So, this year’s Clarion West Write-a-thon is proving to be a challenge. After struggling with Week 2 and thinking I had Week 3 sussed, I flew to Seattle for an agency retreat and ended up staying through the weekend.

As amazing and useful as the retreat was, it wasn’t conducive to writing.

So I’m behind. Again. Amazing how quickly that happened.

However, I am going to complete my goals. Even if it takes me longer than anticipated. Those who have sponsored me already will get what I’ve promised. Those who have yet to sponsor me will get what’s promised as well. I just anticipate much of the work getting done next week.

I did manage to get out to a Clarion West party this past Friday, though, and I’ll say that the current crop of students has inspired me. What I do with this write-a-thon, I do partially in their honor, as well as in honor of my CW classmates.

So, lagging but hardly lost…

It’s now Week 3 of the Clarion West Write-a-thon, though because I lost a week it’s my second week writing. Last week went okay. I’m easing back into short story writing. I came up with a new idea, and it has a start and finish, but the ideas are still developing so the draft I wrote is still being revised. But I’ve begun on this week’s story already, so I expect that these will be finished in stages with revisions continuing into the weeks when I’m working on new drafts.

Last week’s story was science fiction, a rare thing for me these days, though this week’s is more science fantasy.

Thank you to all who sponsored me already. I appreciate the support and, of course, the support for the workshop. I’m still looking for sponsors, though, and don’t forget that there are rewards for different levels of support.

If you’d like to donate/sponsor me in the workshop, please go to this page and click on Donate.

In recent news, I sold two reprints this month. The first was to Escape Pod, who is taking my story, “Flowing Shapes.” The story originally appeared in the first issue of Basement Stories and I’m thrilled that it’s going to be heard by Escape Pod’s audience.

The second sale was to their sister podcast, Pseudopod. They will be podcasting my story, “Pumpkinhead”, which appeared in Shadows of the Emerald City.

I’ve narrated podcasts for all three of the Escape Artists sites – Podcastle, Escape Pod, and Pseudopod – now, so it’s also really cool to have stories of mine appear in all three.

I’ll post links when they go live.

I’ve been remiss in not talking about the Clarion West Write-a-thon. I’m participating again this year, though because of a crazy last week, I’m starting a little slow out of the gate.

For those not familiar with the Write-a-thon, the idea is simple. Participants ask people to sponsor them to meet their writing goals to coincide with the course of the current Clarion West workshop. All of the money donated goes to the workshop to help keep it active and to support the development of future writers. If you’re a fan of fiction, you’ll be investing in new generations of writers and adding to the quality of their fiction. Past participants of the workshop include Daniel Abraham, Kij Johnson, Cat Rambo, E. C. Myers, and Rachel Swirsky, among many others. Also be aware that Clarion West is a non-profit educational organization and your donation will be tax deductible.

My basic plea is that you consider supporting the workshop by sponsoring anyone involved in the Write-a-thon. However, since I am participating, I’d like you to consider sponsoring me. To make this more interesting, I’ve decided to adopt a Kickstarter-like approach to the write-a-thon. I am pledging to write a story for each week of the workshop. As I’ve fallen behind, this will be one story a week for the next 5 weeks and one final bonus story (which oddly enough parallels my output for when I was in the workshop back in 2008). If you sponsor me, you will be entitled to the following depending on the amount:

$1/week or $5 or more: you will receive an entry into a drawing for a copy of Way of the Wizard, an anthology from Prime which contains my story, “Card Sharp.” The anthology was edited by John Joseph Adams so you know it’s going to be a good one and contains stories from folks like George R. R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, and Jeffrey Ford. I’ll even sign it if you so desire.

$5/ a week or $25 or more: you’ll get an entry into the giveaway drawing and, if you’re interested, will receive copies of the stories I write during the write-a-thon. These will be first drafts, or course, but I will also happily send you final copies as well (or in any combination you desire).

$10/ a week or $50 or more: everything from the previous categories, but I will also Tuckerize you or a person of your choice.

$20/ a week or $100 or more: all the previous perks plus I will write a story based on a prompt from you.

Hopefully you’ll find these options interesting. To sponsor me, simply visit this page and click on the Donate button. If course if my offerings don’t interest you, please think about sponsoring someone. There are a lot of amazing writers participating and they each have their own goals (and some of them have rewards).

Thanks for your indulgence.

I apologize to my Facebook and Twitter friends who have seen this already, but I found out last night that my story, “Card Sharp”, from The Way of the Wizard anthology, made the British Fantasy Award long list, or their recommendations as they call it. And while I didn’t make the cut to the short list, I’m happy that someone liked the story well enough to nominate it for an award. This story seems to be the most popular one I’ve written so far, so I feel good that there are more related projects in the works.

The list also includes The Way of the Wizard anthology, edited by John Joseph Adams, and the story “Tethered” by fellow Altered Fluid member Mercurio D. Rivera.

And since I have the excuse, I should mention that “Card Sharp” is still available to read for free online at The Way of the Wizard site as well as being available in podcast form at Podcastle.