In 1993, I had an experience that changed my life.  I attended the Clarion West Writers Workshop in Seattle, with magnificent instructors like Greg Bear, Connie Willis, Geoff Ryman, Lucius Shepherd, and the wonderful Pat Murphy.  I had been studying writing, and the six weeks of intensive work at Clarion West crystallized everything.  It was an epiphany, really, as if I had suddenly woken up to understand things like structure and pace and character and tension.  It was humbling, because I was by no means the star of the workshop.  I'm sure that if a vote had been taken as to who would go on to publish a lot, I would not have won!  But I DID win, because I learned so much, and have used every bit of that knowledge.

Clarion West isn't free, and it's too expensive for some students.  The annual fundraiser--a Write-a-Thon--has begun, and I, along with other supporters, am gathering pledges.  My Write-a-Thon page, with a snippet from my forthcoming book, is here:  http://clarionwest.org/events/writeathon/LouiseMarley  There's a button to donate if you would like to support this effort.  My pledge is to write 25 pages a week, and it would be lovely if some of our RedRoom authors would like to pledge money for this worthy organization.  Even small donations add up to a lot of help for aspiring writers.