Bluh*

Today, instead of writing at least 1,667 words**, I've been reading about rape, because I'm in too much pain*** to concentrate on writing.  
After you follow those links, I suggest a nice healthy dose of baby animals.  

Okay, let's talk briefly about NaNo.  Because, although I'm ahead of par†, and can take a break from actual writing today, I'm still going to work.  It just may not be word output.  
So, I had an idea for a novel.  It was the sequel to last year's NaNoNovel.  And in fact, I had hoped to finish that around the 15th, and start on book three, and write a trilogy.  
BUT, that didn't happen.  There are reasons, but I don't feel like going into them at the moment.  
So, I'm writing some short stories, instead.  I'm really hoping to write 50K words worth of short stories, but so far I've finished two stories, one of which I will send to an anthology at the end of the month.  Both will eventually go on my website and on my Patreon page for people to read for free, especially the one for the anthology (which doesn't yet have a title), because I'd like to write other stories set in the same world.  

Anyway, I may post some excerpts here and at Patreon, but later.  For now, it's time for me to take a nap (because I'm really tired), and then work on other stuff, like covers or learning to format ebooks or whatever.  
Love you all.  

***

* Despite my best efforts, there are probably typos in this post.  I apologize.  Please just deal with it.  

** Novemer is National Novel Writing Month^, which means I'm trying to write 50K^^ words^^^ in one month.  
^ NaNoWriMo or NaNo, for short.  
^^ At least.  I was trying for 100K, but ... 
^^^ Ideally, I'd be writing a novel, but this year ... I'm doing something a bit different.  

*** Due to being female^.  
^ In case that doesn't make sense, I'm menstruating, despite my IUD.  I'm in a lot of pain+ and that or painkillers or both is making it hard for me to brain.  
+ I got my IUD to stop or decrease the heavy bleeding and the debillitating amount of pain that menses brought me.  It became debillitating when painkillers stopped doing their job.  This is not as bad as it was before, and this is the first time in months it's been anywhere near this bad, so I'm still okay with having the IUD.  

† 1667 words x 30 days = 50K, so 1667 words x today's date = today's par, aka, where I should be if I'm going to be writing 1667 words every day for a month.  

Unf#cking My Office

Only the after photo, because no before photo could accurately portray the level of mess and stress represented by piles of paper scattered throughout my entire office.
1) Mostly chapters of a novel that has been critiqued by my writing group.  I need to go through and make digital notes of changes suggested, etc. (and then use the blank side of the paper for printing the next run of chapters for critiquing).  Also some original hand-written copies of stories.
2) Important Papers That Must Be Filed: paystubs, medical bills, warranties, etc.  Needs to be filed.
3) Ideas, notes and bits of writing, all hand-written, awaiting being entered into a word processor file so that I can lessen my paper junk.
4) RECYCLING!!!!!!!!!
5) Recent receipts.
6) Notebooks and blank paper.
7) Everything Else: full-sheet edition.
8) Everything Else: small-paper edition.
9) Non-paper things found while sorting through  papers.
10) Because no cleaning can get done without a massive amount of tea.
The Everything Else boxes will be stored under the futon* for the nonce, until I've unfucked enough of my office to have an idea of where I'm going to store very sentimental things like old character sheets and greeting cards, and all the rest of what's in those boxes.
---
*At least, that was the plan.  Truth is, the big paper box won't fit under the futon.  On the other hand, the box that currently holds my recycling (and is overflowing) probably DOES fit under the futon, while the big paper box would hold all that recycling and probably more ... problem addressed and solved.  

November: Thank Goddess It's Over

I don't know.  I actually really enjoy November, for the most part.  And I think I'm getting better at this whole writing-a-novel-in-a-month thing, kinda the way I kept getting faster during each successive word war or sprint.  At least, this year's novel-in-a-month has a lot of potential, I think.  It needs some editing, but I think I actually finished the story.  Which is way cool.  Lifechanger took a year to write, because I hadn't finished it during November, and I didn't touch it again until the next November.  So, this is an improvement.

