This is my third year at MisCon and it just keeps getting better. This year’s guest of honor was Carol Berg. I am a huge fan, especially of the Transformation books (if you haven’t read them, go now and get them, they are awesome!). Imagine my delight when I discovered that she was one of the four professionals assigned to critique my submission in the writer’s workshop. As my daughter would say, OMG!!!
The other three professionals assigned to my group were S. A. Bolich, Parris ja Young, and Andrea Howe. All four started off their critiques by complaining that they wanted to read more and that they were sad that the word limit kept them from reading the whole story. So very flattering. The things they pointed out that needed improving were spot on or were gateways into ideas for improving and adding depth to my story.
The people at the convention are friendly and fun. I am finding it easier and easier to work my way past my shyness there. I’ve been going to my local con for almost 20 years and I still have trouble talking to anyone there.
Sunday night, I went to Whedonverse Trivia hosted by the Seattle Browncoats. Our team was composed of mostly Buffy the Vampire Slayer ‘experts’ and when the questions became Buffy-heavy our team won (barely). Had so much fun with that but now I am home and re-watching Dollhouse to expand my knowledge base for the next round of trivia.
Pictures from the car on the way to Missoula, MT. Beautiful scenery south of Spokane and west of Missoula.
Pictures from our room. The water ran high everywhere we went.
I’ve been wanting to find out what ‘filking’ was for several cons now. This convention I finally went to a session and then another and I had a blast. Here you can see the gang singing a filk song called JLA to the tune of YMCA. Talk about having a ball.
Do you want to know where I’ll be this weekend? At the awesome MisCon in Missoula, MT. I’ll be in the writers workshop and hanging out in various panels on related subjects. Come say ‘hi’.
This is my third year. I’m still a relative noob but everyone is very friendly and it has quickly become my favorite con.
Last night, I went to the Patricia Briggs signing at the local B&N. I went partly to say hi and mostly to wear my Rivers of Ink T-shirt for the fundraising book fair the store was hosting for the local writing conference I’m on the steering committee for.
As I was driving up the main street behind the mall, I saw a double flash of lightning over the city in front of me and thought “Cool.” I called home when I got to the store to ask my husband to tell my youngest about it. He loves lightning storms. The sky was black with rain clouds but I shrugged it off as a ‘normal’ storm and went inside. Twenty minutes later everyone was asking me if I had looked out the window, the apocalypse was here. (People in my neck of the woods. . .er . . desert can be so dramatic) So I looked out the window and sure enough the wind was blowing the rain sideways and the rain was coming down in buckets, and that isn’t an exaggeration. So I sat in the chair for the Q&A part of the signing and watched the weather.
About 10-15 minutes into the presentation, a niggling doubt started worming its way through my brain. Did I close my car window?
I knew I opened it after work at 1:15pm because the heat had built up and my AC doesn’t work and I needed to alleviate the stuffiness. But when I got home and I had to park in the driveway because my dear husband still hasn’t moved the camping gear he left in my spot in the garage, then did I close it? I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know.
After the event, at my car, I discovered the answer. My passenger side window was indeed open. Only an inch and a half but it was open. And that was enough. I had a puddle on my passenger seat, literally standing water on top of my copy of Realms of Fantasy which I had left lying there. My jacket, which was on the driver’s seat felt dry when I put it on but my seat was damp.
It might have been ok if I had been able to go straight home. I live less than 10 minutes from the mall. But it wasn’t ok. The cops had blockaded off a crucial part of the route home (not sure if it was an accident or flood or something else) and we were detoured. The detour took me down roads I was unfamiliar with and so I followed the car in front of me, hoping they knew which way to go. The road looped around and I arrived back at the cop car. Was this a trick? A detour that led nowhere? I tried again, taking the loop in the reverse direction and finally on the far side of the loop found a tiny street that led out of the area and to my home. Huzzah!
Meanwhile, my rear end was now cold and damp and the magazine a soggy mess. I pulled into the driveway and opened the garage and my husband still hasn’t put the camping gear away. Grrr.
