| The logical follow-up to the BONI Workshop, this week of stressful bliss and blissful stress, led by the brilliant Donald Maass, was the most valuable workshop I've ever attended. Huge thanks to editors and facilitators Lorin Oberweger, Brenda Windberg, Jason Sitzes, Roman White, and the seventeen other writers who went through it with me. |  |
| The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America's annual Nebula Awards Weekend is a great opportunity to meet the award winners, nominees, and other writers (including from the Codex Writers Group, whom I've previously known only online), and listen to great panel discussions and workshops. Best of all, my writing friend, Aliette de Bodard, won again for Best Novella. |  |
| The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America's annual Nebula Awards Weekend is a great event that's even greater when you get to see a friend like Aliette de Bodard win the award for Best Short Story, Immersion. Featuring Gene Wolfe as the Grand Master award recipient for 2012, this was an inspiring good time. I'm already looking forward to the 2014 weekend, again to be held in San Jose. |  |
| Breakout awesomeness galore. Donald Maass, Lorin Oberweger, Lisa Rector, and Jason Sitzes lead the Breakout Novel Intensive workshop, a week of intense writing instruction, critiquing, networking, and publishing industry guidance. (Just make sure, if you tell Don you can have the manuscript finished by the end of the year, that you can actually deliver!) |  |
| David Farland (Dave Wolverton) leads a week-long course of writing guidance, industry advice, and critiquing. Like many workshops, this one is as worthwhile for the networking opportunities as it is for the instructor insights. |  |
| ReaderCon isn't your ordinary convention. Heavily book-focused, it's the most writing-centric con you're likely to find. No cosplay or other such silliness here — just a gathering of great writers, editors, agents, publishers, and readers. In 2007, it was also the gathering point for a Codex Writers Group reunion. The location sucks, but the event itself is fantastic. |  |
| I can't recommend Orson Scott Card's Writers Workshop highly enough. Scott is an insightful teacher, a brilliant writer, a master of character & viewpoint, and a generous human being. He was a also a heck of a first real writing instructor under whom to get serious. Two of my classmates, Aliette de Bodard and Jamie Ford, have gone on to great success in the years since. (I still intend to catch up to them!) |  |
