Our Story

And yet, after all that fun and enthusiasm, we still almost didn’t permanently connect. Kaitlin joined SC and me in our writing group within a couple of weeks. Then Emily emailed me to connect post-conference and I roped her into the group. But it took one more PNWA monthly critique call before I finally found Inez again and pounced.

Kaitlin: At PNWA, I randomly sat down at a table with SC, who mentioned they were a queer fantasy writer and happened to be super hot, and I forgot everyone else around me. I asked them a million questions and we exchanged pitches—they immediately made mine 10x better—and at the end of the night, I typed and deleted a dozen messages to them (did not send a single one, was intimidated by SC’s obvious competence and couldn’t decide if I was accidentally flirting). I proceeded to stalk them for the remainder of the conference. They introduced me to Alex, who was looking classy as FUCK in black and gold and whose confidence I was intensely intimidated by (there’s a theme here). I eagerly chased her with my friendship because I guess I can’t stay away from intimidating women. I’m told that I then tried to steal SC away from Alex by announcing that we should be a queer spec fic critique group, but in my defense, I assumed Alex was queer, and honestly have yet to be persuaded otherwise, don’t even parenthetical me Alex. {Alex: alas, your vain hope is doomed.} I also briefly met Emily, and while we didn’t talk much, I thought she looked intimidatingly elven and restrained myself from saying that aloud because I was trying not to be weird.

When SC and Alex invited me to join their weekly writing sprints, I battled with imposter syndrome but gave it a shot. That snowballed into meeting Inez and Megan, two more intimidating badasses, and I asked myself how in the hell I got lucky enough to find five spec fic writers and five good friends at the same time. Megan’s writing has changed how I describe magic, Inez’s writing has taught me about stakes and the medical system, Alex’s writing has gifted me with a new sense of banter and action, SC’s writing has humbled me with intricate politics, and Emily’s writing has broken me and healed me a few times over.

Emily: So, I’m foisted into this group (Thank you, Alex!) and we start writing sprints every week. Twenty-five minutes on. Five minutes off. Eventually, we opened up. We discussed our lives and our books. And then, we started critiquing each other’s work. The more I read the more I realized every single person in this group is an insanely talented writer. Objectively fantastic. Not only are they all great writers, but they’re amazing critiquers. (It’s a word, damnit.) Just sitting in on our Friday critiques was like attending a Master Class. When I actually had to take part in them, I realized I needed to up. My. Game. I grew about six layers of skin and dove in. And I regret absolutely nothing, calluses and all. {Alex: this is the part where I roll my eyes and say that Emily’s game was already “A” level and she helps all of us with the tension and horror elements so, yeah.}

Inez: I met Emily through the BARN Writer’s Studio Tues/Thursday sprints on zoom. I knew she was writing Speculative and she was also around my age, I was pretty desperate for other writers in my peer group who would want to read my terrifying scifi. So we finally met in person at the PNWA conference and we were both so nervous after that first pitch session we shared a beer right after. She introduced me to Alex who seemed so confident and experienced in the process and had really amazing eye makeup and hair {Kaitlin: riiiight?}. I was intimidated {Kaitlin: riiiiiiiiiiight??}. Alex invited me to a monthly critique group where I shakily read my first page to Alex and SC and maybe Kaitlin but I don’t quite remember {Kaitlin: I just remember being seduced by your content warning about scifi-dystopian-backwoods-abortion themes}. From there they invited me to their regular Friday critique sessions that were refreshingly rowdy and so helpful as I was editing my first ever novel. Emily showed up too! I loved reading their work and we started meeting every week to critique each other’s pages. 

Megan and I have been friends since the second grade, we always bonded over our love of books and tragic stories from history. Over Thanksgiving dinner she shared with me that she had also written a novel and been very secretive about it. So I basically dragged her into this critique group knowing that whatever she had written was going to be good because she had excellent taste.

Megan: Inez is my oldest and dearest friend and also the only person who can tell me what to do. So when she said, “Oh, you’ve written a book? You’re joining this writing critique group.” I did. Even though it started as a “strong suggestion,” I soon realized just how amazing everyone in the group was and how lucky I was to be a part of it. Each person brings such unique gifts to the table and also really makes everyone else shine. Writing a book is a vulnerable, difficult experience, and being a part of this team of badasses has made me up my game in so many ways. Each member is incredibly talented and it has been a huge inspiration to me as a writer and as a person.