What I've Been Doing

Image by Clio Chiang.

These days, I've been writing a bit for The New England Theater Geek, a blog of local Boston theater reviews. It's the city where I just moved and a lovely way of getting to know the community.

I'm also continuing to contribute to The Analytical Couch Potato, where I've most recently begun blathering about Doctor Who.

I'm reading about as much as I always do but don't have much to say about the material. Ah well.

Recent recommendations include, but are not limited to:

• Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner

• Fox Woman and Fudoki by Kij Johnson

And recent issues of:

• Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet

• Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine

• Asimov's

So go read all this.

One Week After Clarion

Photos courtesy of Snazel!

I'm still trying to process everything that happened at Clarion. It was a happy experience, a stressful experience, and something that I think has given me a lot of perspective.

Comic-Con was an adventure. Due to the generosity of one of my Clarion fellows, I was able to be there not just for one day but THREE.

I spent Friday afternoon in the dealers room while Saturday and Sunday were mainly used for panels, like the Voice Actor Q&A, The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra, and Doctor Who. All three had magnificently long lines. Perhaps much more wisely, other Clarionauts spent time in the YA and literature panels.

I had a lot of fun scoping out the publishing section of the dealers room. I preferred the booths involving indie comics and fiction to the ones in the more commercial part of the convention center where all the TV channels and movies were handing out promotional material. The crowds were particularly dense down there!

Hope I can make it to Comic-Con again in the future!

The last two weeks of Clarion involved particularly close and enlightening sessions with Kij Johnson and John Kessel. Excellent writers and wonderful teachers with different strengths that lent depth and credibility to their lectures. Saying much more would force me to gush. Suffice to say, I would be very sad if I never met them again.

Workshops in the last couple weeks became particularly eloquent and fun. You could tell everyone had gotten to know each others' writing styles and tics. Kim Stanley Robinson stopped by and said he was impressed.

It was nice to feed off of such supportive energy from everyone.

Clarion Notes: Day 24 (Wings)

Sanity Status of the Troupes: Holding. It's definitely a pressure cooker here considering the turnaround time of the work we do and the vulnerability of individual students in workshops.

Elizabeth Bear commented on the fact that we're a pretty emotionally stable group and that we seem to "have each others backs." It certainly feels like it's true. I hope we continue to support each other in writing endeavors after this session of Clarion has ended. Just yesterday, I was talking to another student about keeping the Clarion 2011 blog going in order to keep tabs on everybody and trade prompts.

Bear also said she thinks the future of the genre, based on our stories, looks pretty good. I hope she's right about that, too.

Workshops: This week's instructor, David Anthony Durham, is an interesting contrast with the previous three teachers in that he started with historical fiction, moved into writing fantasy, and is in the process of returning to historical. He's a remarkably patient presence in workshops and very reserved. He seems to take the in-jokes shared by the others in stride.

Clarion Notes: Day 17 (Descent into Madness)

Sanity Status of the Troupes: One of our number started meowing in class, today. It didn't seem particularly weird. The in-jokes now involve lumberjacks, the word "hard," and collectively saying, "Errrr" in displeasure when something goes wrong.

Currently, the common room has a list of "possible titles" for a choose-your-own-adventure story on the wall and a drawing of the sprinkle lord.

In my phone call to my mom, today, I'm shocked I sounded normal.

Workshops: Elizabeth Bear has proven to be an interesting combination of Nina and Scalzi. Like Nina, she concentrates on the art of narrative; like Scalzi, her approach to teaching is pragmatic.

After workshopping four stories on Monday, she delivered an interesting lecture on different forms of narrative, ranging from the 5-act Elizabethan structure to the epic/soap opera plot style. Her take on want vs. need (main character) and the try-fail cycle was fascinating. It culminated in the class brainstorming two movies in ten minutes based on her outlines.

Tuesday's lesson involved the strengths and weaknesses of different points of view in narrative (ex. omniscient vs. limited third). Also, writers are allowed one amnesia story per career. Unofficial rule.

Today's lecture was mainly a discussion about first lines/hooks, what works, what doesn't, and favorite books and their openings.

The reading at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore was lovely, this evening.

Bear read us an excellent Californian vampire story from an upcoming Ellen Datlow collection. I think the piece may have been more about Californians than vampires, but that may just be me and my home fried biases.

I'm afraid, due to the little sleep I've been getting lately, I ended up a bit loopy tonight. (Hence the title.) Am currently drinking chamomile before I begin critiquing tonight's stories.

