Photo Journey of Williamsburg and Marscon

I’m back from the writing class earlier than I expected.  I thought my brain was going to be fried and I would need a break, but it turned out I didn’t need the time.  I also found time to attend my first science fiction convention of 2013, Marscon. Tamora Pierce, who wrote the Lady Knight series, was the Young Adult Guest of Honor, so I wanted to see her.

But come the day before I was to drive up, forecasters were predicting 5 inches of snow!  DC is never prepared for even a dusting of snow, so it would be likely to turn the entire commuting area into a dangerous mess.  So I dashed on out Thursday morning, about three hours early, hoping I could outrun the storm.

By the time I hit Quantico, it had started to rain.  It was the kind of rain that is sloppy and messy.  Of course, all the silver cars left their headlights off.  Do you know how hard it is to see a silver car without headlights in a downpour?  Lights, people!  This is what it looked like from the Petersburg rest stop:

By the time I got into Williamsburg, all I wanted to do was warm up.  Even with the heat on full blast in my car, the cold got into my bones, and I spent most of the afternoon and evening just trying to get warm.  It didn’t help that the hotel was cold, either.  It was built in a long thin line, with balconies for every room.  I’m betting it’s really nice in the humid, hot summer.  But in January, the cold got in both ends and just hovered in the hallways.

No snow until about 10 in the evening.  This photo was taken from my balcony the following day.  Not sure what the building out there is though — a gazebo of some sort I guess.

Since I had a lot of hours before Marscon started, I wandered off to play tourist in Williamsburg.  It was a beautiful clear day, but deceptive because it was still darn cold!  The wind kept trying to blow right through me.

Thomas Jefferson spent a cold night out.  It’s called a “Sit-by-me statue” — but I wasn’t posing next to him in this cold weather.

After that, it was a stop off in The Peanut Shop — and samples.  Lots and lots of samples.  They put out samples of all the different types of nuts they sell.  Among other things, I bought banana chocolate jam, peanut brittle (crunchy, not hard and sticky), a peach habanero sauce (I may regret that one), and peach syrup.  Lots of nuts, too.  Yum!  I did resist temptation and leave them out in my car for the duration.

Where would Virginia be without the required cannon?  These are everywhere.

Then it was off to see historical Williamsburg.  It was pretty dead.  This area probably has a lot more going on during the summer time when the tour buses are coming in.   It was quiet out, and the wind was icy.  Some people wandered around in costume, like this man representing John Page.

Yup — his horse bit off the head of that hapless snowman.  Guess it looked like dinner. After Page rode off, the woman in purple fixed the headless snowman.  Hmm?  A zombie snowman?

Then I declared “Done!” because the cold really was getting to be too much.  By evening, my scratchy throat that I thought was just the weather turned into a cold.  More warming up at the hotel, such as it was, and then it was off to Marscon.

The con had moved to a new hotel this year because they’d outgrown the last one.  Even this one  wasn’t big enough.  They had 1,000 attendees.  People were parked in the fire lanes and blocking other cars.  In some places, there was barely enough room for cars to pass through without hitting someone.

Each con has its personality.  Marscon is really a partying crowd.  The con parties lasted until 4:00 am — I suppose I should had a warning on that from the zombie in the Hawaiian shirt in the lobby.  Not sure what the hotel staff thought of that, but the clerks were sticking the flowers everywhere on the lobby desk.

I’m thinking this was why the workshops didn’t do much for me.  I usually try to hit the writing ones, because I enjoy those, but I’ll go to other ones that catch my eye.  In this case, Allan Wold did his writing workshops again.  I had those last year, and they were very good — Marscon is a good place to take these because you’ll get a slot in the class fairly easily.  But since I wasn’t attending those, there wasn’t much.

But I went to this to because Tamora Pierce was here.  I attended several of her workshops, including one where she described how she uses photos of people for her characters.  Some highlights:

• The young Gene Simmons was an early choice for Numair.
• Kel will get a squire (she didn’t say if the squire would be male or female).
• A certain Champion is pregnant.

After that the cold finally won, and I retreated to try to keep from getting too sick.

Next year?  My goal is the try to do a con a quarter, so maybe Mysticon instead.  That’s in Roanoake.  More places to adventure!  Though it’ll probably snow …

 

Books are better than chocolate. Maybe.

There’s a great scene in Tamora Pierce’s Page.  The story is about Kel, who is attending school to become the first female knight.  She declares war on other pages who bully students under the guise of “hazing” — and it’s kept the pages away from the library.  But after Kel and another page, Owen, survive a fight with the bully, the other pages realize: why not study in the library?  They head out as a group, with Owen happily chanting, “Books!  Books!”

Mmmm.  Books.

Definitely better than chocolate.

