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Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
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8:06 pm - Found Item
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akirlu
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Did anyone lose a baseball cap at last Friday's CW party in Kent? There's a photo post of it here. If you reply here, I can arrange to bring it to the next party...
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| Sunday, July 6th, 2008
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8:39 am - Thanks for Your Generous Response to CW Dorm Burglary
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kate_schaefer
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Due to the swift and generous response of the SF community, Clarion West has now received nearly enough money to replace the four student laptops stolen July 4 from rooms at the workshop residence. Clarion West staff, volunteers, and students all express their thanks for your very timely help. They especially want to thank BoingBoing, Cory Doctorow, Jay Lake, and many more for their generosity and for alerting others to the need for money and laptops. Donations began coming in from around the world just hours after the theft.
“If we collect funds that are much in excess of the cost of replacing the stolen computers, we will return them proportionally to the donors,” said workshop administrator Leslie Howle. “The use of PayPal makes this relatively easy to do.” She added, “We are all overwhelmed, and the students are immensely grateful. They were devastated by this theft, and it’s been amazing to see the community rally to support them.”
Thank you so much!
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Friday, July 4th, 2008
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6:36 pm
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| Friday, June 27th, 2008
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2:14 pm - Honoring Kate Wilhelm...
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jimsinsd
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As posted on the Clarion blog at UC San Diego, we've decided we can't pull off a 40th Anniversary party this year, because the logistics are beyond our capacity and because we simply don't have the volunteer capacity that built up in Clarion's 30-plus years at Michigan State University. It's a bummer, because we'd planned to honor Kate Wilhelm's teaching career. In consultation with the Clarion Foundation, we've developed another approach:
"We were planning on a celebration focusing on our Ur-Teacher, Kate Wilhelm, whose spirit and wisdom enliven every moment of the annual workshops. Instead, we are announcing a new fundraising drive in honor of Kate to fully fund the Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm Endowed Scholarship here at UCSD. The fund currently stands at $20,000 and has a funding goal of $36,000; it will be used every year only for scholarships for Clarion students. Donations can be mailed to:
The Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm Endowed Scholarship Fund
c/o Nancy Ho-Wu
UC San Diego Department of Literature — 0410
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0410 "Alternatively, for those of you who prefer to donate to the Clarion Foundation, the best way to reach them is via their website’s Giving page, which has several options for what and how to give, at:
http://clarionfoundation.org/donatecash.htm
Thanks from all of us."
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| Thursday, April 24th, 2008
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6:11 pm - Clarion West 2008 Write-a-thon 25-for-25 Challenges
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kate_schaefer
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It's April, and this year's class is looking forward to a summer of writing, reading, critiquing, and learning. Around this time, Clarion West alumni used to feel nostalgic for the workshop experience. They used to wish they could return and write like that again.
They used to feel that way, but now they look forward to the Write-a-thon.
Be part of Clarion West this summer without even attending the workshop. Set your own goals for your writing for the six weeks of the workshop. Post about your goals in the forums, and encourage others as they pursue their goals. Sign up sponsors in support of your goals, or just write alongside the others. Yes, the Write-a-thon is a fundraiser, and a very important fundraiser for Clarion West, but the writing is more important than the money. The writing comes first.
Participants last year wrote first drafts, polished drafts, short stories, novels, screenplays. They wrote alone and as collaborators. Michael Swanwick and Eileen Gunn started out taunting each other in the Write-a-thon Smackdown, and ended up collaborating on at least six stories, one of which will appear in Fantasy & Science Fiction in the next few months. They'll be back this year. How about you?
Last year, we had more participants than ever before, 41. We'd love to see as many of you back as possible, and we'd like to have 25 people who have never participated in the Write-a-thon before. To that end, we have two 25-for-25 challenges:
One challenge is for new participants: members of the Clarion West Board have promised to sponsor the first 25 to sign up who have never participated in a Write-a-thon before for $25 each.
The other challenge will be for returning participants: members of the Clarion West Board have promised to sponsor the first 25 to sign up who have participated in a Write-a-thon before for $25 each.
The Write-a-thon is open to the whole Clarion West community: alumni, instructors, friends.
Who's on for the early challenges? Post here or in the Clarion West web site Write-a-thon forum. Ten writers have signed up already.
Thanks!
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| Sunday, April 13th, 2008
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5:55 pm - This year's Clarion class....
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jimsinsd
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Out here at UC San Diego, we're blown away by the number of applicants and calibre of the students chosen for this year's Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop. It is an incredible group of students from an amazing pool of applicants. We were pleased to see that:
-- the size of the applicant pool, proving that last year's pool wasn't an anomaly;
-- a couple applicants who didn't make it in last year made it in this year, and applications from people applying for the second time were uniformly better than their prior effort; and
-- there a lot of need for scholarship support out there.
The Clarion Foundation has put out out a call for donations to help fund scholarships for this year's students. The need is higher than last year, and the Foundation really needs your help. (We at UCSD prefer that scholarship giving go to the Foundation, so you can feel comfortable the money is going to students.) To help out, go to this page:
http://clarionfoundation.org/donatecash-paypal.htm
where you can donate via Paypal or by mail. If you want to use a credit card, there's a link on that page directly below the words, "Donate Cash Using Paypal"; click on the link and you'll go to a page that takes credit cards.
Many thanks for any and all help you can provide! Best,
Jim
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| Sunday, March 30th, 2008
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7:24 pm - notifications?
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jedifreac
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Got my rejection notice from Clarion West but I haven't heard back from Clarion yet. Is this bad?
Edit: Both groups said I'd hear back by March 30th.
Edit again: Never mind. Rejected. BAHHHH.
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| Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
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10:13 pm - Last chance to apply for the 2008 Clarion West Writers Workshop!
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kate_schaefer
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Applications for this year's Clarion West Writers Workshop must be RECEIVED by March 1. March 2nd is too late. (Please note that this deadline is a month earlier than it was in previous years.)
We recommend that after February 24 applicants send their materials via email to ensure that they arrive on time. Our newly redesigned website makes this easier than ever.
The upcoming session (June 22 to August 1) will be taught by Paul Park, Mary Rosenblum, Cory Doctorow, Connie Willis, Sheree R. Thomas, and Chuck Palahniuk, our 2008 Susan C. Petrey Fellow. For information on the workshop, scholarships, and how to apply, visit our website at www.clarionwest.org/workshop.
Clarion West is a non-profit literary organization committed to equal opportunity. Minority and special-needs students are encouraged to apply.
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| Saturday, February 9th, 2008
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7:59 pm - For worldcon members
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marykaykare
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You have just three more weeks to get those Hugo nominating ballots in folks! And if you're mailing a paper ballot, for the love of Mike, DON'T FORGET TO SIGN IT. I've already had to disqualify 2 because they were filled out but not signed. The space is right there on the front. If you are doing an online ballot check your membership and PIN numbers carefully. I might email you and tell you you got it wrong and to try again, but, especially as it gets closer to the deadline, I may not have time.
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| Thursday, January 24th, 2008
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11:44 am - Thoughts on Critiques
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stephdray
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 Three Kinds of Critiques?
Today Manuscript Maven declares that there are three kinds of critiques, and talks about the reaction writers have to each.
For me, critiques bring out very mixed emotions. On the one hand, I'm super excited that someone is going to read what I wrote. On the other hand, I'm super terrified that they'll hate it.
Clarion and Critiques
I'm told that my Clarion class wasn't particularly brutal in comparison to most. We were fairly respectful to one another until some dramatics at the end. I think our teachers may have been looking forward to more fireworks than there were. But the daily grind of giving and receiving constructive feedback does help to toughen your skin a bit.
I remember feeling really down only one week during Clarion. I think it's when Jim Kelly started his critique of my story with something like, "Let me begin by saying how much your title sucks before we get to the rest of the suckage."
It was depressing because it was true. The title did suck. And the rest of the story was terribly flawed. I had been experimenting with a different literary voice and ideas that made me feel vulnerable, and it always hurts when taking a risk like that turns out badly.
Vulnerability and Arrogance
But it taught me something about critiques--or at least about my own reaction to critiques. If I think a comment is dead wrong or off the wall, it doesn't bother me at all. I'm apparently so arrogant that I'm impervious to comments that I can't relate to, even if more than one person makes the same observation.
I'm also not bothered by critiques of typos or small matters easily fixed. "This chapter doesn't belong here, it belongs there," is the kind of technical matter that doesn't get under my skin at all.
Sometimes, a reader wants you to have written a different story than you wrote, entirely. I don't usually get upset about that either, because I know the feeling. I know exactly how it feels to read something you think would be genius _if only_. In fact, I told one of my Clarion classmates that if he didn't publish a certain story in a few years, I was going to write my own version. I ought to check. Time's up, Will Macintosh!
Anyway, none of this is to say that I can't be hurt by mean comments or irritated by destructive critiques. I can. But I'm most upset when I know the comments are right! How about you?
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| Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
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1:49 pm - Magazine donations
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pats_quinade
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I've just had a friend of a friend offer to donate a large number of old SF magazines to a group that I think could use them. I was wondering who I should get in contact with at Clarion West if I wanted to have these sent their way. I don't know if they'd work best as a library or as an auction item at the Tiptree Bake Sale, but it looks like a large enough collection that it could be worth something to someone in the SF community.
Let me know what to do. :)
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| Thursday, November 8th, 2007
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4:31 pm - Petrey Fund 25th Anniversary
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kate_schaefer
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Debbie Cross, Paul Wrigley, and members of Oregon Science Fiction Conventions, Inc., have been raising money to send students to the Clarion and Clarion West Writers Workshops in memory of their friend Susan C. Petrey for 25 years now. Help them celebrate this successful memorial fund!
At Orycon 29, (November 16-18, Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront) attend panels and discussions of Clarion, Clarion West, the impact of writers workshops on people's lives, and how you can go to writers workshops. Go to the Petrey auction and let Jay Lake sell you stuff! Stop by the Petrey booth in the dealers room and buy raffle eggs! Use your Petrey coupon at Pizza Schmizza on Saturday afternoon! Come to the Petrey reception at 8 PM on Saturday evening and drink a toast to the fund, the writers, and the fundraisers.
If you can't go to Orycon but you appreciate the books and stories written by authors like former Petrey scholars Kathe Koja, Barth Anderson, Syne Mitchell, Nisi Shawl, and Heather Lindsley, please make a donation to support the Petrey fund. Donations can be made through PayPal to the email address of susanpetrey@comcast.net., or send checks to:
Susan C Petrey Scholarship Fund
PMB 455
2870 N.E. Hogan Road Suite E
Gresham OR 97030-3175
More background info at the Petrey web site.
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| Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
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3:05 pm - NEW APPLICATION DEADLINES FOR CLARION AND CLARION WEST
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kate_schaefer
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Both the Clarion and Clarion West Writing Workshops have changed their application deadlines to March 1 for their 2008 sessions. The joint decision to move the deadlines forward by one full month will ensure that successful applicants have more time to prepare for six weeks of writing, critiquing, and studying with some of fantasy and science fiction’s top authors and editors. It also allows more time for organizations sponsoring workshop scholarships to select recipients.
“It’s never easy to carve such a large chunk of time out of your life,” Clarion West Executive Director Leslie Howle said. “The earlier students receive notice that they’ve been accepted into the workshop, the better prepared they’ll be when they arrive in Seattle.”
“This will give our student writers extra time to plan for their Clarion experience,” said James Patrick Kelly, Vice Chair of the Clarion Foundation. “We want to get the word out well ahead of time, since it’s a change from our longstanding policy.”
Clarion, founded in 1968, and now in its second year on the campus of the University of California, San Diego, is run by the non-profit Clarion Foundation. Their website is at clarion.ucsd.edu/.
Clarion West, a non-profit organization, has presented the Clarion West Writers Workshop annually in Seattle, Washington since 1984. Their website is at www.clarionwest.org.
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| Sunday, July 29th, 2007
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2:29 pm - I am a Clarion pusher.
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singingnettle
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Bwahahaha. I just got a very talented friend, whom I've been nudging for years to apply to Clarion West, to agree to apply. If not this year, next year; Clarion takes a good deal of penny-saving these days.
I am told I am eeeevil, and I'm OK with that.
But how could anyone pass up the 2008 lineup?
Congrats to the class of '07. And if you're thinking about being part of the class of '08...take a breath and jump. I promise, you'll find you have wings.
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| Tuesday, July 17th, 2007
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2:46 pm - Clarion West Write-a-thon madness
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kate_schaefer
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Michael Swanwick and Eileen Gunn are writing at least two collaborative stories as part of the Clarion West Write-a-thon and posting their work on the Write-a-thon forum regularly.
I just looked at the page. As of a few hours ago, they're collaborating on at least three stories. It's hard to count, because some of their badinage might be another story. They are either showing their collaborative process in public without a net, or they're showing an elaborate fiction about their collaborative process in public. In either case, it's hugely entertaining.
It is also a fundraiser, but you all know that. Why is it a fundraiser? It's a fundraiser because it costs more money to put on the Clarion West Writers Workshop than we want to charge the students who attend it, that's why. To support the massively prolific Michael Swanwick, who writes so much and so well that he ends up competing with himself for Hugo awards, go here and use the PayPal button, please. To support the exquisitely refined Eileen Gunn, who writes so little and yet so well that she can whack you over the head with her Nebula any time you need whacking, go here and use that PayPal button, please.
And if you just want to go read that set of stories in progress without making a donation, that's fine, too. You may need to employ Guilt Eaters of Philadelphia (scroll down that page; you'll know when you've found it) to take care of that uneasy feeling, but it will be well worth it.
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| Tuesday, June 26th, 2007
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9:16 pm - So far, so good
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tcastleb
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I just got back from an evening reception at UCSD to welcome all the new Clarionites to the program, which officially started yesterday. Nineteen students out of eighty-three applicants. I got the chance to talk with several of them, and they all seem like wonderful people and well-suited for the program. They're from various points around the world, such as Cairo, London, Lubbock, TX, Tempe, AZ, Philadelphia and San Diego. Several of them said it's a beautiful campus and they look forward to finding out more about it. They're all very excited to be here, and nervous about getting their work critiqued, and they just did their first round of crits this morning.
Special guests of the night included deans from UCSD, Vernor Vinge, David Brin and Nancy Holder, along with Clarion director Donald Wesling, who emphasized the links UCSD had between literature and science and how excited everyone was to have it at UCSD. They've got several things planned, like having various guests show up for dinner, including researchers and scientists from the school.
The first reading is tomorrow night at Mysterious Galaxy at 7pm with Greg Frost (a.k.a. ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) frostokovich.) The rest are all on Wednesday nights at 7pm.
And, amazingly enough, they all managed to finagle free passes to Comic-Con on the Friday night it's in town. Go them!
They've also been strongly advised not to blog and to focus on writing instead, so, unfortunately, we won't be able to live vicariously through Clarion blogs this year.
But, never fear, the things that made Clarion at MSU special for all of us are still alive and well out here in San Diego. Congratulations to the first class at UCSD, and may their writing go well.
current mood:  pleased
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8:22 pm - Locus Seeks Summer Intern -- Oakland, CA
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chromatomancer
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Locus Magazine, the leading monthly trade journal covering science fiction, fantasy, and horror, seeks an enthusiastic science fiction reader for a part-time unpaid internship, 15-20 hours a week for the summer semester – college credit and $500 stipend available. Tasks will include running errands (must be comfortable driving a minivan), general office work (mailing, filing, faxing), some personal assistant duties, customer service, occasional proofreading, etc. You will have the opportunity to become familiar with aspects of magazine publishing and small-business administration. The position is well suited to a recent graduate or current college student interested in journalism and literature.
Requirements:
Driver’s license and good driving record
Good phone manner
Ability to follow through with tasks under stress
Basic knowledge of Word and Excel
Familiarity with the science fiction genre
Photoshop, Quickbooks, and InDesign skills a plus
To apply, please email a resume and a cover letter describing your interest in science fiction to locus@locusmag.com. Resumes without cover letters will not be considered. Summer, fall, and winter internships available; college credit is possible through Peralta. This is an unpaid position, though a $500 stipend is available. Hard work will be rewarded with insider knowledge and occasional meals. Job location is in the hills of Oakland, California; applicants are recommended to have their own transportation.
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| Thursday, June 7th, 2007
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10:32 pm - Write-A-Thon roll call
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| Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007
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8:56 am - Going to Clarion West This Summer
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mthielbar
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Hi, everybody. I just got accepted to Clarion West. Yay!
I just got my information packet with all the usual advice, which seems to boil down to:
- Don't be a tool
- Sleep once in a while
- Plan to work hard
- Enjoy this experience because it's once-in-a-lifetime!
Does anyone have any other advice? Maybe some experience to share? Anyone here in the Clarion--err--East class of 2007?
Thanks!
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| Monday, April 9th, 2007
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4:34 pm - Context 20 (Sept. 28-30, 2007)
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las
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Context 20 will be held September 28-30, 2007 in Columbus, OH:
Guest of Honor: Tim Powers
Editor Guest of Honor: Mike Resnick
Horror Guest of Honor: Michael A. Arnzen
Special Guest: Juanita Coulson
Special Guest: Walter Hunt
The convention will be hosting a variety of writing workshops on:
- Writing SF/F/H Poetry (Michael Arnzen)
- World-Building (Timons Esaias)
- Maintaining Emotional Realism in Speculative Fiction (Gary A. Braunbeck)
- Plotting the Novel (Tim Powers)
- The Art and Business of Adaption for Visual Media (Diana Botsford)
- Writing Great Openings (Tim Waggoner)
- Writing Cover Letters and Synopses (Tobias Buckell and Paul Melko)
Seating is limited (and some workshops are filling rather briskly). This year's instructors teach writing at Clarion, Missouri State University, and Seton Hill University's Master of Arts in Writing Popular Fiction program.
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