Arrant Nonsense

My house is now (relatively) clean.
I have packed the books I want to have signed.
I have packed everything else, except for my computer and my deodorant, both of which will go in when I'm done using them tomorrow.
I have printed out two copies of the story I collaborated on with my RP partner.
I have made and printed my "Writer at Work" sign, which amuses me because I am easily entertained.
I have printed out the part of the RoboBunny story I'm going to read at my reading.

All I have left is:

• Turn off Facebook notifs (because I really do not want to have to keep track of a couple hundred of those per day while I'm at a convention, or come home to "AOL: 800" in my X-notifier).
  
• Check the airline loads again, which I should do a bit later today to get a more accurate idea of whether I'll be able to get a seat on tomorrow's flight.
  
• Finish the workshop crits. I'm mostly done with those, but I'd like to poke them a bit more.

I still feel like I'm forgetting something, and I no doubt have, because I always do. But I'm as ready (at this point) as I will ever be.

Join us at MisCon 30, Memorial Day weekend (May 27-30), in Missoula, MT, at the downtown Holiday Inn. Guests will include Jim Butcher, Patrick Rothfuss, Kevin J. Anderson, Carol Berg, CJ Cherryh, Steve Diamond, Todd Lockwood, Peter Orullian, Christopher Paolini, Jeff Sturgeon, Robin Hobb and many many others.

MisCon is one of my very favorite conventions. I've been twice and plan on making it a regular thing. I'll be arriving (assuming plans work out and the flights don't close up on me) around 1pm-ish on Friday, staying at the hotel (and I could use a roomie who doesn't mind someone who snores), and leaving on Tuesday.

My schedule (so far, subject to change) is as follows:

Fri 5:00 - 5:50 PM, Beyond The Fangs, Ballroom B
Moderator: Diana Pharaoh Francis (Di); Panelists: Jim Butcher, Diana Pharaoh Francis (Di), Julie Frost, Rhiannon Held, Randy Henderson
Urban Fantasy encompasses more than just vampires and werewolves, yet it seems that the fanged creatures of the night have captured the limelight. What other creatures, dangerous and ghastly, lurk around dark city corners?

Sat 11:00 - 11:50 AM, What I Learned at Writers of the Future, Jefferson
Moderator: James Glass; Panelists: Kevin J Anderson, Julie Frost, James Glass, Randy Henderson
Join Writers of the Future Contest judge Kevin J Anderson and past winners and as they teach you what they learned at the WoF contest. Learn the tips and tricks that will propel you forward in your career.

Sat 1:00 - 1:50 PM, World Building 101, Ballroom C
Panelists: Kent Davis, Deby Fredericks, Julie Frost, Hugh S. Gregory
Let's talk about world building. Is it better to start with a fully fleshed out world or one that evolves as you write? Setting is still world building. How do you make it a living, breathing entity within your book? What elements do you need? Religions, cultures, races, diseases, economics?

Sat 3:00 - 3:50 PM, Fiction Slam Readings, Tent By the Trees
Moderator: Rhiannon Held; Panelists: Julie Frost, Rhiannon Held, Frog Jones
Come hear your favorite pro read a selection of their work.
1500: Rhiannon Held
1520: Julia Frost
1540: Frog Jones

Sat 4:00 - 4:50 PM, Meet & Greet/Signing: Randy Henderson/Julie Frost, Hotel Lobby of Doom
Panelists: Julie Frost, Randy Henderson
Meet a few of our authors, get signatures, and see what they're up to these days.

Sat 5:00 - 5:50 PM, Keeping the Momentum, Glacier
Moderator: Randy Henderson; Panelists: Diana Pharaoh Francis (Di), Julie Frost, Ann Gimpel, Randy Henderson
Maybe you're receiving some really great rejections, or perhaps you've got a couple short stories published--now what? How do you maintain that momentum? What's the next step? This is for those writers who are on the cusp of professionalism and those who want to learn what it's like.

Sun Noon - 12:50 PM, Flaws: a Double-Edged Sword, Ballroom B
Moderator: Julie Frost; Panelists: Julie Frost, Randy Henderson, Robin Hobb, J.A. Pitts
Many of our flaws can have beneficial features as well. Take Scarlett O'Hara, for example: she's manipulative...which makes her clever. She ambitious...which makes her tenacious and persistent. Join us as we talk about the dual nature of our weaknesses.

Mon 11:00 - 11:50 AM, Writing Part-Time, Glacier
Moderator: James Glass; Panelists: Spencer G. Ellsworth, Julie Frost, James Glass, Dean Wells
We often dream of becoming full-time writers, but what if you can’t? What if you don’t want to? In this panel we’ll discuss the pros and cons of writing part time, and more importantly, making time for your writing while still doing your day job.

