The single best piece of advice I ever received from a writer

I think that at this juncture, I would like to mention what I have always considered to be the best, most valuable thing another writer ever told me.

I was accepted into the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop in 1986 and attended it that summer. Six weeks of writers boot camp. It was exhausting and exhilarating, and I loved (almost) every minute of it. My teachers were Tim Powers, Lisa Goldstein, Samuel R. Delany, Kim Stanley Robinson, Kate Wilhelm and Damon Knight.

The first teacher who kicked off the workshop was Tim Powers, and I especially clicked with him. It was his first time teaching, and I remember that he was so nervous that the paper shook violently in his hand when he stood up in front of us the first time, but he jumped into critiquing our stories with both kindness and enthusiasm and got the workshop off to a great start.

At the end of his week, he sat us down to give us advice that he thought all writers should know when starting out in their careers. I remember it better than practically anything else I learned at Clarion, and I have always been very grateful to him for passing it on. Here it is:

When you are learning to become a writer, don't forget the importance of remaining a decent human being. Never try to get close to people only because you think they are the cool in-crowd people and could "help your career." That kind of behavior is just beneath you, and it makes you look small and petty if you are obviously angling to hang out with them. Never ever scorn people because they are not important. Instead, spend time with people--whether the humblest neo fan or the Big Name pro writer--only simply because you enjoy their company. If you don't enjoy their company, it's okay to avoid them, but always be polite, and never badmouth them. This field is small, and word gets around. Someone you badmouth today may be an editor considering your book manuscript next year. Be kind to others, and treat them with respect and forbearance.

Thank you, Tim, for those words. I have always remembered them and tried to follow them, and I have been grateful for your advice. You were absolutely right, and I have seen the awful results for people who never had those kind words at a crucial stage as I did.

And I have been thinking of them a lot the last few days, as we are all absorbing this week's disclosures.

Dobbs: Congress Stiffs Working Americans

Without much fanfare, the House of Representatives last week voted to give members of Congress yet another pay raise, as it has done almost every year for nearly a decade.

For some reason, our elected officials decided against holding a news conference. Maybe that's because they didn't want to draw attention to the fact that they raise their own salaries almost every year while refusing to raise the pay of our lowest-paid workers.

Read the rest here.

Disgusting.

Art for Art's Sake

Gacked from fileg: Go HERE and move your mouse. Click to get a different color.

Who said it, Ann Coulter or Adolf Hitler?

Take the test here.

Gacked from cakmpls.