Where have I been? There's no acceptable excuse for why I haven't done a journal entry. However, now I can report on last weekend's Write-O-Rama.

Much thanks to Leslie What for making this happen. And a big thank you to Ellen Datlow for coming all the way from New York (despite the crippling effects of Hurricane Isabel) to Eugene.

It would not have been Write-O-Rama without Ellen. She was the reason for it. She was the guest of honor.

We met Saturday in downtown Eugene to begin critiquing the nine stories from some of the participants. My story was among them, and it was the second story to be critiqued. I knew the story needed work and I got a lot of good feedback on what to do with it. Painless experience.

Ellen doesn't lecture but she did take questions. I learned she's looking for more Science Fiction. She still likes fantasy and horror, but SciFi.com needs more SF. I also learned she's a visual reader. She needs to see what's happening in the story. She looks for vivid, solid descriptions. No vague, generic details. She's looking for science fiction with a fantasy feel and fantasy with a science fiction feel. She gave Michael Swanwick's "Radio Waves" as an example. That's one of my favorites from Mr. Swanwick. She's not currently working on any original anthologies. I also learned Kelly Link is her slush (or first) reader for Sci-Fi.com. I never knew that!

Overall, I didn't hear anything new, but hearing about "details" is always a good thing to reinforce, think about, and remember. It's about networking and I got to spend a weekend in front of Ellen Datlow. She was the guest editor at my Clarion in '93 and I've seen her at World Fantasy over the last several years. At Clarion, I didn't have a story critiqued by her (I don't think anybody did), but here in Eugene I did.

I need to get a story back on her desk sometime soon.