I have a guest post up. You can check it out here.
Saturday
The first panel I went to was called "How to Interview." The panelists all had some type of experience in journalism or magazine writing, and they gave some great pointers on how to question your favorite author (or anyone, for that matter). The biggest point they made was to make sure your questions are specific.
For example, questions like "Who are your influences?" is a general question, which will get a general response. They suggested asking questions like "Your story seems to have influences from Piers Anthony. Is that true? Was it intentional?" Things like that. It is very specific and will get a specific response.
Listening to them gave me some ideas of how I want to conduct interviews on my blog. I'm guilty of asking general questions, as I'm sure most of us are. Now, I just need some time to hone my skills. And some guinea pigs!
The second panel I attended on Saturday was about podcasting. I went to one last year, but I thought I'd see if anything had changed. Nope. It's still incredibly time consuming and costly, especially if you want your recordings to sound good. I pretty much decided I'm not going down that road. I don't have the inclination or the time to do it right.
The third thing I sat through was "The Science of Superheroes." This one was fun. Mike Brotherton, the same guy who taught the Launch Pad Workshop, lectured. Basically, he talked about super powers and how the majority of them are not feasible from a REAL science perspective. Well, duh! We knew that. But he also talked about ways they could be fixed to make them more plausible. And there are some heroes out there who do have more realistic powers (Batman anyone?). Like I said, this lecture was entertaining, and a good way to end my afternoon.
That night, I had my first reading. I was incredibly nervous. Seriously, I almost threw myself into a panic attack. Good thing I know how to talk myself down! I'd never done a reading before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. There were six of us reading from our work, and it was pretty informal, so that helped a lot. My mom was encouraging and told me not to worry about it (she always says that, and she's usually right). When it was my turn, I read "Life After the Undead" like I did for my recordings. I put in the voices and just had fun. I only had 20 minutes, and I didn't even get through chapter 1!
Saturday ended fairly late. By the time I got back to the room, I was ready for bed, and fell readily asleep.
