Balticon Report, part 2
May. 31st, 2006 08:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pbrayA followup to my earlier Balticon post.
Under an LJ cut tag to spare the friends list, .
Drove down Friday afternoon with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jpsorrow. No traffic delays, though we were both astonished at the number of drivers on the road who were clearly begging to be taken out of the gene pool. Checked in to the hotel, confirmed that programming was still in chaos but managed to secure Joshua a few panels, and grabbed dinner at the hotel bar, with its limited Balticon only menu.
Friday night, I started the con with Arrrr, Matey! It Be A Pirate Panel. Most of the panelists were in full pirate regalia. I was wearing my Pirates of the Outer Banks t-shirt, which was grudgingly declared acceptable. The topic a good fit for a 10PM panel, with the conversation ranging from serious discussions of famous pirates and research materials to pirate pick-up lines, and which pirate would you like to spend an evening with? My choice was the Dread Pirate Roberts, so I could investigate career opportunities. Tony Ruggiero did a great job moderating the panel, with one notable lapse when he asked the panelists to create and sing our own sea chanteys. At this point the panel mutinied.
Saturday's first panel was on Strong Female Characters. The panelists started by defining what "strong" meant to each of us, with a general consensus that strong meant vivid and fully realized.naominovik raised interesting points regarding writing strong female characters who are also consistent with the constraints of their historical period, and how that differs from writing in our own fantasy worlds where the author defines the society. In the end, most of the panelists came down firmly on the point that we needed to write strong characters period, regardless of gender.
Separating Villains from Heroes. The original description in the program survey described this panel as how far can you push your anti-hero before there is no difference between the anti-hero and the villain. However some of the panelists and the audience only had the title from the pocket program to go on, so there was a bit of thrashing as we tried to define the panel topic. Towards the end the panel considered the question of whether or not the author is assuming an absolute morality by which characters are judged. Interesting point, but a couple of folks chose the example of the war in Iraq to illustrate their points on absolute morality. Not wishing to engage in political debate I valiantly tried to steer the panel back onto the tracks. Luckily time ran out before things became too contentious.
That was it for Saturday for me. We had a late but huge lunch at the mall down the street, then came back and wandered around for a bit. After a trip to the bar, I introduced Joshua to the concept of the late afternoon "beer nap."
Joshua and I started our Sunday morning with a joint appearance on What Kind of Life Does an Immortal Really Have? which was one of the highlights of the con. Our fellow panelists were great, and the panel was ably moderated by John Hemry (aka Jack Campbell). It was the kind of panel where we kept pinging off each other, andklingonguy and I both came away with story ideas. There was really too much there for a mere hour's discussion, as we ranged from talking about solitary immortals who lived surrounded by mortals to the concept of societies of immortals and how they would differ from our own. We discussed how immortals might try to leave a legacy, and how difficult that would be since over time your fame would diminish so you'd have to continually keep topping yourself. I naturally thought of this in terms of destruction, and what I'd have to do over the millenia to ensure I kept my title of the most fearsome villain ever.
Beyond Mansquito & Frankenfish. We started with an audience of a half-dozen people, most of whom had no idea what the panel was supposed to be about based on the cryptic title. Having suggested the topic, I seized the role of moderator and explained that the panel would focus on improving the programming on the Sci-Fi channel, in particular discussing which books/series could (and could not) be successfully adapted as mini-series or episodic television series. One audience member left, since he'd been hoping for a discussion on genetically engineered creatures, but a few others wandered in. Despite the small audience, or perhaps because of it, the panel was fun, with lots of participation from the audience.
Meet the Crook Winners consisted of Tamara Siler Jones (last year's winner), Maria V. Snyder (this year's winner) and myself. As the eldest present I was elected to moderate. As is customary with this panel, there were a significant number of aspiring authors in the audience, including Maria's friends from Seton Hill University's Master of Arts in Writing Popular Fiction program. We each started by talking about ourselves and our books, and describing how we went from unpublished author to first time SF/F novelist. Both Maria and Tamara were wonderful panelists speaking frankly about their experiences. The audience was engaged, asking excellent questions, and the hour flew by.
On Monday I sat in on Tamara Siler Jones's reading, and then read from THE FIRST BETRAYAL. During the reading, my helpful minionjpsorrow handed out chocolates and a half-dozen copies of TFB, as well as a set of the Devlin books. Readings can be hit or miss affairs, but this reading went over well, and there were intelligent questions from the audience. It was a great way to finish up the con.
Then it was time to get in the car, and head for home. We made it home without incident, again resisting the temptation to cleanse the gene pool of bad drivers. Didn't feel like cooking so I called upjennifer_dunne and persuaded her to go out for dinner.
That's all from me. Others have posted their own accounts of Balticon, check outjpsorrow's Joshua Palmatier's and nightwolfwriter Rich White's livejournals, and I'm sure that there are others out there that I'm just too lazy to find.
Overall I had a good time. The difficulties with programming aside, it was great to catch up with old friends, and I made several new ones. I'm not going to name drop here, since I'm bound to leave someone out, so please just accept a general wave.
