Reading Out Loud in Front of People

So, first and foremost, I think all involved agreed that last night’s Benefictions reading for victims of the Japanese earthquake/tsunami was a rousing success. We raised over $250, which will go to the Red Cross’ Japanese Earthquake Fund, and we had fun and looked good doing it.

Mad props and special thanks to Kristina for hosting us (at Inner Chapters Bookstore Cafe), to Caren for MCing and impromptu biographizing, and to Rob and Felix for donating their time, equipment, and audiovisual expertise.

Speaking of which, there will be video of the event, for those who couldn’t make it due to constraints of time, distance, or eddies in the space-time continuum. More details as events warrant, but I’m told the raw footage looks good.

As for my own personal experience, the judicious application of nerve tonic kept things from being too overwhelming, but there was a definite sensation of heat enveloping me from the neck up and time did some funny things while I was up there (namely, stretching out towards eternity in the moment and then shrinking to an eyeblink after it was all over). But I had fun doing it, and will gladly do it again. Which is good, since I think reading out loud in front of people is probably part and parcel of being a writer these days.

Protected: The Victorius Revolution (draft)-Prologue

It Begins…

So I’m thinking, this morning, about how I’m going to start this thing. I know, I probably should have done this a while back, but, well, life’s been pretty engaging lately, and so here I am, not quite procrastinating yet, since I haven’t finished my coffee and oatmeal. But pretty soon I will be.

Given how much the story revolves around my protagonist, Sergeat Lee Victorius, it seems like the first thing I need is an establishing shot, as it were; something to give the reader a sense of who he is (or, rather, was, before his involuntary tour of duty) as well as some sense of the world he lives in. I’m thinking maybe a brief montage of his life before the war, his (possibly wrongful) arrest, and the trial where his extenuating circumstances are ignored by the judge for reasons so patently unjust and unfair as to make a reader’s blood boil.

Alternately, I could just throw the reader right into some kind of exciting sci-fi military action, with small arms fire and explosions going off in the near distance as our protagonist engages in some hard-nosed derring-do and perhaps loses a beloved companion to the vagaries of war. Continue reading “It Begins…” →

2011 Clarion Write-a-thon

It’s official. As per my secret plan all along, I have signed up for the 2011 Clarion Write-a-thon.

It’s difficult to express the full impact the Clarion Writers’ Workshop has had on my writing, both as career and as practice. It really was a transformative experience, on a par with anything else I’ve ever done.

So, given the opportunity to give something back, I suspect it’s not surprising that I’m not only willing but eager to do so.

(It probably doesn’t hurt that having some kind of outside frame for big projects is something I find quite helpful.)

So here’s the deal. Continue reading “2011 Clarion Write-a-thon” →

Summer Writing Schedule

One of the problems with having such an active little monkey brain as I do is that I am almost constantly overwhelmed by shiny new ideas for stories and projects, occasionally to the detriment of the projects I’m already working on. A few weeks ago I made a summer writing schedule, and I did my absolute bestest to scale back my ambitions to a more reasonable scope than can usually compass them.

Guess how that worked out. Continue reading “Summer Writing Schedule” →