Jeff Dunteman on Taos Toolbox

2011 Toolbox grad (and computer legend) Jeff Dunteman has written a totally unsolicited (by me, anyway) description of Taos Toolbox over on Inkpunks.

Walter and Nancy are both superb teachers and are not to be missed. I was startled, though, at how much I learned from my thirteen student colleagues, not solely through their critique of my own work, but also by seeing how they themselves create and manage the many moving parts in a novel-length story . . . I might describe my colleagues as un-seasoned professionals, trying hard to master that seasoning but always as professionals. There was not a poseur in the bunch, and while we’ve been in only sparse touch since the workshop, I am proud to call them all friends.

Which brings up a point that maybe I haven’t stressed enough.  Taos Toolbox isn’t about lone writers jumping through hoops laid out by a couple of instructors— it’s about a group of writers trying to make their own, and each other’s, fiction better.  It’s about building a cadre, a karass, a posse.  A team.

We’re on the mountain for two weeks for a reason.  Because we’re on the mountain together.