Jayme's posted a bunch more ArmadilloCon Photos here.

I wanted to thank everybody for your comments on my last post, we both really appreciate the good wishes and support. I'll definitely post when I know anything more of what's going to happen. Right now we're just trying to reduce expenses drastically. Getting rid of the landline phone service, cutting down the cable package, dropping my gym membership, etc. This also means no out of town cons for the foreseeable future.

Okay, that's enough depressing stuff. Here's some:

( pictures of kitties )
( ArmadilloCon Pictures )

Saturday

I'm not sure what the con attendance was, but both panels I did on Saturday were full to bursting, with people standing in the back. If you walked into the main area, it didn't seem like there were many people there -- until the panels let out and 500 plus people poured out of all the various function rooms.

The art show as usual was excellent, with art by John Picacio and Stephan Martiniere, who had to cancel his appearance but still sent his art. Click the link for his web site, then "gallery" then under the genre column, "book and magazine covers." The pieces "City Without Ends," "Babel," and "Bright of the Sky" were my favorites and I can't tell you how gorgeous these are in person.

( Saturday Panels )

After that we went to dinner with friends, came back and hung out in the bar and the con suite with Katharine Kimbriel (alfreda89), belleps, and Sharon Shinn, who I had a really good time talking to. (We've been going to the same cons for years but never really got a chance to sit down together and hang out.) lillian13 was my minion briefly but we decided "minion" is an outdated concept and that "mitten" sounded more fun and friendly. I went to Jessica Reisman's (jess_ka) reading and her awesome story made me cry in a good way. People kept asking me what it was about and I couldn't talk about the plot because I was afraid I'd cry again.

Sunday

Sunday started out with the toilet in our room backing up, which was not fun. Nice people from the hotel came up to try to fix it, not that successfully, but they gave us a free breakfast to make up for it.

( Sunday panel )

Then lunch at Pappasitos (I had a grilled Mahi tostado, nom nom nom), then said goodbye to everyone and drove home to fix the garage door opener, get the giant oak tree limb off the power line in the backyard, and then collapse.

I was in the ArmadilloCon writers workshop from 9:00 to 5:00 yesterday. It started at about 8:45 am, and there were two panels in the morning: "How does one finish a book anyway?" and "Race in Sci-Fi/Fantasy - Challenges and Pitfalls," then Scott Lynch led a writing game involving making storylines out of your most hated cliches, that was hilarious and a lot of fun. Then lunch, and an afternoon of story critiquing, and then a final wrap-up and question and answer session from 4:00 to 5:00. Everybody seemed to have a great time and our critique group was great.

Then we did dinner at Pappadeux with stinabat, texanfan, Scott Lynch, Nancy Hightower, j_cheney, Melissa Tyler, Patrice Sarath, Sharon Shinn, and a few other people from the workshop. Then opening ceremonies and the Meet the Pros party, and drinking. (A little bit of drinking, I was too tired and didn't want to get too tipsy.)

Today I have two panels and a reading and an autographing, so it's going to be a busy morning.

Troyce and I got to Austin late this afternoon for ArmadilloCon. We went to the pre-con dinner at Serrano's, which is a Tex-Mex restaurant with a really nice natural stone patio with shade trees, looking down on a creek without much water in it at the moment. The con had reserved a private building out on the patio (much better than the basement the restaurant originally thought we were supposed to be in). The hand-made tortillas were the best ever. Then we came back to the hotel, hung out in the bar a bit until the con suite opened, then went up there for brownies and cake. No late night partying tonight, since I've got to be at the writers' workshop at 8:45 tomorrow.

I got a couple of questions about this, so just to clarify, The Forest Boy hasn't been published before and is new to the website, The Potter's Daughter was published in Elemental a couple of years ago and is a prequel story to The Element of Fire, and won't spoil you for that book.

***

I'm getting ready to go to ArmadilloCon tomorrow. There will be lots of intensive preparation which includes two loads of laundry. Okay, mostly I just have to do laundry. I'll be in the writers workshop all day Friday, but I'll be roaming free Saturday and Sunday morning. My schedule is here.

thanate asked: Do you have any favorite resources or pieces of advice for people who write but haven't yet gotten up the courage to tackle the publishing industry?

