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Con Report
Mar. 7th, 2015 09:19 amMy first panel was by far the best of the bunch yesterday. That one was, "Why Has No One Heard of Me, Dammit!?" and it was a good group--Michael Mirriam, Naomi Kritzer, Rachel Gold, and myself. (I provided links, in case YOU haven't heard of them.) Interestingly, we're all doing *something* right because just putting my fellow panelists names into Google, they all popped up right away. The joke answer we came up with, I wrote down, which is "complain and cats." The idea being that we're attractive when we're passionate and cats are always popular on the internet.
Other than that I mostly tried to argue against the sort of typical marketing advice, which is to "decide your brand and promote the [bleep] out of it." My feeling is that readers are smarter than marketers, and can see through the writer desperately writing about some subject and trying to slide in a non-advertising advertisement of their book and then the potential readers are very, very TURNED OFF. I mean, all we have those people on our feed, don't we? The ones always harping 'on message' or showing pictures of their book or slipping it into casual conversation in a way too obvious way? That's an instant turn off to me, anyway. Desperation is so not sexy.
But, it's the only thing people know to do.
So, we decided cats. Cats were a good option. The internet needs more cats
My other panel was my reading and I super-duper HATE doing readings (see above and why I am not more famous). I'd been hoping no one would show, but a bunch of people did.I am very self-conscious of my dyslexia when I read and I hate that no matter how much I practice, words ALWAYS trip me up. Plus, there are always words I use in my head that I never pronounce out loud and I always f*ck up words I know people know I'm mispronouncing. But, because I was reading from the book Rachel and I wrote, I had her come up and help me. We did some tag team scene reading, which was fun.
The last panel was the least structured. It was my FanFic 101 panel and... well, it was late at night, after parties had started, and we had one panelist whom I adored, but who was so fannish as to need a translator. We could have gone down the squee rabbit hole, but I resisted that in a foolish attempt to actually provide some "101" information, but... yeah, I probably should have let go and let goddess. :-)
----
Today's schedule is:
Marvel Phase 2, on to Phase 3
Room 419 (Krushenko’s) — Saturday 12:00 pm
Catch up on all of Marvel films from phase 2: Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and X-man Days of Future Past. Marvel One-Shots: Agent Carter, All Hail the King, on TV with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter. (There will be spoilers for all listed above.) The end of phase 2 with Avengers: Age of Ultron and the start of phase 3: Ant-Man, Captain America 3, Doctor Strange, and the rest of phase 3.
With: Lyda Morehouse, Tony Artym, mod.; Aaron Grono, Bill Rod, Ruth Tjornhom
The Rise of Women Superheroes
Room 419 (Krushenko’s) — Saturday 01:00 pm
Let’s talk about some awesome female superheroes who have become breakout sensations in recent years! Why do we love them so much, and how can we get more?
With: Lyda Morehouse, Christopher Jones, mod.; Cynthia Booth, Catherine Lundoff, Chandra Reyer
What is Anime?
IV Hawk’s Ridge (Anime/YA) — Saturday 02:00 pm
What really is Anime? What’s the real difference between Anime and cartoons, and why do we classify them like that? Hear all the facts and argue it out yourself!
With: Lyda Morehouse, Bailey Humphries-Graff, Hojo Moriarty
Lyda Morehouse Interview
Room 419 (Krushenko’s) — Saturday 04:00 pm
Learn about the mind and works of our Author Guest of Honor.
With: Lyda Morehouse, Naomi Kritzer, Interviewer
Mass Autographing
Room 419 (Krushenko’s) — Saturday 05:00 pm
The Author Guest of Honor and other interested authors sign their work.
With: Lyda Morehouse, Sammi Kat, Rachel Gold, Michael Merriam, Kathryn Sullivan, et al.
The Wyrdsmiths: Twenty Years
III Eagle’s Nest (Re(a)d Mars) — Saturday 08:00 pm
GoH Lyda Morehouse is in a writers’ group that was founded in 1994. How does a critique group sustain itself for two decades?
With: Lyda Morehouse, Naomi Kritzer, mod.; Eleanor Arnason
Hero Support: Sidekicks and Minions
III Eagle’s Nest (Re(a)d Mars) — Saturday 09:00 pm
How does your hero go about getting a really good sidekick or a really good minion? Who are some of your favorites in literature and other kinds of storytelling? Who is the hero of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings?
With: Lyda Morehouse, Rick Gellman, mod.; P M F Johnson, Ozgur K. Sahin, Tyler Tork
---
Today, too, I will have Mason with me at the con, and we've invited along his friend Rosemary. That's going to make this morning's logistics interesting. But, we've made it to swimming and then it's just a matter of picking her up (reassuring her mundane parents that everything will BE OKAY), and then getting to the con. The kids are all old enough that they'll have their cell phones and free range. MarsCON is big enough, but not CONvergence out-of-control huge, so I'm very confident they'll have things to do and yet be very safe. If not, Mason has me (and, possibly more importantly, Anton) on speed-dial, so he'll be fine.
