Considered one of the most prolific writers working in modern fiction, New York Times and USA Today bestselling writer, Dean Wesley Smith published over two hundred novels and over seven hundred books in forty years, and hundreds and hundreds of short stories. He has over thirty million copies of his books in print.
At the moment he produces novels in four major series, including the time travel Thunder Mountain novels set in the old west, the galaxy-spanning Seeders Universe series, the cold case mystery series, Cold Poker Gang series, and the superhero series staring Poker Boy.
During his career, Dean also wrote a couple dozen Star Trek novels, the only two original Men in Black novels, Spider-Man and X-Men novels, plus novels set in gaming and television worlds. Writing with his wife Kristine Kathryn Rusch under the name Kathryn Wesley, they wrote the novel for the NBC miniseries The Tenth Kingdom and other books for Hallmark Hall of Fame movies.
He wrote novels under dozens of pen names in the worlds of comic books and movies, including novelizations of almost a dozen films, from X-Men to The Final Fantasy to Steel to Rundown.
Dean also worked as a fiction editor off and on, starting at Pulphouse Publishing, then at VB Tech Journal, then Pocket Books, and now at WMG Publishing where he and Kristine Kathryn Rusch serve as executive editors for the acclaimed Fiction River anthology series. He took over the editorship of the acclaimed Pulphouse Magazine in 2018.
For more information about Dean's books and ongoing projects, please visit his website at www.deanwesleysmith.com
New York Times bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith knows how to write novels at speeds many can only dream about.
In WRITING NOVELS WITH THE WALTESE FALCON, Dean details day-by-day, sometimes hour-by-hour how he wrote three different novels. One novel in ten days, another in seven days, and another in five days while traveling.
And two of the how-to-write books star his faithful cat, Walter White Kitty, or as Kristine Kathryn Rusch called him, the Waltese Falcon.
Invaluable information and techniques for any writer in this modern indie world.
Dean Wesley Smith has sold over 30 million books in his career, with more selling every day. He loves to write and he loves to challenge himself. The books collected in Writing Novels with the Waltese Falcon were all in response to a challenge to himself. Accompanied by his faithful cat, Walter, Dean went to his computer daily and came out with not only a novel in a week, but a record of each writing session. Completely inspirational (with a dose of cat-cute), this book debunks the writing-needs-to-be-torture myth taught in so many MFA programs. – Kristine Kathryn Rusch
INTRODUCTION
WRITING NOVELS WITH THE WALTESE FALCON
Walter White Kitty was a white Birman that was with me for many, many years and many novels. If I was in my writing chair, he was asleep in my business chair. And then we would switch.
And we would nap together and do just about everything together. Kris was the one who called him Walter in the first place when we rescued him, and then she started calling him, for no reason known to me, the Waltese Falcon.
Two of the books written quickly and detailed out in this book were written with Walter right beside me, as always.
Writing at speed does not take fast typing, as you will see. I am anything but that, but I spend time in my writing chair which adds up. In the three books contained in here, I talk about writing a novel in ten days, then another in seven days, and another in five days.
Two of the three novels are available to buy and read if you like. I talk about them. The third was the last ghost novel, the last novel actually, that I ever wrote for New York traditional publishers. All the novels since have been indie published by my own company, WMG Publishing.
One aspect about writing to speed as I detail out in the three books here is working up to that. At the time I was doing these books, I was in my sixties and had been writing at speed for thirty years.
But like running, this kind of writing is difficult to just jump into.
And especially when you are way out of shape. Or never done it before.
In 1980, as I was about to turn 30, I had gained a ton of weight in law school, so started to slowly run, just blocks at first and then more as each month went by until later that year I ran in my first full marathon. 26.2 miles. I did great for 20 miles, last six I try not to remember, but I finished.
I built up to that speed and distance over time.
Over the years after coming to Vegas, I did a bunch of 5K and 10K runs and every year I finished the half marathon in the Rock and Roll Vegas Running Series. Some years I did better than others. My best time for a half marathon (13.1 miles) is two hours and fifty-six minutes. My run/walk and lack of real training every year kept me pretty much at that pace.
Then in 2020, right in the heat of the pandemic, when I was about to turn 70, I trained for and finished another full marathon of 26.2 miles. So, I did one at 30 and another at 70.
I did not do well in that one either. Ran the first six miles, stepped on a large rock that went through my shoe and my heel, and I limped and bled the remaining 20 miles in just over 6.5 hours.
But I finished.
So, in this book are day-by-day details, hour-by-hour accounts of how I managed to write the three books, one in five days, one in seven days, and one in ten days. But remember, when I did this, I was in writing shape.
I had worked up to it.
Also the fun part for me is that this book is about me writing novels with my cat, Walter White Kitty, or as Kris called him, The Waltese Falcon at my side. He was my heart cat, a white pure red-point Birman, and he stayed with me all the time for years. I wrote the three novels and blogged about the writing and he figures in two of the books.
Now, at 75 I don't run anymore, I walk, but still working on increasing my distances again to do another half marathon.
And at times I can still build up a good pace with the writing as well. Maybe at some point I will do another novel in ten days, just for fun.
But one thing is for certain, looking back at the blog posts that make up these three books on writing at speed. I remember the feeling of being in great shape and not afraid of any number of needed words in a short amount of time. That was a great feeling you all can reach.
A feeling of confidence in my ability to write what I wanted and needed to write when I needed to write it. Wow, that was wonderful to go back over these three books and get that feeling once again.
Plus, I sure miss The Waltese Falcon.
Dean Wesley Smith
March 28th, 2026
Las Vegas, NV
