Things I Learned At Penguicon 2010: Post-Scarcity Futures

Title: Post Scarcity Futures
Panelists: Karl Schroeder, Geoffrey A. Landis, JD Luzio
Date and Time: Saturday, May 1, 2010; 9:00 PM

This panel ... wasn't what I was expecting, and I ended up not liking it very much. Anyway, the panel started off with a minor complaint from JD Deluzio. He had meant to have a panel talking about how the common views of the future had changed over time. It used to be that the future was either post-apocalyptic or it was the Star Trek future with humans colonizing the stars and winning all the battles. Now the two futures are a post-scarcity future, one where we've run out of some resource or another and the world has basically fallen apart; or a no-scarcity future - the one "the transhumanist optimistics" think of (there were a lot of digs at transhumanists in this panel, and it bothered me a lot).

The panelists talked about how there is always some type of scarcity, that things tend to balance out. One scarcity is solved only to be replaced by another, different scarcity. The panelists complained that there wasn't much ingenuity in the books that discuss such futures - because they always follow the same, or a similar, storyline.

They also talked about how they thought all futures would arrive - just not equally. The horrible post-scarcity future will come to some people, while others will experience the transhumanist future. I, personally, disagree with this, but that's for another time.

Finally, a lot of books were mentioned - many of which sounded interesting.

• Wind Up Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi was frequently referenced
• World made By Hand by James Kunstler
• Julian Comstock by Robert Charles Wilson
• Lady of Mazes by Karl Schroeder
• Accelerando by Charles Stross
• and anything by Greg Egan - I think Permutation City was specifically mentioned, but I'm likely wrong (Tene read it recently so I easily could have picked it out from the Amazon author page as looking and sounding familiar).

Penguicon 2010 Posts
Character Driven Storytelling
Non-Obvious Reflections of Culture in Science-Fiction
Methods of Life Hacking
Publicity 101
[[Post-Scarcity Futures]]

Things I Learned At Penguicon 2010: Publicity 101

Title: Publicity 101
Panelists: Cherie Priest, Patrick Rothfuss, Daniel J. Hogan, Brian Briggs
Date and Time: Saturday, May 1, 2010; 5:00 PM

This was the only panel I went to that Cherie Priest was on, which made me a little sad, I had hoped to see more of her (she is seriously awesome). I went because I wanted to learn some about selling myself - since I ... had no idea how to do it.

The panel started with things that we shouldn't do to try to sell our works. First was that we really shouldn't be "that guy" - the guy who writes his own reviews, pumping himself up on Amazon, or the guy who sics his friends and family after bad reviewers. In fact, the panelists agreed that we should avoid fighting on the internet and just roll with the punches - everyone gets bad reviews, after all.

We were also told that we shouldn't overextend ourselves financially - publishers don't pay for conventions or marketing, and conventions don't really end up being worth the cost.

The last Don't Do This was that while blogs, podcasts, Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace are good for staying connected to your fan base, they're not so great for marketing purposes. Which makes sense - you don't get new people just by tweeting all the time. Also that anything that requires a psuedonym is probably a bad idea: specifically things like posing as your characters on Facebook or Twitter. All of the panelists agreed that doing that was fun at first, but quickly becomes annoying.

Then the panelists moved on to good things to do to promote your work. Branding yourself is a good thing to do, although they never really talked about how to do that (or they may have, but it's not in my notes, and I don't recall it).


We were told to be confident, modest, and earnest - because all of those are endearing qualities. Basically, to be honest - especially with the important people (publicist, editor, etc). They need to be kept in the loop, because otherwise they can't help you need it.

Getting into a habit of making frequent posts to blogs and other social networks was also suggested, because you can learn from your mistakes - and your wins - before you're more popular. It will also help to put you out there - especially if you don't make many "horrific asshole mistakes". We were told that we should tread carefully putting ourselves out there like that. The panelists suggested we avoid talking about sex, politics, and religion on blogs - since those topics are likely to really upset or even offend some people (which is part of why I've yet to merge Criss Cross Asterisk with the rest of the blogs on here).