Should be a full, fun day. I'm looking forward to letting Mason really have his first true con experience. Though it would be nicer if Shawn felt well enough to hang out at the hotel with us. Because Mason and I are going to overnight and live the hotel highlife. There are very few perks to being a science fiction writer, but the occasional free hotel room is one of them that I think my whole family should get to enjoy. :-)
It's been a fun con so far. Fingers crossed!
Other than that I mostly tried to argue against the sort of typical marketing advice, which is to "decide your brand and promote the [bleep] out of it." My feeling is that readers are smarter than marketers, and can see through the writer desperately writing about some subject and trying to slide in a non-advertising advertisement of their book and then the potential readers are very, very TURNED OFF. I mean, all we have those people on our feed, don't we? The ones always harping 'on message' or showing pictures of their book or slipping it into casual conversation in a way too obvious way? That's an instant turn off to me, anyway. Desperation is so not sexy.
But, it's the only thing people know to do.
So, we decided cats. Cats were a good option. The internet needs more cats
My other panel was my reading and I super-duper HATE doing readings (see above and why I am not more famous). I'd been hoping no one would show, but a bunch of people did.I am very self-conscious of my dyslexia when I read and I hate that no matter how much I practice, words ALWAYS trip me up. Plus, there are always words I use in my head that I never pronounce out loud and I always f*ck up words I know people know I'm mispronouncing. But, because I was reading from the book Rachel and I wrote, I had her come up and help me. We did some tag team scene reading, which was fun.
The last panel was the least structured. It was my FanFic 101 panel and... well, it was late at night, after parties had started, and we had one panelist whom I adored, but who was so fannish as to need a translator. We could have gone down the squee rabbit hole, but I resisted that in a foolish attempt to actually provide some "101" information, but... yeah, I probably should have let go and let goddess. :-)
----
Today's schedule is:
Marvel Phase 2, on to Phase 3
Room 419 (Krushenko’s) — Saturday 12:00 pm
Catch up on all of Marvel films from phase 2: Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and X-man Days of Future Past. Marvel One-Shots: Agent Carter, All Hail the King, on TV with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter. (There will be spoilers for all listed above.) The end of phase 2 with Avengers: Age of Ultron and the start of phase 3: Ant-Man, Captain America 3, Doctor Strange, and the rest of phase 3.
With: Lyda Morehouse, Tony Artym, mod.; Aaron Grono, Bill Rod, Ruth Tjornhom
The Rise of Women Superheroes
Room 419 (Krushenko’s) — Saturday 01:00 pm
Let’s talk about some awesome female superheroes who have become breakout sensations in recent years! Why do we love them so much, and how can we get more?
With: Lyda Morehouse, Christopher Jones, mod.; Cynthia Booth, Catherine Lundoff, Chandra Reyer
What is Anime?
IV Hawk’s Ridge (Anime/YA) — Saturday 02:00 pm
What really is Anime? What’s the real difference between Anime and cartoons, and why do we classify them like that? Hear all the facts and argue it out yourself!
With: Lyda Morehouse, Bailey Humphries-Graff, Hojo Moriarty
Lyda Morehouse Interview
Room 419 (Krushenko’s) — Saturday 04:00 pm
Learn about the mind and works of our Author Guest of Honor.
With: Lyda Morehouse, Naomi Kritzer, Interviewer
Mass Autographing
Room 419 (Krushenko’s) — Saturday 05:00 pm
The Author Guest of Honor and other interested authors sign their work.
With: Lyda Morehouse, Sammi Kat, Rachel Gold, Michael Merriam, Kathryn Sullivan, et al.
The Wyrdsmiths: Twenty Years
III Eagle’s Nest (Re(a)d Mars) — Saturday 08:00 pm
GoH Lyda Morehouse is in a writers’ group that was founded in 1994. How does a critique group sustain itself for two decades?
With: Lyda Morehouse, Naomi Kritzer, mod.; Eleanor Arnason
Hero Support: Sidekicks and Minions
III Eagle’s Nest (Re(a)d Mars) — Saturday 09:00 pm
How does your hero go about getting a really good sidekick or a really good minion? Who are some of your favorites in literature and other kinds of storytelling? Who is the hero of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings?
With: Lyda Morehouse, Rick Gellman, mod.; P M F Johnson, Ozgur K. Sahin, Tyler Tork
---
Today, too, I will have Mason with me at the con, and we've invited along his friend Rosemary. That's going to make this morning's logistics interesting. But, we've made it to swimming and then it's just a matter of picking her up (reassuring her mundane parents that everything will BE OKAY), and then getting to the con. The kids are all old enough that they'll have their cell phones and free range. MarsCON is big enough, but not CONvergence out-of-control huge, so I'm very confident they'll have things to do and yet be very safe. If not, Mason has me (and, possibly more importantly, Anton) on speed-dial, so he'll be fine.
Should be a full, fun day. I'm looking forward to letting Mason really have his first true con experience. Though it would be nicer if Shawn felt well enough to hang out at the hotel with us. Because Mason and I are going to overnight and live the hotel highlife. There are very few perks to being a science fiction writer, but the occasional free hotel room is one of them that I think my whole family should get to enjoy. :-)
It's been a fun con so far. Fingers crossed!