OryCon report

My interview with Irene Radford will be published in The Broadsheet at www.broadunivers.org very soon. It was great getting to know her. She also writes as CF Bentley and PR Frost.

The panels went well for the most part. There were two panels that had topics that didn't have enough staying power. That actually happened twice. There was no discussion because all the panelists and all the audience were on the same side.

The first one that happened with was the "Selling your integrity to pay the bills: are you really selling your soul as well?" panel. Our side? We all said no. We did have certain limits, but for the most part, if you pay us to write something, we'll write it your way.

The second one was "Will blogs replace conventional media?" Again, our answer was no. At least all two of the panelists thought so and the audience agreed.

So what do you do when you've exhausted the assigned topic in fifteen minutes or less? You tangent. Thoughtful tangents that the audience would be interested in and get them talking and asking questions. It all worked out. They got to participate more.

I really enjoyed the "Women role models in SF" panel and the "Portraying workplaces in SF and F" panel. We had some great panelists and great audience participation and discussion.

The Broad Universe reading was great. We had a superb line-up of readers. I believe there were 8 of us all together.

I was introduced to "toxic waste", a standard RadCon alcoholic beverage that is made with dry ice for full effect. And of course is served out of a container with a radiation symbol on the side. It was surprisingly sweet. I only had a sip and that was of the leftovers the next day. I had to leave the hotel to get to where I was staying Friday night just 10 minutes after I arrived at the RadCon party so I didn't taste it then. But it was worth showing up just to see it.

I had a second opportunity to congratulate the Endeavor Award winner, Brenda Cooper at the Endeavor Award party on Saturday night. I also met two editors from IROSF there: Stacey Janssen and Bridget McKenna. I had a wonderful conversation with Bridget and hung out with Stacey and her fiance and Radcon programming guy, Bob Brown the rest of the evening.

On Sunday, in the dealers room, I got a card from a publisher that does (among other projects) short story collections. I've had so many short story sales of late, I'm starting to consider putting them together when they're all available again. Oh, the publisher is Wheatland Press.

Well, perhaps the biggest thing that went wrong at OryCon was mixing up the time for the Critiquing Workshop. I showed up an hour late. My bad! I was able to meet with one author briefly and still need to email the other one. I can't believe I did that!

And I missed every photo opportunity. I don't know why I brought the camera. I should have at least got a picture of us Broads at the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading but I was waiting for the last person to arrive and she was late. Then I had another panel right after and so did someone else. And then I could have gotten most of us at lunch and forgot. >sigh<

I'm going to post the first Chapter of Awesome Lavratt on my website tomorrow for your reading pleasure.

I'm half done with the Chelan bus tragedy fantasy story. I had wanted to have it finished on the anniversary of the event but didn't quite make it.

So, I'm considering RadCon. But Valentines Day falls in there (It's Feb. 13-15). Must make hubby come with. Also, a large pull for me is that they have the guests speak at the local high schools the day before.