This post is my general impressions, lessons learned, and part 1 of my panel notes. I don't do a full run-down of everything said during the panels, just the highlights of what seemed most useful to me and thoughts they sparked. Panels in this post: Writing in the Recession; So You Want to Be Published? Are You Your Own Biggest Roadblock?; Reinventing the Adventure; and Let's Build a World.

GENERAL IMPRESSIONS
Most of the attendees were significantly older than I am; there was a noticeable generation gap. The quality of the panels was a mixed bag--some were very good, some were very fannish. It was impossible to go to all the ones that sounded interesting. It would be really great if MP3s of panels were made available later. Nice also for people who didn't make it or aren't sure if it'll be their kind of thing. I started randomly suggesting this to people in hopes that somebody will actually do this later! I didn't get involved in many of the "great conversations" that people keep mentioning, but that's mostly my own fault. I tried to go to all the panel slots, which didn't leave much time for socializing, and I couldn't linger long at parties since standing for too long is uncomfortable due to my knee injury.

LESSONS LEARNED
1. The ConSuite does not open before the first panel starts, so if you require breakfast and/or caffeine, remember that you'll need to make your own arrangements.
2. The breakfast pasty at the pasty shop = not that good.
3. Some panels end up mostly being people recommending books. If you want an hour and a half of this, great. If not, people tend to post the lists later. Read the panel description carefully.
4. You need cash (or checks) for the Dealer's Room, not a credit card.
5. Pack an umbrella.
6. Most female-types dress up for the evening parties, esp. the night of the Fancy Dress Party.
7. The Haiku Earring Party is fabulous, but remember to take a picture of your earrings beside the haiku that earned you them.
8. Don't assume you'll run into people you know are there--or at least not when you're not hurrying off to a panel. Make arrangements to meet for lunch/dinner.
9. Learn which rooms are the largest. Panels scheduled for those rooms are expected to be popular (and therefore, probably useful or entertaining).

( Panel Notes )

03/27/2009 - Friday, full work
Surely I did something?

03/26/2009 - Thursday, no work
* Read WritersWeekly newsletter.
* Posted writing log.
* penthius freewriting, "Newshunter."
* Wrote 3-sentence pitch for Book In A Nutshell Contest (http://knightagency.blogspot.com/2009/03/enter-tkas-book-in-nutshell-competition.html) and posted it to get feedback.
* Finished redmarking and made editing changes to Vicesteed, ch. 14.

Deleted from Chapter 14

Old chapter wordcount: 5,198
New chapter wordcount: 4,021
Vicesteed Draft 1 wordcount: 207,877
Vicesteed Draft 2 current wordcount: 178,412
Notes: This was a pretty minimal edit (for me). I mostly cleared out redundancies and excessive flushing.
Reason for deleting scene: See previous comment about excessive flushing.
Which deleted scene is it anyway?

Her flush was turning into a veritable blaze. She wanted him to go back to acting normal, to stop embarrassing her. She wanted him to never stop saying such sweet things.

In a Victorian steampunk future, QUINCY is a private investigator ordered to find the cause of the comatose Prince Consort's affliction. Two very different women are the key to solving this locked-room mystery: VALINDA, a former vicesteed searching for her identity--and her revenge--after escaping a theme park of depravity where her experiences were broadcast to a discerning audience; and ROSEMARY, a gently bred young lady with dangerous ties to a rebel underground and an unfeminine inclination to build clockwork automata. They unravel the conspiracy, but not before they find passion, betrayal, unwanted truth, and murder.


That's my attempt at writing a 3-sentence summary of Vicesteed for this Book In A Nutshell Competition. Feedback, please? Suggestions for improvement?

Edited to make minor revisions.

05/25/2008 - Sunday, no work
* penthius freewriting - a trite little framework about wannabe colonists forced to live in the slums of their new home.
* Transferred new revision of "The Unkindness of Ravens" to desktop computer, changed status in spreadsheets.
* Processed new status of "Salvaging Scottwell" FKA "Police Bot"
* Processed Fictitious Force's rejection of "The Radiator Burped."
* Added "steampunk" to my definition of Vicesteed on the various places that I talk about it. Just a small change, but keywords and tags are important, and I can't think why I didn't change it before. Also, I totally need to create a document wherein I track the various places I need to change/update my writing info when such changes occur--a new project, a new publication, etc.
* Printed off Critters crits of Vicesteed Ch. 13.
* Sent one repeating critter Chapter 14 of Vicesteed for editing.
* Updated Vicesteed rough chapter summaries and submitted Chapter 14 into the Critters queue, where it will eventually bubble up to the top.

05/24/2008 - Saturday, no work
* Updated OpenOffice on laptop.
* Went through and marked up "Salvaging Scottwell" for edits again, using douglascole's notes for part of it. That story rocks on toast. It will be even more awesome once I finish these edits. Robots! Adaptive programming! Ghetto uprising! Beating the man at his own game! Gah! I want it to succeed so much that just thinking about its future gives me butterflies. Right now I have three stories that I'm really proud of, and none of them are out there yet: "Ice Mother," "Salvaging Scottwell," and "The Unkindness of Ravens" (which was out there but had been recalled for further edits).
* Finished making editing changes to "The Unkindness of Ravens." Hope I've fixed the bad beginning, but am not sure it's actually good yet. At least it doesn't involve flashbacks!

05/23/2008 - Friday, full+ work at NgithOwl
Read WritersDigest newsletter - excellent article listing 101 best sites for writers (http://writersdigest.com/101BestSites). Created syndicated livejournal feeds for a couple of the winning blogs that I found to be interesting--bransford and lperkinsagent. Also started following another agent blog that already has a livejournal, arcaedia.