(doo da, doo da)
…but I can’t tell you or Carol Berg will kill me, haha. This weekend at Archon I had the privilege of hearing some of the beginning of Carol’s next book, Breath and Bone at a private reading. According to her, I’m one of about 7 people who know. Sweet! The book comes out in January, and I’m even more keen to read it now than I was after the end of the first book in the Lighthouse Duet, Flesh and Spirit when it came out in May. Excuse me while I squee.
Archon (the St. Louis sci-fi/fantasy/comics/pop-culture convention that’s really in Collinsville IL) was very good. I debated about going for quite a while, because it was so expensive this year. Archon 31 was also NASFiC, since Worldcon was awarded to a non-North American site (Yokohama, Japan). It was, therefore, a national con and not a regional one, and theoretically worth more, I guess. I have very limited con experience, so I can’t tell you if it really was bigger than normal (though some of my new con friends say it wasn’t). I knew Carol Berg would be there, and I really wanted to see what she had to say. I took at look at the programming and decided that it would be worth it to pay that much, and indeed, it was. Thank goodness I have a car that could make the forty-mile round trip now.
There were quite a few writing panels, and I’ve got many notes which are going to live in my manuscript folder. It was pretty cool to interact with authors and agents, some of whom I’ve only encountered on blogs. And it’s doubly cool to actually talk with the authors, most of whom are really nice and surprisingly approachable, especially for a shy girl like me (unless I’m talking about myself, sigh. then I seem to run on forever). It was wonderful to actually have a discussion with one of my favorite authors about writing (Carol sat down with me for an entire hour) and get some great advice. I was really intending to sit down this evening and write some on my novel, but the computer thwarted me with its one-two punch of slowness and browser-crashing in the middle of my entry, sigh.

It wasn’t just writing. I went to panels on Harry Potter and Firefly, attended a workshop on Irish Ceili dancing and belly dancing, and saw the SFWA Musketeers demonstrate fencing techniques.Saw my cousin Brian, but didn’t get to attend any of his panels. The writing panels really made it worth it, even if the days were looong.
I had a couple of mini-epiphanies about the novel while at panels, so that’s good. I’ve just got to get the damn thing going. I can’t believe how far I haven’t gotten in the story, sigh. The workshops are going to be helpful, though, especially ones like Writing Realistic Violence and Plots that Work. And of course Carol’s very good advice. I still can’t believe I got to monopolize an author like that. She was very nice about it. I felt awfully stalkerish. Some people want to meet movie stars or sports celebs; I geek out over authors. She had some helpful hints for the anthology which I need to follow up on, and she had a dedicated cadre of fans that followed her around the whole weekend, so I made some new friends. Thank you, Carol, this weekend meant alot to me.
Maybe I’ll fit in a little writing before it’s time for bed…
(incidentally, this is entry 700 for this blog. Sheesh. I know not all of them are pithy and meaningful, but it seems a large number to me…)