{"id":104,"date":"2009-02-20T21:43:47","date_gmt":"2009-02-21T03:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/?p=104"},"modified":"2010-06-15T22:03:03","modified_gmt":"2010-06-16T04:03:03","slug":"condfw-2009-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/20\/condfw-2009-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"ConDFW 2009 Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This weekend I’m attending the 8th ConDFW<\/a> Science Fiction Convention, in Dallas, at the Crowne Plaza near the intersection of I-75 and LBJ. Blogging from\u00a0my hotel room\u00a0now, actually.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It’s my first science fiction convention. There’s panels about writing, writers giving readings, signings, art shows, charity book swaps, a Spelling Bee, a computer gaming room\u00a0— you name it. Pretty nerdy, ‘smatter fact. Definitely interesting.<\/p>\n

I don’t know anyone here (yet), although an intense man from The Luna Project<\/a>\u00a0told me about his (local) organization’s goal of leaving for the moon by 31 July 2012.\u00a0I hope they make it.<\/p>\n

Thus far I have sat through three panels: “Big or Small: Novel vs. Short Story Writing”; “Selling Yourself for Fun and Profit”; and, “The Aspiring Writers Panel.”<\/p>\n

Here’s a picture I snapped at\u00a0“The Aspiring Writers Panel.”\"\"<\/a>\u00a0From left:\u00a0Jim Butcher<\/a>, Paul Black<\/a>, Patrice Sarath<\/a>, and David Weber<\/a>. The eternal debate\u00a0about art vs. commerce arose, floated around loftily, and crash-landed somewhere in the parking lot back behind the hotel. Enjoyable to watch, that one.<\/p>\n

Mostly I heard stuff I’ve heard before, but it’s nice to be reminded\u00a0of good advice from time to time. At one panel\u00a0Teresa Patterson<\/a>\u00a0suggested\u00a0a strategy for writing a short story (and I paraphrase mightily):\u00a0find the\u00a0climactic moment, figure out who’s present, and then work backward from there. Sounds like one good way to construct a tribal lay, as Kipling\u00a0might say. The best line\u00a0from all three panels: It’s true, a panelist said, “I committed space opera<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

I should go meet people now!<\/p>\n

This weekend I’m attending the 8th ConDFW Science Fiction Convention, in Dallas, at the Crowne Plaza near the intersection of I-75 and LBJ. Blogging from\u00a0my hotel room\u00a0now, actually. It’s my...<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This weekend I’m attending the 8th ConDFW Science Fiction Convention, in Dallas, at the Crowne Plaza near the intersection of I-75 and LBJ. Blogging from\u00a0my hotel room\u00a0now, actually. It’s my first science fiction convention. There’s panels about writing, writers giving readings, signings, art shows, charity book swaps, a Spelling Bee, a computer gaming room\u00a0— you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cons","tag-condfw"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1505,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions\/1505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}