CON-Tastic!

Alright, so the title is corny...shoot me. I couldn't help it. So I attended ConDFW this weekend. This was the fist con I attend in my life, last year. It's a small Con, but seems to get some big names. Dallas has a large writing community, and I can say that the SCI/FI group is great. This is mostly geared towards them as far as genre. But, don't think that attending this will make me go SCI/FI, the panels are open to any genre, and I can use the information for my own usage.

Thinking of this Here are the guest of Honors: Jim Butcher and David Webber. I'll be honest. I have never read either one of them. Don't throw stones, remember I've only been reading for a year and a half. So that's allot of ground to cover. I'm a romance reader, and I dabble in others, but they normally have a romantic side to them. I did pick up Jim Butchers "Furies of Calderon", it's unopened, but I promised myself I would read it. My friend Michale was the one who told me that it would appeal to me the most. I was sad that I did not get to have it signed, but t here were sooooo many people in that line, and I was more interested in learning and getting back into inspiration.

Some of the panels I sat in on were: YA creative writing fiction, Aspiring Writers, World Building, How to start a story, Novels VS short story, Self Editing errors, Researching the reals, Fate of heroes, How to make a Villain. Those are just a few. I also sat in on a two hour Q&A with both Mr. and Mrs. Butcher. That was amazing!

Thinking of Mr. Butcher, I called him a Geek. It wasn't on purpose! I promise! I was sitting and some one happened to be talking about "Dungeon Masters" I am not a smart one on this and all I could remember are the geeky guys in school playing this game. You all know the guys, the ones who needed to learn how to interact with real life.... Well I was sitting there when it came up and I said "OH GOD! You're one of those geeks?!" We all laughed; a few minutes later we introduced our selves when he said "I'm geek, Jim Butcher." I think I died, at least I know I was red... He laughed more... but I was ok.

Here are some of the pearls that were dropped this weekend, most of these came from Mr. Jim Butcher, I found that after calling him a Geek that I needed to write down everything he said....

*"Dead lines are great for concentration, much like pain."Mr. Butcher

*"Think of your writing as Art, it's open to be seen. Some will like it, some will not, so who cares."

*"Make a goal to get 100 rejection letters, than make them into a frame for the 1 letter of agreement!"

*"It's not always the story that was rejected, it's the wrong time or place for that agent. Try again later."

*"Do not tie children in the basement to be your focus group. They need to be fed to much for you to write."-This was on the YA panel....

*"Tell the story like you are telling it, not trying to sell it."

*"Writers are like rats. You have to wear your fingers out on the keyboard or your fangs will grow through your head."-Mr. Butcher.

*"First lines may be the best in the world, but it can be cut."

*"The grab may get the Editor to read 2 pages, but if it sucks after that what was the point."

*"Use Librarians, we like it"-this was for research, I swear!

*"The more the real is real, the more the fantastical is believable."-this was said OVER AND OVER!

*"You start with your people, than create the world to torcher them!" Mr. Butcher

*MR. Butcher had a knack for quoting Mark Twain, "For every 1 magical you have you need 2 real world truths."

*And the one that was said the most. "Write what you read, you'll like it more."

Over all of the weekend I think the muse made her way around. I still didn't find a critique partner, but I did find some new friends! Thanks guys!

The path is clear, the time is right

Hello guys,

I am writing!!! YES, so it's not in the true format, it's still roleplaying, but this story has come from left field and hit a home run!!!!
Which one you ask? "Cover me" is the working idea I talked about. I'm writing it with my room mate, it's going great. We have even started to work on one of my other ideas for a YA series. That's right. One of the other pages of my note book are going to be comming to life!!!!

Alright, so that's about all there is for now, I will be child less this weekend, and plan on reading and writing alot. I might even work more on some actual manuscript work. Who knows! Hope you all have a good and safe weekend!