onyxhawke

It is your last chance to vote in the P&E polls.
Dave Freer & Eric Flint are ahead in the Best SF/F Novel and Dave is currently near the top of the best Author ranks. Go vote!

In the other categories, friends of mine that I'm told were nominated included Sarah Hoyt, James Enge (for a short), Toni Weiskopf, Eric Flint,  and a few others who's names escape my feeble mind.


And I got my Arisia schedule:

272

Making Tropes Interesting

Paul Revere B

Literature

Sat 5:00 PM

Duration: 01:00

4

Bioethics in Theory and Practice

BU Suite (Regency Club)

Science

Sun 1:00 PM

Duration: 01:00

506

Grok, Hobbit!

Paul Revere A

Literature

Mon 12:00 PM

Duration: 01:00

The rest of the time i'll probably wander through the dealers areas, the bar, the con suite, the bar, the green room, the bar, the lobby, the bar, the room parites, and i may remember to sleep...




P.S.
Reading a good submission by someone I'm not familiar with take waaaay more time than reading a published novel by someone I'm not familiar with.

I was talking to a writer friend tonight about him doing a new character. I asked him what he knew about his character? This ties in really well with some of the points that Laura Gilman, myself and others made at Arisia about building characters because the more you know about your characters, the better you can write them. I asked a the people in the audience who were curious to imagine their character standing in the corner. And then picture them: Are they standing on one foot, if so, which foot? Are they standing with their arms crossed? Leaning against a wall?
Here are some of the questions I asked my friend that are probably applicable to more than just the UF we were discussing:

so how did said character become a werewolf? (insert vampire, cavalryman, mage, space mercenary)
what's his favorite weapon?
Is he a loner or part of a pack?
Is he a loaner thats been forced into or out of a pack?
Where's he from?
Age?
What makes him laugh?
What does he regret?
What does he do on his day off?

Other questions that might be useful:
What do they do for work?
What if any faith do they have?
What's their family like?
What's their relationship with their family like?
What do they like most and or least about themselves?

While you may never put all of this information into the story, knowing that your main character is an avid hockey fan mean you know they're likely to get or make jokes about tripping over the blueline, or make a sports analogy to explain something instead of a political one or a car one.

I think i forgot to mention that i was going to Arisia in Boston (well technically Cambridge), this weekend. I'll be on panels Sunday, I may even be able to find the emails telling me which ones...

And the Slush has been slashed to no more than about three days work. I suspect at this point I won't reset the date for the Winter Workout until early February.

Anyone who wants to talk to be at Arisia, let me know ASAP, i already have my lunch Saturday taken, and a floating meeting with a good friend or two.The contact form on my website dumps to my Blackberry. The phone number is also my Blackberry, feel free to call.