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cherie priest
cmpriest
04 July 2008 @ 05:45 pm
July 4, 2008  

UPDATED: SEE BELOW.

Students in the Clarion West writers’ workshop are not having a particularly joyful Independence Day, I fear. Someone broke into the house where they’re staying (a sorority house in the U-district, I believe) and stole four laptops, some clothes, and possibly some other items; the damage is still being tallied.

Everyone is okay and the house has been secured, but as you might imagine this is a serious blow to participants in the industry’s premiere speculative fiction writing workshop. The students who lost these laptops cannot afford to replace them immediately, but they can’t really continue their workshop experience without them; and if you’re familiar with Clarion, then you know exactly how tough it is to land a spot — and how demanding, intensive, and rewarding it can be. Most of the students have quit their jobs to attend the 6-week course, and many went to great lengths to raise the money to attend.

These are writers. These aren’t rich folks who can eat the loss without a blink.

Therefore, if anyone in the greater Seattle area would be willing to donate a spare laptop to the Clarion folks, then now’s the time to speak up. I believe that monetary donations are also being accepted, but I’m not sure exactly what the plan is on that front. This only happened a few hours ago, and administrators are still scrambling to sort out the details.

If there’s anything you can do to help, please contact:

Leslie or Neile, via
info @ clarionwest . org (remove spaces)

They’re very good folks; I’ve worked with them before, and I’ll personally vouch for them, in case that means anything. And by all means, feel free to link this post around.

UPDATE: Money donations can be made directly here, through the Clarion West website. If you’d like to contribute, please do so through that paypal button and mark it for Computer Replacement, or something like that — so the recipients know it isn’t part of their regular drive. All donations are tax deductible; Clarion West is classified as a non-profit educational organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (Federal EIN 91-1352168)

[Crossposted to/from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so either here or there.]
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Current Location: home -- at the desk in the corner
Current Mood: angry
 
30 comments | Leave a comment
 
( 30 comments — Post a new comment )
Jennifer[info]gaaneden on July 4th, 2008 11:16 pm (UTC)
I could loan my Power MacBook to someone for the duration of the workshop. But, obviously, I need it back. I'll email.
cherie priest[info]cmpriest on July 4th, 2008 11:18 pm (UTC)
Yeah, I was wondering about loan donations; but the details are still sketchy. Let me know what they tell you, if anything.
Rose Fox[info]rosefox on July 5th, 2008 03:19 am (UTC)
Please let me know what they tell you; we have two laptops we could also lend, and will be happy to ship them out there.
Jennifer[info]gaaneden on July 5th, 2008 03:46 am (UTC)
I got a pretty quick "thank you but we now have it covered" email. They were very nice about it.
Keffy[info]kehrli on July 4th, 2008 11:28 pm (UTC)
Oh no! That's awful.
Christopher Reynaga[info]chris_reynaga on July 4th, 2008 11:34 pm (UTC)
It's been a real blow, but we are figuring things out. Thanks for spreading the word!

-Christopher
cherie priest[info]cmpriest on July 4th, 2008 11:35 pm (UTC)
I'm glad to be of service. I hope it helps.
Abbie Hilton[info]fenrah on July 5th, 2008 12:33 am (UTC)
That is really crumby. :( I hope they had their material backed up. Ugh.
cherie priest[info]cmpriest on July 5th, 2008 12:33 am (UTC)
At least one person did not, alas :(
Abbie Hilton[info]fenrah on July 5th, 2008 04:20 am (UTC)
Ah! Horrible! It's funny that when you made this post, the first thing I thought was not, "Oh, dear, how will they replace expensive computers?" It was, "Oh, dear, how many words did they lose?"

You can always replace _things_ eventually, but sometimes words are just gone.
G. Jules[info]gjules on July 5th, 2008 01:51 pm (UTC)
That was my first thought, too. Brrr.
Livia Llewellyn: What Would Buffy Do?[info]livia_llewellyn on July 5th, 2008 12:33 am (UTC)
I just donated a chunk of money. I can't believe this happened - it's so disheartening.
cherie priest[info]cmpriest on July 5th, 2008 12:36 am (UTC)
Thanks a million, and yeah -- it's a mess. I talked to Leslie on the phone a few minutes ago, and it's just awful; at least one person had a hard time raising money to come as it was, and had nothing backed up externally on the laptop; and of course, everyone had quit jobs and such to attend.

