New York Comic Con Thursday, October 17, 2024
Thursday, October 17, 2024
Slow start to this day but luckily the panel I wanted to see was at the end of the day. There was traffic, and I had to return a library book and then go to the bank. So I got to the Javits around 11:30.
First I went to the Del Rey/Penguin booth to see if they had any copies left of Star Wars: The Mask of Fear by Alexander Freed. You had to say the "secret" phrase, "Mon Mothma requests your aid." They were out of copies and I eventually got one on Saturday.
From the Penquin booth I took the Oracle quiz and was placed in A Court of Wits. The ARC I got was Homegrown Magic by Jamie Pacton and Rebecca Podos. I already know I am not going to be finishing it. I tried reading some when waiting on a queue and there's a character with they/them pronouns. That disrupts my reading flow and it hurts my brain.
I went over to check out Simon & Schuster. They were having a ticketed giveaway. The way the woman explained the book it sounded interesting so I got The West Wind by Alexandria Warwick. I didn't realize (and the woman didn't mention) this was Book Two of The Four Winds, but it looks like each can be read as standalone story.
After roaming much of the floor I took a break to each my lunch and to look up Penguin's ticketed signings. I'm much better at saying no to all the books. I used to pick up as many free books as I could. Now I look up the plot before I decided if it's worth waiting on line for, lugging the weight, and shelving on the TBR indefinitely. So I checked off the ones I wanted and crossed out the uninteresting ones.
I lined up for the panel early and got a decent seat, but not one where I could take a video. My arms would have gotten tired and I would have blocked everyone's view behind me. So I recorded the panel as a voice memo and edited it with some photos I took.
Audible Presents: The Sounds of Storytelling! How Science Fiction and Fantasy’s Greatest Writers and Narrators Take Listeners on the Ride of Their Lives
Thu, Oct 17, 2024 • 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Location: Room 409
It looks good on the page, but how does it SOUND? Join some of the world’s best science fiction and fantasy authors and performers as they shed light on the unique and creative ways that words come alive.
Guests: Dennis E. Taylor, Emily Andras, John Scalzi, Mary Robinette Kowal, R.A. Salvatore, Ray Porter.
This was a really fun panel. It was filled with great conversations, good insight, advice, and lots of laughs.
When speaking about what to consider when writing for audio and how that differs from writing for the page, John Scalzi said that writing he said or she said at the end of every sentence of dialogue is fine when you're reading it because your brain will automatically skip over it. But with audiobooks the narrators are required to say every single word. Now he's more conscious of not overusing he said or she said.
Mary Robinette said she thinks about homophones because when narrating somebody else's book she had to say, "she ran from the police into the copse." (A small group of trees, not cops.)
R.A. Salvatore made a funny joke that when he started writing, audiobooks were fighting between 8 Track and cassette tapes. And because so much of his work predated Audible and he had fans that were used to the way he wrote, he didn't really change the way he wrote to fit audio.
Salvatore also tells a funny story 20 minutes in about how he found out his books were on Audible with a star studded cast (Ice T, Weird Al, Felicia Day..) and how he was on Ice T's podcast. Ice T asked can anyone pronounce these names, and Salvatore answered, "Of course not."
Emily Andras talked about adapting Wynonna Earp from screen to audio drama. They kept the same cast and they were in the same room when recording. So they were performing it like a play and that was very exciting for her to watch. She was gushing.
What I thought was a really great question was when the panelists were asked (about 32 minutes in) what is one failure that stuck with them that the audience can learn from.
John Scalzi said in 2020 he was trying to write a political thriller set in space. Now everyone remembers what 2020 was like, so it was the wrong year to write that book. He wrote 60,000 words (which was really the first 10,000 words 6 times) when had to admit defeat. It just wasn't working. His editor understood and said this happens sometimes.
Immediately after he came up with Preservation Society and wrote it in 6 weeks.
The moral of the story is that sometimes you have to give up and cut your losses. Stop making yourself and those around you miserable.
Mary Robinette had a friend give her a hard talk that she was not the right author for a particular story set in 1907. (The audio got too low here so I couldn't hear, or remember, the plot.) Then she too wrote a replacement book, Calculating Stars.
