Category: Conferences

Recap Marcon Conference 2019

Recap Marcon Conference 2019 in Columbus

Introduction

I attended the SF Conference Marcon Conference 2019 in Columbus on May 11. They held it at 6500 Doubletree Avenue Worthington, Ohio at the Crown Plaza – Columbus North. The drive was two-plus hours taken in the morning and back in the evening. I also attended Marcon in 2017 and 2018. This year I attended four panels, a performance, and an interview.

The link to the Marcon website.

http://marcon.org/

Leaving the Crown Plaza Saturday evening.

Marcon Conference 2019 Columbus Banner

Marcon Conference 2019 Columbus Program Guide Cover

Picture of my badge from Marcon Conference 2019 Columbus

Summary

Saturday, May 11th at 10 AM

Game of Thrones: Winter Has Finally Come, a panel with Vicki Meece, Ella Shurr, John Boone, Leslie Mehne, and John Picacio.

The scheduled room for the is panel was Salon B-C, but it was locked so we went into the empty Salon E room.

One of the panelists was the artist guest of honor John Picacio. His artwork was used for the program cover and the Marcon badge shown in the pictures in the introduction of this post. He was commissioned by George R. R, Martin to produce a 2012 calendar using Game of Thrones characters. This was before the HBO show was cast and he related that his artwork was displayed at the auditions and inspired the casting choices.

This is a link to the twelve Games of Thrones artworks John Picacio made for the calendar in 2011.

http://www.johnpicacio.com/portfolio/2011/index.html

Game of Thrones Season Eight Review

The panel reviewed each of the four episodes of season eight that had been aired before the panel took place.

Season Eight, Episode One

Season Eight, Episode One: The panel liked the many reunions highlighted in this episode. Their favorite reunions were Jon and Arya, Brienne and Jamie, The Hound and Arya, Gendry and Arya, Sansa and Theon.

Season Eight, Episode Two

Season Eight, Episode Two: This episode was the setup for the battle of Winterfell between the living and the Night King’s dead army. One question that wasn’t clear was did Jon tell Dany that Bran and not Sam told him that R + L = J?

Season Eight, Episode Three

Season Eight, Episode Three: The episode was shot and set in the dark which made it hard for the viewer to see what was going on in the episode. “It’s a carnival ride.” A highlight of the episode was when Bran called Theon a good man. One theory debated was if Jon was saying
“Go, go, go” to Arya as she headed to the God’s wood to face the Night King.

Season Eight, Episode Four

Season Eight, Episode Four: The theory being debated was whether Dany was becoming the Mad Queen.

Season Eight, Episode Five predictions: The fifth episode aired the day after the panel on May 12th. The panel thought that the Hound and Varys were the most likely to die in that episode.

Overall Season Eight: The panel was disappointed in the scant use of the Direwolves this season and in the absence of information about the situation in Dorne.

They held the panel in Salon E with 10 attendees.

Saturday, May 11th at 11 AM

Science Fiction is the Conversation That Starts Things, a panel with David Gerrold.

This panel was David Gerrold reminiscing about his career as a TV show writer, director, and novel writer. I’ll detail the topics he addressed as he presented them.

He recently turned in a novel called Hela. It will be the fourth novel in the Dingilliad series (aka Starsiders) which began with Jumping Off the Planet, linked below.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1111868.Jumping_Off_the_Planet

David Gerrold on The War Against the Chtorr

Gerrold contributes regularly to his patreon page. The book he started the page for has been sold but he continues to posts stories and reviews on the page although some of the content is available only to subscribers. He has been updating The War Against The Chtorr series on the page. The first 20 chapters were posted for free as linked below.

https://www.patreon.com/DavidGerrold

David Gerrold on The Martian Child

Gerrold talked about The Martian Child which was inspired by his relationship with his adopted son. He decided to adopt late in life as a single parent. It was challenging and rewarding for him. He published a novelette in 1994 which won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards. Gerrold expanded the story into a novel. He wrote the screenplay for the movie that was produced in 2007 starring John Cusack.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/709750.The_Martian_Child

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0415965/

He is working on a graphic novel for his 1973 novel The Man Who Folded Himself.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/624122.The_Man_Who_Folded_Himself

David Gerrold on Star Trek

Gerrold wrote many Star Trek episode from multiple series. The most famous episode was The Trouble With Tribbles from the original series, season two, episode 15. He wrote a book called The Trouble With Tribbles about his experiences writing for the show.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77101.The_Trouble_with_Tribbles

Gerrold also wrote The Cloud Minders and I, Mudd for the original series, More Tribbles, More Troubles and BEM for the animated series. He wrote the novelization of the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Encounter at Farpoint.

David Gerrold on Star Trek Blood and Fire

He had a falling out with the showrunners of The Next Generation when they did not accept his script for Blood and Fire in 1987. The script featured an allegory for AIDS and included gay characters so it was not produced then. He sold copies of the script and donated the proceeds to AIDS research L. A. Star Trek: New Voyages was a fan-created webisode series. David Gerrold wrote and directed two episodes based in his screenplay and novel for Blood and Fire in 2008 and 2009 linked below.

Gerrold’s final thoughts were about thinking of it at the time “Who would remember these shows in twenty years? and who’d have thought we’d be talking about them for the last fifty years.”

They held the panel in Ballroom 1 and 2 with 16 attendees.

Saturday, May 11th at 12 PM

A Furry Thing Happened on the Way to Tranquility Base, a performance by the Confused Greenies.

Note: The Confused Greenies performed at Marcon ten years ago as well. This performance was inspired by David Gerrold’s works and other sci-fi influences. It starts with a holodeck recreation celebrating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing at tranquility base. The holodeck malfunctions through sabotage. The Saturn V rocket is infested with tribbles and the Dalek saves the day.

https://www.facebook.com/TheConfusedGreenies/

They held the performance in the Cardinal room with 7 attendees.

Saturday, May 11th at 1 PM

Avengers Endgame: Half the World awaits, a panel with Roy Minamide, Paul Hahn, Chris Stephenson, Joe Beale, and Jeff Wolfe.

Avengers: Endgame was widely released on April 26, 2019, and the panel talked about their impressions of the movie and its place as the last of 22 movies in Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The panel began with the panelists and the audience members stating their favorite moments of the movie.

null

Endgame Questions

They went on to ask questions about the movie. How exactly did they create a GPS of the quantum realm? Where did Captain America get more Pym particles? The heroes are too powerful which leads to “superman syndrome” where the villains must become overwhelmingly powerful, so how do you manage that? 

Three characters had satisfying growth arcs in the movie. They were Nebula’s redemption, Scott Lang’s redemption through conceiving the Time Heist, and Rocket’s embracing his new family.

The last topic was about how the writers will address the Snap in the new movie Spiderman: Far From Home which will be released on July 2, 2019. It may be related to Tony Stark’s comment to the Time Heist crew about “Bring them back, but don’t change the past.”

They held the panel in Salon B-C with 21 attendees.

Saturday, May 11th at 2 PM

David Gerrold Interview conducted by Julie Washington.

Julie Washington interviewed David Gerrold. She mostly asked him one question and he would have an interesting anecdote to answer her. He grew up in L. A. and then moved to the San Fernando Valley. He would go to the Van Neys public library every Friday and get 10 books to read for the next that week. Rocket Ship Galileo by Robert Heinlein started him reading SF. He says he became a writer because “There were stories I wanted to read but no one was writing them so I had to write them myself.”

He wanted to write SF where the laws of physics were followed and wrote “When Harlie Was One” about a computer with artificial intelligence.

He found the transition from writing screenplays to novel a tough one. In novels, the writer must describe the setting for the reader to get a mental picture while TV sets do that for you.

David Gerrold on Star Trek

On the Deep Space 9 episode Trials and Tribble-ations (Season 5, Episode 6) he was disappointed that he didn’t get a writing credit but he was given acknowledgment of his work and a cameo appearance in the episode in compensation.

Gerrold went over his story about the Blood and Fire script written for The Next Generation detailed in his 11 AM talk. He also wrote an episode of Babylon 5.

