Tag Archives: convention

Day 39 of Session 2010, Writing Progress, OutlantaCon update

By | |
Leave a comment

It’s Day 39, the penultimate day of the 2010 Georgia Legislative Session. Thank Jeebus it’s finally here.

This session has been light on the midnight oil and slammed-unto-death days, but it’s been the longest session evah, time-wise. I’d rather have more oily-slammed days and have session end in March than this extended twitch-when-will-it-be-over-twitch stress which permeates the office. Gah.

Clawing my way to the end of this week with broken and jagged fingernails, woo.


Writing Stuff

  • Got an update on my panel schedule from the OutlantaCon folks. I’ve also been slated to be on “Beware of Homophobes, Homophobes Beware” Sat. at 6PM: Would you boycott purchasing an anthology that had writers you like in it, just because one story was by a known, vehement homophobe? Would you refuse to submit to a publication that included homophobic writers?
  • And I’ve been invited to be a guest at Sci Fi Summer Con in June.

New Words:

  • 3K words on “Rampion” and it’s officially a novelette. Hmph. How did that happen?

Outlantacon Schedule and Press Release

By | |
10 Comments

Got my panel schedule for Outlantacon. Can’t believe it’s in less than two weeks!

Friday 4/30, 7PM: “Meet the Guests/Opening Ceremonies” – Mingle with the con attendees as well as some opening remarks by the Con Committee and the Guests of Honor.

Saturday 5/1, 1PM: “Social Activism” – Seemingly traction is being gained across the U.S. for queer rights but what can you do to help? What is the most effective use of your energies?

Saturday 5/1, 4PM: “Getting the word OUT” – I love what I read/see/hear in queer speculative fiction, but how do I tell everyone? How can I keep my favorite authors in print or TV/movie producers putting out new material?

Sunday 5/2, TBA: “Joss Whedon – The single biggest influence in queer themes on TV today?” (tentative)

Also check out this press release. Hope to see folks there!

Insomnia and Frolicon Panel Schedule

By | |
3 Comments

Sleep was not forthcoming last night. Been taking hydroxyzine on and off to aid in sleeping this last week. Decided that I was treading the path to unhealthy and resolved to go off it before taking uppers in the morning and downers at night became a habit. Voila, insomnia. Sigh.

In other news, the Frolicon 2010 panels and workshop schedule is now online. It’s still preliminary and subject to change, but I’m currently slated to be on:

Friday 4/2, 11AM-12:30PM: “Ask a Writer: Craft” – Whether you’re struggling with characters who won’t do what you want, a plot that doesn’t seem to want to come together, difficulties making your words flow the way you want, etc., come ask our panel of writers how they do what they do. (Cancun)

Saturday 4/3, 4:15-5:45PM: “Writing Sex Scenes” – No matter what genre you write, sometimes your plot is going to take your characters into a sex scene. How do you decide what level of explicitness works? How do you keep the language from either devolving into crudeness or coming out sounding medical? There’s a lot more work involved in making them arouse the reader than simply insert-tab-A-into-slot-B. (Frankfurt)

Hope to see folks there.

Drabblecast Mega-Beast Deathmatch Season 3 at Dragon*Con: YouTube Footage

By | |
Leave a comment

Norm Sherman of Drabblecast (also now the co-host of Escape Pod) very graciously came to my signing on Saturday at Dragon*Con. During our chat, he introduced me to the ongoing Mega-Beast Death Match debate (which is currently in its third season), whereupon their experts and aficionados deliberate—typically after generous applications of alcohol—on the merits and combat prowess of various Drabblecast-nouveau kaiju and vote on which of the “scientifically altered bestial battlers” would win if they threw down.

While at Dragon*Con, Norm invited various attendees to contribute their thoughts on the death match contestants and immortalized their responses on video for their podcast.

And yes, he asked me.

The podcast footage is now up at Drabblecast and also on YouTube in four parts (along with some great footage of the parade). I’m in part 2 (after the parade section):

(Clickie for part 1, part 3, and part 4.)

 

Dragon*Con 2009

By | |
5 Comments

As I predicted, when we got home on Monday, there was great collapse. It wasn’t quite as bad as last year, whereupon dude_the, fosteronfilm, and I sprawled in the living room in post-battlefield attitudes of death and mayhem. But it was close.

