Nothing to do now but lots of reading and writing...

[prusik]

I sent my Clarion and Clarion West applications out today. Nothing more to do on that front besides wait. Actually, they suggest that you think positively and read the instructors' works. If I skip the instructors I already have read and loved, this is doable by June. They're all people whose work I should know so I'm going to read all of them whether I get into a workshop or not. (Right now, I'm in the midst of Paul Park's A Princess of Roumania. However, a F&SF just showed up so I want to finish that up first.)

On the off chance that someone I don't know actually stumbles by this blog:

Viable Paradise opened for applications yesterday. It's a one week writing workshop held every fall on Martha's Vineyard. It's a terrific, albeit highly concentrated, experience. You get Elizabeth Bear, Debra Doyle, Steven Gould, James Macdonald, Laura Mixon, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, and John Scalzi all at once. I learned a lot from it the year I went. Actually, I'm still learning from it even though I went over two years ago now. Absolutely worth it.

Comments

[zanzjan.livejournal.com]

Best of luck with the Clarion apps! I'd love to go someday myself, but I'm afraid neither job nor family would allow it.

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

Hey! Congratulations and GOOD LUCK!!!

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I really liked the Roumania series, but then I really like Paul Park and John Crowley and that style of writing. I do think the first book is the best, but I had to know what happened.

[prusik.livejournal.com]

I really like it too so far. I worry sometimes because, sometimes, what drives the plot of plucky heroine in a foreign world stories is the protagonist being too stupid to live. That doesn't seem to be the case so far in A Princess of Roumania. I'm relieved.

I was a little non-plussed when I realized it was the first book of a trilogy because the last two books I'd read (Tithe by Holly Black and Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson) were also first books of trilogies. Clearly, I need to learn to read faster...

[prusik.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

One of the reasons I chose to apply is because I think I found a way to go without quitting my job. I figure that was a miraculous enough event that I, at least, ought to try to get in. (It's amusing, but not surprising, BTW, that if you apply for a scholarship one of the question they ask basically amounts to "Are you quitting your job to come to Clarion?")

[prusik.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

There are four books. :)

[prusik.livejournal.com]

*facepalm* Oh, d'oh...

[garunya.livejournal.com]

Good luck, John!