When I day-dream about publishing, it’s never about cashing Stephen King-checks or quiting the day-gig; although hanging up the part-time gig would be nice. No, what I dream about is conversing with other authors of having the time and opportunity to go to Clarion east or west, I’m easy.

Karen Traviss says Clarion was indispensible to her work, as did Walter Mosley, (he studied with Master Butler as well) and attending that gathering of greatness is something I would very-much like to do.

That actually reminds me of how I ended up going to the Clarion West workshop. I’d been daydreaming for a long time about applying but probably wouldn’t have gotten the nerve to really do it…and then Octavia Butler came to my town and did a talk. I went up to get a book signed, told her I was thinking of applying (she was going to be one of the instructors that year), and she looked at me with alarm and said, “Well, you’d better hurry if you want to get in! Those spots are filling up fast!”

So I went home and applied that weekend, and it was the best writing decision I ever made. (And she was an incredible teacher!)

It’s amazing how powerful a motivator it can be to meet your writing idols in person.

At 6, I wanted to be Spiderman. When I was 8, sad reality had over-taken me and I decided I would draw comics. At 12 I first saw John Byrne’s artwork and while I didn’t give it up right away, I did draw less and less. But I still wanted to tell stories.

At 15 I was going through the very personal hell that is adolescence in Texas and I read Dune. Frank Herbert carbonated my imagination just as Pam Greer had carbonated my hormones. Mr. Hertbert’s work was where I first saw that prose could paint as vivid a picture as graphics.

At 32 I was in grad-school and talking more about writing my book than actually writing the d@mn thing. And my wife gave me Devil in a Blue Dress. A year latter she took me to a signing with Mr. Walter Mosley and he looked me right in the eye and said,

“You can’t write somebody else’s book or to somebody else’s taste. That’s not fun. Writing is supposed to be fun.”

I wrote five chapters that week. Since then, I’ve read Jacqueline Carey who showed me that fantasy isn’t all orcs and hobits. I’ve discovered Octavia Butler who reminded me that scifi isn’t all Jedi and space-time continiums. And just this year I stumbled across this site and you as well as your contemporaries that kindly indulge my delusions of grandure.

Thank you Ms. Burgis, as well as all the other writers on this site that never seem to forget what it’s like for those of us that haven’t made it yet. Your patience (with my social challenges especially) and consideration is as meaningful as the writers that sparked our imaginations to begin with.