It's maddening, is what it is.
Livia Llewellyn: What Would Buffy Do?[info]livia_llewellyn on July 5th, 2008 12:41 am (UTC)
Yeah, I was thinking about backup, and how people probably didn't have stuff on flash drives (most people don't) - also, passwords, financial and private info...god. I know their writing is important, but I hope that no one's bank account or credit cards get abused. Guess everyone at Clarion is going to be hauling their laptops into the workshop every fucking day now, right? I would.
Monty: Armillary Sphere[info]montykins on July 5th, 2008 12:37 am (UTC)
I've got an extra laptop, and I've emailed them.
Elizabeth Coleman[info]criada on July 5th, 2008 01:35 am (UTC)
Can someone ask Microsoft or UW if they can donate laptops?
Arachne Jericho[info]arachnejericho on July 5th, 2008 01:48 am (UTC)
Or Google.
Ladybug[info]journeyto on July 5th, 2008 02:41 am (UTC)
Oh wait - you meant ASK Google. I'm sorry I jumped on you, Jesus.

Edited at 2008-07-05 02:42 am (UTC)
Arachne Jericho[info]arachnejericho on July 5th, 2008 05:15 am (UTC)
It's okay :) I wasn't very clear.

I know Google lives here in Seattle. Also Microsoft and Amazon.com.
cscole[info]cscole on July 5th, 2008 02:41 am (UTC)
This is just awful!

*checking bank balance right now for donation
colleen lindsay[info]lagringa on July 5th, 2008 05:38 am (UTC)
Er, surely somebody has already thought of this but isn't the university or the sorority liable for damages? There must be insurance for this kind of thing. If not, it seems an egregious oversight.
cherie priest[info]cmpriest on July 5th, 2008 07:25 am (UTC)
Their insurance doesn't cover those kind of personal items; I already asked.
Rejoice rejoice, we have no choice but to carry on[info]audacian on July 5th, 2008 01:00 pm (UTC)
People's personal homeowners and/or renters policies might, though. I think ours covers stolen stuff, even if it didn't happen at our house. Or I'm dreaming and policies aren't that nice. :)
Hal[info]hal_obrien on July 5th, 2008 06:37 am (UTC)
Loan/donation
I just sent an email -- I have an IBM T23 ThinkPad I think I can have ready for them fairly quickly.
(Anonymous) on July 5th, 2008 02:30 pm (UTC)
Hi Cherie,

You'll at least suspect who this is...

Just donated enough to cover one basic replacement laptop. Thanks for posting about it.
cherie priest[info]cmpriest on July 5th, 2008 04:17 pm (UTC)
Hmm...I can definitely make a guess :) Many thanks, as usual. I'm still waiting for an official statement from the group, but I talked to Leslie on the phone yesterday and she gave me the skinny. It's really a shitty situation; even should new laptops be acquired for all ... there isn't content backup.

*sigh*
Ghostgrrl[info]ghostgrrl on July 5th, 2008 09:59 pm (UTC)
Amazon.com recommends "Four and Twenty Blackbirds" and more
It's offtopic, but I thought I'd share.

Got this by email today.
The Russians used a pencil[info]gomezticator on July 5th, 2008 10:26 pm (UTC)
I live in the U District. My next door neighbor's home also got robbed yesterday while he was out (I thankfully was not).

It appears that local thieves figured a national holiday, where everyone would be out BBQing and watching fireworks, would be the perfect time to break into various homes and offices and swipe all they could.
Kate Schaefer[info]kate_schaefer on July 6th, 2008 06:19 pm (UTC)
Thank you so much for helping to get the word out. The response has been amazing, and enough money has been raised to replace the students' computers.

I posted the Clarion West press release thanking the SF community in general to [info]clarionites, but I wanted to thank you in particular, because you were among the earliest to let people know. Thanks again!
cherie priest[info]cmpriest on July 6th, 2008 07:42 pm (UTC)
Aw, thank you :) And I'm glad it's worked out -- more or less. I've reposted your update so my readers (who maybe don't follow the Clarion groups) will know.