VCON 2010

Last weekend I attended VCON, Vancouver's local fantasy, sci fi and gaming convention for the third year in a row. The first year, I'd barely started writing and followed the two author guests of honour, Kelley Armstrong and Patrick Rothfuss around to every panel about writing and publishing. Then I started taking my writing seriously. The second year at VCON, I had my story accepted for Evolve and went to the Book Launch as an author to help promote it, even though the book wasn't out yet. This year, Evolve is out and I signed copies at the Book launch. I also did a reading and sat on four panels, two of which were with the amazing author guest of honour this year, Cherie Priest. It's been a great couple of years.

I can't say enough in support of VCON, local conventions and of course the bigger ones if you're interested in writing or becoming a writer. You can learn so much from other authors, publishers, editors and agents. When I first started competing in fitness, it was so new, there were no coaches, no one to tell me what to do. I had to learn by trial and error for YEARS. Once I made it to the top 5 at the National level, I began passing on what I'd learned by training others. I constantly joke with my clients that I wish there'd been a "me" when I first started competing. Now I'm making the leap into the writing world, I'm taking full advantage of learning from those who've been down the many roads to publication, using their experiences to seek out my own path.

Next up is the World Fantasy Convention in Columbus, Ohio and I can't wait. :)

Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures at VCON. I'm hoping the official photographer for the event got at least one of me sitting on a panel, so I can prove I really did it. ;)

I did get a shot of some of us hanging in my room having drinks on the Saturday night, and on the last day I got a picture with this lady, I don't know her name, but she sat in some of the writing sessions when I was on the panel and she was just so darn cute I wanted to get a pic.

Tanith Lee

 I keep saying I am going to blog what I've learned and continue to learn at conventions and conferences. Well, now I am actually going to!!

Tanith Lee was the Author Guest of Honour at the World Horror Convention. I was a fan of hers before meeting her at the convention, but now I'm an even bigger fan. She's an absolutely fantastic lady, passionate about writing, passionate about her readers and passionate about life in general!

I had the opportunity to first meet her when I was dressed up as a Vampire at the Evolve launch. She was fasicinated by my eyes and fangs, while I was in awe of her mere presence! I went to her reading which was fantastic, and several panels she sat on. I'd like to share some Tanith Lee words of wisdom with you.







TANITH LEE WORDS OF WISDOM

Guest of Honour Interview

In an interview panel, Tanith said that she'll do anything not start writing, even when the novel is flowing. This, to me as an aspiring writer, was great to hear. It's not only me then! Even someone who's written over 90 books and 200 short stories struggles with proscrastination.

Interesting fact, Tanith suffers from electronic migraines and writes in long hand.

When Tanith was young and she was down about her writing, her mother told her she was a genius and must write. Her father thought she was mad (which she says she is) but even he couldn't discourage her from writing, she was so passionate about it.

When Tanith was young she wanted to be an actor and know she says that writing is acting. She gets to be all the characters in her stories.

When she is working on getting through to the end of a novel and is beating her head against the wall, she says she will continue to do so "until it or my head breaks way." Don't give up!

When asked what book is she most proud of, Tanith replied, "all of them." How fabulous!

When asked if she reads her own work, Tanith said she finds reading her own work comforting and "settling." It makes her think, "My God, I did this."

When asked about her writing regime, Tanith says that she uses the philosophy of "leave them wanting more" with herself..she will stop at a certain point, knowing what comes next.

In another panel on writing horror for young adults, Tanith Lee had fantastic advice for getting young people to read. She said tell them not to! Tell them it's dangerous... "don't you dare go near that bookcase." I thought that was fantastic advice and I'm sure it would work!

Tanith said to the audience at her interview, "what a delicious thing" to write something that someone enjoys and connects with.

I agree!

Vampires Evolve..and they're AWESOME!

I'm still recovering from the World Horror Convention-did I mention how incredible it was? Oh yes, I think I have, many times.

I did take a lot of pictures, and the pictures that friends took are also rolling in. I thought I'd split up blogging the photos and focus on one fabulous experience at a time.

The Evolve reading which was held on Thursday from 3:00-5:00 went great. All the other authors were very enthusiastic and after hearing their stories, I can't wait to dive in and read all of them in full! The reading room for this convention was set up as a "lounge", with comfortable chairs around tables, rather than theatre style seating. So it was very intimate and created a great atmosphere. We had a full room and everyone was very excited about the anthology by the end!

The launch for Evolve was on Saturday. This is the event I dressed up for. Why? Because I could! LOL. I had a blast putting the outfit together, and it was fun to see people's reactions. One of my fellow authors, Jerome Stueart was so freaked out by my contact lenses, he couldn't look at me! (what better reaction could I ask for?!)Nancy Kilpatrick put on a fantastic event, there were prizes, including your own bag of blood, bottles of vampire wine and one of the special edition copies of Evolve that comes in a coffin!! As contributing authors, we helped out by handing out drink tickets, draw tickets, and little vampire themed goodie bags. Then all 10 authors sat down and people came through the line and had their books signed. I even got to sit beside the Lordess of the Otherworld herself, Kelley Armstrong. She has been a great inspiration to me in my writing, so to sit beside her to sign books was incredible.

Stay tuned for more chilling reports from the World Horror Con. ;)

My vamp costume:



Sitting beside Kelley Armstrong during the reading:



With Nancy Kilpatrick on the very last day in the lobby:

There and Back Again

Image via Wikipedia

I've made it safely back to home soil, however, my luggage decided it wanted to extend its vacation. It should be following me home sometime today.

Unfortunately, my usb cord for my camera is in said luggage, so I'm unable to get any pictures off my camera right now. I think I'll wait to post more about the trip until I can have visuals to go with.

I'm happy to be home, happy to say I was missed by husband and kittens, but sad to be separated from the fabulous friends I met. We are already scheming reunions.

I'm exhausted beyond exhausted. Every night at the convention we stayed up just a little later. I think I averaged 4 hours of sleep over five days, plus two days of early travelling (one day from Brighton to London, then the next from London to home) where I didn't get much sleep.

The trip home was horrendous, which was such a stark contrast to the fun of the rest of the weekend! While I was in England, British Airways cancelled my return flight and I had to rebook.

Now, I'm going to ask for your help.

I'd like to send BA a note, a complaint, if you will, about what happened. Yes, they're on strike, but I think (I think?) I have a legit complaint. I thought I'd ask for extra opinions and/or suggestions.

I specifically paid extra money, in order to treat myself and get a direct flight. It was just 9 hours plus a few minutes, both ways. When my trip got cancelled, the only thing they had was for me to fly from London to Dallas, in TEN hours (note the emphasis on ten, LOL). Then, a 1 1/2 stop over in Dallas, in which I had to go through immigration, get my bags, go through customs, go through security again, and that took the entire 1 1/2 hours! I had to RUN and barely got on the next flight. Obviously, my luggage didn't run fast enough! Then I had another 4 hour flight. So instead of the 9 hours I paid for, I got almost 16.

Is this worth complaining about? What should I say? Should I expect compensation? I thought this just might be a fun topic for discussion...

BUT, let me just say, despite my miserable trip home, the trip to the World Horror Convention was a huge success. More pics and details to come!!