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The Seventh Week Clarion West Writers Workshop • Fall 2011

The Seventh Week Clarion West Writers Workshop • Fall 2011

The Seventh Week clarion west writers workshop • fall 2011

Interview Photo by Kiely Ramos : Interrupting Expectations

By ’92

Hiromi Goto

Hiromi Goto, a Japanese-Canadian writer, all of these places without my writing. I range of people than I’ll ever meet in my won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award for her also get to meet so many amazing and lifetime. This is a kind of magic. 2001 novel, , and the Carl wonderful people, and my circle of friends Brandon Parallax Award for her 2009 YA novel, Half World. A former writer-in-res- You’re active on Twitter, with the handle idence with the University of , Simon resolution in @hinganai. What does “hinganai” mean? Fraser University, and the , Goto will teach the second week of narrative fiction is Hahahahahahaaaa! It’s Japanese for the 2012 Clarion West Writing Workshop. someone who is coarse or vulgar (there are overprescribed class implications as well!)….When my sisters and I were young, my mother and What do you like about your life as a grandmother tried very hard to raise us as writer? Is it what you imagined it would be? “proper young ladies.” They often told us and peers expands beyond the local to the how we were “hinganai.” I think it’s hilari- I came to writing because I loved to read global. Being a writer also means that I can ous. And I’m a proud hinganai adult! and thought it would be most remarkable work from home and have a lot of solitary to actually make something that I loved. time to think, read, research, and imagine— As it turns out, I am very grateful for all I really need and value this time alone. I am What effect does tweeting have on your the world travel that has come with my also so thrilled that my words and thoughts professional writing? You also blog—is publications. I’ve been to five continents; are moving around in the world beyond my there a relationship between blogging  I don’t think I would have ever gone to physical self, communicating with a broader and writing professionally?

The Seventh Week |fall 2011 | Page 1  I joined Twitter recently in order to have both successful and failed. Then there is fall into this kind of binary thinking, we an online presence. I like how it links me a kind of death. The story is over.W here imagine ourselves as not like them. I think to sites I wouldn’t have found on my own. is the reader’s place in this? Purely as of “good” and “evil” (if we set aside moral I can also interact with folks easily and spectator? What of the author/reader value) in a way similar to Kinsey’s ap- lightly. I began blogging just two years ago. relationship? What of the narrator/reader proach to sexuality. There is a spectrum, we I’m a total noob, not like someone like Liz relationship? What has been your part in move around it. In writing Darkest , Henry (http://badgermama.com). Having the experience of the text? I was drawn to the challenge of really get- a website and blogging has brought work It is important, I think, that readers ting into the head of someone who could my way—workshop gigs, readings, etc. So have space to have agency in their reading, be very bad….Someone like you and me. totally beneficial professionally. even if they are also, simultaneously, im- A human and a monster. I don’t spend as much time styling plicated. Therefore, I feel that stories that the work as I would fiction that is go- have ragged ends or bumpy , or ing to publication. It’s a different kind missing finales or a hole in the middle… Your first session as a Clarion West of expression—I’m a little more casual. I these things can interrupt expectations, instructor is coming up in 2012, but think there’re tons of fabulous things to be and something else must be placed in the you’ve taught at several other writing done with new media venues. I’m looking space that is left unwritten. People may workshops. What can they do? How do forward to the next gen of young writers read stories/texts like these as, perhaps, you teach them? really exploring the elastic possibilities of “unfinished” or having missing pieces. Or creative expression unbound by physical they may have a form or shape that is truly When workshops are working, participants limitations (like my brain). unfamiliar. Sesshu Foster’s Atomik Aztex can boost their skill level and learn some- includes an author’s note before the story, thing new. At their worst, workshops can telling the readers looking for plot to, make you feel really bad, and/or you learn In a recent Twitter exchange, you wrote, instead, go to Huck Finn! very little. Or they make you feel good and “I feel that resolution in narrative fiction you’ve also not learned anything new. I is overprescribed. Find that uber-con- believe we learn by doing. I encourage the cluded stories highly consumable, but Jillian Tamaki’s many gorgeous illus- development of the poetics of language/ contained.” Would you care to elaborate trations of Half World give your book sound as an effective tool for writing fic- using more than 140 characters? a sort of comic or graphic novel feel. tion and playing with content and form. What was it like to see drawings of your Instead of focusing on crafting “the perfect I think there are two broad modes of world and characters? story,” I like to encourage independent engagement with a text. The more popular thinking, risk-taking, and play. one is a mode of consumption. The second My editor at Penguin Canada asked me if mode is of interactive engagement. A I’d like to have illustrations in the novel. highly consumable text follows strongly I was thrilled with the idea. I am a very You talk in other interviews and on your identifiable features and does not stray visual writer—I can “see” the stories in my blog about Octavia E. Butler. What was from the form—stylistically and structur- mind much like I view films. So it seems a her importance to you? ally, the text does not disturb. Nor does the very natural extension to see illustrations content. Readers can comfortably engage of the novel. It’s funny—when I first saw She serves as a role model. She was an with this familiar text, their curiosity Jillian’s depiction of Melanie I was a little African-American writer writing SF stories engaged via causality and plot. It is satisfy- startled. “That’s not what she looks like,” I with African-American characters with ing. It is entertaining. But very, very rarely thought. Now it’s as if Melanie has always complex/complicated lives. Her integration does it require the reader to actively and looked like Jillian’s illustrations of her. of the scientific speculative seemed highly intellectually stretch from their place of believable, interesting, and plausible rather comfort. One of my sisters exclaimed, “I than mere window dressing, and she deftly don’t want to read to think. I think enough Online summaries of Darkest Light, the included elements of race and diversity in at work. I want to read to relax.” Many companion book to Half World, suggests her novels in a normative way. I admire how people may feel this way. Tightly shaped that it’s an even darker tale than its pre- she handled race—on her terms. and concluded stories fit nicely into con- decessor. Is it? sumer reading. There are times when I seek “a relax- I am always fascinated by how different How many stories are there in the ing read,” but for the most part I’m not story venues choose to depict a character universe? that interested in reading narratives that or person who “is evil.” As social animals, re-establish normative idea(s/ls). A tightly we have a lot invested in identifying As many as the stars….  constructed, plot-based story is a highly potentially dangerous persons around us. consumable art form. It exists as a mini- But I find that we tend to flatten their life with its arc of challenges, outcomes, identities. What gets me is that when we

