Hi all –

While I’ve been away from the blog for a while, I’ve not been entirely out of the fiction game: I’ve joined a new writers group. It’s going extremely well, we all seem to want the same things out of the group (even if that’s where most of our similarities end) and we’ve even got a kickass name and motto:

The Stop-Watch Gang — “We will cut you!”

Before you ask: no, we’re not looking for new members and, besides, we have criteria. You have to have at least one professional sale, as defined by the SFWA rules for membership. We’re actually a pretty impressive group, if I do say so: our collective credentials include four published novels, an Aurora Award, two Aurora nominations, three Writers of the Future wins, and between us perhaps a couple of dozen short story publications.

One of the great things about writers groups is the odd and hilarious things overheard during meetings as we critique each others stories. I know that Clarion does a t-shirt every year, and I kept a running tally of bon mots from my Writers of the Future workshop week, so I thought that I’d share some of the ongoing hilarity of the Stop-Watch Gang. These are all comments that illustrate an individual’s reaction to a particular story under consideration (note: attributions have been removed to protect the innocent…)

“It’s like Piers Anthony on speed.”

“It’s Agatha Christie-punk!”

“Omniscient? That’s not good enough.”

“Just call it a big @#%$ing wall!”

“Spirits are a pain in the @#%$ing ass…”

“Sorry Stephen–there’s even more snark in yours.”

“Blah blah blah–just erupt the volcano already!”

“Oh! Alliteration! Yeah, you don’t want that.”

“I like $@#% like this…I don’t do it, but I like $@#% like this.”

More quotable quotes as they become available…

– S.