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Gen Con, Five Year Plan, And Why QoS Didn’t Fly
Welp, since The Techno Jesus has managed to beat me to a Gen Con 2012 post, I finally got up off my behind (or rather, sat down for once) and am getting this post written.
If you want to read about my wildly embarrassing but slightly tear-jerking (if you’re me) encounter with Wil Wheaton, then later I will post that but only if you REALLY want to hear it. It was actually pretty cool and he was really nice and kind of took my fangirling in stride, because he’s a bro.
Anyhow here are some pictures of me being a dork at GenCon. I stole most of them from my friends on Facebook, without permission. They’ll get over it.
One of those pictures may contain way more of a certain mercenary’s junk than I’m entirely comfortable with, but whatever. I kind of dork’d all over most of those pictures – I was super excited and running mostly on Diet Coke and glee (the emotion, not the melodramatic television show), and it was my first Con and I GOT TO MEET WIL WHEATON and I probably wasn’t getting enough oxygen anyway because oh my god breathing in that corset.
Moving on.
The Five Year Plan has more to do with my career than anything else, but there are some way more personal things involved in it, too. I won’t transpose word-for-word because I’m not sure that most of what I scribbled onto the napkin at work behind the register actually counts as WORDS anymore, more like smudges, but here’s the gist:
By December of This Year:
– DeAngelis: Resurrection done. No excuses. I had a light-bulb moment at work earlier that more or less fixed 75% of the issues I’ve been having with the entire freaking SERIES and so I’m ready to plow ahead. I turned in the first chapter to my fiction workshop I’m participating in this semester, and even people who don’t quite get it absolutely loved it. My biggest fan-boy right now is a pastor, which tickles me to death because I figured that would be the demographic the book would piss off the most. But, I guess you never can tell with bees.
– Be shopping for an agent. While I’m aware that ebook self-publishing has kind of opened up a whole new avenue for writers and authors, the fact of the matter is that the publishing houses still have a lot of power, and a lot of clout.
– Have A Short Story/Novella Done, or Nearly. I need to self-publish something, regardless, and I’ve got a few little ideas that I could churn out in a week or so and throw onto the internets.
By December of 2013:
– Book #2 Finished. There is actually a title for this one, I just can’t remember it at the moment, and I’m too lazy to go document-hunting. Regardless, after graduation, I’m going to have way more time to be working on my writing even if I’m working full-time. There’s no excuse to not have the second book of the deAngelis series finished.
– At Least Two Novellas/Short Stories E-Published. Can’t hurt to get my name out there.
– Professional(ish) Website. While a blog is great, a website will be even better, with a link TO the blog, or the blog being part of it. Something snappy, you know? That brags about what a great writer I am, and points people to the work I have available on e-readers, and points out that if someone WANTS to pay me to proofread or line-edit their stuff, then I am more than willing to do so.
– Get The Heck Out of Dodge. Terre Haute is butts. I will not get trapped here.
By December of 2014:
– Book #3 Done.
– Books 1 and 2 Published.
– Motorcycle.
By December of 2015:
– Supporting Myself With My Writing. Or editing, or a combination of both. Either works for me, as long as people are buying my stuff.
By December of 2017:
– Own a House. Or at least have a house that I live in that the bank owns and that I am paying them back for. The house must have an office
– All Five Books Done, Published or very nearly all published.
– Studio. For various crafting adventures. Sewing, dying my own yarn, power tools. Lots and lots of power tools. I will accept an air-conditioned, well-lit, not-dusty workshop in the backyard with a great stereo and Wi-Fi.
Welp, I’ve managed to keep myself up until a ridiculous hour of the morning, but there you have it. My plan. Lets watch me stumble through it!
You’ll notice I don’t mention QoS at all, that magazine plan that didst crash and burn most predictably. Honestly, life kind of hit me in the face like a trainwreck right about when the critical workload needed to get done, and I just couldn’t handle it. Also, having experienced what needed to be done, I realized that the whole project was a bit too lofty for just me and Sam to handle. I would need a part-time staff of four or five people, at least, and that just wasn’t going to happen. So, maybe one day, when I have mountains of cash to just throw at hopeful young interns, but for now it’s a failed experiment that I can learn from. If you submitted work to QoS, all the rights hereby revert back to you. I release you! I’m so sorry to have gotten you all excited for nothing, but think of it as a learning experience and enjoy the opportunity to go submit your work to someone who has got it way more together than I do.
