Sunday, December 23, 2012

Publication: "Traffic Jam" in SpringGun

My flash fiction piece, "Traffic Jam" appears in the latest issue of SpringGun.

 This was one of those wonderful stories to write, where you hear a voice in your head and the story comes out already able to walk forward. Originally it was several hundred words longer, and paring it down to fit within flash magazine guidelines (under 1000 words) made the story much stronger.

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Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Clarion West Class of 2011: Publications and Sales, 2012

This has been a wonderful year for my Clarion West class. Here's a highlight of some of the big moments for my classmates, with a list of publications following.

Book Publication!

Corinne Duyvis sold her first book! Here's the announcement: "Corinne Duyvis’s debut OTHERBOUND, where a seventeen-year-old boy finds that every time he closes his eyes, he is drawn into the body of a mute servant girl from another world — a world that is growing increasingly more dangerous, and where many things are not as they seem, to Maggie Lehrman at Amulet, by Ammi-Joan Paquette at Erin Murphy Literary Agency (World English)."

Writers of the Future Amazingness!

2011 Westies also did stellar work in the Writers of the Future Contest. Nick Tramdack, Mark Pantoja, and Alisa Alering were all finalists, with Alisa Alering going on to win the 4th Quarter! She'll be at the Writers of the Future workshop in LA with Nina Kiriki Hoffman this year, and is eligible for the grand prize. I'll be watching the stream of the awards ceremony and cheering her on.

Editorial Prowess!

David Rees-Thomas co-founded Waylines: Speculative Fiction and Film. He and co-founder Darryl Knickrehm ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the magazine, and the first issue will be out in January 2013.


Anthology Power!

One of the instructors at Clarion West is almost always an editor. Our wonderful editor in residence was L. Timmel Duchamp of Aqueduct Press. During her week of teaching, she gave us all a call for submission to a new anthology she was editing and encouraged us to submit. The concept is really interesting, one that I think my fellow English composition teachers would like: it is a collection of the untold stories behind famous characters, presented in a Wikipedia-like format. All in all, stories by seven of the Clarion West class of 2011 will appear in this anthology: Missing Links and Secret Histories: A Selection of Wikipedia Entries Lost, Suppressed, or Misplaced in Time. Cheers to Jeremy, Anne, Jenni (me!), Alisa, John, Cassie and Nick!

Here's a list of publications and other writing credits that have been sold or published in 2012. Check out these great stories! 


 Alisa Alering
  • "Keith Crust's Lucky Numbers." Flash Fiction Online. Forthcoming 2013. 
  • "Madeline Usher Usher." Missing Links and Secret Histories: A Selection of Wikipedia Entries Lost, Suppressed, or Misplaced in Time. Ed. L. Timmel Duchamp. Aqueduct Press. Forthcoming. 

Corinne Duyvis

S.L. Gilbow

Eliza Hirsch
  • "A Map of the Heart." (Con)viction anthology. Forthcoming February 2013. 

Cassie Krahe
  • "Walking Home." Daily Science Fiction. Forthcoming. 
    • Clarion West Submission Story

Jenni Moody
  • "Traffic Jam." SpringGun. Issue 7. Forthcoming. 
  • "Peter Rabbit." Missing Links and Secret Histories: A Selection of Wikipedia Entries Lost, Suppressed, or Misplaced in Time. Ed. L. Timmel Duchamp. Aqueduct Press. Forthcoming.


 Jack Nicholls

Mark Pantoja
  • "The End." Tales of World War Z: Fan Fiction and Stories of the Zombie Apocalypse. 4 July 2012. 
    • Clarion West Week 2 Story
  • "A Darker Cycle." Nihilist SF. Issue 1. 26 November 2012. 
    • Blog post about the process of revising this story
    • Clarion West Week 6 Story
  • "Houses." Miette's Bedtime Story Podcast. 8 September 2012. 
    • Clarion West Week 4 Story

David Rees-Thomas

Maria Romasco-Moore
  • "The Great Loneliness." Unstuck. Issue 2. December 2012.
    • Clarion West Submission Story


Jeremy Sim
  • "Fleep." Waylines Magazine. Forthcoming. 
    • Clarion West Week 5 Story

Anne Toole
    • "The Red Bandit." The Digital Wall. 2012
      • Reprint of "Night in the Library." Originally published in Crossed Genres. Issue # 3. February 2009.

    Nick Tramdack
    • "Ligne Claire." Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. Issue 57. 2012.
      • Clarion West Week 1 Story
    • "Triple Bind." New Myths. Issue 20. September 2012.
    • "Cold Embrace." Ray Gun Revival. Issue 14, Vol.2. 2012. 
      • Clarion West Week 4 Story


    Alberto Yanez
    • "Driving for Peanuts." Toasted Cake. Episode 23. 3 Jun 2012. 
      • Text version available here on Alberto's website. 

    Congrats to all of my Clarion West classmates on a great year of writing! 

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    Thursday, December 13, 2012

    The Next Big Thing

    Last Wednesday I was tagged for "The Next Big Thing" by Eliza Hirsch. Here are my answers:



    1) What is the working title of your next book?

