WHEN: July 16, 2021 @ 9:30 am – July 18, 2021 @ 3:00 pm (all times are PST)
WHERE: In your home via Zoom
COST: $275
CONTACT: Mindi Welton-Mitchell – [email protected]
Our Three-Day Critique Workshop is an opportunity for you to submit the first 4000 words of your novel, short story, or whatever project you are working on, for critique in a group of up to 8 peers led by an industry professional. This is a great way to polish up those first pages and first chapter. Submissions are due six weeks before the event via our ProBoards. Registrants will receive login information a few weeks before submissions are due. There will also be one-hour workshops and panel presentations on craft, querying, the publishing industry, and more. Optional casual gatherings provide opportunities to get to know other writers as well as authors, editors, and agents.
Current speakers for the 2021 workshop include
- Tor & Tor Teen editor Susan Chang,
- author James L. Sutter,
- agent Kelly Van Sant
- author Cat Rambo,
- author Curtis Chen,
- editor Christine Yant,
- author Dustin Hansen,
- author Wendy Wagner, and
- author Laura Anne Gilman
Registration closed.
To be added to the waitlist, email [email protected].
Scholarships have been awarded and are no longer available for this workshop.
2021 Speakers
Susan Chang is a Senior Editor at Tor Books. She acquires and edits books for the Starscape middle grade and Tor Teen young adult imprints. After graduating from Vassar College with a degree in Medieval and Renaissance Studies, she began her publishing career at HarperCollins Children’s Books, where she worked for nine years before moving on to shorter stints at Hyperion Books for Children and Parachute Publishing, a book packager. In January 2004, Susan got her dream job at Tor Books as acquiring editor for the Starscape and Tor Teen imprints.
Susan acquires chapter books, middle grade, and young adult fiction. She does not acquire picture books, new adult, or adult books. Like many editors, she has eclectic tastes, and is open to be queried about anything and everything, not limited to science fiction and fantasy. For chapter books she is looking for high concept books or series with an educational hook; for middle grade, action and high-stakes adventure; and in young adult, stories that are thought-provoking and emotionally truthful. If you are interested in submitting to her, please follow Tor’s submission guidelines, which can be found here: https://us.macmillan.com/torforge/about/faq/
James L. Sutter is a co-creator of the Pathfinder and Starfinder Roleplaying Games. For thirteen years, he worked as an editor and game designer at Paizo Publishing, becoming both the Starfinder Creative Director and the Executive Editor of the Pathfinder novel line for Tor/Macmillan. He is the author of two novels: Death’s Heretic, a finalist for the Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel, and The Redemption Engine, which won the 2015 Scribe Award for Best Original Speculative Tie-In Novel. He has also written comics, video games (most recently the Starfinder Alexa game featuring Nathan Fillion and Laura Bailey), award-winning tabletop gaming supplements, and essays and short stories for such publications as Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and the #1 Amazon bestseller Machine of Death. You can find him online at jameslsutter.com or on Twitter at @jameslsutter. Go to top
Cat Rambo lives, writes, and teaches atop a hill in the Pacific Northwest. Her 200+ fiction publications include stories in Asimov’s, Clarkesworld Magazine, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. She is an Endeavour, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award nominee. Her 2018 works include Hearts of Tabat (novel, WordFire Press) and the 3rd edition of nonfiction Creating an Online Presence for Writers. She is the current President of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). For more about her, as well as links to her fiction and her popular online school, The Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers, see http://www.kittywumpus.net Go to top
Once a Silicon Valley software engineer, Curtis C. Chen (陳致宇) now writes stories and runs puzzle games near Portland, Oregon. He’s the author of the Kangaroo series of funny science fiction spy thrillers and has written for the Realm originals Ninth Step Station, Machina, and Echo Park 2060 (forthcoming). Curtis’ short stories have appeared in Playboy Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, Oregon Reads Aloud, and elsewhere. His homebrew cat feeding robot was displayed in the “Worlds Beyond Here” exhibit at Seattle’s Wing Luke Museum. Visit him online: https://curtiscchen.com Go to top
Wendy N. Wagner is the editor-in-chief of Nightmare Magazine. She is also the author of the forthcoming horror novel The Deer Kings (due out in August) and the forthcoming gothic novella (fall 2021). Previous work includes the SF thriller An Oath of Dogs and two novels for the Pathfinder Tales series. Her short stories, poetry, and essays have appeared in more than fifty venues. She also serves as the managing/senior editor of Lightspeed Magazine, and previously served as the guest editor of Nightmare‘s Queers Destroy Horror! special issue. She lives in Oregon with her very understanding family, two large cats, and a Muppet disguised as a dog. Go to top
Laura Anne Gilman spent 15 years as an editor for major New York publishers, the last seven heading up the SF/F imprint Roc for Penguin USA. She currently works as a freelance editor/copywriter
As a writer, her work ranges from the Nebula award-nominated Vineart War epic fantasy trilogy to the SFnal/horror collection DRAGON VIRUS, and the popular “Cosa Nostradamus” urban fantasy series, while her short fiction has appeared more than 40 anthologies and magazines. Her new novel, SILVER ON THE ROAD, will be out from Simon & Schuster/Saga Press in Autumn 2015.
Ms. Gilman also writes the “Gin and Tonic” mysteries under the name L.A. Kornetsky.
You can learn more at www.lauraannegilman.net.
Christie Yant writes and edits science fiction and fantasy in the American mid-west. She worked as an assistant editor for Lightspeed Magazine from its launch in 2010 through 2015, and, in 2014 she edited the Women Destroy Science Fiction! special issue of Lightspeed, which won the British Fantasy Award for Best Anthology. She is the co-editor of four anthologies, and a consulting editor for Tor.com’s line of novellas. Her own fiction has appeared in anthologies and magazines including Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2011 (Horton), Armored, Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, io9, and Wired.com.
Dustin Hansen, author of Game On! and the Microsaurs series, was raised in rural Utah, where he spent many days hiking red rock canyons that once belonged to the dinosaurs. But even the beautiful mountains couldn’t keep him away from his love of pixels and controllers. He has been writing and creating art for the video game industry for more than two decades. Dustin and his family live in rural Utah once again, where he is the current king of the family Mario Kart circuit. Go to top
