Liz Engstrom’s science fiction story weekend at siltcoos station was a lot of fun and a real whirlwind of creativity. I met a bunch of fantastic writers, made new friends, and got to hear some great new stories.
I stayed up until 3am Friday night writing my story, “One Breath and the Deep.” At 3:30 I saw six meteors streak overhead and went out on the long dock in the dark, where something was splashing around in the water, probably fish, but kind of spooky in the mist and silence.
Saturday morning I took a long walk down the train tracks and saw the trestle bridge from the movie “Stand by Me.” I walked part of the way out onto it. Luckily a boat came instead of a train, but nevertheless it was time to head back. Breakfast sounded so much more appealing than finding a dead body.
I reviewed my story twice in the morning. In the afternoon I took a nap, made two illustrations, and fleshed out an idea for a horror story that’s been knocking around in the back of my mind. People worked all through the day and Saturday night we read the stories. What a treat! We heard a whole anthology of wonderful science fiction in one evening. It was such a joy to be around so many writers and hear what they had done in the last 24 hours, really great stuff.
I’m already looking forward to the next one.
