[Clarion 2K1, week 2: the saga resumes...]

Thursday: Bradley mentioned to the group Samuel Delaney's (sp?) concept of "protocols for interpreting science fiction." Because sf context can be quite different from mainstream fiction, the conventions need to be spelled out early on so that the reader will correctly interpret the action that is going on. While there is only one way to interpret "he turned on his left side" in literary fiction, this sentence can be interpreted several different ways in sf depending upon the context. As authors, we need to establish the ground rules (ie, establish the protocols) as early in the story as we can. By doing so, we can make sure the reader understands when "he turned on his left side" means he rolled over and when it means the character flipped a switch to activate half of his mechanical body.

The stories have been excellent, by and large, and the stakes are getting higher. I turned in my own story on Thursday morning to be critiqued on Friday. "Suspicious Activity" weighed in at 3,500 words and, I feared at the time, probably didn't raise the bar any.

For dinner on Thursday, a large group of us went to The Outback Steakhouse because one of our group is Australian, and we all thought it would be fun to show him the best of the American Kitsch Treatment given to Australia.

Friday. During week 1, each of Friday's stories had a "death in the family" element. This Friday, each of the stories we critiqued had a strong political element. The feedback I received on "Suspicious Activity" was pretty much uniform in telling me that I needed to push the stakes for the main character up a couple of notches, and I completely agree. The other stories generated quite a bit of politically charged conversation (mine, though identified as a "libertarian allegory," was lighter in tone than the others because it was a quasi-comedy. As such, I suspect that it was less threatening than the other, more hard-hitting pieces).

The group as a whole handled the differing viewpoints with intelligence and tact, even when emotionally-laden subjects entered into the conversation. In later, "off-line" conversations, I found that even the folks who had disagreed most vehemently with others in class still maintained a healthy respect for each other. This is crucial, as we are dealing with some heavy issues (race, sexual orientation, gender, et al), and we need to stay focused on how we develop as *writers*... not as debaters or opponents. Thus far, I think we're handling this well, and in a lot of ways I think it's healthy that we're starting to strip away the "let's all be nice" layers and get to the meat of the matter. I think we've passed the first test successfully.

Of course, this *is* only week 2. That said, our instructor for Week 3 is Nalo Hopkinson, who has a reputation for being similarly interested in exploring a lot of the issues that we've started only recently to explore as a group, and who also has already expressed to us her desire to help us keep cool and constructive. With her steady direction and then the practiced hands of our following instructors (Connie Willis, Ellen Datlow, and Jack Womack), I think we'll come through this just fine.

Anyway, today was our last session with Bradley. After class, we all took him to "Bill's", a nearby pizza and salad/sandwich shop. Once again, all seventeen of us plus instructor managed to make it. I still think it's a minor miracle to be able to get this large group together, with its vastly differing preferences and priorities, for a meal at the same place at the same time.

As a gift for Mr. Denton, we presented a nice Mariners shirt (there had been a number of bad baseball puns floating around during this past week) which we had all signed, plus a Mariners baseball cap that we figured he might actually wear.

In the afternoon, some of us played cards ("Hearts") in the hallway (inadvertantly waking up some of our group who were trying to nap) while others actually began working on their critiques for Monday. Another member of our group began setting up a perpetual-novel chain that a bunch of us are going to participate in. (Uh... in which a bunch of us are going to participate.) I had my one-on-one with Brad, and he had some excellent suggestions for how I might rachet up the tension in my short story. He even told me that he'd try to read through the stories we'd submitted last week and get us some feedback on those, as well.

Since my submission piece for the application to Clarion West was the first chapter of The Do Over, he was able to offer me a few helpful suggestions on that one, as well. Like Octavia, he favors changing the name (I'm increasingly inclined to agree), and made other good suggestions as well. I'm glad he took the time to take a look at it.

In the evening, we all made it out to the Friday Clarion West Party. This time, it was being held at the house of someone I'd actually already met through other circles previously (he writes computer books, which is how I came to know him), so it was nice to see him after having been out of touch for quite a while.

Now, here it is almost 2am. Another week at Clarion West 2k1 has reached its conclusion... and it's definitely time for your humble correspondent to ready himself for sleep. Ta ta 'til tomorrow, my friends.

--Allan