My big piece of advice is don't tackle the publishing industry unless you really really want to, and feel compelled to. (It's not a career where you make a lot of money (unless you just hit it lucky) and there's no real job security.) There's nothing wrong with writing just for fun, for your own enjoyment and fulfillment.

(We were talking about this in the comments of an earlier post, wondering when the idea showed up that writing is somehow a no-no unless you are writing for publication. People have been writing stories, poetry, memoirs, travelogues, etc, just for themselves or to share with a small group of friends or family, in every culture that has a written language, since written language was invented, and the ones who can't write their words down tell stories. Now somehow you have to be planning to make a profit at it or it's a bad thing. I tend to think this is something that crept in with the idea of bestsellers, where all writers are seen as rich celebrities like Joan Collins? I don't know. The fact that most writers who write for publication either still have other jobs or are barely scraping by, and that there are a much larger number of writers who don't write for professional publication at all, seems to be almost absent from popular culture.)

But if you really really want to try for publication, I've been putting together a list of basic information links on my web site here, though I'm still adding to that. I'd also say one of the best things you can do to get a feel for the professional publishing world is to read agent blogs, like arcaedia (Jennifer Jackson), Bookends, LLC, Nathan Bransford, Pub Rants, onyxhawke (Mike Kabongo). Their blogs also have links to other agent blogs.

***

ArmadilloCon is this weekend in Austin! With Scott Lynch and Joan D. Vinge.

Someone had asked, and yes, it's absolutely fine to friend me. I may not friend you back, because I don't do a huge amount of reading on LJ anymore. Oh, and my writing question posts are here.

And I'm also on Dreamwidth at marthawells.dreamwidth.org.


ArmadilloCon Schedule August 14-16, in Austin, TX.

I'll be there Friday, but I'll be one of the teachers at the writers workshop, so I'll be in that all day.

Sa1100DW City Building
Sat 11:00 AM-Noon deWitt
R. Rogers, S. Lynch, M. Wells, S. Shinn, V. Docherty, J. L. Blaschke*
Creating a city that both works for your story, and makes sense for the world it is in.

Sat 12:00 Autographing

Sa1300R Reading
Sat 1:00 PM-1:30 PM Robertson
Martha Wells

Sa1700DW Religion and Mysticism in SF/F
Sat 5:00 PM-6:00 PM deWitt
J. Vinge, K. D. Wentworth, P. Benjamin, S. Lynch, M. Wells*, M. Cardin

Su1000DZ If I Knew Then What I Know Now
Sun 10:00 AM-11:00 AM deZavala
J. Vinge, E. Moon, L. S. Carl*, M. Wells, D. Webb


***


Also: Tattooed Librarians The Texas Library Association is selling a 2010 calendar called “The Tattooed Ladies of TLA.” Twenty-one librarians show off their tats over 18 months. The calendar is a fundraiser to assist libraries that are still recovering from damage caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The trip to Minneapolis went pretty smoothly. The rain stopped outside of College Station, started again in Conroe but didn't last long, and I got to the airport in plenty of time. The flight was fine and mezzibelle found me at the baggage claim immediately, found chrisjournal who had also just gotten in, and went to the hotel.

( the chemical plant fire )

The con was awesome, ran very smoothly and was very well organized and everybody I talked to was having a fantastic time. The con suite was very well stocked with real food (sandwiches! Fruit! Potatoes and sausage and eggs for breakfast! These things are important for people who have been talking about writing for hours and also may have hangovers.)

WriterCon is focused on fanfiction as literature and writing workshops, seminars, panels on writing, etc.

( Program: Writing as a Career Choice )

( Program: Inner Lives: Discovering Story Through Exploring Character )

( Panel: Cage Match: Science vs. Magic )

I really want to thank the whole con committee for having me there. It was a wonderful con and I had a fantastic time!

Back from WriterCon. I had an absolutely fantastic time, and am now dead tired. I'll do a longer post about it tomorrow.

