Some of you may have already seen this out and about around the internets, but my story, “What Arms to Hold Us” will be appearing in the anthology Diverse Energies from Tu Books. Edited by Tobias S. Buckell and Joe Monti, it’s a collection of YA dystopian stories focusing on diversity. It’s a pretty amazing TOC and I’m really happy to be appearing in it. Diverse Energies will be out in October (but you can always pre-order now).

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.

Almost 3 weeks ago now, E. C. Myers tagged me in one of those internet memes where you, well, tag other people. And while I don’t normally do things like that these days, I can never resist the incomparable Mr. Myers. And since i just finished revising my middle grade novel, it seemed to make sense. So over two weeks later, here it is. The rules are:

1. Go to the seventh or 77th page of our WIP (or latest book)
2. Count down 7 lines.
3. Copy the 7 sentences that follow and post them.
4. Tag 7 other authors.

I’m not going to tag other authors, but here’s my passage from the MG novel:

Cassian shaded his eyes and looked up at the clouds in the sky. “At least it’s not snowing that would really mess with…”

“What?” Thiel said.

“Look.” Cassian pointed further down the direction of the road where dark-winged birds circled in the sky.

Thiel looked at Cassian wide-eyed. “You don’t think –“

“C’mon,” Cassian said.

Also, if you haven’t already, you should pick up a copy of Fair Coin by the aforementioned  E. C. Myers. I read it back when it was just a wee baby manuscript and I knew the minute I did that it was going to be fantastic. I’m so happy to see it out in the world and doing so well. io9 called it pure awesome crack. It’s well worth your time.