The 2011 Write-a-Thon has concluded, and though I hadn’t given up, the logical part of my brain did not think we would make our $15,000 goal this year. That would have required raising $4,200 in a week from an audience that we felt sure was more than saturated with our pleas for donations.
Color me embarrassed, because we completely blew our goal away. The final total was mere pennies away from $16,500. The future Clarion class of 2012 thanks all of you for your support, and for your faith in an institution that has spent decades making dreams come true for speculative fiction writers.
We’re spending a lot of time talking about why we came so close to falling short this year. We’ve heard some helpful critiques from participants and donors, and we are listening. We don’t see our success as an indication that we’ve found the perfect formula, but rather as a demonstration of the generosity of our donors. There are a lot of discussions planned about how to make next year’s Write-a-Thon more relevant, more fun, and more rewarding for everyone. If you have more thoughts on that subject, pass them along to me at blog@the(x)foundation.org, replacing the (x) of course with the name of our workshop.
Thank you all again. This one was a real nail-biter, but those make the best stories, in the end.
Clarion Blog 
A big bravo and congratulations to everyone who participated. I know personally I found myself doing things I’d never dared before (recording my own voice? ewww, ick! terrifying, such a cool learning curve). I wanted to chicken out on things, but when people have sponsored you you kinda have to do it.
I caught glimpses of other people’s adventures and I would love to hear more. Mishell, would it be cool for people to share their adventures here in the comments, or do you have something niftier in mind? 🙂
“Please feel free to chat about your experiences in comments. We’re
gathering up a few final pledges (if you pledged and haven’t sent it in, now
is the time!), tallying final scores and remembering who our fabulous family
members are.”
Whew! That is wonderful! 😀
You guys were wonderful 🙂 Tres wonderful indeed.