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The Seventh Week clarion west writers workshop • fall 2012

Interview JT Stewart Tracks Upon the Sweet Flypaper of Life

By ’92 Vonda N. McIntyre

Deep cuts could have resulted in three nice, The Basic Idea, as Compared neat historical summaries of CW’s creation. to What Actually Happened: But the lighter approach we’ve used instead An Introduction has the advantage of demonstrating the twisty, interactive nature of our organiza- Author Vonda N. tion’s collaborative roots. So here’s more or less McIntyre has won how the exchange of messages went. Marilyn J. Holt both the Nebula and Hugo Awards for August 23 August 24 her fiction, poet JT NS: Vonda, JT, Marilyn, we’re VNM: The message to Marilyn Stewart has a liter- going to publish a sort of bounced. If you can reach her, ary award named round-robin group interview please ask her to go to the website Nisi Shawl after her, and writer featuring you three in the Clarion West and apply to join the list serve. and educator Marilyn J. Holt currently runs newsletter. This is meant to be a discus- an organic farm. All three were involved in sion rather than just me asking questions JTS: Please identify Pearl the Clarion West Writers Workshop’s earliest and just one of you answering. Vonda set for me. I thought this group days, so in anticipation of our upcoming 30th up this list serve so that by replying to one consisted of four people: Nisi, Anniversary Year, I wanted to get them talk- message we’re replying to all, thus making Vonda, Marilyn, JTS. Yet we’ve gotten ing about those times. I asked Vonda, the most it possible for us to see and bounce off of several emails from Pearl. Please explain.... technically-minded of the group, to set up each others’ responses. an email listserv so that we could discuss the VNM: Pearl is Nisi—that just I’m hoping we’ll come to a good stop- topic easily with one another. I came up with happens to be her gmail account ping point 9/11. I’ll then have about a a question to get the conversational ball roll- handle—so she can be subscribed week to edit the discussion for publication. ing, sent it out, and waited for the newsletter with a gmail address and log onto the group With interviews we usually have a 100- article to write itself. web page in her clever plastic gmail disguise. word introduction to the interviewee, and Pioneers are hard to manage, though. They I can take care of that. But I’d like to instigate things quite well, but it’s a mistake JTS: OK—that mystery solved! us off with this question: to try to herd them. Ditto original thinkers. Now for another one: have you And poets? Poets will respond to things an You were all three of you involved in ever seen a letter Chip Delany interviewer never realizes she’s said, in ways Clarion West’s coming into existence in wrote—back in the day—about starting that reveal truth’s numberless dimensions. different ways. Will you each talk a bit CW....He mentioned it during a chat dur- about how you were attracted to the idea, ing his last time here. I told him I couldn’t And then these responses need to be edited.  what you thought you were doing, and recall ever having seen it.... what you actually did? The Seventh Week |Spring 2012 | Page 1  VNM: I don’t remember it, but NS: Typically you would not State College in Clarion, Pennsylvania. if Chip says he wrote it then I have a chance to respond to the Robin, Kate, and Damon were instructors completely believe that he wrote intro, JT, as I write it after—long at all three workshops. Other writers who it. Did he say who he sent it to? (If it’s me after—the interview. taught there included ™, I’ll be embarrassed that I don’t remember Do not consider word length in your , James Sallis, , it, but I’ll keep an eye out for it.) answers. Just say something. and Samuel R. Delany. Robin’s assistant Respond to the question as soon as you was Glenn Cook. August 25 can. Today would be nice. That may spark I was a student in the 1970 workshop responses from Vonda and/or Marilyn, and in Clarion. My classmates included NS: Marilyn, I sent my first ques- will give me ideas for further qs. Remem- Octavia E. Butler, David Skal, George tion for the round-robin discus- ber, this is a conversation. Alec Effinger, and Robert Thurston. The sion you’ve said you want to be workshop was a peak experience of my part of. This is the discussion that will appear VNM: Sorry, can’t do it today. career and a turning point in my life. in the Clarion West newsletter, celebrating I’m completely beat. The Inter- When Robin told us that he would your early involvement with CW. lake Blockwatch spent the day be moving and changing academic I asked you via Facebook about your repainting our intersection turtle Bubbles. institutions, and that he wouldn’t be preferred email address for this project and If I can move and type tomorrow I’ll do running the workshop anymore, I got this one. I haven’t heard back from you my best. couldn’t bear that it would disappear. since then. I have no other way to reach I got his permission to try to start a you. Please respond so we can get this branch of it in Seattle. James Sallis did thing going. the same on the East Coast, at Tulane University. MJH: I received an email from Clarion West, in Seattle, at the Vonda, but the link to Google University of , ran in 1971, Groups didn’t send me to our 1972, and 1973. Students included JT group. Do I need an invitation to join? NS: That turtle was getting a bit Stewart, F.M. Busby, Glenn Chang, John What is the precise Google Group name? faded. Thanks, Vonda. Maybe Shirley, , David Wise, Russell Please send me the information again. we’ll hear from you or someone L. Bates, and Steve Miller. Instructors else Monday. VNM: Marilyn, your group included Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert invitation is in the mail. I’m giv- Silverberg, Harlan Ellison™, Joanna Russ, ing you a heads-up on it because August 27 , David G. Hartwell, sometimes group-type email goes straight JTS: “My memory stammers/ George Clayton Johnson, James Sallis, into the junk mail box. You might want but my soul is witness.”— , and Samuel R. Delany. to add it to your list of approved email Denise Levertov After three years I was rather burned out. I spent a while living four addresses. Having a real tough time answering these miles down a logging road, writing I hope your summer is going well and genesis questions. What I wrote yester- . the vegetables are prospering. day—just in getting started—truly lacks When JT and Marilyn told me that substance. Oy Vez! I realize this CW story MJH: Thank you for your pa- they were going to revive the workshop, = a collective one that belongs to all of us. tience. I am now on this group. I told them I knew a good shrink they Have Mercy! And the beat goes on.... could talk to. They persevered and the NS: JT, it’s not meant to be workshop has been going strong since August 26 hard. Lacking substance is not 1984, in part thanks to the board of an issue. What would you say if directors and the fact that it’s a nonprofit NS: We’re all here! My earlier I asked you that question on the phone? organization now. attempt at a kick-off is repeated Write what you would say. If you would below now that all can read and say something like, “I’m not sure I can do respond. Just reply to this email and every- August 28 that question justice,” write that. thing will be taken care of with coolness. JTS: Vonda—my question deals Thank you, Vonda, for persistence, and VNM: Robin Scott Wilson with the start date: 1984? Do thank you, Marilyn and JT for the same! attended & you mean 1983....I’ll have to (Repeat of four paragraphs sent on August 23.) ’s Milford Writers rely on what Marilyn has to say abt our Workshop in the mid-1960s. Milford was conversations w/you. JTS: Yes—indeed—great jump- a peer workshop—only active, published ing off q’s! VNM: I remember the first year SFF writers were invited. Robin realized it Now for my q’s: Suggested of the second incarnation as 1984, could be adapted as a student workshop. word length? Deadline? Also—will we but if it wasn’t and my memory The ClarionW riters Workshop ran for  have a chance to respond to our 100 word is wrong, I wouldn’t be that surprised. three years—1968, 1969, 1970—at Clarion intros somewhere down the line....