Gerrold talked about his cameos in the TV show Big Bang Theory especially the ones at Wil Wheaton’s party on the show and as a booth owner at the fictional Van Nyes comicon. This was poignant because the series finale of Big Bang Theory was scheduled for May 16, 2019, the next Thursday after Marcon.

Gerrold talked about getting the rights to republish his War Against the Chtorr series. He used a Kickstarter campaign to republish the four previously published novels. He has completed four more novels in the series and is in the editing stage leading to publication.

David Gerrold on Kickstarter

Checking on kicktrac.com, Gerrold has two projects that were on Kickstarter. There was a project in 2013 that would have adapted his first novel in the Star Wolf series but it was not fully funded and abandoned. Another project in 2016 was a mash-up of Star Trek and Dr. Suess named Oh, The Places You’ll Boldly Go! It was fully funded but could not proceed because the Ted Gisell estate (Dr. Suess himself) blocked the project. The projects are detailed at the following link.

http://www.kicktraq.com/search/?find=david+gerrold

Gerrold finished the interview detailing a few more projects he participated in. He wrote the screenplay for the webisode adaption of his Blood and Fire story. It was 96 pages, he was the director, and they only had ten days to shoot it. He wrote the Land of the Lost pilot. Gerrold also wrote adaptions of TV shows and movies. Some of his novel adaptations were for Encounter at Farpoint, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, and Enemy Mine.

They held the panel in Ballroom 1 and 2 with 26 attendees.

Saturday, May 11th at 7 PM

The Expanse: Earthers, Mickeys and Belters Beware, a panel with Ralph Winans, Ella Shurr, Lee Shamblin, Amelia Brownstein, and Kathy Knese

The panel liked that the show depicted a technologically believable future. They could understand how Mars and the Belt could develop the way it was depicted in the show but found it unlikely that the Earth could be unified under the United Nations. The showrunners were faithful to the books but not exact.

The Expanse Season Four began shooting.

A panel attendee described the series as “crunchy” sci-fi meaning that it was true to how things actually work in space.

The Expanse Book to Show Changes

The panel understood that the TV show could not portray belters as tall and thin as described in the books without using extensive CGI. They wondered about the motivation of Jules-Pierre Mao. It is not clear in the series. The panel asked how far the attendees had read in the novels and the response varied. Some had not read any of the novels will others have read the most recent novel Tiamat’s Wrath (The Expanse Book #8, released 03-26-19). Season three depicts events from parts of book two and three while season four will depict part of book three and book four. The ninth and last novel is unnamed but scheduled to be released sometime in 2020.

The first three seasons of The Expanse show was aired by SyFy network. The show was picked up by Amazon Video and it has been reported that the fourth season has completed shooting. At this time, the airdate has not been set except that Amazon expects to release it sometime in 2019.

https://screenrant.com/expanse-season-4-release-date-story-amazon/

They held the panel in Salon D with 9 attendees.

Recommendation – Conclusion

I had a great time at Marcon Conference 2019 in Columbus. The location was different from last year. It was easier for me to get to and the parking was free. My star of the con was David Gerrold. He was engaging in the panel and the interview that I attended with him. This year I plan to read his book on writing named Worlds of Wonder and am interested in his Trouble with Tribbles memoir. This year I attended four panels, a performance, and an interview. My other highlights of Marcon Conference 2019 in Columbus were the Game of Thrones panel and the performance by the Confused Greenies. I also attended Marcon in 2017 and 2018 and plan to return in 2020.

Links

Recap for SF Conference Marcon Conference 2018 in Columbus which I attended on May 12, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio. I attended four panels and two game shows.

Marcon Conference 2018

I attended SF Conference Marcon Columbus on May 13, 2017, at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio. I attended four panels. I did not post a recap of this conference. If I post a recap in the future I will link it here.

Western Reserve Writers Conference 2019

Western Reserve Writers Conference

Introduction

I attended the 36th annual Western Reserve Writers Conference on April 27, 2019. They held the Conference at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library at the William N. Skirball writer’s center at the branch. It was a one-day event with an introduction, a keynote speaker, three breakout sessions and one first page critique panel.

This is the link to the Cuyahoga County Library.

https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/

This is the link to the writer’s center at the library branch.

https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/Services/William-N-Skirball-Writers-Center.aspx

Summary

Saturday, April 27th at 9:30 AM

Welcome and Conference Overview

Deanna R. Adams is the conference coordinator and Laurie Kincer is the librarian in charge of the writer’s center.

Laurie explained how the library was set up, where the three meeting rooms were located, and about the door prizes available at 4 PM. Deanna gave an inspiring quote to the attendees. “This is the first day in the rest of your writing lives.” Deanna introduced the keynote speaker, David Giffels.

They held the welcome and conference overview in the meeting room A/B/C with about 150 attendees.

Saturday, April 27th at 9:40 AM

Keynote Speaker: On writing when you think you have no ideas.

The keynote speaker was David Giffels. He is the writer in residence at the writing center.

David is the author of five books, a magazine author, and a professor of English at Akron University. He began his writing career as a columnist for the Akron Beacon Journal where he wrote three columns a week, every week.

He related three anecdotes about times he thought he had no ideas. On clean out your refrigerator day one time, he went to an Akron University fraternity and came up with a humorous story involving the student he encountered there. One December he walked in downtown Akron. The only place open had an appropriate Christmas display in the windows. It was an Adult store. He asked the clerk if the display was ironic and David wrote a column about his experience. The day of the big East Coast Blackout of 2003, he knew he couldn’t do a big perspective story, so he went out in the street. He found that people chose to make order out of the chaos and wrote a column on that.

The bottom line is to go out into the world to find ideas. Ideas don’t come to us, we get to them.

He talked about the writing prompts he gives to his students at Akron University.

Writing is a transaction from the writer to the reader. The writer gets ideas from the world, mixes the ideas in the writer’s mind, and returns the written word to the world.

Link to his website.

https://www.davidgiffels.com/

They held the talk in the meeting room A/B/C with about 150 attendees.

Saturday, April 27th at 10:30 AM

Breakout Session

Kiss, Marry, Kill: How to create compelling characters, a presentation by Bree Barton

First drafts are character drafts. The writer must figure out who they are, what they want, and what they’ll do to get it. She divided her presentation into six sections with writing exercises attached to help writers understand their characters.

  1. Put some flesh on their bones–Give your characters a job interview. Exercise: Haters gonna hate. What does your character hate?
  2. Give them secrets–Exercise: What secret is your character keeping?
  3. Free their natural voice–Each character needs a unique voice. Exercise: Finish this statement. I wish you would give me…
  4. Shut them up–Exercise: cut dialog so the reader can fill in the gaps.
  5. Describe–Exercise: Describe your characters.
  6. Hats off to you–Exercise: write a scene between two characters who do not meet in the story. It will help to understand the characters.

We did the first three exercises but did not do the other three because of limited time. The techniques were useful for learning about characters.

Link to her website.

http://www.breebarton.com/

They held the talk in the Writer’s Center Meeting Room with 54 attendees. Every seat was full.

Saturday, April 27th at 3:00 PM

Breakout Session

The Art of the Short Story, a presentation by Scott Lax

Scott started with a Q and A session first so he could cover questions attendees had as he progressed through the presentation. Then he explained his path to writing. He stressed that every writer has to find their own journey. Take your route to become a writer by your way, however it works for you. He was a salesman who at 39 decided to do what he had always wanted to do, be a writer. He wrote a novel, wrote a memoir, wrote a screenplay, and many short stories. Then he became a professor at the Cleveland Institute of Art by teaching writing. A short story has story truth, and a memoir has happening truth, that is the difference.

There are three structural elements of a short story.

  1. Unity of action. Place the story in a single space.
  2. Unity of time. The story should take place over a short period of time.
  3. Unity of plot. The story has an organization of events

The story’s conflict comes from something; characters, internal struggle, society, or nature. Start the conflict at once. Set your characters into motion. Create conflict through dialog. Give each of your characters different scripts and motivations. You make short stories with scenes. State the conflict. No time for exposition, get to the point. The climax is when the tension is highest. Objects have emotions, be sure to add them into your stories. Don’t give too much explanation to the reader, be sure to write for smart people.