I go to the bookstore probably more than I should, and that’s in addition to what I get online.  I went into withdrawal when Border’s closed down and still wistfully stare at the building where an Ashley’s Furniture is now and wish for more places for books.

The one thing I really like about a bookstore is simply being able to walk through and scan the shelves for a book that catches my eye.  I’ve been known to sit on the floor to get at those delectable chocolates books on the bottom shelf. When Borders was still around, they had a new paperback table that was always my first stop.  The books were face up on the table, so I could see the covers and the titles.

* Whimper * No more Borders.

But I have my own frustrations with the bookstores, too.  Barnes and Noble is it, and they just throw thriller into the general fiction section.  But it depends on the thriller because if it has a crime, it’s probably in the mystery section.  And that isn’t helped by publishers who recategorize books in different genres because the genres are popular, not because the book actually fits.  Like the publisher who labeled a book as a thriller for someone like moi to pick — and discover that it was actually a romance novel!

I felt like I needed to get the cross and garlic.  I do not care for romance.  If I did, I could easily find the section in the bookstore.  I don’t need publishers to try to sneak it past me.  Puh-lease!  Respect the reader with the money!

This time, I picked up manga, because Mary Sue recommended some feminist books.  Yeah, yeah, feminist is kind of a dirty word, but in this case, it refers to books that present women as great characters and avoid sexism.   I picked up Sailor Moon, though I’ll admit it’s been a challenge reading it.  Manga is done from right to left, so I had to start at the BACK of the book, on the last page, with the upper right hand corner.  Grrr!  I keep catching myself flipping left to right!

What new books are you trying to for the fall?  Anything that’s not what you would normally read?  Tell!  Tell!

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My story “A Soldier’s Magic” has been accepted by Mosaic Indigo Publishing for their anthology The Darkness Within.  It’s a contemporary fantasy set after Desert Storm.  Two female soldiers have to make the difficult decision to kill a friend to keep a parasite from infecting the military world-wide.  The anthology is due out in September, so I will post more information when it is available.

Also, check out my article “Critiquing for Omniscient Viewpoint” published in Vision: A Resource for Writers.  The reason I did this article was because I’ve found hard to get anything in omniscient viewpoint critiqued.

 

#Reading Gifts for the Woman Who Wants #ActionAdventure

Sometimes it’s tough finding books that have a heroine part of the adventures — it’s even tough finding ones with men!  Action-adventure isn’t about having a major battle scene at the end of the story–it’s a major component of the story.  That being said, here are three books that women or girls looking for adventures will enjoy as a Christmas gift:

Green Rider, by Kristen Britain.  This was such a good book that it was an instant reread for me.  The heroine of the story accepts the duty of delivering a message for her country and ends up on her own with bad guys in pursuit. The author has three more books in the series, with the most recent one, Blackveil, just out.  What drew me to this one: The cover.  Girl on a horse, clearly running from danger.

Lady Knight series, by Tamora Pierce.  The main character wants to become the first female knight.  The series takes us through the different stages of the character going through training, all with action.  The third book in the series, Squire, is my favorite.  But I hate the new covers–they don’t convey a different image of the books than what they actually are.

Open Minds, by Susan Kaye Quinn.  Spotted this one through a cover contest.  The cover was a draw, but the title, not so much.   In a society where everyone communicates telepathically, the main character finds out that she has a talent for jacking minds — and uncovers a government conspiracy.  The book starts rough — too much repetition, but gets much better after all the setup.  This is the first book in a series.

Any titles you can recommend?

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Also check out my post on What Makes a Good Action Scene?

 

How the Heck Do You Brand a Novel?

Non-fiction writers have been preaching to novelists to get a “brand.”  But when the novelists ask how, the non-fiction writers give examples applicable to non-fiction writers.  If you’re a time management guru, the brand is obvious.  But a novel?  How the heck do you brand that?

This is what I think a novel writer’s brand is:

Reader walks into a bookstore and sees a book by Jane Writer.  He’s read Jane’s books before and know that he’ll always get X, Y, Z in her books.

Examples:

Clive Cussler: A historical aspect involving shipwrecks; political intrigue; lots of action.

Tamora Pierce: Strong girl characters; loves animals.

Not all authors have brands though.  I’ve liked what an author did in a particular book or series, got a different one and not had those same elements.

So I’ve been thinking about what my brand is:

• Fun action.  Not just fight scenes but other kinds of action.  My action is escapist and entertaining, like what’d you might see at a Saturday matinee.
• Setting.  My setting is always a character in the story.  It has an impact on every part of the story, from what happens to the feel of the story.  After all, it’s hard doing great action scenes without working the setting.
• Competent heroines with realistic action scenes for their gender.   My women characters are competent and know what they’re doing.  They play to their strengths.

What’s your brand?