Page 2 | The Seventh Week | fall 2012  MJH: I’ve not had time to answer August 29 [Sidebar #2] this week. I will look at the JTS: “Just the facts, Ma’am.” — question and answer in the next Sgt. Joe Friday, Dragnet CW ’83 cofounders: JTS/Marilyn J. Holt/Vonda couple of days. Sorry for being late on this. —w/special help from David JTS takes a fiction writing workshop in G.Hartwell and Samuel Delany. NS: Thanks, Marilyn. I was re- Issaquah, Washington taught by F.M. Location: marking to Vonda while stand- Busby. He likes her work—suggests she Seattle Central ing on her front sidewalk that apply to Clarion. “What’s a Clarion?” JTS Community College. this is an especially busy season for people asks. She gets accepted. (Believe I’ve told Dorms: who grow food. I think it’s called harvest this part of the story in a previous 7th Seattle University. or something? Week interview w/Nisi.) College credit optional. JTS attends CW ’73—Vonda: Instructor readings: MJH: Correction: I owned a Founder/ Director. Location: University SCCC Little Theatre technical writing firm, so I was of Washington (sorority house) on Harvard Avenue. self-employed when we started Faculty: Harlan Ellison™, Joanna this. Later I taught for SCCC for two or Russ, Ursula K. Le Guin, Terry Carr, Meanwhile the story of the in- three quarters and then taught at Central Peter S. Beagle, Jim Sallis. between years waits for someone (or a Washington University Extension, but not Next comes the Expository Lump range of someones) to tell it....And the when we were doing CW. JT may have (writers’ group—life after Clarion West), beat goes on.... taught for WWU. which JTS joins. Meets Bubbles Broxon, The second iteration of CW started in Marilyn J. Holt, Elinor Busby, + remeets late June 1984 and ended Mid-August; I Buz (F.M. Busby). JTS participates/ August 30 think it was August 17th. gets immersed in lots of fan activities: NS: JT, thanks for the factual attends cons + participates in panels. background. NS: I am more focused on wit- Starts teaching at Seattle Central Marilyn, do you have any- nessing a conversation between Community College; gets tenure & thing to say about the beginning of your you three than in ascertaining creates literary events (especially a week- involvement in Clarion West? facts, JT, so I don’t plan to contact Kay or long workshop w/ poet Richard Hugo). anyone else. All this eventually leads to friendship + co-conspirator status w/ Marilyn J. August 31 My next catalytic questions for each of Holt who writes & teaches at you: How do you relate to Clarion West VNM: I taught at the first Washington University. nowadays? Do you attend parties, read- workshop of the second incar- Which leads to the ings? Mentor students? Donate? nation. I remember it as 1984. Fair (’79 - ’82). JTS + Marilyn are I didn’t have anything to do with picking co-directors + lots of help from others: JTS: A correction—but not the students or the instructors for any fandom + SF pros. Special media relevant to the current narrative CW workshop of the second incarnation. help from Norm Langill (sf fan + thread—JTS, beginning in the I don’t think it’s appropriate to consider Teatro ZinZanni). Locations: Seattle mid-90s taught concurrently at SCCC & me a cofounder of the second incarnation; Community Colleges ’79 - ’80, Seattle WWU (Fairhaven College), & full-time at I don’t remember doing anything that Central Community College ’81 - ’82. WWU beginning in 2002.... involved organization. JTS & Marilyn get together. Vonda is a willing but battle-scarred participant JTS: Hmmm— vs. reality VNM: I attend the occa- who says, “You want to do what? JT, (and, yes, we do need to clarify sional CW party and the they’ll take papers out in you....” the start-up year). occasional reading. I donate I see Kay Kinghammer abt twice a to the workshop. I’ve participated in the [Sidebar #1] month. She claims 1984 as the first year for Write-a-thon. Some summers I’m one of the current CW. Nisi - you might want to the Friday Mystery Guests. I believe the In a fit of chutzpah I told our VP create a list of questions for her to answer workshop uses my venerable Manuscript of Instruction, Dr. Ron Hamburg, that we can all see....Others listed on the Preparation Form as a handout. I keep that I wanted to help put SCCC on CW website and the 1984 class roster who expecting editors to tell me it’s time to the world map. And that relocating might prove helpful: Dan O’Keefe, Amy retire it—I wrote the first version some- CW at the college could represent a Thomson, David G. Hartwell, . time in the mid-1970s, before the age of big step in that direction. “What’s a Vonda—I have no recollection about personal computers, never mind electron- Clarion?” he asked. So I told him our the selection process for faculty or stu- ic submissions—but they keep telling me story going back to Milford. Dr. H dents.... Perhaps the mysterious letter of it’s useful and please to maintain it. also made it possible for CW folks to  advice from Chip Delany could provide I usually give students crocheted sea get optional college credit.... some clues.

The Seventh Week | fall 2012 | Page 3  creatures (http://tinyurl.com/crochetseacreatures), amazing array of professional do workshop support. As the workshop’s because if somebody throws one at you guests to teach at the SCCC Science start neared, the amount of work became it’s like getting hit Fiction Fair, which was aimed at SCCC too much for us, and Kay came to the in the face with a students and quite popular. I think it ran rescue. She is CW’s unsung , because sweater. I went to three years, which is a normal lifespan for getting the stories printed, photocopied, a party a couple of such a program. It was about that time collated, and stapled, fell into her capable years ago carrying that people started talking to JT and me hands. It was a lot of work and no glory. a bag to pass out. I about restarting Clarion West. Also, I Personally, Clarion West turned out introduced myself found that I was in the same situation as to be nothing like what I thought I was to a group of so many other West Coast writers in that I building for myself. I thought that I would students on the porch and gave each one couldn’t afford to attend workshops on the be able to write, earn my living, and work a crocheted sea creature. The students all East Coast or in the Midwest. This made on Clarion West. Instead, I worked and looked at the creatures and then, without a the effort seem worthwhile. attended meetings, did CW planning, word of coordination among them, raised While Clarion West started in 1984 spreadsheets (by hand), budgets, and the the creatures high and said, “Braaaaains!” for most people, it started in 1982 for me. like. I remember Joanna Russ giving me There were two years of serious planning, hell over this—it was like being scourged. MJH: I know that 1984 was number-crunching, negotiations, reexami- I had thought working on CW would help CW’s first year. Two Saturdays nations, and implementation before the me move forward with my writing career after that first workshop ended, idea became a reality. We had to do budget and instead it was a long sidetrack. Cliff and I were married. work for SCCC. JT and I worked on After the first year, there was so much this extensively in the bar of the Cricket more support, and many hands do make NS: Now there’s a detail that restaurant on East Lake. When we needed work. I wish I could remember will stay firmly fixed in your to blow off steam, we visited ourselves on everyone who helped turn CW into the mind, Marilyn! Vonda, who plied us with the appropri- powerhouse it is today, for it could have MJH: I had studied with ate refreshment and repeatedly told us stalled and failed in those early years. several excellent writers at the that she knew a good psychiatrist (whom Leslie Howle and Linda Jordan-Eichner University of Washington, I knew too). She listened, probed, and come readily to mind, and there were so including Joanna Russ and Nelson helped us work through problems. Equally many others. I am very gratified and proud Bentley (poet), and I knew the value of important, she let us bitch and moan. She of Clarion West. I’ve enjoyed every student an extended workshop. I had attended was the deep background of the creation and instructor whom I have met. I feel Centrum Writers Workshop as well as of this iteration of Clarion West. their triumphs and disappointments for other short workshops and found that One part of our planning was focused writing as a rollercoaster ride. while they were energizing, there was on sustainability. We decided early on that not enough time to develop new skills. CW needed to be an organization that was September 7 However, Centrum showed me how not legally attached to SCCC or another NS: It’s been a week since I’ve effective working with several writers college. Our experience with the SFF and heard from anyone. What is could be. The Clarion workshop model other projects had taught us that they’d going on? seemed even stronger and more effective. only continue supporting CW long term I’d heard about it from friends: F.M. if it fit into the community college class Busby, Vonda N. McIntyre, JT Stewart, format. That was just not going to happen. September 10 David G. Hartwell, , and After the second year CW became a 501 NS: I’ve extended this round- others. I first learned about ClarionW est (c)(3). The next part of our sustainability robin a few more days. Do any when my housemate David S. Cargo planning was building a community. That’s of you have anything to say to introduced me to Frank Herbert, who was why the readings and the Friday parties one another on the topic of Clarion West? teaching at UW and at Clarion West. I were instituted. The readings gave our attended his Clarion West reading. Later, instructors a way to sell books and reach I listened to Frank talk about teaching the out to the public at large. The parties gave September 12 workshop and the growth he saw in the us a way to let people who were not at- JTS: You ask what attracted me students during his week. tending the workshop meet the students, to the idea of restarting CW? and let people who wanted to support “The sweet flypaper of life,” to Fast forward to the 1980s. JT and I  started the Science Fiction Fair at Seattle the workshop meet each other. Deep and quote Langston Hughes. Central Community College about 1980. abiding friendships were forged at these It ran the Monday and Tuesday (and events, and these form the heart and soul perhaps Wednesday, but I don’t remem- of Clarion West. ber) after the Norwescon science fiction JT and I knew a wonderful woman, convention. We were able to prevail on the poet Kay Kinghammer, who signed on to Photo of Vonda N. McIntyre, © 1997 Alice Lengers Photo of JT Stewart, © 2002 N. Don Barrie Photo of Marilyn J. Holt, © 2003 Liz Major Photography

