|
 I was
born in the deep south. In the 1970's at that time, there was
still a lot of racial unrest, that conflict between haves and have-nots
influenced my writing, and was much of the motivation behind my first
novel, Murphy's Gambit. Growing up, my avocation was writing science fiction. I took a course with writer Kathy Massie-Ferch and fell into a writers group with many talented writers. One of them, Kelly Winters, got into Clarion West, a six-week writer's workshop in Seattle. I was both proud of her and green with envy. Seattle was somewhere I'd always wanted to see, and Clarion is renowned both for the quality of its instructors and its rigorous boot-camp mentality. Spurred on by Kelly's sucess, I applied to Clarion West, and was accepted. Envious no longer, we made plans to trek to Seattle. Clarion West was all that I'd hoped for and more. For six weeks I lived, ate, and breathed science fiction. It was a make-or-break experience. Some people come away from Clarion determined never to write again. Me, it fired up, and gave me the courage to attempt a novel, which was later published by Roc as Murphy's Gambit. There I also met the love of my life, but that's a whole nother story... |
| Content updated 12 January 2008 |
