Virtual MileHiCon Aftermath

Oh my God, it’s Thursday. When did that happen? I swear I didn’t mean to skip Tuesday. I blame the snow day on Monday.

So! MileHiCon happened last weekend. How did it go?

Well, first of all, I felt like my panel went pretty well. Hopefully that’s also objectively true! (It’s up on YouTube, actually.) And the bigger, mobile one was mostly quiet during it, huzzah.

Normally I do 2 or 3 panels per con, and I haven’t moderated before, but I talked to a couple of other people, and it seems like, with the exception of the guests of honor, everyone was down to fewer panels, or only one, in many cases. I think that comes down to fewer “rooms” and the need to space the panels out, so tech issues could be dealt with in between in case panelists were having problems.

Overall, I felt like the con was well run. The addition of a Discord channel for panelists and attendees to continue discussions was a good idea, and it also allowed the staff to provide real time updates, which was essential, especially on Friday, when the website crashed and was inaccessible for about twelve hours. (So it turns out that having multiple ways to access the panels was also a good plan.)

They said, during the closing ceremonies, that they’d sent people to every virtual con they could for the past several months, so they could see what was working and what wasn’t, and the result was a well-run convention with very few hiccups (aside from Friday).

I wish I’d gotten to spend more time on it. As expected, being unable to distance myself from my responsibilities by being physically present at the con made it hard to focus on it. Friday would have been the day I could have focused the most, but the site being down limited what I could do. I was supposed to be manning the chat room on the Turtleduck Press page in the Authors’ Row, but alas, it was not to be.

Saturday was full of real-life activities, and I didn’t even get to sit down until dinner time, let alone do con things. (I made a nice Little Red Riding Hood cloak in twenty minutes flat, which I’m pretty proud of, not going to lie.)

Sunday morning was also busy, so I didn’t get back to the con until about 2 (and closing ceremonies are at 3). I did make the most of it, though–I went through the Authors’ Row and chatted with some of the other authors (nobody’s chat rooms got much use so maybe it wasn’t worth it to have sprung for one), looked at vendors and the costume pictures people had sent in, went to a panel, chatted in the Discord.

So! For a virtual con, it was good! But I much prefer the real thing, and I hope next year we can be back in person.

Other than that, oh man, November starts on Sunday! Planning for my mystery is coming along, but do I feel ready by any stretch of the imagination?

Nope!

I hope you’re having a good week, squiders! I’ll see you next week and next month.

Working with the Real World

So! October has not been going the way I’d like it to, in terms of writing, mostly meaning that the Changeling story continues to limp on and not get finished.

But, since the end of the month is a little over a week away, I have to accept that it’s not going to get done, and that I really need to get on planning my cozy mystery for Nano, or that’s not going to get done either.

So, alas, here we are.

I love mysteries, and I like cozy mysteries, though I do admit that the “theme” really makes or breaks them for me. My favorite series is the Meg Langslow series by Donna Andrews, of which I have read all 20-odd books (there’s a new one coming out for Christmas), which I suspect I like because the theme is mostly bird-pun titles (brilliant) instead of book content, and because they have a wonderful selection of weird relatives.

I’ve avoided writing one before because the whole concept of writing one is terrifying, but the thought of writing a novel with no speculative elements is ALSO terrifying, so, uh, I’m not going to. Luckily paranormal cozies are a thing.

Now, even so, I can’t really set a mystery in a secondary world of my own creation. Well, I mean, I can, but it’ll get categorized as fantasy and not mystery and long story short (too late), that means I have to use the real world as a backdrop.

Cozies usually take place in made up towns located in general real places. I intend to follow suit. I’m thinking small mountain town, probably here in Colorado. And I’ll do a better job than a certain cozy author I shall not name who I’m pretty sure has never stepped foot in Colorado in her life. But! I will have to make it up. Something to do over the weekend, I think. Make maps. Maybe I’ll share them next week. Maybe I’ll horde them. Who knows!

Anyway, real world. I’ve decided my main character owns a New Age shop. She’s a witch (kind of a mash-up of real world and fairy tale sorts of witches) so it helps her to hide in plain sight. Now, I haven’t been in a New Age shop (are they even called that anymore?) in a while, aside from booths at festivals and cons, so I went out this morning for research purposes.

I found three shops within a ten-mile radius and laid out a circle route to hit all of them.

Now, a good author who understands people would tell the clerk that she was researching for a book, and would the clerk mind answering a few questions about what it was like to run the store, and how busy they were, and what sort of people came in.