But still.  I basically dropped my webcomic (I'm compiling a list in my head: next year, build a month-long buffer, buy enough canned foods for the month, make sure my laundry's as done as possible, etc.... ), and I need to start that again.  (Tomorrow, when I watch Dr. Who, is a great time to draw.)
The house needs some serious cleaning; there are only clean clothes because I talked my husband into taking clothes to the laundromat for me, so we could have clean clothes, and I could catch up on my novel; the sink is full of dishes ... well, there's a lot to get done.
Starting with sleep.

But anyway, I wanted to just state, for the record, that I am ending the month with 50,183 words, having spent 34 hours writing.  It's been a good month.  

Emilie Autumn

All right, it's official: I'm taking a break from the writing/publishing madness I've been working on since finishing Autumn Eddy, until Saturday. Why?
Emilie Autumn.

If you don't know who she is, and you live in or near Utah, be at the Complex (in SL,UT) on Friday night at seven o'clock. It's required--the Victoriandustrial Gwar-esque concert will leave you begging for mercy. There will be blood. There will be glitter. You will get tea spat at you (or possibly Tang-infused vodka). And there will be mind-blowing violin solos. 

Anyway, the arrival of an Emilie Autumn concert always means a bout of sewing, and I've been trying to balance that and the writing, and I've been failing miserably. So I'm just going to take a break. I'll start writing again on Saturday.

Love you all. See you Friday.

Challenge updates

Short Story Challenge
I've been writing every day since Sunday, for at least an hour. I have the beginning of a short story that will be one in a series of four--and I'm excited about that. And writing ties directly into:

Dvorak Challenge
On Sunday, I typed for an hour and a half, and I wrote 307 words. Today, I worked for an hour, and produced 500 words. Back in November, when I was writing like mad and using QWERTY, I could write about 400 words in a 15 minute sprint. So, I still have a ways to go, but I feel confident. I want to get back up to speed, and I want more 8-hour writing days (I never wrote for eight hours straight; I just did sprints, and took breaks, and sometimes took walks, and came back, ready to pound out more words.

Exercise Challenge
Not so great. I did walk around our block (uphill about half the time, and downhill and level-ish the rest of the time) for half an hour, and I only had to suck on my inhaler 2 or 3 times. My goal is to do that without the inhaler, of course.
But that's it. Well--I did walk to and from work a couple times this week (no buses over the holiday, including Monday, which I thought was extra rude).
But I also just finished a (completely delicious) grilled bacon-and-cheese sandwich, with a glass of orange juice, because I felt guilty. So, you know.
But I'm walking to work today, in just a few minutes (which is why I only wrote for an hour today).

Anyway, more later!

Challenges and goals

It's the last day of 2011, so I thought I'd post my challenges for 2012 ...

Short Story Challenge
I mentioned this earlier, so I'll be brief: my challenge for 2012 is to write and publish 50 stories in a year, based on a title. I will post them here, and then publish each story as the next is ready.

Comic Challenge
The Comic Challenge is to draw and publish three comic pages per week, for Grim Tales. My ideal situation would be to draw page 1 on Monday, and publish it on Wednesday, also drawing page 2. Etc.

Writing Challenge
My Writing Challenge was originally stated to be "continuing with my normal writing stuff" ... so, that means: continuing to send the stories I wrote this year to magazines; finishing and publishing Lifechanger, and working on my school-girl demon-hunter novel; and participating in challenges like NaNoWriMo, NaPoWriMo, (possibly) Screnzy, etc.

Weight Challenge
I think this might be more properly called "The Exercise Challenge", but weight is an obvious thing to measure. Since starting my anti-depressant, I have been less depressed and gaining weight. I didn't really notice until two or three months ago that I was about 30 pounds heavier than I'd thought I was.
So, I want to exercise and try to lose those 30 pounds again. Starting weight is 200lbs. I'll attempt to post updates about exercise attempts and successes.

Dvorak Challenge
I recently  taped the Dvorak layout to my keyboard ... it's being a slow process, learning the layout. I'm somewhat worried about how this will affect my writing speed, so my challenge is to learn the layout, and possibly even learn to properly type it.