Link to his website.

http://www.scottlax.com/

They held the talk in the Writer’s Center Meeting Room with 45 attendees.

Recommendation – Conclusion

The Western Reserve Writers Conference was well run, diverse in the presentations offered, and informative. At 4 PM they gave out door prizes. They drew ticket 159 which I had, and I took my  choice of prizes. I chose a signed copy of Dawn by J. Thorn and Zak Bohannon. I missed J. Thorn’s presentation, but I have seen him talk before at science fiction conventions, so I wanted to check out his book. My Star of the Con was Bree Barton. Her presentation was fun, the exercises were useful, and I liked her personality. I plan to attend this event next year.

This is a link for the Goodreads page for Dawn, the door prize I won at the conference.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35007716-dawn

Links

I attended the 34th annual Western Reserve Writers Conference on September 23, 2017. I could not attend last year. This is a link to my review of the 2017 conference.

The Western Reserve Writers Conference

The most recent SF conference I attended was Cleveland ConCoction 2019 at 600 North Aurora Road Aurora, Ohio at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 1 to 3, 2019. This is a link to my conference recap.

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2019

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2018

Introduction

I attended the SF conference Cleveland ConCoction 2018 at 600 North Aurora Road Aurora, Ohio at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 9, 2018, to March 11, 2018. The 2019 convention was from March 1 to 3, 2019 and I realized when I wrote a recap for that conference, I had not posted a recap for the 2018 conference. This is a recap of the 2018 conference. I attended the opening ceremony, five panels, two author showcases, a performance, and the closing ceremony. I also volunteered in the ConSuite for eight hours.

Cleveland ConCoction Banner

Cleveland ConCoction 2018 Program Guide Cover

The link to the ConCoction website.

http://www.clevelandconcoction.org/

Picture of my badge from Cleveland ConCoction 2018

Summary

Friday, March 9th at 5 PM

Opening Ceremonies

Mogchelle, the mistress of ceremonies, started the event. She introduced the Con Co-chairs Laura and Stan. Sean Owen Roberts was the Media Guest of Honor and Seanan McGuire was the Author Guest of Honor. The Harp Twins were the Music Guest of Honor. Knightmage was the Cosplay Guest of Honor and Stitches was the Fan Cosplay Guest of Honor. The event was a chance to meet the Guests of Honor before they took part in the weekend events.

They held the ceremonies in the McKinley A Room.

Friday, March 9th at 6 PM

Author Showcase (Session 1)

Five authors read from their works. They were all different and interesting.

J. Thorn read a scene from his novel Barren. It was about the protagonist on a sailboat near Kelly’s Island in a post-apocalyptic world.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35282947-barren

Vik Walker read from the novel The Crystal Dragon of Nital. It’s a humorous middle-grade book about the adventures of Nathan and Zozz, his cat-like being friend.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34769784-the-crystal-dragon-of-nital

Geoffrey Landis read his short story called Chatbot and the Drone. It’s about the conversation between a Chatbot and a Drone.

They published it in the July 2014 issue of Communications of the ACM, linked below.

https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2014/7/176207-future-tense-the-chatbot-and-the-drone/abstract

Marie Vibbert read the short story called Flying Cars.

http://www.marievibbert.com/

Olivia Berrier read from her novel A Book Without Dragons. The novel uses five different points of view.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29456965-a-book-without-dragons

They held the panel in the Presidential Boardroom with 6 attendees.

Friday, March 9th at 7 PM

Villains, More Than Just Black Hats, a panel with Addie King, Barbara Doran, Brent Seth, J. D. Blackrose, and Cindy Matthews.

The panel sat at the end of the table farthest from the window and the attendees sat at the other end of the table. Examples of good villains are Darth Vader (not in the prequel movies), Voldemort (from Harry Potter), and Cersai (from Game of Thrones).

They held the panel in the Presidential Boardroom with 14 attendees.

Saturday, March 10th from 9 AM to 5 PM

I volunteered in the ConSuite Department for eight hours on Saturday. The ConSuite in 2018 at The Bertram differed from 2017 when the con was at the Sheraton at the Airport. The ConSuite was in a back bar at the Sheraton. The new area, the Garfield ballroom, is a nicer and light-filled windowed open space.

Saturday, March 10th at 7 PM

Elevator Pitch and Publishing Expectations Tutorial, a panel with Adrian Matthews, Addie King, Weston Kincade, Mary Turzillo, and Geoffrey Landis.

An Elevator Pitch explains the essence of a novel. The idea is to give the pitch to someone who could be interested in representing your book in the time it would take an elevator to go six floors. Suggestions were to not use character names in a pitch and to get the pitch down to one sentence. I presented my pitch for my novel in process, Assassin in New Marl City. The panel understood my pitch, but Geoffrey Landis suggested that I not use the phrase telepathic detective, since deception would not fool a telepath. It was a good suggestion. I revised it to a mind-reading detective since a mind reader is more constricted than a telepath.

They held the panel in the McKinley B Room with 9 attendees.

Saturday, March 10th at 8 PM

The Performance of the Letter of the Travails of Victor Frankenstein (While at University)

This was a performance staged by the Confused Greenies from the Player’s Patchwork Theater Company. The story was a humorous tale of a young Victor Frankenstein working on a special extra credit project at University (the monster).

They held the performance in the McKinley A Room with 20 attendees.

Saturday, March 10th at 9 PM

Flash Fiction, a panel with Addie King, Marie Vibbert, Megan Engelhardt, Olivia Berrier, Weston Kincade, and Josef Matulich

The best way to find a potential market for flash fiction is the submission grinder. Some markets are Apex, Daily Science Fiction, Everyday Fiction, and 101 Fiction. Flash fiction is short, has a high concept, and has an implied ending. They suggested reading the story aloud to see if it worked.

Examples of one line flash fiction follow. “Baby shoes for sale, never worn.” “I put a ring on her finger and pulled the pin.” “The last man on earth sits in a room and hears a knock.”

They held the panel in the McKinley B Room with 11 attendees.

Sunday, March 11th at 10 AM

Publishing in the 21st Century, a panel with Addie King, Linda Robertson, Daniel Willis, and Weston Kincade.

Addie King was the moderator of the panel and handed out a printed power point presentation on the topic. The two paths to publishing are novels and short stories. Traditional, small press, vanity, or self-publishing can publish novels. For novel publication, get an agent to represent you by following submission guidelines and submitting a query letter with a synopsis. She handed out examples of her query letter and synopsis. For short stories, find markets and submit stories with a cover letter. Resources for finding markets are Ralan.com, Duotrope.com, and Locus magazine at locusmag.com. Understand what rights you are giving in any contract you sign. Don’t quit your day job. Write to have a career, not a one hit wonder.

They held the panel in the McKinley B Room with 6 attendees.

Sunday, March 11th at 12 PM

Author Showcase (Session 6)

Four authors read from their works.

Mackenzie Flohr read from her novel Rite of Abnegation, the soon to be published book #2 in the Rite of Wands series.

https://mackenzieflohrblog.wordpress.com/

Adrian Matthews read from his novel Fire on the Sands (Book #1 of a prequel series to the BloodDark series)

http://adrianjmatthews.blogspot.com/

Cindy Matthews read from her novel Olivia’s Return (BloodDark Book #2)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34197040-olivia-s-return

Mary Turzillo read from her NaNoWriMo project titled “Cat, Sword, Dragon”.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7849252.Mary_Turzillo

They held the panel in the Presidential Boardroom with 8 attendees.

Sunday, March 11th at 1 PM

Marketing, an Author’s Best Friend, a panel with Weston Kincade, Marcus Calvert, Olivia Berrier, Sara Dobie Bauer, and Troy Maynard.

The panelists gave advice about marketing yourself and your work. Create an author platform for an online presence, make yourself an LLC, use Amazon Marketing, Facebook snippets, Instagram, and Bookbub. Consider using a professional web design for your website and use a professional photographer for your author picture. Buy bookmarks, business cards, and items to give away free at conventions related to yourself and your works.

They held the panel in the Presidential Boardroom with 5 attendees.

Sunday, March 11th at 2 PM

Closing Ceremonies

The Guests of Honor were presented and thanked.