Spending time on marketing was encouraged - but that it should be secondary to creating. "The best possible promotion is quality work," the panelists said, and, "If it's good nothing can stop you, if it's bad nothing can help you." We were told that we should make the novel the absolute best that it can be.

The last part of the panel was about getting readers - we were told to become part of a network like the SFWA or the Author's Guild (although the panelists admitted that none of them were in such networks). Having friends boost your work up on Amazon was also good - but only when we're getting started. We were told to make friends with local, private booksellers and libraries - and to be nice to them - because such a relationship would definitely be beneficial. Also, and this one I liked the idea of, When we get our initial run of books printed we shouldn't necessarily give them to friends and family (who would boost us up and support us regardless), but to send them to people we think are cool - even if they're unknowns. The worst that happens is the never read it - the best that happens is you get a review from someone you find awesome! There are also book review websites available that will, well, review books. Business cards were also suggested, but not in much depth.

And my favorite quote from this panel came from Cherie Priest: "Everything you finish levels you up." I'm now going to play Writing: The RPG.

Penguicon 2010 Posts
Character Driven Storytelling
Non-Obvious Reflections of Culture in Science-Fiction
Methods of Life Hacking
[[Publicity 101]]
Post-Scarcity Futures

Things I Learned At Penguicon 2010: Methods of Life Hacking

Title: Methods of Life Hacking
Panelists: David Erik Nelson, Jim C. Hines, Dave Crampton
Date and Time: Saturday, May 1, 2010; 3:00 PM

This was one of the panels that I was really excited for. I've been looking into life and mind hacking to try to help myself, so I figured this would help me out. I wasn't disappointed!

We started with finding time to write. Everyone gets the same 24-hours in a single day, and how those hours are used is up to the person in question. It's always a choice, and you need to take what you can get! Once the writing time has been chosen, I need to stick to it. It needs to be routine - so that my brain builds "Time to Write!" pathways and make it easier to write in the future. Part of this is that I should avoid doing anything but writing during it - no checking email or various websites, no leaving my chair, just writing for an hour or so. One warning about the routine is that it's hard to break away from that if you ever have to.

One suggestion I really liked from this panel was about writing itself: The suggestion was to write long hand. It's slower, but that's often a good thing - it forces you to think about what you're putting on the paper - rather than just blurting out everything that comes to mind. Besides, in a word processor what's typed looks like a book, which could cause anxiety about it being absolutely perfect. Also suggested were writing on index cards or legal pads - because that makes it more difficult to ramble or lose track of the story.

My favorite advice was to "Write crap for ten minutes every morning" - that way all your bad writing is out of the way, so you can work on more serious things. I don't think I would actually be able to do this one, but it would certainly be nice!

The overarching theme was to try new things, different things - and find what works for each you. And to remember that things that are attempted might now work, and so as a writer I/we need to be flexible and able to try something else.


One book that was brought up numerous times was Booklife by Jeff VanderMeer. I hope to get a copy of it soon, because it seems like a very nice resource.


Penguicon 2010 Posts
Character Driven Storytelling
Non-Obvious Reflections of Culture in Science-Fiction
[[Methods of Life Hacking]]
Publicity 101
Post-Scarcity Futures

Things I Learned At Penguicon 2010: Non-Obvious Reflections of Culture in Science Fiction

Title: Non-Obvious Reflections of Culture in Science Fiction
Panelists: Sarah Monette, Doselle Young, Stewart Sternberg
Date and Time: Saturday, May 1, 2010; 2:00 PM

I got something completely different from this panel than I was expecting going in (although, I'm not certain what I was expecting) - it was fun either way, though, and I enjoyed it. I've seen Sarah Monette at the last three Penguicons, and she's often a very interesting panelist, so I was glad to get to see her again.

A lot of this panel focused on subcultures, rather than culture at large, which I believe surprised me. But it made sense - it's hard to see culture when you're in the midst of it. To see your culture you have to step outside of it - subcultures give people a way to do that; to view culture through the eyes of a subculture. Besides that - in order to understand culture fully, you need to know about all the facets - subcultures. It's the only way to know the whole picture, to have all the context.

