Hello everyone!
I believe that Tempest has posted the write-a-thon to Alas previously, as syndication from the Angry Black Woman site, but I — too — am participating in the Clarion West 2009 write-a-thon.
The Clarion West Write-a-thon is a charity thing wherein people sponsor me to do marathon writing over the course of six weeks (at twenty hours a week), and then their sponsorships go to fund future science fiction and fantasy writers attending Clarion West. You can check out my Clarion West website here: http://clarionwest.org/events/writeathon/RachelSwirsky
Why fund Clarion West? Well, for people who like fiction, this is a great way to get more of it. Clarion West is a training ground that helps writers get the finer points of publishing fiction. It’s also dedicated to helping more people from groups who haven’t always had access to the free time and training that writing requires — such as people of color, women, GLBTIQQ, and so on. The write-a-thon also helps fund scholarships for writers who don’t have the means to attend on their own — which is a big deal in terms of representation — since writing has often been for the leisure class.
Clarion West has also produced a very long list in the best writers working in science fiction and fantasy over the past thirty years — including my personal favorite, Octavia Butler.
When I attended Clarion West in 2005, Octavia Butler was one of my teachers. It was amazing to be in the same room with the woman who had written all the novels I loved, and won the MacArthur Genius Grant. She died the next winter, and I am forever grateful to have had the experience of learning from her.
Another incentive: the write-a-thon is fun, and you can make me do tricks!
The primary trick I’ll do is that if you donate $25 or more to the write-a-thon in my name ($4 a week, or $25 total), I’ll send you a pair of hand-made earrings. I make darn fine earrings. I’ll even take requests about what kinds of earrings you want. The earrings may well include semi-precious stones. You can give them away as gifts, or torture your cat with them.
There are lots of other writers involved, too, so if you’d rather sponsor someone other than me, check out: http://clarionwest.org/events/writeathon/2009
