When Words Collide 2014

I first went to When Words Collide in 2011, which was its first year, and I've gone every year since then. In 2012 I was inspired enough to blog each day: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Last year I covered the whole weekend in just one post, and I think that's what I'll do again this year. Every year I come home with notes and handouts and a dog-eared program, and add a whole bunch of books to my to-read list. It's so much fun! If you're an editor or writer in Alberta, I definitely recommend checking it out in 2015.

Unfortunately this year I had a cold. The event's official photographer got this shot of me late on Friday night, and yes, I am as tired as I look, although I wasn't actually asleep...

 

 

 

Friday, 1 pm: Early Bird Live Action Slush

Live Action Slushes are usually my favourite panels of the weekend. It's a chance to hear from publishers/editors about what they're looking for (or NOT looking for...) in a manuscript, which helps me when I'm editing for clients who are going to be submitting their manuscript to publishers. "Watch for wandering body parts" was a great piece of advice from this panel, in reference to a character's "eyes roaming over the deserted city", or something to that effect. The quality of manuscripts submitted seems to get better every year, and I think this year had a new record for number of submissions that were read to the end.

 

I think it would be useful if the organizers posted the rules on the website and on the door of the room so that first-timers would know important things like, only submit one page. Someone submitted two pages, but they weren't stapled together, so the second page ended up being read rather than the first, and everyone was very confused. Also, a manuscript that was criticized in one slush session was re-submitted, un-changed, to another session which had one of the same judges on the panel, and he was not amused (neither was I - at least make the suggested changes first!). Posting some FAQs about slush etiquette would help eliminate that kind of situation in the future.

 

Friday, 2 pm: Writing a Good Pitch/Query Letter

I doubt I'll need to write a pitch or query myself, but I might be retained to edit one, and this was a solid panel with lots of good discussion. It wasn't long enough for all the questions people had though, so this would be a good panel to offer again next year. It would have been really helpful to have a handout for this one, or a list of online resources for good templates and that sort of thing.

 

Friday, 3 pm: Social Dimension of Reading

I actually can't recall this one at all. I saw several of the people on this panel on other ones during the weekend, and they're all blurring together a bit...ooops!

 

Friday, 4 pm: I had a change of plans

I started out in one session that just was not doing it for me, so I moved to Shawn Bird's session on plot models, which was a good choice. It was a really interesting look at the structure of story, and gave me some ideas of things to watch for in my clients' writing. She had handouts and slides on the screen, which was really great.

 

Friday, 5 pm: Short Stories

Lots of interesting tidbits of information from this session about characteristics of a short story as opposed to a novel.

 

Friday, 6 pm: Criminal Heroes

In hindsight I probably should have gone to 'Ask an Editor', because while the panel had a good mix of panellists and discussions, it was very similar to a panel from last year and I didn't really pick up anything new.

 

Friday, 7 pm: Kill the Parents

This was a panel about parents in YA fiction, and it was totally slanted toward those who thought that parents need to be removed from the equation, either by death or other absence, in order to allow the teen to overcome obstacles on his or her own. None of them thought that parents could be anything other than an hindrance to personal development, and when I suggested otherwise, it was suggested that if that's what I wanted to read, that's what I should write. Sigh. There have got to be good, supportive, understanding parents out there, both in real life and fiction, right?!

 

Friday, 8 pm: Keynote Speakers

The keynotes actually started at 7, so I came in late, which is one of the reasons I ended up sitting on the floor. I didn't see any empty end chairs, and I didn't want to disturb people to get into a middle seat. Plus, being hemmed in by people makes me feel claustrophobic.

 

ANYway, I got there in time to hear Brandon Sanderson, who I didn't know at all except in an abstract way as one of those writers of epic fantasy that I don't really enjoy. I quite liked his style, so I am going to give his writing a chance, if I can find something that's not too epic. :)

 

But my highlight was Jack Whyte, as it usually is. I'd seriously listen to him talk about anything. What a voice!

 

Friday, 9 pm: Laughing at Love

This was about using humour in storytelling, and they started it off by playing my favourite Moxy Früvous song:

 

 

 

I did take a few good notes at the panel, which still make sense even almost a month later, so it was definitely worthwhile staying for, but by that point I was so tired I was getting worried about driving home, so I snuck out early and didn't even bother with the parties, which was unfortunate, because they're the best chance for networking.  

@JordhanaRempel @WWC_Calgary Don't skip the evening parties; they're free and open to all attendees and great networking happens at them.
— Robert J. Sawyer (@RobertJSawyer) August 4, 2014

Sorry RJS, I'll try not to be sick next year! :( I found out later the steampunk social had a solve-the-murder-mystery theme going on, so I was really sorry to miss that. Hopefully they do it again! I heard that there were also problems on both nights with hotel security expecting the late night parties to be over by 11 pm, which is silly. Next year we're going to be a different, bigger hotel, and I have high hopes for the parties there!

