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by Margaret Hamilton
The Twin Cities have long proved fertile ground for science fiction on a wide range of themes, from old-fashioned magic to avant-garde technology. One local writing group - currently composed of Lois McMaster Bujold (Young Miles, Cordelia’s Honor), Peg Kerr (The Wild Swans, Emerald House Rising), Elise Mathessen, and Pat Wrede (Dealing with Dragons) - is a perfect example.
Although they recently took a hiatus while Wrede (contractually bound to confidentiality) completed the young adult novelization of the new Star Wars movie, the group has met regularly for years. Members provide advance copies of works for written comments and also receive verbal feedback (up to six hours) over food and drink.
Kerr considers their mentoring a "wonderful gift….a chain of giving. You’ve been helped, so you go out and help others." She admits, "I don’t think I could have written novels if not in a group. They helped me through the process." As well as "sheer encouragement," her peers offered her technical advice and helped her feel "less lonely, less isolated." "I wanted to read it at a meeting," she notes, "so I’d finish it."
A former Technolog science fiction contest judge, Kerr also had a short story "Analog Anniversary" published in 1991 as an "Editor’s Choice." She advises writers interested in joining a group to look for one in which members market their fiction, so they can learn about that part of the process, and to make sure the group, which will require loyalty and work, is a good fit.
Writers should, above all, keep writing. "There are hundreds of talented writers," Kerr says. "It’s amazing how much talent there is out there to burn. What’s rare is persistence….‘Well, I just kind of gave up.’ That’s what’s common."
