Hello and welcome back! To me. To home. I had an absolutely incredible time at LTUE; it felt like, on Thursday as I headed to my hotel room, that it was already worth the price of admission and I couldn’t believe I had two more days to go.
At registration on the first day, I asked another gentleman in line what he was most excited for and his answer really resonates with me: The people. The first time I went, I remember feeling at home almost instantly. Turns out sci-fi/fantasy nerd creators are my home community. Surprise, I know. But I always feel welcome there.
My goals in going were to network and learn and I think I accomplished that. The rest of this is going to be some brief summaries of some of the people I met and short snippets of what I learned from them in semi-chronological order. Then a reading/watch list of recommendations. Are these notes for you or for me? The world may never know! (It’s for me.)
I did a pitch session with Staci Olsen from Immortal Works. I’d never done one before and while I was aware of the general “how to pitch” advice, most of it related to cold queries on the internet and I wasn’t sure what to do in real life. I learned the following: Have a bio for yourself (I didn’t, that really threw me for a loop when she started by asking about me). The plot is fine, but what they (or at least she) really want to know is what will get people interested in the character. What will be the emotional journey and what growth will the character achieve that gets people interested?
T.C. Hendricks- the first panel I went to was her on Folklore of the American South, and I was surprised to realize I knew her from years back and had been sad to lose contact, but now we found each other again so that’s awesome!
I learned in her panel to find the things that made your upbringing different and accentuate that.
Also that bears look like bigfoots when they walk, alligator gar are terrifying, light blue paint on your porch ceiling pulls ghosts (and mosquitoes) up and away from you, sweeping under your feet sweeps away true love, and empty rocking chairs that are still moving invite death. And other spirits.
Sandra Tayler- I learned a lot from her actually, we got to talk quite a few times and that was awesome, but I’ll focus on what we talked about in the koffeeklatsch.
We need to find out how our brain works when we’re depleted and when we’re refreshed, and what refills us. For example, she refreshes sometimes with video games and shows, but when she’s depleted she can tell because she’ll binge. She thinks a lot of people spend so much time depleted that they don’t know how it feels to be refreshed. So that’s something I want to figure out for me.
M. Todd Gallowglas- (Uisce bea!) (sp?)- I also spent a lot of time at his pop-up classes and p-rogue-ram events around the actual event. But again, just a few big notes.
-First, the end is in the beginning.
-Second, only relationships matter, but only 100% of the time.
-Third, relationships (between all elements of story, not just characters) cause choices, choices lead to conflict, resolution of conflict changes relationships. Apply when stuck or to analyze.
-Fourth and last for this list, the most important relationship to drive story are between the characters’ wants and needs, which are diametrically opposed. (Also the villain has wants and needs; the villain’s want goes against the protag’s need and the villain’s need goes against the protag’s want.)
Kaela Rivera-one of the Guests of Honor and an awesome person, go read her books!
We put our dreams in a bubble and are afraid to touch them for fear of popping it and realizing that they’re heavy and require hard work. But we’ll never achieve them if they stay in that bubble. In fact, if we leave them untouched too long, they turn into snowglobe dreams that, if treated properly (“ooh how pretty” then put away) are fine and relaxing, but if we make them a goal without working towards them, turn toxic.
Honesty lets you pop that bubble, Humility then lets you do something about it, and Courage gives you the strength to make it reality.
Audiobook Panel- went to on the “down the road, if self-pubbing, what do I need to know” quest
-Plug in your mic.
-You can do it! It’s also hard. And the cleaner your initial take, the better; cleaning it up is tedious and long.
-A lesson that can apply to other places; Iteration trumps ideation. Don’t spend so much time in researching the absolute best way that you never start. Start and see what works for you.
Travis Deming- Dragon illustrator!
-Base creations on real world things if you want to make them make sense. And make them make sense.
-Things are more visually appealing if you can determine an actual skeletal structure beneath them. Seriously.