May 13
Posted by: Candi in TV Shows Comments Off
Ten years ago I was excited that a new Superman TV show was going to be airing on the CW. I set aside the time and parked myself in front of the television and when that first scene rolled out my cheeks hurt I was smiling so much. Tonight, Smallville comes to an end and I think my cheeks will be wet with tears. I’ll miss all the friends I’ve made in that little town in Kansas where a meteor shower fell and changed the world.
Superman has to be my all-time favorite superhero. But he isn’t a bad boy? you ask. Well that’s right. I never claimed to be consistent. Superman, to me, is the prince of the superhero world. I adored him when I first saw Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel with the family in the living room years ago. The image of him saving Lois was so romantic and dramatic and. . . well, . . . heroic. I loved it. I also watched Lois & Clark when that came out. Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher as the super couple were funny and endearing and cool.
Then came Smallville and I fell in love all over again with the Superman story.
I’ll miss you, Blur. But first I will be watching you tonight and rooting for you to have that happily ever after with your princess. (I know. Sappy, right?)
A little late but I had forgotten how much longer it takes (and how much harder on my hands) to draw several continents and not just a single shoreline with a few islands. I’ll try to plan better next week.
Here it is. As you can see right now I have only the coast lines and some major landmarks; large forests, rivers, mountain ranges, that kind of thing. This is always where I start. These kinds of landmarks help clue me in as to where to place borders of kingdoms or cities or what-have-you.
When I am drawing continents I put my pencil on the page and let it wiggle-giggle its way into shorelines. I did purposely avoid the side by side continents thing as I’ve been watching Game of Thrones lately and that map is on my mind and I was trying to avoid looking anything like it.
My husband, at this point, would be asking me about the scale. Let me tell you that that question is the bane of my existence. Or maybe just one of the banes. I have the hardest time with distances and judging them. My grandfather taught me to look at my hand for an inch and five inch measurement help (the last knuckle of your thumb for the first and the width of your palm and the length of your thumb when held out in an ‘L’ shape for the second) but that doesn’t help me when dealing with landmasses. I do however sort think of the round continent that is sorta in the middle as being Australia sized. We’ll see if that holds up as I add more details.
The equator goes through the southern continent and the north part of that land mass you see jutting on to the page. The northern part of the north continent is tundra-y in my mind. These are mostly just guides, things to think about. I may twist things a bit as I go to fit my vision of the world. The map is never meant to restrict my ideas, just give me a place to ground them.
Speaking of that southern landmass jutting in off the edge of the page, didn’t I say I wanted to show all of the continents? Didn’t I say I didn’t want to leave anything hanging off the page? Well, yes I did. When I drew the first three continents and the islands, the lower right corner kept mocking me with its emptiness. “There’s something here. There’s something here,” it said. So I drew what was there. I do have a few story ideas floating around in my noggin about an untamed lands and colonies. Now I have a place I can put them.
Next up: Naming things and putting in borders.
Hi. My name is C. L. Norman and I’m a Sookie Fan. I admit it. I like me some Sookie. She’s funny and never boring and always in trouble.
I enjoyed Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris very much. There were rumblings in the blogosphere after Dead in the Family came out. Everyone thought it wasn’t as good. Maybe the series should come to an end. Blah, blah, blah. I liked Dead in the Family. Sookie has had such a wild ride of it through the first 9 books that I think it was about time she had a different kind of challenge and I liked it.
Dead Reckoning sends Sookie back into the thick of things. Some old threats are taken care of and some new challenges are brought to light. Some of which aren’t resolved in anyway before the book ends. Yeah, I was screaming at the end of this book too. For different reasons than I mentioned before. Before it was because I knew the story was over and I had to go home to the real world. This time, I screamed because I have to wait a year to find out what happens next.
There was action and bloody fight scenes (which can only be done in a Sookie book) and Sookie’s love life get thrown for a loop. Again.
I’d recommend these books to anyone who likes romance, mystery, urban fantasy, or having a good time when they read.