I, however, arrived at the first store, and when the very helpful clerk asked me what I was looking for or needed a solution to, I said, “I’m not sure,” and meandered about the store for ten minutes, looking at the offerings.

(I ended up with a book about Christmas magic and a stone bracelet made of sodalite, which is apparently good for creativity and focus.)

(With how the Changeling story has been going, I need all the help I can get.)

It’s probably a combination of being an introvert and not having had to talk to anybody new in approximately seven months, but despite the clerk being very nice and very helpful, the whole experience was overwhelming.

Next I drove to the second store, sat outside, decided I was done for the day, and went home.

So, uh, limited success.

I don’t know how people do that! How do you go up to someone and ask for their insights into their work? I know, probably, that most people like to talk about themselves, but it just feels like a huge imposition.

Eh, I’ll figure it out.

How’s your week going, squider?

Going to a Virtual Convention

So, MileHiCon, which you’ll remember if you’ve been with me for a while, is a scifi/fantasy literature convention I hit every year. Except, of course, this year sucks.

So MileHiCon has gone virtual.

There are pros and cons to this, like with anything, The biggest con, of course, is not being able to physically be there. I’ll miss my writing friends and acquaintances that I don’t always get to see elsewhere. I’ll miss the con atmosphere. I’ll miss the Critter Crunch. I’ll miss the networking and random discussions.

The pro is that my other Turtleduck Press people can come this year, which they usually can’t. So that’s exciting. I think.

We signed up for the virtual author’s row, which in theory gives us a space to advertise (and also gives us a chatroom–be interesting to see if anyone comes in. Other than ourselves). I haven’t heard a lot on that front (which is bad since the con starts on Friday) but I know they’ll pull it together. The con has a great team, and I’m actually a little impressed at the virtual space they’ve put together for the con itself.

(I watched the panelist info video yesterday, which was well done and also hilarious. It was so good.)

Speaking of panels, I basically told them not to feel like they had to put me on any panels this year. Without being physically at the con, I can’t guarantee that I won’t have the small, mobile ones or other family members bothering me.

I did get one assigned–a panel on editing. As the moderator.

I’ve never moderated a panel in my life. The closest was two or three years ago when I and another author led a roundtable about Doctor Who. (Which does not add to my confidence, because basically the other author talked the whole time and shot down anyone who didn’t agree with him.)

So that’s fun! Nothing like trying to lead a discussion while hoping the bigger, mobile one doesn’t need help on his social studies (it’s on Friday during the day)!

It’ll probably be fine. I just need to do some work before hand to make sure I’m prepared. Fingers crossed and all that jazz.

It is too cold to type out here. Hold on.

Anyway! I shall be interested to see how the con goes this year. A lot less prep than usual on my side, but I wonder if I will get as much out of it as normal. Things to talk about next week, when the con’s over.

(If you’d like to come, please do so! It’s $15 for a full weekend membership, and there’s decently big names as the guests of honor: Cory Doctorow, Rebecca Roanhorse–what? Barbara Hambly is coming? ::makes notes::–Connie Willis, etc.)

(Also, I appreciate MileHiCon always treating me like I’m someone worth coming to see.)

Have you guys gone to or participated in a virtual con this year? How did it go? Any tips you have? Any moderating insights?

I Wonder if I am Still the Scourge of Seventh Grade Science

Story time today, squiders!

When I was in seventh grade, my science teacher gave us a maze to do for extra credit. It had been drawn by a previous student of his, and went along with some system of the body (I don’t recall which).

Now, I love a good maze and also extra credit, so I did it. But it occurred to me, as I did so, that if my science teacher was using a maze someone had drawn for him, that I, too, could draw a maze and perhaps my teacher would use that one too.

So I set to work creating the hardest maze I could. Making mazes is actually very calming–I have a method I use to make sure I have a path from start to finish that is not obvious–and I should probably do it more often. But anyway! This maze. It, too, was of some body system (digestive, maybe? I honestly don’t remember) and I filled up an entire 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper with that baby.

It was glorious.

I gave it to my science teacher, who agreed it was glorious and, I think, gave me even more extra credit, though I may be imagining that part.

Fast forward two years. I have moved into high school, and my sister is in my old hall at middle school, so unfortunately has all my teachers.

(I feel a bit of sympathy for her having to be my little sister throughout middle and high school, but not especially. Such is the way of siblings. It’s her own fault for not being born first.)

(That was a joke.)

She comes home, all grumpy, and forces a photocopy of my maze at me. Apparently my old science teacher had given the maze out to everyone (and of course noted that I had made it, to the embarrassment of my sister) and no one could solve the thing.

