is something I'm familiar with, let's take writers.  Writers are, by and large, finicky.  We let the little things bother us or bog us down so that our creative juices don't flow like we want.  We wait for just the right moment, just the right amount of creative fairy dust to land on our brains and fingers, and in just the right place before we even begin to write.

If you, as a writer, read all kinds of books on writing but never put pen to page, or type any words onto either a virtual or physical page, you are just acting busy.  Not productive.  You need to get words down.  Any amount will do.  And then . . . finish.

Set a goal.

Do it consistently.

Produce something.

The Business I Am In / Happenings In The Outhouse 22-Aug-2025

This classic scene in the hit show Breaking Bad sums up fairly well my feelings on what kind of business I am building.

No, ladies and gentlemen, I am not in the drug business.  But I am in the entertainment business.  Through my writing, I want to entertain.  That's it.

Lessons Learned From William Kent Krueger / Happenings In The Outhouse 15-Aug-2025

A few weekends ago, I had the exciting opportunity to meet the New York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger. 

Mr. Krueger had a writer's workshop just before his author's talk, and I even had a chance to chat with him one-on-one for a few minutes afterwards.

There were about a dozen aspiring writers he spoke with at the workshop.  He was very patient, offered great insight into his own writing as well as the publishing business, and took the time to learn where everyone was in their writing journey.

Here are the few lessons he taught us during the workshop:

1) Write every single day.  7 days a week.  Make writing a habit.  If it's something you love to do, this shouldn't be a problem.

2) Every writer's path is different.  Unique.  Just because something worked for one writer, doesn't mean it will work for you.

3) Don't let being a bestseller be your ultimate goal.  Yes, it's good to have a goal, and to push yourself toward it.  But there is a lot to achieving that title, and may not be as glamorous as one may think.

4) Being an indie author is an acceptable path to publication.  The traditional path may be the most difficult path to get published, depending on your ultimate goal.  Do not dismiss it.

During his author talk, he promoted his latest book in the Cork O'Connor mystery series.  Check it out below:

Link to Apostle's Cove on his author's website

Realistic View Of Business / Happenings In The Outhouse 01-Aug-2025

A few days ago, someone on social media (this person calls himself a "6-fig entrepreneur" which means this "entrepreneur" states he makes over $100K a year which is a flat out lie for a variety of reasons) posted this photo below, along with a statement about everyone getting comfortable doing what's easy, rather than what is difficult, and how he has achieved so much:

First, I want to point out how incredibly inaccurate this photo is when compared to reality.  No job, unless you are salaried (and this is for a single year, not over the course of a decade or more), stays completely 100% stagnant month after month.  And even then, there are increases (and other incentives) over the years and decades.  Also, for $2500 a month comes out to $625 a week (given a 4-week month).  Divide that by 40 hours is $15.62 or so an hour.  And so many jobs now offer that as a minimum wage.  Minimum!  When I was in high school, I made a fraction of that an hour for my grocery store job.  And if you wanted to make more money, apply toward a higher paying position or job.  You may have to work two or three jobs to provide for yourself and your family too, or even have a side hustle to bring in some money.  But the top line is highly inaccurate and should be angling upward and to the right.

Second, the bottom half of the photo is equally as inaccurate, if not more.  No business can sustain a growth trajectory of "up and to the right" all the time.  All business goes in cycles, even small businesses.  I work for a multi-billion-dollar company and its sales growth looks like a roller coaster over the months, years, and decades.

I hire a gentleman to mow my lawn.  That is his business.  A side hustle turn full-time gig.  He used to work a full-time job years ago and mowed lawns on the side, but the growth in his business over the years has earned him the freedom to do it full-time.  I can only speculate, but if one was to review his financials and chart it on a graph, he has a HUGE spike in the summer months for cash flow and a much less one during the rest of the year.  Now, this guy also has other side gigs in his business, from snow removal to vehicle detailing, to keep cash flowing during the "off" season, but the bulk of his business is during the summer when he mows lawns.

I am all for thinking positively and motivating yourself to better your life.  Why do you think I get up at the butt crack of dawn and write EVERY SINGLE DAY?  If you were to chart the cash flow for my writing business, it goes in cycles, much like a roller coaster too.  But I'm not going to lie, to call myself a "6-fig author" just to try impress others who don't give a rip about me.  Who am I trying to prove?  No one.  Also, I'm not going to boast about how much money I'm making.  Seriously, it's none of your goddamned business.