Okay, that's what I've got for now. I'll sign off now to enjoy my new year's eve.

I have an agent! Woot!

That's right, dear readers! I have an agent, who doesn’t require a contract, thinks I’m great, and won’t do one thing to manage my career ... and allegedly makes great popcorn. I can't verify this last claim, because of what happens to popcorn when it gets emailed.
He urges me to fire him, but I just haven't been able to decide ... He seems pretty perfect.

Go read Passive Guy's blog. Let me know what you think.
And read the comments--some of them are priceless!

Castle

As a writer, I really like shows/movies that feature writers. Stranger Than Fiction was fantastic, and I really ought to own it. There was another movie whose title I can't remember (it involved two people's names, and I just can't remember their names) that was pretty good.
But Castle, now. I love Castle. It's a show about a genre-savvy murder mystery writer who solves crimes with his knowledge of genre and story. It's amazing.
I love it.

Anyway, I'm still watching the first season--though I'm nearly done--and I'm a little pissed that I didn't start watching earlier, so that I could be caught up before the current season started. Alas ... I should be caught up by next season ...

Short Story Challenge!

Sort of like a New Years' resolution. Dean Wesley Smith inspired me to challenge myself in 2012. Paraphrasing his example (100 stories in one year), I will challenge myself to write 50 stories in one year. I will also take his example of writing them from titles, but instead of looking at books and short stories for my titles, I've got a huge list of adoptable titles from the NaNo forums.
I'm not sure yet how I'll choose--I might print out a list of titles and find some way (darts?) to choose at random; I might print out a list, cut it into bits, put them into a large bowl or something, and choose a new title out of the bowl; I might just pick a handful and make a poll on the blog for my readers to choose from. I may do a mix of all three ...
Regardless, I will strive to write, publish, and make a cover for 50 stories (that's about a story a week, which terrifies me), in addition to my regular writing (novels and novellas), NaNoWriMo, and attempting to do a blog post at least once per week.
So, there's that.

In other news, I finished NaNoWriMo, getting to 50,171 words before I went to bed last night--and I'm not planning on writing any fiction today--I'll do a little work, including this blog, and maybe working on some kind of system for my Challenge--lists of names, titles, etc., just so I don't have to think about names, etc., for too long and can hopefully have the next title stewing my brain before I have to jump into it.
Then it will be food and decompression time: an episode of Castle or Doctor Who, something warm to eat, (dark) chocolate (almond) milk ... yum.

NaNo is Saving My Life

I've been wanting to be a writer, an author for a very long time. In the last couple years, I've been very serious about that, trying to improve my writing through critique groups and reading about writing. The last few months, I've been getting serious about being published and being read, reading blogs about publishing, looking into self-publishing and e-readers--my writing group started a publishing company.
But through all that, I wondered. I wondered if the freelancing life was for me. Especially when I started reading about it. I wondered if I had the temperament, the drive, the love required to be a full-time writer, a full-time freelancer.
Then, for those not up on my personal life: I got married, which involved a fair amount of stress, and a lot of not doing anything but work, wedding planning, and trying to eat and sleep enough. The wedding was fabulous, and once I'd recovered (mostly, slept), and my husband (!) had gone back to work, I still had a few days of not-working. And NaNo was upon us! (We got weddinged on 11/5.)
So I started writing.
I started writing a lot, because I was about 6 days behind (and I've only gained one day on that). I did start work again recently, but my days off have become freelancing days, full-time writing days.
And you know what?
I love it. I absolutely love waking up, eating breakfast and then writing. I've been giving myself 1,000-word marathons: after 1,000 words, I am allowed to get up, refill my water bottle and/or tea mug, go to the bathroom, eat some food, stretch, etc. Sometimes I take walks or clean a small part of the house in between, just to do something physical.
Can I tell you how crazy that is for me? I hate doing physical stuff--but then, I'm usually exhausted from the whole work-day thing, and all I want when I'm home is to hole up and read or watch Dr. Who/Community/Castle/House/Bones/Dead Like Me/etc.
But now that I'm holed up in my office all day, writing, anything is possible. I finally cleaned the living room--not entirely, but a lot better than it had been--which I'd been avoiding all month. And I cleaned rather than go for a walk because the weather turned nasty yesterday, and I'm not sure my boots have dried from it yet.

