CONvergence

So much going on. Many updates.

WriteCamp 3 was good. We had about 90 people and some really good sessions. I also think that we did a good job of really pushing the envelope as far as garnering sponsors and repeat visitors. So who knows what next year will bring. Overall I was pleased.

I am still working (though not as strongly) on my post-apocalyptic, Second Coming story. I'm roughly 40,000 words in, which is pretty solid. I think I should finish by the end of the summer -- only because another project has landed in my metaphorical lap.

Hence the title. CONvergence. It was great.

This year's theme was "The future through the past." Needless to say there was a lot of steampunk-ery going on, which was great. I was really stoked for the conference because of that, and I was equally enthralled with all the costumes and the sessions. Most notable was a session entitled "Beyond Dirigibles and Pith Helmets," which was about going beyond Europe or even Earth as a setting point for steampunk works. In it I got a great idea for an adventure-based story with a strong female main character and a lot of non-European story to be told. I'm quite excited for it.

My tentative title: "The Amazing Adventures of Lucinda Barrington, Empress of the Danforthe: a Tale in 7 Parts Regarding the End of the World." Yeah, it's long. But it's gonna be awesome.

Updates & More

Hello everyone. So it's update time.

First, there's WriteCamp Milwaukee 2. The event of the season is closing in fast, and we're all very excited. We're getting retweeted and forwarded and mentioned all over the place, and we're hoping that means an even better turn-out than last year -- which was, to our surprise, amazing. If you're in Milwaukee on June 5 of this year, please visit us. Here is the info: www.writecampmilwaukee.com.

In other news, writing has been going extremely well. Some of the pieces I have finished are as follows:

"The Village With the Hole in the Sky" -- 2043-word magic realism piece
"Lou in A Coffee Shop" -- 2005-word contemporary piece
"In Reynolds" -- 3171-word near future zombie story
"Adon Saldori" -- 6144-words steampunk story (part of a series)

I have two others I haven't yet typed up. I'm proud of the work I've put out lately. I think it's good work. I'm also working diligently on the YA Steampunk novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo last year. I think it's on its way to being a solid, complete work.

So that's it for now. I'll no doubt be busy with WriteCamp coming up, but I'll do my best to update a few more times in the next month.

Distractions 5/26/09

With WriteCamp coming up in two weeks, things have been a bit hectic. However, I managed to polish off an old short story, titled "Terminal." I think that it's a bit stronger now, and I will begin to do my bit of research to figure out where would be best to send it.

My next goal will be to finish off a story that I started at an MWW workshop about a month ago. I've been listening to a lot of Snow Patrol lately, and I keep getting better and better ideas for how this story will go. Essentially it's a tale about a reporter who visits a town that's been hit by a meteor (which I might possibly change) only to discover that it's the town where an old flame from college - some 30 years previous - is living and dying of cancer. It's to be a story with a bit of nostalgia for the two, some obvious undertones of romance, and perhaps a bit of reconciliation after years of regretting a break up in college. I know, it's romantic :-)

Anyway, I'm very excited for WriteCamp, and I keep getting a lot of good compliments and comments about it, so I'm very hopeful about it. I sent out for some new JB Dryden Co business cards, which should be good, and I'll be getting some MWW cards, too. Yay!

Until next time. Cheers.