Page 4 | The Seventh Week | fall 2012 It is early autumn in Seattle as I write this, but my message is Happy New Year. Clarion For Clarion West, the six-week summer workshop is the culmination West Writers of a year’s work of planning, preparing, recruiting instructors, reading submissions, Workshop organizing logistics, raising funds, and managing the thousands of details that bring it all together every June. For us, a Board of Directors new year has begun. Kelley Eskridge | Chair And it promises to be a very happy Karen G. Anderson | Vice Chair one: the 30th anniversary of continuous Susan Gossman | Treasurer Message workshopping at Clarion West. Thirty years of brilliant students, world-class Felicia Gonzalez From the Chair instructors, and the passionate community Phoebe Harris of staff, volunteers, and donors who have Vicki N. Saunders By Kelley Eskridge worked tirelessly in support of the idea Nisi Shawl that together we can provide an extraordi- Davis B. Fox | Executive Director | ex officio nary opportunity for emerging writers in Leslie Howle | ex officio . Neile Graham | ex officio Without you, Workshop there would be Leslie Howle | Workshop Director no Clarion West Neile Graham | Workshop Administrator Suzanne Tompkins | Office Manager We hope you’ll help us celebrate in the coming months! Without you, Development and Membership there would be no Clarion West. We are Keri Healey | Grantwriter celebrating you. Kate Schaefer | Database Consultant This new year also brings change to our board. In December, I will step down Erin Cashier | Write-a-thon Chair as board chair, and Vice Chair Karen | Diversity and Outreach Anderson will become the chair of Clarion West. Karen has been with the board Communications since 2009 and has also served as the Nisi Shawl | Director of Communications board president of the Northwest Folklife Eugene Myers | Editor, Seventh Week festival in Seattle. CW could not be in Vicki N. Saunders | Art Director better hands; Karen’s boundless energy, her marketing and development savvy, her Lauren Dixon | Copywriter generous , and her passion for our Victoria E. Garcia | Copywriter/Forums Moderator mission, students, and community make Eileen Gunn | Copywriter her a wonderful leader for us. Lucas Johnson | Copywriter Thank you all so much for your support Deborah A. Taber | Copy Editor/Proofreader of CW and for the help and support Eden Robins | Copy Editor/Proofreader you’ve offered me during my tenure as Erik Owomoyela | Website Manager chair. It’s been an honor and a privilege Roz Clarke | Social Media Czarina to serve you, and I am grateful to every one of you for helping us stay strong Sabrina Chase | Website User Registration and stable. Because you help us, we can continue to help writers learn, grow, and become stronger too. There is no Clarion West without you. Happy new Clarion West year to you all! 

The Seventh Week | fall 2012 | Page 5 October marks my two-year anniversary chapters of new , as well as speak as executive director of the Clarion West about their work and the state of writing Writers Workshop. These two years have and literature in the early years of the 21st been an extremely rewarding time for me, century. working with one of the most prestigious We were thrilled to have a special writing workshops of its kind in the world. fundraising event with George R. R.

courtesy fromoldbooks.orgcourtesy I am particularly proud of our achieve- Martin and in July, at ments this summer, which included a which about 100 CW donors and friends flurry of activity and the involvement of gathered to hear a lively discussion hundreds of CW students, donors, fans, between these two distinguished authors and volunteers. At the core of everything and support the organization at the same we do is the summer six-week workshop, time. The event engendered a great sense Executive which is really a year-round activity of of community, and we are looking forward selecting instructors, recruiting students, to many similar events in the near . reviewing applications, securing and This summer also marked the 9th Corner awarding scholarship assistance, and annual Clarion West Write-a-thon, notifying eighteen emerging and talented in which writers set writing goals and By Davis B. Fox writers that they are coming to Seattle for produced fabulous new work, and donors a life-changing experience. pledged their support for CW. The growth It was gratifying to meet the class of of the Write-a-thon has been remarkable 2012 on their first day of the workshop over the last two years, with more than 200 and to see them over the course of the writers and 400 supporters participating. summer at our Tuesday night author I am particularly impressed that writers readings and Friday night parties. Our based in twenty countries created new students were challenged and critiqued work, making this a truly international and encouraged over the forty-two days effort. they were with us in June and July, and As we begin our 30th consecutive year they came away more mature and insight- of operation, it’s wonderful to be part of ful writers and creative artists. an organization so well-managed due to This summer was the first time we held our superb board of directors, generous two of our readings at Town Hall Seattle, contributors, loyal volunteers, and talented in addition to four at University Book staff. Although the summer is over, our fall Store, our regular location for readings. One-Day Workshops are in full swing, and In total, more than 1,400 people attended we’re planning exciting author events and and heard authors share new stories and looking ahead to another successful year.  and read at University Book Store

