Friday, September 3, 2010

Dragon*Con: Post One

Thursday A.C. Crispin's Basic Writing Workshop, bright and early. Lots of good information, starting from the basics (just like it says on the tin). Characterization. Plot. Show-don't-tell. Story Logic. Setting and description. Point of view. Lots of handouts, lots to share with my writers group in Hoover. Bunch of websites to check out, such as the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL), Caveat Scriptor, and (of course) Absolute Write. Looking forward to tomorrow. Strangely compelled to write in sentence fragments.

Then, got in line to get my badge. Let me just say, for the official record, "Oh my fucking God!" Four and a half hours in line. Four and a half hours. First, I had to completely circumnavigate the Sheraton, winding through part of the parking deck along the way. Once I got inside the hotel, they sent us to a ballroom where we had to navigate the endless rope-maze from hell. Once we got to the front, they broke us up into lines alphabetically by our last name. What never occurred to anyone organizing the check-in process was that names are not evenly distributed in the alphabet. Apparently, the biggest cluster is L-O, so while the H-K's and the T-Z's were zipping through, anyone with a name of French, Scottish, or Irish descent was stuck in eternal purgatory. For four and a half hours.

Gasp. Pant. Wheeze.

Cold pizza for dinner. Then to bed. (Or foldaway cot, as the case may be.)

Friday Writing workshop part II. A word on copyright. Writing alien aliens. The importance of research. Marketing & Networking.

Special guest Nebula Award Winner and former Writing Workshop student Eugie Foster dropped in to talk about marketing short fiction. She's sold about 100BZillion stories of her own in the last few years, including "Sinner, Baker, Fablist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast." Her new story collection is Returning My Sister's Face.

Then, ran over to the Exhibitors Hall to find the Kerlak booth and met the awesome Kimberly Richardson and Allan Gilbreath. Pictures will follow in a later post.

Chillin' for a while, then off to the Mystery Science Theater 3000 reunion / Cinematic Titanic show.

To be or not to be continued...

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