My voice is still stripped, but I did manage to keep it until Monday, which is an improvement over previous years (please, please nobody phone me for a couple weeks, K?). And I opted not to go into work yesterday, and subsequently slept for something like 16 hours.

Now playing catch-up on all the post-convention correspondences, write-ups, reports, and sundry communications that I tabled until after Dragon*Con. If you sent me an email that you expect a reply to, please give me a couple more days to get caught up. Continue reading →

“Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, etc” now up at Escape Pod

By | |
4 Comments

Still wiped, but wanted folks to know that Escape Pod published “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” while I was at Dragon*Con (why do they always publish my stuff while I’m at D*C?). Lawrence Santoro did a simply fabulous reading of it! Go listen, yo. It’s free!

Yesterday, fosteronfilm, dude_the, and I were comatose for most of the day. We emerged briefly to get food and pick up Hobkin from his godmother, then returned to blissful unconsciousness.

It’s getting harder and taking longer to recover from D*C every year.

Dragon*Con 2009 Guest Schedule

By | |
5 Comments

Received my Dragon*Con guest schedule. Here’s what I’ll be doing when I’m not shackled to my desk at Daily Dragon headquarters:

• Friday 9/4, Noon: Guest lecture – “Marketing Short Fiction” for Ann Crispin’s Beginner Writers Workshop.
• Saturday 9/5, 1PM: “Y’all vs. You Guys: Regional SF and Fantasy” – Southern science fiction/fantasy is often a genre to itself. Other parts of the world have their own flavor. Fairlie (Hyatt).
• Saturday 9/5, 4PM: Autograph signing. M301-M304 (Marriott).
• Sunday 9/6, 2:30PM: “Bite Me!” – The First Ladies of the Fang discuss trends in vampire fiction…and maybe more! (Moderator) Regency VI – VII (Hyatt).

The vampire one is the first panel I’ve ever moderated so I’m rather nervous about it. It’s also in one of the big, main programming rooms, so strike “nervous” and insert “strangled by butterflies.” Yeah. I’ll be doing some research beforehand for that one…

OutlantaCon report part 3 sent

By | |
5 Comments

Just sent in the 3rd/final segment of my OutlantaCon writeup for Fantasy Magazine. I had a great time!

Less in recovery mode this Monday AM than usual from conventions. Probably due to the wise decision to not drink or otherwise carouse at this one. Because of how close OutlantaCon’s host hotel was to our house, I even got a reasonable amount of sleep. Hope they continue to have it in northern Atlanta hotels (although not this particular one, as after the rains on Saturday, the main programming room acquired a new “amenity”: running water…sans plumbing pipes).

They’ve already invited me back to reprise my guesthood, which makes it the earliest advance notice/invite I’ve ever received from a convention. Hee! Of course I said “yes!”, so I will absolutely be back next year.

Monday After Frolicon ’09: Trampled by Hamster

By | |
3 Comments

Resuming 4×10 workweek, hurray. Frolicon was a blast, but I feel like I’ve been trampled by a 1-ton hamster this AM.

Panels went great, although they were smallish on the attendance side (which I was actually relieved by, as small groups ease my “omigod-public-speaking-omigod” fight/flight—well, flight mostly—impulse). And I had great fun hanging with ceciliatan on Friday at the table she most graciously shared with me:

The parties seemed a little lower key than in previous years. A sign of the economic times, perhaps? Although the 10 Commandments party (by the Jonestown folks…I think) was excellently accoutered, and the Outlantacon folks’ white chocolate strawberry concoction deserves major snaps for yumminess. (I had two of those, which, for anyone who knows anything of my drinking habits and ability, is tantamount to a binge.)

dude_the flew back yesterday night, although there was speculation as to whether his flight would be canceled due to the storm. Apparently it was diverted to Moline. (Moline??) But he’s safe at home now.

Got a few story ideas from the convention. Dwelling now on penning a steampunk Asian fantasy for that DAW anthology. Also, I feel the need to put together a steampunk outfit for Dragon*Con. I probably won’t be able to as our finances for such thigns are limited, but the Steampunk panel at Frolicon was mightily inspiring.