Category: Uncategorized

I’m still wrestling with epic internet problems, so I’ll keep this short.

My friend and mentor Walter Jon Williams brought it to my attention that the venerable and life-changing Clarion Writer’s Workshop is now accepting applications for the 2011 class.  Ditto Clarion West.

The Clarions are a marvelous, once-in-a-lifetime experience for people who are really serious about writing.  I wasn’t kidding when I used the term “life-changing”.  Clarion isn’t for everybody, and it isn’t 6 weeks of 24/7 fun.  It’s hard work, and can get pretty draining at times.  Some people discover that they don’t enjoy writing that much; others learn the thing that will push their work over the hump and launch their career.  Everybody learns something and comes away changed.

I can’t recommend it highly enough.

For me, plotting is the slowest and most difficult part of the writing process.  How many times have I wished there were an easier way to develop the plot for a novel, story, or “scenario”?  Too many to count!

If only, goes my constant lament, somebody would build a mechanical tool for devising plots automatically.  Preferably out of wood and Bakelite, and possibly powered by coal.

Little did I know my prayers were answered over 40 years before I was born.  Feast your eyes on this wonderment of modern scenario development: the Plot Robot.

I’ve been sitting on this news for a few weeks, because I wanted to be a good boy and not let the cat out of the bag.  (Also, I’m hella superstitious about these things.  Announcing something in public before the editor officially finalizes things seems like a good setup for public humiliation.  And I know about public humiliation, okay?)

Anyway…  I’m super, super thrilled to announce that editor extraordinaire (and newly-minted World Fantasy winner!) Jonathan Strahan has chosen to include my story from the October issue of Apex Magazine, Still Life (A Sexagesimal Fairy Tale), for inclusion in his upcoming anthology, The Best SF and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 5.

Hooray!

I don’t own a dog, but this had me in tears.  I need to start reading Hyperbole and a Half much more frequently.

That is all for now, while I continue to wrestle with epic internet problems.

My friend Adrienne Crezo, who edits the Best Damn Creative Writing Blog, and who also raises bonsai giraffes in her spare time, recently invited me to write a guest post for her blog.

Hey, we all make mistakes, right?  She had a good run going, with some terrific posts from a string of interesting people.  I made certain that came to a screeching halt.  Instead of being interesting or funny or thoughtful, I decided to lay bare the quivering ball of neurosis that lurks deep in the soul of many writers. 

You can read my post here. 

And speaking of not believing the internet exists…