    I don't have a working title at the moment, other than "the story that takes place at a convention"

    2) Where did the idea come from for the book?

    In the wake of DragonCon, there's always tons of photographs and videos about that year's experience. This year I particularly loved this video:



     It struck me that a convention would be the perfect setting for a quest narrative. They're a microcosm of all these different worlds and fandoms. Also, it's a great place to try on different costumes/ personas.

    3) What genre does your book fall under?

    YA

    4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

    My story features geek cultural icons, so it would be amazing if they made cameo appearances as themselves. I would be insanely happy if my book were made into a movie and George Takei played himself. 

     As for my main characters, I would want them to be played by very new, unknown actors. I feel like more well-known actors sometimes evoke expectations in the audience based on their previous roles.

    5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

    A young girl goes on a quest to experience and document moments of geek triumph at DragonCon in an attempt to reconnect with her alcoholic father.

    6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

    I will be seeking agent representation. 

    7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

    It's a current work in progress, but my goal is to have the first draft done by the summer. 

    8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

    In Freaked by J.T. Dutton, the main character goes on a journey to a Grateful Dead concert. I kept expecting for the story to jump ahead, for long periods of time to pass. Mid-way through the book, I realized that the journey was the story. Dutton's novel made me reconsider the role of time in a YA novel, and I'm trying to work with a similar short time frame for this book.

     I'm also playing with voice. I remember reading Minister Faust's The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad and thinking "I bet this was so much fun to write." I love the narrative voice style in Minister's novel. Sometimes I have the cloud of Serious Writer hanging over my head and I want to write only the novel that will devastate you and change your life. So I keep reminding myself of authors like Minister Faust who write with purpose but have fun along the way.

    9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

    Talking with my Star Trek club friends about DragonCon reminded me of the excitement I felt at going to my first convention. Like a lot of people I know, I wish I had been more comfortable with my fandom earlier. I missed out on years of having fun with people who like the same stories I do, all because I was trying really hard to fit into someone else's mold of who I should be. 

     10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

     I'm writing a novel about a geek girl for other young geek girls to see a kindred spirit in action. My goal is to make a book that is fun, but also has a steady undertow of emotional conflict. I can promise you Star Trek references  that go beyond the well-known episodes, a Browncoat code of honor, and superheroic feats.

    That's it for me. What's your work in progress about? I'm tagging Ashley Cowger, so check on her blog next week to find out about her novel! 


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    Tuesday, December 4, 2012

    Ready, Set, {Pause}, Workshop!

    In workshops where there are a large number of participants, the critique from each member most likely has a time limit. At Clarion West, we had seventeen people plus an instructor critique each story. To make sure everyone was able to speak about the story, each person was allowed a maximum of 3 minutes for feedback.

    As an incentive to keep within that time frame, we were each given four or so tickets at the beginning of the week. If you felt strongly about a story and wanted to keep going after the polite tap on the table (or awkward gong of a half-full aluminum water bottle), then you could rip up one of your tickets and keep going. But on Friday there were drawings for wonderful prizes, and your tickets were your chance to win.

    Three minutes can feel like a long time if you're doing a presentation in front of a class. But if you're speaking about a story and trying to articulate what did and didn't work for you as a reader, then three minutes is never enough time.

    Our first full-story critiques happened in week two. The first day of workshop I tried to cram in as much information as I could during my 3 minutes. I had a list of bullet points and I rattled them off, not really going into detail on any one point. I also wanted to appear competent to my classmates and instructor, and I think this often happens to writers during the first critique session at any workshop.

    The critique room at Clarion West 2011

    Then it was my turn. My story was ripped apart. Not unkindly. Not without caring words for what was working in the story. And in many ways the critique I received during that first round of stories propelled me to try my hardest during each submission cycle at the workshop.

    But after the crit session had ended that day I didn't go to lunch with my classmates. I felt bombarded with feedback. I escaped to my room and stayed there for an hour in the quiet. During that time I thought about what was important to me as a writer. Which feedback had been most useful.

    It wasn't the laundry list of things to fix. It was the moments when a classmate took the time to explore an area or two of my story, to really dig in deep. Or when they responded to an idea brought up earlier in the critique session. During these types of critiques my classmates usually spoke more slowly. Without the pre-listed bullet points, the critiques were more conversational. They reached me in a way that a list of Dittos couldn't.

    These types of critiques worked for me because I felt connected to my classmates. Oddly, I was able to separate my work from my self more easily when I felt like my classmate addressed me directly. Maybe because the sense of them wanting to help me succeed came through more clearly. Or maybe the whole experience just felt less overwhelming.

    So I decided to do something different with my responses. I still only had a few minutes for each critique, but each time I sacrificed a few of those precious moments to make a connection with the person whose story I was critiquing.

    "Hey Mark."
    "Hey Alisa."
    "Hey Jei."

    I think some people may have thought it was silly, but after a while it caught on and other people started doing it, too. And in the end my critiques were the better for this moment of pause, of connection.


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