So, anyway--every day that I devote to writing is another day that confirms my desire to write full-time, to be a freelance writer. This last week or two (with occasional interruptions from the working world and other things) have been amazing.

And then, because I've been meaning to do this, I present pictures of my office:

Posters, left to right: Emilie Autumn's against animal cruelty "Rats aren't creepy. Experimenting on the IS."; Alice in Wonderland I won at the CONduit Art Auction; EA's painting that I got with VIP tickets to see her at her last show.
The black-and-white orbs adorned the reception, and they also fit the Feng Shui of the office (black is good for Career, White for Creativity--plus the good energy they got from being part of the wedding? Perfect!), so I added them.
The notes under the rat painting: my goal to make a living with my writing, and three quotes that give me good feelings.

The place where the magic happens: my padded chair, my desk lamp, my little paper-stand, great for typing in hand-written stories/scenes/notes, and, of course, my netbook (Elizabeth Bathory). Also a candle and my water bottle, and my mp3 player (Hathor), which has been a little under the weather lately.

Behind my chair, my printer, my Heterodyne Coffee "Spark Roast" poster (It's Perfection in every cup!), and below all that is the round black cushion (very good Feng Shui) where my cats sometimes sleep ... when they don't want to climb up on my lap, which, by the way, is where Elizabeth Bathory usually goes. Of course.

Anyway, this space is wonderful--though I'm thinking of expanding it enough for a bookshelf--to store my writing books. My journals, and a few low-circulation magazines that I've been published in (like my high school's art & literature magazines) are kept above the desk--you can see them at the top of the first picture. But I'd still like to keep my writing books nearby.

Anyway, I'm very close to being halfway through the challenge (though I'll probably save that for tomorrow, since it's getting a little late), and every day that I "sit down at the keyboard and give it everything I have" is a Really Good Day. (That's one of my quotes on my wall.)
Love you all! Time to eat, and watch Castle, or maybe House or Bones ...

Suddenly depressed.

If I fail to write in my journal, or to update my blog, for a sufficiently long period of time, I start to avoid it, because I feel embarrassed about leaving it alone for so long. Or I feel overwhelmed by all the things I haven't written about, or I just feel like I can't think of anything to say. This, of course, compounds the issue.
Earlier today I decided to write in my blog, but I think trying to figure out how to start pushed me in the direction of being overwhelmed, because I suddenly felt depressed. (That and Dylan calling to say that he was having fun and hanging out with people and eating, so I guess that means I have to figure out dinner by myself, and get to sit here by myself until he gets home. I'm even in a somewhat social mood, having spent an hour or so hanging out with a few pagans--and in conversation with one I'd just met for a good deal of that time. Me being actively social happens so rarely ... )
Anyway, I almost left the blog post alone. We're singing in the morning, and Dylan and I are part of the contingent that will be spending the first part of the morning at San Esteban's, doing some kind of an outreach or interfaith community sort of thing: our church (the UU church) and theirs (an Hispanic Presbyterian church? don't remember) are doing community stuff, and that includes our choirs singing together. Anyway, it's way west and a fair bit south, so we'll have to leave even earlier than we normally would on a Sunday morning, and that have been as good excuse as any to go to bed without writing anything.

Now I'm just not sure what to say. I can think of things, but I'd like to save most of them for their own topics. So I guess I'll sign off, eat some dinner, and sleep. And tomorrow I'll wake up, sing, and probably go straight to work for eight-and-a-half hours. Yay ...
Not for the first time, I wish I had internet access at work.

grim tales: ashputtel

I've mentioned it here before, my desire to create a webcomic. Well, it's finally happened. Inspired by a truly awesome Cinderella story written by a friend of mine, I bought crayons and a pad of paper and starting drawing.
I've been meaning to update the blog about the presence of my comic for a while, but I just haven't gotten around to it till now. (And, I've been putting it on Facebook .... so, I'm not sure anyone who knows me doesn't know about my webcomic, but I still wanted to actually announce it on my blog before sending "Page Up!" updates.