Clarion Notes: Day 13

The Clarion Schedule, according to Becky Adams, as decided last night:

Week 3: Awkward

Week 4: Wings

Week 5: Permanent Night

Week 6: Rain of Marshallows

All very accurate.

Today: Beach, hurrah! Also more writing.

Elizabeth Bear and her guitar showed up this evening. She popped by the common room to talk and play us some very nice songs with ukulele accompaniment. It was great.

Clarion Notes: Day 11

Workshops: We've been plowing through each other's stories. Reading parties erupt in the common room each night and sometimes in the living rooms of other apartments.

Right now, there's a ukulele and didgeridoo party in here, pictured left.

After each workshop, we've had a lecture from Scalzi. He tends to focus on the business and marketing aspect of writing which, for selling fiction, is pretty damn important. It's definitely a change from Nina; I'm glad Clarion varies its instructors.

Tuesday's lecture was dedicated to money (ex. budgeting, choosing whether or not to keep one's day job, etc.), Wednesday's involved finding agents and avoiding scams, and today's was all about networking or, as it should more reasonably be called, successfully socializing with peers and people you want to be your peers.

I gather most of these lectures are touched on in his blog. Here's a photo of him with three of our number, Jim W., Andy, and Tim.

In my one-on-one meeting, I asked about maintaining a job while writing and about finding an agent with a novella I wrote in college. The conversation generated a lot of interesting notes. It eventually wandered into a discussion about the excellent idea of landing spouses with superior money management skills. Or, you know, marrying (or divorcing) rich. John Scalzi: a man of wisdom.

I also had a meeting today with the Clarion program director, Shelley Streeby, with whom I shared a trunk story I wrote before coming to California. Hopefully, I'll have time later this week to edit it and the other stories I've turned in so far. She's a great source for critique. Very precise and easy to talk to.

Time feels very, very short.

Clarion Notes: Day 8

Last Week's Workshops: Nina's Wednesday workshop involved an excellent exercise utilizing setting. We wrote about the memories of our living rooms when we were 10-years old. Afterward, and proving to be much more of a challenge, we wrote about the same room from each of our mothers point-of-views. Fairly difficult, but rewarding.

Thursday and Friday involved a great deal of workshopping fiction. I think we had five stories to read for each day.

Friday afternoon, though, after class was over, we did an hour-long exercise that involved outlining a novel. I initially tried to do a novel idea I've been having for a while that switches between four different main characters, but this turned out to be pretty difficult given the time constraints.

I've saved all the handouts and exercises for after the workshop when, hopefully, I'll have More Time. People refer to this mythical More Time a lot. It feels like it's been longer than a week since Clarion began, but it's still going to be far too short, which is very unfortunate.

The Wednesday Reading at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore by Nina Kiriki Hoffman was great. Our instructor for the first week, and honestly one of the most encouraging writing teacher's I've had, read a short comedy-horror piece involving airports and flavored emotions.
Afterward, she took questions from the audience; when they ran out, she began to ask them things (one audience member turned out to own a hawk).

The bookstore itself is lovely and full of all the new (and old) releases I've been dying to read but can't possibly fit into my suitcase all at once.

On Saturday evening, we said goodbye to Nina with cards and cookies. She seemed to like that.

The Weekend: THE BEACH. Gorgeous weather, fantastic carpool volunteers, but the Pacific was rough and full of seaweed. I swallowed a lot of salt water came back with most of the beach in my bathing suit. I loved it, but wow, I couldn't get out of bed Sunday, I was so tired!

Today's Workshop ended the Nina Kiriki Hoffman Era and marks the advent of this week's instructor, John Scalzi. We dove right into Monday's critiques. Afterward, we had a discussion on the use of electronic publishing and the current state of the industry. Scalzi has a very optimistic outlook on the whole thing.

Tonight: A bunch of us Clarionauts went down to the bridge that leads to the cafeteria where we eat. From there, we saw two firework shows free, though both were partially obscured by trees. Scalzi brought his extremely charming family. Everyone else brought beers.

We all made wise-ass commentary throughout.

It was really, really fun.

And yes, Clarion students, being hardcore, work through the 4th of July. (Though, yes, some of our number aren't American.)

As for me, I turned in my second story, today. It's hard to turn in work you're not sure is done. It's also hard no to look over the shoulders of fellow students as they write comments in the margins.

You know what's not hard, though? Having my work read and considered by very thoughtful people. It's a really nice feeling.