Clarion West Alumni News for November 2014

The Halloween decorations are being put away as the first of Seattle’s traditional autumn windstorms has industriously stripped the leaves from the cottonwoods and vine maples. Gore-Tex and flannel winter attire is being brought out of storage, and everything is pumpkin-flavored—even things that probably shouldn’t taste like pumpkin.

Clarion West is still hard at work on getting ready for application season. If you’re interested in applying for 2015 (or know a writer who might be), you can check out instructors, costs, and all sorts of other information on the Summer Workshop page. Applications open in December, and you can save $20 on the application fee by applying early.

If you’ve ever wondered if you might be able to write a tie-in novel, our One-Day Workshop “Tie-In Fiction: Why It’s Awesome and How to Do It” with Erik Scott de Bie on Sunday, December 7 can help you get started. Registration is still open for this six-hour intensive workshop.

Awards
Craig L. Gidney’s (CW ‘96) novel Bereft won a Bronze Moonbeam Children’s Book Award. Congratulations!

Community Announcements

Potlatch 24
February 6, 7, and 8, 2015 — Hotel Deca — Seattle, WA

Potlatch is a small, literary speculative fiction convention where readers and writers meet on common ground. Their format, with a single track of programming, brings everyone together in a lively discussion that continues from one program to the next and goes on into the evening. Potlatch has some of the most interesting conversations — and people — in the science fiction community.

This year’s Book of Honor is the June 2014 issue of Lightspeed magazine, the special “Women Destroy Science Fiction!” issue.

Potlatch has a close connection to Clarion West. They feature a Clarion West Benefit Auction (with books, art, and unique hand-made items) on Saturday evening, as well as readings and a half-day Writers Workshop. Clarion West alumni and friends are encouraged to attend as many of you have in the past.

Visit their website for registration details and contact information.

Publications
Katrina S. Forest (CW ’09) had a story appear in September in Every Day Fiction, “In Line With a Prize.” Her story “The Poisoned City” will appear in the next issue of The Future Fire.

Several Clarion West alumni will appear in the reprint anthology Imaginarium 3: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing, including Siobhan Carroll (CW ’09), Indrapramit Das (CW ’12), Neile Graham (CW ’96), and Jennifer Giesbrecht (CW ’13). Helen Marshall (CW ’12) is one of the editors on the volume.

Shannon Peavey (CW ’13) has a story up at Daily Science Fiction titled “At First Glance.”

David D. Levine (CW ‘00) has sold his “Regency Interplanetary Airship Adventure” novel Arabella of Mars to Tor in a three-book deal. The first volume will be published in late 2015 or early 2016, with two sequels to follow at yearly intervals. David says, “Getting to this point has been a real emotional rollercoaster, with many years of hard work, long waits, and near misses. Arabella of Mars, my first sale, is my fourth completed novel; I started outlining the first one at the beginning of 2003, so this moment is the culmination of more than ten years of effort. And yet, of course, this is also only the beginning of an equally long strange journey to publication and beyond. I have a lot to do in the next year, including soliciting blurbs, writing blog posts, assembling a street team, and scheduling readings and interviews, as well as shepherding the book through production, not to mention writing book 2 (which currently exists as a solid outline and 4000 words of text). It’s going to be a heck of a ride, and I plan to keep you informed along the way.” Congratulations, David!

Ann Leckie (CW ’05) has a sequel to her award-winning Ancillary Justice out now: Ancillary Sword.

M. Huw Evans (CW ’12 and Clarion West Workshop Administrator) has a story out in GigaNotoSaurus, titled “Nine Instances of Rain.”

Sandra Odell’s (CW ’10) flash piece “Exchanges, No Refunds” debuted in Daily Science Fiction in October.

Helena Bell’s (CW ’13) story “Lovecraft” appeared in the October issue of Clarkesworld.

Usman Malik’s (CW ’13) story “The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family” (first published in Qualia Nous) can now be read online. The story was reviewed favorably by several authors including Nathan Ballingrud and Ken Liu.

Alyc C. Helms (CW ’12) has just sold two books to Angry Robot Books. The Dragons of Heaven will be published in April 2015 with the sequel to follow a year later. Read the announcement and more details at the Angry Robots site.

“Ship House,” an excerpt from Helen Marshall’s (CW ’12) collection, Gifts For The One Who Comes After, is up at Tor.com. Helen describes the story as “The Haunting of Hill House crossed with Rumpelstiltskin.”

Rajan Khanna’s (CW ‘08) first book, Falling Sky, came out in October from Pyr. Publisher’s Weekly called it a “solid and memorable debut” while Library Journal gave it a starred review and named it Debut of the Month.

Gord Sellar (CW ‘06) and Emily Skaftun (CW ’09) both have novelettes in the October/November 2014 issue of Asimov’s, on sale now.

Chinelo Onwualu (CW ’14) is starting a new monthly speculative fiction e-zine called Omenana, focusing on fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora. Submissions are now open.

Appearances
Curtis C. Chen (CW ’14) is participating in the SFWA Pacific Northwest Reading Series on Tuesday, November 11 in Kirkland, WA and Wednesday, November 12 in Portland, OR. The other featured authors are Django Wexler and Daniel H. Wilson. For more details, please see the SFWA site.