They held the panel in the McKinley A Room with 25 attendees.

Recommendation – Conclusion

I had a great time at Cleveland ConCoction 2018. The location was different. It was better for me and the parking was free. I worked eight hours straight in the ConSuite and I don’t plan on doing that again because I missed events I wanted to see and it was too exhausting to work in one block of time. My star of the con was Addie King. I attended four panels where she was a panelist and I liked her handouts for publishing. My other highlights were the performance by the Confused Greenies and Geoffrey Landis’s comments on my elevator pitch. I attended Cleveland ConCoction in 2019 and I bought my pass for 2020.

Links

The most recent SF conference I attended was Cleveland ConCoction 2019 at 600 North Aurora Road Aurora, Ohio at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 1 to 3, 2019. I attended the opening ceremony, four panels, and the closing ceremony. I also volunteered in the Programming Department for four hours and in the ConSuite for four hours. This is a link to my conference recap.

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2019

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2019

Introduction

I attended the SF conference called Cleveland ConCoction at 600 North Aurora Road Aurora, Ohio at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 1 to 3, 2019. I attended the opening ceremony, four panels, and the closing ceremony. I also volunteered in the Programming Department for four hours and in the ConSuite for four hours.

ConCoction Banner

ConCoction 2019 Program Guide Cover

The link to the ConCoction website.

http://www.clevelandconcoction.org/

Bertram Inn and Conference Center

Summary

Friday, March 1 at 2 PM

Writing a Story in Three Parts, a panel with Addie J. King:

She handed out a copy of a PowerPoint presentation with 27 slides titled Telling a Story in Three Parts. The three parts of a story are the beginning, the middle, and the end. She plans the first third of her novel and has a roadmap for the rest of the novel so she can improvise the ending since the story could end up at a different spot than the original idea. First, she suggests creating a concept which is the coolest thing about the story written in one sentence. Then figure out the conflict and develop three-part story arcs. There should be multiple story arcs in a novel. Write one sentence for the start, middle, and resolution for each arc. She went over examples from her fiction and in other fiction. She suggested resources for writing.

Her website is https://addiejking.com/

She is the author of the Grimm Legacy series and the Hochenwalt Files series linked below.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13848293-the-grimm-legacy

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26850087-shades-of-gray

They held the panel in the Pegasus Room with 12 attendees.

Friday, March 1 at 4 PM

Outlining Your Novel, a panel with Malcolm Wood.

The panelist found out he was throwing way too much of his work because he had too many false starts, so he tried something different. Outlining your novel gives the author a roadmap to keep you going where you want to go. He took a 3-ring binder for each of his novels and put his research and notes into it. A novel starts with an idea and he made a sheet for the idea. Main character sheets come next. The idea and the characters lead to a situation. You build scenes on index cards and you refine the plot. In the beginning, you state the problem, in the middle are the plot complications, and at the end, you fulfill the promises created at the beginning. You can create a plot outline. He handed out an example for his novel named Trash. Each scene has a POV character, an event or action description, a location or a setting, a date for when the events occurred, and the chapter where the scene occurs. Now you can write the novel from the beginning to the end without false starts and dead ends. He also showed us one of his completed notebooks. His method gives a more structured way of creating a novel than the method described by Addie J. King in the earlier panel.

His website is http://www.malcolm-wood.com/Welcome.html

They held the panel in the McKinley B Room with 6 attendees.

Friday, March 1 at 5 PM

The Opening Ceremonies

The Con Co-chair, Laura, opened the ceremonies. She introduced the media guest of honor Jim O’Rear, next was the EmCee from asklovecraft.com, Leeman Kessler, and then the artist guest of honor, Stephen Hickman. The cosplay guests of honor were Knightmage and Nerd Girl. The gaming guests of honor from Rogue Cthulhu were last introduced. Con co-chair Stan finished the program by turning his smiley face tee-shirt to a frown with a permanent marker to fit the theme of the con ‘It came from the dark side of the…’ more closely. It was nice to see the guests up close and personal to start off the Con.

They held the ceremonies in the McKinley B Room with 40 attendees.

Saturday, March 2 at 4 PM

Mars Needs Love, a panel with substitute panelist Geoffrey Landis.

Geoffrey Landis is a scientist who works for NASA Glenn on projects such as scientific probes going to Mars including the photovoltaic cells used by the probes. He is also an award-winning hard science fiction writer. He started the panel talking about the current situation in Mars probes. The Opportunity rover’s last contact was on June 10, 2018, before a dust storm and NASA declared the mission complete on February 13, 2019. The Curiosity rover and the Insight lander are still operational. The European-Russian rover named Rosalind Franklin is scheduled to launch in 2020 and the American rover named Mars 2020 is also scheduled to launch in 2020. NASA’s plan is to send a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s, but no money is associated with that directive. A Dutch commercial venture named Mars One formed in 2011 planned to send a one-way manned mission to Mars and set up a colony but went bankrupt on January 10, 2019. The mission was flawed. The talk went on to other space-related topics. In the long term, it’s critical to develop a practical economic model for space. One route is to mine platinum from asteroids. He talked about examples of  Mars in books and movies. This was a great impromptu talk that covered a lot of interesting topics.

Geoffrey Landis’s website is http://www.geoffreylandis.com/

They held the panel in the Pegasus Room with 10 attendees.

Saturday, March 2 from 5 PM to 9 PM

I volunteered in the Programming Department for four hours on Saturday.

When there were ten minutes remaining in the program, I went to each of the programs. I held up a sign to show to the panelists there were ten minutes left to go in the program. I also counted the number of panelists and attendees at each panel. They stationed me in the green room, a room where the panelists could go to relax, to help them as needed. I worked with Lisa and her two kids. It was fun, and I learned something new.

Saturday, March 2 at 9 PM

Time Travel in your Writing: It’s About Time, a panel with Cindy Matthews, J.L. Gribble, Geoffrey Landis, and Carma Haley Shoemaker.

The panelists started the panel by naming their favorite examples of time travel in books, TV, or movies. They were Legends of Tomorrow airing on the CW network, Supernatural also airing on the CW network, The novel The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, The novel Time after Time by Karl Alexander (and the show airing on ABC), and the short story All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein. Things to think about when designing a time travel story are the opportunity to change time and the Butterfly effect where a small change in initial conditions leads to a significant result.

Geoffrey Landis stated four reasons that time travel stories are intriguing.

  1. The setting because the past is exotic.
  2. Adventure
  3. The nature of paradox
  4. Playing the what if game.

Time travel stories work well for sending a contemporary person to the past or future to compare it to today. The best and most used time travel mechanism today is the wormhole because it can act as a portal to anywhere.

The website recommended by the panel was http://timetravelnexus.com/

The articles on the site cover time travel found in TV, books, film, audio, and comics. It is a great website that covers this topic well.

They held the panel in the McKinley B Room with 10 attendees.

Sunday, March 3 from 10 AM to 2 PM

I volunteered in the ConSuite Department for four hours on Sunday.

My responsibilities were to set out food and clean up the ConSuite. They put a deli tray out before I arrived and we put the trays away throughout the day. We put out chips and pop as needed, but our main function seemed to keep making coffee. There was always a new pot brewing. The ConSuite closed down at 2 PM, so I helped break down the shelves and put items out for the hotel to store away. I worked with Badger and Chris. This was the third year I volunteered in the ConSuite and I have enjoyed helping every year. I plan to help again next year.

Sunday, March 3 from 2 PM

The Closing Ceremonies

The co-chair Laura and Stann announced the theme and date for next year’s con. Next year’s theme is MeeplePunk, all things to do with cyberpunk (SF subgenre focused on a mix of lowlife and high tech) and meeples (gaming pieces shaped like people and animals used in Euro-style board games). They will hold ConCoction 2019 at the Bertram Inn from March 6 to 8, 2020. The audience applauded the guests of honor Jim O’Rear, Knightmage, and Nerd Girl. They made a volunteer shoutout. The Con was closed until next year.

