LTUE was so much fun that I didn’t have time to update once it started. I went to Bard for Life on Thursday night, right after my amazing panel on Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Legends and Folklore. We had an audience member from Singapore who shared some awesome insight as to how to tastefully and respectfully use these cultures’ folklore in our writing. On the panel, we had two people who lived in Japan and have studied the culture for years, and one person who lived in Korea and studied the culture. So, even though I am most familiar with Japanese legends, and beginning to dive into Korean folklore, I added some fun examples from China to round things out. It was fantastic.
And Bard for Life was so good, there are not enough words to explain why everyone needs to see it. I laughed so hard that I was in tears. And I’ve heard half of those stories at a previous Gallowglas event! It was that good. I knew it would be fun, and the man really is a pro storyteller. We bought three new books from him after the event. Can’t wait to read them!
After buying quite a few books, and laughing my butt off, it was time to go home. Day 2 was fast approaching, and I had to be at the con early to sell things.
We arrived before 9am, and got my table set up. It was supposed to be only half of a table, but no one showed up for the other half, so we got a whole table for three hours! And not everyone showed up for the 12-3pm slot, so we got to keep half of the table for an extra three hours! While I didn’t make as much as I usually do in a full weekend, I still sold more necklaces in three hours than I ever have in a full weekend, and I made enough to cover the table space and costs of materials, even after lowering the prices on some of the merchandise! It was awesome! I was so happy to see people taking home pieces that I made, that they love. And I did sell one of the Made With Love earrings, and I plan to sell them at Fan X. (I will be making a trans flag version at some point, as well. I had been thinking about it already, and had at least one person ask about it at the symposium.) I also plan on making dice stud earrings, now that I have my polyhedral resin molds.
And I was able to attend the Phil Foglio keynote speech, which was a blast. The man is hilarious.
Then we went out to dinner with a friend, and wound up walking back through the convention hall, where we stopped to check the book signing. I wasn’t planning on buying much, but I had to. I chatted with an old author friend who I’ve known since I was a kid, and bought one of her books. (She wrote a clever webcomic back in the day, and she would let me read ahead whenever we saw each other. She also introduced me to cute, wholesome manga.) And I wound up buying a book from the author next to her, too. And then, on my way out, I was distracted by a superhero fiction novel. The author saw my steampunk goggles and asked if I was into steampunk and ttrpgs. I, of course, said yes to both. And she pitched me a new game that is in the works called Haunted Gears (if I remember right). It’s a steampunk ghost hunting game. I got that far and was sold. I’m a Ghostbuster, after all. And this game sounds really fun. So I joined the playtester mailing list. And then I bought the books that had distracted me, like the bookwyrm I am.
Day three dawned, and I was running late. Which would have been fine, if I wasn’t on a 9am panel. I did make it less than 20 minutes into the panel, which was what I hoped for, but I was still late. And of course it was a panel being filmed. Oh well. The person who got me into cosplay was on the panel, as well as one of the people who got me into steampunk, both of whom I’ve known most of my life. It was a pretty great panel. 🙂 And then was the first of my three board game panels. Ancient Board Games was so much fun! We had a tafl player, a teacher, me(the Senet fangirl), and the head of the gaming track for the con. It was so much fun. We got to talk about not only how old board games are, and what our favorites are, but why these games were first being made. It was pretty neat.
I somehow pulled a muscle during one of the panels, so when I had a break I went straight to Dianna. She’s a massage therapist, who I’ve known nearly my whole life. I call her my “other mom”. I babysat her kids, and her daughter thinks of me as an older sister. Dianna always has her massage chair set up in the corner of the dealer’s room at LTUE. When my shoulder wouldn’t move properly from an injury, her massage was the only thing that helped it get better. (Check out Holland Heart and Hands if you have muscle problems and you’re in the Salt Lake Valley. She is heckin’ worth it. She put five tendons back into place in my shoulders when the doctors couldn’t figure out why I was in pain.) So she fixes my back, and I’m able to fix my corset while we chat. (I had split the zipper while stretching. Don’t get a zippered corset, unless the zipper is really strong.) Then we got lunch, and wandered around some more, since my next panel wasn’t until 4pm. And I got chatting with a friend who also grew up going to LTUE because of family who were running it. As we wander to a place to sit down, Emily, my friend who I bought a book from at the signing, comes out of a panel with an idea.
So Emily had just come out of a panel about finding your niche as an author, and had asked “what if your niche doesn’t exist?” The panelists responded “then make your own niche.” So she runs by us that she wants more stories that solve problems without violence. The three of us are all on board with this, and decide we’re gonna call it Peace Lit. Because so much of today’s fiction uses magic and fighting and death to save the world, or at least anger. And we want to see more problems solved with love. So we’re going to start the movement towards peaceful solutions, a la Pixar movies like Inside Out and Encanto. (Encanto does have anger, but that only makes things worse. Only love fixes the problem in the end.) So we’re gonna write books and share any that we find, and we’re gonna build a place for these people to go to find more stories where violence doesn’t solve the problem.
The final two panels of the day were Top 10 Board Games for Writers and Top 10 RPGs for Writers. Dan Wells was on the first panel with us, and both were a blast. Together, we came up with a top game in each of ten categories, and several runner-up games. We shared with the audience why we chose the games we did, and how they can help with writing. Both went really well, and we got a good variety of games in both lists.
And that was the end of LTUE. I only attended two things I wasn’t on, both on Thursday, but I learned a lot, and had so much fun. I already can’t wait for next year, and I’m really excited for Fan X. Hopefully, Carlisle Legacy Books will have two new additions to the Development of the Violent Mind series by then.
And I started a new job this week, which may slow down writing stuff a bit, but it may not. I work super early in the morning, but I get off by, like, 2:30pm, so I still have time to get stuff done when I’m not too tired. Monday was a holiday, and today had a really bad snowstorm in the morning, so I’ve only worked one day so far, but I really love the new job. And randomly, a friend of mine works there, too! And neither of us had any idea! But now we’re coworkers, lol.
So, that’s the updates for the week. Now, I need to get back to work on Just Your Average Fairy Tale and The Hero Project. (I have been told that my query letter for The Hero Project is really good, so yay! And, even better, I have a publisher lined up to look at JYAFT! Woo!) Keep an eye out for updates on both of these projects this year!
And some time soon, I’ll get the merchandise page up and running. Feel free to email me with questions about jewelry!
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