Darkover – What a Fantastic Weekend

I’m a little late posting this, but things (as usual) have been a bit crazy around here.

I just wanted to mention to folks that if you get the opportunity to attend the Darkover convention in Timonium, MD…you really should.

I had a FABULOUS (!) time this past weekend. I met lots of really nice people (had some great conversations), shopped carefully at the dealer’s location (only had one book #fail – w00t!) and sat in on some fascinating panels.

I was also a speaker on two very different panels:

1. Do Fantasy Writers Need Cats? – I believe I was the only dissenting voice on the panel – who wants cat hair in his keyboard? But it was loads of fun with lots of storytelling about pets past and present from all of us.
    
2. Magic and Religion in Fantasy. How do you use them in your writing but keep it believable?
    
   The second panel was a thrilling experience for me, on so many levels… First: because I use both magic and religion in my stories, I felt I had a lot to contribute to the panel. I think I spoke intelligently. Second: there were lots of attentive faces in the audience. People seemed genuinely interested in the topic. And finally: two of my favorite authors were on the panel, too…C.S. Friedman and Katherine Kurtz.

   I’m happy to report that I conducted myself professionally…even though I was going all fangirl on the inside.

The dealers were various, and I was sorely tempted buy a lot of nifty stuff. I did some salivating over some beautiful glass knitting needles at one table and a stocking full of gaming dice at another.

The needles were pretty, and apparently sturdy, but I do take my knitting everywhere now it seems…so having glass needles, no matter how hearty, seems like folly.

And the dice, well… can you ever have too many dice? Um….yeah. Although, had there been single sets, I probably could have been persuaded to part with some cash.

There was also leather, lots of leather, which I admired from afar. I knew if I got within smelling distance of any of those lovely items — especially the wearables — I’d be taking something home. Alas.

All in all… a very good time.

If you attended my session on how to get pub’ed and you want my full notes from the seminar, please drop me a line and I’ll send you my PowerPoint presentation as a PDF. I’ll be happy to share. (There is lots of stuff there we didn’t have time to cover.) Also: if you have any more questions, don’t hesitate to ask…send me a note or hit me up on Twitter.