 

Saturday, 10 am:  Blending SF and Fantasy

I only made one note from this panel: "When blending genres always be consistent with the rules of the universe." :)

 

Saturday, 11 am: Editing Explained

This panel featured editors from the Calgary Association of Freelance Editors (CAFE), which I'm a member of, so I went along both to be supportive and to hear what kinds of questions the audience had about editing. People had lots of questions about the editing process and various editing roles. One person was confused about editors who edit versus acquisitions editors who work for publishing houses and decide what manuscripts to acquire for publishing, so it's a good thing they did the panel. Hopefully they'll do something similar again next year.

 

Saturday, noon: Live Action Slush: Science Fiction Edition

I think this was the one where the one that had been criticized on Friday turned up again. Also, I think this was the panel where one of the editors was talking about the difficulty in writing believable dialogue, and for an example he used Star Wars Episode One, and I quote loosely; "That dialogue was so wooden I think I got splinters", which really spoke to me.

 

Not only that, at I think two of the slush sessions I went to - scifi and historical, and maybe a third one, but I can't remember for sure - a manuscript riffing off the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air introduction showed up. In the scifi version, there were robots, and in the historical version it was all old-fashioned language. It was highly amusing, and probably only someone who went to as many slushes as I did would have noticed. Although there was one panel, maybe the scifi one, where the reader was reading it out loud, and as soon as people realized it was Fresh Prince, they were laughing so hard the reader just stopped and went on with the next one. Kudos to whoever went to all that trouble for what I presume was meant to be a very amusing prank.

 

Saturday, 1 pm: Teaching Canadian Fiction

This was an interesting panel composed of education professionals who are also writers and editors. It didn't end up being anything particularly applicable to me, but it was interesting nonetheless.

 

Saturday, 2 pm: New in YA Fiction

This session was put on by a lady who's a manager at a Chapters, and she did a great job of drawing out a list of solid, current YA fiction that goes beyond vampires. I added a lot of books to my to read list! It would have been helpful to have a handout though, because I was trying to type everything into my iPod, and when I'm getting audio input only it's hard to tell the difference between 'night' and 'knight', for instance. It took most of Monday to translate the list into something that Goodreads would recognize. :)

 

Saturday, 3 pm: Live Action Slush, Historical Edition

This one was my favourite, because Jack Whyte was the reader. 'Nuff said.

 

Saturday, 4 pm: Plotting Your Novel

I had a hard time with this one. It just wasn't doing anything for me, and I was SO TIRED. I ended up sneaking out early and waiting in the lobby for my husband to come have dinner with me. In hindsight, I should have gone to Jack Whyte's session on writing action scenes - I don't know what I was thinking. I suppose my thought process was dulled by the cold medication...

 

Saturday evening:

The Saturday evening schedule was weird. Sessions all ended at 5, and then at 5:30 there was a banquet for those who wanted to pay for the expensive tickets for it. At 6:30 there was a variety show that went till 7:30, but there were more regular sessions starting at 7. So basically I kicked my heels around the hotel from 4:30 to 7. Then there was an autograph session from 8-9, and then the parties didn't start till 9. So if I had wanted to stay for the parties, I would have had to kick my heels some more from 8 till 9. It was very strange - I'm not sure why they laid it out like that - it would seem to make more sense to just not have panels that evening at all. I guess if Diana Gabaldon had actually come and not cancelled because of the tv show, I would have been hunting her autograph and filled in that hour, but as it was, I went home to bed after the 7:00 panel finished...

 

Saturday, 7 pm: Gripping [sic] About Grammar

This was a really fun panel. The room was way too crowded - they should have gotten a bigger one, and it was no where near long enough for all of the questions. I think next year they should have a few sessions dedicated to different grammar issues.  The highlight of the panel was a panelist and an audience member getting into a (mostly friendly) shouting match over whether or not the Oxford comma is necessary or not. I think it is, by the way. I'm not sure if it was worth waiting two and a half hours for though, since I didn't learn anything. But I did laugh an awful lot though, so that's something!

 

 

 

Sunday morning:

I skipped the first two sessions - I would have gone to the publishers' panel on novels at 10, and the one about the use of poisons in mysteries at 11 - but I wanted to go to church. Pastor preached a great sermon about faith and fantasy, which, other than the Bible, featured a lot of Doctor Who references. If you've got 20 minutes, it's definitely worth watching.  

 

Sunday, noon: Murder Most Fair

This panel was ok - there were definitely too many people on it for everyone to get a good chance to talk. But I did discover a great series of cozy mysteries set in Nova Scotia, so it was totally worth going to the panel just for that.

 

Sunday, 1 pm: Publishers' Panel on Short Fiction

Again, should have gone with the historical fiction one that Jack Whyte was on... The publishers' one was fine, but there were a lot of people on it, and it was kind of all over the place topic-wise, so I didn't really get a ton out of it, although I did take a few notes. I even tried asking a question to get it back on topic, and that totally didn't work. Although by that point in the weekend, everyone is so tired that maybe expecting everything and everyone to be totally sensible is honestly an unreasonable expectation. :)

 

Sunday, 2 pm:

There wasn't really anything during this time slot that caught my attention, and I was pretty tired. I popped into one about gender perspectives in mystery novels, but...meh. I ended up buying a couple of books in the vendors' room and then just hanging out till 3. It was the only slot where I couldn't find anything I wanted to go to, and ironically, in the next slot at 3 there were THREE things I wanted to go to!