Anyway, here's my fancy comic announcement! (And I worked bloody hard for the thing, too: this would have been posted an hour ago, if the fancy comic announcement had been less persnickety.)

 

Grim Tales: a crayon-and-stick-figure comic about faerie tales!

Chapter 1 is Ashputtel, the German/Brothers Grimm version of Perrault's Cinderella. If I can figure out how to do it, I might take votes for which story Chapter 2 will be ... my current inclination is Red Riding Hood, but I'm open to suggestions.

However, that means: tell your friends! If  I run a poll, and only get two votes, I'll be mighty embarrassed ... plus, I might be forced into doing something boring, like The Frog Prince.

CONduit: Sunday panels

Saturday night, Dylan and I spent at the hotel, so as to be able to stay later than trains or get to earlier-than-trains Sunday panels. Despite staying up very late Saturday night, we managed to get up early enough to eat breakfast, check out, and get to the 11am panel:

In Writing a Multi-Book Series, some of the dangers of writing multiple books about the same set of characters was discussed: for instance, reviewers may give a bad review because they don't want to have to read multiple books in order to understand the book they need to review; finding the balance between too much recap and not enough--because there are two types of readers out there: the ones who want nothing but a story, and the ones who will never get enough detail, information, etc.: and You Will Never Be Able to Please Them Both At Once. Also, you can't wrap everything up neatly, or there's nothing to write about next time. In fact, L.E. Modesitt Jr. says to not be afraid to leave loose ends, because life doesn't neatly tie together, and the story will feel more real that way.

The thing I really took away from Using Your Environment for Setting Ideas was, do your research! Especially your geography/geology: if your setting is this world, information is available to both you and your readers; if your setting is your own, do research and be accurate, lest you make your knowledgeable readers cringe (and this goes for pretty much anything, but mostly, the panel was discussing geography/geology/culture).

Also, Utah has an amazing variety of geography, and research trips are tax-deductible.

I was slightly disappointed to find that Building Your Audience was not, in fact, about Frankenstein building his monsters, futuristic scientists building androids, or about steampunk sparks building clanks. Alas.

Instead, we discussed blogging, Twitter, Facebook, newsletters. We discussed you as your own brand, and ways to promote books that are being published.

Toward the end, I asked how to promote and build an audience in absence of a book about to be published, and the answer was basically, get out there, blog about being an aspiring writer (because people like to read about that sort of thing, use your pen name on the internet so people are familiar with it before you start publishing.

I took a break after this, picked up the art I had won at the auction, wandered around some more, hung out with people, and for the last panel, I attempted to go to Urban Fantasy, which ended up being less useful/interesting than I had hoped, so I left to go to Position and Positioning, which talked about social position and social equality or lack thereof, and the myth of upward mobility: in novels, the commoner always gets the title and position promised him, but in real life, it was a small estate, and let's hope he goes away to enjoy that, and maybe his grandchildren would be able to gain the larger estates and possibly the title that was promised their ancestor. Social change happens slowly, was the motto for the panel.

And after such an eventful, exciting, informative weekend, Dylan and I went home and rested. 

Yay! I managed to finish the saga of CONduit! 

Yeah, Not So Much

So, instead of working last night, I talked to the two women I wanted for handmaidens for a while, and then I watched (mmph) episodes of Community, which is a totally great show. (I keep telling myself: the episodes are half-an-hour! If this was House, it'd only be three (or four ... ) episodes. It's not that bad, really. Only then I look up how much I did watch last night ... ummm .... )

Anyway, today I'm going to Logan to meet with my parents, and so Dylan's mom can meet my parents, and we can all sit around and chat. And I suppose I can talk about that soon, but the plan for the long drive north is to finally write up the Sunday panels for CONduit.
And, this is it, because I have to be dressed and ready to go Very Soon Now.

