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May 15th, 2008
02:03 pm - CA Supreme Court Overturns Same-Sex Marriage Ban
This is an incredible, wonderful, and, for me, bittersweet day. The California Supreme Court struck down the ban on same-sex couples marrying today. When I lived in CA, I fought for the right to marry, participated in marches and demonstrations, was even in San Francisco when the city briefly issued marriage licenses. I was in a long term relationship, one that we could only make into a Domestic Partnership under the law at the time. I dreamed about the day we would be able to legally marry, and I was fighting for it.
At the end of last year, my partner cheated on me, found someone else. The situation has been tough--very tough, the depths of which I can't even open up here--and devastating to me. It seems almost horribly ironic that now, at last, the right to marry in the state I had come to love is given immediately after the dismal end of my seven-year relationship.
Despite the bittersweet tang of it, I'm absolutely ecstatic about this news.
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November 6th, 2007
11:22 am - The New Odyssey Workshop 2007 Class
 The newest grads from the Odyssey Workshop have their Class of 2007 page up! My friend Krista (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kristajhl) attended this year; I haven't seen her in a while--yikes it's been like nine or ten months!--so when I finally do get to see her again, it'll be fun to swap workshop experiences. And how cool that one of her comments during the six-week workshop ended up in the class tagline!
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01:31 am - Website Updated
I got around to updating my website recently, finally adding a bibliography page. The layout and graphics are not much changed yet, because that takes some time to build. I'll be keeping this one more current than I have in the past. Yeah, I know I've said that before, but I'll keep trying.
The main news page on the site is at ClaytonKroh.com, while the blog-y stuff is at ShaggingFungoes.com. It's all reachable through the main claytonkroh.com site, though.
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October 24th, 2007
11:32 pm - Story In Wierd Tales #347
Weird Tales issue #346 just came out, the Sept/Oct issue. My story isn't in that one, but the next one, #347 Oct/Nov. I think I have it right. So, it's not out yet; I was all excited and confuzzled in the previous post.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/smile.gif) chipper
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October 20th, 2007
11:09 pm - Weird Tales Story
*Tap*Tap*Tap* Is this thing on?
I've accepted the fact that I'm pathetic at maintaining a consistent blog. A few posts every eight months doesn't even qualify as a "blog" does it?
Anyway, in news, I sold my short-short story "The Yankee at the Sitting-Up" to Weird Tales magazine this summer. It should be appearing in the upcoming issue--October, I believe. I'm very excited about it and owe editor Ann VanderMeer many thanks.
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March 19th, 2007
11:50 pm - Yes, That Sounds About Right
Plagued by bitter irony till the end....
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January 3rd, 2007
09:25 pm - ICFA
I booked my flight to the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts today. It will be held March 14 through 18 in Ft. Lauderdale. I like this conference, but don't get to go very often. I wasn't missing this one, though; Geoff Ryman is the guest of honor, and the theme is "Representing Self and Other: Gender and Sexuality in the Fantastic."
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December 14th, 2006
02:00 am - Website Winter Theme
My website now has a winter theme.
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December 9th, 2006
06:00 pm - Vocabulary
My vocabulary over the past month feels like it has doubled, thanks to all this study for the GRE verbal. A lot of the words aren't new to me, but I would have had trouble defining them accurately if asked. And then there are words like panegyric. I've pushed my practice test verbal score up to 690. I want it to be higher though; I need something to counterbalance my undergrad transcripts which are downright noxious.
I've even improved my math score, though I won't say from what to what. It's too shameful.
Meanwhile, my creativity rating (which is inversely proportional to the increased standardized test scores) flops about gasping, moribund. I haven't written a lick in a month.
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December 2nd, 2006
11:43 pm - Math + Clay = How I Played Dragon's Lair
Remember that arcade game Dragon's Lair? The one that looked like a cartoon but was ridiculously hard to control (well it was for me anyway)? I realized this evening that my approach to math is much like how I approached playing that arcade game: just slap the buttons and jerk the joystick around and hope Dirk jumps the pit/the answer comes out correct.
I'm studying for the GRE test. I've got the verbal pretty well sewn up. But the quantitative (i.e., math)? Bahaha! I haven't come near things like quadratic equations since before, like...since before Milli Vanilli hit it big! And even on high school tests, it was all arcade tactics: SLAP SLAP SLAP, LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN, SLAP SLAP SLAP; open eyes and hope it's right.
It usually wasn't (and in the game, poor Dirk usually fell into the chasm). I'm trying harder this time, but the old practiced habit of mental shutdown that happens is a hard one to break.
I wonder if I can score at least a 450 by slapping the keyboard on GRE test day?
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November 20th, 2006
10:16 am - MFAs
I've decided to pursue an MFA in fiction writing. I've approached the idea several times before, but the timing was never right, because of work or finances, etc. I'm in a situation now where I can jump into a full residency program for two or even three years.
If at all possible, I'm going to avoid paying for it out-of-pocket. I'm also going to try and avoid student loans. This means teaching assistantships and fellowships are in the mix--as in, I need to land some wherever I go. A prospect with low promise given my checkered undergraduate record, but we'll see.
