Life, the Universe, and Everything
This was the 29th year for Life, the Universe, and Everything (LTU&E), the science fiction and fantasy symposium held at Brigham Young University. I've been to most of them in the past 24 years or so. Up until now they were always held in the student center, where food was easily accessible, but parking was difficult. This year, they moved to the BYU conference center and starting charging for memberships for those who weren't students. (Yes, I know they charged for memberships Way Back When, but it's been a long time).
Since I have been going to LTU&E for so many years, and I've often been on panels, I've found I don't go to many panels anymore--I just hang out with friends. I could probably be on most of the writing panels, so unless there's a panelist I'd really like to hear, I don't go because it's just same-old same-old.
I did attend one amazing panel, however. Because a friend was on the science fiction and fantasy poetry panel, and because my daughter writes a lot of poetry, I went to that panel. Since I don't think of myself as a poet, I've never gone to a SF/F poetry panel before. This one was incredibly eye-opening and useful. It helps that one of the panelists was Dr. Michael Collings, who taught at Pepperdine University for over 30 years in the English department and has published many volumes of poetry, some of it SF and F.
I write long. I'm a novelist at heart. Writing very short stories is hard for me--most of my "short" stories are over 9,000 words long, which is a very difficult length to sell nowadays. So a piece of advice from this panel--that one learn to write poetry and then apply what once has learned to writing prose--really struck home. Poetry, of necessity, distills emotion and setting down to a small, crystal-clear form. If I can learn to do that, perhaps I can learn to distill my stories down to the telling details, the important bits, and say what I'm trying to say in fewer words.
So. After this panel I pretty much promised my daughter I'd do National Poetry Writing Month with her in April, and we bought Dr. Collings's book on writing poetry (as he says--it's a lot cheaper than taking his class at Pepperdine!). I've already started a few poems, but I'm having a hard time with it. I think I'm trying too hard for perfection. I think I need to just go with the flow, write down whatever, and worry about fixing it later, like I do with my prose.
I only attended two other panels--both because friends were on them. One was on the state of editing, and confirmed (to me, anyway) what I've thought for a long time. Very little money is being spent to copy edit manuscripts anymore. It's rather obvious to anyone as anal retentive as I am when incorrect grammar and usage, as well as numerous typos, are found in books published today. Most editors are overworked and underpaid, and publishing houses keep firing them when they need to save a bit of money. Some slush editors work entirely gratis (especially for smaller magazines/publishers). Oy.
The other was a "show-and-tell" on a graphic novel series that a friend writes copy for. I've never had the slightest interest in writing scripts, either screenplays or for graphic novels, but this was fascinating. It's an entirely different way of thinking.
The "old" LTU&E, held in BYU's student center, had plenty of places people could sit and talk or (like we've done the past few years) appropriate a table, fill it with laptops, and hang out for hours. They forgot to give us anything of the sort in the conference center. When we tried to bring chairs into the halls so we could sit and chat, the staff kept kicking us out and moving the chairs back against the wall because it was a "fire hazard" to block the (very wide) hall. So where do we go? It was raining outside, and about 35 degrees. Not a good place to hang out. On the first day, we suggested to some of the LTU&E concom that one of the many rooms in the center be set aside for people to be able to sit and chat. By the third day, they had one! We immediately appropriated a table near an outlet, covered a table with munchies and laptops, and were happy for the rest of the con.
Concom provided a room for filking, and asked UFO to run filking there. Paiyatamu and I were there, ready to filk. They hadn't scheduled us for Thursday evening, but the room was free, so we just went in and took over. The truly awesome thing about the room in the conference center was that it had a built-in projector. I plugged my laptop in, we pulled the screen down in front of the whiteboard, and voila! We could project lyrics.
I got to hear some of Paiyatamu's new filks (he just wrote 100 in 100 days). We started choosing songs by choosing a letter, then I'd open the file for that letter, we'd go down titles until one sounded interesting, then we'd see if we knew it to sing it. Since our lyrics project has started burgeoning, I no longer know all the songs in the lyrics file! Highlights were my eldest daughter singing "Zombies On Your Lawn" in Japanese (from memory) and "The Hero of Canton" for a Firefly fan. The uncool thing was, they kicked us out of the building at about 9:30. What filk ends at 9:30? Especially when it only began at about 7:00 p.m.
Then next day, Friday, concom moved the 6:00 and 7:00 panels out of the filking room so we could start early. (Filking was scheduled in the program book at 8 p.m.) Good thing, too, because this time the conference center staff closed us down BEFORE 9:00 p.m. Hello? What con closes down before 9 p.m.? This one, apparently. "We only scheduled staff to be here until 9 p.m. We thought everything would be over." (Sorta quote from conf. center staff person.) I think we need better communication between concom and conference center if they use this venue again. We (the filkers) were told earlier by concom that the building closed at 11:00 p.m. (it says so on the doors). So the Friday night filking kinda fizzled. Sigh. It didn't help that I was utterly brain dead, and didn't bring any of our CDs to sell. What wasn't I thinking?
Saturday after everything basically closed down at 7:00 p.m., we went over to a suite some friends of ours had rented and chattered until about 11:30, then went back to my dad's house (he lives in Orem and we crashed there for the symposium rather than driving back to SLC every night). The "after con" was almost more fun than the con itself! Good company, great munchies.
