Super Happy Writer House

A new gathering for speculative fiction writers in the San Francisco bay area, guided by three simple principles.

  1. We're here to help each other get their next piece into print.
  2. No spectators, only participants. If you haven't got a manuscript to turn in, then let someone else have your place. Exception: If you are an editor of a qualifying SFWA market or an agent who has recently sold to same, please feel free to come for dinner and evening festivities; in your case, schmoozing is participation.
  3. Each event is discrete (and discreet). In town for just one weekend? You're just as welcome as someone who lives here.

What We're Looking For

  1. Eligibility — one of:
    1. A SFWA-qualifying pro sale.
    2. You've been to Clarion (original, West, or South) or Seton Hill's Writing Popular Fiction program in science fiction or fantasy.
    3. You have at least one paid sale in-genre and have attended Odyssey, Viable Paradise, or Milford.
    4. We invite you because we think you're Almost There. (invitations will be made based upon recommendations from SHWH members and will be subject to attendance caps)
    If this sounds elitist, well, it is. Unfortunately, without a Venue of Infinite Size, we've got to draw a line somewhere.
  2. Fiction
    1. Science Fiction, all flavors
    2. Fantasy
    3. Paranormal Romance
    4. Dark Fantasy
    Sorry, we're not looking for straight horror — we'd like to be able to keep mundane food down after the critiques.
  3. Critiques, which will be done Milford (Clarion) style.

Submission Guidelines

If the group is small, everyone will read each other's work. I'm hoping, however, that we'll have sufficient people that we'll be able to group people together. Except for people reading novel excerpts (where it may be useful to have the same group across multiple events), we'll try to mix people up. If you request not to be put with someone (even if it's just because they've already read the piece), we will keep that confidential. If you'd prefer to work with someone, let the hostess know that, too.

Please submit a piece as polished as you can make it. We'd rather not spend significant time chasing down the obvious.

We have this format for two reasons: 1) Participants are both giving and receiving critiques during an event, which keeps people from hogging a group's time; 2) Participants are writing and submitting, which reduces the tendency to rewrite others' stories rather than writing one's own.

  1. Please submit a piece no longer than approximately 7500 words. If your piece is longer (e.g. a novel), please enclose a brief synopsis of what happened before and/or after so we can review the work with some context.
  2. 1-1/2 or double space. Please use a font wider than Times New Roman — your hostess cannot easily read it. What font isn't particularly important as long as it's a serif font that is a "book" face (e.g. New Century Schoolbook, Courier).
  3. Please bring one extra copy — it's usually necessary.
  4. Ideally, we'd like to have people RSVP one (or two) weeks ahead so that the groups can be organized and so that manuscripts can be exchanged within a group. This gives participants the ability to spend time critiquing manuscripts.
  5. Critique the manuscripts of the other people in your section. If you're unprepared, arrive early so that you can read (and hopefully critique) manuscripts you may have missed.

How the Event Runs

Please read this: this really isn't a "show up at any time" party sort of event. We expect the event to run 8-12 hours starting at 1 p.m.

1 p.m.: Greetings, manuscript exchange.

2 p.m.: Time spent to read (or re-read) any pieces for critique session.

4 p.m.: Critique session starts.

6 or 7 p.m.: Dinner, generally a barbeque of some sort. This will include announcement of sales, announcements of openings in any on-going writers' groups, and any anthologies open to members, etc.

After dinner: writing, talking about writing, etc.