Northwestern Imminence
Okay. I've spent a week hiding out at an undisclosed location in the Oregonian hinterlands, mending dented promises and waiting for my words to grow back. Now the results are in:
Oregon is officially better than you.
Don't feel bad. It's better than me, too. It's full of organic free-range buses, user-friendly temperatures, and Jennie Komp does baked goods drone-strikes on the weekly. Plus, the
have a safehouse and a distribution network in every city.
and her Salem WW crew will bring cookies and graciously overlook your catastrophically terrible humor.
and the Eugene WW team will wine, dine and recline you at first sight. And
's Portland WW people... well, I guess you and I are gonna have to find out together, cuz I'll be doing "
Auntie M's Guide to Greaseless Self-Promotion
" there on the 6th. (You should go. It'll be rad.)
In the meantime, I will grudgingly consent to depart Oregon for this so-called "Montana", if there is any such thing, and bestow my presence upon MisCon in Missoula. (Apparently the town's original name was Hellgate. I'm still not convinced the whole thing isn't a geographical snipe-hunt.)
BUT THEN I am ripping RIGHT back down to Eugene, because the heartbreakingly divine people at
are having me on to present their
from June 1st to June 4th. Yes. Correct. You and me and a select few other of Earth's most intrepid hero-scribes, forsaking the mundane world to spend four days working microliterary miracles in the Word Alchemy Lab. Your prose will not be polished. It will be dissected, atomized, and reborn. There are three seats left, six days remaining, and one under-the-hat promise from me to you: if you do sign up for this, I will read your manuscript beforehand. (Yes, the whole thing. I do epic fantasy. Your word count does not scare me.) We will talk about it together, one on one. And I will not make you cry.
SO. Texas friends: hold that fort.
Northwesternauts: I think you know what to do.