Just as a whiskey still transforms base grains into fine spirits, the WSWC takes the raw ideas of its members and refines the spirit of their story potential.
Forged in December 2021, the WSWC meets on an ad-hoc basis to share ideas, workshop works in progress, relay opportunities, discuss writing craft, and – of course – partake in a dram or two of a beverage of choice.
The main purpose of the group is for support and inspiration.
Members
Nalin Ratnayake writes fiction as N.A. Ratnayake, primarily in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. His works tend to explore layered identities, connection to the natural world, asymmetric power struggle, colonialism/imperialism, humanism, and veiled optimism.
Authors that explore some of Nalin’s favorite ideas include Alastair Reynolds, Ursula K. Le Guin, Salman Rushdie, Kim Stanley Robinson, Anne Leckie, Iain M. Banks, and N.K. Jemisin.
Nalin doesn’t have a favorite whiskey, but wafts whispers of nostalgia from Teacher’s Highland Cream (Blended Scotch), as it reminds him of his grandfather from Sri Lanka.
You can find Nalin the web at www.naratnayake.com, or on Bluesky.
M.D. Lee enjoys writing poetry for himself (and his cat) and prose for others. Although his settings tend to be speculative and science-grounded, his works tend to have character-driven motivations. His protagonists often struggle with agency, identity, and connection; his worlds often struggle with access, surveillance, and optimism. George Saunders, Italo Calvino, and Ursula K. Le Guin are three giants on whose shoulders he aspires to stand. M.D. enjoys a neat Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban when he can and a Suntory Manhattan, up, when he must. His website is less often updated than is his cat’s Instagram: @fuzzy.mandias.
C. Anthony Jonfs has yet to submit a damn bio or a photo. If you see him, mock him for it.
J. Harrow enjoys writing whatever the hell she wants. If her writing must be described using one genre, to paraphrase her high school English Literature teacher, it is ‘wildly unhinged fiction based loosely on fever dreams and idle speculation left to simmer too long.’ For the cinematically savvy, her writing is a paltry shadow of Willem Dafoe’s rendition of Paul Smecker in The Boondock Saints, though not nearly as confident in heels.
Her works explore whatever cardinal writing sin she wants to commit that day. Maybe it’s a conversation being carried on with no indication of who is speaking or how many participants are in the conversation. Perhaps it’s rewriting the same haiku but rearranging the letters higgledy piggledy over the page. She delights in shocking and offending the staunch english writing rules gate-keepers of the world, so please let her know when she does so she may continue to delight in it.
Her website can be found by completing the easter egg from secret note #7 in Stardew Valley.
When she isn’t digging through dumpsters in search of out-of-print autobiographies of the long dead, she enjoys a finger of Ironclad bourbon. And when she’s slightly more responsible with her money, she opts for the more affordable Pinnacle cake vodka consumed through a crazy straw.
A fifth member has joined the party! Details possibly forthcoming.