I am participating in the Clarion West Write-a-thon this year. Since it’s been 9 years since my own Clarion West class (2008), I have decided to have 9 goals:

1. Write 3 new short story first drafts
2. Revise and submit 3 existing short stories
3. Add 3 chapters to my current novel WIP

The idea of the Write-a-thon is simple — writers commit to certain goals for the period of the current Clarion West workshop and collect donations that go to help the workshop. As I said on the website, I truly think of it as investing in the future of great speculative fiction. I have seen so many scarily talented people come out of the workshop and so I think it’s a no brainer to help support many years of fulfilling, enjoyable fiction for everyone.

I am not giving a specific fundraising goal, but I have decided to offer perks for people who want to donate specific amounts

I will be raffling off a complete series of my first three books — Falling Sky, Rising Tide, and Raining Fire — in print or ebook, personalized however you’d like.

For each $5 donation you get one entry for the raffle.

You get one additional entry for each $5 donation to one of my Clarion West 2008 Classmates:

https://www.clarionwest.org/members/douglaslucas/

https://www.clarionwest.org/members/tracyharford/

https://www.clarionwest.org/members/kira/

https://www.clarionwest.org/members/psbains/

https://www.clarionwest.org/members/tdelucci/

https://www.clarionwest.org/members/aowomoyela/

https://www.clarionwest.org/members/mcroft/

https://www.clarionwest.org/members/shanusmagnus/

https://www.clarionwest.org/members/carolryles/

https://www.clarionwest.org/members/edenrobins/

https://www.clarionwest.org/members/owen08/

https://www.clarionwest.org/members/pamelarentz/

https://www.clarionwest.org/members/christopherreynaga/

For a $20 donation, you can read any of the revised stories before they’re published.

For a $50 donation (stolen from Caroline Yoachim),  I will write a story of indeterminate length (but probably short) based on 5-10 words that you supply as a prompt (I will only use some of them).

For $100 you will be tuckerized in an upcoming work, either a short story or novel.

I hope you will consider donating to what is a worthy source of future art and entertainment and sponsor me here. 

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.

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.

Like every year since 2009, I am doing the Clarion West Write-a-thon this year. The idea is simple – you sponsor me and my writing goals, and the money goes to support the Clarion West Writers Workshop. Clarion West made me a better writer and every year it makes other people better writers. The way I look at it, it’s a way to invest in better fiction in the future. Participants of Clarion West do pay tuition, but much of the money that supports the workshop comes from efforts such as this one.

This year, because I have a diverse set of projects I’m working on, I’m committing to writing five hours a week. This writing will likely be devoted to revising short stories in an effort to get them out, writing new short stories, and working on novels.

I know that there are plenty of places that you can donate to, and never enough money or time to go around, but if you love science fiction and fantasy, if you read genre fiction, please think about investing in the writers of tomorrow.

My page is here – please consider donating some money to the workshop.

Thank you.