This is my sketch of the example he used in the presentation. With Toothless, you can figure out where the skeleton is. Skull, eyes, spine, bones, all make sense. With the Nightmare… Where exactly are its eyes? How are they held on? Where are the horns attached? It doesn’t work. (I copied my sketch of its potential skull to the side because it made me laugh.)
Bentley Pistorius- Dan’-dee-ni storyteller from PNW (Dahn-deh-nii)
-Indigenous storytelling focuses on the way a character relates to the world around them, not on conflict. Learn from this to find how character relates to the world around them, nature and land and ancestors.
-Storytelling is a living thing we’re trying to capture on paper and then let it breathe again as someone else reads it.
Dan Wells- He gave a keynote speech that I hope is available for listening soon. Don’t listen to me here, go find it. The emotional journey he’s going to take you on is pretty incredible.
-But to sum up; humanity does things that have unforeseen consequences all the time. Things that affect us tens and hundreds of years down the road. As technology emerges faster and faster, especially AI, we need to remember to guide ourselves and our inventions with compassion. A machine that does not know compassion will create terrible repercussions but with compassion, we can hope our unforeseen consequences will be good. So make the hard choice and prioritize compassion.
Deaf and Hard of Hearing panel-
-Don’t try to fix people; their way of life is one they love and is beautiful and valid. (In fact, most deaf people who get cochlear implants don’t use them often and often take them out later.)
-Consider different things in a deaf person’s world; they have to be able to see each other to communicate so big table decorations get in the way. Also they have to have hands free. And will code-switch when talking to someone fluent vs someone not as much.
-If you treat their experience of the world as the same as someone with hearing, especially if they’re deaf in hearing-geared world, you’re doing it wrong.
-Apply liberally to other categories of ability.
Chris Jones- a teacher of ancient literature
If we consider story is character+setting+problem, then humans are story, humanity is story, country and nationality is story, we have stories because we are human and we are human because we tell stories.
He also said to look back to the old stuff to draw story ideas. First off because it’s copyright free, second off because if you go far enough back it’s less culturally fraught (anyone can steal from Hammurabi!) and third off because it’s full of stuff that makes you go “…huh?” And “huh?” equals problem, and problem equals story.
For example: The Code of Shuruppak says you should not buy a donkey that brays, for it will split your midriff. Or that you shouldn’t cut yourself with an axe. And Hammurabi says if you ensnare someone legally but then can’t prove their wrongdoing, the person who made the snare is put to death which oughta cut down on lawsuits.
Obviously there was much more (I learned how to suture a wound! Hands on! …with like rubber synthetic stuff for skin, but actual surgical tools.) but to make a long weekend… still quite long but not longer, I’ll cut this off here. And move on to the recommendations!
-The Art of Slow Writing by Louise DeSalvo
-The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry
-Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (recommended as audiobook to hear sentient octopus character)
-Casablanca (Yeah I haven’t watched it yet, don’t @ me.)
-MythAdventures series by Robert Asprin
-A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
-A Prince’s Errand by Dan & Robert Zangari
-Why Indigenous Literatures Matter by Daniel Heath Justice
-Coyote Was Going There by Jarold Ramsey
-Pitch Woman and Other Stories by Coquelle Thompson
-Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger (Ee-laht-soh-ay)
-Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
-The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye (pitched as the “perfect fairy tale”)
-Pear Shaped Funeral by Dan Wells, sequel to Night of Blacker Darkness
-Zorro (new series on Amazon Prime)*
-Epic the musical
Travis Deming on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedragonstory/
T.C. Hendricks on Tumblr:https://themswritinwords.tumblr.com/
*I’m a big fan of the old black and white Disney Zorro show with Guy Williams, I grew up with it because my dad also grew up with it and shared. I’m sure there are problematic parts (not least when they get little Hollywood darlings who don’t know a lick of Spanish or how to even attempt a Spanish accent to be in it) (and the treatment of the indigenous people by the Spanish is first off not accurately portrayed and second off I’m glad of that because accurate portrayal would show awful things) but I have a lot of nostalgia for it anyway.
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