![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I should probably have sat down to write this earlier this morning, but I had another job to apply for and some appointment/interview one-car family shinanigans to untangle for tomorrow. I will see what I can remember.
I headed off to the convention hotel early on Sunday morning because I wanted to meet up with a friend with whom I played a multi-player journaling RPG called "The Machine." I was the first person to write the entries and so I had not seen how the story ended. I hung out with them in the Bozo Bus Tribune office, read the journal. I agreed to take it with me in the hopes that maybe we could find a fourth player to pass it on to as there was room in the diary, and... I literally, JUST NOW, realized I lost the journal somehwere at the con!
What is spooky about this?
The RPG actually suggests that you consider leaving the journal somewhere for others to find. Apparently, without intending to, I followed the rules.
Weird.
Anyway, I had one panel on Sunday, a panel I was dreading because not only was I moderating, but also it did not seem like something we could talk about for an hour. That is "The Second Book." As I was telling a lot of people I ran into before the panel, the problem I had was that for a lot of professionally published authors the answer to the questions posed as part of the panel description, like, "How do you know if you have a second book's worth of story?" and "When do you decide to write a sequel?" is often, "When the publisher tells me they're going to buy it." Which is kind of a bummer of an answer? Like, we *could* have had a "welcome to the cold hard truths about publishing" panel, but I did not think that was what Minicon intended for this discussion. Plus, half the panelists were self- or small press published. Clearly, they likely had different answers to the questions--fun answers! Interesting answers!
I think the panel went okay? I did try to strike a balance.
It's often hard to tell how the panel is going when you're the person moderating because, while your fellow panelists are talking, you're trying to listen for things in what they are saying to build on, while also trying to gauge the audience's interest level and making sure all the panelists who seem keen to jump in or add on or otherwise have a chance to speak get an opportunity to do so (and, of course, making sure that folks who aren't good at jumping in still have a chance to talk, if they want.) It's a lot of mental gymnastics. A job that I don't make easier for myself by preparing for. I prepare? I sometimes bring questions I don't want to forget to ask, but sometimes I show up with nothing. Not because I'm not ready to lead the discussion or ask questions, but because I really prefer, when possible, to have a dynamic, on the fly conversation among the panelists. So I just say that up front on any panel I'm moderating, ie, "I hope we can have a conversation," and then I also I encourage people to jump in when they have a thought. It can be more difficult to manage, but it tends to make for a livelier panel than those that just pose a question and go down the line to get answers from panelists 1, 2, 3, ... At least, IMHO, which, let's be honest is probably not all that humble if I'm the sort of asshole who shows up without notes. *grins*
This was a tough one though, because, as I mentioned, the answers really do depend on how you're publishing. I wrote a second book the series because my agent sold a three book contract after he sold my first novel. That was the entirity of my thought process on the matter. But, we did pull out more creative answers and we talked a bit about the "new" (it's several decades old by now) trend to have a first book just end in the middle of the adventure because the PRESUMPTION is that there will be a follow-up book that will simply pick up where the story left off. I hate these? I feel like a book should have a beginning midddle and end. I wrote my series with a larger plot also happening that built-up as the story continued, but each book can stand alone. This is really not been the done thing for some time, and it can bite an author in the butt. I got to the end of Marguette Reed's book Archangel and literally thought that I had a faulty copy as it seemed to end mid-scene. There has not been a second book to my knowledge.
And, I mean, I am currently struggling to write the sequel to Welcome to Boy. Net so there's that.
Anyway, I ended the con by helping a friend jump her car. As I told a different friend later, I do believe that it is my solemn duty as a butch lesbian not only to always offer to aid any damsel in distress, but ESPECIALLY if the trouble is car related. They might pull my butch card if I don't!
I'd forgotten to mention that one set of folks that I ran into was Paula R. B. and Erik B. Paula has been knitting Norwegian Resistance hats and asked me if I wanted one made for me. Of course, I said yes. I feel, in fact, that the only properly magical way to get one of these hats is if someone knits one for you (or you knit one for yourself.) I did not expect that she would be able to finish an entire hat in one day, but she did. By the time I was leaving the con, she handed one to me!! I have not yet taken a proper selfie in it, but I will do that ASAP and post it here.
