Here is how you know it was a long motherfucking day: I am drinking an alcohol at the moment, which is a thing that I do not do. Or, at least, I have an alcoholic beverage eight inches off from my elbow on the table next to me on the couch. I have tasted it once and it is terrible and I am probably not going to come close to finishing it but it’s the thought that counts. Or something.
Anyway, I finally got that second panel from ConGlomeration, on writing compelling characters, uploaded to Patreon. So if you’re interested in that sort of thing you should head over there and listen to it. I am, right now, three Patrons short of twenty, and nine dollars a month short of $50, so if anybody wants to help me get to cool round numbers, that would be super awesome. There’s a bunch of other stuff over there too, including a whole new book you’ve never read at the $2 a month tier or higher!
So it occurred to me that I never really talked about ConGlomeration. Cool thing, first: I am right now listening to an MP3 of my first panel, which was on writing dialogue. I have recordings of two of the four panels, both of which will be posted to Patreon as soon as I have listened to them and made sure everything sounds good and that I’ve edited out the one place where I randomly blurted out what school I work at to someone. There aren’t a huge number of people in the crowd, but it’s still a fun talk.
Three of the four panels went really well; the fourth didn’t precisely go badly, but I quickly found myself not feeling like I belonged at the table. I really liked the people I was neighbors with in the vendor room. For the most part the folks who were there as con-goers were nice people. I sold … decently? I’ve had better shows, but I’ve had some that went way worse.
A couple of minor announcements: there will be second editions of both Skylights and The Sanctum of the Sphere coming, once I’ve sold out of my current physical stock of both of those books. Skylights is going to be slightly updated (no story changes) to eliminate references to the year it takes place in, and Sanctum is going to be released as a standalone single volume without The Benevolence Archives, Vol. 1 in it. I’m hoping this happens by the end of the year, but again, it’s depending on selling out or getting close to selling out the books I have which may take a while.
But, man, y’all … Kentucky.
I opted out of one of my panels because one of the people I was supposed to be sitting with is well-known in the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies movement. If you don’t know what that is, don’t look it up, just trust me that it was not a good idea for me to be on a stage with this guy.
(Man, I really talk too much on this first panel. Granted, there’s only two of us, but I didn’t realize I was talking as much as I do. Geez.)
Anyway. The thing about being in an area that is much much much more conservative than what you’re used to is the weird phenomenon where motherfuckers will say absolutely anything to you if you’re a white guy and assume you’re just going to agree with it. And … fuck, did I spend a lot of time not starting, or at least not continuing, shit with people. Like the guy who had three different wildly offensive Second Amendment/ MAGA/ anti-Obama shirts, one for each day of the show, and kept insisting on parking himself right in front of me at my panels. Or the three or four people who randomly brought up wanting to shoot people if they find themselves in certain neighborhoods. And … shit. It just got to be too fuckin’ much sometimes, y’know?
(Meanwhile, the other half of the crowd is the LGBTQIA+ hyper-liberal types who I’m much more comfortable and friendly with, and those folks were all cool.)
So, yeah. I was having fun, for the most part, interspersed with these occasional weird moments where I’m either just cringing or trying to keep myself from losing my shit at somebody. So … is that a decent show? Sure, why not, right?
Still haven’t seen Avengers: Endgame, as family medical drama continues. So I’m still spoiler-dodging and mostly avoiding the internet. I’m hoping to rectify the problem by this weekend. Just FYI.
Only one cosplay photo to share today, but it’s a doozy– I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Hagrid and this dude was born to cosplay him. If you look carefully you can see he’s got lifts attached to his shoes but even without them he was a mountain of a human being.
I wonder what it’s like, to be a cosplayer and to realize that you already basically look exactly like a certain character and are perfect to cosplay as that person.
At any rate: I am home, and only about half-dead, and in my recliner, and I wore earplugs for the entire drive home because the Goddamned crashwrap they put on my window was so unbearably loud. Insurance is covering the loss 100%; I have decided to pretend I just lost the sunglasses (which I rarely wore anyway) rather than trying to pursue whatever I might need to do to get some sort of reimbursement for them.
I have about fifteen blog posts percolating about in my brain right now; we’ll see how many of them get written over the next couple of days, or whether I wake up tomorrow with the vague feeling that at one point I had a bunch of blog ideas and now they’re all gone. I do intend to talk about the con in more detail; for now, the fun parts were fun, the not-fun parts were at least interesting, and I’m not sure yet whether I’ll return next year or not. But again: more later.