And with that, I think I shall head for bed. I got hit with a mild case of food poisoning earlier this evening and I definitely need to rest up before the three (ugh) exams that I have tomorrow… all before noon. Good night, all!
Birthday Post
So I guess it’s my birthday or something. Is that why I’m wearing a skirt, heels, and a new blouse, bedecked in jewelery and whatnot on campus? Probably. I like excuses to dress up.
Anyhow, I haven’t posted in ages. Eons. I figured I would get that out of the way now, because birthday!
deAngelis is on hiatus for a while – I need to step away and let it simmer for a bit. So now I’m working on some preliminary planning for Steel, which I will commence this NaNoWriMo. Originally it was posted on Fictionpress as The Edgemaster, and while it was very good for a fourteen-year old, it simply will not do for a twenty-three-year old.
I’m nearly halfway through reading Feast for Crows. I’ve already got a long list of books that I’ll be reading after this one.
1. A Dance with Dragons – George R. R. Martin
This kind of goes without saying, since I tend to finish whatever series I’m reading before moving on to something else. The copy I actually have sitting on my desk right now is a signed hardcover copy, which was a gift from the woman I accompanied to the book signing in Carmel, IN. I’ve never stood on my feet in a book store for so long, but it was SO worth it.
For someone who isn’t too terribly into high fantasy, I am in love with this series. I squealed like a Bieber fan when I saw the mini-trailer for season 2 of the show. While I will miss Boromir Sean Bean, Peter Denklage totally rocks my world, and I can’t wait to see how they handle the next few plot things.
2. Ghost Story – Jim Butcher 
As avid a Dresden Files fangirl as I am, it pains me that I haven’t yet read this book. It’s sitting, brand new, on my desk, hardcover (and only $8, including shipping!) – and I haven’t even read the first words. I’m afraid to even touch, for fear that I will get sucked in and then not be able to stop, with Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons still unfinished. The ending of the previous book, Changes, was not technically a cliffhanger, but oh god did it twist my insides and make me wish I had a T.A.R.D.I.S. so that I could jump to July 16th and read this book.
DON’T TELL ME ANYTHING ABOUT IT EVERYONE WANTS TO GIVE ME SPOILERS SHUT UP
3. Pegasus – Robin McKinley
Robin McKinley is kind of everything I want to be when I grow up – a brilliant writer with multiple published books with a lovely garden, opportunities to go to the theater whenever I want, and a primary address in Scotland. I’ve more or less been in love with her since I was seven or eight years old, when I first read The Blue Sword. Her most recent novel, Pegasus (also in brand-new hardcover, for stupid cheap) is sitting on my shelf as well. I’ve read the first chapter or so, becaues I was bedridden little while ago and this book was the only one that I could reach without actually physically pulling myself out of bed and dragging myself down the hallway to my desk.
I don’t read very many YA novels anymore. The whole genre seems to have split into the Twilight-esque camp or the fanfiction-esque camp or, worse, taken up dual citizenship in both camps. I’m still using brain bleach after the train wreck that was City of Angels. McKinley, though, has never disappointed me.
4. Bloodlist – P. N. Elrod 
I have no idea what to expect from this book. I managed to get it for two or three dollars off of Amazon used;I coudl not for the life of me find it in a bookstore, or even new online. I read a short story with these characters written by the author in Dark and Stormy Knights, and I liked it quite a bit. For two or three bucks, I can stand to read a two-hundred-some-odd page novel that I know nothing about. Time to take a chance! Yeah!
Everything else is on my Kindle, and since everything I’ve been reading for the last few months are actually books instead of ebooks, I kind of forget what I’ve got on there. However, I know I did manage to download The Hunger Games for ninety-nine cents, so I’ll likely be reading that, if only to see what the fuss is all about.
Also, in case I didn’t mention it, IS MY BIRFDAY
Top 10 Favorite Books
Whenever someone asks me for a recommendation of what to read, I always recommend one of the same ten books. I really connect to novels, hold onto them, and a lot of times people love what I suggest. Here’s my top ten favorite novels – in no particular order, because I love them so much I can’t rank one over the other.
