Write-a-thon Week 3 Brings Amazing News
Week 3 starts today and I have two bits of good news to report. First, according to the CW workshop admins, people donated enough money in a little over 48 hours to cover the cost of purchasing new laptops for the students who lost theirs to theft. You know how earlier today I said there were times I just wanted to walk away from this community? Well, this is one of the reasons I don’t. We are a community and we take care of each other in times of need. People’s generosity always amazes me, even though I see it time and again. Thanks to everyone who donated or spread the word. I’m sure the students and admins and teachers appreciate everything and will always do so.
Speaking of generosity, I just got a note from a write-a-thon coordinator letting me know what sponsorships have come in so far. A few people went ahead and donated their money (Linda Addison did so with the warning that she knew where to find me if I didn’t write — eek!) and some of them weren’t on the list I was keeping to see if I’d reached my goal yet. Well lo, with the addition of these fine folks, I found out that I met my goal of having $1000 pledged! In fact, the total is actually $1010 if I meet all of my writing goals. And I have a ton of motivation to do so. Thank you, everyone. This really made my day.
So! This week I’m thinking of doing chapter 2, since I have a vague idea of how it will go and I’m interested to see where my girls will take me next. This is probably going to be a longer one, so I’m back to grinding out 1K a day or so. Should be interesting as I’m going to be upstate for most of the week. At least it’s a nice place and quiet in the evenings :)
Tags: Clarion WestFiled under News, Workshops, Write-a-thon, Writing | Comments (3)
Write-A-Thon 2008
I’m participating in the Clarion West Write-A-Thon again this year, raising money for the workshop and for the Butler Scholarship. I’m in the process of finding sponsors to help me reach my goal of raising $1000 total.
For those of you who don’t know, a write-a-thon is a lot like a marathon. Instead of sponsoring me per mile, you sponsor me per week. If I reach my writing goal for the week, you pledge to send a certain amount of money. There are six weeks of write-a-thoning to mirror the six weeks of workshopping at Clarion West.
Also for those who don’t know, Clarion West is a writing workshop in Seattle where 17 students have the opportunity to spend a week with 6 or 7 professional writers and editors to improve their craft. This year’s instructors are:
Paul Park
Mary Rosenblum
Cory Doctorow
Connie Willis
Sheree R. Thomas
Chuck Palahniuk
And finally, the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship Fund was set up by the Carl Brandon Society to give financial aid to writers of color attending Clarion and Clarion West. Octavia got her start at Clarion and she gave her support to Clarion West as a teacher, volunteer, and speaker. She was keenly aware of the need for more voices of color in the genre. I can think of no better way to honor her memory than by giving students this opportunity.
When I went to Clarion West a very kind individual donated my full tuition to the workshop anonymously (knowing that I actually did not have the money to go and was planning to take out a loan if it came to that). It was an incredibly generous gift and I’ve always felt that I can never fully repay it — my time at the workshop meant so much. But I try, every year, to do my part in giving that gift to other students.
As I said, I’m hoping to raise $1000 total, which is a high goal but not impossible to reach. It breaks down to about $170/week. If 17 people pledge $10/week, I’ll make my goal. If 8 people pledge $20/week, I’ll make my goal. You can also do a flat amount. $60 only if I reach all of my six week goals. Or $100. If 10 people pledge $100… you get the idea.
I’m looking for 8 - 17 people who can do $10 - $20/week or $60 - $100 overall. Of course, I can’t reach my goal unless I write!
I’m currently writing a novel of 12 interlinked stories, so my goal is to write one chapter/story per week for the six weeks. If you sponsor me for $30/week or more, I will send you the (very, very!) rough drafts each week as I complete them.
If you would like to sponsor me (yay, thank you!), please send an email this gmail address: SponsorKT. Tell me your name, your pledge amount, and if you’d like to pay (in the end) via PayPal, credit/debit card, or by mailing a check to Clarion West. I don’t handle any of the monetary transactions, by the way. It all goes through CW. Soon there will be a webpage with a payment link, which I’ll send you as soon as it’s set up. Also let me know if you’d like me to put your name on the sidebar of my blog as one of my sponsors and if you’d like weekly updates.
Who will be the first to sponsor me?
ETA: My sponsor page on the Clarion West site is now live (Thanks, Kate!). That’s where you can go to send your money via PayPal once the Write-a-thon is over. If you do that, please still drop me a line at the gmail address above to let me know how much you’ve pledged. I’m keeping track of how much more I need to reach my goal. Thanks!
Tags: Clarion WestFiled under Workshops, Write-a-thon, Writing | Comment (0)
Clarion Bound
Looks like Clarion and Clarion West are starting to send acceptances (or phone them). Congrats to everyone who gets in, it’s going to be awesome (and tiring, and maddening… but mostly awesome). I thought this would be a good time to link to my Clarion Journal, as it is still online. Back then I was calling myself Finley Larkin–ah, the old days.
