Hello everyone,

Music to write by: “Love Like Winter“ by AFI

So I promised to share my first experience with NorWesCon and I’ve held off long enough! First thing’s first: why did I decide to go to a con? Was it just for fun, or was it something more sinister? If you picked B), well, you know me too well.

Cons are an excellent and cheap way to advance your career. Cons are huge events where everyone with the faintest interest in SF/F for miles around congregates (usually dressed in some outlandish outfit). The career building part usually happens upstairs in the “panels”.

A panel consists of industry professionals and an audience that have gathered together to talk about a specific subject. Examples of the panels I attended were “Is The Short Story Dead?”, “Getting that novel finished”, and “Humour in Horror”, but there were some weird ones too like “Alien Sex” and “Goth Style - Affordable Elegance”. Panels are a great way to meet other professionals and ask them pertinent questions. For me, it was also reassuring. Many of the writers on these panels were less far along than I am.

If you really want a career boost, get yourself invited to participate on one of the panels. Don’t think your resume is up to snuff? On one panel I attended, not one panelist had sold a novel! Some had self-published, others had one short story to their credit (and had written unsold novels), but it appears that the main qualification to serve is that you be breathing.

My intention was to go to a Con and “scope it out” so that I’d know what to expect when I had a book under my belt, and maybe to participate on a panel at VCon. On a side note, if it seems like everything I do has the ulterior motive of promoting my writing career, it does. Welcome to my conniving little mind, eh?

Anyways, some of the highlights of attending the Con were, in rapid fire:

-I briefly got to meet author Michael Ehart. He was really friendly and a fun presence to have on the panels. If you have a chance to read him, I’d recommend it. Some top-notch genre horror.

-While strolling through the parking lot at the DoubleTree hotel, I noticed a vanity license plate that said “GENRE”. Clever.

-The costumes were awesome, especially the guy (or gal) that was dressed as a full on Manticore. The costume must have cost a cool grand, but it was worth it… he/she had a full crowd trailing in their wake.

-On the way down to Seatac, I spotted this little gem on the I-5

Yes, it’s the Seafair Pirates’ truck, the Moby Duck! It was a funny coincedence considering I’d just placed a story in Sails & Sorcery and have another one in the slush at Black Sails. I laughed my head off at the “buxom pirates babes” that were toasting all the other cars from the “deck” and took it as a good omen.

All-in-all, it was my first con so I was a little doe-eyed, and I’ll probably be sharing more of my experiences there in a later post, but for now I gotta take off. The g/f is coming back from her vacation and *blush* well… I have to put the finishing touches on a charcoal portrait I put together for her. You know what they say, “Happy wife, happy life” and I do so enjoy making her smile!