Page 6 | The Seventh Week | fall 2012 Clarion West’s 29th consecutive summer workshop was outstanding. Our eighteen students were remarkable in all ways: talented, professional, passionate about writing, and dedicated to the craft. Our instructors provided those students with excellent instruction, encouragement, and personal advice. Mary Rosenblum, Stephen Graham Jones, George R. R. Martin, Connie Willis, Kelly Link, Gavin Grant, and Chuck Palahniuk taught with empathy, honesty, skill, and craft, and each brought an entirely different point of view to the table. Student feedback regarding our Writers and 2012 instructors was thoughtful and deeply appreciative; instructors similarly expressed enthusiasm about the strength Tigers and of the writers. Every instructor made unique con- Sharks tributions to enrich the overall gestalt. That gestalt, the aggregate of the eighteen shark, Ursula, and Gavin Grant. By Leslie Howle ’85 individual writers and their instructors, produced not only high quality, rapidly improving short fiction each week, but the group. It also was the first year that no also resulted in a singularly distinct class students missed turning in a story each culture. There were a number of “firsts” and of the six weeks, and no one got sick and an odd assortment of things that were new missed a class. to this summer’s workshop: It was the first time that we’ve ever had It was the first time the workshop had three students who all just happened to regular performance art on the schedule. come from the same region in England, An original class anthem was composed, and as if that weren’t enough, three other recorded in Garage Band, choreographed, students came from the same city in Brit- and performed—complete with hand- ish Columbia. What are the odds of that? made sashes—at the end of the week for It was the first time we’ve ever seen each consecutive instructor, much to their a throne constructed of bent forks or a surprise. home-made “ distraction belt” I believe it was the first time a student dripping with dead (stuffed) animals. It had the cover story at Asimov’s published was the first time we ever had an instruc- early in the workshop; another student tor bring a tiny puppy during his week; published a book of poems. Boston Terrier puppies are ridiculously It was the first time that we had three cute! generations in the house for a week. Kelly This might be a developing trend, but Link’s mother and Kelly and Gavin’s four- this class also had the highest number of year-old daughter, Ursula, all stayed at the vegetarians/vegans. We had a new cook instructor house during week five. this summer as sadly, our previous cook, It was the first time that a air Joni, moved to a different sorority after shark threaded its way between the cooking for us for seven years. Our new chandeliers in the dining room, singeing cook, Kay, cheerfully struggled to meet its tail in the process. Seriously. Ursula the challenge of cooking for vegetarians, was delighted. It was also the first time we vegans, meat-eaters, and people with played Mafia instead of Thing. allergies. It didn’t work out It was the first time that the students optimally for those with restricted diets, signed each others’ posters, demonstrat- but we think she’ll have an easier time of  ing the mutual love and respect within it next year now that she’s experienced

The Seventh Week | fall 2012 | Page 7 Chuck Palahniuk hands out tigers at his Town Hall reading

awards, so the students got to meet Locus last year; for the insights it gives you into toastmistress Connie Willis well before understanding your writing and others, her teaching week and got to know each into understanding storytelling itself. other for the first time wearing Hawaiian “Being taught by writers I both grew shirts and leis. up reading and discovered more recently— It was a memorable summer and a undoubtedly some of the finest in our great lead-in to Clarion West’s 30th an- field—has been an invaluable experience, niversary in 2013. We humbly thank our because of their humility and wisdom, brilliant, generous instructors; our amaz- their warmth and generosity, the way each ing, talented, and wonderful students; and brought their own unique perspective on everyone who contributed to this work- succeeding as artists in a difficult (and shop’s success, including staff, volunteers, rapidly changing) industry. party hosts, mystery muses, and our board. “Clarion West makes you a better To sum up, here is a quote from stu- writer and a better teacher, even if you end dent Indrapramit Das: “Six weeks is very up not making a living from being either. little time to invest for the returns Clarion I dare say it makes you a better person  cooking for such a diverse group. West has given me; for the connections too, because living with eighteen people Even the Locus Awards were different I’ve made with fellow emerging writ- in a house and ending up close friends at this summer. They took place the Saturday ers, instructors, and the SFF community; the end of six weeks truly does hone one’s empathy, and empathy is a quality vital to before the workshop started instead of for the remarkable rigor of its workshop  at the end of our first week. The Clarion schedule, which has produced some of the the creation of art.” West party was that night, after the best short fiction drafts I’ve written in the photo by Leslie Howle 2012 Leslie Howle by photo

Front row, L to R Carlie St. George, Cory Skerry, Indrapramit Das, (Raffi), George R. R. Martin, Nik Houser, Alyce Helms, Helen Marshall. Middle Row, L to R; Kim Neville, James Herndon, Henry Lien, Brenta Blevins, Micaiah Evans, James G. Harper. Back row, L to R: Sarah Dodd, Blythe Woolston, Georgina Kamsika, Bryan Camp, Laura Friis, Greg West.

Page 8 | The Seventh Week | fall 2012 Regarding how I got into CW way 1986 CW People back in ’84, I honestly don’t remember getting a call or note telling me I had The big news for this alum is the sale of his first novel, The Ultra Thin Man, to tudents been accepted. What I do remember is S , picking up a flyer for the workshop at a . It’s a SF noir about two detectives standing in the way of a Instructors, and local convention (probably Norwescon, but possibly Rustycon), which is how I revolutionary splinter group intent on Volunteers found out about CW. At the time, I had manipulating, infiltrating, and threatening sold a handful of short stories, but was still the galaxy. As I write this, all I know about Check In bussing tables for a living, so I had been its publication date is that it’s scheduled searching for some way to kick my writing for 2014. Many of you know I closed down career into a higher gear. CW seemed like Talebones magazine in 2009 to concentrate a potential game-changer, so I just had to more on my writing. I wrote more than figure out how to make it happen. In the three quarters of the final draft in the last [Editor’s note: For this issue, alumni were end, I convinced my boss at the airport to three months of that year, so it seems that invited to share stories about the moment cut back on my hours for six weeks, work- decision has paid off some. My editor is they found out they were coming to ing weekends only, so I could attend the David Hartwell, one of my Clarion West Clarion West. If you have a suggestion for workshop and still hang onto my job. teachers back in ’86. So remember the a future newsletter topic, please send it to power of making great contacts at the [email protected].] It really did workshop (and beyond). But hopefully you won’t wait thirty years to get that first novel change my life. out. Also, you can help yourselves out by NOT starting a magazine or small press in Students One of the best decisions I ever made. It the intervening years! really did change my life. For now, I’m continuing with my small 1973 book line, Fairwood Press, but I’ll definite- Greg Cox For its fifth consecutive year, ClarionW est ly be moving at a slower pace, doing no had its annual poetry workshop taught by more than three books next year (instead me and Eileen Gunn. We call our two-hour of as many as five or six as in years past). My new website (http://brucefergusson.com) The schedule will be even less than that if interactive afternoon session, “Crossing the is up and running, with the first three Danger Waters: Poetry for Fiction Writ- I find I’m still not getting enough writing blogs (I’ll be doing one a month) and time to work on the sequel. ers”. Students explored the relationships featuring a suspense novel, Morgan’s Mill, between poetry and prose and composed I do remember getting the “call” on the newly e-published by Lucky Bat Books. phone. Is that still the way it happens, or at least two experimental poems based on I’ll be doing the same with all my books, their own CW-workshopped stories. do folks get emails now? Anyway, I got the including the Six Kingdoms series. word I’d be going to the workshop, and I JT Stewart The third book in that series, Pass on also got notice of getting some scholarship the Cup of Dreams, will be coming out in money. The previous year I’d seen a CW 1984 June next year, along with a free, illus- flyer at Norwescon, and my interest was trated codex and maps (to be available for immediately piqued. I was new to conven- Been keeping very busy lately. My novel- download via my website). A role-playing tions, and had been mostly writing in a ization of the new movie hit #11 game company, RPG Now, is very inter- vacuum, and I figured it was time to make on Bestseller List and ested in developing games based on the a big step and get some feedback. So I ap- I’m slightly shocked to realize that I have Six Kingdoms world, but that’s still a year plied, not even thinking I could get turned three more books coming out next year: a or so away. down. Considering the “unique” nature of Leverage novel, another Star Trek novel, Bruce Fergusson the class of 1986, I considered myself very and a movie novelization to be named lucky to be chosen. later. Needless to say, this Summer of Deadlines zipped by in a blur, but I did Patrick Swenson I am pleased to announce the publication manage to get away from the keyboard oc- of two of my poems in Prospective: a Jour- casionally, including my annual pilgrimage nal of Speculation “Cthulhu a Love Story”. 1988 to the Shore Leave convention in Hunt Available through Amazon.com. Valley, Maryland. The past few years have been surpris- Kay Kinghammer ing and stimulating. In March of 2010, I had just turned in This Shared Dream, 

