Cory Doctorow writes about Clarion today in Boing Boing. I applied for both Clarions in 1989 and was accepted into Clarion West but couldn't attend due to monetary troubles at the time. Ever since, I've wondered "what might have been." I mentioned this to Tim Powers at an ArmadilloCon in the early 1990s, and received his week-long instruction in an accelerated 30-minute inebriated haze. Somehow, I don't think it was the same.

There's something attractive about immersive techniques, either for writing SF as in Clarion or for learning a foreign language. I'm much older now, and realize that I likely don't need Clarion to write, but my heart still yearns for the freedom and the experience. I enjoyed getting a glimpse of Cory's experience and how it affected him.