Poetry

I just sent three poems to Bull Spec. I think I can expect an answer in about a month. I sent a steampunk poem about a clockwork messenger owl, a fantasy about a phoenix, and a dark fantasy about love gone wrong. Considering the fiction guidelines talking about wanting pieces with hope, I'm not sure the last one is really right for the magazine, but I love it so--and I hope the three pieces together display the diversity I am capable of, or something like that.
B has talked about an open mic night at Crone's Hollow, and I think I'd have fun reading some of my poems there.

On a slightly different topic, I've signed up to pass out the first chapter of Lifechanger to CALLIHOO (the writing group) in a couple weeks, which means I need to finish editing that last chapter-and-a-half I have left over from (mm-hmm) March--NaNoEdMo. Because I don't want multiple drafts being worked on at the same time.
Really, it's just a matter of applying the bum glue. It really won't take me more than two hours, which means I'm just being lazy. So, you know--I'm hoping the deadline will help. Maybe I'll even do it tonight: I'm off work, and I don't have anything going on on Fridays. Dylan's at aikido, I have the house to myself for a couple hours. So, you know, no excuses. I should eat a little something, and get to work.
I'll try it. I'll let you know how it goes.

New Address

I threatened it, about a year ago.
The address of this blog is now http://rowanfaesblog.blogspot.com.
The reasons are entirely writing-related. And even though Google-searching Rowan Fae does bring me up (along with a troupe of Irish Dancers), I still want the URL that has my name in it (and straight-up rowanfae.blogspot is being used by some kind of trapeze artist ... ).

The old address is still there with a link to this address (and I felt fancy doing that: researched what URLs were available, then picked the less-desirable one (rowan-fae--because, strangely enough, things like thisisaplaceholder and unimportant were already taken) for the new blog, upon which I wrote a bit of stuff about "this address is no longer Rowan's blog, go to the new address", then I went and changed the URL for this blog, and once that was changed, changed the new one to the old URL).

Anyway, that's about it for news today. Except that I was super-depressed last night, and my friends did a "healing" on me, and it helped, a lot. I was able to cry and have it mean something, change something.
And Tokyo Cat watched the energy intently the entire time, very much a part of the process.

News

Alright, here's the exciting news that is going to yet again take precedence over CONduit's Sunday panels:

Dylan and I are getting married in November. I already told Facebook, but I guess you can't put it too many places. We have a website just for the purpose of the wedding, which will probably get its own--very wedding-oriented--blog. I'll let everyone know whenever that's updated, and I'll probably talk about wedding-stuff here, too, just not as densely.

So far, we're still working out some of the major details--like budget, venue and how many guests. And we have five months. I'm starting to stress out a bit, and unfortunately, I keep telling people we're getting married, so I think eloping is out of the picture.

I'm also feeling like I'm not getting very much accomplished. And this, I'm sure, has somewhat to do with the fact that I don't know where I'm getting married yet, but it also has to do with the fact that I'm not really working on a writing project currently--a friend asked what I was writing and I just sat there and went, Ummmmm ....

And I'm not currently sending anything out because I wanted to edit Ogre and A Ghost Story (which I also want to edit) is hanging out at the Writers of the Future Contest. And that's basically all I've got. I have some poems, which also need a stiff edit, but I'm much less practiced at poetry-writing and -editing, so ... my options seem to be to either send out poems and hope to find markets that give critiques or something ... flashquake gives a couple sentences about why they're rejecting, if that's what they're doing... Or I could try to find a poetry-critiquing group, ideally a local one here, rather than online.

There's also the house: the "office" is still full of boxes. We've done some good work on emptying boxes in the kitchen and living room, but the bedroom is also a mess. Blah. And especially since when my sister comes out to Utah for the wedding, she'll be staying us: it'd be nice if the office was cleared at least enough for her to use it to change, if nothing else.

CONduit: Saturday panels

We slept in somewhat. Meaning, we skipped 10am panels and went straight to 11am panels. We also got to check into our hotel room early, so we didn't have to lug around lots of stuff.*

I was a little late to the Poetry workshop, but only a little. A lot of what was said was about how learning to write poetry will help prose writers write prose better, because you will learn the weight of each word. But there was other stuff about playing with words, using the wrong words intentionally, being redundant on purpose to effect. It was interesting.