The Seventh Week | fall 2012 | Page 9 my seventh novel, a companion novel to story; “Bootstrap” will be in their next long and hard, In War Times, which won the Campbell issue. I just sent a solicited story to Arc, the then realized she Award and was the ALA’s Best SF Novel New Scientist spinoff. was serious. of 2007. I was in physical therapy for the In July, PS Publishing released With my first of two total hip replacements when and You Dogs, a collection to mother’s help Lisa Yaszek, president of the Science Fic- great reviews in the Los Angeles Review I’ve just packed tion Research Association and director of of Books and Locus. I wrote two academic up the last Undergraduate Studies of the School of pieces and need to get going on a third. six boxes of Literature, Communication, and Culture All the while, nascent short stories and eleven filled with (now the School of Literature, Media, a novel like plates on sticks in my manuscripts, and Communication) invited me to teach head. notes, critiques, at Georgia Institute of Technology. I ac- Right now, in the fall of 2012, I am flyers for classes cepted the post of visiting professor and teaching. Teaching is learning. At Georgia I taught, photos, playbills, college essays, began teaching full-time in August 2010. Tech, I am immersed in a science fiction and drawings. We sent them via UPS to When, after my first month of teach- writer’s dream environment. As a science DeKalb. Illinois University will ing, Lisa mentioned the possibility of fiction writer, I am in demand; for instance be adding them to their special collection. full professorship and tenure, I pondered. I gave a talk at the Marcus Nanotech Cen- Definitely weird. Definitely a professional Heavily. What a gift! I love teaching col- ter last year. I do not have enough time to milestone. lege students just as much as I enjoyed attend all the events I would like to attend, Also, thanks to Rachel Swirsky’s (CW teaching preschoolers. It’s a constant dance that I ought to attend. ’05) introduction, I am now represented of providing material, drawing them out, In January, when the semester is over, by an agent, the lovely and puissant Joe listening to their needs, helping focus those spinning plates will expand into sto- Monti. their talents and enlarging their skills. In ries, and one or several will insist on being I actually don’t remember the call in- addition to teaching creative writing, I can my next novel. forming me that I’d been admitted to CW. create my own classes—also fun. I taught It’s all good. I mean, come on. That was over twenty years ago. No record of it in any papers I the history of science using biographies of Kathleen Ann Goonan scientists. This semester I’m teaching From sent to my archives. I do remember feeling the Earth to the Moon: The Sixties. I’ve distinctly unqualified to apply, so it must taught science fiction using short stories 1989 have come as something of a surprise. and using novels. Hello all. My Star Trek original series nov- I wonder if I’d get in if I were to apply But I realized that if I did commit to el, Devil’s Bargain, will be out next March now? teaching full time, forever, I might never from Simon and Schuster. It’s horta-rific! Nisi Shawl write again. So I proposed that I teach In April, my novel The Heretic, co-written every fall. This is the second year I have with , will be out from Baen. taught just in the fall. My title is now It’s a revival of the old General series of 1993 Professor of the Practice. Drake and S.M. Stirling. The mass market My second novel, With the release of This Shared Dream edition of my science fiction novel - The Book of Thomas, from Tor in July of 2011, I spent a lot of ian of Night will be out in February from Volume One: Heaven, time promoting that book with signings, Baen. I continue as editor at is being published appearances, and readings. I was invited to where I’m deeply involved in all aspects of by Chizine Publica- appear at the Center for Fiction in NYC a publishing house. I worked as a free- tions and will be and was on a panel with Charles Wu and lancer for Baen for a number of years, but launched at World Anna North. I did radio and TV shows. I it’s been a fun and enlightening year-and- Fantasy in Novem- went to Saudi Arabia in January of 2012 a-half as a fulltime editor. ber. The pub- to participate in the Global Competitive- lisher had hoped to Tony Daniel ness Forum (Bill Clinton and Steve Jobs launch it at World- had been Keynote Speakers in the past few con in Chicago, years) and gave a talk there titled “Radical 1992 but only managed Literacy”. I had a second hip replacement For years I joked that I was saving this to launch the when I returned. poem-jotted-on-a-napkin for my archivist, bookmark. The book will be followed, not My latest short story, “A Love Su- and that cryptic-postcard-from-West- surprisingly, by The Book of Thomas, Volume preme,” appeared in Discover Magazine Germany for my biographers. Recently, at Two: Hell next year. (Don’t tell my publish- (September/October issue). MIT’s Technol- er, but I’m thinking there might be a third a party, a librarian asked me which institu-  ogy Review/Science Fiction asked for a tion was housing my papers. I laughed volume in the series.) The book is loosely

