May the Fourth Be With You.

Okay, okay, so I know I promised a live Friday night post, but we were at the Geeky Burlesque last night and Penguicon is a marathon, not a sprint. What did you miss yesterday besides the Geeky Burlesque? Well, you missed a panel on tropes (where we discussed the anime harem, the magical, flying black man, the dead mom, the love triangle, and white dude saves the world), a fan discussion of Ray Bradbury, a panel on self-editing, makers panels, coding panels, science panels, costumes, ribbons, and lots of geeky T-shirts. Oh there were also a bunch of room parties, including a Harry Potter themed party with butter beer and caldron cakes!

What can we look forward to today? Well, my husband is already up and running a 5K! I'm sadly forced to skip out on BurleXcersice to write this blog and prepare to hear a reading by Michael Cieslak and Nicole Castle, go to a panel on blocking writer's block, give a talk on beekeeping, host Promptapalooza, attend the writer's reception, listen to advice on writing a great query, do a reading myself from my 5-minutes-in-the-future, detective, techno-thriller "Whispers of a Killer" with my pal Leslie (aka Skeeter Enright), maybe do an escape room, learn about psycho-linguistics from buddy Clif Flynt, watch terrible videos from the internet, and make our pilgrimage to the Demon Lobster podcast. Whew! Now you understand what I mean by marathon. This does not include possible room parties tonight!

Anyways, I've got to let you go. It's May the 4th, and Hoth Leia's hair won't braid itself!

Keep Writing and Edit On.
I Write, I Edit, I Write Again. Witness!
We're Making Better Words, All of Them, Better Words.
I Write to Burn Off the Crazy.
A Good Day Writing is a Day Writing.
It Puts the Words on the Page or it Gets the Hose Again.
Just keep writing...just keep writing...writing, writing, writing!
Writing is Magic.
The First Rule of Write Club is You Talk About Write Club.
If You Aren't Writing, You Aren't a Writer

Coming soon (next week), "Live from Penguicon, it's Friday Night!"

Keep Writing and Edit On.
I Write, I Edit, I Write Again. Witness!
We're Making Better Words, All of Them, Better Words.
I Write to Burn Off the Crazy.
A Good Day Writing is a Day Writing.
It Puts the Words on the Page or it Gets the Hose Again.
Just keep writing...just keep writing...writing, writing, writing!
Writing is Magic.
The First Rule of Write Club is You Talk About Write Club.
If You Aren't Writing, You Aren't a Writer

So here is your yearly friendly reminder that Penguicon is neigh. This year Penguicon is taking place Friday, May 3rd - Sunday, May 5th. What is Penguicon? It's basically a geek convention complete with science, technology, literature, scifi fandom, cosplay, open source, games, pop culture, and penguins. We've been going for the past 7? years, and have had a blast every time. This year I will be hosting a number of activities including a panel on tropes, a prompt writing extravaganza, a perfect pitch contest, a talk on beekeeping, and possibly a reading from my soon to be published detective techno-thriller. Don't miss out on all the great panels for writers!

Hope to see you there!

Keep Writing and Edit On.
I Write, I Edit, I Write Again. Witness!
We're Making Better Words, All of Them, Better Words.
I Write to Burn Off the Crazy.
A Good Day Writing is a Day Writing.
It Puts the Words on the Page or it Gets the Hose Again.
Just keep writing...just keep writing...writing, writing, writing!
Writing is Magic.
The First Rule of Write Club is You Talk About Write Club.
If You Aren't Writing, You Aren't a Writer

Erm...Saturday morning...I think. Well, hello from Snowpocalyse 2019! I'm blogging to you from the Hilton DoubleTree Dearborn-Detroit and Confusion 2019 - Storming the Confusion. Confusion is a science fiction, fantasy, and fandom convention which has boasted a strong literature track in recent years. And it isn't your typical literature track.