Under an LJ cut tag to spare the friends list, .
Drove down Friday afternoon with
jpsorrow. No traffic delays, though we were both astonished at the number of drivers on the road who were clearly begging to be taken out of the gene pool. Checked in to the hotel, confirmed that programming was still in chaos but managed to secure Joshua a few panels, and grabbed dinner at the hotel bar, with its limited Balticon only menu.Friday night, I started the con with Arrrr, Matey! It Be A Pirate Panel. Most of the panelists were in full pirate regalia. I was wearing my Pirates of the Outer Banks t-shirt, which was grudgingly declared acceptable. The topic a good fit for a 10PM panel, with the conversation ranging from serious discussions of famous pirates and research materials to pirate pick-up lines, and which pirate would you like to spend an evening with? My choice was the Dread Pirate Roberts, so I could investigate career opportunities. Tony Ruggiero did a great job moderating the panel, with one notable lapse when he asked the panelists to create and sing our own sea chanteys. At this point the panel mutinied.
Saturday's first panel was on Strong Female Characters. The panelists started by defining what "strong" meant to each of us, with a general consensus that strong meant vivid and fully realized.
naominovik raised interesting points regarding writing strong female characters who are also consistent with the constraints of their historical period, and how that differs from writing in our own fantasy worlds where the author defines the society. In the end, most of the panelists came down firmly on the point that we needed to write strong characters period, regardless of gender. Separating Villains from Heroes. The original description in the program survey described this panel as how far can you push your anti-hero before there is no difference between the anti-hero and the villain. However some of the panelists and the audience only had the title from the pocket program to go on, so there was a bit of thrashing as we tried to define the panel topic. Towards the end the panel considered the question of whether or not the author is assuming an absolute morality by which characters are judged. Interesting point, but a couple of folks chose the example of the war in Iraq to illustrate their points on absolute morality. Not wishing to engage in political debate I valiantly tried to steer the panel back onto the tracks. Luckily time ran out before things became too contentious.
That was it for Saturday for me. We had a late but huge lunch at the mall down the street, then came back and wandered around for a bit. After a trip to the bar, I introduced Joshua to the concept of the late afternoon "beer nap."
Joshua and I started our Sunday morning with a joint appearance on What Kind of Life Does an Immortal Really Have? which was one of the highlights of the con. Our fellow panelists were great, and the panel was ably moderated by John Hemry (aka Jack Campbell). It was the kind of panel where we kept pinging off each other, and
klingonguy and I both came away with story ideas. There was really too much there for a mere hour's discussion, as we ranged from talking about solitary immortals who lived surrounded by mortals to the concept of societies of immortals and how they would differ from our own. We discussed how immortals might try to leave a legacy, and how difficult that would be since over time your fame would diminish so you'd have to continually keep topping yourself. I naturally thought of this in terms of destruction, and what I'd have to do over the millenia to ensure I kept my title of the most fearsome villain ever. Beyond Mansquito & Frankenfish. We started with an audience of a half-dozen people, most of whom had no idea what the panel was supposed to be about based on the cryptic title. Having suggested the topic, I seized the role of moderator and explained that the panel would focus on improving the programming on the Sci-Fi channel, in particular discussing which books/series could (and could not) be successfully adapted as mini-series or episodic television series. One audience member left, since he'd been hoping for a discussion on genetically engineered creatures, but a few others wandered in. Despite the small audience, or perhaps because of it, the panel was fun, with lots of participation from the audience.
Meet the Crook Winners consisted of Tamara Siler Jones (last year's winner), Maria V. Snyder (this year's winner) and myself. As the eldest present I was elected to moderate. As is customary with this panel, there were a significant number of aspiring authors in the audience, including Maria's friends from Seton Hill University's Master of Arts in Writing Popular Fiction program. We each started by talking about ourselves and our books, and describing how we went from unpublished author to first time SF/F novelist. Both Maria and Tamara were wonderful panelists speaking frankly about their experiences. The audience was engaged, asking excellent questions, and the hour flew by.
On Monday I sat in on Tamara Siler Jones's reading, and then read from THE FIRST BETRAYAL. During the reading, my helpful minion
jpsorrow handed out chocolates and a half-dozen copies of TFB, as well as a set of the Devlin books. Readings can be hit or miss affairs, but this reading went over well, and there were intelligent questions from the audience. It was a great way to finish up the con. Then it was time to get in the car, and head for home. We made it home without incident, again resisting the temptation to cleanse the gene pool of bad drivers. Didn't feel like cooking so I called up
jennifer_dunne and persuaded her to go out for dinner. That's all from me. Others have posted their own accounts of Balticon, check out
jpsorrow's Joshua Palmatier's and nightwolfwriter Rich White's livejournals, and I'm sure that there are others out there that I'm just too lazy to find. Overall I had a good time. The difficulties with programming aside, it was great to catch up with old friends, and I made several new ones. I'm not going to name drop here, since I'm bound to leave someone out, so please just accept a general wave.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-02 06:11 pm (UTC)I'm looking foward to a long lazy afternoon with books and chocolate tomrrow ...
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-02 07:02 pm (UTC)