The Seventh Week | FALL 2011 | Page 2 It’s personal. that possible. Each dollar helps make that happen, every year—not just for the I’m here to talk on behalf of Clarion West eighteen students of the workshop, but for about being grateful and excited. It’s part hundreds of other writers as well. When of my role as board chair to thank you for you support Clarion West, you help us your support, and it’s always a pleasure make that kind of difference. because CW matters to me. I believe Your support changed my life this the work we do transforms writers’ lives summer. That matters to me. It’s personal. and expands the landscape of speculative And I thank you with all my heart. fiction. I believe that our graduates have created some of the best work in the field, that our instructors are gods and goddesses of the art, that our staff and volunteers And now let’s talk about excitement! From the Chair are the most passionate and hardworking We have a stellar set of instructors in place people I’ve ever met, and that our donors for the 2012 workshop: Mary Rosenblum, y elley skridge B K E are unparalleled in their generosity. Hiromi Goto, George R.R. Martin, Con- And so I show up here a couple of nie Willis, and , times a year to thank you. But I also want and Chuck Palahniuk. Imagine those days you to know that it’s personal. of workshopping and nights of writing Why? Well, let’s talk about the and conversation! If you’ve always wanted Write-a-thon. to apply to Clarion West, make this the Please read Davis Fox’s article in this year you throw your hat in the arena. We’d newsletter (Page 4) to learn more about the love to have you. great success of this year’s Write-a-thon. We’re also excited about a new series Thank you so much to all of our participat- of programs that launched with great suc- cess this fall: one-day writing workshops that deliver the high-quality instruction to help writers that is one of our values, but in a focused grow, expand, experience that is more accessible to many writers whose schedules don’t currently write better, permit a six-week immersive experience. Thank you to , Mark Teppo, write more and for leading the first three sessions. Please check our website (http:// clarionwest.org/one_day_writing_workshops) for upcoming workshops in 2012. ing writers, and all of their generous spon- We’re delighted to welcome three new sors. We are deeply excited by the results, members to the Clarion West Board of and deeply grateful for your support. Directors: Vicki N. Saunders ’09, Edd But the Write-a-thon is more than a Vick, and Felicia R. Gonzalez. We’re fundraising activity for the workshop. It grateful to them for their passion for our also reflects a core value of CW: to help mission and the variety of skill and experi- writers grow, expand, write better, write ence they offer us. more. And they did! By our estimate, We’re also very grateful to hundreds of thousands of words of fiction for her work as vice chair. Other commit- came out of writers’ heads in the six weeks ments make it necessary for her to step of the Write-a-thon. Imagine the energy, down, and we now welcome Karen G. the struggle, the determination, and the Anderson into the role. Kij remains on joy in every single one of those words! the board. Thank you both so much!W e’re I was one of those writers. I had that lucky to have such committed and talented struggle and that joy. CW inspired me— people in CW. the way it inspires so many people—to And to all of you reading this: We’re do my best work. I had a personal break- lucky to have you as part of the Clarion through as a writer this summer, and the West community. Thank you for every- work I did has changed me forever. thing you do.  Your support of Clarion West made

The Seventh Week | FALL 2011 | Page 3 We’ve heard from many writers who were happy to be Write-a-thon partici- Clarion pants. Philip Suggars told us he “managed to get a 4000-word story (“Automatic West Writers Diamanté”) thought up, written, edited, rewritten, and then submitted. Sharing the Workshop deadline with the real-life Clarioners was a wonderful incentive.” Erin Wilcox wrote, “I launched my writing website, which Board of Directors has been half a year in the building, and Kelley Eskridge | Chair got a solid start on my epic novel. Karen G. Anderson | Vice Chair It felt great to contribute to the educa- Susan Gossman | Treasurer tion of writers whose work transcends the boundaries of traditional literary fiction.” Felicia R. Gonzalez LC Hu shared, “I’ll admit I got a little Phoebe Harris tired towards the end of the six weeks, but Kij Johnson I made my goal of writing 5000 words a Vicki N. Saunders Developing week (a lot for me) and even surpassed Nisi Shawl that goal during three of the weeks….I Edd Vick got nearly halfway through the first draft News of a novel (even with two false starts!) and Davis B. Fox | Executive Director | ex officio wrote almost ten shorter pieces/exercises.” Leslie Howle | ex officio Nisi Shawl ’92 shared this success: “The | ex officio By Davis B. Fox 2011 Clarion West Write-a-thon was a Grand Experiment for me in seeing what Workshop I could really pull off in terms of writing. Leslie Howle | Workshop Director I wrote three stories in six weeks—wrote them and finished them and sold them. Neile Graham | Workshop Administrator All of them. Without the Write-a-thon I Suzanne Tompkins | Office Manager would not have even thought of trying.” Erin Cashier ’07 attended a standing- Development and Membership Helping writers write—that’s what room-only event in July at Borderlands Keri Healey | Grantwriter Clarion West’s Write-a-thon is all about. Books in San Francisco, which hosted Kate Schaefer | Database Consultant This past summer’sW rite-a-thon was the their third reading in conjunction with most successful ever, with 142 writers from the 2011 Write-a-thon. CW graduates Erin Cashier | Write-a-thon Chair fifteen countries participating, making this (and Write-a-thon participants) Rachel Rachel Swirsky | Diversity and Outreach a truly international effort. Many of the Swirsky ’05, Vylar Kaftan ’04, and Dan writers wrote on a daily basis, turning out Marcus ’92 read, along with Tim Pratt, a Communications short stories, making progress on novels, Clarion graduate. Rachel and Vylar were Nisi Shawl | Director of Communications and creating new . Some works both nominees this year; Eugene Myers | Editor, Seventh Week produced in July and August have been Rachel won the award for Best , Vicki N. Saunders | Art Director submitted and accepted for publication and was nominated for a | Copywriter already. as well. Vylar’s Nebula-nominated story, Not only did writers create new work, “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Keffy Kehrli | Copywriter but they recruited some 420 generous Reno”, was written during a previous Lucas Johnson | Copywriter sponsors who contributed more than year’s Write-a-thon. Lauren Dixon | Copywriter/Proofreader $22,000 to CW. This amount is more than Much of the credit for our success goes Deborah A. Taber | Copy Editor/Proofreader twice that raised in 2010 and represents to Write-a-thon Chair Erin Cashier, Di- Eden Robins | Copy Editor/Proofreader more than 90 percent growth in spon- rector of Communications Nisi Shawl, and Chris Sumption | Web Manager sorship. This tremendous outpouring of volunteers extraordinaire Kate Schaefer, Caren Gussoff | Web Manager Backup support will help CW to conduct next Chris Sumption, Stephanie Denise Brown, Amy Eastment | Forums Moderator summer’s workshop, provide financial aid Lauren Dixon, Ann Kelly, Jocelyn Paige for students, and put on our Tuesday night Kelly, Deb Taber, and Jude-Marie Green, Sabrina Chase | Website User Registration reading series at University Book Store. all of whom worked tirelessly to make the 2011 Write-a-thon the best yet. 