Literature track head Annalee says that she's really trying to steer the con away from the broad overview panels other cons have like "Women in SciFi" and toward more specific and focused panels like "Women Over 50 as Heroes in SciFi and Fantasy".

Confusion is also one of the few local cons which has author readings almost every hour on Saturday, and I'm personally looking forward to a few of those.

Well, sorry for the short post, but I'm still recovering from the DJ John Scalzi dance party last night!

Expect more Confusion 2019 highlights in upcoming posts!

Keep Writing and Edit On.
I Write, I Edit, I Write Again. Witness!
We're Making Better Words, All of Them, Better Words.
I Write to Burn Off the Crazy.
A Good Day Writing is a Day Writing.
It Puts the Words on the Page or it Gets the Hose Again.
Just keep writing...just keep writing...writing, writing, writing!
Writing is Magic.
The First Rule of Write Club is You Talk About Write Club.
If You Aren't Writing, You Aren't a Writer

Okay, so I forgot to post last night. Here is a summary of my panel on Outlining Your Novel: A Pantser's POV. As in the essence of pantsing things, I got author Cassandra Morgan from the panel on Creating Compelling Characters before my panel to be my co-panelist. One of her great bits of advice when planning a novel is "Yes, but why." Love it.




Outlining Your Novel: A Pantser’s POV

1. Why outline your novel?
   1. Publishers may ask for an outline!!!
   2. Keeps you on track of plot development
   3. Keeps you on track with character development
   4. Helps with continuity/timeline
2. When to outline your novel?
   1. Before: critical for plotters; essential for non-fiction
   2. After: post first-draft editing tool
3. How to outline your novel?
   1. Many online tools
   2. By chapter or scene
      1. One or two lines
   3. By beginning, middle, end
   4. The Five-Stage Story Structure
      1. Exposition: Setting the scene.
      2. Rising action: Building the tension.
      3. Climax: The exciting bit.
      4. Falling action: Tidying up loose ends.
      5. Resolution: Ending the story.
   5. 12 stages of the heroes journey (ex. Star Wars)
      1. Ordinary World
      2. Call To Adventure
      3. Refusal Of The Call
      4. Meeting The Mentor
      5. Crossing The Threshold
      6. Tests, Allies, Enemies
      7. Approach To The Inmost Cave
      8. Ordeal
      9. Reward (Seizing The Sword)
      10. The Road Back
      11. Resurrection
      12. Return With The Elixir
4. What might an outline do for you?
   1. Show you where you are repetitive
   2. Show slow spots in plot
   3. Show where you can add more tension, suspense, and higher stakes
5. Where might an outline steer you wrong?
   1. Constrain your story and not allow it to grow organically
   2. Take time when you could actually be writing instead
   3. Try to force a plot that isn’t working
6. Who can you ask about outlining your novel?
   1. Not me
   2. James Patterson, no really, Masterclass
   3. Again, lots of online help
   4. NaNoWriMo.org
      

Keep Writing and Edit On.
I Write, I Edit, I Write Again. Witness!
We're Making Better Words, All of Them, Better Words.
I Write to Burn Off the Crazy.
A Good Day Writing is a Day Writing.
It Puts the Words on the Page or it Gets the Hose Again.
Just keep writing...just keep writing...writing, writing, writing!
Writing is Magic.
The First Rule of Write Club is You Talk About Write Club.
If You Aren't Writing, You Aren't a Writer

I can't believe that it's September already!!! Or that it's been 5 months since our last convention! But it's fast approaching that time again. Continuum2018 Darkness Descending will take place October 5-7th at the Delta Hotels Metro Detroit in Romulus, MI.

If you've never heard of Continuum, you might know this convention better by its former name, ConClave. Anyways, this con celebrates fantasy and science fiction in all forms and boasts gaming, science, music, literature, and more! The author guest of honor this year is Elizabeth Bear.

I'm taking it a bit easy this con and am only giving one talk on The Science of Beekeeping and hosting a panel on Outlining Your Novel: A Pantser's POV, but am still excited to be attending. Cons are a great place to network with agents, publishers, other authors, and most importantly with future readers.

