Clarionet.
So “Sun” is done, or drafted, anyway, and ordinarily I’d be polishing, revising, editing before prepping it to post (ordinarily, let’s be honest, I’d’ve written about half by the time the announced publication date rolled around, and be scrambling to finish what I could and not be too terribly late about it),
but: I’ve got to keep the larger goal in mind. 12, of the 45, of the 90, are done; 15,000 written, and 30,000 yet to go. —And if I manage to maintain a pace of oh, about 700 words a day (697.7, to be precise), I’ll be done (done!) on or about August 2nd.
And then to the polishing, the revising, the editing, the prepping to publish, the marketing blast, the review copies, the reformatting of the ebooks and the paper books, the relisting on all the various websites, the release—oh, you get the idea.
I’ve never been to Clarion, West or otherwise; I’ve never even tried to go. For one thing, it’s got a definite short story focus, and while I’ve got short(er) stories in me, I’ve no doubt, I’m really more of a Donald Rumsfeld type: go massive, sweep it all up, things related and not—how else will you ever find those unutterably elusive uknown knowns? —Was there another thing? —Probably.
But! Clarion is a Thing Without Which; any mechanism that takes people out of the world for six weeks or so and sends them back different is—well, actually, there’s a lot of such mechanisms that produce soldiers, and cultists, and thousand-yard stares, but this one transmits and inculcates the manners and mores of the phantastick as it’s currently spoke, here and now, which—I mean, it’s not like I don’t have beefs with this manner, or that more, but, you know, you can’t flip a table unless there’s a table there in the first place—
I think we’re starting to see my limitations as a marketer. (—Anything that gets Elizabeth Hand and Neil Gaiman and Samuel Delany in a room to drop some little science is, well. Better by far than not.)
The point: each year, to raise money (art, education, priorities, you know), Clarion West invites writers to “shadow” the workshop by setting writing goals and working to meet them, and inviting everyone—you, in fact—to sponsor any of those writers, or a group of writers, or all of them, by pledging donations to Clarion West. —A Write-a-Thon, in other words, running from this coming Sunday, June 23rd through Friday, August 2nd. And I’ll be participating this year, so you should visualize me having come to your door and rung the bell and now I’m holding out a clipboard and asking you to sign up to sponsor me, because, you see, if, during the course of the Write-a-Thon, I can maintain a pace of oh, about 700 words a day from June 23rd through August 2nd—
—I’ll be done.
“Sun” is drafted, then, if not complete, and when I close out this file and post it I’ll turn my attention to the opening line of “Gallowglas” (a scream, I’m fairly certain). If all goes well, then, you should maybe look for no. 20, “Sun,” sometime in September? —I went with Spenser for the epigram, this time, because I really should be putting in more Spenser; I did promise, didn’t I? “The joyfulst day that ever sunne did see.” —But I’m kinda wishing I’d set it up that Ray’s pinkish-orange hair was just a wig, worn over a clean-shaven pate, and then I could’ve gone with Laurie Anderson instead? “Sun’s coming up, like a big bald head poking up over the grocery store—”
—Should I have spoiler warninged that? —I can never tell.
—posted 4165 days ago