The Seventh Week | FALL 2011 | Page 4 Clarion West’s 28th workshop tipped us this summer: I hear Paul Park’s voice read- into the new decade with six weeks of ing stories out loud, clearly, beautifully— writing, reading, critiquing, strategizing, the prose pouring over me and turning discussing, and more. This summer featured into three-dimensional visions before my all the usual CW elements, but the talented, closed eyes. passionate writers and instructors of 2011 There’s Nancy Kress, deconstructing made it new and engaging all over again. the anatomy of a scene with brilliant clar- Some trends continued from previ- ity, followed by a ripple of “ah-has.” Margo ous workshops: We printed manuscripts Lanagan has everyone’s complete attention in-house; CW tattoos emerged on at as she discusses the art of titles and how least a few students towards the end of important they are. I hear Minister Faust’s the workshop; and, once again, the end of warm laugh as he challenges students that exhilarating first week found many to post a story for sale on Amazon.com. of us at the Locus Awards, where Connie (And several people did!) I see Timmi Willis presented awards to , Duchamp quietly delivering a spot-on Going the , and others. In fact, the critique of a story and students leaning in students’ first glimpse of their week two to hear her. And there’s Charlie Stross, ar- instructor, Nancy Kress, was her dressing riving with more energy than any three of Distance Gardner in a coconut bra and hula danc- us who had been there for five weeks; his ing in a grass skirt at the Awards! vivacity, stories, and sharp critiques revved By Leslie Howle ’85 Most of the class also attended the SF everybody up in the last week despite their Hall of Fame ceremony at the EMP Mu- exhaustion. seum and Hall of Fame, Last summer’s class is so memorable. I at which emcee inducted only have to close my eyes to see students Gardner Dozois, artists Vincent Di Fate at work and play in the house. I wish I and Jean “Moebius” Giraud, and Harlan had the space here to tell anecdotes about Ellison. It was a good day for the students Guys Growing Beards, the designing of as they met some of the greats in the SF/F the Bananagram T-shirt, and some of the field and were inspired by the work and stories written during the workshop. It was memory of those who came before us. enriching to have two students who were CW alumni blogs provide a general second or third generation writers in the outline of what the workshop is like from genre as part of our group. year to year, but each and every workshop Thank you, Paul Park, Nancy Kress, is unique because of the students, instruc- , L. Timmel Duchamp, tors, guest speakers, and the culture they Minister Faust, and Charles Stross, for create. Every summer, the overall flow and bringing your best to the table, work- structure of the workshop changes slightly ing so hard, and sharing your knowledge, as we fine-tune the experience based talent, and experience. It’s so good of our on feedback from the previous year. For instructors to take time away from their instance, one of our guests this year was own writing. an agent and another works on an interac- Many thanks also to our guest speakers tive storytelling site with Neal Stephen- who volunteered to come to the class- son. One student was from Amsterdam, room as “Mystery Muses,” the community another from Australia, and a third was a members who hosted parties, and everyone Welshman who had been living and work- who participated in this year’s amazing ing in . Our instructors came from all Write-a-thon or donated time, energy, or over the U.S., including Seattle, and as far resources in other ways. Special thanks away as Australia and Scotland. to my wonderful co-administrator, Neile The CW workshop is a vibrant, living Graham. And finally, I want to thank our entity that grows and evolves; when people seriously talented student writers who come from around the world to live, traveled so far in both distance and writing breathe, and talk writing, something magi- ability and all who helped make Clarion cal happens to make each workshop an West 2011 memorable, successful, and one experience like no other before or after it. of our best.  I can recall some vivid fragments from

The Seventh Week | FALL 2011 | Page 5 Clarion West Class of 2011

Back Row: Anne Toole, Alberto YÁñez, Jeremy Sim, Jei D. Marcade, Maria Romasco-Moore, Corinne Duyvis Middle Row: Nicholas Tramdack, Jack Nicholls, Alisa Alering, Sarah Hirsch, Catherine Krahe, David Rees-Thomas, Steve Wilson Front Row: Alex Bear, Jennifer Moody, Margo Lanagan (Instructor), Mark Pantoja, Erik David Even, John Coyne