Hope to see you there!

Keep Writing and Edit On.
I Write, I Edit, I Write Again. Witness!
We're Making Better Words, All of Them, Better Words.
I Write to Burn Off the Crazy.
A Good Day Writing is a Day Writing.
It Puts the Words on the Page or it Gets the Hose Again.
Just keep writing...just keep writing...writing, writing, writing!
Writing is Magic.
The First Rule of Write Club is You Talk About Write Club.
If You Aren't Writing, You Aren't a Writer

 So I'm not going to give you all of the wonderful tidbits I gleaned from Penguicon because you should have been there, but here are just a few gems I picked up.

Creating Three Dimensional Characters: Avoiding Cardboard Characters (Christian Klaver, Clarence Young, JD DeLuzio, Sarah Hans, Steven Lake)
- write a resume for your character
- what does your character suck at?
- pair character's strengths and weaknesses
- choices
- the "fish out of water" approach
- read books with other points of view

Subtext: What is the Story Really About? (Janea Schimmel, Clarence Young, Steven Lake, Ericka Kahler, David Erik Nelson)
- you are never telling the story you think you're telling
- readers build in their own personal beliefs and experiences
- sometimes subtext is easier than trying to show a thing
- subtext is how to say the unsayable
- working with the negative space

Sometimes Writer's Block is Really Depression (Mary Robinette Kowal)
- Five types of writer's block: 1) Drowsy, 2) Staring, 3) Restless, 4) Dithering, 5) Depression
- what is the smartest thing your character could do and how can it go spectacularly wrong?
- most of the time writer's block is your brain sending you useful signals
- when a scene is not working you either have to adjust the character or the plot
- "Just because you put words on the page doesn't mean that you have to keep them." MRK
- Creative Injury
- Ink Slinger's Guild - gamifies writing
- The Fabulous app
- Written Kitten

Sensitivity Readers: Who Are We and Why Do You Need Us? (Mark Oshiro, Mari Brighe)
- specific perspective edit = sensitivity reading
- there are very few LGBTQ people who have no LGBTQ friends, remember that when writing
- DON'T use female as a noun. It is an adjective.
- "First drafts should suck or you're not doing creativity right." MB
- avoid white savior stories and stories with all white characters in South Chicago for example
- don't have marginalized characters that have no agency or effect on the plot
- make sure that a reader can tell from context that the attitude of a character is wrong - it has to be on the page
- don't tell the story of a marginalized community without having that community represented in the story (i.e. blacks in Harry Potter)

How to Update and Fix Problematic Archetypes and Tropes in Speculative Fiction (Karen Burnham, Cassandra Morgan, Michael Cieslak, Meghann Pardee, Mari Brighe)
- everyone in Detroit is not white
- when someone calls you out, ask them to educate you on what you did wrong
- do not replace a minority with orcs or some other race we should be afraid of
- Lovecraftian is awesome...Lovecraft was a dick
- diversity on another planet will always be an allegory, that's just how humans think

The Top 10 Grammar Mistakes that You Don't Know Your (sic) Making (Carol Flynt, David Erik Nelson)
- you will be judged on your grammar and dictation
- He was a short man with a mustache weighing 200 lbs. (that's a lot of facial hair!) vs. He was a short, 200-pound man sporting a mustache.
- there are 3 types of pronouns: subjective (replace subject), objective (replace object), and possessive (show ownership)
- Avoid passive voice (ex. Mistakes were made.) except when the agent is unknown (ex. This sword was forged in the 1300s), when the agent is too obvious to mention (ex. Shoplifters will be prosecuted.), or when the agent is too contentious to mention (The last bill was not paid on time.)
- forming plural nouns never uses an apostrophe...never

Keep Writing and Edit On.
I Write, I Edit, I Write Again. Witness!
We're Making Better Words, All of Them, Better Words.
I Write to Burn Off the Crazy.
A Good Day Writing is a Day Writing.
It Puts the Words on the Page or it Gets the Hose Again.
Just keep writing...just keep writing...writing, writing, writing!
Writing is Magic.
The First Rule of Write Club is You Talk About Write Club.