When it comes to business and money, keep it to yourself.  Seriously.  Keep.  It.  To.  Yourself.  Celebrate the wins quietly and, if you have to, only with your very closest loved ones.  Again, only if you have to.  Most of the time, I do not.  Whatever you do, don't boast online about what HUGE business you're doing when it's a complete lie.

2nd Honorable Mention! / Happenings In The Outhouse 11-July-2025

Writers of the Future 2nd Quarter Winners Announced for Volume 42 | Writers & Illustrators of the Future

A few weeks ago, I received a notification that I was an honorable mention for last quarter's Writers of the Future contest.

This is the second honorable mention I have received.

This is a huge honor and, trust me, there is a lot of competition in this contest.  So, to even be picked as an honorable mention, is enormous!

I have the story out in circulation for submission right now, so crossing my fingers that a publication picks it up.  I have other stories out there too, and I'm about 13,000 words into my next novel-in-progress.

What Are You Expecting? / Happenings In The Outhouse 04-July-2025

When you posted on social media about your new book, what were you expecting?

When you posted on social media about your new business, what did you expect?

When you hit PUBLISH on your new book, what results were you expecting to see?

When you told a room of complete strangers about your upcoming book on pre-order, were you expecting a flood of pre-orders?

What if none of that happened?  Would you quit?  Or would you put your head down and keep moving forward?

What Is Your Hesitancy? / Happenings In The Outhouse 27-June-2025

What is holding you back?

What is keeping you from doing what you want to do (or what you're supposed to do)?

What is holding you back from succeeding beyond your wildest dreams?

Is it time?  Money?  Other commitments?

Maybe what's holding you back is . . . you?

Now get out of your way and accomplish something!

Rule Three: Do Not Rewrite / Happenings In The Outhouse 09-May-2025

For Heinlein, the entire rule states: "Do not rewrite except to editorial order."

When I first encountered this rule, I didn't quite know what it meant.  So I dug deeper.

When we first write, we're using our creative voice.  It's raw.  It's got edges.  It's unique.  As we rewrite and rewrite, we're polishing our unique piece of work until something that's . . . frankly, dull and boring.  The creativity is lost.

Now, it's okay to fix typos and errors in the story.

But that's all.

What author Dean Wesley Smith taught me was to cycle.  Cycling works like this: write a set amount of words (300-500 or so) and then circle back to where you started, fixing what needs fixing on a typo level or adding details, and then moving another 300-500 words past where you stopped before.  Once you are done with your story, you have kept much of your creative voice in it.

Again, that's all.

Rule Two: Finish What You Are Writing / Happenings In The Outhouse 11-April-2025

My first novel I ever completed was while I was in college at Bemidji State University.  Prior to that, I started many stories, but it wasn't until then that I actually finished one.

This is rule number two: finish what you are writing.

Again, seems like a simple concept (and it is), but you would be amazed at how few people actually finish it.

It was a huge sense of accomplishment when I finished my first novel.  It was something I remembered, and it was in late November 1994.  I have finished many novels and shorter works since then.  But I always make a point of finishing what I'm starting.

Rules For A Reason / Happenings In The Outhouse 21-March-2025

Everyone loves rules, right?

Oh, you don't?

Well, you're gonna like these.

Or are you . . . ?

In 1964, science fiction author Robert Heinlein wrote an essay in a collection titled Of Worlds Beyond.  At the very end of the essay, almost as an afterthought, he stated his five basic rules of writing.  Keep in mind, he was talking about fiction, and speculative fiction to boot, but this can be used for all writing.

These simple rules are:

1) Write

2) Finish what you're writing

3) Do not rewrite except to editorial review

4) Put your story out on the market

5) Keep it on the market until it's sold

Sounds simple, right?  Not so fast, Sparky.  When you peel back the onion, you'd be amazed at how many people can't do even the most simple of these rules.

In the upcoming weeks, I will dive deeper into each of these rules, how they shaped my own life, and how you can use them to shape your future.

Also, you may think this is only for writers.  Wrong!  These rules can be put in place for any hobby that you want to take to the next level.

Show Up Like It Is The First / Happenings In The Outhouse 04-Oct-2024

Last weekend, my wife and I, along with two of her cousins, went to the final Minnesota Twins game of the season.  They were already out of the playoffs, so either winning or losing the game didn't matter for their team's standing.

