Ad Astra: Day Three
Panels attended today:
*Bullying: The Next Generation, which I mostly went to for professional reasons. I got a few germs of ideas that might evolve into something with a little research (and diligence on my part, which is never a guarantee)
*a reading by Robert J. Sawyer from Red Planet Blues (he is an excellent reader and presenter, and I am making it a goal to purchase more of his books in the future as support if nothing else)(I have enjoyed the books of his that I've read, so it's not like that'll be a hardship)
* Jim Butcher! Who was not late! (He even poked a little fun at himself for that.) He spent the first part of the talk answering questions, and then the last part (even going over his allotted time) reading from the first book (The Aeronaut's Windlass) of his new series (The Cinder Spires). We were the first ones outside of his editors and reading group to hear it, which is cool. Steampunk. We heard the prologue and the first chapter. There is, apparently, a talking cat in there somewhere, though we didn't get to hear from him. ;) (For interest's sake, rejected titles for Storm Front included Abra Cadaver and... oh, I forget the other one, some kind of pun ending in 'magic'; he wanted to call Death Masks, Holy Sheet but wasn't allowed; and Blood Rites was originally titled Family Secrets but his editor said it was "too Nora Roberts".) He's a great presenter, lots of humour, but man does he read fast! It took several seconds for my brain to catch up to what he was reading when he first started.
*Save the Cat! (Writing has Rules), which is a book about "rules" for writing (ie certain things that happen and in which order).
I am the proud new owner of an apple pi zip-up hoodie.
After, we stopped at an Indigo so vicki_james98 could pick up a book from Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld series (which, btw, has been picked up as a TV series airing this fall; show title is 'Bitten'), and who should be in the store signing books but Kelley Armstrong? Which is just awesome timing. (She'd been at the con; I got her autograph on my programme yesterday and she was the moderator of the Save the Cat! panel). So vicki_james98 got her book signed. A neat cap to the weekend of fannish fun.
And then we got to have our traditional end-of-con dinner at Swiss Chalet. I didn't think we would because I'm on a tighter schedule than usual, but the final panel we were interested in ended at 3 so we had plenty of time.
And so I'm currently on the train, sitting next to a woman who has fallen asleep and is snoring, and I'm going to try to do some writing before my laptop battery dies (the outlet is on the wall next to the sleeping woman and I've got the aisle seat, so). The goal is mostly to stay awake so that I don't miss my stop (although, come to think of it, that might be the last stop for this train anyway so I'm sure they'd kick me off).
*Bullying: The Next Generation, which I mostly went to for professional reasons. I got a few germs of ideas that might evolve into something with a little research (and diligence on my part, which is never a guarantee)
*a reading by Robert J. Sawyer from Red Planet Blues (he is an excellent reader and presenter, and I am making it a goal to purchase more of his books in the future as support if nothing else)(I have enjoyed the books of his that I've read, so it's not like that'll be a hardship)
* Jim Butcher! Who was not late! (He even poked a little fun at himself for that.) He spent the first part of the talk answering questions, and then the last part (even going over his allotted time) reading from the first book (The Aeronaut's Windlass) of his new series (The Cinder Spires). We were the first ones outside of his editors and reading group to hear it, which is cool. Steampunk. We heard the prologue and the first chapter. There is, apparently, a talking cat in there somewhere, though we didn't get to hear from him. ;) (For interest's sake, rejected titles for Storm Front included Abra Cadaver and... oh, I forget the other one, some kind of pun ending in 'magic'; he wanted to call Death Masks, Holy Sheet but wasn't allowed; and Blood Rites was originally titled Family Secrets but his editor said it was "too Nora Roberts".) He's a great presenter, lots of humour, but man does he read fast! It took several seconds for my brain to catch up to what he was reading when he first started.
*Save the Cat! (Writing has Rules), which is a book about "rules" for writing (ie certain things that happen and in which order).
I am the proud new owner of an apple pi zip-up hoodie.
After, we stopped at an Indigo so vicki_james98 could pick up a book from Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld series (which, btw, has been picked up as a TV series airing this fall; show title is 'Bitten'), and who should be in the store signing books but Kelley Armstrong? Which is just awesome timing. (She'd been at the con; I got her autograph on my programme yesterday and she was the moderator of the Save the Cat! panel). So vicki_james98 got her book signed. A neat cap to the weekend of fannish fun.
And then we got to have our traditional end-of-con dinner at Swiss Chalet. I didn't think we would because I'm on a tighter schedule than usual, but the final panel we were interested in ended at 3 so we had plenty of time.
And so I'm currently on the train, sitting next to a woman who has fallen asleep and is snoring, and I'm going to try to do some writing before my laptop battery dies (the outlet is on the wall next to the sleeping woman and I've got the aisle seat, so). The goal is mostly to stay awake so that I don't miss my stop (although, come to think of it, that might be the last stop for this train anyway so I'm sure they'd kick me off).