It is extremely satisfying, being the bane of an entire seventh grade science class.

Every now and then I think about that maze and that teacher. I’m sure he’s retired by now, so current and future science classes are probably safe from my maze. But I wonder how many years he brought it out? Was it just for a few before someone else drew a new maze and he switched it out? Did he terrorize children with it for many years? Was it really that hard, or was it just intimidating?

I also occasionally wonder if I should take up maze making again. Maybe make a maze book with an accompanying story. Could be fun (though definitely something for another time).

What about you, squider? Ever done something for fun that brought unexpected dividends?

October ArtSnacks (and Related Thoughts)

I got my ArtSnacks last week! Very exciting. Good to try new things. And find that you dislike all of them. (I would put a laughing emoji here if I could figure out how.)

Here’s my #artsnackschallenge pic for the month (and the supplies used to make it).

Let’s go through each thing like we did last month.

Plumchester Paint Marker
It’s pink. I suspect, like the paint marker last month, that this would be great if I knew what I was doing. And wasn’t afraid of color. (At least this one is harder to drip paint on the carpet with. And you can reverse the nib so there’s different shapes to color with.) It’s thick acrylic paint.

Sennelier Ink Brush
So, essentially, this is a brush with the paint built into the handle. Mine is bright yellow. (The color’s a little off in the picture. It’s a lemon sort of color.) I have a travel watercolor set with brushes where the water goes in the brush itself, so this works the same way more or less, except with less steps and supplies. I like it, it flows nice, but it does seem like you’ll go through the paint fairly quickly and then have to buy another $8 brush pen. We’ll see!

Winsor & Newton Fineliner
Mine’s brown. It is quite fine, but it’s not waterproof, and when I was erasing the pencil lines around the octopus, I found that my eraser was erasing the fineliner as well (I used it for the sucker cups), so that’s less than ideal. Definitely going to stick with the Microns for now.

Royal Talens Indian Ink
Ah! Real ink! In a bottle! It’s very black and dries nice and quick. And doesn’t erase with the eraser, what the heck. I have hidden the bottle from the small, mobile ones, because that’s a terrible combination.

Speedball Standard Pen Nib Holder and No. 512 Pen Nib
I’ve never drawn with ink and a nib, because it’s always seemed very intimidating (and also, I am a klutz, and having an open bottle of ink is a bad idea). But it’s not bad! I have better control than I thought I would. The nib holder is pretty simple but does seem like it could hold lots of different types of nib, and the nib itself is fairly versatile, as long as you want to stay on the more narrow side.

The ink/nib combo is my favorite thing out of the bunch. It was much easier to use than I’ve always feared.

So far, when I’ve gotten a new box, I’ve done a silly page to try out the stuff before I do my official picture, so here’s the one for this box (cuz there’s a landsquid):

(It’s crinkly cuz it’s on the back of an experimental style I was trying out, where you sketch in colored pencils and then wash watercolor over them, but I think the pencils activated a bit with the water, so it’s more abstract than planned.)

I was also playing with some new brush pens (also Sakura Microns, because) last week, making flower wreaths:

Colored with watercolors

I like the texture the brush pens add to a drawing.

Art! Distracting me from my writing. Whoops.

I think I’ll give ArtSnacks one more month and then take a break. It is nice to try out new things, but I don’t necessarily want to accumulate a lot of supplies that I’m not really going to use in the long run.

(Although, if I get more paint markers in various colors, maybe I could experiment more with using them and figure out what I want to do with them. Maybe.)

Oh, the snack this month was a cherry Dum-dum. Good flavor. Dare I say candy is not really a snack? Candy is not really a snack. Though I suppose they are allergen free if you avoid chocolate.

Anyway! Still having fun. Hope you’re doing something to stay sane too, squider!

And What About Cozy Mysteries?

Hey-o, squiders. Sorry for missing Tuesday’s post. I have no excuse except, uh…oh. Oh yeah. I had volunteer commitments. Okay, that’s a pretty good excuse.

So, as I move toward trying my hand at my first cozy mystery during November, I’ve been reading how to write mystery books for fun and profit. I read two, specifically, helpfully titled How to Write Mysteries and How to Write a Mystery respectfully, and am now done with both.

They were middling helpful, especially when talking about plot. A lot of the books were on more universal stuff, like creating characters or writing dialogue, which was less useful. And both contained extremely outdated information on agents and publishing. Good times.