Penguicon is just around the corner, though taking place in May (May 4th - 6th) this year instead of the usual April. Once again, makers, open-sourcers, scientists, artists, writers, science fiction and fantasy fans and aficionados, geeks, techies, nerds, cosplayers, and all manner of other wonderful people will be getting together in our yearly celebration of things we hold dear. If you haven't ever yet been to Penguicon, there is no better time, with new and exciting "escape the room" scenarios and a new geek burlesque performance in addition to the usual wide array of panels, talks, workshops, etc.

As for myself, I will be in attendance, but not nearly as busy with panels as I've been in previous years. I'll be doing a reading from my newly published short horror story, Snick, at 6pm on Friday night in the Writer's Block, then shooting over to Montcalm to run a writing workshop called Promptapalooza at 7pm. But Friday is my busy day as on Saturday my only event is a presentation on The Science of Beekeeping at 1pm in Baldwin. Sunday is free and clear. Hopefully this will give me plenty of time to attend and enjoy other panels.

Hope to see you there!

Previous Penguicon Posts:
Takeaway Tidbits: Penguicon 2017
Penguicon 2017 Recap
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Penguicon
Penguicon 2016 Recap

Keep Writing and Edit On.
I Write, I Edit, I Write Again. Witness!
We're Making Better Words, All of Them, Better Words.
I Write to Burn Off the Crazy.
A Good Day Writing is a Day Writing.
It Puts the Words on the Page or it Gets the Hose Again.
Just keep writing...just keep writing...writing, writing, writing!
Writing is Magic.
The First Rule of Write Club is You Talk About Write Club.

Hello! I am coming at you live from Confusion 2018 Through the Looking Glass. I am both star struck with Jim Butcher, Max Gladstone, and Jim C Hines in attendance, and warm and fuzzy from visiting with old con friends. As a bonus, we've met some lovely new friends. There have also already been some great panels like World-building Culture Beyond Aesthetics and Spoilers and the Mechanics of Surprise. Looking forward to tomorrow's interview of Jim Butcher. That's all for now! :) If you wanna know more, you should've been here. ;)

Keep Writing and Edit On.
I Write, I Edit, I Write Again. Witness!
We're Making Better Words, All of Them, Better Words.
I Write to Burn Off the Crazy.
A Good Day Writing is a Day Writing.
It Puts the Words on the Page or it Gets the Hose Again.
Just keep writing...just keep writing...writing, writing, writing!

The new year is right around the corner and so is the first local science fiction/fantasy convention of 2018, ConFusion which will be held January 18th - 21st at the Novi Sheraton in Novi, MI. This year's theme is Through the Looking Glass and promises mad fun.

Why should you, an author, attend? Why, I'm glad you asked. Even if genre fiction isn't your thing, the literary track will have tips and networking opportunities for all writers. And if you are a genre writer, well, why aren't you already registered or even on a literature track panel? Guests of Honor Kate Elliott, Luke Ski, Nisi Shawl, Annalee Newitz, and James Breakwell are all authors! And if that's not enough writers for you, Subterranean Press will be there in full force with special guest Jim Butcher!

But seriously, I've said this before and I'll say it again, cons are a great way to network and meet potential readers, all while having a little fun. So don't miss out! I'll be there. :)

Related Posts:
Cons Can Be Confusing
Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, It's Off to Confusion We Go
Confusion 2016 Roll Call

Keep Writing and Edit On.
I Write, I Edit, I Write Again. Witness!
We're Making Better Words, All of Them, Better Words.
I Write to Burn Off the Crazy.
A Good Day Writing is a Day Writing.
It Puts the Words on the Page or it Gets the Hose Again.
Just keep writing...just keep writing...writing, writing, writing!