 

Sunday, 3 pm: Live Action Slush, Mystery Edition

I don't remember anything particular about this one, although I feel like there weren't many submissions for it. Hopefully with WWC's increasing content for mysteries and mystery writers, more people will submit next year.

 

Sunday, 4 pm: How to Build a Consistent and Original Magic System

I was even more impressed by Brandon Sanderson after this. He's only five years older than me, and he's got massive writing credits as well as a large family, and he's a great speaker. I took a pile of notes at this one, and kind of wished I'd done one of the pre-weekend classes with him. It was a good session to end the weekend with.

 

General comments about panels:

Six people on a panel is WAY too many. Five people is a lot, but manageable with a good moderator. Four seems to be about the right number. Also, it's obvious when a moderator/panel guest has come prepared...or not. I know they're all volunteers, but audience members can tell when you're there because you care about the topic and have things to share that go beyond just the scope of your own books. Like the general social media rule, no more than 10% of your content should be flogging your own product.

 

When you have a panel of 4 or 5 well-prepared guests/moderator, it's a wonderful thing.  

 

Speaking of volunteers, everyone, except for two or three keynote author guests, is a volunteer, which is why the conference is so affordable. As I do a lot of conference planning, I thoroughly appreciate the smoothness with which WWC runs. I'm sure there are snags in the background that most of the attendees never notice, and there are always things that could be done differently, but all-in-all the volunteers who put this on do an amazing, amazing job of it.

 

 

Something interesting and unexpected that came out of the weekend is that I'm now the Social Media Project Leader for CAFE. I spent some time visiting with the president of CAFE, and after hearing of my love for Twitter, she asked if I would take that on. I've started out by taking an online course in social media through the library, and I'm developing a social media strategy and thinking of interesting things to do. I can always use more volunteer positions on my CV, right? :) You can find us on Twitter - we're @CalgaryEditors.

 

I'm looking forward to next year! Registration is already 5% full, which is a good sign... Check out the guest list, and if you're going to attend, register before the rates go up on April 1. It'll be the last year I'm eligible for the student rate, which is bittersweet. I'll be graduating in June, which means I'll be looking for more editing work in the spring, if you know of anyone looking for a nit-picky copyeditor...

 

 



Calgary Comic Expo 2013

(This has turned out to be really long, so feel free to skip to the steampunk video at the end. :)

Comic Expo last year was a great experience for me, because I'm driven to be early and organized, so we didn't have any problems with the lineups and getting locked out that other people did. I found the crowds overwhelming, and the Sanctuary panel was too short, but otherwise it was pretty good. This year they capped the ticket sales, which was a good plan. The tickets were more expensive, but I figured it was worth it for small crowds.

 

I went down on Thursday for the early badge exchange - trading in the paper ticket for a wristband and badge. I got there about half an hour before it started, and there were already a ton of people in line. They started moving us in only a little late, and the process went pretty smoothly.

 

On Friday I had a final in the afternoon, so I only went for about an hour. The doors were to open at noon and I got there about 11:30, I think. The line up was crazy long, the farthest back I've even been from the doors, but I was still in by about 12:20. My goal was to check autograph prices and do a bit of shopping, since Friday is traditionally a slower day and I thought there'd be fewer people. IT WAS SO CROWDED. And I noticed that people who checked in for their wristbands on Friday got shopping bags of stuff that people who checked in early on Thursday didn't get. Blergh...

 

Anyway, signs for autograph prices weren't up (after the repeated loud demands for them last year, I figured they'd have them for sure this year). I did see Cary Elwes sitting at his table, which made me happy/sad since I was missing the Princess Bride panel for my final. I commissioned a pair of steampunk earrings from a vendor, and then I got out of there and headed for school. I think I did ok on my final...I guess we'll see. :)

 

Saturday morning we got there around 9, for doors opening at 10. We were a lot closer to the front then I'd been the day before, and we were in the hall by shortly after 10. I tried to check autograph prices again, but there still weren't signs for most tables - just a few handwritten ones. (So frustrating to try to plan around a lack of information! Apparently it's due to the actors' managers setting the prices, which apparently are subject to changes based on how the manager is feeling that day, and apparently there was one person who's rates even changed over the course of the weekend!)

 

There was a bit of a schmoz with the lines into the Palomino conference rooms where the panels were, and if one more person asked what we were lining up for (the implication being that it was a strange and awkward place to line up, but the doors weren't open yet), I was going to say something rude... :P The first panel we went to was about Lord of the Rings, and there were four guys on it. Craig Parker and Mark Ferguson played elves, and Sir Richard Taylor (who has a pile of Oscars) founded WETA. The other guy's name I can't remember, David something, I think, but he's the head model-builder at WETA. They were very funny, and it was quite entertaining, talking about props and effects for Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. It was hard to get decent photos because it was a flat room, and despite the very large screen in the corner, they weren't projecting on it, AND the lighting was terrible, and flashes weren't allowed. Anyway, here's the least terrible of the photos... :)

 

LotR Panel
The very dark-haired, tanned guy on the far right is Craig Parker

This is Craig Parker's elf character. I would NEVER have recognized him.

