Saturday, July 1

Last Night I got "Pieces Of Us From The Earth" in the mail to Writers Of The Future. This was one of my desk stories and I still need to change my Storyboard.

Now I need to kick some fictional ass if I'm going to get that other story done by Tuesday.

More later.


Sunday, July 9

I wrote three hundred words again today. Many words closer to handing in a story for this Tuesday.

Our last Tuesday night workshop (on the 4th of July) was canceled. That's odd. We never miss a Tuesday except for the last two weeks of the year.
My mind is already working on the next story.
Did you have a good Harry Potter Day yesterday? There's a lot of bookstores ourt there that are very happy. How often do people line up around the block for a book?

Good luck to Karina on her own Clarion@Home Dare!


Tuesday, July 25

A quick update. And sorry about the lack of updates to all you faithful readers out there.
I have two stories done. One was done for last week and I just printed out the second one.

However, I did not make it to workshop last week so the first one did not get handed in. My car died on me so I lacked transportation. I didn't have enough time to take the bus.

I won't make it to the workshop tonight, however, I will have my second story workshopped on the coast this week. You see, Leslie What has organized Write-O-Rama in Yachats with guest, Tor editor David Hartwell. She invited him to come down after his week at Clarion West to do a three day workshop with a dozen of us. We'll be in a nice Inn right on the coast. Should be nice and educational.

My second story needs to be workshopped. I may send a rewrite of that story through the Tuesday night workshop.

Looks like I've started (finally!) my story a week challenge. Let's see how far I can go.

I'll update again when I get back on Friday. Promise!

Congrats to Trey for graduating from Clarion 2000! I look forward to reading your reflections of the experience.


Saturday, July 29

My story was ripped to shreds at Write-O-Rama on the coast. Yes, I am exaggerating. I knew the story had problems when I brought it to the workshop, so I can't be surprised, and I did get some good feedback on it. I'm still going to do a rewrite for Tuesday.

I had great getaway. We workshopped stories on Wednesday and Thursday morning. I stayed up
late and slept in. I ate a lot. We flew kites on the beach.

David Hartwell and his wife Kathyn Cramer talked
about writing and publishing. Mr. Hartwell seems to know what is going on at every publishing house in New York.

You should never use a flashback in your fiction. It's a distancing technique. Only use it to reveal information that can't otherwise be dealt with in the narrative. And when using it, it might be wise to keep it short wordage-wise. The words I used here are mine but this is basically what Mr. Hartwell told us at one point durning critiques. It's good advice, worthy of applying it to my fiction. Test it out. Try it.

He seems to have a keen eye for story and how to make it the best it could be. It's very clear that he knows the history of the SF & F field.

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I had no luck finding a car today. I'm conflicted. Part of me doesn't want to deal with shopping and buying another car. Another part of me just wants to get it over with so I can have some feedom of movement again.