New Visiting Writer-January

Congratulations to Walker Mettling. He has just been accepted to the Cyberpunk Apocalypse Visiting Writer program for the month of January 2010. He plans to polish a book of weird stories while at the house. He'll also be giving some sort of performance related to the stories before he goes, so keep an eye out for that. And check out his blog in the meantime.

Visiting Writers' Program now accepting applications

The guest room has a new paint job, a modern look entirely in blue and white. We already have our first visiting writer lined up for November: Margaret Killjoy, whose book Mythmakers & Lawbreakers: Anarchist Writers on Fiction has just been released by AK Press.

We are still accepting applications for the visiting writers' program. Specifically, we encourage folks from northern climes to consider a month-long residency with us during the winter. Pittsburgh is hilly enough to make sledding fantastic, and while it's no Florida, we can pretty much promise that your eyeballs won't freeze. Wisconsin? Minnesota? Nunavut? Trust us: it's warmer here.

So again, here's the 411 on the visiting writer program:

Visiting Writer Program:

The Cyberpunk Apocalypse Visiting Writer Program is a one-month residency at the Cyberpunk Apocalypse writers house. The writers will be given a small bedroom at no cost and access to the same communal kitchen, bathroom, living space, etc. that is used by the long-term residents (again at no cost). Visiting writers will, however, be expected to take responsibility for acquiring and preparing their own meals. Applicants should also realize that they will be living communally with the long-term residents of the house and in an urban environment (i.e. not a cabin retreat).

Who should apply: Anybody with a writing project that they are excited about and that they could complete if they had a month to devote themselves to it. We do ask for projects that will be finished by the end of your stay so that you can do a small presentation of your work just before you leave. This could mean working on a smaller project (such as a zine) or a larger project that just needs to be polished.

How to apply:
Send an e-mail to cyberpunkapocalypse[at]gmail.com with "Visiting Writer" in the subject line. Tell us (briefly) what you plan to work on, the month that you're applying to work, who you are/what you're like (since we'd be living with you if you were accepted), and attach or send links of previous works. It's that simple. Again, keep it succinct--if we have questions, we'll contact you.

Round Robin and Ads on line

A couple of things:
I put together a second blog: cyberpunkseniorthesis.blogspot.com
That's where the round-robin style writing project we're working on will be posted.
It's a fun story inspired by a drab experience sifting through senior manuscripts of former grad-students at a local University. We decided that it was all crap (everyone's a critic) and that we ought to write our own manuscript that we could hide amongst the spiral-bound volumes. The idea was that if we wrote something that was fun, and unpretentious, it wouldn't matter if it was bad. Like a pop-punk band--if everyone's having a good time, musical quality becomes less important.
So I wrote the first chapter on a bus right after reading Snow Crash (I think it shows) and we've been passing it around ever since.

Second thing: Advertisements--we have some on both blogs. I know, I know, selling out and whatnot, but let me put something in perspective. At the Cyberpunk Apocalypse we run a writers' residency program, a writers' lounge, an events space, and a publication without any money other than what we fundraise. The "rent," meaning the taxes and homeowners insurance for one year, at the two houses we run the project out of is 2,200 dollars per year. That's not too bad but it's a lot to fundraise. On the other hand that divides up to a little more than $6 per day, which means that if a couple of you guys click on our ads every day, then we can focus on fundraising to improve our programming and support local writers more effectively. SO CLICK ON OUR ADS if you think the ad is interesting to you. You'll be doing a lot of good for a little effort.
Thank you, I promise that will be the first and last time I say that so blatantly.

Open House at the Cyberpunk Apocalypse.

Saturday March 21st (Yesterday) we had our first official cyberpunk apocalypse event. An open-house and potluck at our home here (5431 Carnegie Street, PGH).

Thanks to everyone who came out.