Kathy Tyers, Karen Hancock, and me

Karen Hanock at Writing From the Edge does a nice roundup of the “good old days” when she, Kathy Tyers and myself exchanged and critiqued manuscripts regularly–and wrote long letters to each other (the kind you had to print on paper and put in a stamped envelope, too). It’s part of the August SF/F Blog Tour hosted by Beth Goddard at Writing with Fire. (This is the first I’ve heard of this “blog tour” idea. I like it!)

Like Karen, I look back at those days fondly. I think every one of my published novels to date was critiqued by Kathy or Karen or both, and made better by it. And I well remember getting Kathy’s manuscript of the original version of Firebird (eventually published by Bantam) back in the early ’80s and thinking, “Wow! She can really write!” (This was not always the case with manuscripts that arrived in the mail for critiquing back when I was active in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop.) I had the same reaction to Karen’s work.

They helped my work tremendously, and I hope I provided a modicum of assistance to them, as well. Kathy I’ve met in person, visiting her a couple of times in Montana, and I’m looking forward to seeing her again at VCon in Vancouver in a few weeks. I’ve never met Karen in person. I hope to someday.