In the pipe and coming home

Just a quick note.

I got the galleys for Flotsam from Trevor Quachri at Analog today.  Ten pages with my name on them.   And did I say that it’s Analog?   I know everyone thinks their baby is beautiful, but even so.

Pardon me while I giggle and do the happy dance.

A busy summer

The good news keeps coming.

I’ve been invited to attend the Clarion West speculative fiction writers workshop this summer.   No damned airplane rides required, either, because it’s going to be held right here in Seattle from June 20 until July 30.

That’s right.  Six weeks, twenty-four and seven — eating, sleeping, talking and living speculative fiction with seventeen other writers and six established professionals, who will spend a week each with us, teaching us as much as we are able to absorb.  This year’s instructors are Michael Bishop, Maureen McHugh, Nnedi Okorafor, Graham Joyce, Ellen Datlow, and Ian McDonald.

As a special bonus, my buddy, Jude-Marie Green, demon writer and associate editor of Abyss & Apex, the online speculative fiction magazine, will be on hand for the whole six weeks.  Why?  Because she’s been invited, too.  You go, girl!

Clarion West has been called a pressure cooker, a boot camp for writers.  At my age, I hope I’m up to it.  Like the punch line to the old joke, I guess I’ll just have to take my chances.

And then a month later, I’ll be on my way to beautiful, downtown Hollywood (I think I’m going to take the train) for a week at the Writers of the Future workshop and awards gala.  Joni Labaqui, the WOTF contest director, has said that among the other professionals on hand for the event, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle may be in attendance.

Be still, my beating heart.

At Norwescon 33

I’ll be at Norwescon 33 as an attending professional in two weeks.

In addition to just hanging around and being generally bothersome, I’m participating in three panels, one each on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and reading my Analog story, Flotsam, on Sunday morning.

Here’s my schedule:

Friday, April 2, 2010 9:00 p.m., Cascade 6
Gender Queers in Urban Fantasy: Where are the novels that discard the gender binary in this genre? Where are the drag queens and other gender queers?

Saturday, April 3, 2010 10:00 p.m., Cascade 7
Avoiding Cliches in Urban Fantasy: How many hard-boiled PIs does one genre need? Gritty locales are fun, but why can’t we ever be at the beach? Magic users, vampires, and werewolves, oh my! Do we need something more original?

Sunday, April 4, 2010 10:30 – 11:00 a.m., Cascade 3
Reading by K.C. Ball of Flotsam, a near-future science fiction story scheduled to appear in the September 2010 issue of Analog.

Sunday, April 4, 2010 2:00 p.m., Cascade 9
Urban Fantasy: Bridge Over a Genre: This is a genre that seems to pull ideas and forms from many different worlds. A little noir here, some mystery there, and oh hey, look steampunk! Where does urban fantasy begin and end?

Norwescon is one of the largest regional science fiction and fantasy conventions in the United States.

While maintaining a literary focus, Norwescon also provides a venue for other aspects of science fiction and fantasy, such as anime, costuming, art and gaming.

The convention will be held at the SeaTac Double Tree Hotel, April 1-4, 2010. If you’re planning on attending, stop by and say hello.

At Potlatch

This past weekend, I spent a lot of time at Potlatch 19. It’s a literary convention for readers and writers of speculative fiction and it focuses on communications.

No costumes. No gaming or art shows. No film rooms. Just a bunch of folks with a passion for SF and an interest in discussing the genre with other devotees. Intimate is a word you hear a lot at Potlatch and it is that.

There are some group events — a couple of scheduled panels, an organizational meeting or two and a Sunday brunch — but what you see most (and get drawn into) are small clusters of people everywhere, involved in animated conversations.

It was enormous fun.

Jude-Marie Green, fellow writer and associate editor of Abyss & Apex, the quarterly on-line SF magazine, flew up from Los Angeles. She stayed with Rachael and me, came bearing gifts from LaLa Land, and was kind enough to hang out with me at the convention.

She and I breakfasted with Kij Johnson Saturday and Rachael met us Sunday afternoon for a swell poke around at Pike Place Market. We were sorry to see her leave Monday afternoon.

The event was held at the Deca Hotel, in the heart of the University District, and it was a good choice. The attention we received from the hotel staff was first-rate — friendly, competent and ever-helpful — and all the nooks and crannies of the facility were perfect for small gatherings.

I had a chance to chat with some of my favorite published SF writers — Kij Johnson, Vonda McIntire, Ellen Klages and David D. Levine, to name just a few — and had an animated conversation about fanzines, SF movies, silent-film comedians and the logistics of conventions with Potlatch committee member Jerry Kaufman over Sunday brunch.

The best part of the whole thing is that proceeds — from the Potlatch auction, tee-shirt sales and the like — go to support the Clarion West Workshop, the six-week workshop, held here in Seattle, for writers preparing for professional careers in science fiction and fantasy.

Talk about win-win situations. I’m already looking forward to Potlatch 20, next year in San Francisco.

At Analog

Got an e-mail today from Trevor Quachri, managing editor at Analog.  Flotsam is scheduled to appear in the September 2010 issue, which will be in print sometime in late June.

I like that.   Just about a year after it was workshopped at Jim Gunn’s SF Writers program at the University of Kansas. That has a certain symmetry, doesn’t it?.

Thank you for the news, Trevor.  You helped make my day today.