Clarion West is more than a summer work at our Tuesday night readings. We’re workshop. It’s also a large and diverse readers who look forward to the latest community of people committed to edu- books to hit the stores and internet. We’re cating aspiring writers editors and publishers who make these early in their careers. At the center of books available to the public. We’re hun- what we do are the students who attend dreds of individual, corporate, , courtesy fromoldbooks.orgcourtesy our workshop in June and July; we just and government funders whose generosity completed twenty-eight years of con- allows us to keep going year after year on tinuous operation, with more than 500 solid financial ground.W e’re a dedicated students coming to Seattle over that time board of directors and a treasured group of to grow and mature as writers. This fall, volunteers who give thousands of hours a our new Sunday one-day workshops are year to support all our efforts as a nonprof- Executive providing opportunities for writers to hone it organization. And finally, we’re a skilled their skills, and we expect to reach scores professional staff that I have the pleasure Corner of additional writers as we continue this of working with on a daily basis. offering in 2012. To our entire Clarion West commu- But we’re more than writers, too. We’re nity, I thank you for making CW such an y avis ox B D B. F instructors who live in and travel to Seattle excellent and meaningful organization. We to teach, encourage, and motivate our couldn’t do it without you.  students. We’re authors who share new

The Seventh Week | FALL 2011 | Page 6 Okay, you’re a writer, and every writer to readers? Encourage people to seems to have a website. So now you want return to your website frequently? one too, because….Well, because…. Whatever your goals are, try to

, a woodcut eb , To be honest, it’s possible you don’t focus on the few most important W know exactly why you need a website. And ones, so that your website doesn’t even if you do, you may not know how to lose focus. pider’s pider’s get a good one or what to do with it once When you can answer these questions you’ve got it. This is pretty normal, but clearly and explicitly, you should be able to stick with me and I’ll see if I can help. identify what to include on your website Let’s start with an unpalatable truth: and what type of website you need. oman with the S oman most writers’ websites are awful. They may W not be aesthetically displeasing (although most are), but they are terrible nonetheless. Kill Beauty They’re hard to read, difficult to navigate, Beauty blinds us—all of us, even detached frustratingly impossible to search, and and cynical designers. It’s very easy to see a often simply utterly confused in organiza- beautiful website, probably with a gor- tion and intent. geous, artistic banner at the top, and think This isn’t surprising. There is no reason you’re looking at a good website. The truth why writers should know how to put a is you’re probably not. website together, any more than they should Ask yourself this: Are you spending all this time and money on a website to show

Detail, Caspar David Friedrich, The David Caspar Friedrich, Detail, be able to build a car engine from scratch. You might use both every day, but under off your web designer’s artistic skills or to the hood, websites and cars are a mystery; promote your writing? if you don’t want to break down on a lonely, It’s not that a website has to be ugly backwoods lane, you can’t just wing it. (it shouldn’t be), it’s just that the aesthetic So, how do you go about ensuring that beauty should always take second place to your website is good? the effectiveness of a website. The more First of all, you need to know the point graphically impressive the website is, the of your website. If you’re working with a more likely a visitor is to be distracted good designer, she will help you figure this from the point of it. out, but good web designers are rare and The design should draw your atten- How to Build many of you will be doing this yourself. Ask tion to the content. When you look at a yourself these questions before you start: website, what’s the first thing you notice? Do you read the text, or do you admire the a Good 1. Who is the website for? It may be pretty artwork and then go somewhere your website, but unless you plan else? What do you remember from the site to be the only visitor, it’s not for after you’re done? Author you. Try to define your audience as Yes, a website should be attractive and clearly as you can. If they are read- it should look professional, but above all, it ers, who are these people? What should do the job it has been set up to do. Website are their ages? Genders? Interests? If you want a website, you have three Attitudes? Try to limit yourself main options: By Patrick Samphire ’01 to two or three specific audiences Hire a professional designer. for your site, because if you try Your best option for a really effec- to please everyone, you’ll end up tive website is to hire a professional web pleasing no one. designer. He will work with you to figure 2. What does your audience expect out exactly what kind of site you need and from your website? This isn’t what how it should be structured, designed, and you want to put on your website, run. Of course, finding a good professional but what your visitors are looking designer isn’t easy. for. Most people have a particular Unfortunately, anyone can set him- reason for visiting a website, and self up as a web designer. All he needs you need to meet their expectations. is a rudimentary grasp of websites and some cheap software, and he can sell his 3. What do you want to achieve services. If you aren’t a web professional with the website? Are you try- yourself, it can be difficult to separate the  ing to build a fanbase? Sell books professionals from the amateurs. Remember,

