Part of the 2020 Clarion West Write-a-thon series! Sponsor me, sponsor another writer, or learn more about the Write-a-thon When I went to Clarion West, I had a room of my own. It was a room designed to hold four young sorority women during the normal academic year — IContinue Reading

Shown above: most excellent villains Hello everyone! It’s the last day of the Clarion West 2019 Write-a-thon, and there is still time to sponsor me, or sponsor someone else. We’re all great! And all the money goes to Clarion West! As I explained in the previous essay, my original goalContinue Reading

Hello everyone! We’re already halfway through the Clarion West 2019 Write-a-thon and here I am, finally writing my first essay about it! (Sponsor me! Or sponsor someone else! We’re all great! And all the money goes to Clarion West!) (Note: at publication time we are 4/6 of the way throughContinue Reading

In 2006 I started telling the “How Saint Expedite got me into Clarion West” story to anyone who seemed interested. A version of it existed on a previous version of the gothhouse.org website. That’s how my husband’s sister Dorothy knew to call us up and say, “You know that statue that’sContinue Reading

During the Great Boxing Week Ice Storm of 1996  Paul and I flew to New Orleans for the first time. We spent a day crammed into SeaTac airport with thousands of other stranded travelers, as the airport gradually ran out of food, plane de-icer, civility, and hope. The airline promised us,Continue Reading

Part of the 2015 Clarion West Write-a-thon series! IT IS NOT TOO LATE! Sponsor me, sponsor another writer, or learn more about the Write-a-thon In my notebook observations , I wrote: Six weeks is longer than it seems at first It’s also shorter. And this year, once again, it’s alreadyContinue Reading

Part of the 2015 Clarion West Write-a-thon series! Sponsor me, sponsor another writer, or learn more about the Write-a-thon Returning to my notebook observations after the first Shadow Workshop: I sometimes put barriers up that are wholly artificial. Like, “I have to finish this thing before I work on thisContinue Reading

Part of the 2015 Clarion West Write-a-thon series! Sponsor me, sponsor another writer, or learn more about the Write-a-thon Writing six stories in six weeks means six ideas, right? At least, that’s what I thought during my do-it-yourself Clarion West shadow workshop. With a deadline only I cared about, andContinue Reading