Accepted!

[kaasirpent]

Viable Paradise

That sound some of you may have heard at approximately 9 AM, EDT, on Monday, 18 June, 2012, was me squeeing. Because of the following email:

Dear Gary,

On behalf of the staff and the instructors, I’d like to welcome you as a student to Viable Paradise, and say congratulations!

This email is an email confirmation of your acceptance to the 2012 Viable Paradise Writers Workshop, aka VP 16/XVI.

The workshop dates for 2012 are Sunday, October 7th to Friday, October 12th, 2012. The workshop is being held at The Island Inn, Oak Bluffs, MA on Martha’s Vineyard.

<snippety-snip a bunch of stuff about tuition, hotel arrangements, contact information, etc.>

Please wait until June 20th to disclose your application status publicly.

As a courtesy to people on the waitlist, if you decide that you cannot make it to Viable Paradise after all, please let us know as soon as possible.

Yeah, so I’ve been sitting on this for two days. :) If you’ve sensed a ton of pent-up excitement in me but haven’t known why, now you know why. If I’ve been a bit absent on Facebook, this is why.

<chanting sing-song> I’M goin’ to VEE PEE, I’M goin’ to VEE PEE, I’M goin’ to VEE PEE . . . ad nauseam</chanting sing-song>

I have from now until October 7th to read at least one book / other publication by each of the instructors. I already ordered Kindle editions of at least one per instructor. I will start them as soon as I’m done with at least two of my current reading list. (A few days, at most.)

There are twenty-four new students. So far, eighteen of us have checked in on the VP forums and made ourselves known, and are being welcomed warmly (and teased; I want to know what’s so special about <dun dun DUNNNNNNN!> Thursday night) by past participants and an instructor or two. We appear to come from as far away as the west coast (of both Canada and the US), Texas, and Georgia. :) And we’re also getting some good advice about flying into Boston or Providence and taking a bus to a ferry to get to the island . . . If there were bikes, rickshaws, and dogsleds involved, we could cover all forms of transportation. :)

So. I’ve already sent in my tuition check. I’m waiting to see if I can share a townhouse with some other students before I make reservations at the hotel. Flights will be cheaper in a couple of months, so I’ll wait to do that.

Oh, and one last thing: Wheeeeeee!

Originally published at WriteWright. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[ecosopher.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

This sounds like an awesome opportunity.

[kaasirpent]

Thanks! I believe it will be. I've heard other people talk about it for several years, and now I'm going to see first-hand. :)

[peteyfrogboy.livejournal.com]

Yay!

[ex-prunesnp.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! Weather on the Vineyard will be raw in October.

[kaasirpent]

Yes. :) They told us to bring warm clothes...but also short pants. Just in case. And comfy sneakers. (There's apparently quite a bit of 'walking into town' involved. "Town" is a 25-minute walk.)

[dchenes.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

Congrats!

[siercia]

Congratulations! I am so, so pleased for you! If you want help with transport to/from the ferry, let me know. Sunday would be easy-peasy; Friday might be a little trickier with work and all. And if you wanted to stay an extra day Boston-ish to visit or anything, that would be lovely!


ETA: I may have spoken too soon - it's likely I'll be flying home from Italy on the 7th myself. That said, Wiley's nearly always up for a drive =)

[kaasirpent]

It's looking like most everyone is coming on the Saturday before and staying until at least the Saturday after, which I was planning on, anyway. No last-second scrambling around and missing something if a flight gets delayed.

Any help--even just sage advice--is always welcome. Transport would be teh awesomez. :)

[kaasirpent]

Italy! Cooool. :)

[siercia]

Yeah, I am really looking forward to it! It's kind of my dream vacation. Taking knitting and photo workshops in a town on the Adriatic, and hoping to get a few days in Rome before the workshops.

But I talked to Wiley tonight and he is also happy to help with transportation, so let us know when you firm up your travel plans if you would like some help. Also, we won't be offended if you decide that a shuttle bus full of your fellow writers would be more fun =).

[kaasirpent]

Heh. I hadn't even thought of the shuttle bus full of other VP-ers. We're all flying into various places and driving...I guess it'll firm up as time goes by.

Thank you both, and I may just take Wiley up on your offer. :)

yay!

[bramblekite.livejournal.com]

How very excellent :)

Writers' Paradise

[izmeina.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!
Not just on getting the invite but managing to keep it secret. It sounds like the writers' equivalent of The Letter from Hogwarts

Looking forward to hearing all the juicy gossip from the Writer's Ball on the Magic Mirror Network. And all just in time for Nanowrimo.

Got to thinking how it would feel to be one of those people who ended up on the wait list. A bit like getting 5 out of 6 numbers in the lottery
Maybe it is better never to tell them.

Re: Writers' Paradise

[kaasirpent]

My head was bursting with the need to shout it. I told people, just not in public forums. I told my mother and my housemate, some of my other close friends, and I told all of the people who helped critique the story I submitted.

It may be something like Hogwarts, but with New England accents and REAL beer instead of butterbeer.

I wonder if I'm the only one who doesn't drink? :)