Once my Clarion applications were submitted (maybe a little before), I started hunting books and stories by the instructors for both workshops.  Some of that is covered in my earlier post, Treasures from the Book Cellar.  I bought a collection of John Kessel’s early stuff, Meetings at Infinity, Rudy Rucker’s Software, Kim Stanley Robinson’s first two Mars books, an audiobook of Robert Crais’s The Forgotten Man…  Most of it was used (sorry for not supplying a royalty) so I could still afford to eat those weeks.  Only later did I start sifting through the few short story collections I already own.

John Kessel is everywhere.  I am embarrassed to say I had never paid much attention to his name before writing my application.  He’s in the Year’s Best book I have, he’s in Paragons, he’s in my Best Time Travel Science Fiction of the 20th Century (I think…I don’t remember; I’ll double check when I get home and edit here if I blew it).  I had four or five of his stories just lying around the house.  Still, I’m glad I got his collection.

UPDATE: Yes, Kessel has a story in the time travel book, “The Pure Product”.

I’ve had trouble finding a few authors.  I’m trying to find them on my own instead of hunting them through their websites or Wikipedia entries (though I cheated with Kessel).  I finally stumbled across an Elizabeth Bear story in Strange Horizons’ fiction archives.  I haven’t read it yet, but I’ll get to it this week.  I haven’t found Nalo Hopkinson yet.  I’ll hunt her work more aggressively if I get accepted to CW.

The Clarion (east) crowd has been tougher to find.  I saw the movie based on Holly Black’s and Robert Crais’ work (The Spiderwick Chronicles and Hostage) respectively.  I have verified that my school library has some of Black’s books and I’ll read some if I end up going to San Diego.  (My reading time is getting stretched thin trying to keep up with both!)  Park, Hand, and Lai just don’t seem to cross paths where I am looking.  Again, acceptance to east will get me hunting more aggressively.

I am also trying to keep up with other writers often associated with Clarion.  Knight and Wilhelm are the most obvious pair.  I read Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed a couple years ago, mostly from its recommendation in Orson Scott Card’s How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy.

So my reading is keeping me busy.  I am also working on my females-as-warriors story (tentatively titled “Kree” until I get a better feel for its theme) and checking the web fifty times a day for evidence of Clarion acceptances.  I think it may be time to switch to decaf.

-Oso