 

Next we went to see Lexa Doig, who we know as Dr. Lam from Stargate. She was really funny. I don't know much of anything about the other shows she's (been) on, although Continuum is my to-watch list, but she was very entertaining. She's married to Michael Shanks, and she had some funny stories about the life of a family with both parents working in show business. (Shanks has action figures and she doesn't...)

 

 

 

 

We caught the end of Stan Lee's panel (he like, invented most of the traditional superheroes) because we wanted to see the one after it, and it was a good choice. He was HILLARIOUS. The man is 90 years old, just had cataract surgery and can hardly see, and he still came. He tells it like it is, and had some really interesting things to say. Someone asked him what he thought about the way comic books seem to be getting darker, and he said something to the effect of the producers of comic books wouldn't make them dark if they didn't think anyone would buy them, which was insightful. :) There's a short article in the local paper about his panel.  



Stan Lee

 

The reason I wanted to be in the stadium so early was for the next panel, Carrie Fisher. It was the priority things on my list for the day, and I wasn't disappointed. She's SO funny, and seems quite genuine. She talked a lot about how fun it was to strangle Jabba the Hutt, and talked about how she and Harrison Ford stayed out all night with the Rolling Stones, "like people do", the night before they filmed the Cloud City scenes. There's some more about her in this article. I would definitely pay to see her again. 

 

Carrie Fisher / Princess Leia

Next up was a Supernatural panel. I don't watch Supernatural myself - I think it looks creepy - but the friend I was with is a big fan, and I wanted to stay in the corral area anyway, and it was a good choice. I know one of the actors (Mark Sheppard) from Firefly, and another (Mitch Pileggi) from Stargate Atlantis, and they were also very funny and highly entertaining, talking a lot about the on-set pranks. 

 

Sheppard, Pileggi, and Misha Collins

 

Then it was Stargate time. Trevor introduced me to Stargate when I met him, and while I haven't yet managed to see all of the episodes, I really enjoy it. I've also been following Michael Shanks in Saving Hope, which is a great medical drama with a twist. 

 

Shanks has great facial expressions.

 

Richard Dean Anderson has changed a LOT. I would not have recognized him.

It was a slightly odd panel, but SO, SO funny. They moved their seats from the middle of the giant stage right up to the edge of it, so they could be closer, which was nice! They took audience questions, and then they'd get silly and go off on tangents. They warned at the start that they might or might not get around to actually answering any of the questions...but I think they did manage to at least sort of answer them all. RDA has gone a bit Shatner - it was hard to tell if he was behaving oddly on purpose, or if he was really odd. He actually seemed to forget Chris Judge's name for a minute! I don't remember most of it now, but there was one fan who mentioned "A-Tapps" in her question, and Shanks took a second to catch up and the he said, "Did you just call Amanda 'A-Tapps'?", which made me laugh. It's the internet fangirl name for her but I didn't realize anyone actually called her that in real life... I wish she'd been there though, that would really have been amazing. Anyway, I heard some people complaining about it, but I was definitely entertained!

 

We wandered around a bit after that. I got Cary Elwes' autograph, which was exciting. He was really nice and shook our hands, and when I told him I hadn't gotten to go to his panel, he said that he'd have to come back next year.

 

If I had to choose between the Princess Bride, and Robin Hood: Men in Tights, I'm not sure I could!

 

Usually when you buy an autograph, if the actor's not too busy, you can ask for a photo and they'll pose for a quick one, but there was a $10 extra fee this year! From the sounds of it, most actors have added that on, which is kind of sad. I mean, I know they need to make a living too, but I assume they get an appearance fee, and then at least $30 per autograph, and at least $30 per professional photo op, and each of those only takes a minute at most, so it just seems like a lot to add one more charge on top of all of that...

 

We did a bit of shopping - I really wanted a Stargate shirt, but I couldn't find any decent ones. There was one vendor that had a couple, but they were $25, which is a lot for a cheap shirt, and the designs weren't that fun. (I mean, I love Amanda Tapping, but I'm not sure I need her face on my front...) So I'll have to keep an eye out online for a good one. We did find seasons 8 and 9 of Stargate, gently used, for a great price, that made me happy. Wil Wheaton actually walked right passed us, wearing one of those giant Doctor Who scarves, which was fun. The vendor area wasn't too crowed, and I didn't have any of the claustrophobia issues I had last year.

 

All in all, Saturday was a fantastic and I was really happy about how it went.

 

We mad a stop at Walmart on the way home because I hadn't found a mini hat or fascinator I liked for my steampunk, so I found a headband I liked, and then I stayed up till all hours finishing steampunking things, which involved gluing gears on things, and then supergluing my fingers together. It took a long time, nail polish remover and isopropyl alcohol to get them unstuck again...

 

Sunday morning we were there about the same time and about the same place in line, or maybe even a bit closer to the front, but the weather was not nearly as nice, and the wind was so strong it was blowing over the metal gates that were dividing the lines. They let us in a bit late, but the line moved quickly once it started, it wasn't too crowded inside, and the doors to the Palomino rooms were open, so we decided to wander around and check out who was signing autographs. They we got told off by a volunteer/security person for loitering (!!!) and as we headed in a different direction, we passed a group of girls with their programs open, deciding what they wanted to do, and they got told to move along too! I didn't realize at the time, but that was a bit of an omen/recurring theme for the day.

