Yet another reminder to myself NOT to write these posts in iPage. One backspace key and the frelling page refreshes, eating my updates.  Bah.

Sorry for Friday's silence, work got busy, but I have something great enough to make up for it.

I've been running a critque group I inherited for a few years. It's survived locations changes and the usual membership churn while keeping a hard core of dedicated, ambitious writers. Several of our writers are starting to get published, which thrilling and inspiring.  So we've decided to become a little more serious about our critique group.  We spent over an hour brainstorming group names, which was fun and occasionally even productive. :) 

I think all of us who've stuck with this bi-monthly group are serious about becoming professional writers.  We all write genre fiction: Fantasy, Sci-fi and Horror.  We've also been inspired by the Inkpunks and to an extent other writing groups like the Fairwood Writers and the legendary Inklings. We're dedicated to our writing passion, to improving our craft and to aiding and supporting each other. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present our writing group, the Cloud City Wordslingers.

Luna Lindsey.  Luna is my co-leader, she picks up the slack when I'm not around. She has a wonderful eye for detail and an excellent ear for storytelling.  Her critiques are gold.  She is also self publishing her work. Her first novella can be purchases here* and she is hard at work editing her next novel for another self publish release. You can find her online at www.lunalindsey.com and on Twitter @lunalindsey.

Stephanie Herman.  Stephanie has been with the group longer than anyone, apart from Luna. She is already a pro at worldbuilding and writes descriptions that are vivid AND reveal character details. She does that so well I fully intend to steal from her...once I figure out just how she does what she does.  Stephanie works full time as a wildlife rehabilitator, which is its own big bag of awesome. She's going to go all the way and I'll proud to help her any way I can.  She can be found online at http://wildliterati.blogspot.com/ and on Twitter @wildliterati.

Shannon Peavey.  Shannon came to our group with a story so polished and entrancing that I couldn't believe she wasn't already a professional. She is, just not a professional writer (yet). She is a professional horse trainer, a concert pianist and a damn good writer. I feel lucky to know her. She can be found on Twitter @shannonpv.

Folly Blaine.  She has a secret identity, which I will not reveal, lest her new writing fans swarm all over her house and demand more short stories from her.  She is witty, talented and can drink a sailor under the table. Folly is an experienced playwright and that shows in her work. She has several flash fiction pieces published and just got accepted to an anthology, Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations, coming this spring. She can be found online at http://www.follyblaine.com/ and on Twitter @Follyblaine.

Andrew Williams   Andrew is another rising success for himself and our group. He has published several short stories and, like Folly, has a story accepted in the anthology, Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations. He has a good critical eye, which is invaluable in helping the group polish their stories. He is very serious about his writing career but, despite that, is a lot of fun to have around. he can be found online at http://offthewrittenpath.com/ and on Twitter @thewrittenpath.

Andrew Rosenberg.  Andrew has been with the group for a long time, nearly as long as Luna and Stephanie.  He is a master of creating steam-powered things in his writing and in his costuming.  (Yeah, he goes farther than just slapping a pair of goggle on a top hat) he is also very serious about his writing career and is always good about pointing out what doesn't work in the stories he's critquing.  He can be found online at http://blog.writerunner.com and on Twitter @iapetus999.

J. Boswell.  Boswell is a young and growing writer.  His YA novel, The Dweller on the Threshold is a mix of H.P. Lovecraft, Jungian psychology and super-powered wild Kung Fu anime-style mayhem. You know, your normal coming of age novel.  He always has a penetrating insight into just what works and what does not in a story.  His descritive abilities of monsters and mayhem have no equal.  We WILL get him online, in Twitter or blog form, one of these days.

Mila Webb.  Mila writes gothic stories that cross the line between Fantasy and Horror. She is not Louise Brooks but she appreciates the implied compliment (don't hit me, Mila). She has a feline ability to sit and watch and wait and then insert just the right comment or phrase to highlight what needs to be fixed in a story.  We just need to apply direct peer pressure to her so we can read more of her wonderful stories. She can be found on Twitter @mcobweb.


And last but not least, our founder and member emeritus, Steve Wilson.  Steve started this group and set up the structure that we've largely kept: stories submitted a week in advance, everyone goes around and provides feedback for the story, everyone hands in a copy of the crique to the story owner with the remarks on paper.  We've moved to annotated MS Word docs instead of printouts but the principles are still the same.  It wasn't quite Milford rules and it worked well for us. He kept things organized and kept things positive.  He writes military sci-fi, my favorite genre, and from time to time he'll drop in a story for us to critique remotely. We just wish he still lived in Seattle, we miss him.



*http://www.amazon.com/Make-Willing-the-Prey-ebook/dp/B003Z0CV68/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324310008&sr=8-1