My first Gaiman book was actually Good Omens, a satire on the apocalypse that he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett, an
author I’d been reading since my sophomore year of high school (way back in 2003). My senior year, we took a three-day retreat to a convent (I went to a private Catholic college prep school). We were not allowed to take phones, laptops, and (I believe) iPods. I picked up a couple of novels to take with me, since we were supposedly going to have a lot of downtime, and one of those novels was American Gods.
I started out reading it with the thought, “Oh God, this is a total mind-f***.” And it is. It is definitely not for people who can’t handle a little screwing around with their brain.
2. Night Watch Terry Pratchett
Since I’ve already mentioned Terry Pratchett, it seems a good way to lead in to another one of my absolute favorite novels ever: Night Watch. The Discworld novels are all very brilliant and clever, and in most cases, light-hearted. The Sam Vimes novels are a bit more sinister, definitely darker, although there’s still those moments that will make you laugh out loud. Night Watch was the first Pratchett novel I read after Good Omens, and I’ve re-read it several times since. This is a big deal for me – it is very rare for me to read a book all the way through more than once.
It’s very noir, very hard-boiled, and was one of the inspirations, I think for deAngelis, along with American Gods. Vimes is the kind of policeman that Jenna wants to be as a steward, and if she were a little less sociopathic and a little more mentally/emotionally stable, I think she would be a lot like Vimes.
3. The Blue Sword Robin McKinley
I read this book for the first time in second or first grade and, while I was
aware that I loved it, I definitely didn’t understand it — it was a little beyond my reading comprehension at the time, although later in second grade I tested as reading at a high school level or higher. I spent three years looking for this book, trying to find it again – we moved two or three times in that timespan, so I had new school libraries to navigate – and finally, in my sophomore year of high school, I tracked it down again and reread it. To this day, it remains one of my favorite books in the world – one directly from my childhood – and actually launched my interest in the bedouin culture. I think this novel in particular was a major influence on my starting to write, and as a young girl whose parents had just undergone a vicious, messy divorce, I needed a female role model who could be strong and reliable, and although I didn’t particularly follow the story at the age of seven, I did latch on to Harry. Robin McKinley, with her retellings of classic fairy tales, continues to be one of my favorite authors, and I follow her blog religiously (as I do Gaiman’s). I have loved every single one of the novels she’s published, and I suggest her to anyone who will listen.
4. Kafka on the Shore Haruki Murakami
Speaking of mindf***s, here’s a really good one. The story of how I got into Murakami is kind of strange. In high school, my best friend was (and still is) a major otaku. In fact, he first started speaking to me because I apparently looked just like Reki from his favorite anime, Haibane Renmei. That anime, which he had me watch, was partially inspired by a novel written by Murakami, titled Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I read it, and loved it, and started devouring his other novels. My favorite so far is Kafka on the Shore. It definitely messes with you, and, like all of Murakami’s novels, it’s one of those things that you just have to read without worrying too much what the story is about. You’ll figure it out by the time you get to the end. I would probably call his writing magical realism, or something close to it. It’s all a bit bizzare, but easy enough to deal with.
Murakami is a master of the Japanese language, I understand it – he can truly manipulate it – and the translations of his work into English seem to convey that same mastery.
5. The Caves of Steel Isaac Asimov
By the time I hit seventh grade, people had stopped giving me books because, honestly, I blew threw them so fast, and
they could never quite figure out exactly what my reading comprehension level was. It was certainly very high by then, but they couldn’t see to find any novels for my mental capability that they also thought where, ah, age appropriate.
My father finally handed me a stack of novels from his personal stash of sci-fi, books I hadn’t even known he had. Most of them were by Asimov: the Foundation series, the Robot series, Nemesis, etc. The first one I picked up was Caves of Steel, and holy crap did it blow my mind. Sci-fi has always been difficult for me to digest, but obviously Asimov is among the best, if not THE best.
It’s so difficult to pick a favorite from The Dresden Files series, but I’m still digesting the events of Changes and a little peeved that the release date for Ghost Story has been pushed back, so I’m going to pick this one. I think that Lara Raith is a lot of the inspiration behind the villain of deAngelis: Resurrection; that is to say, Asmodeus. Honestly, I freaking love everything after Blood Rites, mainly because things start to get really dark and very noir, and Harry really has to grow up. Also, Thomas. ’nuff said.