They held the ceremonies in the McKinley B Room with 38 attendees

Recommendation – Conclusion

I had a great experience at ConCoction 2019. The Bertram Conference center is nice. The only problem I encountered was that half of the activities are in another building. It was cold this time of the year traveling between the buildings. The Bertram is much better than the Conference’s earlier location at the Sheraton Hotel at the Airport. My star of the con was Geoffrey Landis. He substituted at the last minute to give a solo panel on Mars and was engaging in the Time Travel panel I attended. My other highlights were the writing talks that Addie J. King and Malcolm Wood gave. I’m planning on attending next year.

Links

A recent SF conference I attended was ConFusion in Detroit, Michigan from January 18 to 20, 2019. The theme of the con was Storming the ConFusion, so they designated the areas with names related to the movie, The Princess Bride. I had a great drive to Detroit just before the snowstorm struck. My star of the con was John Scalzi. He gave an excellent reading and was engaging in the panel I attended. My other highlights were Ada Palmer’s interview and watching The Princess Bride at the con. I’ll be back next year.

This is a link to my recap of the con.

Conference Recap ConFusion Detroit 2019

Writing Progress Report for February 2019

This is my writing progress report for February 2019.

A sign to the Miracle Max film room at ConFusion in Detroit, where I watched the movie, The Princess Bride. The theme of ConFusion was Storming the ConFusion which alludes to the movie.

Writing Progress from January 2019

I wrote 4 blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my writing report for January 2019 linked below.

Writing Progress Report for January 2019

I bought and used the editing program Pro Writing Aid to edit the novel, Assassin in New Marl City. I edited and typed Assassin Chapters 30, 32, and 33 in August 2018. I reviewed Chapters 34, 35, and 36 in September and plan to finish the review in February. Chapters 1 to 12 were reviewed by using Pro Writing Aid and submitted to my novel writing class.

The first draft of Assassin in New Marl City was complete at 99,981 words in July 2018. I completed draft two in December 2018 at 89,072 words. Third draft edits continue.

I submitted a story called Popular Mechanics Rebrewed for my writing class.

I also submitted a revised and shorter version of Space Station Sunyata to a different writing class. I plan to submit this version to magazines.

The stories 4 Humours, Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, Get to the Point, and LARP Film Noir have been submitted to magazines.

Statistics of magazine submissions for 2019 are; 0 different stories submitted a total of 0 times with 0 accepted, 0 pending, and 0 rejections.

Events from January 2019

I attended ConFusion in Dearborn, Michigan from January 17 to 20, 2019. ConFusion is sponsored by the Ann Arbor Science Fiction Association.

I wrote a post on the conference linked below.

Conference Recap ConFusion Detroit 2019

Writing Goals for February 2019

I plan to write 4 blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my writing report for February 2019.

Type the edits for Assassin in New Marl City Chapters 34, 35, and 36 in February 2019.

Edit Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 of Assassin in New Marl City using comments from the Advanced Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio.

Polish and submit the stories Sleeping Sickness, Space-Dog Confession, White Bracer, Mage Squad, I Shall Not Return, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction magazines.

Submit 4 Humours, Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, and LARP Film Noir to other short fiction magazines.

Edit Searcher of Riven.

Hire an editor for Searcher of Riven from Fiveer.

Edit Ruins of Yarnud.

Hire an editor for Ruins of Yarnud from Fiveer.

Put the novel, Assassin in New Marl City, into the writing program, Scrivener.

Buy e-book covers for Searcher of Riven and Ruins of Yarnud from Fiveer.

Buy an e-book cover for Assassin in New Marl City from Fiveer.

Planned Events for February 2019

The next conference I would like to attend is Capricon in Wheeling, Illinois from February 14 to 17, 2019.

Conference Recap ConFusion Detroit 2019

Introduction

I attended the SF conference named ConFusion at 5801 Southfield Freeway Dearborn, Michigan at the DoubleTree Hotel from January 18 to 20, 2019. ConFusion is sponsored by the Ann Arbor Science Fiction Association. I attended 4 panels, one reading, one interview, and watched the movie The Princess Bride. The theme of the con was Storming the ConFusion, so the areas were designated with names related to the movie like Miracle Max’s Film Room, The Fire Swamp Artists Alley, The Cliffs of Insanity Consuite, Pit of Despair Gaming, and the Thieves Forest Music Room. I stayed at the Hawthorn Hotel by Wyndham which was next to the Double Tree.

ConFusion 2019 Program Guide Cover

This is a link to the ConFusion website.

https://2019.confusionsf.org/

Summary

Saturday, January 19th at 12 PM

Writers Talk about Anything But Writing panel with Mark Oshiro, John Scalzi, and Delilah Dawson:

Mark was the moderator and he came up with the topic. His point was that panelists get questions about writing, publishing, and touring, but get few questions about their other interests. This panel forced them to talk about something else. John Scalzi talked about being almost 50, his exercise program, and taking modern dance in high school. Mark talked about who he was cast as the lead in the play Music Man, Harold Hill, in high school while being Mexican and gay. John talked about working at Del Taco and learning about life. He was in an air band in high school and won a contest drumming to Round and Round by Ratt. Mark didn’t understand the concept of an air band since he is from another generation. John finished up the panel by talking about his wife’s family’s salsa recipe and how he was glad he married into the family to taste it, The panel was fun and I’m glad Mark came up with the topic. I learned about the panelists and I liked that.

Link to another air band video of John Scalzi at the Webb school:

A Christmastime Blast From Waaaaaay Back In The Past

Saturday, January 19th at 1 PM

Mars in Fact and Fiction panel with industrial scientist Bill Higgins, SF writer specializing in Mars fiction Martin L. Shoemaker, and professor from Connecticut State University Dr. Jennifer Piatek:

Two slide presentations were presented in this panel.

Dr. Piatek’s presentation was called Mars – A Short Tour, which covered the history of scientific fact about Mars. The incorrectly proposed canals of Mars were refuted in the ’60s with the Mariner mission. The Viking mission extended our knowledge of the surface of Mars. Mars has a rough southern highland and a smooth northern plain. Most Mars missions land in the north. The next mission to Mars is scheduled to be the Mars Rover 2020 mission, scheduled to be launched in 2020.

Bill Higgins presentation was called Mars in Our Stories, which covered SF writing about Mars. He highlighted a picture printed in the September 1956 Life magazine that imagined the aliens of Mars as told from many stories including War of the Worlds by H. G. Welles, Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis, and A Martian Odyssey by Stanley G. Weinbaum. He next mentioned the 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds adapted by Orson Welles that caused a panic in New Jersey. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury and the John Carter series by Edgar Rice Burroughs were also mentioned. The panel ran out of time to continue to more modern examples of Mars fiction.

I thought that both presentations were well done, and the information was interesting.

A copy of a drawing by Boris Artzybasheff from the September 24, 1956 issue of Life magazine.

Saturday, January 19th at 3 PM

Reading by John Scalzi:

John Scalzi’s current work in progress is his sequel to his novella called The Dispatcher. The tentative title for the work is Dispatcher 2 –the dispationing (probably not the final title). He read Chapter 1 of his new work. In the world of the novel, people who are murdered will return alive to a place they found comfort in the past. They appear naked, healthy and well. Suicide does not work in this world so there is a call for Dispatchers, who murder terminal patients or for other reasons if their clients want a fresh start. This work is about a Dispatcher debating if he will accept Mr. Pang as a client. The chapter comes to a satisfying conclusion. Scalzi is an engaging reader of his work. Well done.

This is the Goodreads link to The Dispatcher.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34819813-the-dispatcher

Scalzi had more time to read, so he read two posts from his blog named Whatever. The first post he read was titled “Automated Customer Service”. It was a funny short story about a computerized phone customer service call about a malfunctioning Vacuubot.

A Thanksgiving Week Gift for You: “Automated Customer Service”

The last story was named “Four Views of the Same Short Story”.

Four Views of the Same Short Story

A short Q and A followed. The whole hour was fun and perfect. It was my best hour of the con.

Saturday, January 19th at 6:30 PM (Err, I should have been there at 6:10 PM)

I watched the movie The Princess Bride. The Princess Bride was the theme of this con, Storming the ConFusion. I’ve seen the movie many times but I thought that it would be fun to see it here with an audience. In the Henry Ford boardroom (renamed Miracle Max’s Film Room for the Con) there is a large screen TV at one end of the room and a large table with comfortable chairs surrounding it. The movie played on the screen and all the dozen chairs were filled.