So, we'll see if LTU&E survives the change of venue and charging non-students to attend. The charge didn't seem to keep too many people away--most of the people I saw as I sat in the hall and people watched seemed to be older than college age. Most of the panels were packed--at least the ones with the main guests. Apparently a lot of LDS writers (not necessarily science fiction and fantasy--romance seemed to be the biggie) have discovered this is a good writing conference. Perhaps that will save LTU&E.
Since I have been going to LTU&E for so many years, and I've often been on panels, I've found I don't go to many panels anymore--I just hang out with friends. I could probably be on most of the writing panels, so unless there's a panelist I'd really like to hear, I don't go because it's just same-old same-old.
I did attend one amazing panel, however. Because a friend was on the science fiction and fantasy poetry panel, and because my daughter writes a lot of poetry, I went to that panel. Since I don't think of myself as a poet, I've never gone to a SF/F poetry panel before. This one was incredibly eye-opening and useful. It helps that one of the panelists was Dr. Michael Collings, who taught at Pepperdine University for over 30 years in the English department and has published many volumes of poetry, some of it SF and F.
I write long. I'm a novelist at heart. Writing very short stories is hard for me--most of my "short" stories are over 9,000 words long, which is a very difficult length to sell nowadays. So a piece of advice from this panel--that one learn to write poetry and then apply what once has learned to writing prose--really struck home. Poetry, of necessity, distills emotion and setting down to a small, crystal-clear form. If I can learn to do that, perhaps I can learn to distill my stories down to the telling details, the important bits, and say what I'm trying to say in fewer words.
So. After this panel I pretty much promised my daughter I'd do National Poetry Writing Month with her in April, and we bought Dr. Collings's book on writing poetry (as he says--it's a lot cheaper than taking his class at Pepperdine!). I've already started a few poems, but I'm having a hard time with it. I think I'm trying too hard for perfection. I think I need to just go with the flow, write down whatever, and worry about fixing it later, like I do with my prose.
I only attended two other panels--both because friends were on them. One was on the state of editing, and confirmed (to me, anyway) what I've thought for a long time. Very little money is being spent to copy edit manuscripts anymore. It's rather obvious to anyone as anal retentive as I am when incorrect grammar and usage, as well as numerous typos, are found in books published today. Most editors are overworked and underpaid, and publishing houses keep firing them when they need to save a bit of money. Some slush editors work entirely gratis (especially for smaller magazines/publishers). Oy.
The other was a "show-and-tell" on a graphic novel series that a friend writes copy for. I've never had the slightest interest in writing scripts, either screenplays or for graphic novels, but this was fascinating. It's an entirely different way of thinking.
The "old" LTU&E, held in BYU's student center, had plenty of places people could sit and talk or (like we've done the past few years) appropriate a table, fill it with laptops, and hang out for hours. They forgot to give us anything of the sort in the conference center. When we tried to bring chairs into the halls so we could sit and chat, the staff kept kicking us out and moving the chairs back against the wall because it was a "fire hazard" to block the (very wide) hall. So where do we go? It was raining outside, and about 35 degrees. Not a good place to hang out. On the first day, we suggested to some of the LTU&E concom that one of the many rooms in the center be set aside for people to be able to sit and chat. By the third day, they had one! We immediately appropriated a table near an outlet, covered a table with munchies and laptops, and were happy for the rest of the con.
Concom provided a room for filking, and asked UFO to run filking there. Paiyatamu and I were there, ready to filk. They hadn't scheduled us for Thursday evening, but the room was free, so we just went in and took over. The truly awesome thing about the room in the conference center was that it had a built-in projector. I plugged my laptop in, we pulled the screen down in front of the whiteboard, and voila! We could project lyrics.
I got to hear some of Paiyatamu's new filks (he just wrote 100 in 100 days). We started choosing songs by choosing a letter, then I'd open the file for that letter, we'd go down titles until one sounded interesting, then we'd see if we knew it to sing it. Since our lyrics project has started burgeoning, I no longer know all the songs in the lyrics file! Highlights were my eldest daughter singing "Zombies On Your Lawn" in Japanese (from memory) and "The Hero of Canton" for a Firefly fan. The uncool thing was, they kicked us out of the building at about 9:30. What filk ends at 9:30? Especially when it only began at about 7:00 p.m.
Then next day, Friday, concom moved the 6:00 and 7:00 panels out of the filking room so we could start early. (Filking was scheduled in the program book at 8 p.m.) Good thing, too, because this time the conference center staff closed us down BEFORE 9:00 p.m. Hello? What con closes down before 9 p.m.? This one, apparently. "We only scheduled staff to be here until 9 p.m. We thought everything would be over." (Sorta quote from conf. center staff person.) I think we need better communication between concom and conference center if they use this venue again. We (the filkers) were told earlier by concom that the building closed at 11:00 p.m. (it says so on the doors). So the Friday night filking kinda fizzled. Sigh. It didn't help that I was utterly brain dead, and didn't bring any of our CDs to sell. What wasn't I thinking?
Saturday after everything basically closed down at 7:00 p.m., we went over to a suite some friends of ours had rented and chattered until about 11:30, then went back to my dad's house (he lives in Orem and we crashed there for the symposium rather than driving back to SLC every night). The "after con" was almost more fun than the con itself! Good company, great munchies.
So, we'll see if LTU&E survives the change of venue and charging non-students to attend. The charge didn't seem to keep too many people away--most of the people I saw as I sat in the hall and people watched seemed to be older than college age. Most of the panels were packed--at least the ones with the main guests. Apparently a lot of LDS writers (not necessarily science fiction and fantasy--romance seemed to be the biggie) have discovered this is a good writing conference. Perhaps that will save LTU&E.