ArmadilloCon34 Writers' Workshop Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the ArmadilloCon Writers' Workshop. I am really excited to participate again this year. This convention knows how to do workshops right! It's all morning and afternoon tomorrow BEFORE the convention actually starts, so I don't have to miss any panels to participate. I've been working all week on my critiques for my fellow workshoppers, who I'll meet tomorrow. It's a little nerve wracking to write critiques for people I've never met but it's a good practice. It's also refreshing to critique work from writers I don't know.

I attended ArmadilloCon and the Writers' Workshop for the first time last year and had a great and productive weekend. My pros last year were none other than Paolo Bacigalupi, Lou Anders and Mark Finn. They all provided great advice and insight. This year I'll be sitting down with Liz Gorinsky (an editor at Tor), Stina Leicht and Cat Rambo!

Manuscript page from J. G. Ballard's Crash

Okay that page is a revision not a crit, but it was just too cool to ignore! I've been putting together some thoughts about why I think workshops and critiquing are valuable and will be posting that soon.


Meanwhile, I've been re-reading Bradbury's collection of essays and remembering that while I'm working very hard to hone my craft, writing should always be fun, more than fun, thrilling. His enthusiasm is truly inspirational.



This morning I watched the long and gorgeous trailer for the upcoming film adaptation of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas.  I don't know if they'll pull it off, but that was a beautiful six minutes. It made me want to read that book all over again.