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Clarion Week 1: Chip and Me June 29, 2006 Had my private meeting with Samuel R Delany yesterday afternoon. It was probably one of the most inspiring conversations I've ever had. I'm still on an emotional high about it. By minute five or so, I was able to at least manage the star-struckedness I get around him. And we didn't talk about my application stories or about my story we critiqued early in the day. Instead we talked about comics. We talked about the career aspects of writing both inside and outside 
of the genre, and the difficulties of practically starting the career over once you move from one to the other (or doing both simultaneously). There was a lot of validation and laughing. You know the theory I posited yesterday about how to best deal with rejection? He thinks that's the best way, so I guess I'm now capable of dispensing exactly one piece of writing advice knowing that Chip's there to back me up. But overall it was just plain fun.I kept wishing there were two of me: One of them engaging Chip in conversation as he talked about working with Howard Chaykin or dealing with first-book-caliber advances as you publish your first book outside of genre. The other me trying to take careful notes but forgetting about it and instead just jumping up and down yelling "I'm talking comics with Samuel Delany!" So yeah, even if there were two of me I still would have completely forgotten to take notes. Speaking of comics, when I got back to my room I received Warren Ellis's "Bad Signal" mailing list message about his arriving in Charlotte. He's in North Carolina right now for Heroescon, and I've been a little bummed that I'm missing my chance to to meet one of my favorite comics writers. But I think I got enough comics/science fiction geekboy satisfaction today to last me the next six weeks. I don't think Warren's name even came up, sorry. Got some great critiques (positive and negative, but almost all very helpful, and I think I know what I need to do to make the piece work) yesterday morning from my classmates on my first story (the flash piece). It's a great group both inside and outside the critique circle, and even an introvert like me would rather be with one or a handful of any them rather than alone, more often than I expected. Photo above taken at Chip's reading at a local library. He read from his non-genre novel Dark Reflections, which he recently sold (and I don't think is available yet). This is about the highest resolution that looks okay with my camera phone and even then only after some color correction in Photoshop. Laptop sustained some damage in transit, but so far nothing that inhibits my ability to write. I'll be doing more frequent backups though, though that became a little harder with this problem. If I can get this computer to last me through September, I'll be very happy. A bit overwhelmed with critiquing. Back to work. Filed under Clarion, Comic Stripping, Journal  
Comments: Discuss this entry at LiveJournalBIG. You're going to be so frakking big. Full steam ahead, young Alex! Posted by: Alan at June 29, 2006 7:13 PM 
Very, very cool. So glad you're having boatloads of fun, both as a professional writer and amateur fanboy. Clarion is good for you. Posted by: Ted at June 30, 2006 9:26 AM
Thanks, guys. Ted, I hope you're keeping Carrboro-Chapel Hill warm for me while I'm gone. Posted by: Alex at July 1, 2006 9:12 AM by Alex Wilson. This is from an online journal/blog I kept from 1998-2009. Back to alexwilson.com. |