I'm getting ready to leave for the two hour drive to the Houston airport, to take a plane for WriterCon in MN. And we're having a thunderstorm. It's absolutely pelting down rain. The drought could have at least lasted until late this afternoon.

I'm not taking my laptop, because if something happened to it, I'd be screwed. (I had a friend get hers broken when someone knocked it off the table in the security line.) So I'll be offline until next week.

WriterCon is coming up this weekend in Minneapolis, and I'm really looking forward to it. I'll be getting there late Thursday afternoon.

The main program I'll be doing is at 2:00 on Friday, Making the Leap: Writing as a Career Choice: A talk/question and answer session on writing as a career and the basics that people starting out as writers need to know. How to submit stories for publication, how agents work, what the publishing process should be like, scams to avoid, publishing myths and misconceptions, and anything else the participants would like to discuss. If you're at the con and you can't go to the program, feel free to catch me and ask any questions you have. I'll probably be in the dealer's room a lot. :)

Also coming up on August 14-16 is ArmadilloCon in Austin, Texas. This is one of the most fun and friendly cons in existence, and I always have a great time there. I'll be one of the teachers at the Friday writers workshop again this year.

ArmadilloCon 4 in 1982 was the first convention I ever went to, when I somehow convinced my parents to let me go when I was in high school. And I've been in sf/f fandom ever since.

***

Vanity publishers are a huge problem and rip-off literally thousands of dollars from their victims, but this is the first time I'd heard of a vanity fiction anthology. Those poetry "contests" and books people pay to be in are also anthologies, but I'd never heard of one for stories.

***

I'm reading Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliasotti, and really enjoying it so far. The main character is a woman who works as a winged courier to carry messages up and down the tiers of a mountain city controlled by a clockwork engine.

Links:

The auction for writer Aaron Allston's medical expenses is today. You can also donate by check and paypal.

Charles Saunders has posted an older short story, "Luendi," in the Blog section of his web site. Bill Ward's review on the Black Gate Blog: ‘Luendi’ gives us not a fantasy Africa, but an Africa of the fantastic — one in which the mysteries beyond the light of the campfire are real, and the kind of just retribution found in folk stories is transposed to a time and place that sorely needed it.

Mark Finn decorated the Vernon Plaza Theater as Hogwarts for the premiere of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and posted photos.

eldritchhobbit is one of the guests on The Sofanauts Podcast!

ahmedakhan has posted the table of contents for upcoming anthology Cheer Up, Universe.

***

Conventions coming up:

WriterCon 2009 July 31-August 2, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

ArmadilloCon 31, August 14-16, in Austin, Texas.

ApolloCon Schedule for June 27.

Note I'll only be there on Saturday; we need to save money and can't afford the hotel this year.



Readings:
Sat 10:00AM - 11:00AM BR 2 = Rm #218
Rosemary Clement-Moore, Martha Wells

Writing 101
Sat 12:00PM - 1:00PM Seattle II
Bill Crider, Joe McKinney, Julie Kenner, K.M. Tolan, Martha Wells
Is your mind whirling with questions like "where do ideas come from?"
or "when can I quit my day job?" then this panel is for you. Pros and
emerging pros give the skinny on the art and business of writing.

Does Fantasy Have to be Epic?
Sat 1:00PM - 2:00PM Seattle II
Martha Wells (M), A. Lee Martinez, Gail Dayton, Lillian Stewart Carl
When writing fantasy, does it have to be a multi-book save-the-world
epic? Can fantasy, including sword & sorcery, have a smaller scope and
still be satisfying to the reader? Is there still a place for the
stand-alone book?

It Wasn't Always a Cliché
Sat 3:00PM - 4:00PM Seattle II
Martha Wells, Erika Frensley, Rhonda Eudaly, Kathy Thornton, Jayme Lynn Blaschke
Another book about an alien robot running amok and destroying
humanity? They may be old hat now, but robots, aliens, and magical
swords had to get their start somewhere. Our panelists discuss the
earliest use of the tropes of Spec Fic.