On the sheet posted on the door, it said the movie would start at 6:30 PM but I think it started at 6:10 PM. Then I arrived at 6:25 PM the scene playing was the one where the Man in Black (Dread Pirate Roberts, but secretly Westley) was sword fighting with Inigo Montoya and it was almost over. The movie ended at 7:40 PM and the movie is 90 minutes long so I figure about a 6:10 PM start. I watched the rest of the movie. The cool thing is that the five scenes at the beginning of the movie that I missed are all available on Youtube. I watched them all after the con. It turned out to be a great idea to watch the movie with others and I am glad that I did.

Youtube link to a playlist with 12 clips from the movie:

Sign on the door to the boardroom where the movie played.

Sunday, January 20th at 10 AM

I attended an interview with Ada Palmer, the Author Guest of Honor for ConFusion 2019. Ada Palmer was interviewed by Black Gate columnist Brandon Crilly. She is an associate professor of early modern European History at the University of Chicago. Ada Palmer first talked about her current project on censorship. She is co-writing a book called Censorship and Information Control in Information Revolutions with Cory Doctorow and Adrian Johns. Her project is funded through Kickstarter Their idea is that censorship has always been a part of society and always will. There are two kinds of censorship. The Catholic model where works are sent to a censer and edited before they are published and the English model where works are censored after they have been printed and deemed censorable.

Censorship relates to her current fiction novel series, Terra Ignota. She extrapolated certain trends from the past into the future to develop her series. Some of those trends are religiosity, the changing family unit, and gender relations. She recommended the short story The Autopsy by Michael Shae, link below. She identifies herself as a writer and not a professor. Her writing suggestion is to take an old story and edit it to half-length to get to the essence of the story. It will help the writer to be concise and make sure that every line and word is doing some work. Brandon conducted an interesting interview with Ada Palmer and I plan to read Too Like the Lightning this year. It’s on my Goodreads list.

This is Brandon Crilly’s announcement of the interview: https://brandoncrilly.wordpress.com/2019/01/16/this-weekend-confusion/

This is the Black Gate magazine webpage: https://www.blackgate.com/

This is Ada Palmer’s faculty page: https://history.uchicago.edu/directory/ada-palmer

Ada Palmer’s project is funded through Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/648994832/censorship-and-information-control-in-information

This is a link to the Goodreads page of Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota Book #1)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26114545-too-like-the-lightning

This is a link to the Goodreads page for the book The Weird, where The Autopsy by Michael Shae is published: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12344319-the-weird?ac=1&from_search=true

Sunday, January 20th at 12 PM

State of the Solar System panel with industrial scientist Bill Higgins, SF writer specializing in Mars fiction Martin L. Shoemaker, and professor from Connecticut State University Dr. Jennifer Piatek:

The same panel members from the Mars panel on Saturday continued their discussion about space exploration beyond Mars. They talked about the International Space Station first and then spent most of the rest of the panel talking about probes to the asteroids. The TV show Salvage 1 from 1979 starring Andy Griffith was mentioned about commercial space exploration. The show was about a man who built a spaceship intending to go to the moon and salvage the Apollo mission’s equipment and sell it on the Earth. It was an interesting panel and the room was packed, standing room only.

Sunday, January 20th at 1 PM

Supply Lines and Economics in Fantasy Worldbuilding panel with K. A. Doore, Ferrett Steinmetz, Jennifer Mace, Scott H. Andrews, Jon Skovron, and Teresa Nielsen Hayden.

They authors talked about how economics affected the story they write. The best part of the panel was their recommendations of resource books to read. They are 1491 by Charles Man, Debt by David Graeber, Great Cities in History by John Julius Norwich., and Food by Dorothy Hartley. There were two examples of novels using the topic illustrated, the Dagger and the Coin series by Daniel Abraham and War of Light and Shadow by Jenny Wurts. I wondered if six panelists were too many for them to get each of their points across, but the panel went smoothly, and each panelist had interesting comments. I put all the books mentions on my Goodreads to read list and look forward too many hours of good reading.

Recommendation – Conclusion

I had a great drive to Detroit just before the snowstorm. The con was set up well making it easy to find the locations. My star of the con was John Scalzi. He gave an excellent reading and was engaging in the panel I attended. My other highlights were Ada Palmer’s interview and watching The Princess Bride at the con. I’m planning to return next year.

Links

This is a link to John Scalzi’s post about attending ConFusion 2019.

View From a Hotel Window, 1/18/19: Detroit

The next most recent conference that I attended was Cleveland Inkubator which was held on August 4, 2018, at the Louis Stokes Wing of the Cleveland Public Library, 525 Superior Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44115. The event was sponsored by Literary Cleveland. This is a link to my conference recap.

Cleveland Inkubator Writer’s Conference 2018

Cleveland Writing Workshop 2018

Cleveland Writing Workshop 2018

Introduction

I attended the Cleveland Writing Workshop on July 14, 2018, at the Holiday Inn 6001 Rockside Road Independence, Ohio 44131. The Cleveland Writing Workshop was a one-day event conducted by Writing Day Workshops who present workshops across the county throughout the year.

Summary Beginning

The day began in the large meeting room which had space for over 100 attendees. The presenter was Brian A. Klems who gave four talks during the day. He was the senior online editor for WritersDigest.com. He wrote the parenting guide for fathers called Oh Boy, You’re Having a Girl which is linked below.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16219954-oh-boy-you-re-having-a-girl

There was also a writer’s got talent panel. There were three other opportunities available for writers for an added fee. The extras were a query letter critique, a critique of the first ten pages of an author’s novel, and opportunities to pitch a novel to up to seven different agents. Before the workshop, I sent off my query letter, the first ten pages of my novel, and signed up for two pitches. I will write about my experiences at the workshop.

Summary Session One

The first session by Brian A. Klems was titled A Bird’s Eye View: Publishing and Books in the Year 2018. He discussed the three ways for an author to get published. They are traditionally by using an agent, by a university press not using an agent, and by self-publishing. In traditional publishing, the author gets an advance, but the marketing is mostly done by the author. In self-publishing, the author controls everything, but it’s difficult to get your books into bookstores.

Summary Session Two

The second session was also given by Brian A. Klems about 15 Tips on How to Write Like the Pros. There was a handout on the topic. Advice highlights were to avoid prologues, avoid information dumps and edit ruthlessly (kill your darlings).

Break

We had an hour-long break for lunch. I reviewed the information I had for the three meetings I had in the afternoon. Ten minutes before the meetings I left the main hall and waited at the queue for the meetings held in the meeting room. There were eight tables for the seven agents and an editor in the meeting room. The meetings were all ten minutes long and when they were completed; I returned to the main hall to attend the session in progress.

Summary Session Three

After the lunch break, they presented a panel on Writer’s Got Talent–A Chapter One Critique Fest. Five of the seven agents that took pitches were on the panel. At check-in at the beginning of the workshop, authors submitted the first page of their novel if they wanted. I did not. I had taken part in a similar panel at a different conference. The author’s names were not on the page, only the genre identification. Brian A. Klems read the submissions. During the reading, the agents raised their hand when they knew the writing did not work for them. When three agents passed, Brian stopped reading. At the end of the reading, the agents stated why they passed or why they liked the submission. I heard 14 submissions (But not all of them. I had a meeting during the session). Brian read only a few all the way to the end.

Summary Session Four

The next session was by Brian A. Klems about 25 Questions You Need Answered BEFORE You Seek an Agent or Self-Publish Your Book. There was a handout about the questions. Highlights were if you want to get published traditionally then you need an agent, you get an agent by submitting queries and a synopsis to them, and building a platform is becoming necessary for successful authors.

Summary Session Five

The next session was by Brian A. Klems about 25 Questions You Need Answered AFTER You Seek an Agent or Self-Publish Your Book. There was a handout about the questions. Highlights were Amazon reviews are extremely important, build a platform, and stick to it.

Activities

There were four activities I did at the workshop.

