Curse Richard Hugo House, Anyway

[akirlu]

So Ellen Klages is teaching a YA Fiction workshop through the offices of Richard Hugo House. Cool. In fact, there are several workshops in the series that sound interesting. The James Patrick Kelly workshop sounds particularly useful. Interesting writing workshops with fine writers, available locally -- keen, right? What's not to like?

Yeah, except I've been through this before. Last year there was another such series, and so I clicked through the complex maze of links to and through the Hugo House web page, only to find that the when/where/how-much information was all buried deep in a gigantic .pdf of the poster-sized flyer for all of Richard Hugo House's workshops for the entire year, and NOWHERE ELSE. Pages and pages of scrolling later I find the eyewatering workshop fees in 3 pt. Bodoni narrow in the bottom drawer of a locked filing cabinet, stuck upside-down, in a disused toilet with a sign on the door saying 'BEWARE OF THE LEOPARD! at the very bottom of the form, with no way to find out if the workshop was already full. And so it was only with some trepidation that I again essayed the journey, drilling down through the links again, only to find that now the folks at Hugo House have managed a new wrinkle, and the link to the registration form comes back with a 404 Not Found error. So this time the particulars for signing up aren't available anywhere at all. And that, dear friends, is Richard Hugo House in a nutshell. So close and yet so very, very far.

Comments

[joyful-storm.livejournal.com]

Um, d'you want me to drop by there and see if I can find out anything in person tomorrow? It's in my neighborhood. . . .

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's very kind of you! Yes, please. I'm assuming they have a paper version of their workshop schedule available, and if you could grab one and let me know how much money I would need to send them as a non-member, that would be cool. I think I'll eventually need a hard copy of the registration form as well, but I'd like to find out how much of an owie this will be, first.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

So it looks like I'm going to Just Phone Them anyway, so thank you for the offer, but I will wrest the information from them by other means.

Fantastic Fiction Workshop with Ellen Klages

[nwmediaarts.livejournal.com]

Hi Ulrika;

So sorry you are having trouble! NW Media Arts is the non-profit arts organization that I created to bring events such as the Fantastic Fiction Series to Seattle. I partner with Richard Hugo House as they have been kind enough to give me a grant for space use and they handle all the registration.

There is plenty of space left for the Ellen Klages workshop and there are still a few spaces open for the Robert Ferrigno workshop on creating memorable characters on January 27th. The fabulous Vonda McIntyre has created a lovely website for me at nwmediaarts.com that has all of the information on the Fantastic Fiction series as well as the driect link to the Hugo House registration information.

I'm pasting the info below, but for future use, at the RHH website, click on Classes, then Hugo Writing Classes, and then to Registration. It is kind of buried, but once you figure it out, it's not hard. Thanks for your interest and I look forward to seeing you at Ellen's workshop - it's going to be amazing!

All Best;

Leslie Howle

HOW TO REGISTER


Registration for Hugo Writing Classes can be done by phone, fax, mail or in person. For payment, we accept cash, check (payable to Richard Hugo House) or debit/credit cards (Visa or Mastercard only). To register by phone, please give us a call at (206) 322-7030. By fax, print up our registration form, fill it out completely, and fax it to (206) 320-8767. For phone and fax registrations, we accept only credit/debit cards. To register by mail or in person, print up our registration form, fill it out completely and send it in or drop it by with your payment. If you have any questions about registration, please e-mail Brian McGuigan at registrar@hugohouse.org.

PLEASE NOTE: During the first week of (member) registration we do not accept registrations by mail or fax. Telephone or in person only.

Re: Fantastic Fiction Workshop with Ellen Klages

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yes, Leslie, thanks I found the Registration instructions page. But if you then click on the link that says "Download current course catalog" you get a 404 Not Found error. Likewise, if you click on the link that says "Print up a Registration Form" you get a Not Found error.

As I have now found out by further ferreting around, if you click the current catalog link from the Hugo Writing Classes page rather than the Registration page, you do get the same poster-sized .pdf of their catalog, and the registration form is incorporated on that -- badly laid out and essentially unreadable at full-page size but there -- but it takes luck and determination to find it.

It sounds like Kate's suggestion, that it's best just to call, will be the best one. I just continue to find it very disappointing to find that an institution supposedly dedicated to print media is so very, very bad at them.

[klages.livejournal.com]

I've been told that the best way to register, ask questions, contact them is by phone.

If the reg. process is that labyrinthine, you might want to drop Leslie Howle a note and let her know. (Contact me off-line if you need her addy.)

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Well, I just bitched about the process on the Vanguard list, so I'm thinking Leslie will probably see it there. Not that she has much control over it, apparently. And Kate Schaefer confirms that phone is the best approach with Hugo House, so I guess that's what I will do. Grudgingly. I don't know when I got so phone averse, but it seems I have.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell looking at the web site, their webmaster has been kidnapped by bats and taken to the Far Antilles, so no one can reigster for anything online until the spring.

Call them at 206-322-7030, and they will answer your questions. You could call Leslie, but that won't get you registered, and she has no control over the Hugo House web site.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

So Richard Hugo House channels John Hertz is what you're saying? Oh, okay, I will phone. That is *so* last century. Then I will go home and do some web work for Potlatch as a penance.

[jamesb.livejournal.com]

Your kent isn't the same as the kent I know down the big roundy blue road.

J

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yes, and they're both different from the Swedish Band. Do tell me more about these round Irish roads of yours, though. I would think flat ones would work better -- fewer cars falling off them and so on.

[jamesb.livejournal.com]

ah- yes, in America its so wide and huge and flat that all roads go in straight lines, eh.

No, here the road, it goes round london.

J

[jimhenley.livejournal.com]

Somehow it just makes sense that an institution named for Richard Hugo would have a crappy web page. I assume it feels guilty about itself though! ;)

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I'm just not sure that a celebration of abandoned classrooms and underused resources is quite what is wanted in this particular case, however. Ah, me.