http://katrinasforest.com Just another WordPress weblog Wed, 02 Sep 2009 01:40:54 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Since I started writing and submitting short stories, my focus has been heavily on the SFWA qualifying markets. To make sure I didn't mess up and send two stories to one magazine or the same story to two different magazines at any given time, I set up a document that ... http://katrinasforest.com/?p=130 Here it, the official Clarion West 2009 post. A lot of people have been asking me lately how my "writing thing," as I started calling it, went. In summary, from mid-June to the end of July, I lived in a sorority house with seventeen other writers. Each day, three or ... http://katrinasforest.com/?p=126 As many of you know, tomorrow I am leaving for Clarion West, a six-week intense writing workshop in Seattle.  There are eighteen students and six instructors: John Kessel , Karen Joy Fowler , Elizabeth Bear, Nalo Hopkinson , David G. Hartwell , and Rudy Rucker. I'm nervous, but excited. (Really, at ... http://katrinasforest.com/?p=124 You know, um, that thing, what's it called, when you're looking for a word and you don't know what it is? I have that problem constantly. The word's on the tip of my tongue, and I can't get it out. I keep thinking of other words that have a similar ... http://katrinasforest.com/?p=121 For the sci-fi author with total writer's block, this book is a gem. I'm not a physics person, but the book is written in such a way that you can understand what's being discussed without a science background. By the same token, it doesn't talk down to the audience either. The ... http://katrinasforest.com/?p=119 Last week, I decided to play slush pile reader for a day and to make it sound  more fun, I dubbed it "query party." I pulled 24 queries from four different websites where authors posted them and requested feedback. I wanted to see for myself what makes a query stand ... http://katrinasforest.com/?p=114 In my rising sea of submissions, I've received several personal notes along with the dreaded rejections. I have tried to send thank you's to each one, although I admit, I haven't always been successful. Among other things, I've had notes that said, "Great story, try us again," and my favorite ... http://katrinasforest.com/?p=112 From everything I've been hearing about Clarion West so far, I'm going to be spending far more time writing and critiquing than I ever thought possible. So here goes a little blog reflection on my critique experiences of the past and what I got from them. In college, my creative writing ... http://katrinasforest.com/?p=100 Lately, I've been putting a lot of consideration into where I want this blog to go. Sure, it's about writing, but lots of people write. I'd like to put a bit of my own twist to it, and so far I've considered everything from character-centric articles to a series of ... http://katrinasforest.com/?p=96 With Script Frenzy opening next month, I thought a NaNo-themed post would be appropriate. Don't get me wrong – I love National Novel Writing Month. The thing got me to break out of a nasty writing slump back in 2004. But now that I've been writing novels more regularly, I'm ... http://katrinasforest.com/?p=92