I’m happy to interview fellow writer and friend Alex Kane on his upcoming Clarion West adventure. I’ve known Alex for a few years now, and he’ a heck of a creative force. Keep an eye on this guy. And better yet, throw a little coin his way so he can focus on what matters at Clarion West, like listening to writers such as Neil Gaiman and Joe Hill.

It’s incredibly hard to get into Clarion West, and that’s underselling it. What was your initial reaction?

I really didn’t expect it, to be honest. I’d applied to both Clarion and Clarion West two or three times each over the past few years, and had been rejected, so despite a few stories being published in the meantime, I had no real reason to anticipate anything but another kind rejection email. Instead, I got the most exciting phone call of my life. Cell phones do this incredible thing, these days, where underneath the number it displays the caller’s location, as well: “Seattle, WA.”

There was this element of wow, what a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I’ll get to study the craft of fiction under writers like Joe Hill, whose novel Horns is probably my biggest literary influence, and Neil Gaiman–what could possibly be more valuable and thrilling? Yet there’s something very scary and intimidating: having to ask for all that time off, and wondering whether you’ll have to quit your job and find another one; worrying you won’t be able to afford it, or what you might have to do to be able to pay for the trip; not to mention the common symptoms of Imposter Syndrome–what Gaiman refers to as the “Fraud Police.” You worry that you’ll be wasting your own time as well as that of your instructors. Doesn’t matter how much fiction you’ve sold, or if you’ve been a finalist in the Writers of the Future contest, or even how excited you are by the craft and all your ideas. The expectations you put on yourself are really pretty paralyzing, sometimes.
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