Clarion West

Hi. I'm Caren.

I found this strange and wonderful place after figuratively wandering the proverbial wilderness of literary fiction.

I did all the right things. I got an MFA. I published a few novels. I taught for a few years. I treaded a lot of water and have eaten a lot of macaroni and cheese.

After marrying a sc-fi artist, I rediscovered speculative fiction, and met my inner geek. She's led me to a crossroads, of which I hope Clarion, with its notorious innards-scrambling, can help me re-emerge.

I pee my drawers a little, every time I think of it.

I'm a local, BTW, and can help with Seattle info. I know the good folks at the office are slammed. I've lived here for seven years. I know all the good bookstores, *gawth* clubs, and where the post office is, etc.

~Caren Gussoff

My name is Jim Stewart. I've spent the last two decades getting back to doing what I wanted to do when I was in high school, which is write speculative fiction. If I knew how I'd make a machine for kicking me in the ass every morning for not having done it all that time. 

I've just started to have any success; my first (paid) publication in Apex Digest just came out last month.  ("I Can't Look at the City," Issue 12, if anyone's curious). I have a bunch more stories and a few novel manuscripts crowding my hard drive now. I guess I hope that Clarion will turn that into a bunch of stories & novel manuscripts knocking editors (and readers!) on their asses.

As for what I'll  get that I don't expect, well, that's what we all want to know, right? I knew that a workshop like this was exactly the next step I need, but I don't know what comes after. Right now my future after August 1, 2008 looks as cloudy as it's been for years. 

In any case, I am more excited about this than I have been about anything. I can't wait to meet the rest of you!

Jim 

My name is Marguerite Lance, but most people call me Maggie.

How did I get to Clarion West? Basically my husband totally rocks. He came to me last September and said, "Maggie, have you heard of Clarion? I think you should apply." (Had I heard of Clarion? Duh.) So I did apply. I, uh, didn't exactly expect my application to go anywhere...

When I was a kid I used to have fantasies about writing for the pulps, a la Bradbury. I never expected for any such thing to actually happen. It was just a happy dream, a happy fantasy. So I fiddled around with writing, went to college, quit fiddling and did the anthrogeek thing, started fiddling a little bit again in grad school, decided to have a family and stay at home with the kids, and then started really fiddling, writing more and more each passing year. I don't know that I have to tell any of you why I continue to do it. You know the rush, the excitement, the frustration, the difficulty, the joy, and the absolute pleasure that writing brings.

I applied to Clarion with the hope that if I were to get in, and I knew it was a long shot, that I would learn how to write better quality,
more effective stories. I would be able
to learn what some of my problems are (that I haven’t already identified), and learn
how to improve the problems I’m aware of and am not currently aware of. I would also like to identify what I do okay
at, and how to improve those things as well.
I want to learn what skills the writers-in-residence have and make those
skills my own. And finally, and probably
most importantly, I’m excited to meet you all and make some friends from all
over the world. I live in SE Idaho, and
well… we’re not overloaded with writers out here.

An in terms of what will happen that I’m not expecting to
happen? I suspect that being alone
without my husband for the first time since the mid-1990’s and without children
since 2002 will be a most interesting experience. But since I listed that it will be entirely
something else ;).

Hi. I'm Theresa.

Glad to "meet" you all. I've published a few short stories, only one professionally. I hope to produce more work, take some chances, and become a stronger storyteller. I haven't participated in many workshops, but when I did, I always learned a lot from giving and receiving feedback. CW's got a great reputation and I'm looking forward to six weeks of nothing but writing!

I work for a genre publisher here in NYC and that's how I heard of Clarion.

As a recovering goth who's been to Seattle twice: is Mercury still around? I used to be a contributor for Industrial Nation magazine and I interviewed some folks there. I liked the speakeasy feel of the place and the DJs were friendly. Seattle's a great city, so I can't wait to return. (And get some more delicious food at Tamarind Tree!)

Name: Tracy Harford

A bit about me: Born, raised & living in Brooklyn. I have not published any of my fiction thus far. I have worked as an editor in various capacities. I’ve worked on a book team for a musical, writing all of the poetry and most of the song lyrics. I edited a couple poetry books and used to produce poetry events in New York. I’ve also worked as elementary school teacher and a counselor for developmentally disabled adults. For the last four years, I’ve been working in Human Resources. In the past, I’ve worked for Goldman Sachs, but more recently, I’m at StoryCorps.net, which is a national oral history project affiliated with NPR. Currently a junior and Anthro major at Columbia U.