Again, not a ton of pictures today, but I suppose not-a-ton is better than the none I took yesterday, right?
(Note the complete lack of superheroes. There have barely been any! This has been a very different crowd than I’m used to seeing at these things; I’ll get more into that tomorrow, maybe.)
So, weird thing: for the first time at one of these, I have no cosplay pictures to post today. Attendance wasn’t stellar but the folks who were here were buying; my next sale will pay off my booth, moving me into the coveted Sorta Profit status, where I’ve made money if I ignore travel, food, lodging, and the fact that I had to pay to order the merchandise I’m selling. And the broken car window. It will take … a few more sales to get beyond that.
But for whatever reason there really weren’t a whole lot of cosplayers today, and the only one who really caught my attention didn’t get close enough to me for me to get a picture of him. The masquerade ball is tomorrow, and it’s after the dealer room closes, so if nothing else I’ll try to get some pictures there.
The two panels I did went very well, I thought, particularly since they were scheduled during the first two hours of the convention and I was expecting next to no attendance. I’m really looking forward to my two tomorrow.
But now I must be asleep so that I’m still alive for it.
I will be in Louisville next weekend at ConGlomeration, held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, also in Louisville. I have my usual table in Artist’s Alley– stand by for further information on that, as I don’t know exactly where I’ll be found yet– but I’m also doing four panels. From their programming page:
FRIDAY:
“Writing Compelling Dialog” 1pm | Perry Ever wonder how writers manage that witty line or perfect turn of phrase as their characters mouth off to each other on the page? Join us to discuss the ins and outs of writing authentic and compelling dialog.
“Writing Compelling Characters” 2pm | Perry From Doctor Who to Han Solo, to Spock, these fictional characters speak to us and move us, making their stories epic in a way that can’t be put into words. Come join us to discuss what makes a compelling character and how to write characters that will have your readers rooting for them long after they’ve put the book down.
SATURDAY:
“Success as an Indie Author” 1pm | Perry Trying to make it as an independent author can be confusing and not a little frightening. Everything depends on you, and it’s up to you to make or break yourself in the field. Join some successful indie authors as they discuss ways to set yourself up for success and build your platform so that you can write stories you love and sell them to people who will love them just as much.
“Writing Fantasy” 8pm | Perry Fantasy fiction has shaped our culture from ancient myths and fairy tales to current blockbusters and cult-followed classics. Join a panel of fantasy authors to discuss the elements of great fantasy writing and how to make your fantasy story the masterpiece it deserves to be.
I will leave it up to y’all to determine whether I deserve to be on any of these panels; the imposter syndrome is kicking in hard, I’ll admit, but fuck it I’m a teacher and I explain shit to people for a living and if I can’t BS my way through four independent hours of talking about writing … well, I absolutely can bullshit my way through four independent hours of talking about writing, is what I’m saying. I am assuming “Perry” is the name of the hall or the room they’re in, because surely they don’t have the same person moderating every writing panel. Again, more information will follow.
And then, the weekend after next, I’ll be at LaffyCon in Lafayette. This is a Saturday-Sunday only event, with no panels, although I might try and finagle my way into a podcast or something at some point.
After that, IndyPopCon in June, and then … well, I need to find some stuff to fill the summer up with, I think, because nothing else until Kokomo-Con X in October. Maybe I’ll do InConJunction again this year; it was the first one I ever went to so that might be fun. Plus it starts on my birthday.
Anyway, I’ve been designing new banners all day. They’re up on Patreon, even! And I ordered new books, and the point is I’ve spent an awful lot of money on being an author today, and you should go buy a couple of my books because Jesus is this shit expensive. But my new booth setup has potential to look super cool, and I’m excited about that.
I should probably hold this information back a little bit, because right now I don’t have much more than what I’m going to tell you and there’s certainly a lot more to know, but I just got my panel schedule back for ConGlomeration this April in Louisville. And whoa.
First of all, I have a panel schedule. I’ve been doing cons for like four years and I’ve been on one panel. There were four people in the audience. One was my wife. (One of the other three bought a book, though!) I am doing five panels at ConGlomeration.
Saturday, April 20, 3 PM: Setting Yourself Up for Success as an Indie 8 PM: Writing Fantasy
I’m not on any panels with Timothy Zahn, which makes me kinda sad, but I think Michael Z. Williamson is on the Writing Science Fiction one? He’s holding a gun with an attached silencer in his picture on Wikipedia and he once wrote a book called Brilliant Liberal Logic: Three Lies in Three Words, which implies that the word “liberal” is, itself, somehow a lie, which I’m not sure it is.
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