No clue how helpful this will be for folks, but it’s all I have in the way of advice and usefulness on this topic.
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Apply to the Launchpad Workshop
Some of you may recall that last summer I sang the praises of the Launchpad Workshop, a week-long immersion in science and astronomy sponsored by NASA. I had a really wonderful time, learned a lot, and came back with several cool ideas for stories that I’m still working on.
They’re doing the workshop again this year and, if you haven’t applied already, I suggest you do. The deadline is March 31st.
Last year several people (who were completely jealous–in a good way–that I got to go) said that they didn’t bother applying because they thought that only major pros would be able to get in. Such is not the case. It does help if you have some publishing track record, and being a Clarion alum probably doesn’t hurt, either. But our group was a nice mixture of neo-pros and not-so-neo-pros and it worked out just fine. Writers all along the spectrum can benefit from learning more about these concepts, and the admins know that.
Another thing I like about the workshop is that they are very interested in getting women and minorities to apply, and they’re not just going for tokenism. Our group was diverse in terms of gender and ethnicity.
If you have any interest at all in astronomy and learning correct scientific principles to enhance your already amazing science fiction (or even fantasy… trust me on this), apply, apply, apply. It’s free to do so, the workshop itself is free (you’ll have to cover your own meals, possibly your transportation, but they have funds for those in need on that front, too), it’s a good time, you’ll learn a lot, Wyoming is beautiful, if incredibly empty.
Tags: astronomy, Launchpad Workshop, NASAFiled under Workshops, Writing | Comment (0)
Write-a-thon Week 5 & the LaunchPad Workshop
It’s the end of week 5 and I am exhausted! I had a terrific week but the plane ride back home took a lot out of me. Perhaps because I did not rest but finished off Harry Potter 7, instead.
As far as my Write-a-thon goals go, I was able to finish my edit of Elan Vital! It will go through one more round of critique before I send it out somewhere. Asimov’s, possibly.
I mostly worked in the morning since I was able to easily get up two hours before class time. Plus, the group had a writing night which I really enjoyed.
So, the LaunchPad Workshop! For those who don’t know, this is a workshop administered by Mike Brotherton, an astronomy professor at the University of Wyoming. The purpose of the workshop is to “provide a ‘crash course’ for [science fiction writers in] modern astronomy science through workshops, guest lectures, and observation through the University of Wyoming’s two large telescopes.” We essentially had a semester of Astronomy 101 in a week. And it was wonderful.
We covered several subjects, from really basic stuff like what causes the seasons and the phases of the moon to what happens when galaxies collide and how astronomers know what elements make up distant stars and nebulas. The best part, for me, was the ability to ask fiction writer specific questions. In college, it was always sort of frustrating not to be able to ask “But if I wanted to do this in a story, how could I in light of X?” This workshop was specifically about asking those kinds of questions. So awesome.
My fellow attendees were also awesome. A few I know from conventions and other SF gatherings. Some I’ve known online for a while. It was a real treat to spend time with writers I greatly admire, like Vonda McIntyre and Eugie Foster (just to name two). We had a lot of fun in the classroom and at dinner and at the evening outings.
One of my favorite things was getting to look through telescopes of various sizes. It’s amazing what you can see with greater and greater powers of magnification. But also amazing what you can see with the naked eye on a clear night, or a pair of binoculars. On Friday night we went to WIRO, where the telescope was so huge that they didn’t even bother having an eyepiece hooked up to it, just a camera. The students there recorded an image for us and Jeremy Tolbert put it together (see above).
That was another thing we learned - how those beautiful images of deep space are actually put together. If you look through a telescope, or a camera attached to one, you don’t see the full-color beauty of the finished product. Through the compilation of images taken with filters or taken with different kinds of scopes (radio, infrared, etc.) you can cobble together an image that makes sense to us color-viewing people.
This was the first year of the workshop and things went extremely well. All down to Mike and Jim and their assistants. Next year it should be even better.
There were 13 attendees. Of them, 8 were female and 3 were people of color. (We would have had four, but one person had to drop out at the last minute.) On the application, the administrators specifically stressed their desire to bring in women and writers of color. It’s definitely something they are paying attention to and I cannot but agree.
They’ll probably be accepting applications for next year in January or February, so keep an eye on the website. Even if you’re just a writer starting out and only have a few pub credits under your belt, it’s worth it to apply. They’re looking for writers with a commitment to educating through fiction that reflects accurate scientific knowledge.
So, once I’ve slept and recouped I’ll start on my, very short, week 6 story. And then the Write-a-thon will be over! I hope the Clarion West kids are having fun. This upcoming week will be tough.
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