Page 10 | The Seventh Week | fall 2012  based on a novel I outlined for after reading that year’s instructor lineup I see that I did include my work phone at CW many long years ago. Details here: in Locus. If I got in, I would figure out the number, so let’s say that I do remember. http://tinyurl.com/thomas-heaven . logistics of actually attending. At the time, Let’s say that I was proofing corrections on I’ve also signed a contract with the I was working a contract job that was end- a book of advanced mathematics, perhaps same publisher for a follow up to my first ing soon. I’d heard about CW before from Differential Geometry by R.W. Sharpe. It’s novel, Nexus: Ascension, set in the same Samuel R. Delany, who I worked with in a book I worked on, and it came out that universe. college, and the stellar lineup (Datlow, year, so, yeah, that was it. Checking over a book like that is tedious, takes a while, Robert Boyczuk Ryman, Cadigan, Bisson, Womack, and Pollack) was impossible to resist. When and requires many breaks. I didn’t mind my mother answered the phone, David interruptions, especially something so life- must have said that he was from the changing. Clarion West Workshop, because she gave Dave Myers called about 3:05. How me a look. You know the one: “What have could I have known what this would mean you been up to?” I learned from David for my future? It’s easy to imagine do- that I had been accepted into the program, ing something like CW, but the reality is and that I was also the Susan C. Petrey always different. Let’s say that I celebrated scholarship winner. If memory serves me by going out to dinner with someone correctly, we opened a bottle of Riesling who’s now an ex, at a long-gone Ethiopian and I was toasted by my family. place on Grand Street. I still miss that News: I have a non- YA novel restaurant. Relationships and restaurants about bullying, can be ephemeral too. racism, and I first heard about CW from ads in homophobia Fantasy & Science Fiction in the late seven- coming out this ties; and again around 1981, when I read January, called ’s Involution Ocean; in the Bereft. While the introduction, Harlan EllisonTM talked book isn’t genre, about first seeing a shorter draft of the the protagonist novel when Sterling was in the Clarion I didn’t get a “call”, back in 1993. I was ac- is a nerd, who workshop Ellison led in 1974; and then cepted by mail. I’ll be curious to read about loves The Lord again, much later (1995), after I moved to these calls! of the Rings and New York and took a writing class with I did want to include my publication the Narnia books, . I didn’t think I could news for this and his geekery ever commit six weeks of my life to a newsletter, is essential workshop. I also didn’t think of myself as though. My novel to his identity, a fantasy or science fiction writer. I was The Glass Butterfly perhaps as much as his race and his writing things that would have been New was released orientation. I blog about here: Wave, if that was still going on, or slip- from Kensington http://craiglaurancegidney.wordpress.com. stream, but that hadn’t been invented yet, Books at the end and I didn’t see myself appearing in the Craig Gidney of August. This genre magazines. And still don’t and don’t. is my sixteenth Carol had taught at a Clarion. I figured book, if you 1997 if Clarions let her teach, it might actually include my short The call...or was it an e-mail? I wish I be an okay place for writers like me. story collection remembered. This I know: I would have There used to be monthly genre- and the omnibus been at work, Springer-Verlag, production people lunches at a restaurant called edition of The Singers of Nevya. It all started department, 10th floor, Flatiron Build- Spring Street Natural. Carol invited me with Clarion West, which was—for me— ing, NYC. I do still have the electronic to go. She introduced me to people like truly life changing. file of my application letter. Microsoft , , Michael Louise Marley Word wouldn’t open it, but TextEdit did; I Kandel, whoever was around. One time, resaved, but Word still wouldn’t do its job. I mentioned to Ellen that I was thinking I copied and pasted the text into a new of applying to Clarion but wasn’t sure 1996 Word document. Formats are fragile and which one, East or West. Pat Cadigan was I lived at home the time I received the ephemeral. there that time. She said: Go to Seattle, Call. My mother did. Unbeknownst to much nicer place. Ellen said she liked how The letter’s date is March 30, 1997.  everyone, I had applied to Clarion West at CW, the editor is there for the whole The Seventh Week | fall 2012 | Page 11  week. I applied to both and was accepted husband to take a dream trip following his When I got home, I pulled out that story to both. Dave called first. That made the favorite pro basketball teams for a week, and decided to try out her suggestion. At decision easy. and so I brought up the idea of me going the same time, I was invited to submit a I don’t need to say how important to CW. We talked about it, looked over story to Dark Delicacies, a horror anthology Clarion West was for my writing. Most our finances, decided that we could find that already had stories by , everyone reading this newsletter feels some way to do it if I were accepted, and , Whitley Strieber. Kelly was similarly. Maybe if I hadn’t gotten the call so I applied. To my joy, I was accepted right. The new POV made the story ex- I would have tried again another year. It’s (somewhat mitigated by a friend who actly like I wanted it. And it sold to Dark hard to imagine having gone to Clarion also applied who wasn’t), and the rest is Delicacies. West with a different group (no offense history—I went, I wrote (a lot!), I made Besides the impact on my writing, I to you people from other years, I’m sure new friends, and learned so much. gained lifelong friends and an amazing you’re nice and all, but you’re not mine). Any day now I’ll get back to the writ- support system. Was Clarion West worth Here are my latest things. My first ing, I swear it. six weeks of intense writing, no sleep, and book, a called In Springdale Town, great parties? You betcha! Ellen Levy Finch came out in 2003 from PS Publishing; it Debbie Smith had an introduction by (one of my CW instructors). This year, 2000 Infinity Plus is putting it out as an , I’m pleased to announce that my novel, The and I wrote a new afterword about what Palace Job, has been accepted for publica- inspired it. I’m also working on an untitled tion by Tyche Books, a small Canadian weird (or strange) western, which PS is press. The novel, a lighthearted fantasy bringing out in time for World Fantasy in heist caper, came about after some brain- Brighton. storming sessions with fellow Clarion Robert Wexler West grads, and I received a number of incredibly helpful critiques from alums as well. It should be out by the time the 1998 newsletter comes out. The last three months have been busy; I attended in 1998, can hardly believe it’s the studio launched our science fictional Patrick Weekes been 14 years, wow. strategy game, Endless Space, on Steam, I loved my Clarion West experience, with text and world-building by yours every bit of it. I had dreamed of going for 2004 truly. (Note: You haven’t really done world many years, enough that I no longer re- I sold my short story “Anointed” to Blood- building until you’ve had to create several member how I learned about the Clarion bound Books for publication in their new hundred inventions and technologies workshops or why I thought one would be anthology DOA II, Extreme Terror. for an SF game.) The long-in-the-works perfect for me. I just knew for many years I applied to Clarion West for the 2004 (which I like to think of as “long-awaited,” that I’d never be able to go—suppose that year for two reasons: and but which isn’t) for the I was good enough to get in, which wasn’t . These two writers had Heroes of Might & Magic game that I a given, but then—six weeks off work? been long time favorites, and I could think wrote has also finally been released, but on Leave the (at the time) husband and the of nothing better than studying with them. September 21 and only in French for the career and the mortgage and everything After filing the application, my hus- moment. We’ll see if it sells well enough else behind? I’d never be able to afford it in band, Paul, went off to Egypt for three to launch volumes II and III and other so many ways. months to work. At the same time, I had languages. Then the list of instructors for 1998 to have my gall bladder removed. I was Jeff Spock came ‘round, and it included Gardner alone, in pain, and feeling very down when Dozois, Connie Willis, and George R.R. the phone rang. It was either Leslie or Martin, just about as much of a dream Neile calling to inform me that I’d been 2005 team that I could ever want. Oh, how I accepted into Clarion West. Needless to My second young adult science fiction wanted to go! Paul Park and Carol Emsh- say, I was feeling much better by the end novel, Quantum Coin, was published in willer I didn’t know as much about but had of that call. October by Pyr. This is the sequel to Fair read some of their stories and liked them. I loved all of my instructors, but Kelly Coin, which came out last March, and I Lucy Sussex I wasn’t with, but I Link had the most immediate impact on wrote a good portion of it during one of figured that any CW instructor would be my writing. I submitted “The Fall” during the Clarion West Write-a-thons. worth my time. Coincidentally, the year her week, and she told me that she felt I’d I’m averaging about one short story  before, we had worked out a way for my written it from the wrong point of view. sale/publication per year; my 2012 quota

