ConGregate is a
first-year speculative fiction convention (“con”) held this past weekend in
Winston Salem. A first year con, but experienced con runners, and it showed.
Smooth registration, a slew of interesting panels, a full dealers room, well
attended costume contest and charity auction, and more.
When the con was
announced, one of the things that excited me most was word that the
MagicalWords.net founders, Faith Hunter, David B. Coe, and Misty Massey, would
be leading some writing panels and a small-group workshop to critique the first
2500 words of a manuscript. I was the first person to sign up for the workshop!
I arrived later
than originally planned on Friday, so I missed what looked like some
interesting early panels. As a con runner, I know what a challenge Friday
programming can be, balancing incoming guests and attendees interests and
availability. Next year, I will definitely plan to arrive earlier in the day!
So my start to
the con was with David B. Coe reading from his (under the pen name of D.B.Jackson) newly released novel Plunder of
Souls, third in the excellent Thieftaker
trilogy, a historical urban fantasy based in my old hometown of Boston on the eve
of the Revolutionary War. David has a smooth and expressive reading voice, and
the story begins in the middle of the action, so he carried us right along for
almost 30 minutes. The other people in the room were all fellow fans, so he
didn’t need to engage in much explanation or Q&A.
A.J. Hartley followed with a reading of an entirely new novel. He said one of the main
challenges in writing it had been getting into the voice of a 17-year-old girl.
We all agreed he did an excellent job. Her “voice” came through loud and clear
in this beautiful tale, set in an historical African city. I found myself thinking
about the story frequently throughout the weekend. That lingering sensation is
one of the strongest signs of a compelling story, for me, and I am very hopeful
this book will be successful – I want to read more!
One of the first
people I saw out in the hallway was Sharon Stogner, of ISmellSheep.com,
featuring reviews of paranormal books, movies and comics. I stopped her to
remind her I had attended one of her panels at Mysticon in 2013 – turned out it
was her very first panel – and to ask if I could pick her brain at some point
over the weekend, as I want to grow my social media presence as a writer and
blogger. She’s super friendly and agreed to sit down with me sometime during
the con.
Making my way
downstairs to the hotel bar, I found John Hartness and Emily Leverett already
settled in with several other friends. I spent the rest of the evening chatting
with them – when I wasn’t jumping up to say hi and offer hugs to friends coming
in. It was suggested I could be the con’s official greeter. Which sounded great
at the time, but on reflection sounds more like being a WalMart greeter…
I was having such
a good time, I didn’t’ make it back upstairs to any other panels on Friday
night. The other hazard of cons – there’s always too much going on to do
*everything* you want to. *wry grin*
I actually didn’t
stay up that late Friday night, knowing I wanted to get an early start with a
9am panel (yes, that’s wicked early in con time). Making arrangements to meet
friends at 8am for breakfast, I bid everyone good night.
Time
writing
|
~1 hour, interrupted
|
July
word count
|
5,776
|
Writing report (two days worth):
ReplyDeleteNovel editing, Ch15a, Ch27, Ch28
Time: ~30min each day