 

The first panel we went to was Sylvester McCoy who's best known for playing the seventh Doctor, from Doctor Who. He was also Radagast the Brown in the Hobbit, and the fool in an adaptation of King Lear I watched recently. He was so funny, charming, and sweet, I would just keep him.



 

I mean, look at his hat! And his pinstripes! And his CANE! Dapper!

He talked a bit about Doctor Who, and I know enough that I could follow along, even though I've never watched any (there's 50 years to catch up on, apparently!). He told a story about how a stuntman saved him from a concussion or worse when filming the Hobbit, and he talked a bit about doing Lear with Ian McClellan. He was the only guest we saw this year (or maybe ever?) who came down into the audience in person to walk the mic around and take questions, so I did manage to get some decent pictures, because he was standing right in front of me!

 

We wandered around a bit, and then went to part of a panel with the guys from WETA again, then ducked out early to catch the end of Peter Dinklage's panel (he was in Narnia) and be in the corral for the start of Nathan Fillion's panel, which was supposed to be the high point of my day. We were about half an hour early, which I thought would be plenty of time, because hadn't encountered any lineup issues to that point. Sadly, the corral was FULL and they weren't letting anyone even through the doors in that general direction. So there were a whole bunch of confused people milling around, not sure what to do, and loud announcements being made to the effect of 'move along', and 'no sitting in the concourse'.

We decided to find a place to sit down and eat and regroup, which seems reasonable, BUT THERE WAS NOWHERE TO SIT! Even the area that has chairs had all the chairs turned to the wall, and if someone came and sat anyway, staff came and chased them away. If anyone sat down against a wall anywhere, someone came and chased them away. There were no benches and no eating area (we found one later in a separate building, but that wasn't very helpful...) so we ended up leaning against a wall to eat. Then we went back to the area where Fillion's panel was, and the door was open, so I got hopeful, but then they closed it again.

 

I found out later on Twitter that when Fillion's panel started, the corral still had a ton of seats available. I also found out that the supposedly sold-out Expo had released a batch of Sunday tickets partway through the day. I don't know if the ticket sales are related to the supposed capacity issue, but it does seem suspicious.

 

Anyway, at that point I was almost in tears from sheer frustration and ready to go home, but then we got a message from a friend who was coming and almost at the grounds. So we went outside and finally found a place to sit on a flower bed-wall. And then we got more food. And then I felt a little better, but I was still annoyed. We decided to go back in for one last panel, and as we were walking past a bank of windows, we saw Nathan Fillion go by in a golf cart, so that was as close as we got!

 

The last panel was Ian McDiarmid, who played the Emperor in Star Wars. He apparently doesn't go to cons very often, but I don't see why. He's got a lovely Scottish accent and was very charming and interacted really well. I quite liked him. He'd never been to Canada before, but said he hopes to come back. The room was mostly empty, which was sad, but it was the last panel of the day. I was also sad about the mostly empty room, because if I'd known it wasn't going to be packed, we could have squeezed in going to Walter Koenig's right before. The problem was that they were in the same room, and they clear the rooms between sessions, so if we'd gone to Walter's, then we would have been at the back of the line for Ian, and would then run the risk of not getting in. It was worth staying for though, and I'm glad I didn't run the risk of not getting in.

 

The Emperor! Back in the flat room with the bad lighting...

 

I'm torn on the clearing the room versus not clearing the room debate. Part of the reason why Saturday was so low stress was that we were in the corral for hours, and didn't have to move around or line up or anything, and you're allowed to eat in the corral. If they tried to empty that space between panels it would be a traffic nightmare, with people being kicked out only to line right back up again. But then you have people who camp out all day on one spot, even if they don't care about the panel, potentially taking seats away from people who really want to see that actor, which kind of isn't fair. I think I'd rather have seat camping though, just because it's so much less stressful, and Expo can be stressful enough as it is! 

 

The no lurking and no taking photos in the autograph area definitely irked me. When you're on a limited budget, there's a lot of fun to be had in just walking around and at least seeing the actors, and maybe taking a few really poor-quality photos from afar, just to say you saw them. The lack of fee signage is frustrating, although I see that that's probably not the Expo's fault. But how hard could it be for publicists to set rates and policies and send them to the Expo ahead of time? Especially when some of these people do a lot of cons.

I think the saddest part of the day was the constant refrain of 'move along, no pictures', and 'move along, you can't sit down'. It just got really old, really fast. It felt like stormtroopers... I guess they were trying to keep more on top of crowd control then they did last year, but it felt like they were being too controlling, and over-compensating. Hopefully next year it'll be a bit more relaxed!

Sunday turned out to be kind of disappointing, although overall the weekend was really enjoyable. There was an article in the paper the other week about how after last year's epic mess the founder of Expo almost didn't have another one, so I'm very thankful, despite the things I didn't like this year, that he continued on with it. When we got home, while we were eating, there was a documentary on about the Queen's mother-in-law, who lived in Nazi-occupied Greece and hid Jews in her home. So that kind of put my problems in perspective!

