Send me to Clarion West 2018!

Hello! 

I am Jen Sexton-Riley and I am a writer of science fiction, fantasy and horror. Nice to meet you!

I was recently honored and thrilled to be accepted into the prestigious, competitive and highly coveted Clarion West Writers Workshop, a six-week intensive workshop held annually and taught by six of the most respected authors and editors in the solar system. This is a life changing event. My time at Clarion West will transform me from a promising writer with potential to a writer with the skills and craft necessary to embark on a successful career in fiction. 

This is the biggest thing that has ever happened. 

I am  one of just 18 writers from nine countries on five continents chosen on the merit of our work to spend six weeks together becoming what we have always wanted to be.

Those of you who know me personally know how hard I have worked all my life to simply create security and a humble existence for myself, my daughter and the loved ones in our lives. This has kept me from pursuing my fiction writing goals on the timeline I would have liked. I've had some success, but I haven't been able to throw everything I have down on the table and really give it my absolute all. 

This is it. This is the chance for me to show what I am capable of and rise to another level as a writer of fiction. 

What do I need the money for? 

As you can imagine, taking six weeks off from work to fly from one coast to the other for any reason is an expensive and intimidating prospect. The funds raised will cover my Clarion West 2018 travel, materials, survival, necessary expenses and help make sure everything runs smoothly back home in my absence. I tried to earn and save the entire amount on my own, and came very close, but life had other ideas in mind, including my mom spending over a month in the hospital (she gets out on Mother's Day) and the exhaust system dropping out of the belly of my 19 year old Toyota (that was yesterday on my way to work).

I will use every cent carefully.

I promise that I will make you proud in the process. 

When does all this happen? 

The Clarion West Workshop takes place from June 17 to July 27, 2018. I hope to reach my goal in time to tie up every possible loose end before flying off to meet my writing destiny. 

What about rewards and things like that? 

I will be perfectly honest here: this workshop is an enormous challenge. I don't want to promise a lot of amazing rewards and then return and find myself struggling to fulfill them as I pick up the reins of work, home and family. I promise this: anyone who contributes will be thanked in print. Your name will appear in a book that you can show to your friends and family and say, "Hey, see? Remember that writer I helped? My name is in thousands of books in libraries and bookstores around the world!"

If you will be so kind as to provide your mailing address, I will send you postcards from Clarion West this summer. 

I will be grateful and I will make you proud.