Upcoming Writers Conference

 We have a local writing conference coming up on April 23rd, 2022. Most of it will be online so you can sign up to attend the event from anywhere and view classes at your convenience. There will be an in-person keynote, but I think even that will be streamed live to attendees. For the book signing, that's a hard one to handle online, so you're on your own there. :)

I've recorded three different classes for the conference.

• Making Infinite Worlds in Finite Time
• Short Story Prep and Submission
• Care and Feeding of Your Amazon Author Account (This class is brand new.)

Our spring conference is a one-day event, but the recorded classes will be available to all attendees both before and after the one live day. Come join us for a great conference!

Life the Universe and Everything

It's that time of year again. Conference season has begun. I'm starting off my tour with LTUE this weekend. If you are somewhere near Provo, Utah, stop by to say hello. If you're not going to register for the (rather inexpensive) conference, there is a free-to-the-public book signing Friday night.

This conference is a great time to meet with friends and to do some networking. I hope to also do a little recruiting for the League of Utah Writers since we have our Quills conference coming up in August. (Spring Conference schedule is already mostly set.)

A cool bonus: I got copies of Crystal Empire in time to bring them, so it will be in the vendor room along with the rest of the series, and with a few anthologies I'm in.

Here is my LTUE schedule:

How to Judge a Book

Friday 10:00 AM

David Farland

M. Todd Gallowglas
John M. Olsen (Moderating)
Tony Daniel

We all know never to judge a book by its cover, but how do we judge it? Every bookworm has their own neverending reading list. How do we decide which books to read and which books to skip?

Book Signing Event

(Free to the public)
Friday 6:30 - 8:00 PM

This is the author signing to beat all author signings. Introduce yourself to your favorite authors and get your books signed. Bring your own books, and/or purchase select titles onsite. This is one event not to be missed!

Feedback, Critiques, and Criticism

Friday 6:00 PM

C.H. Hung
Kenneth Hunter Gordon
John M. Olsen
Jessica Guernsey
Quiana Chase
Michael F. Haspil

How to critique the works of others without hurting their feelings. Can you still be friends after that dreaded critique session?

FyreCon 3 Report

I had a great time at FyreCon, held June 20-22. I had a busy schedule, consisting of:

A book signing.

• Some friends stopped by to chat and I sold some books.

Three solo classes.

• Senses Beyond the Big Five: Expanding Your Descriptive Toolbox
• Making Infinite Worlds in Finite Time
• Beginning Calligraphy

One team-taught class with Lyn Worthen

• Surviving the Slush Pile

A couple panels.

• The Future of VR and Video Games
• Robots, Androids, and AI

Now I need to update my presentations page. That's where I keep a record of what I've done, and when. This year I didn't teach anything on writing short stories, but the Slush Pile class covered a bit of the same stuff.

The Senses class was great fun, and was the first time I've covered that material. It was inspired by my panel at MisCon a couple years ago talking about the senses involved in violence.

Infinite Worlds went well, and was a lot of fun reviewing ways of building background information on a world to give the characters something to do, whether they're aligned, opposed, or surprised by some aspect of the world around them.

Beginning Calligraphy was great fun as usual. I've taught that class I think four times now (three at FyreCon) and it's cool to see people excited about an art form that doesn't see much attention.

Surviving the Slush Pile was a great chance to help new writiers find ways to get past the first round of gatekeepers. Once you have a fair amount of writing skill, success often consists of being professional and following instructions.

The VR and Video Game panel was me and Jay Barnson talking to several local game development veterans and a couple of teenagers interested in games. I think we avoided traumetizing them with war stories.

Robots, Androids, and AI with Martin Shoemaker was great fun. We talked about the scientific views on AI and how that's too boring for fiction in most cases.

I attended a handful of classes and spent a little time at our bookstore table selling books, but I spent a lot of time on the honored tradition of networking and hanging out with friends, often in the Green Room (which was not actually green).

This time around I was also representing the League of Utah Writiers, and spent a little time supporting our volunteers there manning an information table. We have the League's Quills conference coming up in August, so we're getting the news out.

Overall, the conference was a great success. Attendance was up, several of my classes were near capacity, and a great time was had by most. Problems with an elevator (not me), a low blood sugar incident (also not me), and other challenges were dealt with quickly and smoothly.

Guest Blogging for Cannon Publishing

I wrote a guest blog post over at Cannon Publishing to talk about how to find a new favorite author. They've included one of my stories in their Hundred Worlds anthology.

Give the post a look!

(They've been rearranging the blog links, so if that doesn't work just go to https://www.cannonpublishing.us and jump through the Blog link at the top.)