con report of DOOOOOM!

[squeequeg]

Friday I show up in time for the Firefly panel, which mostly consists of Keith R. A. DeCandido telling us about elements of Serenity, for which he wrote the novelization. Which means he's seen the script. He tries to explain why the movie release date has been moved to September: so that it won't get lost in summer blockbusters, and so that its teaser can run before said blockbusters.

I scarf dinner and check out the art show, as the hucksters' room is closed. Some nice stuff, but a lot of fantasy art leaves me cold. I'm not really sure why.

The panel on writers' groups has its own little BASF contingent on one side of the room. Most of the points made revolve around how writers' groups and workshops will not automatically teach you to be a better writer. They do, however, make it easier for you to learn how to see your writing with a dispassionate eye. Though there's one panelist who talks about her group, in which they don't "critique," as that word's too close to "criticism" and therefore bad. Probably very supportive, but a little too squishy for my taste; I need the swift-kick-in-the-butt type of critique.

End up going home relatively early, skipping the whole "trivia for chocolate" panel, though it was fun last year. Ah well.

Saturday I get myself some coffee and head to the Lovecraft's Legacy panel, just in time to catch the last of the ABC's ("I is for Ichor..."). Much of what's discussed has more to do with Lovecraft's life and current criticism of him. It's pointed out that while yes, Lovecraft did have a reclusive period, he was in many ways a part of early fandom, attending conventions, writing letters, etc. Someone points out that if Lovecraft were alive today, he'd be at cons arguing into the wee hours and then ordering pizza. Lovecraft's eating habits are also alluded to, and I finish my coffee.

I sneak into the hucksters' room. Shiny things! Oooo! Many very cool books, a lot of which I want. I restrain myself and just get a damaged copy of Quartet from the NESFA booth. However, there's a display of jewelry...really beautiful jewelry...and ear cuffs.

I do not often buy jewelry for myself. In fact, 95% of all jewelry I own was a gift to begin with, and has either gained sentimental value or had some to begin with. But I'm a sucker for ear cuffs. Especially with the dangly bits. I make the mistake of trying one on. It's got an amber bead on the end. Ooo...

Rewriting History panel is at noon, and the discussion touches on the "inevitability" of using a historical framework. This isn't just that we know how it'll end (e.g. Titanic, "how can it be a good story if we know the boat sinks?"), but also the inevitability of ideas. For example, the protagonist has views that fit in with our modern-day outlook: is opposed to slavery even though he's a Southerner, upholds women's rights, etc. On the lines of "knowing how it'll end," the genre of secret history is mentioned (examples: The Moon and the Sun, Declare). As for mining history, it's most useful for providing a very grounded framework on which to add magic -- and for God's sake, think about how magic's going to affect this framework. What would a successful alchemist do to a gold standard, for example?

Can't remember why I missed the Where do elves come from? panel. Probably needed lunch. But this does point out something that I want to see at my next con: an "I love my short comic relief" panel on dwarves in fantasy. Enough with the pointy-eared twits nancing about on top of the snow! We know the real action's under the mountain!

I take copious notes for yhlee at the Edged Weapons and How Writers Get Them Wrong panel, and I'll send them to anyone who asks. Highlights include the curator from the Higgins Armory, who brings a practice sword, Tamora Pierce's pet peeves about serrated weapons (while you're trying to get the blade unstuck from your enemy's sternum, his friend can just pick up a "big-ass rock" and kill you with it) and James MacDonald's funny EMT stories. And funny knife stories. And funny Molotov cocktail stories (hint: don't pour it down your back as you try to throw it). A detailed comparison between Cutthroat Island and Captain Lust is made. The curator demonstrates that for hand-to-hand combat between armored knights, one hand was kept on the hilt, one halfway up the blade, in order to more precisely attack the gaps in the opponent's armor. I find out the proper way to cut a throat and make notes. Yes, it's important.

