Here's a list of some upcoming June literary and writerly events:

June 2: Author Mark Athitakis Discusses His Book "The New Midwest: A Guide to Contemporary Fiction of the Great Lakes, Great Plains, and Rust Belt"
June 4: Teen Writing Festival
June 5: Emerging Writer's Workshop: Publishing: How to Get Your Foot in the Door
June 17: Ann Arbor Book Festival
June 19: Emerging Writers: Writing and Review Meet-Up
June 23: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Glenn Frankel Discusses His Book: “High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic”
June 24: Fanfiction Workshop for Teens
June 27: Award-Winning Mystery Writer Elly Griffiths Discusses Her New Book “The Chalk Pit”
June 28: Arbor Teas Summer Reading Series: "Expiration Date" - You don't want to miss hearing author David Erik Nelson read, it is truly a treat!

Okay, so you may be like, another Penguicon post? Really? But I actually got so much out of the con this year that I want to continue to share. Here are some great takeaways from a few of the panels I attended.
 





Finding a Literary Agent:

1. If you can’t finish a book, you can’t get an agent.
2. Why get an agent? #1 Reason – contract negotiation with publishers.
3. If you are querying an agent in person, treat them like a person, not like a gazelle.

Managing Your Creative Self:

1. Have SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Based.
2. Monitor your progress on your goals.
3. http://www.merriehaskell.com/writing-productivity-hacks/

Listening To Your Characters:

1. Pre-writing the background of your characters can help you decide what choices they are going to make in your story.
2. Listening to your characters may drastically change your story, but maybe for the better.
3. Make sure that you do research and get feedback if your character is an “other” (i.e. not like you).

And speaking of awesome author interviews, this time it's genre fiction writer Mary Lynne Gibbs. I had the pleasure of meeting her Penguicon 2016 when we shared a reading at the Writer's Block, however my husband, a former fencer like Mary, has actually known her since his college fencing days. Small world! A lovely, funny lady with strong female protagonists and a somewhat serious bump cake addiction, here is Mary Lynne Gibbs.

Q1: What do you wish people would ask you about your writing?

What do I wish people would ask me about my writing? Anything! I want them to be interested! Want to know where I get my ideas? Ask me! Want to know about the voices in my head? Ask me! Who my muse is? Ask me! (for the record, my muse is Jared Padalecki...every time he's in a dream of mine, I end up writing several pages). But yeah...ask me anything about my writing. I LOVE talking about it, & inspiring those who say "someday I want to write."

Q2: Which of your characters would you most like to meet and why?

Which of MY characters would I like to meet? No one has met her yet, but Lex Jensen (protagonist of Cake or Death) is the one I'd most like to meet. She's snarky & fun. Sometimes, I call her my "inside voice." We'd go to the bar and dance on the tables. 


Q3: Did I once see your face on a pair of women's thongs?

Yes. Yes you DID see my face on a pair of women's thongs. Along with "I <3 Mary Lynne Gibbs." I really don't know what my former publisher was thinking. Needless to say, I'm greatly appreciative of my current publisher.

Want more?: http://www.marylynnegibbs.net/

Mary Lynne Gibbs is the author of Jericho Rising, Jericho's Redemption, and The Maiden's Courage, all from Dragon's Roost Press. When she's not writing, she's making jewelry, knitting, & playing her sparkly purple violin. She currently lives in Kentucky with her husband, kids, two dogs, two (bearded) dragons, and a flock of chickens she calls The Chickie Scouts.

So if you didn't attend Penguicon this year, here's just a tiny slice of all the good literary stuff you missed out on...

