BOSKONE 44

A really productive day Saturday, with several writing relating panels.  One with Jeff Carver, Darlene Marshall, Joshua Bilmes, Gay Haldeman, and Sharon Lee on "The Business Side of Writing."  Nice mix of authors, the business managing spouses of authors, and agent, Joshua Bilmes, proprietor of JABberwocky (Agent for Tobias Buckell, Elizabeth Moon, and a bunch of others). 

John Scalzi is as cool as I expected him to be--that's cool as in Fonzie, not temperature.  Tobias Buckell is here, and is the nicest guy in the world.  Darlene Marshall is this extremely articulate store of sailing knowledge--as in sailing ships, Patrick O'Brian, pirates... (She was also on the writing business panel and had some great stuff to say about promotion).   Karl Schroeder, as you would expect, is brilliant.

So many authors and publishing people here, but since I don't know many of them by sight, I probably walked right by.  David Hartwell from Tor is here, Lou Anders, editor for Pyr is here.

There was a great literary agents panel, with Michael Kabongo of OnyxHawke Agency, Eleanor Wood of Spectrum and Joshua Bilmes of JABberwocky.  Skott and I handed out cards and pitched our books. 

Wen Spencer was a one woman panel Friday night, showing us some cool inside tricks of action scenes.  She storyboards some of her action/fighting scenes and took the audience through an example with stabbings, broken bones, blood and throat-biting--and all with stick figures.  I storyboard some of my scenes, have been for a long time, and I have been trying to get others to see how much sense it makes.  Thank you Wen.

If I had to pick a BOSKONE MVP?  Elizabeth Bear.  I went to several meetings, one on urban fantasy, another on myth and folklore, and one other, in which she was the moderator, and for the record: Elizabeth Bear kicks ass.  I really like her.  Let me repeat that:  Elizabeth Bear kicks ass.  I now have to find everything she's written.

The whole thing was out at the new Westin on the water front, right next to the BCEC--not in the BCEC mind you, but next to it.  Overheard from Bostonians who ride the T:  "I've never even been on the Silver Line before."