I only ended up taking one photo of my steampunk...by the end of the day I was just too tired and crabby to care! And there's a few things I'd like to tweak, so I'll do that and then do pictures another day! Now, to study for my last final...


 

My wrist cuff....
Just glue some gears on it, and call it steampunk, that's the trendy fashion nowadays!
 

 

 

Jack the Giant Slayer

So, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Hank 'Beast' McCoy climb a giant beanstalk to rescue Princess Isabelle, King Blackbeard's daughter, from Davy Jones. They think Caesar Flickerman is on their side, but he turns out to have a hidden agenda, and chaos and shenanigans ensue.

Except for the annoying lady next to me who wouldn't stop talking, and for a couple of violent moments I could have done without, I quite enjoyed Jack. It was a good example of a lot of things I enjoy about movies; a fantasy setting, a less than prim and proper princess who has great armor, a charming love story, a wisecracking knight, a noble quest, great one-liners...and a Star Wars reference from McGregor. Classic!

It does, however, require quite a bit of willing suspension of disbelief! Like all fairy tales, there are a few plot holes. And like all fairy tales, you think you know how it's going to end, but when it got to the end, I was totally taken by surprise, and all I could think was "Moriarty!". If you do go see it, let me know if you get that reference. :)

I would not recommend taking small children...there were two particular scenes that were so icky I had to look away, plus the giants snack on people like we snack on baby carrots, so that was a bit icky as well.

I hope there's a sequel, featuring Elmont!

 

 

And in totally unrelated news, the cast of Hell on Wheels is beginning to arrive in Calgary, with season 3 scripts in hand. Eeeeeee! Filming doesn't start until April 24, but I guess they wanted to catch our snowy weather!

(Sorry, it looks like you have to click on the little links to view the photos...I'm just figuring out how to use Storify!)

Star Wars Identities

It's Reading Week! I celebrated by spending the weekend in Edmonton, where we went to Star Wars Identities at the Edmonton science center. I wasn't really sure what to expect - I just saw Star Wars and signed up. :) It was advertised as having 200 original props, costumes, art work, and models, so I was really excited to see the exhibit.



Threepio and Artoo

 

Young Anakin Skywalker in his podracer

 

Jabba's Palace prop and costume

 

Ship models

 

Me and a sassy x-wing pilot

 

This was in another section of the science center. Chis Hadfield is a Canadian who is currently commanding the International Space Station. He Tweets from space. Check out this wonderfully geeky Twitter exchange between a real live space commander and some Star Trek actors.

 

The highlight of the exhibit was an interactive 'build your own Star Wars character' adventure. Upon arriving, each person is given an electronic bracelet, which tracks certain selections you make at the interactive stations throughout the exhibit. You can choose the character's name, race, personality, family history, who they look up to, and so on. At the end, you can choose the light side or the dark side. Then it generates your character and emails it to you. SO COOL!



My character is a Togrutan (like Ahsoka Tano from the Clone Wars cartoon series!). Her hero is Princess Leia, and while she is very Force-sensitive, she chose to be an x-wing pilot over being a Jedi.

 

It was entirely too much fun. :) If you like Star Wars at all, even just a little bit, I highly recommend the exhibit. I did learn a few things I didn't know, and even on the Saturday of a long weekend it wasn't too crowded, because they stagger the entry times. It was definitely worth the price of admission!

 



Help me Mickey Mouse, you're my only hope!

Source

FOUR BILLION DOLLARS. That's how much Disney paid George Lucas for Star Wars. I think three big things about this, and I've been thinking them ever since the news hit my Twitter feed at about 2:30 this afternoon.

1. Why are they announcing this the day the entire eastern seaboard is reeling from a major natural disaster? This must be a hoax...

2. A movie every 2-3 years seems like a lot. Will it turn into Aladdin III?

3. Four billion dollars could fix a lot of problems in the third world.

I was very much less than impressed about the whole thing until I read this post by John Scalzi, which made me feel a little better. And as a friend on Facebook pointed out earlier, a Star Wars movie directed by Joss Whedon would probably be pretty epic. I could live with that!

Some of my favourite tweets from today, in no particular order...

Kind of hard to maintain your image as a ruthless, planet-destroying Galactic Empire when your new boss is a mouse. #StarWars #Disney
— Death Star PR (@DeathStarPR) October 30, 2012

Holy Hoth, I leave Twitter for an hour and Disney buys Star Wars?!!
— Jen Yates (@cakewrecks) October 30, 2012

Also fun thing! Disney likes to "Open the vault" so maybe they will "open the vault" and find out that Han shot first and Jabba doesn't walk
— Matt Mira (@MattMira) October 30, 2012

Since when was Star Wars solely a boys' franchise, or Disney solely a girls' franchise?Be careful, #Disney.
— Bree Brouwer (@BreeBrouwer) October 30, 2012

"The Emperor's New Groove" now has a whole new meaning to me. #DisneyStarWars
— Consetta Parker (@parkerpublicist) October 30, 2012

Washington to Montana

Well, I'm quite pleased that my studying on Tuesday paid off and I managed to do quite well on my German test! Now, to keep it up for the rest of the year... :P

 

I'm just going to quickly wrap up the last few days of our road trip - we saw some pretty epic scenery coming through Washington State, Idaho, and Montana.

