ArmadilloCon 26 - Austin, TX

The DilloCon Writers Workshop has become a major event for aspiring SF/F writers to get wisdom and networking opportunities with major pro editors and authors. Past workshop teachers have included such luminaries as: Catharine Asaro, Kage Baker, Robin Hobb, Janes Stoddard, Joan Vinge, and Toni Weisskopf.

You can apply online or send $50 check payable to "ArmadilloCon" along with your manuscript and application to:

Get your unpublished original work of science fiction/fantasy/horror fiction in front of a pro! Sign up for the ArmadilloCon 26 writers workshop! Get invaluable critique and feedback from at least one pro writer or editor, plus small-group critiques from fellow attendees. Includes group sessions and panels or presentations throughout the about the craft and profession of writing. All at a terrific reasonable cost of only $50. You also get admission to all three days of the convention!

Submit your original work of science fiction, fantasy, or horror fiction along with a $50 check to ArmadilloCon postmarked no later than July 12, 2004. (Only one submission, only your own work, and only fiction, please!) It can be a short story, or the first chapter(s) of a novel, but maximum length is 5000 words. Manuscripts longer than the maximum will be shortened at the ArmadilloCon 26 offices. Format your manuscript professionally -- print double-spaced on one side of a letter-sized white sheet of paper, using 12-point Courier or Times typeface, and indicate new paragraphs with a 5-space tab (not an extra line). Most writing books and many online sources describe what professional formatting looks like if you have questions.

With the work you submit, you will also need to provide us with permission to photocopy your story for distribution to the other workshoppers. You can add a sentence to the first page, or include a separate page, that says: "For the purposes of the ArmadilloCon 26 writers workshop only, I hereby give permission to the representatives of ArmadilloCon 26 to photocopy my original work of fiction entitled _____ ." And then sign the release.

You will receive the manuscripts of the other students in your group about two weeks before the workshop for you to review and critique ahead of time. The bulk of the workshop time will be taken up by breaking into smaller groups for in-depth critiques of your manuscripts. The balance of the workshop will include lectures, discussions, writers' exercises, handouts, etc. from the pro writers/editors.

Jayme Lynn Blaschke is currently the fiction editor of RevolutionSF.com. He's sold to anthologies The Ant-Men of Tibet and Other Stories and Writers of the Future, Vol. 14 and has published the chapbooks Cyclops in B Minor and The Dust from Mooncast Shadows. His collection of genre interviews has been reprinted in an anthology called Cosmosis by the University of Nebraska Press.
Jennifer Evans, co-coordinator of the writers' workshop, is a long-time member of the SlugTribe, and has presented writers-block workshops and coordinated critique groups and writers retreats for past ArmadilloCons and WorldCons. Her short fiction has appeared in Asimov's SF Magazine, 50 Crafty Cat Stories anthology, and her modern fantasy novel Schmooks is being shopped to several editors.
Rick Klaw is an award-winning editor and was the co-founder and managing editor of MOJO Press and the former fiction editor for RevolutionSF. Not content with just being a regular columnist for SF Site, Rick Klaw decided to collect his columns, essays, reviews, and other things Klaw in Geek Confidential: Echoes From the 21st Century (Monkey Brains, Inc). We're glad to have him back as a teacher.
Alexis Glynn Latner's novelettes and short stories have been published in Analog Science Fiction Magazine, Amazing Stories, and the anthology Bending the Landscape: Horror. Her short story "Kindred" won the 2002 Gaylactic Spectrum Award for short fiction. She combined science fiction and her love of sailplanes in "Wilbur's White Glider" on the Web at http://ssaregion12.org/rtkh/. We're glad to have her back as a teacher.
Jessica Reisman's fiction has appeared in The Third Alternative, Realms of Fantasy, in Scifiction, on SciFi.com and in anthologies. Her first novel is The Z Radiant, from Five Star Speculative Fiction, due out June 2004. Besides fiction, she has written locally produced and nationally aired radio plays and short films.
Mary Rosenblum has had more stories published in Asimov's SF magazine than any other author to-date. A graduate of Clarion West, she went on to publish three SF novels, an Arkham House collection of her short fiction, as well as more than 50 short stories in SF and other genres including her Hugo nominee story, 'Gas Fish'. When she's not writing, she teaches fiction for Long Ridge Writers Group, runs their website www.longridgewritersgroup.com, and also recently taught SF/F writing at the Haystack Writers Conference. We're glad to have her back as a teacher.
Patrice Sarath is an alumna of the Dillocon Writer's Workshops who's made it to pro status. Her short stories have appeared in Realms of Fantasy, Black Gate, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, and other magazines and anthologies. Her story about Joan of Arc, "A Prayer For Captain La Hire," was reprinted in Year's Best Fantasy 3, edited by Hartwell/Cramer. We're glad to have her back as a teacher.
Kate Saundby has published 11 novels in her acclaimed Nublis Chronicles series, starting with the award-winning The Wages of Justice, and including The Wages of Sin, The Wages of Greed and Golden Silence; Dark Angel, The Artemesian Mandate and The Orion Property. Her romantic time travel novel, A Circle of Arcs, was an SF finalist in the 2001 EPPIE Awards. Kate is presently working on the sequel, A Distant Bell.
Rie Sheridan has had short stories published in The Eternal Night, ShadowKeep and Verge ezines, as well as on the EOTU and Planet Relish websites. Two of her stories, "Beauty Within the Briars" and "Home By Sunset" appear in the electronic version of Double Dragon ePress fantasy anthology FROM WITHIN THE MIST. "Drink My SoulŠPlease" can be found in Mundania Press' science fiction/fantasy anthology Beyond the Mundane: Flights of Mind. Both her anthology Revisions and poetry collection Dancing on the Edge were finalists for the 2003 EPPIE Awards.
Sharon Shinn, ArmadilloCon26 Guest of Honor, is the author of Archangel and four other books in the Samaria world, as well as five other science fiction/fantasy novels. She won the William C. Crawford Award for Outstanding New Fantasy Writer for her first book. A graduate of Northwestern University, she has lived in the Midwest most of her life.
K.D. Wentworth has sold more than sixty pieces of short fiction to such markets as FASF, Hitchcock's, Realms of Fantasy, Dying For It, Return to the Twilight Zone, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, and The Chick Is in the Mail. She is a two-time Nebula nominee for short fiction and currently has seven novels in print, the three most recent being This Fair Land, an alternate history Cherokee fantasy.
Wendy Wheeler, co-coordinator of the writers' workshop, is a founder of the SlugTribe SF/F group in Austin. Her short fiction has been selected for The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror and has appeared in such periodicals as Analog, Aboriginal SF, Gorezone, Pandora, Dead of Night and others. She's also had work in theme anthologies like Snow White, Blood Red and Silver Birch, Blood Moon and in The Crafters Parts I and II. She also writes genre screenplays and is a reader/judge in the Austin screenwriters' contest.
Mark L. Williams is the author of the "Danger Boy" time travel adventure books, originally released by Tricycle Press and re-released by Candlewick Press. His work has been cited on the LA Times' children's bestseller list and nominated for a Golden Duck award. Williams has also written comics for Mojo Press and Piranha Press, been a videogame script doctor for Activision and had plays produced at venues ranging from Los Angeles to London. We're glad to have him back as a teacher.

Cancellations: If you miss the workshop on Friday, August 13, we will mail your manuscript and the critiques we can gather to you. No refunds once manuscripts are mailed to the pros.

The Fandom Association of Central Texas, Inc. (FACT) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit literary/educational corporation.