Sponsor me for the Clarion West Write-a-thon!

Once a year something remarkable happens in the Pacific Northwest. A small group of fledgling authors take part in a six-week intensive, live-in writing program called Clarion West. There, they learn the trade of science fiction / fantasy / speculative fiction. They learn the craft, and they make connections. Maybe five, ten years later, some book of theirs shows up on the shelves of your local bookstore, and you pick it up and stay awake all weekend reading it.

I didn’t take part in the Clarion West workshop (I got an MFA instead) but I benefit from it all the same. For a decade I’ve been taking small workshops called “Taste of Clarion,” led by expert writers or editors, and have learned a lot. I’ve also started taking day-long Clarion workshops – much more manageable for a mother of two small children.

So, when Nisi Shawl, author of Filter House and Writing the Other, approached me and asked me to participate in the Clarion West write-a-thon fundraiser, I went for it. While the Clarion West writers are working on their stories, I’ll be submitting stories – at a rate of one per week for six weeks. This will be huge for me. It will get me over the hurdle of self-doubt that’s been preventing me from getting my works published.

So if you sponsor me for the Clarion West Write-a-thon, you’ll be doing two great things at once – you’ll be helping guilt me into submitting my stories, and you’ll be helping train the award-winning speculative fiction authors of tomorrow.

Here’s my page: http://clarionwest.org/writeathon/kristinking

My first deadline is the end of day Friday June 23rd. By then I will have written and submitted a story about Galadriel (from Lord of the Rings). (YIKES!) Check back at this blog and track my progress.