Impatience loves company
Hello lurkers. I know you’re out there, refreshing the page, waiting to see if I dig up any more Clarion gossip or whatever you’re looking for. I know you’re out there because, for the third day in a row, I have a record number of hits, so many that it makes my normal days’ hits seem obsolete.
It’s okay, this is a lurker-safe zone. (Or is it a lurker safe-zone?) I just wanted to make you feel welcome and offer you a venue to chatter. Or not, lurking works, too. But it’s so much more fun to hear what’s on your minds. How are you dealing with the wait? How many times have you tried Clarion? Or if that’s not it, what brings you here? What should I talk about to keep you coming back? Anything to help us keep our minds off the waiting.
Scott W. Baker: Chaos out of Chaos 
Haha, you caught me (us) Mr. Baker. My name’s Tuch Lawson and this is my first attempt to get into a Clarion program. Unlike many of you I’ve only recently discovered my passion for writing in the last year or so and I know my chances of getting into CW are a long shot at best. I heard about Clarion originally on George RR Martin’s blog and opted to try my hand at crafting a short story or two. Since January, I’ve only been able to conjure up one story I was proud of so I was only able to apply to Clarion West. I am grateful for finding the clarion west forums where I have been lurking for the last few weeks. I’ve read and enjoyed your blood of a soldier story, as well as several other short stories by other past and current applicants. I even went to Barnes and Noble to try and track down a copy of the wotf anthology but to no avail so I ended up grabbing a copy of Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness–which I thought was incredible but also served to remind me how pathetic my vocabulary is. Any and all attempts to write something new since the day I sent in my application have always devolved into re-reading the story I sent to Clarion West and wondering how I could have made it better. Ah well, sorry for the overly long reply but it’s nice to vent a little bit. Even if I am rejected I am grateful to Clarion West for providing a goal that led to the creation of the first story I’ve ever been proud of.
Glad you poked your head out, Tuch. Welcome.
But don’t call me Mr. Baker; you sound like one of my math students.
Noted. Would you happen to be able to recommend a place I could go to read some of the wotf finalists stories?
WotF finalists? You’re pretty much limited to the anthologies to read the winning stories. You can get older ones used through Amazon or at a used bookstore pretty cheaply. Non-winning finalist stories tend to get sold elsewhere, but hard to say where.
I have links to most of the WotF XXVI winners’ blogs and websites at https://scottwbaker.net/2010/03/08/writers-of-the-future-xxvi-authors/ Maybe their sites can guide you to more.
Thanks again! I wonder if they will start calling people this weekend, or perhaps more accurately I should say if we’ll find out whether or not they have started calling people this weekend.
OOH one more thing Tuch. Wanted to tell you that Mr. Martin first inspired me to write as well! I had finished his Song of Ice and Fire series and I NEEDED more! So I got Dreamsongs volume one and two, and read them. They were delicious. He gave some good, but small, insight in those books to getting published, and talked about learning to write. He put it in perspective. Trying to start with novels is like a fat man running a marathon (or something like that.)
i’d tried to write before but failed. That began my jaunt into short story land, and I only began writing seriously November of last year. I really wanted to get taught my Mr. Martin…alas and alack. In some ways reading Martin’s Dreamsongs has helped give me a starting point on what I want to write, and in others it has influenced me to write more similiar to him than I care. For instance, pretty much all my short stories are tragic. I think I kind of like that, though. E-mail me sometime and we’ll talk, it’s czellingsworth@hotmail.com
I did, however, meet Mr. Martin. I flew from Illinois (when I still lived there) to Minneapolis last last year, and rented a car to drive to Fargo, ND. He was doing all sorts of readings/speaches at this convention, which was fairly small, and afterward he partied with his fan club in a room. We shared beer, and I bought pizza for everyone. He told me that was cool, and he answered all my questions. Extremely personable guy, I got to hang around with him the whole night! He was like, my bud! I asked him to read my manuscript (oh how naiive) he told me no, but that I needed to go to Clarion. Unfortunately, I failed! Apparently asking a big shot to read your MS is like a big nono. Nevertheless, he was cool about it.
Another lurker, here.
My apologies. It’s just nice to hear other people besides me worry about all this.
It’s oddly…oddly comforting to know that this anxiety is felt by numerous people out there. And that you’re blogging about it…well. It’s better than silence.
I AM a notorious lurker, though.
Hey tuch, do yourself a favor and join an online workshop to have your stuff critiqued. Sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com is worth the cheap fee. There’s otheres and osos blog has links! Read some of the other links like turkey city lexicon too. I reccomend kate wilhelms storyteller also.
Hey I lurk so much, can I get a lurker award? Also my short I’m workin on now is sci fi and deals with near future, apocalyptic type setting, and the first person narrator has a cloaking device. Its about his solitude, and different biological motivators including self preservation, racial survival, and the need for human contact. Its a different sort of twist and spin on the end of our world. I hope it turns out well. So he, in a sense, is a lurker. Not to be confused with the lurkers from starcraft brood wars of the zerg race! Zomg gimme clarion news.
Damn u oso for telling me about icerocket. And damn the clarion ledger and the mississippi school district for their prom issues and turning up that on my icerocket searches.
@Clint- Try searching for “clarion -ledger” which will look for posts with the word Clarion and without the word ledger. I considered trying to do the same with “call”, but I want posts that say they got a call, so I just have to scan past the religious “clarion call” posts.
Thanks a ton Clint, I’m checking all those out this afternoon. I basically had to rely on my good friends for initial critiques of my story I submitted this go around so I look forward to taking advantage of those resources on my future work.
I lurk, too – partly for the Clarion news, partly for the Clarion fretting. Always makes me feel better to know I’m not alone.
So nice to see the shy ones step into the light. 🙂
Wow, Scott, good call! ‘Sup, fellow Clarion hopefuls? Join us over at the Forum, if you’re not on it already.
Good luck gang. Nerve wracking days ahead. I was fortunate enough to attend CW last year. It’s everything you’ve heard. A bit less. And a lot more.
Looks like a great line up this year (once again). Hope to see you at a friday CW party or two.
Scott–hopefully you’ll follow Jordan’s path: a WotF win and a CW chaser.
::knock wood/ream of paper::
-Todd
I only applied to Clarion SD and got rejected… but I still keep looking on here to see if people get accepted into Clarion West and if there are any signs of people actually having been accepted by Clarion SD. Maybe the board found it too hard to choose and went to the beach instead.