 

I don't remember where this was - about half-way between Seattle and Spokane. It was very arid and barren, and very beautiful.

 

We spent one night at a KOA in Spokane, which was my favourite of the three we stayed at. Partly because it was almost totally empty, mid-week after the long weekend. Also, it had VERY nice bathrooms. :) The only problem was the Union Pacific train line right across the edge of the property...but at least thanks to Hell on Wheels I knew to totally blame Thomas Durant for my lack of a decent sleep. :)

 

Our KOA in Whitefish was at least free of trains, planes, and automobiles, but the SPIDERS. Oh my, I do so hate spiders. The year that both Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets AND the Lord of the Rings with the giant spider was a traumatic year for me. Blech!

 

Anyway, Whitefish itself wasn't that exciting - we spent most of our time in Kalispell. The hike up the Whitefish ski hill was probably the highlight of our couple of days there - the weather was lovely the day we went (it rained the day before so we went shopping and to see the new Bourne movie...) and I took tons of pictures.

 

You know you're in a ski town when McDonald's feels like they need to put this sign on the door....

 

Using the timer setting on my camera...

  

I had a moment when I felt like we were on Endor...I'm not sure if you can see it in this little photo, but there's a moon in that sky. I'm pretty sure it was a moon and not a battle station, anyway...

 

View of the ski hill from the shore of the lake that was behind us in the photo above.

 

Fearless duck! There was a lady who kept trying to give me bread to feed the duck and lure it closer, but there were also about 40 seagulls lurking in the general vicinity. I was all like 'lady, you want to start a seagull feeding frenzy? Are you crazy?' Oy...

 

Llama at our campground. I think he was an actual llama and not a demon one....although I have this one photo of him where he's literally glowing, so I'm not toally sure...

 (And now I have the urge to watch the 'Llama Llama Duck' song, which I haven't watched in years and years, except I'm in the library at school and I don't have my earbuds. :(
 

Steampunk Buffalo. I have 'Guy on a Buffalo' stuck in my head everytime I see it, but it's more like 'guy on a steampunk buffalooooooooooo!'

 

We drove back on 'Going to the Sun Road' through Glacier National Park. I was pretty cheezed, because we found out after we were stuck in a huge morass of traffic with no signs whatsoever, that unlike Canada, you have to pay to even drive THROUGH a national park. So we had to pay $25 for the pleasure of driving at a snail's pace through a winding, white-knuckling, acrophobia-inducing, two-lane back road. Blergh! Still, it was some of the most impressive scenery I've ever seen in real life - it reminded me a lot of the New Zealand scenery you see in Lord of the Rings.

 

We made it home safely - they let us back in the country - and immediately got back into school. It was only yesterday when I actually finally moved the last of the camping stuff out of the dining room and down to the furnace room! Ooops...

 

Last weekend we went on a beautiful hike, so hopefully that'll be the topic of Tuesday's upcoming post!

When Words Collide 2012 - Saturday

Me at WWC. Photo courtesy of Brittni Carey.

It's hard to believe that at this time last week I was hanging out with a bunch of people in a hot and crowded hotel bathroom, on the edge of a very large jacuzzi filled with ice and booze.

(Please note: I did not start this post with a reference to waking up, or to the weather.)

Saturday of WWC got off with a bang. At least for Brittni and me...the first panel we went to was a live action slush, where we both submitted pages to be read. We got there early, so I was second in the pile, and she was third. We'd stayed up late polishing and crafting, and I'd taken the previous day's slush criticisms to heart, and made my sample as short and punchy as possible. No wasted words - just action and pathos. It was a series of three vignettes showing action on three different planets in my invented galaxy, and I'm quite attached to them, which is risky when entering a live action slush. The panel was anxious to move along quickly (and every second the reader was reading my writing felt like years, and my heart was pounding so hard I thought everyone in the room could hear it!), so they only got part-way through the second one, but I got good comments about the atmosphere and setting. However, one of the publishers said that there was just a bit too much action and not enough development, which I found very ironic!

Brittni's page was next up, and not a single person on the panel stopped the reader, and then the reader ran out of words to read. And then...the panel agreed that it was excellent and that they wanted to meet the writer after the session. Which is pretty much the reader con equivalent of winning a jackpot in Vegas...every aspiring author dreams of being plucked out of obscurity by some chance of catching a publisher's undivided attention. She went up to talk to them after, and Big Publishing House Editor wants to see the rest of her story...so now she has to finish it! This doesn't necessarily mean they'll publish it, but it gives her a leg up over the rest of the people in the slush pile. It's INCREDIBLY exciting. I think she was a bit in shock...and I was flailing a bit with excitement. We weren't really sure what to do next, so we just stayed where we were for the next panel in the same room.