Panels:
How to Write a Novel in a Month
Project Managing Your Creative Self
Never Run Out of Writing Topics Again
How to Kill a Character, Part I: I Don't Do Drugs, But My Protagonist Does!
Listening to Your Character
Writers and Traditional Publishing
Make Good Art: Using Creativity to Fight Depression (in Trying Times)
Turning Up the Heat in Your Fiction
Author Meet and Read, Volumes 1 and 2
John Scalzi Reads
Self-Publishing in 2017
Corey Doctorow Reads from His New Book WALKAWAY
Exploring Themes in Zen Cho's Work
Parts of Editing
Ada Palmer Reads and Signs!
90 Second Reads
Why So Tense?
Romance in Sci-fi/Sci-fi in Romance
Cleaning Your Prose: Editomat
The Impact of Tabletop Gaming on Fantasy Fiction
Promptapalooza
Crowdsourcing - First You Need a Crowd
Writing High-Performance Nonfiction
Writing About Forensics
Subterranean Press Chat Session
Why Doesn't Everyone Just Self-Publish Their Work?
Queering Your Fiction: Writing LGBTQ+ Characters Into Your Stories
Conlanging: Fun with Words
Free Publishing Using Createspace
Hacking Collaboration/Writing Together
Open Mic for Creative Writing or Share Your Shit
Finding Room in Your Busy Life to Write
Mechanics of Magic in Fantasy & SF
Why Do Publishers and Editors Take So Long?
Finding a Literary Agent
Hard Science Fiction and the Art of Pragmatic Makebelief
Self-Promotion for Creatives
Pulp Heroes: Why are They Relevant Today?
Historic Books Show-and-Tell
Self-Rescuing Princess: The Importance of Writing Characters with Agency

Authors: (In absolutely no order whatsoever)
Cory Doctorow
Sumana Harihareswara
Coraline Ada Ehmke
Ada Palmer
David Erik Nelson
Jeff Pryor
Erika Wagner
Beth Faulkner
Owen Bondono
Julia Lynn
Merrie Haskell
Toni Conn
Brian Hudson
Mary Lynne Gibbs
Cassandra Morgan
Michael Cieslak*
Michael Lucas
Nicole e. Castle
Christian Klaver*
John Scalzi
Clif Flynt
James Frederick Leach
Clarence "Zig Zag" Young*
Anne S. Zanoni
Rosemary Van Deuren
Ken MacGregor*
Ferret Steinmetz
Clifford VanMeter
Erin Onslow
Mari Brighe
Valerie Hibbard
Janice Leach
Paul Kemner
Eric Raymond
Mark Vorenkamp
Tal M. Klein
Jamison Stone

*Have Awesome Author Interviews on this blog!
Look for more Awesome Author Interviews from this list of talented folks soon!

Well actually it was right when we arrived at Penguin 2017. We found out that I had forgotten to book a hotel room at the convention. Oops. In my defense, we've had a lot going on in the past couple of months. Anyways, long story short, with only a ton of extra stress we were able to get a room at the convention hotel for both nights (thank you Westin Southfield Detroit!). I would've posted this on Friday night live from  Penguicon except I couldn't get my internet to work, but that's a different story. This post is on how to get ready to attend a convention, inspired by the recent failure on my part.

1. Decide what convention you want to attend and check your calendar for date conflicts.
[You will also want to decide if you'd like to present at the convention and send any panel ideas you have to the head of programming.]

2. Register for the convention either online or by snail mail.
[Not as important because you can often register at the con on the day, but it is generally cheaper to register ahead of time and required if you are presenting. Some cons also have swag such as ribbons which you will also need to purchase ahead of time.]

3. Book a hotel room.
[Though commuting to local cons is an option, I highly recommend staying either at the convention hotel or at a nearby hotel. Cons are tiring! Also, both parties and panels run into the wee hours of the morning and you don't want to miss out.]

4. Take the time off work.
[I forgot to take the weekend off of work for Capricon this year and ended up having to cancel a panel I was supposed to run and missing an entire day of the convention. :(]

5. Prepare for any panels you are on, for any costumes you might want to wear, and check the con schedule for other events you may want to attend.
[You may want to email other panelists to discuss how the panel will be run and what you might want to talk about.]

6. Pack clothes and toiletries for a normal vacation.
[You may also want to pack snacks and beverages so you are not relying solely on hotel and consuite offerings. Although some attendees choose to subsist on free consuite food and drink, long lines and allergy contamination issues have made this a not viable option for us.]

7. Be sociable and have fun.
[Though you might be looking at a con as a business marketing opportunity for your books, that doesn't mean that you can't also have fun. Also, to market your books you will need to be open, friendly, and sociable. Networking is important too. The cons I've had the least fun at are the ones where I have mainly kept to myself.]

This list is mainly a reminder for me, but I hope that it helps you too.

Other con posts:
Penguicon 2017
Writing, but not talking about Writing About Forensics
ConClave 2016 [Note: ConClave is now The Continuum]
GenCon 2016
Penguicon 2016 Recap
Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho it's Off to Confusion We Go!
Cons Can be Confusing
DetCon1