Autographs:
Sat 5:00PM - 6:00PM Autograph Table
Kimberly Frost, Martha Wells, Patrice Sarath

ApolloCon in Houston is the weekend after this one, but unfortunately I'll only be able to be there on Saturday. When it came down to it, we just couldn't afford the two nights in the hotel, so I'll just be daytripping in for Saturday programming.


In the department of Die, Sears, Die: Yesterday was not good. After waiting a week for someone from Sears to come out and fix the garage door, we found out that Sears had gone through all the motions of making the service appointment but not actually made it, which was somehow our fault because of course Sears can't take responsibility for any mistakes its employees make that screw over its customers, that would be crazy. So another company is coming out to look at it today, and from what it sounds like after discussing the problem with a rational person, we'll probably need to replace the whole opener (it's 13 years old and gears keep breaking) which we can't afford.

Die, Weather, Die: It's really hot, already. We hit 100 yesterday.

writercon (which is coming up July 31-August 2 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) posted a Q&A with me here.

For more info on the con, their web site is WriterCon.

The other cons I'll be at this year:

June 26-28, 2009. ApolloCon 2009, in Houston, Texas.

August 14-16, 2009. ArmadilloCon 31, in Austin, Texas.

I really wish I could afford to do World Fantasy this year, but that's not going to happen.

More bad news: Baker & Taylor is identified as a company at high risk of default or bankruptcy. Other than Ingram, B&T serves as the primary distributor of books in the U.S. and the world.

Yet more bad news for Buffy and Angel fans: I saw this link on Facebook: Andy Hallett dies of heart failure. Andy Hallett played Lorne in Angel and was only 33 years old.

Trying to end on a more positive note, and having trouble finding one. Let's see, here's the conventions I'll be going to this year:

June 26-28, 2009 ApolloCon 2009, in Houston, Texas.

July 31-August 2, 2009 WriterCon 2009, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

August 14-16, 2009 ArmadilloCon 31, in Austin, Texas.

I got some good news the other day: I've been invited to be a guest at WriterCon. It's July 31-August 2, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Above all else, Writercon is a gathering of writers, poets, editors, and fans of writers, poets, and editors. Some will come to learn how to write better fan fiction, some will come to learn about how to make the leap from fan fiction to original fiction, some will come just to gab with fellow neuroticswriters for hours on end. Yay!


Cat update: I bought Harry one of those kitty drinking fountains on Tuesday and he's actually been using it. That's good, because we separated him from the other cats when we left for the weekend (his anger issues were getting a little out of control) and our friend who was petsitting didn't think he drank much while we were gone.


More new books out this week: Deader Still by Anton Strout and Spell Games by T.A. Pratt.

Okay, my shoulder and neck is much less spasm-y today. Which is good, because I have a doctor's appointment today for a yearly checkup and didn't want to confuse the issue.

ConDFW was great, and it looked like their attendance was way up this year. I think it really helped having Jim Butcher and David Weber as guests -- a couple of times, the line for autographs for Jim Butcher stretched most of the way across the lobby. The new hotel seemed to work out really well, too. There was a huge amount of space for hanging around and talking, and having the bar and restaurant open to the rest of the lobby was very nice.

I got to see a lot of lovely people, including a Friday south Indian dinner with stinabat and Dane, Patrice Sarath, Gabrielle Faust, Nancy Hightower. Also got to grab a quick Saturday lunch between panels with rachelcaine, Cat Conrad, and heidi2524. Dinner Saturday was with wedgeofspite and Paul, and we got to hang out for a long time and talk. (We also discovered that if you go to Benihana and they have an hour and a half wait, you can sit in the bar area and still get served dinner, and it's the same menu as everybody else gets, just without the chef doing the show at the table with the onion volcano, etc.)

The three panels I was on went really well, with some good discussion, not much of which I remember coherently at this point. Maybe later.

Got to ConDFW yesterday, did a reading, met up with people including stinabat and then it was all about the Indian food. We went to a fantastic restaurant on Coit Road called the Madras Pavilion, which we managed to find despite the directions on the iPhone and the fact that the sign wasn't lit. It was south Indian cuisine, really really good.

The new con hotel is nice, lots more room for the dealer's room, etc.

Today I have three panels, so it should be pretty busy.