Four weeks down. Impossible to believe that we're two-thirds of the way through. Burke flew home this weekend to see his wife and kid; he wrote us email telling us that re-adjusting to the outside world is going to be pretty darn tough. It's starting to sink in on all of us that in two weeks w're going to be saying goodbye. How is it possible for 17 people to get so close in just one month?

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I was the communal cook last night; I cooked New Orlean's style red beans and rice. Kim Stanley Robinson was in town for a signing/interview tour, and he stopped by to talk to us for a couple of hours and then joined us for dinner. It was really fascinating to hear him talk about his writing and his expeiences, and his views of the industry. He cautioned us about the homogenization effect that sometimes happens at Clarion--where everyone's stories start to sound alike--and said that it was individualism that would make our fiction appealing. Unfortunately I had to leave halfway through his talk to finish cooking, but Susan was taping it, so I'll borrow her tape some time this weekend.

Of course then, at the party that night, Vonda said that she thought that the homogenization effect was a total myth. (Yes, Vonda, I'm paraphrasing. ;-) ) And, I really do have to agree with her. There's a very wide variety of fiction being turned in, and while we are becoming aware of some of the "rules", we are also experimenting with breaking them right and left.

Whatever the result, I'm certainly getting my money's worth out of this experience. I realized yesterday, while talking to Daniel, what it was I wanted out of my writing. I want to write stories that people will remember.