Love the book bag RWA gave out at the con. And the fact that I left with it full of free books.

VP bud Marta and I attended the Romance Writers of America convention in DC. I'd never been to a convention focused solely on writing. Nor a convention where the ratio of male to female was about 2000 to 4 (I'm not exaggerating!). The noise level in the bar was several pitches higher than normal. It was fun. Really a good time and a very supportive culture.

Thanks to Marta's greater wisdom, I ditched my usual earnest lifelong student attitude and picked workshops mainly for who was giving them rather than by subject. The student mouse got plenty of crumbs, though. Overall, the con gave me a good grounding in the romance genre, which overlaps with just about all other genres. SFF is up and coming in romance, and not just paranormal. 

Loved the "focus on" sessions for publishing houses Tor, St. Martin, and Dorchester. A highlight was Donald Maas's presentation The Fire in Fiction. If you have a chance to attend this somewhere, don't miss it!

Met VP buddy Marta at Darkover. In addition to eating, drinking and writing together, we attended panels. Random observations:

• The woman-heavy panels made for lots of talk on how to get menstruating heroines from point A to point B without modern facilities.
• Much detail ensued on the "How do you say that" and "Making it real" panels. My take-away: write the story, don't write the research.
• Favorite audience question (in the midst of an involved discussion on clothes): How important are underwear?
• I was really impressed by how dedicated and supportive the attending writers' husbands were.

Brave New World. Creating a unique world, civilization, and culture. C. S. Friedman, Katherine Kurtz, Tamora Pierce. Catherine Coker, moderator.
Patricia Briggs reading.
Swashbuckling Heroines. Patricia Briggs, Esther Friesner, Alanna Morland, Diana Paxson. Jennifer Heise, moderator.
The Wonder of Wolves. Briggs, Liebe, Pierce, Cipra.
The YA Market. Esther Friesner, Timothy Liebe, Holly McLure, Diana Paxson, Tamora Pierce, Don Sakers. Carl Cipra, moderator.
High Fantasy, Modern Urban Fantasy. Everything in between. The pros and cons of different kinds of fantasy. Patricia Briggs, Katherine Kurtz,Scott MacMillan, Alanna Morland, Diana Paxson. Carl Cipra, moderator.
How Do You Say That? Creating new languages and building off old ones. C. S. Friedman, Heather Rose Jones, Diana Paxson. Herbert Gerjuoy, Moderator.
Eros and Thanatos in F&SF. Celebrating life/death are two great themes of literature. In F&SF, these themes can have an expanded role because both life/death can take on new & expanded forms. Herbert Gerjuoy.
Making It Real. What do they wear? What do they eat? DO they eat? Ways to add realism to your fiction world. Patricia Briggs, C. S. Friedman, Esther Friesner, Katherine Kurtz, Diana Paxson. NN, moderator.
Respect the Source. Using indigenous mythology in fiction. Patricia Briggs, C. S. Friedman, Esther Friesner, Heather Rose Jones, Tamora Pierce, Don Sakers, Elisabeth Waters. Carl Cipra, moderator.
GoH Speech - Patricia Briggs

I read on someone's blog recently that they get their best story ideas at cons. I had a story I'd almost given up on about halfway through, because I didn't know how to end it. Then the ending came to me during one of the panels at Balticon.

Besides inspiration, I also got a nasty cold there. After cons, the blogosphere is always full of sick people. What with the fascination with plagues (at least three panels on them at Balticon), I wonder if someone isn't doing some ad hoc research... A feeble story idea.

I was with one of my Viable Paradise classmates (also a crit group buddy). We didn't attend parties, but we did talk about reading and writing and a zillion other topics until the wee hours.

Hodgepodge notes:

• Starstruck moments: Peter S. Beagle and Naomi Novik.
• Published is published, whether it's on your blog or in a mag. Most mags want first publication, so don't post stuff on your blog that you want to submit. "Peripheral" type stories might be all right, for example, same world, different characters.
• Main functions of body armor, post gunpowder, are concealment, mobility and preventing target lock. However unpiercable body armor might be, the impact will still damage by its punch or whiplash effects.
• Naomi Novik described her books as having a three-act structure, each with its own climax: a battle or whatever.
• Steampunk panel's discussion of Charles Babbidge put "The Difference Engine" by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling on my must-read list.
• Some good resources for publishing freelancers: Freelancer's Union and Freelancer's Association
• The panel on getting published confirmed that it truly is a good idea to have an agent when you're working out a contract. Joshua Bilmes came across as really nice and really knowledgeable, and willing to go to bat for his authors.
  
• Author's Guild is a good resource for pub'd writers.
• It was fun to hear Peter S. Beagle and his fellow panelists spin yarns about screenwriting. Peter Beagle mentioned that fiction writing is his main love, but screenwriting helped tighten up his fiction, in that something always has to be happening in a script. He looked like he was enjoying himself but that he'd be more at home on a motorcycle or the deck of a fishing boat.
  
• Celtx is open source scripting software.
  

I never did post anything on Ravencon, but one thing that stuck in my head:

• Three sentences; three paragraphs, three pages. If your story will hook an editor for that long, your chances of a sale are good.