feuervogel | Greetings from Martha's Vineyard

I got a lot of positive feedback on my submission story, and I have been urged to submit it (after revision) to a particular market.

We did an anonymous 'are you hooked' reading circle (first 500 words), and my UST piece got a lot of raised hands at various hook points, so yay. And one person said I'd set the scene so well she knew exactly what year it was. (I want to ask her what year she thinks it is, but we're not allowed to admit which one we wrote. Uh, hi

captainecchi, now you know which one was mine. If you remember it.)

I'm having a lot of fun, and I feel like I'm learning a lot--like the lectures are taking the things I already knew at a basic level and giving me new ways to think about them or adding another layer to them that was beyond what I'd thought of before.

I've always been a very subconscious writer; any cool things that appear in my piece weren't put there through any conscious decision on my part. I want to learn to write deliberately, or put things in on purpose--to see the things I'm doing because I've learned so much via osmosis about how stories work through the simple act of reading tons of stories since I first learned how to read. VP is giving me the tools to do that, and for that, I am grateful.

Also meeting my peers, the people who will be publishing around the same time I am, the people whose Hugo and Campbell and Nebula nominations I will be jealous of and root for.

Yeah. This is $1500 well spent. And now to get back to work so the badgers in the horror that is Thursday do not attack me.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yay, I'm really glad to hear that it's going well and that you've had some great feedback! I'll be interested to hear more detail on the week once you get back but I can only imagine that it's both really informative and really overwhelming right now!
It's definitely exciting to hear that you're being encouraged to submit that story. I enjoyed the part of it that I read as you posted it here.

Also, feel free to tell Paul that I really enjoyed Captain Fancyknickers & that entire collection. I'm amused that he turned out to be your roommate! I have no idea if he's a cool person or not but at least he puts out a mean anthology, which counts for something! =)