R.A. Salvatore mentioned that he had to kill a Wookiee. (For the non-Star Wars die hard fans he's talking about Chewbacca in Vector Prime. He mentioned he loved to read fantasy books but back in the day there were very few. So when he ran out of books to read he wrote his own. He'd put on Feleetwood Mac's Tusk (great album) and write in a spiral notebook. Friends encouraged him to get it published because they thought it was great. Then he spoke about the worst rejection letters he got. One didn't even call him by the correct name. Even though he was mad at first he was also determined to prove them wrong. But also he had to admit that those editors were right about that version of that book. It was good to his friends but friend are different from editors.
Emily Andras writes for television where there's a lot of failure. She pitched 8 TV shows this year that did not get picked up. You can fall in love with what you're doing but can't commit until you're sure. And Wynonna Earp has had many comebacks. The lead got pregnant, then the studio went bankrupt, then there was Covid, and then there was a movie, and then Audible.
As a sci-fi writer Dennis E. Taylor felt he dodged a bullet when he got a proposal to do a background story for a video game. They couldn't come to an agreement.
Ray Porter said you'll be told no a lot. As an actor someone has to let you act. You're going to get there but not by the way you think.
The Q&A was funny. At 52 minutes a woman asked about made up sci-fi words and how to pronounce them. R.A. Salvatore put in the word "covfefe" in the Dark Elf books and didn't think anyone would notice. But he got hate mail for it. Honestly, some people are crazy. Hate mail, really?
John Scalzi was funny when he talked about how he can tell who listened to the audiobook and who read his book based how they pronounce the gender neutral name for Emperor. It's either Emperox (say the x at the end) or it sounds more French-like.
Lastly, the best advice was about when to get excited when your favorite book will come to TV or the movies. John Scalzi said the time to get excited about it is the moment you're about to see it on screen. Even when it's done and in the can, it can be taken away from you.
But the money he got from the options for The Old Man's War sent his daughter to college.
I know I detailed many of the highlights but I really recommend listing to the whole panel. Thanks and enjoy!
Slow start to this day but luckily the panel I wanted to see was at the end of the day. There was traffic, and I had to return a library book and then go to the bank. So I got to the Javits around 11:30.
First I went to the Del Rey/Penguin booth to see if they had any copies left of Star Wars: The Mask of Fear by Alexander Freed. You had to say the "secret" phrase, "Mon Mothma requests your aid." They were out of copies and I eventually got one on Saturday.
From the Penquin booth I took the Oracle quiz and was placed in A Court of Wits. The ARC I got was Homegrown Magic by Jamie Pacton and Rebecca Podos. I already know I am not going to be finishing it. I tried reading some when waiting on a queue and there's a character with they/them pronouns. That disrupts my reading flow and it hurts my brain.
I went over to check out Simon & Schuster. They were having a ticketed giveaway. The way the woman explained the book it sounded interesting so I got The West Wind by Alexandria Warwick. I didn't realize (and the woman didn't mention) this was Book Two of The Four Winds, but it looks like each can be read as standalone story.
After roaming much of the floor I took a break to each my lunch and to look up Penguin's ticketed signings. I'm much better at saying no to all the books. I used to pick up as many free books as I could. Now I look up the plot before I decided if it's worth waiting on line for, lugging the weight, and shelving on the TBR indefinitely. So I checked off the ones I wanted and crossed out the uninteresting ones.
I lined up for the panel early and got a decent seat, but not one where I could take a video. My arms would have gotten tired and I would have blocked everyone's view behind me. So I recorded the panel as a voice memo and edited it with some photos I took.
Audible Presents: The Sounds of Storytelling! How Science Fiction and Fantasy’s Greatest Writers and Narrators Take Listeners on the Ride of Their Lives
Thu, Oct 17, 2024 • 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Location: Room 409
It looks good on the page, but how does it SOUND? Join some of the world’s best science fiction and fantasy authors and performers as they shed light on the unique and creative ways that words come alive.
Guests: Dennis E. Taylor, Emily Andras, John Scalzi, Mary Robinette Kowal, R.A. Salvatore, Ray Porter.
