Presenting #CritClub

So I wanted a postcard to put on con giveaway tables advertising my classes because I’m always trying to scare up new students. I know that once they take one class, they’re very likely to take more from me, which really pleases me, but the trick is getting them into that first one.

I had a Vistaprint coupon, so I ended up paying around $40 for 1000 of these. I looked it over pretty thoroughly and made Wayne do the same, but now that I’ve ordered them I’m sure at least one typo will show up. Still, this will give me something I can put out as well as something I can give people when they ask about my classes. Note that I’ve been very 21st century and even included a QR code. I used a Bitly link for that so I’ll be able to track how many people actually use that code (the QR code was Mark’s idea, the bitly URL Wayne’s – see what smart fellows I hang around with?)

One of the things Codex does that I intend to make use of is mailing each other postcards to stick out at cons. I’ve distributed my share, so I’ll try to figure out a couple of conventions that I’m not attending next year where I think they might do well, and then find people attending those who are willing to put something on the giveaway table for me.

I’m hoping eventually to have the bulk of the Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers classes up as on-demand versions, but it’s slow going. I’m so delighted that Kate Heartfield has turned her awesome Writing Interactive Fiction live class into an on-demand version and she’s very generously suggested making it free this first week in order to offer another resource for folks practicing social isolation to entertain and educate themselves.

I book teachers for classes that I personally want to take, and this was definitely one of them. After the first time Kate taught this class, I felt inspired to start noodling around with an interactive novel, although I’m still very much in the planning stages.

Here’s a link for the new class.

If you’ve ever found yourself choosing between possible endings or plot twists, why not try a storytelling format that lets you explore them all? Games and interactive fiction invite the reader to join in the storytelling process, and invite the writer to consider multiple facets of agency, characterization, pacing and plot. Learn some fundamental principles and techniques for interactive formats, or just gain a new perspective on ways to develop your non-interactive prose.

Kate Heartfield is the author of two interactive novels for Choice of Games: The Road to Canterbury, which was published in 2018 and shortlisted for the first Nebula award in the game writing category; and The Magician’s Workshop, published at the end of 2019. She is also the author of the historical fantasy novel Armed in Her Fashion, which won the Aurora Award for Best Novel and was shortlisted for the Locus First Novel, Crawford and Sunburst awards. Her two Alice Payne time travel novellas were shortlisted for the Nebula and Aurora awards. A former newspaper journalist, Kate lives in Ottawa, Canada.

If you’d prefer to take a live version in which you have a chance to talk with Kate, she is teaching it on Saturday, April 11, 2020, 1:00-3:00 AM Pacific time.

Live versions of the classes are performed in realtime, are limited to 15 students, and include a chance to interact with the instructor as well as a recording of the class. You can find the current list of upcoming live classes through June here. There are free scholarship slots available in every class.