Plotting a Novel in an Hour covered three of the four steps Robert Defendi uses when writing a novel: brainstorming (we all threw out random ideas for an urban fantasy involving a farmer whose cow is killed/kidnapped by the Fae, including overall plot, main character plot, love story, locations, and family secrets), order (we organized the ideas of each plot type into chronological order--first he meets the Fairy Princess, then he falls in love with her, etc ... ), and integration (taking the ideas out of the plot subtypes and putting them into the rough order they will happen in the book). The final stage, polish, can take anywhere from 40-120 hours, and you might want to go back and do the other steps over again, because the first ideas are usually crap.


How to Write Great Villains: one of the main things we talked about, I think, was the fact that the villain is the hero of his own story. And the difference between a villain (a being with will, malice, choice) and an antagonist (which could be a tornado, natural disaster, etc.). A villain is clever, and can have something to say (to which Howard Tayler replied, "I think New Orleans should be more like Venice, Italy").
And if your villain is so smart you can't figure out how to have your hero beat him, you have 75% of a novel; give it to a smarter friend to figure out what the hero should do.


SF/F Mystery, a panel about cross-genre writing, could be subtitled: Because genre is an invention of booksellers.** Just keep in mind that mystery readers are perhaps more demanding than SF/F readers in terms of rules: mystery readers are basically reading to solve a mystery, and if the rules for the supernatural don't make sense, the readers will be angry. Carole Nelson Douglas spoke about her Midnight Louie series: he's a cat who solves crimes, but he's still a cat.

Bad Fairy! You're NOT a vampire! was one that I had been looking forward to, and it was somewhat disappointing. Not saying anything about the panelists, but I thought it was going to be something more than talking about non-Twilight vampires--meaning, talking about Twilight as opposed to other vampires. And while there was some interesting stuff about the history of vampires in legend and folklore, and how the fictionalization of vampires has evolved, the best thing I can say about the panel is that, despite the title, no one brought up the Fae as being friendly and shiny and pretty, like the Twilight vampires. I would probably have walked out.

High Fantasy discussed the differences (if any) between high fantasy and epic fantasy. Also, that high fantasy, with its shining good guys and dark bad guys might be coming back into vogue, considering that with some "gritty" fantasy, there's such a Grey And Gray Morality, you lose track of who to root for. And also, avoiding tropes is the new trope.

After that was the Masquerade, where my friend won Best of Show for his Lego Batman costume, and is thus going to a Costume Con; then there was the Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog (and Buffy's Once More With Feeling) Sing-Along, which was awesome. My friends composed about half the room, and there were a couple Dr. Horrible virgins amongst my friends, and that was even more awesome.

And I will post Sunday panels probably tomorrow.

***

 *Note to self: I have to figure out a costume that makes use of carrying packs or something, so I can carry stuff and have that be part of my costume. Being a fairy who carries bags around kinda cramped my style.

**Actually, I heard that in multiple panels.

CONduit: Friday panels

I downplayed the panels in the last post, but they were still wonderful. So, here we go.
Friday, I started with Con Etiquette, which might seem like a boring panel, and it was filled with some common-sense stuff I learned last year (eat food, drink water, get sleep--but I don't think anyone said anything about pace yourself; last year, I went to panel after panel after panel with no down time in the Dealer's Room, Art Room, Media/Anime Rooms, or even just hanging out with other con-goers. I was brain-dead about halfway through ... ), but there were some useful things, like the 521 or 631 rule:
5 or 6: hours of sleep each night of the con
2 or 3: meals per day during the con
1: shower each day of the con
I liked the layout of the rule: I prefer the 631 rule, myself, but I think Saturday was more of a 521 day ... and I survived.

After Con Etiquette, I took a break to stare at the Dealer's Room, and then went to Brainstorming with your Subconscious, which was about using Tarot cards to help you brainstorm your stories. Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury asked if anyone would volunteer a character to be read in demonstration, and I was the only who reacted, so she did a Celtic Cross layout for Olivia, the main character of the Taking (first of four Changeling stories). She gave me some interesting ideas for ways to change and twist the Taking.

