...Continued from Part 1
Coming out of the “Epic Fantasy” panel, David B. Coe offered time for an interview for BullSpec magazine (I’ll add the link when the interview goes live). We sat down for over an hour and talked about his Thieftaker Chronicles, a historical urban fantasy series written under the “open secret” pseudonym D.B. Jackson, and a new urban fantasy series with Baen Books called The Case Files of Justis Fearsson – the first book, Spell Blind, will come out in January. We also chatted about MagicalWord.net, raising teen daughters, and much more. I’ve known David for *mumblemumble* years, so I was positively gleeful when Sam Montgomery-Blinn asked me if I’d “be interested” to interview David. Oh, twist my rubber arm…
Coming out of the “Epic Fantasy” panel, David B. Coe offered time for an interview for BullSpec magazine (I’ll add the link when the interview goes live). We sat down for over an hour and talked about his Thieftaker Chronicles, a historical urban fantasy series written under the “open secret” pseudonym D.B. Jackson, and a new urban fantasy series with Baen Books called The Case Files of Justis Fearsson – the first book, Spell Blind, will come out in January. We also chatted about MagicalWord.net, raising teen daughters, and much more. I’ve known David for *mumblemumble* years, so I was positively gleeful when Sam Montgomery-Blinn asked me if I’d “be interested” to interview David. Oh, twist my rubber arm…
Returning to the
convention, I missed the beginning my next planned panel, “Urban Fantasy:
Future of the Genre,” with moderator Faith Hunter, and guests Larry Correia,
Marcia Colette, Nicole Kurtz, and Sharon Stogner. By the time I came in, they
were *slightly* off topic, talking about more of the business of writing, with
Larry Correia offering strong warnings to be careful and read your contracts!
He also encouraged the writers in the crowd to simply do you best as a writer.
This was followed
by a good discussion of genre blending across speculative fiction (or all
fiction), or sub-genre blending within urban fantasy. Faith said her Jane
Yellowrock series started as straight-up urban fantasy, and Laurell K. Hamilton
has called it “blaster porn” (due to Jane’s love of weaponry to fight vamps and
other Big Bads). There’s also a slowly developing romance element, and
alternative future/world building.
Larry says all
rules will be broken. “If you like it, and readers love it, do that. If readers
hate it, take it out.”
World building
has to make sense—within its own rules. Magic has rules – it’s not just “anything
goes”. If you drop an exception, it better have a believable context, or your
reader won’t “buy” it—they’ll disconnect.
Larry describes the
Monster Hunter series as X-Files
meets Expendibles.
Faith describes
her Rogue Mage series as X-Men meets
Left Behind, without God.
These kinds of “mashups”
give a prospective reader something to identify and connect with.
#
After the Urban
Fantasy panel, it was time for my personal highlight, the Magical Words Writing
Workshop. We had submitted the 1st 2500 words of our manuscript in
April, and I have refrained from making any edits since then. I was looking
forward to some valuable insight from David B. Coe, Faith Hunter, and Misty
Massey to help me “punch up” my opening sequence. Well, I certainly got a lot
of valuable feedback. I don’t have a crystal clear picture of how to “fix” the
beginning, but I do have a lot of ideas about what I need to include that isn’t
currently there. And some insight into questions I had about when to introduce
certain points in the context of the story.
There were 7
writers in the workshop—not bad for a first-time turnout at a first-time con.
We each received about 30 minutes of focused attention from the panel, over the
two separate sessions (Saturday and Sunday). As much as I appreciated the panel’s
comments on my own work, I also really enjoyed hearing their recommendations on
the other writers’ works as well. Many times, in this kind of situation, I gain
valuable insights into the craft of writing, because I’m not personally vested,
and I’m not trying to immediately apply it to words on the page.
When I came out
of the workshop, I was talking with a friend in the hall, when Sharon Stogner,
of the I Smell Sheep blog, passed by. She stopped and offered to sit down with
me to brainstorm building my blog brand, value, and audience. We both agreed we
had time right then, and Sharon was so generous to talk with me for about an
hour. I came away with a host of ideas, some of which I am already
implementing, and others I am working into a long-term plan for the blog. I am
so grateful for her time and generous spirit!
David B. Coe was
celebrating the book launch of his third Thieftaker Chronicle, A Plunder of Souls, written as D.B.
Jackson. The ConGregate folks put together a lovely small reception with cheese
and fruit and a delicious cake! It was standing room only as David read from
the new book and raffled prizes including hardcover and paperbacks of the
series, t-shirts of the Boston Thieftakers Guild, and more.
And with that, it
was time for dinner with friends, and another night of delightful conversation
in the bar with John Hartness, Misty Massy, Emily Leveritt, and many other
friends.
Time
writing
|
~1 hour
|
July
word count
|
7,348
|
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