Next weekend marks the 2007 Calgary Young Writers’ Conference. I’ll join approximately fifty other professionals connected with writing for young people, to offer sessions to youths aged ten to fourteen. Topics on writing fiction, non-fiction, poetry and drama as well as on illustration will be offered, as well as a keynote session by Deborah Ellis. A book store and author signings will also be included for the 1200 attendees.
Working With An Editor–Or Not!
A friend passed this on to me–watch! It’s good.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo1XFz0kac0&w=425&h=350]
Review!
Tangent Short Fiction Review had this to say:
“Paid in Full” by Susan Forest tells of two umÂ…bug farmers on another world, and the giant gnats which, depending on their kind (Dark/good or White/bad), lay eggs which are nourished by the aphids and then sold, or are the rogue and deadly variety which appear at dark and kill everything they can in their feeding frenzy. One of the farmers has hit hard times and asks a favor of the other, who is forever repaying the former for a long ago debt. But now the debt has been repaid in full, and the first farmer is still extremely ungrateful (his friend has just saved his life). The story is a lesson in learning when to let go of a debt repaid when one learns that one is being taken advantage of. The gnat/aphid symbiosis, and how the eventual product is processed for profit is entertaining, as is the scene of the night terror a swarm of the deadly, blood-sucking White gnats wreaks on the terrified farmers.
News & Notables
“Paid in Full,” my story about strange ways of repaying debts, will be coming out in the next issue of Asimov’s. Watch for it in the October-November double issue, on news stands soon.
I was thrilled this summer to be asked to be a final judge for the Robyn Herrington Memorial Short Story Contest at Con-Version in Calgary. The pre-judges have narrowed the field to five speculative short stories, and the final judging will occur on the Sunday morning of the convention.
My fellow judges are Danita Maslan, author of Rogue Harvest, and Rebecca Bradley, author of the Gil Trilogy, including Lady in Gil, Scion’s Lady and Lady Pain. She also co-wrote Temutma with Stewart Sloan.
Another excitement for me, personally, was to direct the spoof, “Phantom of the Space Opera,” a ninety-minute musical written and performed by the IFWA Players. This is the story of Captain Quirk and the crew of the USS Insipid, who meet an omniscient and omnipotent being from beyond known time and space who is searching for talent aboard our heroes’ ship. We had so much fun producing the show that we made a DVD of it this fall, and hope soon to have it up on YouTube for others to view. It will be eligible for an Aurora Award this spring in the category of “Best Work in English – Other”.
Hope to see you all in Calgary for Conversion, August 17 – 19!