The Seventh Week | FALL 2011 | Page 7  an attractive website is not necessarily a get away with a Facebook page or a blog on Patrick Samphire ’01 is a freelance web good website. something like Blogger, but these latter op- designer living in Wales, U.K., with his Look at the designer’s experience. Has tions are only suitable if you’re not pursuing wife, Stephanie Burgis ’01. If you have he been employed by a reputable agency, a professional writing career. any questions or comments about his ar- institution, or company as a designer? If If you go this route, you’ll have little con- ticle or about websites in general, you can so, he probably knows what he’s doing. If trol over the appearance, structure or even contact him through his website http:// not, be cautious. types of content on your website. In general, www.50secondsnorth.com. Expect to pay at least a couple of thou- avoid services that insert advertisements. sand dollars, and be very wary of anyone charging significantly less. We are always looking for interesting topics He is likely to be churning out tem- expect to pay at related to writing or the business of writing plates with little regard for your individual for feature articles in The Seventh Week. needs, and his sites will be ineffectual. least a couple If you have an idea or would like to con- tribute an article, please contact the editor at Buy a ready-made, professionally- of thousand [email protected].  designed template. These are readily available, particularly dollars…be for use with WordPress (http://wordpress. com), and you can get some great designs wary of anyone for less than $100. The downside is, be- cause these are templates, other people will charging have the same design, and templates are significantly less not easy to customize. To use this option effectively, you need to plan very carefully and in great detail exactly what you need your website to do, what will go where on every page, and A Few Random Points… what image you are trying to project. Once • Whatever type of site you choose, you’ve done that, search out a template make sure you keep it up to date. that matches as closely as possible. Don’t You do yourself no favors at all if make the mistake of choosing a template your website doesn’t list your lat- just because it’s flashy; find one that fits est three publications. (And, yes, your needs. there are plenty of author web- Lots of places sell templates. Try http:// sites like that.) themeforest.net, http://www.elegantthemes. • Don’t put your blog as the front com, or http://www.woothemes.com, or google page of your website. Your front “Premium WordPress Themes.” Some page should be focused on intro- places offer free themes if you can’t afford ducing you, your work, or what- to buy one. You can find a few here: http:// ever else your website is there to www.smashingmagazine.com/tag/wordpress. promote. If the first thing a new If you buy a theme, you’ll have to visitor sees is that journal entry install it and set up your website. This isn’t about what you had for breakfast, difficult, but if you don’t want to do it they probably won’t come back. yourself, you can find a web developer who • Use your own name or a variation will do it for a reasonable fee. on it for the domain name: www. Use a third-party system. johnsmith.com is way better than If you can’t afford to pay for a website, www.sff.net/people/john.smith. If then you can use a third-party system to host you have a common name, look for one. Again, WordPress is probably the best a meaningful variation, like www. option for this. You don’t have to have a blog john-smith-author.com. as the front page of the site, and there are a variety of designs available. You might also Good luck!

The Seventh Week | FALL 2011 | Page 8 can’t really browse and find new titles that CW People way. And picking out children’s books for birthdays and holidays is really hard to tudents do online. You really need to look at and S , handle the books. Browsing at bookstores Instructors, and has always been one of my favorite ways of killing time; it scratches an itch that no Volunteers amount of online shopping can take care of. Check In Greg Cox

1986 [Editor’s note: For this issue, alumni were I attended Clarion West in 1986. Twen- asked about their book buying, reading, ty-five years? How did that happen? and marketing habits as bookstores be- My teachers were Ed Bryant, Suzy come scarcer. If you have a suggestion for McKee Charnas, Patricia McKillip, Da- a future newsletter topic, please send it to vid Hartwell, Norman Spinrad, and Joan [email protected].] Vinge. All credit to Linda Jordan-Eich- ner, Donna Davis, and the rest of that crew who heroically put on a workshop Students with no money and only six students at the start. in January and Riese: Kingdom Falling, a My news: Wordstock (www. young adult novel based on a wordstockfestival.com) is our annual web series, due out next summer. At the celebration of words and reading. This 1972 moment, I’m between books (gulp!), but year, I submitted a story to the Wordstock I just turned in my novella “Industrial keeping busy by writing copy for a line of short fiction competition. There were 400 Carpet Drag” to Eraserhead Press. Been a collectible Star Trek postage stamps. Yes, entries from as far away as Ireland, and I busy eight months with another five books postage stamps. This is turning out to be a finished second. If you eliminate everyone edited/re-edited/published. Recently, from outside of Oregon, including Metamorphosis Blues came out ( July), Ireland, I’m on top. The final judge was published by Eraserhead Press. The second browsing at Aimee Bender. The top ten finishers of a “spiritual” trilogy, Magic of Wild Places, bookstores will appear in an anthology published was published in July as well. The final by Wordstock. I’ll be giving these out as book in the trilogy, Majesty of the World, scratches an itch will be written this autumn. Mr. will be re-released sometime this shopping for autumn. Mountains of the Night is available on Barnes & Noble Nook. And thanks to big project, but it’s given me an excuse to books online all who had such kind words (as well as rewatch the original TV series from begin- great interest) about Like Water for Quarks. ning to end. deprives you Bruce Taylor On the personal front, Karen and I had a pretty good summer. No big trips, of the thrill although I did make my usual pilgrim- age to the Shore Leave convention in of the hunt Baltimore… and I’m hoping to make it to 1984 again this year. After juggling two books at once, I am As for the loss of brick-and-mortar birthday presents for years, I’m sure. now out from under my deadlines for a stores, I don’t think there’s any way to put Regarding bookstores: There are few while. My Warehouse 13 novel came out in a positive spin on that. I’ll fess to shop- better ways to spend an afternoon than June and I have two more novels creeping ping online sometimes, especially now that inside a bookstore. My favorite place is towards publication: a new Star Trek novel I’m living out here in the sticks, but you Eclipse Books in Bellingham, . 

The Seventh Week | FALL 2011 | Page 9 there I often make an impulse purchase. That is how I would characterize the way the change in the bookstore ecosystem has affected my habits: my deliberate bookbuying, in response to reviews, recommendations, or (for nonfiction) ci- tations is from Amazon.com. My impulse

Photo credit: Montia Leighton credit: Photo buying is from the small bookstores. I can’t remember when I last set foot in a chain store, so I don’t miss ’em when they fold. Carolyn Ives Gilman

1990 I have a lot of new work coming out this quarter. I’m the lead writer at Kerberos Productions, an independent PC game development studio, and we have a new game coming out before Christmas. Sword

