I am often asked what is the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. My shorthand answer is that we are an organization of Professional Writers working and publishing in the SF & Fantasy field. But what is this thing “professional?” A Profession in its most formal sense is a trade/occupation that requires an extensive […]

Working in Manhattan meant I was in the center of the universe. While working for DC Comics, I was a few blocks from Pocket Books where I was contributing to their Star Trek line of novels and a few blocks in the other direction was Random House where I did a job or three. Further […]

  In my freshman year in college, I made a serious mistake. I tried to workshop a science fiction story in my first creative writing class. I was completely addicted to science fiction and fantasy, having spent my childhood and adolescence devouring every SF novel I could find in my school and local libraries. I […]

Daughter of two Cuban political exiles, M.C.A. Hogarth was born a foreigner in the American melting pot and has had a fascination for the gaps in cultures and the bridges that span them ever since. She has been many things–web database architect, product manager, technical writer and massage therapist–but is currently a full-time parent, artist, […]

  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 […]