This was a really fun panel. It was filled with great conversations, good insight, advice, and lots of laughs.
Click to viewWhen speaking about what to consider when writing for audio and how that differs from writing for the page, John Scalzi said that writing he said or she said at the end of every sentence of dialogue is fine when you're reading it because your brain will automatically skip over it. But with audiobooks the narrators are required to say every single word. Now he's more conscious of not overusing he said or she said.
Mary Robinette said she thinks about homophones because when narrating somebody else's book she had to say, "she ran from the police into the copse." (A small group of trees, not cops.)
R.A. Salvatore made a funny joke that when he started writing, audiobooks were fighting between 8 Track and cassette tapes. And because so much of his work predated Audible and he had fans that were used to the way he wrote, he didn't really change the way he wrote to fit audio.
Salvatore also tells a funny story 20 minutes in about how he found out his books were on Audible with a star studded cast (Ice T, Weird Al, Felicia Day..) and how he was on Ice T's podcast. Ice T asked can anyone pronounce these names, and Salvatore answered, "Of course not."
Emily Andras talked about adapting Wynonna Earp from screen to audio drama. They kept the same cast and they were in the same room when recording. So they were performing it like a play and that was very exciting for her to watch. She was gushing.
What I thought was a really great question was when the panelists were asked (about 32 minutes in) what is one failure that stuck with them that the audience can learn from.
John Scalzi said in 2020 he was trying to write a political thriller set in space. Now everyone remembers what 2020 was like, so it was the wrong year to write that book. He wrote 60,000 words (which was really the first 10,000 words 6 times) when had to admit defeat. It just wasn't working. His editor understood and said this happens sometimes.
Immediately after he came up with Preservation Society and wrote it in 6 weeks.
The moral of the story is that sometimes you have to give up and cut your losses. Stop making yourself and those around you miserable.
Mary Robinette had a friend give her a hard talk that she was not the right author for a particular story set in 1907. (The audio got too low here so I couldn't hear, or remember, the plot.) Then she too wrote a replacement book, Calculating Stars.
R.A. Salvatore mentioned that he had to kill a Wookiee. (For the non-Star Wars die hard fans he's talking about Chewbacca in Vector Prime. He mentioned he loved to read fantasy books but back in the day there were very few. So when he ran out of books to read he wrote his own. He'd put on Feleetwood Mac's Tusk (great album) and write in a spiral notebook. Friends encouraged him to get it published because they thought it was great. Then he spoke about the worst rejection letters he got. One didn't even call him by the correct name. Even though he was mad at first he was also determined to prove them wrong. But also he had to admit that those editors were right about that version of that book. It was good to his friends but friend are different from editors.
Emily Andras writes for television where there's a lot of failure. She pitched 8 TV shows this year that did not get picked up. You can fall in love with what you're doing but can't commit until you're sure. And Wynonna Earp has had many comebacks. The lead got pregnant, then the studio went bankrupt, then there was Covid, and then there was a movie, and then Audible.
As a sci-fi writer Dennis E. Taylor felt he dodged a bullet when he got a proposal to do a background story for a video game. They couldn't come to an agreement.
Ray Porter said you'll be told no a lot. As an actor someone has to let you act. You're going to get there but not by the way you think.
The Q&A was funny. At 52 minutes a woman asked about made up sci-fi words and how to pronounce them. R.A. Salvatore put in the word "covfefe" in the Dark Elf books and didn't think anyone would notice. But he got hate mail for it. Honestly, some people are crazy. Hate mail, really?
John Scalzi was funny when he talked about how he can tell who listened to the audiobook and who read his book based how they pronounce the gender neutral name for Emperor. It's either Emperox (say the x at the end) or it sounds more French-like.
Lastly, the best advice was about when to get excited when your favorite book will come to TV or the movies. John Scalzi said the time to get excited about it is the moment you're about to see it on screen. Even when it's done and in the can, it can be taken away from you.
But the money he got from the options for The Old Man's War sent his daughter to college.
I know I detailed many of the highlights but I really recommend listing to the whole panel. Thanks and enjoy!