I headed off to the convention hotel early on Sunday morning because I wanted to meet up with a friend with whom I played a multi-player journaling RPG called "The Machine." I was the first person to write the entries and so I had not seen how the story ended. I hung out with them in the Bozo Bus Tribune office, read the journal. I agreed to take it with me in the hopes that maybe we could find a fourth player to pass it on to as there was room in the diary, and... I literally, JUST NOW, realized I lost the journal somehwere at the con!
What is spooky about this?
The RPG actually suggests that you consider leaving the journal somewhere for others to find. Apparently, without intending to, I followed the rules.
Weird.
Anyway, I had one panel on Sunday, a panel I was dreading because not only was I moderating, but also it did not seem like something we could talk about for an hour. That is "The Second Book." As I was telling a lot of people I ran into before the panel, the problem I had was that for a lot of professionally published authors the answer to the questions posed as part of the panel description, like, "How do you know if you have a second book's worth of story?" and "When do you decide to write a sequel?" is often, "When the publisher tells me they're going to buy it." Which is kind of a bummer of an answer? Like, we *could* have had a "welcome to the cold hard truths about publishing" panel, but I did not think that was what Minicon intended for this discussion. Plus, half the panelists were self- or small press published. Clearly, they likely had different answers to the questions--fun answers! Interesting answers!
I think the panel went okay? I did try to strike a balance.
It's often hard to tell how the panel is going when you're the person moderating because, while your fellow panelists are talking, you're trying to listen for things in what they are saying to build on, while also trying to gauge the audience's interest level and making sure all the panelists who seem keen to jump in or add on or otherwise have a chance to speak get an opportunity to do so (and, of course, making sure that folks who aren't good at jumping in still have a chance to talk, if they want.) It's a lot of mental gymnastics. A job that I don't make easier for myself by preparing for. I prepare? I sometimes bring questions I don't want to forget to ask, but sometimes I show up with nothing. Not because I'm not ready to lead the discussion or ask questions, but because I really prefer, when possible, to have a dynamic, on the fly conversation among the panelists. So I just say that up front on any panel I'm moderating, ie, "I hope we can have a conversation," and then I also I encourage people to jump in when they have a thought. It can be more difficult to manage, but it tends to make for a livelier panel than those that just pose a question and go down the line to get answers from panelists 1, 2, 3, ... At least, IMHO, which, let's be honest is probably not all that humble if I'm the sort of asshole who shows up without notes. *grins*
This was a tough one though, because, as I mentioned, the answers really do depend on how you're publishing. I wrote a second book the series because my agent sold a three book contract after he sold my first novel. That was the entirity of my thought process on the matter. But, we did pull out more creative answers and we talked a bit about the "new" (it's several decades old by now) trend to have a first book just end in the middle of the adventure because the PRESUMPTION is that there will be a follow-up book that will simply pick up where the story left off. I hate these? I feel like a book should have a beginning midddle and end. I wrote my series with a larger plot also happening that built-up as the story continued, but each book can stand alone. This is really not been the done thing for some time, and it can bite an author in the butt. I got to the end of Marguette Reed's book Archangel and literally thought that I had a faulty copy as it seemed to end mid-scene. There has not been a second book to my knowledge.
And, I mean, I am currently struggling to write the sequel to Welcome to Boy. Net so there's that.
Anyway, I ended the con by helping a friend jump her car. As I told a different friend later, I do believe that it is my solemn duty as a butch lesbian not only to always offer to aid any damsel in distress, but ESPECIALLY if the trouble is car related. They might pull my butch card if I don't!
I'd forgotten to mention that one set of folks that I ran into was Paula R. B. and Erik B. Paula has been knitting Norwegian Resistance hats and asked me if I wanted one made for me. Of course, I said yes. I feel, in fact, that the only properly magical way to get one of these hats is if someone knits one for you (or you knit one for yourself.) I did not expect that she would be able to finish an entire hat in one day, but she did. By the time I was leaving the con, she handed one to me!! I have not yet taken a proper selfie in it, but I will do that ASAP and post it here.
Tags:
