Insert Witty Journal Title Here

I warned you. Here it is. :)

Please support me in the Clarion Write-a-Thon. We start writing on June 24th and continue until August 4th, the 6 weeks that Clarion is running this year in San Diego. My goal is to write at least 500 words every day and to finish 1 short story a week, for a total of 6. So you can sponsor me per story, or just give a flat donation, whichever you choose.

What's Clarion

Clarion is a science fiction and fantasy writing workshop held every summer for 6 weeks. ~17-19 students come together with a different professional author instructing them every week. They write, they read each others' work, and they critique it. In the awesome weather of San Diego.

Since it requires people to have 6 weeks free, it often means people are in the midst of a transition. They may have just finished school, they may be out of work, they may be changing homes/careers/spouses, about to embark on parenthood, just retired, or something else entirely. In a lot of cases having 6 weeks off also means money is tight. I received a scholarship and I very much appreciated it. This is my opportunity to pay it forward and our opportunity to together help someone else attend Clarion who wouldn't be able to otherwise.

I know it's cliche to say 'every little bit helps', but in this case what I mean by it is that the more people I have supporting me, the more guilty I'll feel if I don't write!

Another link to my writer page if you missed it the first time.

Thank you!

Tried to update earlier.. yesterday, I think, and the posting page wasn't loading with CSS. But, not it is. So.

My bookfast has ended. I even went into the giant used bookstore... the day before Harry's birthday, was it? And did not buy anything. Gasp shock. There was a sale and a coupon on top of that and everything.

I general, I don't know that the bookfast helped much. Maybe it wasn't long enough. Maybe I just need to dump all these library books I still have kicking around.

On the day of breaking my bookfast, I grabbed Beauty Queens by Libba Bray on my way out the library door. (Okay, yes, I swung back around to get it checked out first!) In a way it was an impulse checkout, but in a way it wasn't, because I'd had my eye on it for awhile.

Lord of the Flies. With beauty pageant contestants.

Only more awesome than that.

Maybe it's whatever the reverse of Stockholm Syndrome in that I had just finished The Feminine Mystique, which I did not find very easy to get through. So a nice, funny sf-y YA was just what I needed. And it was new and shiny! Or maybe it really is as awesome as I think. Have not finished it yet. Because very busy...

I started library school also on August 1st. The first class is a 1-credit pass/fail self-paced course just designed to get me used to using the courseware and the school library and things like that. (Oh, it's online. But that's a given, right? No such thing as meat schools anymore, is there?) I'm blazing through it, because it's.. new and shiny. And easy. And because that's the best way to fight procastination. I'm also going on a mini-vacation with the family next weekend-ish, and then a longer break... also with family. (Did I say 'break'? Hrm.) That's around Labor Day, which is about the time my first 'real' class starts.

So if I can get the first course mostly done by next week and finally done before the other class starts, it'll be real good.

Still reading and reviewing and discussing for Triple Take, including our Nebula Project.

Between those things and laundry and not being here next weekend, this weekend is feeling a bit full. Meh.

Oh! And the Clarion Write-a-Thon ends tomorrow, so I want to bang out as many stories as I can in a final push. (Did I mention I'm a procrastinator? Oh, I did? I wonder I didn't save saying that for the end of the post...)

Thanks to all my wonderful sponsors so far! I say so far, because it's still not too late!

Sponsor Me!

So.. yes... off to chill some more tonight before the big push on er.. several things.. tomorrow.

1d5h until I can watch Torchwood. Unless some seeds start to sprout (JA said cryptically.)

Movie Update: Have not watched movies! Have not watched Harry Potter 7.2! Have not watched Cowboys v Aliens! & Aliens? Or Aliens? NOT Aliens? Have not watched Captain America. Have not watched Neil Patrick Harris make out with Brainy Smurf. Last movie I saw was X-Men. ------- Have watched some DVDs, generally on LGBT themes. It was a substitute for not being able to bring books home from the library. Have yet to figure out where the Band is in The Boys in the Band. (You mean the movie isn't about glam rock? Srsly?)

Okay, really going now.

I didn't write/finish a story in week 2. Clearly I need more sponsors to spur me on!

We're more than halfway through week 3, which does show more promise.

As another class of Clarion workshop students arrives at UC-San Diego, over a hundred writers from around the world will be joining them virtually in the Clarion Write-a-Thon.

I'll be one of them.

Please sponsor me and your money will go towards keeping Clarion affordable and towards scholarships for those to whom 'affordable', still isn't quite.

What's in it for me:
You'll be encouraging me to write more. My plan is to finish one short story a week for the six weeks. That's six more stories that I can sell that I couldn't sell before, because they didn't exist!

What's in it for you:
Fabulous prizes

Awesome new stories by me! And by Clarion students who wouldn't be able to be Clarion students otherwise.