However, if that game was someone's first time at a Twins game, whether the players played to win or lose, they should always play as if it's someone's first time there.  Someone may have spent their entire lives wanting to go to a game, even saved for the trip.

The same goes with musicians and concerts.  They should always play as if it's their first concert for someone, their first experience.

Authors are also not immune to this.  Every story should be written as if it's someone's first time reading your story.  Don't treat it like a throwaway story.

By the way, the Twins lost that game too, six to two against the Baltimore Orioles.  Was it a throwaway game?  Some have opinions.  I'll keep mine to myself because I had a good time and, not being a sports fan, I don't like criticizing another player for something I could never do.

QR Codes (Ways To Hinder An Easy Buy) / Happenings In The Outhouse 20-Sept-2024

Ever since one of my daughters went off to her first year of college, we have visited her a few times, to take her to brunch/lunch, and to bring her things that she needed.

One thing I noticed lately was on one of these visits, when we took her to lunch.  It was our second time at this restaurant--one featured on Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives--so we knew the food was good.  But the main difference I noticed between this restaurant and others was that the menu could only be accessed by a QR code.

Okay, you may ask what's the big deal?

The big deal is: what is someone doesn't have a smartphone?  Also, when I asked a few people who were of the older generation, they didn't have a clue what a QR code was.

During our last visit, we took our daughter to a diner for brunch.  I had the French toast, which was like eating a cinnamon roll.  My wife had a pancake that was as big as her plate--she couldn't even eat it all.  But in order to reserve a table, you had to scan a QR code and reserve a table.

Hmmm, again, same question as before.

How's this for an interesting concept: I get why a restaurant owner may want to run their business this way, but in doing so it alienates a segment of the population.  And if you're alienating a segment of the population, what other barriers are you putting in place that hinders an easy buy?

Identifying Weaknesses / Happenings In The Outhouse 30-Aug-2024

"What is your greatest weakness?"

This is a loaded interview question because one doesn't want to admit they have a weakness.

However, if there are weaknesses that you can overcome, all the better.  On one hand, if I had a deep passion to be a top NBA player but I'm only five foot nine and have minimal basketball skills, my chances are pretty much nil.  On the other hand, if I have a fear of public speaking, I can take lessons and work to overcome them.

Sometimes it is difficult to identify your weaknesses.  Ask for feedback and don't get upset by the results.

Speaking of public speaking, I joined Toastmasters through my employer to help with my public speaking skills.  I won't divulge the various ways Toastmasters can help with this, as there are so many aspects of public speaking that one may not be aware of.  One aspect for me is essentially troubling, but it is a task I am willing to overcome with practice.  And Toastmasters helps me with that.

When you look at your weaknesses, try and discover a weakness that is realistic and that you can overcome.  Create baby steps to overcome it, to turn the weakness into either a strength or something that isn't so daunting.

Stamina And The Genre Snob / Happenings In The Outhouse 23-Aug-2024

Today's post is going to be a bit out of the norm.  Then again, when is it never . . . ?

Last weekend, my wife, three of our girls, and myself went to the Twin Cities to attend two concerts: Friday night was Metallica and Saturday night was Green Day.  We had a blast, to put it mildly.  I may deep dive into these concerts at a later time, but I want to touch on two things this week.  The first is stamina.

Green Day played, non-stop, for roughly two and a half hours.  With very few breaks.  And what breaks they did take were a few seconds at max.  They kept playing and playing and playing . . . to the point where I became exhausted.

Green Day has an enormous catalog of songs to choose from, and they played many of them.  Last year during the Bryan Adams concert, there were so many he played that I forgot that he even sang them.  Metallica also has an enormous catalog of songs.

What does this mean for the writer?  Simple: keep writing.  Ten years ago, I had written five full length novels and maybe a handful of short stories.  Now, I have over 60 individual stories, from novels to short stories and even a few flash fiction.  I keep going.

The second is what I am calling the genre snob.  The last song Green Day played was "Good Riddance (Time of your Life)".  After the concert, I overheard someone saying they didn't like the song and that it was outside of their genre--hence the reason they did not like it.

The genre snob isn't limited to musicians.  Take Stephen King and John Grisham.  King is known for horror, yet some of his better books are the ones that are not horror.  Grisham is known for his legal thrillers, and his better books are not in that genre.  It's okay to step out of the genre you're in.  Even reading the Wikipedia page on the Green Day song "Good Riddance" they note that the song was outside of the other songs.

Yet it is one song they are best known for.