Penguicon Day 2 - Saturday
Saturday
I was whipped Friday night after three events in a row -- forgot to mention I sold a copy of The Magic of Eyri Friday night, it was my first of the weekend (but thankfully not the last!).  Speaking of selling copies, I found out Saturday that I didn't have a table to sell books at.  I had been told that panelists would have a table to sell stuff at, but I didn't see that anywhere and I heard from others there wasn't one. BUT I didn't ask around that much, so it is possible I just screwed up. The Writer's Workshop folks were s'pose to have a table, but there was a bunch of miscommunication and long story short we didn't have one.

However, Dean Stahl (wookiee71) saved my bacon, big time.  He was in charge of Artist Alley (and ConCom) and thankfully kept my name on the list for Artist Alley even though I had told him beforehand not to worry about it.  So I had a table, hooray! I was saved.  But I wasn't able to get to Artist Alley just yet, I had the Writer's Workshop Part 2 first. I also ran into Jim C. Hines (jimhines) while wandering around and found out we'd be on the National Novel Writing Month panel together later that afternoon.

At the Writer's Workshop Part 2 we chatted about more fun stuff, mostly pacing for a story.  I gave my insight on that and some of my other writing tactics.  I said not to be afraid to try non-linear story telling or switching between point of views of characters for different scenes, stuff like that. I also said you can always cut stuff out and said how when i was writing Slow and Steady that the first draft was around 7,000 words and that I cut it down to 3,500 words.

After the workshop I set up camp in Artist Alley and had a lot of fun. I was right across from Dean, so we were able to chat. jimhines hung out too, and he didn't have much of a choice because after the NaNoWriMo panel he didn't have another panel until 10 PM. Poor guy.  I did Artist Alley for a spell and then ran off to the National Novel Writing Month panel (myself, Jim, M. Keaton and Lucy Snyder).

The NaNoWriMo panel was a hoot. We all agreed that it was a good idea and it wasn't a waste of time because it made people write.  We talked about being able to meet deadlines and just writing, not worrying about making things prefect. Good times. M. Keaton said something very nice about me when someone asked me about doing NaNoWriMo and now being published.  I said that I had to confess I was self-published, but MK added that there was a difference between what I'm doing and 'self-printing' -- that I was learning how to publish stuff and was running a business, etc. It was nice.

After the panel I was back in Artist Alley. It was a good location to be honest, it was in the middle of the hallway near the main ballrooms so we got a bunch of traffic. I even sold a copy - to the Origami Lady. She made me some neato stuff too (see pics below).  Dean and I were also asked to draw and write on a gentleman's bald head. You read that correctly. See pics below.

I stayed in Artist Alley until it closed at 6, talking to a lot of people, some who had attended the workshops or panels and actually wanted to talk to me again. It was fun. After grabbing dinner at a nearby coney island (mmm, chili dogs) I killed time until the Singing Tesla Coils Concert. OH. MY. GOD. It was amazing! The coils were my favorite part of the weekend. I have video I'll get up at some point.  Basically, these people did something to a pair of giant Tesla Coils to get them to make notes and had them play songs. My favorite was the Ghostbusters theme.

A few hours later i was beat. I had to make the hard choice of staying up late to have fun or going to bed because I had a 9 AM panel the next morning. I opted for going to bed, and I was thankful I did the next day!

Picture Time!


One of the origami goodies the Origami Lady made for me. She made me a little frog that actually jumps too.  She bought a copy of The Magic of Eyri too, bless her heart.


Dean drawing on the bald guy's head.


So this dude asked me to write a story on his head. He said "Can you write a story in six words or less?" I said, "Sure!"


...so I wrote "One Day the World Ended." Five words. Beat that. I should have autographed it too.


The Singing Tesla Coils!


Dr. Zeus getting ready for the Tesla Coils.


Yeah, so this guy wore a chain mail suit and acted as a conductor for both the coils. Crazy stuff!

One more update left!