The Big Issue
The biggest issue with attending an MFA program for writers like me is how the program views the kind of writing I enjoy. My writing is complimented sometimes as "literary" (though I don't like the term in its popular usage because it distorts the original meaning, and implies that anything that is not mimetic fiction--you know, "realistic" stories--is not literature, which is pretentious). They're saying I write pretty well, and that my fiction might even be able to move within more rarified circles--like academia.
Might.
I decided to email some of the programs I've been looking into. I explained that I've written all sorts of fiction, but my successful recent work has had fantastic elements in it. Is their program accepting of this or experimental work by students?
I received a few responses (some didn't bother to answer), and generally they were tepid. This one pushed all my wrong buttons:
"If you mean experimental as in Don Barthelme, Michael Martone, absolutely. If you mean Dungeons and Dragons, I'm afraid not,"
It irked me because it was snide, and it implies I'm ignorant while masking the implication with a rhetorical question. I don't know anyone who would say Dungeons & Dragons is experimental; as a matter of fact, this professor seems to think I might believe this to be a genre of writing. I don't; it's a product line.
This attitude is nothing new. I've seen it many times, but I didn't quite expect it to show itself so early and so baldly in this process.
Here are the schools I'm currently looking into: Syracuse U., U. Michigan, U. Massachussetts, U. Oregon, U. Arizona, U. Texas at Austin, U. Florida, Brooklyn College, UNC Wilmington, Purdue. If you know anything about these or other MFA programs, I'd love to hear from you.
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November 13th, 2006
06:37 pm - Which SF Character Am I?
Me? I've never thought of myself as a Kirk type.
Here's something funny: My partner, Michael, ended up with Spock as his SF character.
So, let those Kirk/Spock slash fantasies run wild.
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November 11th, 2006
November 1st, 2006
08:06 am - My Story Is Up
The "Grabber Contest" winners are up on Spectravaganza.com, which includes my own honorable mention piece "A Good Taste in Men." I got an illustration, too! How cool is that?
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October 30th, 2006
05:25 pm - New Bio Page
Work on my website continues. I just updated my bio page.
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October 28th, 2006
09:22 pm - Redesigned Website
I'm redesigning my personal website. A little leaner, and I hope more career focused. I want it to become a portal for people interested in my writing.
Of course, it's new, and I don't have a lot of writing news to put up yet. But it'll grow.
Check it out, and feel free to let me know what you think of it:
ClaytonKroh.com
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October 27th, 2006
02:37 pm - Here's How Easy It Is To Be Disenfranchised
I don't get to vote in this election.
I pay attention to government and politics. I know the issues, and I know the system. Unfortunately, knowing the system doesn't stop it from clerically voiding your right to vote in an election.
I lived in California, voted there. I'm temporarily living in New York, and promptly sent in my request for an absentee ballot on the very day the registrar started accepting them. I hadn't received one yet, so today I called the Registrar of Voters to see what was up.
DMV told them I couldn't vote in California, so they just trashed my ballot request. No letter, no call, no email to tell me. DMV changed my permanent address, even though I specifically did not want that--I own and return to a house in San Diego for Christ's sake! But the registrar can do nothing, they say. Can you register in New York? I checked. It's too late to register here in New York for the upcoming election.
So I call DMV, tell them they've made a colosal mistake. I need to vote, and I didn't change my address. Oopsie, is basically what I get. Call this number in Sacramento, they say.
I do. It's busy. I call again. Still busy. For the past hour, it's been busy--no phone queue to wait for someone to help me.
And that, my friends, is how even a Constitutional right can be eliminated by simple clerical error.
UPDATE: After more than three hours of going back and forth between the hands-are-tied Registrar and the you-have-to-fill-out-a-form DMV, calling up and down the length of California from San Diego to Sacramento, I finally learned from a DMV person that my address had not, in fact, been changed even though they told the Registrar I otherwise and that I couldn't vote.
I contacted the Registrar's office again (the people there were very helpful, despite not being able to do a whole lot because of procedures and law). They called DMV to verify what I'd been saying. Finally, it was fixed. My absentee ballot should be coming in the mail.
Next hurdle: Will it make it here in time for the election, now only 10 days away?
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October 8th, 2006
10:29 pm - Honorable Mention
I managed to get honorable mention "A" in the Ralan.com Grabber contest. A little money comes with that, which is always welcome.
I'm still awaiting some responses on two other stories out circulating.
I want to write a pirate story next. No more feral women for now (the Ralan story).
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September 11th, 2006
04:07 pm - Clarion in My Town Now
The Clarion Workshop is moving to my home, San Diego! Yes, I'm living in New York right now, and I'll be here for another year and a half or so, but I'll be moving back to San Diego. The campus that's hosting it is UCSD and it's only 10 minutes from my house. Woo!
It'll be kind of nice to have a workshop there like this. Oh and the students will love the weather.
OH, and the students at Clarion will probably get to go to the San Diego Comic-Con, since it takes place right in the middle of Clarion. We got to go to Readercon while at Odyssey, and that was a real treat in the middle of the workshop.
This is exciting!
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September 1st, 2006
01:22 pm - New Books
 One of the cool things about attending Odyssey and Readercon was learning about writers I was unfamiliar with, particularly "new" writers. I put "new" in quotes because they're new to me, but not necessarily new to the field.
I just got my hardcover copy of M. John Harrison's Things That Never Happen and I'm excited.
My copy of Joe Hill's short storie collection 20th Century Ghosts is on its way to me, too!
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