I'm doing a workshop as well, Sunday from 10:00-11:00 in Room 218. The participants for this are pre-arranged.

JOIN US. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO.

World Horror is one week away and we hope you're as excited about the convention as we are!

The schedule has been updated with a couple of changes. Primarily, Dan Wells and Carter Reid's kaffeeklatsches on Friday were switched. The new schedule is on the webpage. The game room schedule has been set and we've put the different events in rooms. You can download a PDF of each day's schedule with the room as a PDF.

Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, we've had to cancel the Killer Tea. Those who purchased tickets can either receive a reimbursement via Paypal or transfer their ticket to the tea for the David Farland Writing Workshop (that's $5 off the workshop price).

Films have been accepted for the film festival, but we're still waiting for the final schedule. That will be listed at the convention. We'll also put it on the website as soon as we get it.

Tell all your friends that the Art Show, Game Room, and Vendor Room will be open to the public. We'll also have tickets for those who just wish to see the films at the door.

A good time will be had by all!

I shared booth space with living legends: Jim Butcher, RA Salvatore, Terry Brooks, Kevin J. Anderson, Chuck Gannon, Rebecca Moesta, Peter Orillian, Larry Corriea, Dave Farland, Tracy Hickman. And we had plenty of up-and-coming stars: Josh Vogt, RJ Terrell, Steve Diamond, Dan Willis, Peter Wacks. I know I'm leaving people out, to my everlasting shame, but there were so many books and authors and it was so incredibly amazing that it kind of overwhelmed my brain.

Also. My book sold out. My book sold out. MY BOOK SOLD OUT.

I got to hand a copy of it to Jim Butcher--after I encountered him wandering around in befuddlement looking for the booth and took him thataway. I hope I wasn't too fangirly. But I thanked him for Michael Carpenter (again), and told him I loved "Skin Game." I asked Kevin Hearne a question during his spotlight, but cannot for the life of me remember what it was.

We had a launch party in the bar that was super fun and quite successful. I signed lots of books. My feet hurt all the way up to my kneecaps, but it's the pain of accomplishment, by golly. I spent most of my time in the booth and probably only saw about half the actual show, but it was time well spent and we sold a ton of books.

I had a productive meeting with my acquisitions editor today, and hashed out some stuff vis a vis the short stories in the 'verse and a couple of thoughts about a sequel. No, not that sequel, that sequel is complete and utter id-fic and will not see the light of day. But a different sequel, which I actually seeded in the first book without even meaning to. Go, me!

And apparently some girls came to the booth on Saturday while I was off doing something (probably the Jim Butcher spotlight) and said "Is Julie Frost here? We read her book and really liked it and want to talk to her about it!" And the booth people were kind of confused. "You've read it already? When did you buy it?" Because, yeah, it debuted this weekend, right? And isn't available anywhere else yet. "Thursday!" So, uh. That happened. *flail*

And the brainweasels, the ones that say "they only did this to be nice, they didn't really think it would take off, and then they'd have an excuse to say 'well, we gave her a chance and it just didn't pan out'" are blessedly, blessedly silent.

Of course, the other brainweasels that are saying that "You had no idea what you were doing when you wrote the thing and you're never going to be able to duplicate that magic" are in full cry, but screw them. I have bunnies for the sequel. And, I mean. Clearly there should be bunnies in the sequel!

So, I'm at SLComicCon this weekend (as one is if one has a modicum of sense, lives here, and is in The Business), and talking to Larry Correia at the WordFire Press booth. The Man Himself, Kevin J. Anderson, wanders by, and Larry hollers at him, introduces me, and tells him that I need to bypass the slush pile when I submit my novel.

Kevin says "If we publish her, will you do a front-cover blurb?" Without hesitation, Larry says "Yep." "Book bomb?" "You betcha."

I suppose, to be fair, the novel is more urban fantasy than SF, but the nanotech gives it SF trappings and it is SF by Analog standards, so. What a terrible person the International Lord of Hate is. Yep, that Larry Correia dude, he sure does hate the wimmenfolk who are, you know, destroying SF.

This is me, snorting loudly and at great contemptuous length at that notion.

And this was the day after I started my novel pitch to the handsome and hard-working Peter Wacks, one of the acquisitions editors at Wordfire. He stopped me at my fifth word and said "Send me a chapter." *flail* This is, of course, the part where my self-confidence takes a nose-dive even though I adore my novel, but I am going to by-golly send him a damn chapter and see what happens.

It was a good weekend.

Holy cow, y'all. What a weekend. And it was all awesome.