Steve Bieler of the Stars 2: Lords of Winter is the sequel to  our popular science fiction strategy game, The glass doors at the back open on San enchantment-shrouded island nation. It is Sword of the Stars. Since I am the creator of Juan Island vistas and the salt breezes the first of two. The second volume, Ison of the Sword of the Stars universe (in the sense from Bellingham Bay. Shopping for books the Isles, comes out next year. that I’m the author of all the background online is not only a lot less scenic, it de- Also look for my newest SF novelette, fiction), this is a fun time for me. prives you of the thrill of the hunt and the “The Ice Owl”, scheduled to be the cover The Deacon’s Tale, my first novel set in pleasures of finding books you never knew issue of the Nov/Dec issue of Fantasy & the Sword of the Stars universe, will also be existed. But it’s hard to resist Half.com Science Fiction. re-released at the end of September. My and all their 75-cent books and all the free In the real world, I’m working on a first collection of short fiction and other books on BookMooch. Let’s face it, if you new history of the American Revolution apocrypha is slated for late November: really wanted to support actual bookstores, on the frontier for Yale University Press. Monsoon and Other Divine Encounters you wouldn’t just stay off the internet, you collects all of the short fiction and poetry wouldn’t set foot in a library, either. I’m I switched I have published since 1996 along with a not willing to go that far. I’ll do the best I couple of never-before-seen stories. If all can, in person, online, and in the library. to online goes well, it will feature an introduction Steve Bieler from . bookstores… As to the bookstore issue: Although years ago I will admit that I shed no tears for the closing of Borders, I do make an effort to 1989 support my local independent bookstores. Never a dull moment. Here in Vancouver, my buying energies are I am now an editor at . I I admit I am one of the people blamed focused on White Dwarf Books, which started last June. for killing the independent bookstores, carries a wonderful selection of genre Tony Daniel because I switched to online bookstores material, and Pulpfiction Books, a local for most of my purchases years ago; how- independent chain (they have a few loca- ever, it seems the independents didn’t stay tions). White Dwarf focuses entirely on In August, my latest novel, Isles of the dead. Here in St. Louis, at least, we have at new books, so far as I know, but Pulpfic- Forsaken, came out from CZP Publica- least four choices of independent book- tion carries both new and used titles. tions, an up-and-coming, class-act small stores to go to. They are small, but perky. I Between these two stores I can get just press in Toronto. The book is a fantasy find I go to them mostly for readings and about any book I want. The minimal extra  about culture clash and revolution in an other gatherings they host, and when I’m effort it takes to have my local bookstore

The Seventh Week | FALL 2011 | Page 10  order something for me, rather than buy iBooks on the iPad 2, and am finally it straight from Amazon.com, is definitely reading a bunch of stuff that I never got worth it, not only to support the store but around to finding in paper copies, as also to avoid shipping charges and extra well as some newer stuff. E-books I’ve fees. I highly recommend it! read this year include the Chrestomanci Arinn Dembo books ( Jones), Solitaire (Eskridge), Wild Ride (Crusie/Mayer), Tinker, Tailor, Sol- Photo credit: Vicki Saunders credit: Photo I do make dier, Spy (le Carré), Pale Fire (Nabokov), Grand Sophy (Heyer), and Mary Ann in an effort Autumn (Maupin). There are all sorts of difficult is- to support sues around e-books (including class- my local accessibility issues, as Seanan McGuire compellingly discussed on LJ recently), independent but I’m finding the convenience, an- notation capability, and portability to be bookstores huge advantages over paper. I still like paper books fine, but I suspect by a year or two from now I’ll almost never be I continue to be delighted with, and nicely buying them. remunerated by, my recent connection to the spirited folks at Eraserhead Press in Jed Hartman Portland. In September, they reintroduced Walking Wounded, my second novel with Dell Abyss (1996), as a trade , 1991 1992 following on the heels of a short story Strange Horizons has reached the 11th an- I have two upcoming publications: collection, Baby’s First Book of Seriously niversary of our launch! That’s eleven years “Mirror Test” in Intel’s Tomorrow Fucked-up Shit. November and December of publishing new material every week Project Anthology (http:// should see trade reissues plus e-books of (except a vacation week at the end of each tomorrowproject.uw.edu), coming out Santa Steps Out and Santa Claus Conquers year.) And in case anyone hasn’t heard, in hard and soft copy this fall, and the Homophobes, and a new novel with the we raised our rates for fiction this year, to “Romance with Mice” in the Dadaoism working title Santa Claus Saves the World. 7¢ (US)/word. Stop by, read what we’re anthology from Chomu Press (http:// I’d call it a trilogy, but I can already sense a publishing, and send us stories. chomupress.com), coming out in hard and fourth Santa novel a-brewing in the back- soft copy some time in 2012. ground. This joy is alas intermixed with I’ve also been reviewing dark choco- personal sorrows too involved to go into …switching over late for a national online magazine here, but we endure those and press on. (google “sonia lyris chocolate”), which more and more means that chocolate factories let me in Robert Devereaux to e-books the back rooms and give me treats, which is kind of cool. I curated an exhibit that explores the And I’m still dancing Argentine tango. technology and ideas behind the creation Not a lot of other news. I’m writing Sonia Lyris of the film Avatar for EMP, which opened fiction intermittently, but haven’t finished last June. Next I’ll be tackling a new anything in a while. science fiction gallery that will be home Regarding books and bookstores: I’m My short story “Bright Moment” appears to the SF Hall of Fame. Meanwhile, my lucky to have a nice brick-and-mortar in the Sep/Oct 2011 issue of Fantasy & second film for , Zombie Apocalypse, bookstore a ten-minute walk from my Science Fiction. My novel, A Crack in Ev- co-written with Craig Engler, will most house. When there’s a book I want to erything, launched on 9/1 and will be re- likely the weekend of October 22. If buy, if they have it in stock I generally viewed in an upcoming Realms of Fantasy. you don’t like me, here’s your chance to see buy it there. It is available from Amazon.com, B&N me get mowed down by a machine gun. But these days I’m switching over online, and many independent bookstores. more and more to e-books; I’m loving  Brooks Peck Daniel Marcus

