I suppose I wanted to be convinced. While at a convention last summer, I attended a panel of SFWA members there to discuss and answer questions about the organization. When the panelists mentioned it would be nice to hear from a writer who qualified for membership but had chosen not to apply, I put […]

Back in college, when I first set out to be a professional author, the biggest question I wanted answered upfront was: “What does being a pro author mean?” What were the qualifications? How did I set goals to become a professional so I could know if I’d attained that level? Lo and behold, as I […]

When I first qualified for SFWA, it had been going through yet another kerfuffle—which one almost certainly doesn’t matter; they tend to come up again and again. People were quitting, and there were questions about whether SFWA is still relevant. That’s why I knew I had to join. I believe in a big tent philosophy—that […]

It happens that I’m writing this blog in an airport, on my way home from a con where I moderated a panel about what SFWA offers to members. It’s something I’ve talked about a lot over the last few years, either at events like that or just in conversation with other writers: laying out all […]

When I heard that the SFWA blog editors were asking members to write about their experiences with SFWA, my first thought was that I wasn’t the right person to do such a post.  After all, I’m not a big-name author, so nobody is going to seek out what I have to say just because I’m […]

I joined SFWA for the same reason I have joined other professional organizations over the course of my career—it’s important to be part of the industry at a group level to be in the know, get to meet other professionals, and make use of the resources provided by the organization. Writing is a business, a […]

Right about now, many of you are wishing that you never had to deal with about half of SFWA ever again, but let’s step back momentarily from the fury and heartaching, and look at the discussion for what it really is: a family argument. No, it won’t ever be settled to everyone’s satisfaction. Many families […]

  I first heard about SFWA in my senior year of college, through the Columbia University Science Fiction Society (CUSFS). We had invited Paul Levinson, then president of SFWA, to talk to our group about his work, and in turn he invited us to volunteer at the 2000 Nebula Awards Weekend in New York – […]