onyxhawke: (Braaaaaains)
( Jan. 18th, 2009 02:04 pm)
Well, it's snowing outside, but the con is still in full swing. My two panels were well attended. The first one was with the fabulous Sara A. Harvey, Keith R. A. DeCandido, James D. Macdonald, and Inanna Arthen. Where we covered bad contracts, the unfortunate experiences of Sara and Inanna, James's work with Writers Beware and some of the practices Keith obsereved at a former employer. While the range of things that can go wrong with a contract, or the relationship with an agent, or publisher is a seriuos topic, this was a fun panel. I haven't had as much fun, complete with laughs, swearing, anecdotes and one upsmanship.

Next panel was on bio ethics. This panel had people with varied backgrounds and when it got rolling we discussed a variety of topics from autonomy to informed consent, all of which feed into the ethics equation. Thomas Easton (m), Bonnie Barlow Turner, Amy Chused, Richard Stallman, myself and one other person who's name was not on the schedule were delighted to have a full audience.


I'm off to see if i can swing lunch or at least a drink with one of my clients.

Cheers,

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
 
308 Mirror Neurons, Empathy, and "Theory of Mind" Paul Revere A Science   Sat 8:00 PM Duration: 01:00
635 Bad Contracts and Publishing Scams Room 201 Literature   Sun 12:00 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.

onyxhawke: (Default)
( Dec. 3rd, 2008 02:54 am)
I now have my hotel rooms booked for Arisia and Lunacon. Y'all recall that Lunacon will have the redoubtable Dave Freer in town for his first appearance in the U.S. in almost five years? And that James Enge will be in the building to tantilize you with the book y'all have just preordered having seen the cover.
onyxhawke: (Default)
( Feb. 11th, 2008 09:50 pm)
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.
onyxhawke: (Default)
( Jan. 21st, 2008 10:52 am)
Holy Hell. Someone explain to me how i fell asleep around four and woke up at quarter past seven and can manage to type in that nearly competent way i generally manage. Please, really. I'm not a morning person, i don't play one on tv and i didn't even have more than a cup of coffee yesterday?
Now onto near relevance:
I've become convinced that Fen are not made for four day cons. By midday yesterday everyone (over 18) was dragging. Even some of the twelve to eighteen crowd were moving at less than full speed. The only party i know of was a semi quiet affair where there were a few people from Pi-Con, a guy from some con in the mid Atlantic traded bad jokes and con creep stories.

I ran into the moderator of my Appeal of Evil panel and she, I, the fabulous Sara Harvey and about half a dozen others were seen talking for about an hour outside the con suite from two thirty to three thirty while Sara and i ostensibly looked for Michael Whitehouse. Tim Lieder and I managed to talk several times, and I nearly had a conversation with Jeff Mach as he was wandering about around two O'clock.

Overall its been a fun con, but I'm way to tired for anything erudite...
onyxhawke: (Default)
( Jan. 17th, 2008 10:13 pm)
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.
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