What you hope to get out Clarion West: Um, a lot. I'll cut-n-paste what I wrote in my background statement: One of my hopes is that the pace of the Clarion West workshops will help me break into a more of a daily flow of writing (I now write more on a 4-day/week schedule.) I would also like to stretch my creative muscles and try writing storylines and characters that I read avidly, but haven’t yet put my own interpretation on.

What you never expected to get out of Clarion, which will take you by surprise: I *am* actually a lil' psychic, and I envision it'll go something like this:
On August 2, Tracy was packing and thinking about the last six weeks and the fact that CW changed her life forever. Never mind getting pregnant and breaking up a marriage (she felt really sorry about that BTW, but Love is LOVE, y'know?), but the excessive drinking really produced some amazing epiphanies, and she was starting to admire that tattoo she woke up with after the last binge. The friendships she made that summer were of the lifelong quality (not the kind of friendships where only a DARK secret holds you together or anything like that) and that brawl during week six released a lot of tension and forged the group spiritually. She was really looking forward to meeting up with everyone again at Odyssey...

Hi!

My name is Kira Walsh. I'm a graduate student in Interdisciplinary Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. Until I moved to Atlanta for school last May, I had lived in Northern Virginia my whole life (on the off chance that anyone is flying from D.C., let me know!) I've never been to the west coast and I'm VERY excited about seeing Seattle. Of course, I would be very excited about living in a cardboard box if it meant six weeks of writing, new people, etc...

I'm in a writing class with Jim Grimsley at Emory this semester, and he was the one who told me about Clarion. In fact, he told me about it four days before the deadline when I asked him about summer workshops. So I went from 0 to 60 in those four days, because as soon as I knew what Clarion was I also knew I really, really, really, really wanted to go. And, well, yay!!!!!! :)

One of the things I'm most hoping for from the experience is to get better at critiquing my own writing. I love to read, edit, and comment on other people's work, but I'm not as good at approaching my own. I'm not harsh about other people's writing, I just see more in it sometimes. I've started editing my own stuff before I have coffee in the morning, and that helps a lot. I will be the one who you don't want to approach pre-coffee. The rest of the time I'm quite cheerful. :)

I'll skip the last one. I completely fail at figuring out how things are going to be. If I decide to expect X, and then all this really great stuff happens but X never does...I'll be a little sad.

I can't wait to meet all of you. Thanks for starting an applicant thread, Christopher!

- Kira

Hi, Everyone--

In a short while we'll set up a yahoo email list that will include everyone in your class.

I can't believe we're closing in on 10 weeks out!

--Neile

Now that we have some great intros springing up on my thread here, I'll throw in my hat. ;)

Hello, I'm Christopher.

I became addicted to words at such an early age that I was already determined to be a writer at 9. I published my first story at 16, was working for small press magazines at 18, and already had a burning desire to goto a Clarion workshop before I was 20.

Then something completely unexpected and right happened to change all that - I grew up. I traveled the world, tasted love and heartbreak, fought for my life, went through a few incredible near-death experiences, and learned a few things about myself and the world. I’ve seasoned up over the last decade or so, and the experiences I draw from for writing are now my own. I’ve shed the youthful obsession to make it big, and replaced it with a coal-hot passion to make it good.

I hope to get a lot out of Clarion West this year. I have things to share, and so much more to learn. I feel like I’m on the edge of breaking into where I want to be as a writer. I’m looking forward to experimentation, epiphany, and extreme sleep deprivation. I’m hoping to find kinship with others who write, not only because it fulfills their dreams, but because they have no choice.

The thing that will surprise me the most about Clarion – I don’t know, I’m not too psychic, but probably that thing with the hot-buttered pole dancing, the shaving cream and the penguins.

-Christopher

Hello all.

My name is CarltonMellick III. I'm from Portland, OR. I'm really excited about attending this workshop. 6 weeks of intensive writing? Sounds like a party to me. I really wanted to do this years ago but could never afford it. I still can't. I'm going anyway. Otherwise, I'd regret it forever. I just turned 30 and am going through that it's-time-to-get-serious-about-life stage of my life.

I am a fulltime writer. By fulltime I mean broke all the time, but I'm happy to be able to pay the bills (most of the time) by doing something creative. I write bizarro fiction. I have over 20 books in print from 5 different presses. Most of them are about toilet gnomes. I think they are the best books ever written about toilet gnomes. I could be wrong about this. If anyone here has read better books about toilet gnomes, please don't tell me about them. I'd much rather live in a fantasy world where I am the #1 toilet gnome author. It is all that I strive for.

I have a website that is all about me: www.carltonmellick.com

I am also an artist and homebrewer.