I’M Baaack…
Once again, Orycon was a banquet of experiences from the scifi/fantasy world.
This year the costume of choice was Steampunk. Many men wore WWI kaki uniforms with goggles on leather hoods and several women appeared in Victorian, low cut, ruffled gowns with waving feathered bonnets. An arbitrary Startrek uniform popped up, now and then, with an occasional exotic horror costume making an appearance. There was a parade.
Coming in from the hotel’s garage, I had to warn an innocent out of town traveler that he wasn’t really entering the Twilight Zone…or maybe he was.
I attended formal panels on “To Outline or Not to Outline: that is the Question.” and “Writing with all Your Senses”, “Social Networking Sites”, “Blah, blah, bah she said”, “Spaceships, Colonists and castaways”, and several more
The most amazing panel for me was on Sunday.
I almost didn’t go.
This was on isolated communities and entitled, “Spaceships, Colonists and Castaways.” Since my fifth novel takes place on a spaceship with an enclosed environment that causes lots of stress, I decided to attend. I had no idea that David Levine participated in a Mars simulation where they were isolated as if on a spaceship with limited water and resources for the amount of time it would take to get to Mars.
He had appeared so normal at the luncheons!
And Camille Alexa, also part of my Portland Luncheon Writers group, relayed her experience the night before of being trapped in an Orycon elevator with twelve other people. Eventually, the emergency rescue squad pried them out, but not before she had trouble breathing the diminishing air supply. Panic does strange things to people.
G. David Nordley related his military experiences of being in charge of a unit that was isolated in a foreign country where, in order to alleviate boredom, four soldiers brewed some alcohol and then challenged each other to a drinking contest. He walked in after they had drunk quite a bit, but just in time to stop them from further drinking. They later thanked him for saving their lives. But not all. One died. Death by friendly liquid? Try explaining that to a soldier’s mother.
While the panels were informative, the best part was networking.
Mary Rosenblum confided that she is working on a sequel to Horizons. Mary heads up a program called The New Writers Interface. It provides services and workshops for new aspiring authors.
Mike Shepherd talked about a brand new series he is planning after having so much success with his Kris Longknife novels.
M. K. Hobson, Nebula nominee for 2011, graciously signed my copy of The Native Star while standing in line at the lobby desk and mentioned that she had just published its sequel. Check her out on Amazon.
And William K. Nolan, of “Logan’s Run” fame, was one of three who critiqued the first 7,000 words of one of my future novels in the Alysian Series that I am currently working on. Yipes!
The writers’ workshops were constructive and tough, but all the stories will be better because of the time and care the pros took with their critiques. I want to thank Carole Cole for the outstanding job she did on organizing it. Kudos Carole.
I came home exhausted and humbled, but wiser in the ways of book writing.
I didn’t hear very much about Indie Publishing. The elephant in the room was ignored as far as my experience went. Everyone talked about query letters, proper submission format and waiting years for a response. There was a lot of talk about newly published short stories, not so much on newly published novels.
I was amazed. I had expected more about self-publishing. The whole industry is going through an upheaval and change and not much was said about it at the convention. Well-known editors were either absent or hiding out in a Steampunk disguise. Most of the attendees had gray hair and lined faces. I wondered where our young future writers were.
Most likely twittering or face booking. They weren’t at Orycon.
ScifiBook Review 