Tsubasacon

Okay right off the bat, pictures will be another day (I didn't take too many anyhow) because a) camera won't talk to computer tonight b) tired as all hell.

I did have fun in spite of a variety of annoying things, like getting up in plenty of time and for some reason leaving nearly 2 hours later than planned. I have no idea. I fell thru a time slip, who knows? And sadly there is like nowhere to eat other than Hillbilly hot dog on the way down there and it was PACKED. I should have walked into the thai place as I was walking to the arena but I wanted to get there (and had to have a shitty giant pretzel for lunch) and the parking garage right across the street you need to get a ticket to be there all day but I could NOT figure out where you do that and I drove around 3 times. The other garage which I usually park in is two blocks away so it's not too bad.

I DO think my Shion Karanmori cosplay came off well as people recognized it and were excited to see it. It must be said that Tsu is a very small con (as in the entire dealers room could have fit along one wall at Animazement). That said they did bag a pretty big name in voice acting, Steven Blum (Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop among many others).

I will say that the vendors left a bit to be desired this time but I did get some cool stuff, like another graphic novel from a lady artist that I bought from last year and found a steampunk group that's right over in Parkersburg (about an hour from Athens so two hours from me) that does events that help pay for mammograms and pap smears for at risk women below the poverty level (which is a shit ton here in Appalachia) and it’s at Blennerhasset Island! and a few others. I do know that online sales is killing the dealer's room and that's half the reason I go to these cons (I might move this to every other year like I used to attend).

I really enjoyed the greatest graphic novels you should be reading panel run by a librarian whose job it is to be the graphic novel/manga librarian of her library. WHY did I never think of doing that? How great would that be? I totally need her to be a character in a story. She runs the carolina manga library and they do take donations (if you have some old manga you want to divest yourself of).

I picked up some things from sanzaki kojika and Miss Alaynious and I didn't buy from yatta creations but I loved the dragon eggs, priced more reasonably online (instead of covering con costs)

I found one t-shirt vendor that I got a Dr. Who shirt from but really wanted the Grell one but they were sold out of my size. And I did manage to get something for ELD. I believe I now have hoarded enough to cover this christmas, her birthday and half of next year's christmas (stop, just stop now) There was one vendor I nearly bought from. She made throw pillows using an industrial embroidery machine but each one takes hours to do. And she has an in with local furniture stores and gets the left over upholsteries as the backing for these pillows. I LOVED her Snape silouette with the 'always' quote but it was leather and 75$. I thought about getting a considerably less expensive one for ELD of FMA but then a) I pictured her couch b) pictured her dogs sleeping on the pillow c) pictured her dogs eating the pillow and decided she didn't need a 30$ pillow.

I had wanted to play pachinko but by the time I was done shopping (hey did I mention I bought sweet corn pocky? It really tastes like salty buttered corn) it was time to see Steven Blum. He was fantastic, very funny and very nice to the fans. By the time his talk was over (I'm not into VAs so I didn't wait in the line and pay for an autograph) it was well after 5 and by now I could feel my sugar deranging.

I headed out back to the mall. I kicked Macy's off the list as I can always go there. I hit my favorite Mexican place down there and got the volcanic rock pot again (and that stuff was SO hot, it was STILL hot when I got home two hours later with the left overs). I hit the Halloween shop and couldn't find ram's horns so I got a face decal and dragonfly wings for the Halloween party this coming weekend. I had a 25% off everything at Michaels and picked up shit I didn't need but looked pretty.

I also hit Booksamillion and got an Enterprise puzzle for Mom for the holidays and some manga. THey had two that I knew had to be Yaoi, Ten Count and Midnight Stranger by a new-to-me publisher SubLime Manga. They looked interesting but a) BAM is cheaper online so... and b) Yaoi is NOT my favorite because too many of them are dub-con/non con or fall in love with my rapist tropes. Anyone know anything about these?


And I put my pumpkin latte on the console so I wouldn't spill it getting into the car (as this mall's parking spots are TIGHT). i get in and knock it over and it doesn't just spill into the back wheel well, no it explodes all over the back seat. Well hell.

I do love driving home up R 2 in the dark. So spooky.

And about my cosplay, I had these things in mind a) I hate that blond wig b) I found my black pantyhose in the back of my sock drawer and I wish I knew where the hell I got them all those years ago because if all panty hose fit this well and were so light weight and unnoticable while wearing I wouldn't have loathed hose so much c) my skirt is so big it kept twisting around me. Hmmm have I lost weight?

And since I know I'm too tired to put this anywhere else in their actual documents, other writing things came to me on the drive. The manga librarian was praising The Ancient Magus's Bride (I love it) and how Chise is so broken. I thought that's exactly what I'm trying to get across with Luc. He offered up that's why he likes helping Amelia. It makes him feel less like a broken toy kicked to the back of the closet, unwanted and unloved. I NEED to work that into the story. Also it occured to me I should have left the Treasure Island scene and made this set around 2010 or something because Luc now has to be older than he is in the story because otherwise he's had been a tween when Hurricane Katrina hit. And the con love story tells me it could also be called ConQuest or ConQuered Yes they want to be cheesy as all hell.

Steven Blum talked about being part of hip-hop artist's Logic's Sci-Fi themed experimental album which you can find here (not really my thing)

Watch on YouTube

Writerly Ways

Also write-everyday people can comment with their word count on this post

And Happy birthday to dragonydreams. Hope it was a great one.

And L'shanah tovah to all my friends who celebrate it.



So, this came up on Queer Sci-Fi this week, the idea that it's all be done before. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. - Ecclesiastes 1:9 . Given how old the source of this quote it, it's been true for a LONG time.

It falls to the author then to come up with something new....ish. We need to find a new twist to present old material and make it look fresh. It can be done. It can even be done well. It is not always easy, mind you. And there is no way you can please everyone with your new take. That's impossible of course. Some things feel very played out, at least to me. Other things will seem that way to you.

Right now if the blurb mentions she was raised by assassins/thieves, I keep right on scrolling past. You really have to convince me a dystopia is worth my time. For others, if they see another vampire/werewolf story they're sure they'll scream. Whole subgenres are built on these tropes (looking at you cozy mysteries).

So how do you work out your new take on an old theme? Read. Do it a lot. Many authors far more successful than me have espoused the idea that you can't write well if you don't read. I've seen people get pissed off about but me, I'll defer to their experience. How can you know what's being done if you don't read?

But for me one of the biggest thing is to talk to the readers in your genre. If you've spent more five minutes on line, you've probably found at least one group of like minded people. ASK them. I've done this twice in the last two weeks and came up with more ideas than I can use, and most of them I've not seen done.

There's a big pool of sameness out there. You need to stand out. Sometimes it doesn't work. If Soldiers of the Sun is any indication historical readers don't want urban fantasy and vice versa. I've seen vampires in space which doesn't work for me personally. Blood sucking aliens, sure, Stoker-esque vampires not so much. I've yet to read a goodreview or amazon review page where there has been a book that hasn't had some 1 or 2 star reviews. They might be lonely in a sea of four and five star ones but they're there, proving the point you can't please everyone.

I finished the very rough draft of my first chapter of the anime con love story. Anyone want to look it over?



Day One Tally

cornerofmadness - 185 words
kiramaru7 - 795 words
plaid_slytherin 3800 words (now that's the way to edit!)
esteliel - editing exchange fic (hope the reveals go great)
trobadora - 4600 words!!
navaan - 1500 words
auroracloud - 1000 words (on a new story!)
afrozenflower - 550 words


Day two - 175 words, just coming in dribbles