Be my muse — and help launch the careers of the next generation of speculative fiction writers!
The Clarion West Write-a-thon is the major fundraising event for Clarion West, the nonprofit that organizes the renowned six-week residential workshop for emerging writers. The Write-a-thon is what Nicola Griffith calls “the shadow workshop”: It gives participants (many of them workshop alumni) the opportunity to set and pursue short-term writing goals while raising money for Clarion West and raising awareness of the field of speculative fiction.
Your donation makes it possible for Clarion West do great work — offering substantive student scholarships, attracting the top instructors in the field, and adhering to nonprofit best practices that ensure the organization’s sustainability. Visit the Write-a-thon site to read writing samples from the more than 250 participants and choose writers to sponsor.
This year you have an opportunity to sponsor me and be my muse:
I’m writing six short stories (one per week of the Write-a-thon). I will dedicate each of my six Write-a-thon stories to a muse — the person who makes the most significant Clarion West donation during that particular writing week (Sunday through Saturday). I’ll get a list of my sponsors the following week and let you know right away if you are a muse (insert puns here).
Once you are a muse, you get to join me in the long process of actually selling the story. Help me decide where to submit the story. Suffer with me through rejections! It may be a year or two before our story is sold — if ever. But…when it is sold, I’ll take you out to dinner or cook you dinner (if you’re local). If you are a long-distance muse, I’ll send you a gourmet treat (as much as I’d love to fly to Mumbai to take you out to dinner!).
Find out more and contribute to Clarion West via my Write-a-thon page.
My previous Write-a-thon projects
For the 2012 Write-a-thon I wrote (and published under Creative Commons licenses) two short stories inspired by the works of geek-culture songwriter Jonathan Coulton:
- Escape from Chiron Beta Prime — Beware of invitations to visit the family black sheep on a remote asteroid. Just sayin’.
- Night on Skullcrusher Mountain — When a lovesick mad scientist’s date goes sour, the local sheriff has his savvy deputy ride to the rescue.