Page 12 | The Seventh Week | fall 2012  was met by “The Chronicles of Gregory SF so far this year, and I have new work E.C. Myers!) RT Ross”, which appeared in the final issue and reprints coming out in a few antholo- Book Reviews gave of Tales from Moreauvia, Issue #4 in June gies next year as well. I’m kind of stuck it a Top Pick and from Creative Guy Publishing. Unfortu- in a Lovecraftian loop currently, though said that “This nately, I don’t think anyone will ever read it has at least borne fruit: Half of my lyrical and utterly it unless I can sell it as a reprint or turn forthcoming publications are in that mode marvelous debut it into an eBook or something, because to some degree or other, though all from is one of the there’s no way to buy the magazine. what I think are relatively unusual angles. standout books When I got “the Call” from Clarion Even better, I also wrote a screenplay of the year.” So West, I almost didn’t answer it. I was in a last year for a , a Korean ad- yeah! This is very exciting. I’m doing book coffee shop with my wife, Carrie, writing aptation of “The Music of Erich Zann”. tour stuff in October (Kansas, Portland, the short story that became “My Father’s Adapting the Lovecraftian mode to Seattle, and LA), and then going to World Eyes” (published five years later in Sybil’s Korean culture is much harder than it Fantasy. I’m also working on the sequel Garage No. 7). My phone rang, displaying might seem at first! But despite it being that comes out next fall. a number I didn’t recognize, so I was going my first screenplay, and the director’s first Since the last newsletter, I’ve sold a few to send it to voice-mail as usual, but Carrie non-student film, it won the Audience more stories, and my 2012 flash fiction chided me and said it might be important. Pick Award for Best in Fest for its world podcast, Toasted Cake, won the Parsec Turned out that was a major understate- premiere at the Los Angeles H.P. Love- for Best New Podcaster! I’m absolutely ment. I grudgingly moved outside to an- craft Film Festival at the end of Septem- thrilled by this, and it’s made me seriously swer the phone because I could barely hear ber. (The film was, I should note, truly a consider extending the run into 2013. I’m Leslie telling me I had been accepted! family effort: My partner was the director thinking the format might be slightly dif- The day before, I had gotten an e-mail and editor, and I did the soundtrack and ferent for 2013 though. acceptance to Clarion, but with Octavia audio work, and a friend of ours helped This summer I went to ’s E. Butler and Connie Willis, CW was my on cameras, lighting, and color correction. novel workshop (CSSF) in my hometown first choice that summer. And this was my It will go online eventually, but for now, of Lawrence, Kansas (took the toddler… second year of applying to both work- you can see a trailer for the film, titled The the grandparents were thrilled) and was a shops—even before attending CW, it was Music of Jo Hyeja, over on Youtube: youtube. workshop leader for the Cascade Writ- teaching me the importance of persistence. com/user/BrutalRicePictures ers Workshop here in the Portland area. Had a lovely time at both and met some Eugene Myers Gord Sellar people. Art by Mark Tripp from Tina Connolly Near + Far Oh, I definitely remember the evening of the CW call. Neile called me. I was just about to walk out the door—run- 2007 ning a few minutes late—so when I saw A little belated, but I gave birth to a won- the unfamiliar area code I thought it derful little baby girl last December right was a telemarketer and was guarded and around Christmas. Emma Yin Ping Lau grouchy. I didn’t expect to hear for another Boyle is a source of both writerly inspira- tion and procrastination (unfortunately a My short story collection Near + Far ap- few weeks, so CW totally did not occur to little more of the latter right now). peared this September from fellow CW me. And then… ! Well, I hardly remember alumnus Tod McCoy’s Hydra House, with any of the call. I called the friend I was Amy Lau interior design by another CW alumna, supposed to meet in a delighted panic— Vicki Saunders. It’s done in the old Ace I’m running too late, we can’t possibly Double format, with nifty exterior and make the play, cut your losses and go, go! This summer saw the publication of my interior art, and I’m super pleased with the And she told me not to be silly and go get first novel, Geekomancy, from Pocket Star, results. on the train. I had to run-walk the last ten and the whirlwind of life changes that blocks because it would have taken too come with a debut release. I also started Cat Rambo long to wait for the bus connection, but we a position with Angry Books as made it. their North American Sales & Market- 2006 My big news is that my debut dark ing Manager, covering Angry Robot; the I’ve been publishing less fiction lately, fantasy novel, Ironskin, came out from Tor new YA line, Strange Chemistry; and Books on 10/2/12 (joining some other the upcoming Crime/Mystery imprint, though I’ve published fiction, nonfiction,  and poetry in Interzone, Arc, and Asimov’s CW’ers with this release day, I believe, like Exhibit A. And because two life changes

The Seventh Week | fall 2012 | Page 13 aren’t enough, I’m also relocating to NYC How I ended up at CW: In 2008, I was having no idea what CW was, must have as of October for the new gig, along with in an amazing workshop with Karen Joy thought I was pretty nuts. She’s probably my amazing girlfriend. Fowler at the Indiana University Writers right ;) Conference. It was the first conference/ Michael R. Underwood Anne Toole workshop I had ever attended, and at the end, after having had my writing forever 2008 changed, I asked Karen, “What should My week 6 story, “Legend of the Secret The call came on a March evening as the I do now?” And she said, “Clarion or Masterpiece”, will appear in chill was setting in. I’d sat down with Clarion West.” I’m a slow-turning vehicle, Steam, a /wuxia anthology to be a cup of hot soup when my cell phone so it took me a while to get pointed in that released this fall. started dancing the rumba on the edge of direction, but I’m convinced that the year the desk. I ignored it, of course—it was a I applied and was accepted was the right Nick Tramdack number I didn’t recognize. I almost spat year for me. hot soup everywhere when the message Alisa Alering 2012 started playing. For the next two minutes I I’ve been trying to sum up how it felt to go alternated between jumping up and down to Clarion West, and words still escape me. (much to the displeasure of my downstairs I’m thrilled to announce that Amulet We all watched The Matrix with a certain neighbor), and sitting in my chair, trying Books/Abrams Books has acquired my amount of jealousy when Neo downloaded to calm myself down enough to make the debut YA fantasy novel, Otherbound, about directly into his brain: no practice, phone call back to Neile Graham, who was a boy from our world who’s spent ten no sweat, just thirty seconds in a chair, and amazing and welcoming. years involuntarily witnessing the life of a BAM! Clarion West was like that…except, I have my friend Erin Cashier ’07 to servant girl from another world every time of course, it was all practice and sweat. thank for inspiring me to apply. I had he blinks—and what happens when he And kindness. And compassion. And sup- hoped that Clarion West would shatter finally learns to communicate with her. It’s port. And so much help along the way. everything I knew about writing and allow scheduled for a spring 2014 release. I had been working in the industry for me to put myself back together in a far In addition, I recently signed with a small press for about three years before I more powerful way. It has done all that agent Ammi-Joan Paquette of Erin Mur- went to CW, and so when I got the phone and more. phy Literary. call I thought I had a pretty good handle The more time that’s passed since the In other nifty news: Dagan Books’ on how publishing works, how writers workshop, the more focus I have been ded- FISH anthology will be out in the next work, how to get the job done. But then, icating to my career, and this year has been few weeks. It contains my CW week 6 suddenly, you’re sitting in a room with a great one. I just celebrated publication of story, “The Applause of Others”, as well as fifteen other people who have all worked my story “I Only Am Escaped Alone to a story by my classmate Maria Romasco- just as hard honing their craft, getting Tell Thee” in Ross Lockhart’s anthology Moore. good, getting not just good but great, great The Book of Cthulhu II. My Clarion West Corinne Duyvis enough to be at CW, goddamnit! Week 6 story, “Say Goodbye to the Little That’s a bit of a shock for any ego. But Girl Tree”, will appear in the January 2013 a shock in the best possible way. issue of GigaNotoSaurus, and “A Million Since graduating CW last year, I lent my Because you realize once you’ve been Miles from Graceland” will appear in Issue pen to Castleville, a fantasy social game there for about five minutes that there’s #71 of Cemetery Dance (Summer 2013). you can play on Facebook. The funny parts going to be no wasted time. No wasted Christopher Reynaga are me ;) I’ve also been working on The brain cell. That this isn’t going to be a Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a hit webseries that’s simple injection of knowledge. It’s going 2011 a modern adaptation of Pride and Preju- to mean getting your ego handed to you dice. Other projects are in the works, in- more than a few times; it’s going to mean News: I made my first cluding a . Because of all that, picking yourself off the mat and figur- professional sale this year I haven’t written a ton of prose beyond ing out something that you didn’t know with a first place win in Nanowrimo, but stay tuned... before; it’s going to mean bonds that last a the Writers of the Future I got the call while I was speaking at a career—bonds that fuel a career; it’s going competition (Q2) with a conference in Boston. I had just gone into to mean struggle and sweat and risk and story I wrote before Clar- a hotel party when the call came, and I hard work, learning to write past fatigue, ion West—but revised stepped out to answer. I was sooo excited and writers’ block and all manner of dis- afterwards with the help of my awesome tractions (whether it’s going to see the new to be accepted, I went back in to the party  classmates. It will be published in Writers of and told a woman I had just met. She, Batman or the discovery that one of your the Future Vol. 29 in June(ish) 2013.