But neither of them really touched on cozies as a subgenre. They both mentioned them, but were obviously confused by the concept. The second book author noted that he only included them because people had asked why he wasn’t. Both dismissed them as “an English sort of mystery” and didn’t have a lot to say.

Which was, of course, not useful for me, planning a cozy mystery. But I also found it interesting. These are older books–the first is from 1989 and the second is from 1995–but cozies are not a new phenomena. Off the top of my head, the Cat Who books by Lilian Jackson Braun are very definitely cozies–and the inspiration for all following cozy series that include animal sidekicks–and the first of those was published in the mid-60s.

(And the Cat Who books also take place in America, and in Chicago for the first few, if I recall correctly. What does an “English sort” of mystery mean? Maybe they’re thinking of Miss Marple, which is probably also a cozy series.)

Now, if I had the time and inclination, perhaps I could pick up a much more modern book on writing mysteries, and I would probably find a larger section on cozies. There seems to be several dozen series going at any point in time, with new ones starting all the time. I was a bit concerned, when I first started thinking about my paranormal cozy series, because I couldn’t find any others, but now I know of at least three other paranormal series, so all is well.

But at this point I’m also running out of learning time and need to get on to the doing phase of things. (Though I may cruise around the Internet and see if there’s any good blog posts or YouTube videos on the subject.) So now I’m on phase 2, which is market research, as I’m calling it.

Market research consists of reading cozies from the last few years and analyzing things like setting, structure, characters, and plot. I’ve got two out from the library. The one I’m currently reading came out in September, and is called Murder Goes to Market. So far I’m enjoying it!

(It’s third person, which is interesting. Most cozies are first person.)

(Also, reading cozies is definitely more fun than reading probably too old books about writing mysteries.)

Still weird, though, how those older books just brushed the subgenre off. There are probably numbers, somewhere, of what subgenres sell the most and how much money they’re making. They do it for books in general, right, so someone probably tracks by genre and specifics. I would think cozies have to be a sizeable chunk of the market, given how many are published (and how quickly you can read one).

Ah well. Onward!

(Favorite cozies, squiders?)

A Roadblock for the Education Goal

Oh, wait, I was going to draw you a landsquid for today. Uhhh…hold on.

Okay! Here we go!

Hooray! It’s fall, it’s October, my FAVORITE, as I no doubt mention every year (August was the 10th anniversary of the blog, can you believe that?). Time for sweaters and warm drinks (like I don’t drink warm drinks all year) and boots and pretty trees and everything wonderful.

But it almost means Nano is coming, and while September is really too early for Nano anything, October is prime prepping time, especially if one is trying out a new genre, one that requires a bit more planning than normal.

We’re most of the way through 2020, so if you’ve somehow missed me mentioning my word for the year, education, well, I don’t know what to tell you. As a recap, the education goal comes along with:

• Two prompt responses a month to just write (as opposed to writing for publication)
• An art class or book or stretch project
• A writing book or class

I’ve completed these goals every month so far. But now that we’ve hit October, I’m starting to see some issues moving forward.

On the prompt responses, well, the prompt responses have been getting done, but other, larger projects (*coughChangelingnovelcough*) have not been getting done. I would very much like to have the first draft of the Changeling story done before November. Which may mean that I need to refocus my writing time, which means the prompts may not get done.

And, well, I’m not 100% on Nano (which will greatly depend on whether or not schools are open), but if I do it, then the prompts will, again, need to take a back seat.

Art! Hooray! (My next ArtSnacks is on its way and I’m super excited!) I was taking SkillShare classes, but my membership expired and I probably won’t renew it til the new year at the earliest. Last month I went through one of the drawing books I got from my mom (my mom is a book hoarder, which, well, is genetic I guess. But at least when she cleans out her writing/art books I get free, useful books) which was very interesting, but it’s hard to get through a whole book in a month. Every page or so I wanted to stop and try something out.

So for this month, and potentially the rest of the year, I could pick a book and go through it slower so I can practice more techniques. Or I could just free-draw, using the techniques I’ve learned earlier. Not sure yet.

Which brings us to the writing books/classes. This month is good. I’m reading a book about how to write mysteries. Not sure what to do about next month, though. I think Writer’s Digest has some short tutorials about mysteries. Since I’ll be working on a mystery, I think I want to focus there as opposed to reading a book on another writing subject. But it also seems like you have to do a lot of the work pre-writing for a mystery, so it may not make sense to learn more about mysteries at that point.

Maybe I’ll just take the month off.

Thoughts, squiders? Excited for fall? I’m hoping we get some moisture and everything stops being on fire.