A friend has been kind enough to loan me her house while she's away for 10 days in exchange for catsitting duties. With Write-a-Thon in full swing I figured there was no better time to sequester myself away for a writing intensive week. However, since I'mnow approaching day 4 i guess it's time to buckle down and get some work done. To make a few excuses, I had a job interview Friday and an appointment on Monday but Sunday I wrote for four full hours which was enormously exhausing and rewarding and  at least put my daily average to a little over an hour of writing time. 

So this, after feeding and cleaning up after kitty, I ran to the grocery store for supplies then I made myself a tasty BLT watched and episode of Rome and sat down to write. Let the writer's retreat begin!

After squeezing two thousand measly words out of my brain I am feeling like a kid on the last day of school. It doesn't help that Seattle decided to be beautiful today after much deliberation most of the morning. I am repeating over and over:
"Butt in chair, butt in chair."
Until I can sing-song it to the tune of Three Blind Mice.

Okay time to change gears. Taking an hour break and then maybe I'll work on the Strange re-write and not worry about the new stuff for a while. Time to go see what the garden is up to today.

Or maybe that's 1.80 - I never was much of a math type. 

Okay so on to the update business. I am seriously, seriously pleased with the progress. I am officially through Chapter 8 EVEN after getting lost on a bit of a detour. The detour turned out to be a functional one, I have a feeling a lot of it will get wrapped by Chapter 10: Wherein our heroes discover they are not alone on a their new home planet.  I'm writing an average of about 2 hours a day but I'm resisting posting word counts because to be fair not all of the words used are very good and many will probably not see the light of day.

I'm not sure how much writing will be going on over the weekend - camping and all - but I'm VERY excited about the July 10-20 which I'll have my very own writer's retreat  while I housesit for a friend. 10 days, no cable, no internet and a cuddly lap kitty. I expect to be a writing machine. I am not, however, counting my eggs before they're laid. I'm still expecting another two chapters before I sequester myself in writer-land.

Thank you to all of you who are helping me to meet my goals and raise some money for Clarion West - I regret that there's no way to thank you personally, but unless you've actually mentioned that you are sponsoring this gig I have no way of knowing who you are. I do know that Clarion West now has 75 donors which is great progress toward our goal do 200 Write-a-Thon donors.

After a little prompting (cause who can say no to Eileen), I've decided to post a few bits as we go. I am actually kind of sweaty in the palm area at the thought of posting live, naked (and loosely edited) story bits here but it's almost 2 am and the sooner I get this posted, the soon I get get some much needed sleep before I the drive to Lopez in the (later) morning. Without further ado, here’s a sample of some of the words your donation sponsored this week:

Alice’var walked the line, inoculating them against the latest pathogen as she went. For all of the professor’s research and preparation the planet managed to sneak a few hits in immediately, the worst of which killed one of the ‘dars after 24 hours of misery Vinnie'tar wouldn't have wished on his worst enemy.

            The medic looked spent. Her normally olive complexion was pale and her eyes were ringed dark from lack of sleep. Vinnie knew she had been doing double duty since the crashed. His own medic was combat trained with only basic general medicine training and the professor’s training was in theory, not practice.  Linea'tar helped with trauma injuries sustained in establishing the settlement; cuts, broken bones, even a ruptured appendix, and the Professor did much of the strategy and research. For the general acclimating process Alice handled both horses and humans.

            “Roll up your sleeve,” she said by way of greeting when it was his turn.

            “Which one,” he said. “I’ve already gotten punched in both arms twice.”

            She met his eyes without smiling. He considered that an improvement. After he cancelled the search for the cargo beacon she wouldn’t even look at him.

            “Left,” she said. She didn’t wait for him to comply, picking a patch of skin exposed by his torn shirt and pushing the inoculation gun against his sunburned flesh.

            The gust of sterilizer was his only warning. He yelped at the pinch of the needle and winced as she drew away, rubbing the sore spot where a pinprick of blood rose.  She started walking away.

            “Did you use the horse needle that time?” he shouted.