It was on conflict and tension, and how to use it to move along plot and develop characters. After all the excitement of the slush panel though, it was a bit of a blur. I also slipped out at one point, when one of the authors talked about all of the nasty letters he got when, in a murder mystery series, he killed off a couple of pet dogs, and people got more worked up about that then the murders of people, and went to meet Kevin J. Anderson and get my copy of Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina signed. I also got it signed by Rebecca Moesta, since she has a story in it. That was fun - Anderson's Jedi trilogy were one of my early and defining Star Wars moments, and his writing/characters have had a HUGE influence on the extended universe. They weren't busy so I was able to chat for a minute while they signed, but my highly conscientious student brain felt like I was skipping class. :)

Next up was the Psychology of Criminals and Villains, which was a bit disappointing. For one, the room was so full we had to sit on the floor at the back, which was a nice change from sitting on uncomfortable chairs, but we couldn't see the people on the panel, so it felt a bit disconnected. Also, all of the great literary villains out there, and they mostly talked about current tv show criminals, which I'm not up on, so I didn't get much out of it, except to note that generally the most interesting bad guys are the ones who actually think what they're doing is right.

Murder and Mayhem Canadian Style was interesting...it was a lot of discussion on what makes a novel 'Canadian' - is it the setting, or the writer living in Canada? I think it's mostly something undefinable, but the topic seems to get a lot of mileage.

100 Years of Planetary Romance was a panel with Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta where they talked about the 'boy-meets-planet' trope of the genre. It was smaller and a bit more intimate than some of the others, which was fun.

I swear, in every class, at every con...there's that ONE person who doesn't seem to know where the line is between asking a question of the prof or panelist and getting on one's soap box. Drives me nuts...this next panel was on pitch and query - a pitch is where you verbally tell an editor or publisher about your work, and a query is a written submission summarizing your work (although I had to ask someone for that clarification later in the day, since that wasn't actually explained at the panel!). Mostly it was about the do's and don'ts of writing a query - basically, use your common sense, and check the publisher's submission guidelines. So near the end of this panel, 'know-it-all-grumpy-middle-aged-man' rambles on about something, gets up, literally chucks his business card at each member of the panel like he's throwing frisbees, and then goes and stands beside the door for the last five or ten minutes of the session. Weird, hey? Good way to get your card noticed - bad way to actually get a contact!

The last panel we went to on Saturday afternoon was Kevin J. Anderson's popcorn theory of success, which is basically to not pop one kernel at a time, but put a whole bunch out in the pot at once and eventually, odds are, something will start popping and the whole batch will take off. He talked about how he was writing something like six projects all at once back when his writing career first took off, and now he has 115 published novels, and 50 of those were best-sellers. Can't argue with those kind of numbers!

Finally we  had a break for supper, so we went to Boston Pizza with Trevor, and it was nice to have some downtime and sit on something other than an uncomfortable hotel chair! Then we headed back for the Aurora Award ceremony - Canadian science fiction awards. The chair of the conference won an award for the con, and the publisher I do some slush reading for had an author of a short story in one of his anthologies win an award. Robert J. Sawyer won the big one for his most recent novel, which was sort of a given, because that man WINS ALL THE AWARDS! :)

Then we went to a panel called 'Im A Writier', the title of which physically made me twitch when I first read it on the schedule. It took me a minute to realize that it was a deliberate typo. Whew... The topic was essentially how to get kids interested in reading and good grammar without scaring them off because of all of the 'rules'. There were a wide range of opinions and backgrounds on the panel, so it was really interesting.

The last panel of the night for us was Wilderness Survival for Writers, hosted by two sisters. They're both writers - one fiction and one non-fiction, and the one who writes non-fiction is also a very experienced outdoors-woman, including being a park ranger and mountain hiker and survivalist. Unfortunately it was after 9 pm by this point, after a very long and packed day, so I did drift in and out, but she had some fascinating stories.

Then it was party time. We were only going to go for a little bit, but I think it was 1 am before we finally got home... :)





Anything worth doing is worth doing again. Support alternate history.
Photo courtesy of Brittni Carey.

First we went to the EDGE Publishing party, since that's where we have the most connections. They had a suite on the top floor of the hotel, and it was packed. We went in to the bathroom for the 'bar' and ended up staying in there for ages, talking to all kinds of interesting people. I had a panicked moment when I realized I'd lost all of my business cards, but thankfully they were just sitting on the chair where I'd been earlier...whew! After a while there we went to the Calgary Steampunk Assemblage party down the hall, where they offered us absinthe. I was quite disappointed that I was driving and had to decline, because chasing the green fairy is one of those things that great literary characters should do. :) Brittni tried it though, but couldn't finish one serving because it was so strongly flavoured. We hung out for a while and admired the costumes and art, and talked to more interesting people, and then wandered back to EDGE, just to say goodbye and then go.

And then we were there for another couple of hours after that before we finally left, after making sure to leave our mark by writing on the post-it notes on the walls. There were three topical prompts and lots of space for writing - it was a really fun party game for a group of word people.

hehe...what a party! :)

I had such a blast...I'm usually quite a bit of an introvert, but either I'm growing out of that, or else people who love books as much as I do are much easier to talk to than co-workers or clients at a law firm, because I loved every minute of chatting and meeting new people. Interesting.... :) Sunday was just as much fun...