ConDFW
I'm currently sitting in a very fine hotel in mid-Dallas, waiting impatiently for the sun to come up in case I might get to see some rain.
My train has been delayed (bad weather up in Illinois?) so I have a couple extra hours to kill. Will use that for some reading and maybe writing, but first a con report.
I've sat here for some time contemplating this. I know that superlatives make a boring report, so let me say at the outset that I had a terrific time. The Texas fannish community really knows how to put on a con, and how to treat people well.
Next year's guests will be John Scalzi and Seanan Macguire; when their names were announced, the audience of course fizzed with excitement. Whereas Rachel and I were kind of default guests--their invited guests had not been able to come, so we were invited fairly late in the game. I've been a default GOH twice before, once here some years ago, and once for a Mythcon, when they had not one but a couple of GOHs have to back out for various reasons. At these pretty much no one had read anything of mine, and were pretty indifferent to my presence. So I regarded myself as a regular con goer, except that my way was paid. (And at Mythcon gave a talk.)
So my baseline has been a friendly indifference with a side order of "Who are you again?" This weekend I was surprised and delighted to discover some people who had read and liked my books. It was interesting to me how different people responded strongly to specific things but not others: one woman likes Exordium most of all, and hastily added that she liked the Inda books, too. Someone else made it kind of clear that she did not care at all for Exo, or the adult fantasy, but wanted more of the stuff for little kids. Another person liked the Dobrenica series, but seemed to be indifferent to other world stories.There were several who thought I'd only written Crown Duel had brought tattered, much-read copies to sign.
Interactions with fellow writers are always interesting, and I bought a bunch of books by people I either hadn't heard of before or who I hadn't tried.
I think the best part of the con for me was talking to writers at various levels along the path, and sharing experience. This was not about my stories, but about discoveries, sometimes self-discoveries, as a writer, and how to self-edit, how to handle critique, pitfalls of self-publishing (and here Rachel had excellent advice--she's a far savvier marketer than I am and has been doing really well with her Werewolf Marines; of course it helps that she's a really good writer).
This is where all the stupid mistakes I've made can be shared so that others won't make them, and all that I have painfully and slowly learned as a visual writer (and am still learning) can be articulated to speed someone along the path. Win/win feels good. There's a two page workshop that I do that is always a hit; it was here, too. I run it as a medium, not an authority--everyone participates but with their eyes shut except for the author of the piece (no names given) which gives them a chance to separate self from text while seeing others respond to text.
Anyway, it was a wonderful weekend, and so back to work!
My train has been delayed (bad weather up in Illinois?) so I have a couple extra hours to kill. Will use that for some reading and maybe writing, but first a con report.
I've sat here for some time contemplating this. I know that superlatives make a boring report, so let me say at the outset that I had a terrific time. The Texas fannish community really knows how to put on a con, and how to treat people well.
Next year's guests will be John Scalzi and Seanan Macguire; when their names were announced, the audience of course fizzed with excitement. Whereas Rachel and I were kind of default guests--their invited guests had not been able to come, so we were invited fairly late in the game. I've been a default GOH twice before, once here some years ago, and once for a Mythcon, when they had not one but a couple of GOHs have to back out for various reasons. At these pretty much no one had read anything of mine, and were pretty indifferent to my presence. So I regarded myself as a regular con goer, except that my way was paid. (And at Mythcon gave a talk.)
So my baseline has been a friendly indifference with a side order of "Who are you again?" This weekend I was surprised and delighted to discover some people who had read and liked my books. It was interesting to me how different people responded strongly to specific things but not others: one woman likes Exordium most of all, and hastily added that she liked the Inda books, too. Someone else made it kind of clear that she did not care at all for Exo, or the adult fantasy, but wanted more of the stuff for little kids. Another person liked the Dobrenica series, but seemed to be indifferent to other world stories.There were several who thought I'd only written Crown Duel had brought tattered, much-read copies to sign.
Interactions with fellow writers are always interesting, and I bought a bunch of books by people I either hadn't heard of before or who I hadn't tried.
I think the best part of the con for me was talking to writers at various levels along the path, and sharing experience. This was not about my stories, but about discoveries, sometimes self-discoveries, as a writer, and how to self-edit, how to handle critique, pitfalls of self-publishing (and here Rachel had excellent advice--she's a far savvier marketer than I am and has been doing really well with her Werewolf Marines; of course it helps that she's a really good writer).
This is where all the stupid mistakes I've made can be shared so that others won't make them, and all that I have painfully and slowly learned as a visual writer (and am still learning) can be articulated to speed someone along the path. Win/win feels good. There's a two page workshop that I do that is always a hit; it was here, too. I run it as a medium, not an authority--everyone participates but with their eyes shut except for the author of the piece (no names given) which gives them a chance to separate self from text while seeing others respond to text.
Anyway, it was a wonderful weekend, and so back to work!