Day One:
The first thing I got to do was shake Adam Baldwin's hand and thank him for being an outspoken conservative in Hollywood. He signed my Angel S5 sleeve and was very gracious. I then wandered about for awhile before hitting the "Religion in SF/F" panel, which was interesting, as always, although I was a little bemused by the fact that no one mentioned Jim Butcher and the fact that he basically singlehandedly made it okay to write good-guy people of faith in the genre again, after it had gone out of style for a couple of decades.

However, James Marsters talked about Dresden during his panel--after someone asked him what it was like to kiss John Barrowman in "Torchwood." His reaction was: "Men, if you want to kiss a woman, for the love of God, either shave or grow it out until it's soft. Because no one wants sandpaper scraping their face, okay." It was after that that someone asked him about Dresden, and he says the next book is great, and he talked about doing audiobooks. Now I have to pick one up. At least one. He sang, too.

And then I stood in line (there is a lot of standing--or sitting--in line at these things) for about an hour and a half so I could get his signature on my Angel S5 sleeve. I got to tell him that it was his fault I'm a writer, because Spike sparked my imagination that much and I just wanted him to be happy dammit. And he just seemed blown away by the fact that he affected my life that much, that now I'm writing my own original works and getting published here and there. He was super, super nice, and I adore him even more now.

I went to dinner with James Wymore and... oh, God, I'm sorry I can't remember the guy's name--at the Desert Edge Brewery--and found out that the story that won the Salty Dog Award at Salt City Steam is going to be in an anthology with Piers Anthony. Cue a happy geek moment--I read a crapload of Piers Anthony in high school and college, and his name will lend a certain cachet to the antho, so... yes, please.

Day Two:
Three panels on writing. What do your characters want, and why can't they get it. Story is about meaning. The Campbellian Monomyth, and the Grand Argument Story. Humor as a Venn Diagram where the benign meets the violation.

Waited in line for Karl Urban. As previously stated, I had no idea he was from New Zealand. Or was in Xena. Clearly, I have catching up to do. He told one story about auditioning for the part of an American (his first), and he put a lot of swearing in because he thought that's what Americans do. His agent said, "Yeah, don't do that again."

Then waited in line again for Brent Spiner, who is also hilarious. He said that one director threatened not to come back to the TNG set because the cast, apparently, was cutting up too much, and they got called in to a meeting, and then he did this awesome impression of Sir Patrick Stewart being Very Stern.

Somewhere in there I got my Iron Man novelization and my copy of "Howling Mad" signed by Peter David. Wandered the dealer's room and bought some Things. I think that's the day I talked to Sandra Tayler and Brian Lewis as well. At this point, it's a bit blurry.

Didn't get home until 10pm, and didn't get to eat until 11. So that was fun.

Day Three:
Got up at 7am to catch the 8am train so I could be there to get in line by 9 for Nathan Fillion. Said line was already out the door by the time I got there; I heard that people had been lining up since 6:30, and some had tried to camp out overnight. Amazingly, I got in. He talked about "Saving Private Ryan" and "Firefly" and "Castle." Apparently the guy who ghost-writes the "Castle" novels once told him "This is the only time I've ever been on the New York Times bestseller list... and your face is on the cover." Also, Joss Whedon plans everything.

After that was the panel on "Dragon Warriors," starring James Marsters, a spiffy little movie shot here in Utah entirely on a greenscreen. We got to see a trailer, a behind-the-scenes bit, and a clip. They're doing a Kickstarter, which I am certainly going to back and so should you. Seriously, look at that.

I wandered about for a bit, and then got in line for the Adam Baldwin panel. Grabbed a Coke and a salad, because like hell did I want to not get to eat anything until 11pm again. I even got some work done while I waited. He talked about "Firefly" and "Chuck" and "Full Metal Jacket." A kid asked him "Do you ever have a role where you're not carrying a gun?" And he thought about it for a minute and said, "...you should check out 'My Bodyguard.' No gun, but I did have a motorcycle." He's also got a thing coming out on TNT called The Last Ship, which we should all watch.

As much as I love Sir Patrick Stewart, I'd had my fill of line-waiting by then, so I wandered a little then hit more writing panels. Honestly, I should have been on the genre-blending one. The one on "Joss Whedon and the Art of Storytelling" was notable because Joss's brother Matt was on it, so that was pretty cool, although they never did talk about "Cabin in the Woods." They did talk about "The Body" ep of Buffy, which everyone agreed is one of the most brilliant pieces of television ever done. The consensus of "favorite character" was... "Spike."

