You’d think four days of standing around a convention hall, chatting
with people about books, sitting on panels to discuss writing, and hanging out
with other authors would be an enjoyable, somewhat relaxing way to spend a long
weekend.
You’d be wrong.
Not about the enjoyable part, of course. All that stuff I just listed?
Awesome.
But the relaxing part? Heh. Nope. By Sunday night, I was drained. But
that’s okay, because the rest of it was—again—awesome.
Here’s the blow-by-blow accounting:
Wednesday
 |
| My 2013 Origins Setup |
Set-up day. This is where everyone gets into the hall and puts together
their display. Once I got my booth situated in The Library, I hung out with the
other authors there already, reconnecting with people I only “see” virtually
for much of the fall/winter/spring.
Thursday
I had one panel Thursday, “
Military Tactics,” where we talked about
what we as authors do prior to writing a big battle scene and our varying approaches
as have the action plays out. Timothy Zahn was
in audience (nifty, huh?) and lent his expertise.
 |
| Heroes and A Hero By Any Other Name |
That
evening, I had my half-hour reading in which I read my short story, Interview, from
the Origins anthology, Heroes!
The
story is a total departure from my epic fantasy roots and revolves around Alex,
a young man who works at the local Sav-n-Shop bagging groceries. Alex shows up
for an interview with Lawman, the city’s biggest superhero, thinking it is for
an assistant's position, only to learn it’s to be Lawman’s new sidekick. There
are syrup jokes, a couple SpongeBob references, and a line about having an
accident in the bathroom. So, yeah…just like my epic fantasy stuff.
 |
| Mark Dos Santos' illustration. Nailed it. |
A
second anthology released at the con, A
Hero by Any Other Name, included shorts from Michael Stackpole, Aaron Allston,
Maxwell Alexander Drake, Bryan Young, Janine Spendlove, others, and me. I
continued Alex’s story—he was too much fun to write—and got an awesome illustration
to go along with it by Mark Dos Santos. All of the artwork in the anthology was great and Mark, whom I have never met, did a great job with all of it. Seriously. I provided an outline only and he absolutely nailed the scene as I described.
Friday
Friday
was a slow day with a single panel, “The Myth of Writer's Block” but I got to
meet a bunch of people, including one Batgirl. Had dinner with a couple authors,
including Gregory
A. Wilson and Aaron Rosenberg (who I met for
the first time—nice guy, sharp wit). The evening was spent chilling out with a
few folks, playing some games (Origins is a game convention, after all).
Then
came Saturday. Busy, busy Saturday.
Saturday
The
convention sold day passes only for
that day, meaning the hall’s crowd at least doubled from Friday’s attendance.
 |
| Pat Rothfuss secretly using the Force while we're distracted |
It
was a lot of fun talking about how we all approach writing trilogies/series, the
most difficult aspects of doing so, and our different writing approaches. It
was interesting, and somewhat reassuring, to hear that Rothfuss, Zahn, and Beaulieu
have all suffered through many of the same struggles I have regarding
multi-book efforts.
After
that, I had a panel with Michael Stackpole, Aaron Rosenberg, Dylan Birtolo, and Tracy
Chowdhury on “A Rose By Any Other Name…” The point of the panel was
to chat about book titles, but we spent a lot of time discussing our approaches
to naming in general: characters, places, etc.
Later
in the day, Bryan Young, Aaron Rosenberg, Ron Garner, and
I put the fear of God into people regarding Self-Publishing. Fifteen minutes
into the panel, we had to start talking people back off the ledge. It’s a lot—A
LOT—of work, people. Just know what you are getting yourself into.
That
night, I participated in Origins’ Upgraded Play event where convention
organizers escort a group of gamers to a private room where they get to play with
a “celebrity.” They got me. Heh.
For
the first time in my life, I played Call of Cthulhu, an RPG game semi-based on
the writings of H.P. Lovecraft in which the characters try to accomplish some
goal without going insane. My group was great, showing incredible patience with
me as I learned the game. It was a lot of fun that resulted with my character—along
with another player’s—sacrificing two of them to ‘win’ the scenario. My
apologies to the merchant and the eunuch. It had to be done.
Sunday
Sunday
was laid-back. The crowds were smaller and in the afternoon, my family came to
visit. Nikalys wore his Ironman costume (superhero theme, remember?) and Kennedy
sat on my lap for a while, imploring passersby to “Buy my daddy’s book!”
All-in-all,
it was a great weekend. I visited with old fans and professionals as well as
met some new. Patrick Tomlinson and I
chatted about motorcycles and I met Jaym Gates in person for the first
time. I’m already looking forward to next year.
Good
days ahead.
--R.T.
PS
- I specifically want to thank Kelly Swails for both organizing everything for The
Library and editing the Heroes! anthology. Wrangling twenty-plus authors is not
easy to do. Thanks, Kelly!