I sent a copy of my example query letter to Brian A. Klems before the conference. He e-mailed a detailed critique of the query letter to me. The insights he gave were excellent. I have improved my query letter based on his comments.

I sent the first ten pages of my novel, Assassin in New Marl City to editor Ricki Schultz before the conference. We had a ten-minute meeting where she gave me a written critique of the pages and we discussed the pages. Her comments helped me clarify what I was trying to do with those first pages and setting up my story. Her critique was helpful and the changes I made to the chapter made it better.

During the Workshop, I had a meeting with agent Cyle Young. We talked about what he was looking for in clients and about my novel. He suggested that I update my picture on Facebook/Twitter (I did), use SEO for my blog (I haven’t done it, but I should), and to send him a proposal (I did). I went to his website, wrote a proposal from his specifications, and submitted my proposal after the conference. It was not a fit for him, but I learned valuable lessons about writing and submitting a query. I also learned the importance of developing a platform from him.

During the Workshop, I had a meeting with agent Gabrielle Piraino. It was not a fit. I learned that sometimes an agent and a writer do not mesh and that’s okay. It’s about finding the right match and that is why it will take many queries to find the right one for me.

Conclusion

The Cleveland Writing Workshop 2018 was interesting and useful. I am glad I took the time and the effort to take part in the added activities offered. When the workshop returns next year, I will consider attending again. I will be a better writer then and will be readier to understand what it will take to be successful.

Links

Cleveland Writing Workshop 2018

I also attended the Marcon Conference from May 11 to May 13, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio. It is an SF conference, while Inkubator is a literary conference. My review of Marcon is linked below.

Marcon Conference 2018

Cleveland Inkubator Writer’s Conference 2018

Cleveland Inkubator Writer’s Conference 2018

Introduction

The Cleveland Inkubator was held on August 4, 2018, at the Louis Stokes Wing of the Cleveland Public Library, 525 Superior Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44115.

The event was sponsored by Literary Cleveland. Literary Cleveland’s mission is to create and nurture a vibrant literary arts community in North East Ohio. The group sponsors writing workshops, author interviews, and a monthly group meeting mixer.

http://www.litcleveland.org/

Summary Introduction

Registration was on the second floor of the Louis Stokes Wing. Events were held on the second floor in four rooms and in the first-floor auditorium.

There were fifteen talks divided into three sessions with three workshops and two craft talks per session. A poetry reading was held during lunch at the Eastman Reading Garden. The day ended with a keynote reading and an interview with Benjamin Percy.

First Session

In the first session, I attended D. M. Pulley’s workshop on What happens after the end? Reworking and revising your first draft. She is a mystery writer who writes mysteries involving two protagonists in two storylines separated by decades but connected by the mystery. DM Pulley has published three novels The Dead Key, The Buried Book, and The Unclaimed Victim. She is working on her fourth novel now. She handed out a PowerPoint presentation on her topic. DM Pulley went over her experiences in creating the first draft of her first novel, The Dead Key.

This is the link to the Goodreads page of the Dead Key by DM Pulley.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22914448-the-dead-key

DM Pulley’s Method

DM Pulley cut over 80,000 words from the first draft of the novel including the beginning chapters where her main character Iris’s workplace was detailed. She suggests writing the first draft for you to discover what you want to write about and then write the second draft for your audience. DM Pulley has an eight-step process to create that second draft.

Step one: celebrate. Completing the first draft of a novel is an accomplishment.

Step two: wait at least two weeks or better yet a month before you start the rewrites because you need distance from your work.

Step three: Identify your audience. She paused for us to do a five-minute exercise to describe your ideal reader.

Step four: Identify the kind of story you are trying to tell. A five-minute exercise followed to describe your story in one sentence, a. k. a. the pitch.

Step five: Review of story structure including the three-act structure, outlining your first draft, tracking plot holes, using storyboards, and doing a plot check.

Step six: Character development including the hero’s journey. A five-minute exercise followed by describing the protagonist’s character arc including the beginning, obstacles, and how the protagonist is different at the ending of the story.

Step seven: Choose a rewrite strategy. You can self-edit and use beta readers and/or writing groups and/or hired editors.

Step eight: Rewrite. Each session at the conference was one and a half hours and she ran out of time here. There were 12 more slides to the presentation, so I think this PowerPoint presentation was designed to be presented in two hours.

This was a good presentation and topical for me since I recently finished the first draft of my first novel. It was useful for me to do the exercises to help me do my rewrite.

Second Session

In the second session, I attended Crafting a Killer Plot: what makes your mystery or novel a bestseller, presented by Amanda Flower.

She is a mystery writer who specializes in Amish cozy mysteries. She thinks that the elements of the plot that are necessary are; start with a bang in your first words and first page, make the reader care for your characters, raise the stakes, put in all the fields, make room for magic by looking for the surprise, create a false high, and then have a dark moment, before the climax and the resolution.

Rewrite and repeat. Her first draft is 40,000 words where she puts down the basic plot. In the second draft, she adds subplots and red herrings to build the novel to a total of 80,000 words. She suggests authors should write every day, and she is motivated by deadlines.

I thought her writing process was interesting.

This is the link to the Goodreads page of Assaulted Caramel by Amanda Flower.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33290628-assaulted-caramel

Third Session

In the third session, I attended Kevin Keating’s workshop on Chapter One: how to hook readers, agents, and editors. He presented a slide presentation that illustrated his points through still photos from movies that applied to the theme of the topic for each slide. He says that agents and editors have an eight-line rule. If they don’t read a unique voice that commands their attention in the first eight lines then they will move on to the next manuscript because they always have a pile of them to go through. So it is imperative to make sure the first page is excellent.

The presenter stated that there are three important aspects to writing, setting, character, and plot.

  1. First, establish the setting. Don’t be vague, be precise and declare your time and location. The setting is interrelated with plot and character and is just as essential.
  2. Characters must have a goal. The protagonist must be active and not passive. They must overcome obstacles. The obstacles can be external, internal, or psychological.
  3. Many plots follow the hero’s journey which is the path of home, voyage, and return. The protagonist begins in their home, travels to another world, discovers the nature of that other world, and is transformed by their experiences in that other world. The protagonist is scarred in some way and returns to relay their new knowledge to the people of home.

I liked that he referenced movie tie-ins to illustrate his points on writing.

This is a link to the Goodreads page for the Natural Order of Things by Kevin Keating.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17081562-the-natural-order-of-things

Keynote Reading

The keynote reading was given by Benjamin Percy in the downstairs auditorium. It was the last activity of the conference. He read from his most recent novel, The Dark Net. He read the prologue about Hannah. She has retinitis pigmentosa and receives a science fictional augmented treatment for the disease. The rest of the novel involves the darknet, cyber-crime, and demons. He is an engaging reader who has a deep voice and his reading was dramatic and interesting.

The next part of the presentation was an interview conducted by Brad Ricca. He asked the author about his experiences in college as a literary fiction major, writing comic books, and his process for writing novels. The last part of the presentation was a Q and A with the audience. The keynote reading and an interview was a fitting end for this conference about the writing process.

This is a link to the Goodreads page for The Dark Net by Benjamin Percy.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30971743-the-dark-net

Conclusion

I enjoyed the programs that I attended at the Cleveland Inkubator Writer’s Conference 2018 and plan to attend next year. My highlights were D. M. Pulley’s eight steps for writing a second draft, Amanda Flower’s short first draft to get the plot down, Kevin Keating’s point about how critical the first eight lines are in selling a novel to agents and editors, and Benjamin Percy’s dramatic reading of the prologue to the novel named The Dark Net.

Links

Cleveland Inkubator Writer’s Conference 2018

I also attended the Marcon Conference from May 11 to May 13, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio. It is an SF conference, while Inkubator is a literary conference. My review of Marcon is linked below.

Marcon Conference 2018

Marcon Conference 2018

The Marcon Conference 2018 was held from May 11 to May 13, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio.