Dylan and I ate some food and went outside, and then made it to Screenwriting 101. I won't say I didn't learn anything in the panel (as if I know all there is to know about screenwriting), but they did cover a lot of common sense stuff. The one thing I found useful was the delineation between novel (character vs. himself), play (character vs. other people) and movie (character vs. everything). It will help me the next time I make an attempt to adapt the Taking into a stageplay.

Then it was on to Streamlining Your Fiction. Jessica Day George was present at this panel, and I only bring it up because she's one of my favorite panelists. And someday, I'll read her books ...
But this was a useful panel, talking about editing your fiction, and pulling out nonessentials, which is especially useful for short fiction. One thing I remember especially was: if you can remove a scene, a character, etc., and the story reads fine without it, it should be removed.

Women in Fantasy was next. Panelists: I love L.E. Modesitt, Jr.; and I got to see Amber Argyle (new author), Carole Nelson Douglas and Elisabeth Waters for the first time--though I am, of course, familiar with EW, since she edits the Sword & Sorceress anthology.
Anyway, the panel was about how to use women in fantasy with using stereotypes, how to have believable, strong female characters without making them men with breasts, and just some of the differences between men and women in general. (L.E. Modesitt's qualification for the panel, besides his good female characters, was his six daughters.)

My friend Kelly and I were very interested in A Day in the Life of a Slave, so we sat down near the front and waited for them to start. One of the moderators started putting up pictures of men, none of which I recognized, and Kelly and I sat there wondering what that had to do with slaves.
When they finally started talking, it became clear to us that we were in the Doctor Who Debates panel, and not the panel we wanted at all. (And she mentioned David Tennant, who I think I might recognize, but I didn't see him up there.)
We hurried out of there and went next door (the signs were not epically clear), where we learned that there is no typical day in the life of any slave, and that, in the South, there might be no-whip rules at the plantation next door to the one that encourages whipping, and the screams of the whipped would carry to the next plantation over.
I also learned about Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews, a project that involved interviewing very old ex-slaves, and compiling it into a book, which is available in ebook form.

The final panel of the day was Suspense: Building to a Satisfactory Conclusion. There were plenty of excellent panelists who were all new to me, and I'd like to mention in particular Dr. Michael R. Collings, since he was the one who critiqued my poem on Saturday. I especially enjoyed what he had to say. We discussed techniques for not only building and keeping the suspense, but also for letting the characters (and the readers) get a breath.

And after that, Dylan and I went home to eat dinner, shower, etc., and I adjusted my costume, which was covered in velvet, and was ridiculously hot.
And I'll stop here, and talk about Saturday's panels another day ...

CONduit

CONduit is Salt Lake's science-fiction/fantasy convention. It was, as usual, amazing. Strangely enough, the panels are not what I remember this time (not as much, anyway). I got to see some old friends and make new ones, I bought a keseira (jewelry from the Wheel of Time books) in green, because they only had Ajah colors, and there is no Purple Ajah, and while I like red better than green, I like the Green Ajah WAY better than the Red. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, read the Wheel of Time. Like, now. )
I also got something I've been wanting for a WHILE: a strawberry-embroidered handkerchief. A woman with a fancy sewing machine was doing machine-embroidery, and I happened to have a handkerchief on me, so she embroidered a strawberry (well, two strawberries) on it. It's a reference to Othello, so if you don't know what I'm talking about, go see Othello. Or just read it.
Probably the best thing, though, was getting a poem critiqued by Michael R. Collings. He had a booth set up so you could show up with a poem and he would read it through and give you a mini critique. I think it was helpful.
I also won a piece of artwork: a watercolor (I think?) on a cloth scroll of Alice at tea time ... She's wearing black-and-white striped stockings and it's beautiful ...

Anyway, I now have lots of ideas about writing, mostly urban fantasy ... I think I want to set an urban fantasy (series) in Haiti ... it will require research.
Time to go to bed, I have to wake up super-early for work.
Good-night.