Updates

Finished teaching my course on Speculative Fiction at the Alexandra Centre last Monday. Loved the course, and this particular group of students was very vocal and we had stimulating discussions.

Wow! I was invited to be interviewed by Carl V. Anderson at SF Signal, a Hugo award-winning fanzine! I didn’t know too much about interviewing techniques until I talked to a friend who conducts these, and a lot of time and research goes into a good interview. Carl did a wonderful job finding out about me prior to the interview so that his questions were very specific to me, which made it even more of a delight. The interview won’t be posted for a couple of weeks, but I am looking forward to seeing it!

Making good progress on editing the novel. I have several, very specific edits I need to make, and it is just a question of bum-in-chair, and getting it done. Once I am at it, it goes very smoothly. Now, if life would stop interfering…

Fabulous week in Washington and Oregon, reading as part of the Pacific Northwest Reading Series in Seattle and Portland. We had great turnouts in both places, despite the rain in Seattle–probably 40+ in each location. And I sold some books! It was also awesome to meet, and read with, Fran Wilde and Jason Gurley. Also met up with Cat Rambo, Brenda Cooper, and John Pitts in Seattle, and David Levine in Portland, and I met (and got to stay in the home of) Mark Nieman-Ross. Altogether, a wonderful week!

One of the huge advantages of the writers’ retreat at the Rainforest is the lack of wifi. Of course, that makes it impossible to tweet about how fantastic it is.

I drive down with two other writers and we use the 2-day drive as a coaching opportunity: each of us gets a half-day to focus entirely on our own work. The author describes the project she plans to work on at the retreat and describes problems she is facing. The other two ask clarifying questions and, if appropriate, brainstorm suggestions. The writerly conversation ranges wherever it will, but always circles back to the writer and her needs. There is no Clarion-style protocol wherein the author can’t respond: this is an open conversation, wherein the author takes notes, asks further questions, shares her “aha!”s and stimulates even more conversation. The coaching session is done when the author has no further questions, her head is full, or whatever. For one of us, that only took 20 minutes, and the coaches need to respect the fact that the author may NOT want too much brainstorming or discussion, depending on her creative style, the stage of the project, etc. Sometimes, talking too much about a project dissipates the desire to write. However, all three of our group found (1) unlocking for trouble spots, (2) inspiration, and (3) the settling of her headspace, ready to pour out words once we arrived at the retreat.

Awesome, eh?