Page 14 | The Seventh Week | fall 2012  classmates has for publication in its SF Masterworks I’m blind with macular degeneration and bought a giant, series between now and 2014, again for can’t write anymore. remote control, sale in Great Carol Emshwiller, ’98, ’00 floating shark). Britain and a On Novem- specified number ber 20, 2012, of foreign I’m a founding member of Book View I’ll publish my territories. Cafe. The authors’ co-op creates and first collection A generous publishes of members’ backlists of short stories, gathering of and original novels, and has published Hair Side, Flesh Side. My pride for that twenty-five a number of original and reprint an- knows no bounds, and so I’m delighted to stories, The Door thologies, including the steampunk be able to share the news with the com- Gunner and series The Shadow Conspiracy I & II. munity that gave me such support and Other Perilous (http://www.bookviewcafe.com/) hard-won knowledge. Thanks, guys. I may Flights of Fancy: One of the most successful BVC an- not be a kung fu master, but at least I feel A Michael thologies is Breaking Waves, which benefits ready to take that first step into writer- Bishop Retrospective, edited by Michael the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund. I contrib- hood. H. Hutchins and featuring a fine cover by uted two pieces: “A Modest Proposal for Helen Marshall , appeared from Subterranean the Perfection of Nature” (first published Press in Feb 2012 and remains available in Nature “”), and “Paradise”, an in a limited edition at the Subterranean original memoir of spending winters on Press website. Further, almost twenty years Sanibel Island, in the Gulf of Mexico. nstructors I after its first publication, Patrick Swenson My sister Carolyn McIntyre, a talented I’m pleased to have a story, “Raven’s at Fairwood Press in Washington State photographer, contributed the illustra- Daughter”, in the current issue of Phantom released a brand-new print-on-demand tions. An online sidebar, “Spirits of Place: Drift. edition of Brittle Innings, with a new Sanibel Island”, complements “Paradise” at introduction by and a Kathleen Alcala, the Book View Cafe blog. striking cover by Patrick’s brother, Paul student ’87, instructor ’02 The stories in Breaking Waves were Swenson, in August 2012. contributed royalty-free by their authors, Meanwhile, I continue work on and all the proceeds go to the Gulf Coast a young-adult title that several other I retired this past May from my long-term Oil Spill Fund. matters, not excluding the disruptive position as Writer-in-Residence at La- All of my backlist novels are available Grange College in LaGrange, Georgia. at Book View Cafe, including Dreamsnake, Orion Publishing in England recently , and The Starfarers purchased fourteen of my titles—the Quartet. Several of my short stories are novels A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire, And available as stand-alone eBooks, including Strange at Ecbatan the Trees, A Little “Little Faces” and “Of Mist, and Grass, Knowledge, Who Made Stevie Crye?, Ancient and Sand”. Outcasts: Three Stories contains of Days, Count Geiger’s Blues, Brittle In- “Screwtop”, “The Genius Freaks”, and nings, and Philip K. Dick Is Dead, Alas, “Steelcollar Worker”. and the collections Blooded on Arachne, Book View Cafe offers eBooks in One Winter in Eden, Close Encounters with EPUB and Mobipocket/Kindle formats, the Deity, At the City Limits of Fate, Blue DRM-free. The photo was taken by our son-in-law, Bridger Loftin, Kansas Sky, and Brighten to Incandescence— this past April in Boston, where our daughter Stephanie In other news, I recently attended for conversion to eBooks and sale in Great ran the Boston Marathon. the Whale Museum’s Marine Naturalist Britain and many of its former territories. Training Program on San Juan Island. I construction of a raised brick patio on Several of these titles feature new intro- will be teaching several workshops at the my and Jeri’s house in Pine Mountain, ductions by writers, critics, and bibliogra- Northwest Institute of Literary Arts in Georgia, has delayed well beyond his best phers such as ; McDevitt; January. The film project of my novel The intentions. Maybe by the end of 2012 I Jack Slay, Jr.; and Michael H. Hutchins. Moon and the Sun was recently written will have completed this book, tentatively In addition, the Orion Publishing up in the Wall Street Journal, though you titled Joel-Brock the Brave. Group bought reprint rights to two have to scroll past the Smurfs to find it. of my better-known science fiction , ’97, ’10 Vonda N. McIntyre, Clarion (PA) ’70, novels, Transfigurations and the Nebula CW administrator 1971-73, Award-winning , CW Instructor ’84, ’90  The Seventh Week | fall 2012 | Page 15 Still busy—just came off a year of eye sur- events, including a Potlatch programming gery (both laser and meatball) to reattach a track, readings by Clarion West alumni, retina, put in a silicon oil bubble, and then and the Clarion West benefit auction. take it out. Foolscap’s guest of honor is librarian Still finishing The Moone World for Nancy Pearl and coincidentally both con- (Easton and) Small Beer, and The Search coms have chosen as their book of honor for Tom Purdue for Subterranean. ’s . The conven- Will have a story, “The Dead Sea- tion takes place at the Redmond Marriott Bottom Scrolls”, in George R.R. Martin Town Center in Redmond, Wa., 10 miles and ’ next year, east of Seattle. Full details on registra- of which I am inordinately proud. tion are available at the Potlatch website , ’92, ’95 (http://www.potlatch-sf.org) and the Fools- cap website (http://foolscapcon.org).  Send in your updates for the Alumni Potlatch 22 and Foolscap News section of the Clarion West Have you moved? Do you have a new website! Recent publications, upcoming e-mail address? Please send your new readings, interviews—if you have Potlatch 22 will be a part of the Fools- address and contact information to writing-related news, we want to hear cap Convention, which has conveniently [email protected] so you don’t about it. E-mail your latest news to moved its dates to Potlatch’s traditional miss an issue of The Seventh Week! Or mail [email protected]. Please use February timeframe. The joint convention your address change to: Clarion West, the subject “Alumni News,” and be sure in Seattle (well, technically Redmond, P.O. Box 31264, Seattle, WA 98103-1264 to include the year you attended CW. Wa.) Feb. 1-3 will offer a full weekend of

Photos from the 2012 workshop courtesy M. Huw Evans