This is the link to the Marcon website.

http://marcon.org/

Introduction

I attended the Marcon Conference 2018 on Saturday, May 12. I drove to Columbus from Cleveland in the morning. The first activities were scheduled at 10:00 AM. I arrived at 10:30 AM, registered for the day, and went to the con suite for an early lunch. Activities were spaced in 90-minute blocks. The activities generally lasted 75 minutes with a 15-minute break until the next activity. The categories of the activities were Anime, Art, Comics, Cosplay, Fan Life, Filk, Gaming, Literary, Media, Science, and Youth. I attended four panels and two game shows at the Marcon Conference 2018.

Summary

Saturday: May 12, 2018

11:30 AM – Destination Mars

The three panelists debated about how and when humans will travel to Mars. All three had different viewpoints. It will happen in the next five years, it will happen a little later when the technology improves, and manned missions are too expensive and dangerous compared to unmanned missions. They asked if the missions will be one way which will make them similar to the colonization of America. Space tourism will probably fund the way to space travel.

1:00 PM – Game of Thrones Jeopardy!

The Psi Phi Columbus Game Show Network presented this activity. The jeopardy categories were projected on a big screen and the questions were written by the organizers. I volunteered to be on the first three-person panel. The game went back and forth until I pulled ahead by 3000 points in double jeopardy. The final jeopardy question was: What way don’t you want to leave the Eyrie? We all had the correct response: What is the Moon Door? I risked 2000 points because if the second place finisher had risked none and I lost 2000 points, I would still win the game. Using that strategy, I won the panel with 13200 points. I watched the second group. I would have had a hard time winning against the second winner. It was fun. The prize that I took for participating was a Targaryen lanyard.

It’s hard to read the numbers on the picture but my name is in blue and I won.

2:30 PM – That Was the Year in Science

There were two panelists that covered the most important scientific events that happened in the past year. The bulk of the conversation was about the collision of two neutron stars that occurred on 08-17-17. Other topics included a picture of a pulse of light, Homo sapiens are believed to have appeared 300000 years ago, the use of 3-D printing of polymerized chainmail for other uses (It was originally made for the Lord of the Rings movies), a lamb born from an artificial womb, and mice and rats may be able to pass memories to their offspring.

4:00 PM – What’s Going on in Commercial Space

This presentation began as a power point presentation about the recent commercial activities in space. The premise of the talk was how the current commercial space race was similar to the plot of The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert Heinlein published in 1950.

The current commercial space race has four major players.

SpaceX

Elon Musk is the founder and CEO of SpaceX. SpaceX uses the Falcon 9 rocket to launch satellites and to service a contract from NASA to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). The company’s next goal is to use the bigger Falcon Heavy rocket to launch the Dragon spacecraft which will carry humans to the ISS. After that, the goal is to use the even bigger BFR rocket to launch a manned mission to Mars.

Bigelow Aerospace

Robert Bigelow is the founder and president of Bigelow Aerospace. The company manufactures expandable space station modules. The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM, 16 cubic meters) was attached to the ISS in 2016 and remains operational today. The B330 (330 cubic meters, 20 times bigger than the BEAM) is projected to be launched in 2020. It could be part of the ISS or become its own space station. The company’s plan is to lease space on the module for experiments and manufacturing.

Blue Origin

Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, is also the founder of Blue Origin. Their New Shepard rocket delivered its first payload on April 29, 2018. The bigger New Glenn rocket has enough power to put people into space with a planned launch in 2020.

Virgin Galactic

Richard Branson founded the Virgin Group which includes Virgin Galactic. The company wants to provide suborbital flights to space tourists and suborbital flights for space science missions. Test flights have been performed and paid flights are near.

The Future

Money can be made in space right now by supplying the ISS, putting satellites into orbit, and servicing those satellites. Future money making opportunities include telescopes, colonies, mining, radioactive waste storage, prisons, military bases, and garbage removal. The rest of the presentation was watching internet videos that gave different perspectives on the subject.

The whole presentation was informative and well designed.

5:30 PM – Break

I had dinner and relaxed at the con suite.

7:00 PM – Sci-Fi Wheel of Fortune

This game was presented by the Psi Phi Columbus Game Show Nexus. There were two games run before another group took the projector at 8 PM. In game one some of the puzzles were to name the power puff girls and name the teen titans. In game two there were a couple of Before and After puzzles and also name that person. I did not participate but it was fun to guess the puzzles in the audience.

8:30 PM – Writing Time Travel Sci-Fi and Doing it Right

This was a single person presentation. The presenter discussed the issues that the TV shows Timeless and Fringe had in depicting the ramifications of time travel. An example of a show that did better with the concept was the TV show 12 monkeys.

10:00 PM – Game of Thrones: Winter is Here.

I really wanted to stay and attend this panel but I could not. Sunday was Mother’s Day and I wanted to be home. I would have arrived too late if I had stayed for this panel. I returned to my car and left at 10:45 PM, arriving home at 12:30 AM.

Recommendations

My favorite activity at Marcon Conference 2018 was playing Game of Thrones Jeopardy. My stars of the con were Ken Keisel and Bob Lohman for their commitment to science. I’m glad that I made the trip to Columbus in 2018. There will be a new hotel and a new date for next year and I hope to attend the Marcon Conference in 2019.

Links

This is my recap for the SF conference Cleveland ConCoction 2018. They held it from March 9, 2018, to March 11, 2018. I attended ten activities and volunteered in the ConSuite for eight hours.

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2018

Indie Author Day 2017

Indie Author Day 2017

Introduction

The Indie Author Day as held on October 14, 2017, at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library in South Euclid, Ohio.

Link to Cuyahoga County Library website

https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/

There were four activities presented at Indie Author Day.

Summary – Anna Kopp

The first activity was a lecture by Anna Kopp entitled So You Wrote a Novel: Now What? A Crash Course on Today’s Publishing Options.

This is the Goodreads link to Rise of the Chosen.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30553316-rise-of-the-chosen

She presented four steps to consider after your novel is finished.

Step 1. Revisions. Find beta readers and an editor to help on revisions.

Step 2. Pick a Publishing Path. There are three; traditional publishing through an agent, traditional publishing through a publisher, and self-publishing.

Step 3. Make sure that you are ready. Have a finished and revised manuscript for fiction. Research agents and/or publishers to submit query letters or self-publish.

Step 4. Building an author platform. Get followers on social media, do book signings, create author merchandise.

Final tips. Write, read in your genre, don’t despair, do your research, get help, and don’t give up.

After Indie Author Day, a librarian e-mailed Anna Kopp’s power point presentation to anyone in the audience that wanted a copy of it. It was helpful to review the presentation later.

Summary – Presentation

The second activity was a presentation about the free services and resources available at the library. The event was held at the William N. Skirball Writer’s Center. The librarian talked about upcoming workshops, author’s presentations, monthly self-publishing roundtables, and the Self-E program. During this presentation, pizza and refreshments were available.

Summary – Videos

The third activity was a series of internet videos displayed on the projector screen. The topics were about writing and publishing. The videos can also be re-played.

  1. Use pressbooks
  2. Write a fantasy novel
  3. Market your book
  4. The costs of self-publishing
  5. Get your book into libraries
  6. Publish with Ingram Spark
  7. Produce a professional book.
  8. Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing
  9. Draft 2 Digital and Smashwords
  10. Create Space and KDP Direct.

Videos #1 to #7 can be found at indieauthorday.com/resources

Videos #8 to #10 can be found at Teachable.com in the A to Z of Self-Publishing program.

I watched the first two videos before I went to the fourth activity. I watched the rest of the videos online later.

Summary – Book Whisperer

The fourth activity was an appointment with the book whisperer.

From 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM Deanna Adams, the book whisperer, had 15-minute one-on-one appointments to discuss questions about writing and publishing. In my appointment, I went over a query letter for my novel, Assassin in New Marl City, with her. She helped me in finding better words to use in the query. My goal is to send this query to agents to acquire representation for my novel.

27810622

This is the Goodreads link to The Writer’s GPS.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27810622-the-writer-s-gps

Conclusion

The four activities presented at Indie Author Day 2017 were well worth the time invested for independent self-published writers and writers considering self-publishing.

Links

I attended the Indie Author Conference and Showcase on November 12, 2016, at the Parma-Snow branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Parma, Ohio. This is the link to my recap.

Indie Author Conference and Showcase