If you're an American, it can be a tax writeoff.

And a special offer to my donors only!

For my top two sponsors and for one sponsor chosen at random, I will review one short story or novel chosen by you. Maybe you want me to review your novel. Maybe you want me to review your friend's novel. Maybe there's this awesome story you just really think I should read. Your choice!

How to Sponsor:

Go to my writer page. Click 'Make a Pledge' if you'd like to pledge me by word or by story or by any other criterium. Or you can make a straight donation right now with the 'Donate Now' button. Either way is A-OK with me.

Did I mention the fabulous prizes?

Help me reach $150 and I get some Clarion Write-a-Thon swag. And I really really want a Tshirt!!

Thanks, guys.

Let the writing begin!

I'll be doing the Clarion Write-a-Thon again this year. I haven't yet thought about goals and milestones or incentives for you guys to donate, so if you have any suggestions, toss them out!

Er, I mean, toss them in?

Leave a comment. :)

It starts at the end of June. Y'all can help me win an iPad! (Don't know yet if it's a 1 or a 2.)

But realistically, I have my sights set on some Clarion swag.

Con or Bust auctions running for one more week.

Clarion and Clarion West deadlines are both March 1st. It's crunchtime, people! Take Monday off of work and get your applications in!

But they just announced they're putting more stuff onto the e-readers! A story by Nalo Hopkinson and Steampowered: The Lesbian Steampunk Anthology!

You know you want it!!

Go buy tickets!!

No, wait, don't. You'll lower my odds of winning!

Only a few days left to enter! But of course you can donate at any time.

Win an eReader! And a whole lotta books on it!

The money is going to the Octavia Butler scholarships which help writers of color to attend the Clarion workshops.

Since Clarion is a 6-week commitment, most people with a desire to go and the ability to spend 6 weeks there do not also have an overabundance of the green stuff. I've found that a lot of people who attend Clarion are in a state of transition. Just finished school, about to start school, just lost a job, in the middle of changing careers, about to move across country (or to another country), about to get married, about to get divorced, about to have a baby. Though these transitions are good for letting you take 6 weeks for yourself and your writing career, any and all of these life changes incur their own expenses.

Too many people who would love to go to Clarion don't think they can because of the time and the money issue. So they don't even apply. This scholarship and the other Clarion scholarships let people know that.. hey, there's a chance it won't be as expensive as I think. Maybe I can do this.

And you never know if that one person might turn out to be an author you love to read 5 years down the line. And maybe they wouldn't have gotten there so soon without Clarion, or maybe they wouldn't have gotten there at all. (Not for lack of talent, but for want of opportunity and lack of support.)

And the awesome thing is? The scholarship won't just help one person. It'll probably help 2 this year, and many more down the road. Think of all those books you can help get written!

Look at this lineup for Clarion 2011!!

Week One: Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Week Two: John Scalzi
Week Three: Elizabeth Bear
Week Four: David Anthony Durham
Week Five and Six: John Kessel and Kij Johnson

If even 10% of Scalzi's blog readers apply, they are going to be FLOODED with apps. So get yours in early before they're burnt out on reading!! :)

Those are all names I know, but I'm not familiar enough with their work to comment except for Kij Johnson. I thought The Fox Woman was brilliant.

I discovered this on the Clarion Blog. Good reading, by the way. Science, writing prompts, things to think about. Stuff!

This is your last chance to sponsor me (or any of the other fabulous writers) for the Clarion Write-a-Thon. It turns out that writing at least 500 words a day takes a bit of mental energy. I haven't actually gotten around to writing update posts to tell you all how I'm doing. And to encourage you to donate a buck or two (or five or ten) to Clarion.

So this is my last chance to do so and your last chance to be able to see the Clarion class of 2011 and say 'They were able to attend because of me.' Five or so years down the road, when several of them have books on the shelves, don't you want to be able to say 'Hey, I know him/her! She/he went to Clarion the year after that write-a-thon.'?

Don't you want to see _my_ book on the shelf and know you encouraged me to write for a change? Write, write, write.

So, for my update, yes, I have been doing at least 500 words a day since July 1st. I missed one day (clocked in around 400 words and then got distracted). Last night, I forgot! But then when I woke up inexplicably around 4:45, I wrote 600+ words before crashing again. (Ended up oversleeping and being late to work, but, hey, all in the pursuit of great fiction, right?)

If you donate say, 1000$ or so, I might be able to win the Ipad. Right now the Ferret is in the lead, with Gregory Frost in second. I don't know their exact totals, but it's somewhere in that vicinity.

It's a tax writeoff! You want to put 1000$ down as a tax deduction this year, don't you? Right?

Here's my Donate Page

And thank you to everyone who has pledged or donated money thus far. I doubt I would've had the motivation to continue if you hadn't. Thank you.