I heard it on good authority that the YA panel was one of the best ones of the con. I’d link to that but it might have been my imagination. However, I’ll say it — it was fun and lively. I don’t think of myself as a YA writer but many of my fans are teens so I have been keeping that in mind. My current work in progress, because it focuses on Kate, will probably be YA, although I’m not pulling my punches.
That was one of the points the panel made. You can really explore a lot of tough themes in YA, and the genre is often blurred between what is YA and what is adult fiction.
My reading was well attended. Alexis Glynn Latner read before me and her audience stayed, which was sweet and I brought in a few more, so the hometown crowd was good to me. I read from book III, starting with the tidbit on the website and then from a few pages in. I think people enjoyed it and I had fun reading. I may have gotten over my stage fright. I used to finish readings quaking with reaction from having held it together for a whole 30 minutes. Five minutes to go and my voice would start to quiver and the lines on the page would blur.
I also had the opportunity to hear a few other readings. Adrian Simmons read from a short story set in the world of his Bronze Age fantasy, and it totally rocked. Alexis read from her new book with a lovely alternate history of the West and an interesting magic system, although I would have loved for the women to have math magic and not sensitive, creative magic. You know, just turn the gender roles on their heads a bit.
Like, wouldn’t it be cool if mathematical formula could be used not just in engineering but be the stuff of engineering itself? So you would design the bridge and behold, you would create the bridge?
William Ledbetter read from his Mars mystery. I love Mars stories. I’ve decided when I’m old that I want to go to Mars and die there.
Yeah, okay, moving on.
So the rest of the con was friends, chatting, art show, dealer’s room, and going out to Chez Zee. I stayed at the hotel on Saturday night, and I was glad I did. It was great not to have to drive home late that night.
All in all, a good convention. Everyone I know will be at Fencon later this month, but I want to keep my momentum with GWIII, so I will stay here and write.
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