Looks Like I Have An Open Summer This Year

Well, I've received a response to my applications to Clarion and Clarion West and it's both bad and good. The bad part is I didn't get in. I'm not going to lie, this is a disappointment. I really wanted to go to one of these. Either one would have been a blast and a huge learning experience, with Clarion West having a slight edge as it was cheaper and had George R. R. Martin teaching this year.

Now for the good part. The response from Clarion West included the words "our readers ranked your work among the upper tier of this year's applications". Again, not going to lie, that's a huge ego boost/bit of validation for me. These workshops receive hundreds, if not thousands of applications each year. You have to be near publication ready or already published to get in, and even though I didn't both workshops encouraged me to try again next year. If I'm in the top tier this year, as long as I keep working and growing I know my chances will improve dramatically for next summer.

So where does this leave me. Well, I now have to figure out what to do with three weeks of vacation time since I'll loose it at the end of the year if I don't take it off. (I'd saved all of my vacation time from last year and carried it over into this one so I'd have the six weeks needed for either workshop.) This means I can go to all days of World Fantasy, even the Thursday I originally thought I may have to miss. I can take the days off before and after Ad Astra, so I don't have to rush into Toronto after work and have a day to recover afterwards. I'll be around for the War of 1812 ceremonies at Fort Erie. And who knows, I may find some time to make a trip up to Ottawa in June to see a storyteller friend perform.

The most important thing I need to do is work on my writing. I may not have gotten into either Clarion but that doesn't mean I won't have opportunities this year to get feedback or get published. I want to have a novel draft I can be proud of and an elevator pitch ready for World Fantasy this year as Toronto will be crawling with editors and agents and I'd be crazy to not have something ready.

So while not getting into Clarion sucks it is far from the end of the world and isn't going to cause me to stumble on my path to getting published.

Why I Will Never Plagiarize

Over on Whatever by John Scalzi is a post on Quentin Rowan's response after being caught plagiarizing the works of multiple authors in order to get published. It's a fascinating example of complete and utter doucebaggery (Quentin's response, not John's post. John's post is pretty much spot on and very fair and balanced.). I recommend reading both.

I've already made a brief entry in the comments section of John's post, but I thought I should elaborate a bit further here on why you will never find me plagiarizing the works of others. There are a few reasons, from least to most important:

1. I could get caught.

 I'd have to live in fear of getting caught and exposed to the whole world. My career as an author come to a crashing and unrecoverable halt. At this point, Quentin Rowan's name is mud in the publishing world. He will likely never work in the field ever again. Heck, he was even fired from the bookstore that employed him because of this. No publisher would touch anything he produces now, and even if he uses a pseudonym he's done if anyone ever connects his real name to it, which is much more likely nowadays.

2.  I would lose friends.

I've been fortunate enough to make friends within the writing and science fiction\fantasy communities thanks to attending conventions. If I got caught as a plagiarist those friends would disown me so quickly I'd have whiplash. Now, don't get me wrong, these are good people. My crime would be so great they'd have to do it, and rightfully so.

3. I'd always know I cheated.

This is the most important reason for me. Ruin in the publishing world I could live with. Losing friends would hurt, a lot, but I've lost friends in the past through moving and drifting apart so I know it's survivable. Knowing that I got success by stealing and cheating would be what would kill me.

I was raised to take responsibility for my mistakes and give credit where it's due. They are two of the central tenants of my life. Plagiarism breaks both of these.

The comments section of John's original post provides many more reasons that I agree with. In the end, I want to recognized for my work and not something I've stolen. Getting published will be even sweeter when done by my own mental sweat and not thieving from others.