Hatrack River Writers Workshop Hosted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury • Introduction • Enter the Forum Write to Kathleen Dalton Woodbury Former Boot Campers Success Stories • Chris Todd Miller • Jessi Cole Jackson • Brian McClellan • Ty Franck • 2008 Bootcamp • S.D. Smith • John Brown • Brad Beaulieu • Jamie Ford • Judson Roberts • Danielle Friedman • Scott Andrews • Christine Amsden • Patricia Esden • Rick Novy • Aliette de Bodard • Alethea Kontis • Mary Robinette Kowal • Scott Roberts • Mette Harrison • Eric James Stone • James Maxey • Luc Reid • Douglas Cohen Links of Interest • OSC urges writers to look at this LA Times interview with mystery writer Robert Crais Says OSC: "Crais, one of my favorite writers, has come quite independently to many of the same conclusions I've reached - and which I've taught in my writing workshops for years. It's nice to have an independent source for the ideas! Besides, Crais is an outstanding writer who deserves to be listened to for his own sake." • Parker column: A writer teaches writing • Garrison Keillor's Excellent Advice about MFA Programs • Want a critique of your manuscript from a published author? Mette Ivie Harrison has been praised as one of the finest writers of fantasy and YA literature working today - and she has taught writing workshops with OSC • Bernard Cornwell shares OSC's emphasis on story, letting the author's voice take care of itself. (Thanks to Scott Roberts for pointing this out.) • Comments on Uncle Orson’s Literary Boot Camp • Hatrack Utility Belt • Tor Submissions Guidelines • Using invented language in speculative fiction

Less than a year after attending the 2003 Boot Camp, Hatrack member Eric James Stone made his first three sales. His science fiction short story "In Memory" was selected as a finalist in the July-September 2003 quarter of the Writers of the Future contest and was included in volume XX. The story was actually written before attending Boot Camp 2003, but after attending Uncle Orson's Writing Class in 2002. In developing the plot, Eric made use of the idea-generating technique taught during the "Thousand Ideas" session of the class.

Another science fiction short story, "The Man Who Moved the Moon," was selected as a winner in the 2003 Phobos Fiction Contest. Eric got the idea for the story during an online discussion with his fellow 2003 Boot Campers in their private forum on Hatrack. In writing the story he put to good use what he had learned earlier that month at Boot Camp. The story was published in the third Phobos anthology, All the Rage This Year.

The short story Eric wrote while at Boot Camp was a fantasy called "The Horseman and the Stoneworker." The comments and suggestions he received regarding the story during the workshop were very helpful in revising it. He submitted the revised version (retitled "Betrayer of Trees") to the Writers of the Future Contest on December 31, 2003, and it won second place for that quarter. The story was published in volume XXI.

Since then, Eric has gone on to have over two dozen stories appear in markets such as Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show, Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Daily Science Fiction, and even the scientific journal Nature.  He has also been an assistant editor for InterGalactic Medicine Show since 2009.

In 2011, Eric received a nomination for the Nebula Award for Best Novelette for his story "That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made" (Analog, September 2010).