From Bruce Sterling (via Walter Jon Williams.) Here’s a map of the US with all the states renamed for countries with equivalent GDP. I never realized I lived so close to Canada.

(The total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year, equal to total consumer, investment and government spending, plus the value of exports, minus the value of imports. )

I like to teach. I’ve taught writing workshops for years and I like what it does for the participants and what it does for me. Sure, the majority of my students do not go on to publish masterpieces. But in the cauldron of the workshop, where the heat of careful observation meets trust and goodwill, they have the writing equivalent of a kind of outward bound experience. In my classes at the university, in particular, students would have that wonderful experience of seeing their writing improve visibly and shockingly in a matter of weeks. I love the craft. I love watching people learn it. I love talking about it. It’s what business calls a win-win.

Next week I’m off to Madison, Wisconsin to teach a week long intensive workshop in writing. Last year I taught an sf workshop and while it was adequately attended, the workshop coordinators felt that genre doesn’t seem to provide a huge draw. They did want me to come back and I said I would. They asked me if I would teach a workshop on plot.

I wanted to say, “Have you read my work?”

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