KindleViable Paradise is an intensive (see this activities grid to get a sense of just how intensive) instructional workshop for aspiring science fiction writers. There's a very high teacher-student ratio, and the instructors are all professional writers and editors. The workshop is a mix of one-on-one critiques, lectures, group critiquing sessions and informal discussions.
The workshop isn't a six-week commitment, but it's also not just a few hours at a science fiction convention or at a local college. It's a manageable, one-week period, a term that can be fit into a working person's annual vacation. The location makes it a little more vacation-like too: Martha's Vineyard is a beautiful island off the coast of Massachusetts, and it is especially lovely in the autumn.
The only thing not vacation-like is the pace of writing and critiquing, which is fast and hard, and it has a proven track-record of turning out writers who go on to sell and win critical acclaim and awards.
The application process has just opened. Potential students need to include audition work -- that's one or two stories, or a novel partial with an outline. Only 24 students are admitted, and the deadline for application is June 15.
I'm privileged to be teaching with an impressive collection of fellow writers: Debra Doyle, Steven Gould, James Patrick Kelly, James D. Macdonald and Laura J. Mixon, as well as the editors Patrick Nielsen Hayden and Teresa Nielsen Hayden. Hope to see you there, too. Link
I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.