Savaged. … At Clarion West, we are issued tickets at the start of each week, maybe four or five of them. If we go over time, or start with a negative critique, or don’t get around to critiquing someone, we are supposed to throw the tickets into the centre of the room. At the end of the week, we put all the remaining tickets into a bowl and we draw for prizes like books and toys. Obviously, these tickets are fairly valuable, although very occasionally (maybe five times so far), som... Read Full Story

Sorry about how irregular I’ve become. Clarion West is truly the sweatshop you’ve heard about. Yesterday, in addition to the story I had due, I had to critique 35,000 words of story. That’s a third of a large novel. I got very little sleep. Last week went well. I had my meeting with John Kessel. We spoke about my admission story and the story I turned in to critique. I need to flesh out the setting for THE HAIRY MAN IS DEAD, and I have some ideas on how to do that, but I mig... Read Full Story

Well, I was pounding away at my keyboard right up until the 7pm deadline (when John Kessel was scheduled to read at the University Bookstore), but I managed to get my story, “The Hairy Man is Dead” in under the wire (complete at 3500 words).  Am I happy with it? I think I was stretching for something, and the story does make a statement, which I think it essential in fiction. It’s very first draft-y though. There’s kind of an extra scene in there that isn’t attac... Read Full Story

Well, Wordpress ate yesterday’s posting, so I’ll just quickly sum up. We were introduced to the workshop by Leslie and Neile, two wonderful women who do a lot of work setting up this workshop for us. After they’d explained a few tedious, but necessary rules (no bare feet in the house, etc), we were introduced to our first instructor, John Kessel. He asked us to introduce ourselves to the group and go over some of our reasons for attending Clarion West.  Everyone had a differ... Read Full Story

Got here at 9am because border traffic was exceptionally light. The house was locked so I had to call Neile after making a trip to the local Starbucks. I needed internet access to retrieve her number. When I’d finally gotten in to the house and was halfway through unpacking, Cat Rambo showed up, and we had the greatest conversation. Cat is a hell of a writer. Don’t believe me? Go here. We talked for about two hours about the Clarion Experience, which she went through in 2005. Her ... Read Full Story

Okay, okay, I don’t actually leave until tomorrow at 5am, but I’m already there in spirit. I’ll miss my wife, cats, and house (in that order), none of which I’ve ever been separated for such a long period of time, but I’m looking forward to the experience. Tonight I’m going to set up Skype so Alicia and I can video conference (dry word, but we won’t be nearly so business-like), and I’m sure there will be some cross-border traffic as well. I̵... Read Full Story

This is a cyberwarfare guide for helping Iranians, re-published by Boing Boing. Read it. Read Full Story

Lone Star Stories announced that they are closing up shop. LSS was consistently on Duotrope’s list of fastest responding markets (and also one of the hardest to get into). Once again, a market I always meant to target but never got around to submitting to. And now I won’t get a chance. I feel like I’ve [...] Read Full Story

If you’ve missed this announcement, here is the link. This is definitely unhappy news, since Talebones had a stellar reputation and had recently come onto my radar as a magazine to target my stories at. I think we might as well face the music that the print magazine is dead. However, the online webzine is thriving [...] Read Full Story

I am bound for Seattle on Saturday *yay* at 5:00am *boo-urns*. I’m beginning to obsess about it, reading Clarion Workshop blogs wherever I can (I’ll post links on the Clarion West page I keep threatening to put up). I also plan to write my own Clarion Workshop posts every day (if possible) so watch this space. I’ve [...] Read Full Story