Con Report: MidSouth, on six teeth a day or less

[valarltd]

So, Friday I woke up, surprised to not be hurting. I tried some cereal for breakfast and it worked. I had a banana on the truck and generally did all right.

I got in about 11:30, showered, collected Obi and finished loading and we were off. With a few stops.

Made it to the Hilton about 1:30-2 PM.

There was much to-ing and fro-ing and I took over the dealer booth while Fearless Leader sorted herself out. I ended up in the booth most of the weekend. My s sounds are slushy and reannon mocked me mercilessly all weekend.

The 5 PM humor and horror panel was a trip. A couple of Yard Dogs, including Selina Rosen, me and JF Lewis. Poor Jeremy. He is really overwhelmed when you get Selina and me on a panel. We talked about Talent: Scream and Acting Appropriately Stupid. I pointed out people in a horror movie don't KNOW they are in a horror movie and told my "Angel has the survival instinct of a cantaloup" story. I pointed out that, as I stopped to pick up the bat, I reminded myself it was extremely unlikely a zombie apocalypse had broken out in the last half hour.

We decorated the room for a party, set up the bar and I snatched the 20 minute nap that would let me keep going until my 11 PM panel.

I read tarot cards at the party and Robin (my Robin Wood deck) was pretty blunt. I saw the Tower twice and a LOT more of the 10 of wands and 10 of swords than I like. Fantastical creatures was just about as blunt. (on Sat I did a fast 5 card for another reader. He stared at the spread and said "You not only answered that question, but four others.")

The Steam in Steampunk panel was pretty good. skogkatt and writer Mallory Kane were on it with me. Mallory writes romantic suspense. I kind of dominated it as I'm the only one actually writing erotic steampunk at the moment. We did get into steaminess, and pounding pistons and other such fun. Nick Valentino, who is always fun, could not make it. He is stranded in Seattle.

zeronine09 was more than a little drunk and loved on Oli, Obi and me for a while. He's an affectionate drunk. He misses my Bun a lot.

I took the cashbox and key and rounded up my brood and went to crash. We stayed off-site at friends' house.

Up bright and early the next morning, we went to Dollar Tree for some meds and Kroger for breakfast. And somewhere I lost the cashbox key. I dropped the kids at the hotel, called reannon and informed her, and then went and found it by the grace of Hermes and St. Anthony.

Opened the booth and worked it until the 3 PM Breath of Life panel, which was joint gamers and authors. Poor tannenwynn and her friend Wayne had to share a panel with Elizabeth and me. If not for our able moderator, heraldofdarknes, we would have run roughshod. Because talking about writing is the only thing authors like better THAN writing. We all agreed that a character needs to be more than a line of numbers on a sheet, or a list of skills in our head that plays a role in the story. I pointed out that interesting advantages and disadvantages help make characters. One of my Vampyre: The Masquerade characters is lame -3, as in confined to a wheelchair or scooter. This makes her more interesting to play than say an ordinary "I stalk you, I pounce you, I rip your throat out" vamp in my opinion. It informs her personality, her hunting tactics and limits her in some ways. When I created Paul in the Howl at the Mistletoe series, I made him as ordinary as possible, almost boring, but his folks can't handle his lycanthropy and he has a better online lovelife than a real-space one.

Took Bun and Obi and Oli to dinner at Wokking the Dog...er Dragon China. The buffet has improved, but eating is still tough. As was the jello. We're talking forks could not spear it.

My 11 PM was Immortality: Curse or Blessing. Back with JF and Allan Gilbreath. We have all written vampire and immortal characters. We all agree that eternity sounds like fun, for the first hundred years or so. Then it gets to dragging. Everything repeats. I mean, what are we doing for entertainment these days? Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Survivor. IOW: gladiatorial contests, whether fake or scripted. Sure you can read every book in every library, but really, how many high fantasy novels can you consume before going "Oh hell, not ANOTHER perky elf."? I mean, when I do research, I read until the experts start repeating each other. On average, this is 7-10 books. So our immortals go insane, deal in invented drama or intrigue or write their own moral codes. Allan's vamps kill without remorse. Mine prefer not to kill, because body disposal is a pain. (and at 11 PM, I did use the line "my vampires are gay. A night of glory-holing is an all-you-can-nibble tasting menu.") Good panel.

Sunday, it was booth duty until my 11 AM signing on pro-row. Sold a couple books there. A first time for everything! I was not unhappy with my sales this weekend. The pain also showed up. The swelling in my mouth subsided and I could feel the stitches. I am constantly squicking on those. So I had an oxycodone and went through my day.

I had a 3 PM panel on Writing Down the Punk, steampunk, Cyberpunk and diesel punk. Kimberley Richardson (editor of Dreams of Steam) and I were on this. We talked a little about what makes something punk as opposed to historical fantasy. My definition is "punk is the dark side of the Ooo, shiny!, regardless of what your Oooh, shiny! is." If you have nifty neat virtual reality, what's the downside? A corporate controlled world? power shortages? living hand to mouth/console? If you're using brass and steam and ooh!shiny, who is dealing in the coal, what are your social issues, how do you handle getting parts when people don't want to sell? It was a really fun discussion. I plugged "Swimming Through the Net" and Wild Passions

I had a good weekend. I got to talk a lot about my current and upcoming work. I may have slushed, but I tried to take it all in good humor.

Comments

[tannenwynn.livejournal.com]

I can't speak for Wayne, but I had a BLAST on the Character building panel! ^.^ Listening to you two talk on how you create was really quite fascinating. I told Joy she needed to do this panel again, perhaps with different GMs and authors, as I'd really like to sit in and listen. :)