Breaking Radio Silence (Good News!)

I love to write, but blogging is hard work!

I realized it's been January since I've updated here, though I ramble on quite at length on Twitter and Facebook. Ah, the power of short-attention-span-social media! But I wanted to break radio silence for another reason, something I've been sitting on, waiting for all the dust to settle.

I've been accepted to the Clarion West 2010 Writers' Workshop in Seattle!

For those not in the know, Clarion West (along with its sister workshops Clarion*  and Clarion South**) is an intensive six week "boot camp" for writers. The emphasis is on short stories, and has a strong bias towards writing in the speculative fiction genre -- i.e., fantasy and science and weird fiction. The instructors themselves are writers and editors with loads of experience, awards, and generosity who come and teach for a week at a time.

Attending Clarion has been a dream of mine for many years, but as a freelance artist, finding the time and money to do so has always been a sketchy propostion at best. This year I carved out the time to go and took a stab at it.

I got the call on a Friday night, and I think I must have repeated "I'm going to CLARION!" every five minutes to my patient (and very supportive!) wife all weekend long. In all honesty, I'm still in a little shock and disbelief that I was accepted.

I'll be posting more here about writing and Clarion West very soon. But for now, I'd like to congratulate all my fellow classmates -- I can't wait to meet you all! To the instructors, readers, and staff of Clarion West -- thank you!

And to those of you who applied and didn't get in this time -- keep trying! 


* the original workshop that started them all!
** easier for aspiring Austrailian writers to get to...