The Seventh Week | FALL 2011 | Page 11 of interest: http://tinyurl.com/marleyborders 1996 My CW class seems to have fallen out of My news is that my space history book, touch. If any of the ’93ers are out there, I’d When Biospheres Collide, just came out. It really like to hear from them! tells the story of the great lengths that Louise Marley NASA goes to during its search for extra- terrestrial life to protect the environments of the worlds its spacecraft visit. Michael Meltzer

1997 Nothing published in paper this year, but my novel The Painting and the City (print edition PS Publishing, 2009) came out from iambik audiobooks (http://iambik.com), available as

Louise Marley nothing

1993 published in My newest book, The Brahms Deception, paper this year was published August 1st by Kensington Books. There are fifteen of these now, in- cluding my short story collection, Absalom’s W. Bradford Swift Mother & Other Stories, and the omnibus a digital download from their website and edition of The Singers of Nevya. The Brahms other sources, including audible.com. And Deception is a time travel novel, based on I became an avid reader of fantasy and my first novel, Circus of the Grand Design a short story published in Fast Forward I science fiction as an eleven-year-old boy (print edition published by Prime Books in by Pyr Books. My newest books are be- when my next-door neighbor, who was a 2004), came out as an e-book from Infinity ing marketed as historical, although they children’s librarian, took pity on my single- Plus (http://tinyurl.com/rfwexler). parent mom. Bored out of my gourd with retain fantastic elements (Mozart’s Blood Robert Freeman Wexler features a vampire opera singer), and it’s no one to play with but good ol’ mom, been interesting to have the experience I drove her crazy until Mrs. Crabtree brought home a stack of books she knew would hook a young boy and give my The local mom some relief. It worked. I’ve been 1999 Borders here … hooked ever since. I’m currently an assistant professor of chil- Of course, some dreams take longer dren’s literature at Kansas State University. is—or was—our to emerge than others. Such was the case I have two books coming out this with me and writing speculative fiction. year: Disciplining Girls: Understanding the only bookstore. This year I participated in the CW Write- Origins of the Classic Orphan Girl Story a-thon, using its support to revise and pol- ( Johns Hopkins University Press, expected ish a YA fantasy that I wrote shortly after publication November 2011) and Frances of stepping outside fantasy and science I attended CW. I also made the decision Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden: A fiction in terms of marketing and audience. to devote most of my non-writing efforts Children’s Classic at 100 (co-edited with The local Borders here in Redmond, towards being an indie author rather than Jackie Horne, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow where I live, is—or was—our only going the traditional publishing route. Press, 2011). The result of all this is that Dominion bookstore. I visited to say goodbye to my Joe Sutliff Sanders  favorite booksellers and to take advantage Over All is now available and out there in of the sales, and it was like going to a the world, entertaining while also enlight- funeral! I wrote a blog post for the Red- ening and inspiring. mond Patch about it which you might find W. Bradford Swift

The Seventh Week | FALL 2011 | Page 12 Detail, Kiefer, Anselm mit Flügeln Buch 2000 My husband, Paul Abell, and I have had a lot of changes in the last couple of years. He became an American citizen (he’s Brit- ish and Canadian) and was hired as a civil servant at NASA after years of soft grant funding. He’s still working on analyzing the composition of near-Earth asteroids and the concept of a crewed mission to the same, and he travels an insane amount. We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary this year. I left my job of four years as a librarian at Houston Community College and am now at the MD Anderson Cancer Center Research Medical Library. Best Job Change Ever. I am learning about a whole new universe. Interestingly, now that my day job is much more challenging, I’m experiences with Barnes & Noble taking feeling more creative than I have in years. weeks longer to get the book in and not always having or being able to locate the There are stock they say they have on hand. But I still love to go there and browse, and we few things I’d do a lot of our Christmas shopping there. There are few things I’d rather spend my rather spend money on than books. Alan Smale’s “A Clash of Eagles”, won this year’s short-form Sidewise Award for Amy Sisson my money on ! As regards my own writing, I’m at- than books. tempting to apply some of what I’ve 2002 learned in three years of editing novella 2011 has been a busy year for me and my anthologies to my own work. I’ve written micropress, Panverse Publishing. a few shorts this year after a long fallow It doesn’t hurt that I’m now taking public In August I released Aegean Dream, period, more as exercise than anything, transportation to work, which translates the bittersweet travel/settling memoir and am currently outlining a long work, a into lots of reading time. of the year my wife, Linda, and I spent magic-realist caper novel set in the present Writing-wise, my story “Patriot Girls” on the tiny Greek island of Skopelos day but with its roots in the 1960s. appeared in End of an Æon from Fairwood (the actual Mamma Mia! island) back in You can learn more about my efforts Press, edited by Bridget and Marti McK- 2007. The ms had been with my agent for and the above titles at the Panverse web- enna. I also recently sold “My Eyes Molly sixteen months and, despite getting some site, www.panversepublishing.com. Brown” to A Quiet Shelter There, a chari- nice comments, publishers weren’t tak- Dario Ciriello table anthology about animal companions ing any chances on an unknown in what that will benefit Friends of Homeless Ani- they unanimously refer to as “the crowded mals, edited by Gerri Leen and forthcom- travel memoir category.” Since many of the I’m still in the process of completing my ing in 2012 from Hadley Rille Books. book’s events foreshadow the Greek eco- dissertation in English at the University of Regarding bookstores, I’m an equal- nomic disaster that was to come, I felt the Pennsylvania, but I am also now teaching opportunity book buyer. I buy lots online time was right and decided to publish the at Grinnell College as a visiting assistant from Amazon.com (and love their Prime book myself. Despite being only available professor in English and creative writ- shipping), as well as some books from online, the book is starting to sell well and ing! While I’m still adjusting to life in online remainder sellers Bookcloseouts.com getting good reviews across the board. Iowa (and, as this is a temporary gig, I’m and Edward R. Hamilton Bookseller. But A month later, I published Panverse not sure how long I’ll stay), I hope to get I also buy a lot of books in person from Three, the third in my annual series of a lot more writing done, both creatively Barnes & Noble, (until recently) Borders, all-original SF/F novella anthologies. At and scholarly. And I’m also gearing up Half Price Books, convention dealers, the time of writing, several pro reviewers for the AMAZING CW 2K2 10 YEAR and independent bookstores. If there’s a have said nice things about it in Locus, REUNION this summer! MEDIA- book I’m anxiously awaiting (such as Lev Locus Online, and Tangent, and sales are READY!!! Grossman’s The Magician King), I’m likely starting to pick up. I’m also delighted to  to pre-order on Amazon.com, due to bad announce that a story from Panverse Two, Adrian Khactu

