ArtLog: so today I wound up explaining the Artists' Challenge program again
...and this is what I said. It came out OK, so I thought I might paste it here for future reference.

The Artists' Challenge program is a thing I do where, when people meet a piece of mine and it sparks some art in them, we work out a deal. For writers, these days it usually goes like this:

It starts with somebody seeing a piece of mine that inspired them. If I can see that they are really sparked about something, and that it's making them want to write, then if I have the leeway in the exchequery and cashflow, I will make an Artists' Challenge agreement with them. They usually make a small downpayment, and the piece goes home with them right then. They write whatever it is they're moved to write, and send me a copy of it. They (of course!) retain copyright, and usually they sell the piece and then I get to admire it in print too, as well as having read it early and been a part of the inspiration. Then they pay me for the piece over time, from money they get from their writing. I generally strongly prefer that they don't pay me more than 10% of any given check they receive, though people can trump that if they really want to. How long it takes doesn't matter to me, once I accept an Artists' Challenge agreement. Also, sometimes -- OK, fairly often -- we invent a different price that works better, or figure some cool barter thing, or something. (Photographer Heather Corinna is going to be photographing people in their Elisian necklaces at the reception at Fourth Street, for example. I don't know if you know her work, but she did a gorgeous author photo of Sarah Monette.)

People available for references include:

Sarah Monette, whose Spectrum Award-winning story "Three Letters from the Queen of Elfland" was a necklace story, and who has done a great number of others. (I have more than forty thousand words of Artists' Challenge stuff from Sarah alone! This delights me.)

Elizabeth Bear, who has a number of pieces.

Emma Bull, whose story in the second Firebirds anthology, "What Used To Be Good Still Is," is a necklace story.

Jo Walton, who doesn't exactly do Artists' Challenge pieces, but who gets a new necklace for every book, and who has worked my table and been instrumental in setting up Artists' Challenges for people who she meets at my table. (Jo's wonderful at spotting people who are inspired and will work at it. Dunno if you know her, but she's just a joy all around, too.)

There are many others, but those are the easiest to find, I think. Please feel free to ask any of them about it, and tell 'em I told you to, OK? Bear in mind, though, that arrangements for everybody are tailored just to them, so the money thing and the trade thing varies a lot.

There. Might be more than you wanted to know, but hey. ;-) I don't do a ton of these, but I do enough to keep going, and it really pleases me to do them. Plus, hey, I can't afford my own work, and neither can most working artists, so it makes me glad to get stuff to people who enjoy it and who are making their own art. It's inextricably linked with the joy of making things, for me.

E,
who is now going to cut and paste this into LJ, since it's a good explanation of the Artists' Challenge program, and it's been a while since I talked about it there.

For the record, Heather is photographing at the reception I'm throwing at Fourth Street because she is in love with the necklace named "My Life with the Mermaids, Chapter Seven: Glacial Mermaids and Tropical Mermaids", which now lives with her.