And then there was the panel on "Our Love/Hate Relationship with Rage," which began with a mock fight between two of the panelists. But it was really interesting, because they talked about the difference between "anger" and "rage," and how the difference is that "anger" is something that motivates us to justice, whereas "rage" represents a loss of control and becoming the monster in order to defeat the monster. They also pointed out that there's a difference between celebrating evil and examining it.

After that, I caught up with Dan Willis, and then we waited for Bob Defendi's panel to finish up. We'd made dinner plans, but I was vehicle-less, and Bob didn't have room in his car for everyone, so we're postponing that until Westercon. Instead, I had dinner at Red Robin with another friend.

And then I came home and collapsed in a puddle of goo.

And, you know, the idea sounds pretty cool. As a Christian, I like to think that I'm not the only one of us toiling away in the trenches here.

That being said.

I am unsure of my welcome at a thing like this, because while I'm a fairly fundy fundamentalist in my doctrine, barely anything I actually write qualifies as "family friendly." Yes, I write fantasy and science fiction, with a smattering of horror, so "realism" goes out the door just on the premise--but the characters populating those stories still have to be people that readers can relate to. These characters rarely share my beliefs, and they drink, swear, and kill people on a depressingly regular basis, because that's how real people act in the sort of situations I'm interested in writing about.

My fiction is not a platform for my religion, and I don't want to be pigeonholed like that anyway. Besides, I write short fiction. Where are the Christian markets for that? And do they pay anything? Because yes, getting paid is important. I don't sub to "for the love" markets and I'm not going to start just because they're Christian.

So, I'll probably be forever at the fringes of this thing, no matter which side I'm looking from. "Gritty Christian" might be a thing, and I've now penned four stories starring recognizably Biblical angels and demons (sort of, I guess), but the subject matter of two of those stories is frankly disturbing and I'm pretty sure that my sainted mother-in-law (who is a lovely lady I love dearly) would be appalled by them.

But, hey, the Bible isn't exactly filled with sweetness and light either. And maybe I'm wrong and I'd be welcomed with open arms. I'll definitely keep an eye on them and see who populates the guest list. Maybe I'll even go, if finances permit and it doesn't conflict with the local ComicCon...

Thursday, Feb. 13:
3:00pm--Genre Mashups (Because what else would you call a nanotech werewolf, a cyborg werewolf, or a time-traveling wizard who ends up in modern-day rural Tennessee?)

Friday, Feb. 14:
4:00pm--Short vs Long Fiction (I do both. Sort of.)

Saturday, Feb. 15:
1:00pm--Death and Its Consequences (I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of stories I've written where someone or something doesn't die. I once destroyed the Earth in fiction. Go, me?)
6:00pm--Starting the Next Project (I'm a short story writer, mainly. I'm always starting the next project.)

Reading: TBA (they originally had the "Short vs Long" panel at 3pm on Friday, and then scheduled my reading at 4pm, but they changed "Short vs Long" to 4pm instead) -- as soon as I get word on when the reading will be, I'll post it.

In other news (and speaking of Starting the Next Project), I outlined a new story last night (which is, I believe, the very first time an outline has come together that quickly), and I will start it today. It will be known as "Clockwork Necromancer," and I'm writing it because I was as much as asked (not in so many words, but sort of) to sub to an antho. Not much money, but if the story comes together as well as the outline did, it should, at least, be easy.

And then I'll be winging my way on a red-eye flight to Atlanta, and thence to Chattanooga via either yet another plane or the shuttle service. I'm... nearly packed, just electronics need to go in the bag now. I think I'm going to go ahead and bring my Blue Bag, because it has more room and I got away with it as a "personal item" on Frontier, so. If I have to check the other bag, I guess I will, but I don't anticipate that.

I am so excited for this, y'all. A little anxious, too, but mostly excited.

And Jim Butcher is fabu. We got to hear him read from the latest Dresden Files book yesterday afternoon, and then last night he did an unscheduled reading from his new steampunk novel--neither of which are out yet. Both of them are going to be awesome. He is super down-to-earth and also very funny; I am so glad I got to meet him. Are you jealous? You should be. :p

I've gotten a little work done. I'm having a debate with myself on whether I want to water a scene down for the sake of a PG-13 rating or not, and still haven't come down on a side yet, although I'm leaning heavily toward "no." Part of the problem is that markets are thin anyway for something that's 9000 words long, so I'm already limiting myself via word count. Ah well.

I've gotten ten books signed and hope to get the rest autographed in 40 minutes or so. Oh, hey, they have moved it to the lobby, which I just found out this second, and I'm camped out here anyway (because the wifi in my room kind of sucks), so. I'm a little stunned that the line isn't longer, but a lot of people have left already, and most folks probably got everything signed the other day.

I miss my CONduit peeps, but this is fun and also JIM BUTCHER.