            Alice looked over her shoulder at him impassively as she collared Hersch. Hersche extended his arm without a fuss. With his fair skin and red hair, the sun had taken a severe toll on his exposed skin. He was lobster red and beginning to blister in places.

            “For you,” she said. “Nothing less.”

            “Brilliant,” Vinne muttered. Raising his voice he said, “is this one gonna make me sick too?”

            “Probably,” she said. “Would you prefer dead?”

            “I’m wondering if it would be easier than getting socked in the arm every five minutes,” he said.

            “Alright,” she said, smiling humorlessly. “Next time I won’t bother you. Just let me sleep when you start bleeding out of your ears and can’t keep shit in your guts, ok?”

            “Deal,” he growled under his breath, turning back to the work of raising the shelter walls.

            “Asshole,” Alice muttered. She let Hersch go and continued walking to the gardens.

My line of the day:

"Killing one, even to eat it, would not improve her mood much."

(This line cracks me up every time because it's so very Gen. Even if it doesn't make the final draft I'll always associate the character with the line. What a long, strange week it's been. And only Wednesday.)

 This year is the sixth annual Write-A-Thon hosted by Clarion West. For those of you late to the game, I attended Clarion West in 2005. It's what brought me to Seattle and changed my life FOREVER (dum-dum-dahummm). 

Srsly. Clarion West is a non-profit organization that thrives on volunteer hours and donations to provide not only an outstanding six week long writer's workshop but, through scholarships and outreach, makes the workshop available to people who might not otherwise be able to afford it. 

For the next six weeks (June 21 through July 31), the members of the Write-A-Thon (all CW alum) will be shadowing this year's class as they progress through the Workshop here in Seattle. 


 The purpose of the Write-A-Thon is twofold:

1. to motivate the participating writers (including yours truly) to make and meet some ambitious writing goals by reminding us of what amazing things we are capable of. After all, we survived Clarion West, didn't we? Joking aside, there has never been a single point in my writing life where I have been more inspired, encouraged and productive than those six weeks in Seattle. Which brings me to #2


2. As participating writers, we are asking our friends and families (that means you guys) to sponsor our progress. Don't worry moms, it's not ‘cause we're starving. The money we raise through donations and sponsorships goes back into Clarion West to keep the workshop running. Your donations are tax deductable and will leave you with a warm fuzzy feeling. Okay, we'll hold off on the fuzzy bit, I know some of you are allergic. 


As past CW attendees we all recognize the important place Clarion West had in our lives and careers. Without it, our writing lives would be much different.  We participate in the write-a-thon so that others will have the opportunity to benefit from the Clarion West experience for years to come. 

So how do you play along? 

Well you can start at the Write-A-Thon main page to find out more about the organization and participants. 

Or if you'd like to sponsor my effort to meet my writing goals and raise $100 for Clarion West (a modest amount I hope to surpass with your help) you can go directly to my Write-A-Thon page. It's shiny and has my name all over it.  It also has a sample of my writing from my week one Clarion West story "Strange" and a big PayPal button for you to make a contribution. 

My goals this year include
1. To finish my YA novel by completing 2 chapters a week. All going according to the outline that brings me to a finished first draft. Sweet!
2. Find a better title than "Horses in Space," cause that's good for a laugh, and very little else at this point. And the horses aren't really in space. Well, not for long, anyway.
3. To complete an overhaul of "Strange," cause it needs some love.

I'll be posting here with a weekly update on my progress.

The Bottom Line: In a way, this is like PBS, cause you can follow along without giving a dime (cheers are always appreciated in the comments section). But like PBS, you will be periodically reminded over the next six weeks that Clarion West can't do what it does without people like you. 

Lovely, wonderful, generous, kind people.
Like. 
You.

Donate here: http://clarionwest.org/events/writeathon/RashidaSmith and I'll get out of your hair. 

Signing off,
Eds

PS. Don’t take my word for it. Lots of other really cool writers are doing it too: http://clarionwest.org/events/writeathon/2009