Dresden Files is definitely one of the biggest influences on me sitting down to write deAngelis. I discovered the series in one of the strangest ways – Livejournal profile pics. I used to make them, hoard them, save them to my hard drive, look up ones I thought would be “appropriate” for my characters I was supposed to be writing… and I came across some that had quotes from Storm Front and Full Moon. I remember thinking, “Huh! Those are funny.” And then I moved on and forgot about them for a year. Finally, with nothing better to do, I spent four hours tracking down the pics in question, and looked up what book they were from, and it was a match made in Heaven.
7. My Year Of Meats Ruth L. Ozeki
Here’s a weird one from me. It’s actually one of the very few literary fiction novels I’ve read all the way through, put
down, and said out loud, “Damn!”
This was required reading for my multicultural lit class, which is a requirement for English teaching majors at Indiana State. It was the only book assigned out of five that I actually read a word of (oddly enough, I got an A in the class), and it was the only book out of the five that I was actually interested in. Sometimes the fact-telling got to be a little too much, but the way that the story was told drew me in and held me in, and I finished the whole thing during my week of spring break last year. It was truly a gorgeous book.
Everyone else in my class hated it, and complained that they disliked it so much that they couldn’t finish it. What a bunch of weirdos.
8. The Time Traveler’s Wife Audrey Niffenegger
How could I forget this gem? I read this several years before the film came out, and while I can say that I really did enjoy the movie, it just did not do the book justice. It’s one of those things that just can’t translate well, I think.
While this is, first and foremost, a love story, Niffenegger really has such a gift for point of view and voice and style, and for knowing what it is that really makes a human being tick. Henry matures as the book progresses – you can tell by the writing style – and Niffenegger handles the temporal and POV and age shifts incredibly well. This is another one of those books that I’ve read more than once (although not nearly as many times as I’ve read Night Watch).
Yeah, you read that right: Wesley Crusher wrote a book. And not just any book – it’s an awesome book. It reads, more or less, like a memoir – about getting back on his feet after Star Trek: The Next Generation. Most people only remember Wil as that one guy
from ST:TNG that everyone hated, and he addresses that. I picked this up at the library my first week home on summer vacation in 2010, mainly because it had the word “geek” on it and because I vaguely remembered hearing that Wil played D&D every so often or something. Then I walked from the library to the nearest Bub’s burger joint, found my way (okay, fought my way) to a seat in the corner, order a beer and a cheeseburger, and got hooked.
There’s something about Wil that made me feel for him, and he’s made it onto my list of Top Ten People I Want to Chill With For An Afternoon. He was only sixteen or so when I was born, something that makes me feel that, in a way, he might possibly be that long lost older brother I hoped and prayed for every waking moment until I was seven years old, who would come save me from the fighting I could hear down the hall from my parents’ bedroom and the kids who made fun of me at school and said I was lying when I told them that I could read. Wil Wheaton is one of the faces that I remember from my childhood, and following his blog and his Twitter has made me feel like I want to really know him. So that’s on my life of Things To Do When I’m Famous: get to know Wil. Also, make other people read his book.
10. Scaramouche Rafael Sabatini
This is one of those books that I’ve only read once but have always intended to read again. If I were to write a period novel, this is definitely the book that I would write. It just barely manages to be considered Victorian lit (if it does at all, which it might not… I’m not sure). There’s the dude who goes into hiding to prepare himself to avenge his best friend’s murder, while the guy he’s planning to kill is trying to woo the woman he’s in love with but can’t bring himself to ask out, and there’s wittiness and royalty being beheaded and Sabatini being awesome. Also people where a lot of ridiculous clothing and have a lot of sword fights and I think there’s an orphan in there somewhere, too.
Other Things I Wish I had Room for on This List:
- Sherlock Holmes canon. I might be a junkie. Seriously.
- Queen of Glass, a novel by S. J. Maas coming out sometime this year? next year? I’ve only read part of it, and that was on Fictionpress, but when I heard that she finally got it sold I think I did the most epic Kermit-flail on the face of the planet, outdone only by the actual Kermit himself.
- Anything written by Samuel T. Franklin, a guy who’s been in fiction workshop classes with me at ISU and who absolutely blows my mind. I don’t think he’s published yet, but trust me, when he is, I will flip right the fuck out.
Qu33n of Spades 