I’ve been remiss in not talking about the Clarion West Write-a-thon. I’m participating again this year, though because of a crazy last week, I’m starting a little slow out of the gate.

For those not familiar with the Write-a-thon, the idea is simple. Participants ask people to sponsor them to meet their writing goals to coincide with the course of the current Clarion West workshop. All of the money donated goes to the workshop to help keep it active and to support the development of future writers. If you’re a fan of fiction, you’ll be investing in new generations of writers and adding to the quality of their fiction. Past participants of the workshop include Daniel Abraham, Kij Johnson, Cat Rambo, E. C. Myers, and Rachel Swirsky, among many others. Also be aware that Clarion West is a non-profit educational organization and your donation will be tax deductible.

My basic plea is that you consider supporting the workshop by sponsoring anyone involved in the Write-a-thon. However, since I am participating, I’d like you to consider sponsoring me. To make this more interesting, I’ve decided to adopt a Kickstarter-like approach to the write-a-thon. I am pledging to write a story for each week of the workshop. As I’ve fallen behind, this will be one story a week for the next 5 weeks and one final bonus story (which oddly enough parallels my output for when I was in the workshop back in 2008). If you sponsor me, you will be entitled to the following depending on the amount:

$1/week or $5 or more: you will receive an entry into a drawing for a copy of Way of the Wizard, an anthology from Prime which contains my story, “Card Sharp.” The anthology was edited by John Joseph Adams so you know it’s going to be a good one and contains stories from folks like George R. R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, and Jeffrey Ford. I’ll even sign it if you so desire.

$5/ a week or $25 or more: you’ll get an entry into the giveaway drawing and, if you’re interested, will receive copies of the stories I write during the write-a-thon. These will be first drafts, or course, but I will also happily send you final copies as well (or in any combination you desire).

$10/ a week or $50 or more: everything from the previous categories, but I will also Tuckerize you or a person of your choice.

$20/ a week or $100 or more: all the previous perks plus I will write a story based on a prompt from you.

Hopefully you’ll find these options interesting. To sponsor me, simply visit this page and click on the Donate button. If course if my offerings don’t interest you, please think about sponsoring someone. There are a lot of amazing writers participating and they each have their own goals (and some of them have rewards).

Thanks for your indulgence.

It’s now been a few days since Ray Bradbury’s death, and I keep thinking about the man and his significance to me as a writer. Like his stories often do, thoughts of him keep resonating with me, lingering, and probably will continue to do so for a while. But in an effort to capture at least some of my thoughts, I wrote a tribute to him on LitReactor.  Apologies to the Facebook and Twitter crowds who already saw me mention this, but I would love to get as many remembrances or favorite stories or thoughts or feelings in the comments as possible. If you have a moment, I’d love to hear from you.

And RIP, Ray…

In an effort to keep the self-promotion here down to a reasonable amount, I’ve neglected keeping up with the columns I’ve been writing for LitReactor.com on Fantasy. I write two columns a month now, though they aren’t released on regular dates so the posting dates vary by month.

However, I’d like to call attention to my two latest columns:

The first is a primer on Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber. Those who know me know that this is my favorite fantasy series of all time and that Zelazny is one of my favorite authors, so it was a thrill to get to write about the series and some of the things I think make it great.

The previous column was a look at first person narratives in fantasy fiction. It has a list of some of my favorite 1st person fantasy narratives.

I’d love it if you took a  look and told me what you think.

I apologize to my Facebook and Twitter friends who have seen this already, but I found out last night that my story, “Card Sharp”, from The Way of the Wizard anthology, made the British Fantasy Award long list, or their recommendations as they call it. And while I didn’t make the cut to the short list, I’m happy that someone liked the story well enough to nominate it for an award. This story seems to be the most popular one I’ve written so far, so I feel good that there are more related projects in the works.

The list also includes The Way of the Wizard anthology, edited by John Joseph Adams, and the story “Tethered” by fellow Altered Fluid member Mercurio D. Rivera.

And since I have the excuse, I should mention that “Card Sharp” is still available to read for free online at The Way of the Wizard site as well as being available in podcast form at Podcastle.

Almost 3 weeks ago now, E. C. Myers tagged me in one of those internet memes where you, well, tag other people. And while I don’t normally do things like that these days, I can never resist the incomparable Mr. Myers. And since i just finished revising my middle grade novel, it seemed to make sense. So over two weeks later, here it is. The rules are:

1. Go to the seventh or 77th page of our WIP (or latest book)
2. Count down 7 lines.
3. Copy the 7 sentences that follow and post them.
4. Tag 7 other authors.

I’m not going to tag other authors, but here’s my passage from the MG novel:

Cassian shaded his eyes and looked up at the clouds in the sky. “At least it’s not snowing that would really mess with…”

“What?” Thiel said.

“Look.” Cassian pointed further down the direction of the road where dark-winged birds circled in the sky.

Thiel looked at Cassian wide-eyed. “You don’t think –“

“C’mon,” Cassian said.

Also, if you haven’t already, you should pick up a copy of Fair Coin by the aforementioned  E. C. Myers. I read it back when it was just a wee baby manuscript and I knew the minute I did that it was going to be fantastic. I’m so happy to see it out in the world and doing so well. io9 called it pure awesome crack. It’s well worth your time.