I sneak into the George R. R. Martin reading and get to hear the first Sansa chapter from A Feast For Crows. The more I hear of Littlefinger, the more he scares me... I feel kind of sorry for Martin; he's done the first three so well that he's got a whole horde of us breathing down his neck. And I want him to finish Black and White and Red All Over someday.

The coffee starts to wear off. I get some Coke and curl up in the corner of the hotel to read for a bit. Sometimes it's good to just be by myself at a con.

I stay for half of the What New Writers Need to Know panel, but it's mostly for writers who have just sold their first novel, and I'm not quite there yet. Then to dinner with a bunch of Viable Paradise alumni. Dinner, and the party afterwards, include a lot of just talking shop, telling goofy stories (I bring up the "Debbie Does Dungeons and Dragons" skit, probably a little too loudly), and just being happy. One of the alumni from my class talks about a story he's working on that sounds pretty cool, but my juvenile side keeps wanting to add angry bears. On fire. And ninjas. (He's already got the pirates in space.)

We make it down in time for the Atlanta Nights reading. Oh, my god. (For those of you who don't know the whole story, a brief rundown can be found here.) It is, in essence, a purposely bad book. Bad bad bad. The chapters were written by many different authors, none of whom knew anything of the plot beyond his or her chapter outline, and assembled in the order in which they were received. There are two chapter 12s. There is no chapter 21. Chapter 34 was the result of feeding the previous three and following three chapters into a text generator and then using a grammar check. One of the collaborative authors, Allen Steele, gets up to read. (I don't know much about this author and feel I should. I certainly shouldn't keep confusing him with the guy who plays Hercules in Hercules Vs. the Moon Men.) He introduces his co-author, Jose Cuervo, and says, "I didn't write this sober and I'm not gonna read this sober." We only wish he'd passed it around. At one point Kate and I break hopelessly into a five-minute giggling fit.

I make it home and, silly me, don't go straight to bed.

Sunday I get a latte (hardcore stuff for usually non-caffeinated me) and sketch out how I want the next fight scene in Spiral Hunt to go. By the time I'm done, it looks like a weird form of calculus, if it weren't for the "whack," "boom," and "retch" notations. I lurch upstairs in time for the Viable Paradise panel, which turns into mostly anecdote-telling time, as most of us there are alumni. I don't know whether I'm sorry to have missed out on the prophesying in an earlier VP. Might make for a good story, though.

JDM encourages me to keep going with Spiral Hunt, and I feel absurdly gratified. I'm a sucker for encouragement.

The panel on infodumps gets a little odd (audience members all want to make their own points, self included), though I do meet an interesting British woman who's written a book on Diana Wynne Jones. I'm sorry I didn't make it to the Howl's Moving Castle panel she was going to later; I had to get Orson Scott Card's autographs for people. The Pratchett's women panel is fun, and a lot of "my favorite is X" happiness. I want to buy copies of The Wee Free Men for every girl under the age of eight.

(In line for autographs, I realize that Card alludes to the science fiction course that both sigerson and I took way back when, and I thank him when I get to the head of the line. And thanks to Peter Robinson, too, wherever you are.)

The panel on gods in science fiction and fantasy concentrates more on the fantasy angle, but in a good way. It's pointed out that gods either tend to be too weak (squabbly, lacking in numinous power, just heroes made bigger) or too strong (hello, deus ex machina!). I take a few notes and think about how best to depict a strong god made weak.

I lurch home and sleep. Sleep is good. I'm going to sleep now.

Panels I regret missing: The Next Plague, Invisible Villainy, Cyborgs: Are We There Yet?, Viking and Anglo-Saxon Arms and Armor, SF Chick Flicks, Let's Hear It for the Rohirrim!, Unanswerable Questions, and Howl's Moving Castle. If anyone has a report on these panels, let me know.

Comments

[stealthmuffin.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I remember wandering the Worldcon exhbit with sigerson and one of us commenting that certain works looked good just because we were starved for negative space. And then there are the lovingly detailed hooters that are bigger than their owner's head... but I digress.