The Seventh Week | FALL 2011 | Page 13 Photo by Raghav by ShreyasPhoto

Premier Book Shop, Bangalore 2004 2010 I’ve had two stories published so far in 2011, Surreal Minimalist Poetry Contest The anthology Broken Time Blues: Fantastic 2011: “The Mysterious Barricades” in Edition; and “Refreshment from Beyond Tales in the Roaring ’20s includes stories Daily Science Fiction, February 25, 2011, the City’s Grasp” in Status Hat, the Cities by me (“Der Graue Engel”) and Clarion and “The Adventure of the Hidden Lane” issue, March 2011. West 2010 alumni Frank Ard (“Chicka- in A Study in Lavender: Queering Sherlock I’d like to note about the last that it was dee”), John Remy (“Semele’s Daughter”), Holmes, ed. Joseph R. G. DeMarco (Maple published in conjunction with “Scenes in and Andrew Penn Romine (“Nor the Shade, NJ: Lethe Press, 2011). I’ve also an Airport”, a poem by my father, Delbert Moonlight”). had my first poetry collection, Dreaming R. Gardner, in a special feature section Jack Graham of Days in Astophel, released by Sam’s Dot called “Destination Home”. Which brings Publishing. me to my other major project: submitting I have launched a new science fiction and On the poetry front, I’ve had two po- my father’s work as his literary executor. fantasy press out of Seattle. Hydra House ems (“Midnight Posture” and “Homecom- Dad’s had two other recent publications, a will publish Pacific Northwest writers, and ing”) nominated for the story called “Dissection” in The Copperfield the first book to be released is Snapshots of the Science Fiction Poetry Association Review: A Journal of History and Fiction, from a Black Hole & Other Oddities by fel- and consequently reprinted in The 2011 Volume 9, Number 4, Autumn 2010, and low ’10 alum K.C. Ball. Hydra House can Rhysling Anthology: The Best SF, Fantasy, a poem titled “Our Mother Tongue” in be found on Facebook, on Twitter, and at and Horror Poetry of 2010, ed. by David Hazard Cat, February 9, 2011. www.hydrahousebooks.com. Lunde (Covina, CA: SFPA/Raven Elec-  Lyn C. A. Gardner trick Ink, 2011). My other most recent Tod McCoy poetry publications include “Eureka” in Mythic Delirium Issue 24, Winter/Spring 2009 2011; “Fusion Drive” in Basement Stories Issue 3, Jan. 2011; “The Dream Police” in My story “The Curse of theW ere-Penis” is Strange Horizons, Feb. 14, 2011; “Hymn” in this fall’s issue of FLURB (www.flurb.net). in Indigo Rising Magazine, March 22, Emily C. Skaftun

The Seventh Week | FALL 2011 | Page 14 Send in your updates for the Alumni News section of the Clarion West website! Recent publications, upcom- ing readings, interviews—if you have

Photo by Jeri by Bishop Photo writing-related news, we want to hear about it. E-mail your latest news to [email protected]. Please use the subject “Alumni News,” and be sure to include the year you attended CW. 

Michael Bishop

 2011 I just got my first professional sale, for Johnson’s Baen Books anthology Going a piece I wrote during the Workshop: Interstellar. The story focuses on a group “Houses”. I sold it to Lightspeed Magazine, of ethnically diverse Tibetan Buddhists and it’ll be out in their November issue. traveling from Moon to the star sys- tem Gliese 581 to colonize a presumably Mark Pantoja habitable world there, Gliese 581 g, and of course to escape persecution on Earth. The protagonist is a female child selected dur- Instructors ing the voyage as the next Dalai Lama. I’m currently working on a young adult novel, Joel-Brock the Brave, and hope to In December, will finish before the year is out. No publisher publish my collection The Door Gunner and lined up yet, but that’s part of the (scary) Other Perilous Flights of Fancy: A Michael excitement of the project. Bishop Retrospective, edited by Michael H. Hutchins, with an introduction by Jack , ’97, ’10 McDevitt. The book contains twenty-five stories from four decades in my career, Blood and Other Cravings was published (1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and the 2000s). September 13th by . There are 200,000 words of material, and and I handed in After, almost all the stories have been revised to our young adult dystopian/post-apocalypse increase their readability without com- anthology to Hyperion for Fall 2012 promising their tone, atmospherics, or publication. substance. The cover is by . I was given the Life Achievement In 2012, my novella “Twenty Lights award by the Horror Writers Association. to ‘The Land of Snow’” will appear in Jack McDevitt and NASA scientist Les , ’91, ’96, ’01, ’06

The Seventh Week | FALL 2011 | Page 15 Potlatch is a nonprofit Potlatch 21 literary event for readers and writers will be held of speculative fiction. It’s also an excellent opportunity to sample February 24-26, the workshop experience; Potlatch includes mini-Clarion West-style 2012 in Seattle workshops for writers wanting feedback on their stories. Potlatch hosts an annual auction to raise funds for Clarion West scholarships, and is often able to donate to our general fund. For more information, please visit the convention’s website at www.potlatch-sf.org.

Listening to the Mystery Muse with Margo Lanagan

Charles Stross Reading Clarion West 2011 Writers Workshop Nancy Kress Class

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