Also discussed was where a non-obvious interpretation comes from, that is: biases brought to the reading will shape the interpretations that come from that. Experience shapes interpretation. You also get wider cultural meaning to bias your reading - so things take on meanings about gender identity, religion, or power reversal.

On the topic of culture most of what was discussed was that cultures repeat - but it's not always noticed. For example: Nirvana and Lovecraft deeply inspired and informed later generations of music, literature, and all sorts of facets and sides of culture; but not everyone knows what a Lovecraftian monster would be.

Finally the panelists gave some suggestions of some science-fiction informed by current subcultures or pieces of cultures: A future dystopia about gymnastics, a NASCAR-based science fiction, etc.

The best thing I wrote down from this panel is simply this: Everything has a fandom, and everything is interesting. So writing about a NASCAR-based science fiction would have a following - although it probably would not be the regular readers of science fiction.

Penguicon 2010 Posts
Character Driven Storytelling
[[Non-Obvious Reflections of Culture in Science-Fiction]]
Methods of Life Hacking
Publicity 101
Post-Scarcity Futures

Things I Learned At Penguicon 2010: Character-Driven Storytelling

Title: Character-Driven Storytelling
Panelists: Tara Tallan, Karen Howard, Jason Dunstan, Other Person I Didn't Write Down and Don't Remember
Date and Time: Saturday, May 1, 2010; 1:00 PM

The first panel I went to at Penguicon was about Character Driven Storytelling. The four panelists were webcomic artists and writers. We ended up discussing more about character development than character based plots, but I guess that makes sense - with character driven storytelling the characters, not the plot, are the important part.

So why should someone choose character driven storytelling over plot or action driven? The panelists talked about how when a story is character driven the audience can connect and identify with the characters much stronger - because the story isn't as important as the emotions and internal experiences. I realized that this is how I write normally - which explains why I have a big problem with writing down plots or what's going to happen in the future of my stories.

The rest of the panel was about characters, and character development. It was strongly emphasized that we - as authors - needed to know our characters inside and out; we need to know their voices and their quirks and everything about them - even if those facts don't come up in the story. Of course clothing and names can help to develop a characters personality (we were, of course, warned against using clichéd names like "Chastity" - there's only two things that can happen with such a character: she either becomes a nun, or she becomes a slut), but their voice is much more important.

Something that was suggested that I never thought of doing was taking two of my characters, and switching their places. If they end up being interchangeable - dialogue flows the same way, the scene has no or few variations, etc - then I haven't done enough work. The analogy was made that good characters interacting with one another should be like a pinball machine - all sorts of things should be going on. One of the panelists mentioned that it was interesting to see how characters can and will play off of each other if they're done correctly.

Another thing that was pointed out that I never considered: If I, as an author, don't like my characters, my audience will also not like my characters. I would imagine that this goes the opposite way, as well: If I care a lot about my characters, and put the work and effort into making them the best people that I can, and I love them - my audience, my readers, will see that - and they'll feel the same way.

The last thing that really, really stuck out to me was a very simple idea: Characters should be written as people first, characters second. It's the best way to make them as real as they can possibly be.

I don't feel as strongly toward any of my characters as I should, and many of them feel shallow. I guess I have a lot of work ahead of me.

Penguicon 2010 Posts
[[Character Driven Storytelling]]
Non-Obvious Reflections of Culture in Science-Fiction
Methods of Life Hacking
Publicity 101
Post-Scarcity Futures

Penguicon 2010

Last night Tene and I got home from Penguicon 2010 at ... sometime around eleven. I'm going to do posts about the panels I went to (and I'm actually going to do them this year!), but I figured I would give an overview of how the con went for us, well, me.

Because we waited far too long to get plane tickets, we ended up missing all of Friday. I don't know what we missed - because I didn't want to feel bad about missing things, so I completely skipped over the Friday panels.

After two uneventful flights (first from San Jose to Phoenix, AZ then from Phoenix to Detroit), and talking to the rental car agency, we got to the hotel at ungodly early 2:00 in the morning, and promptly crashed into bed. Tene and I shared one bed, while Bancus and rlpowell shared the other (rlpowell is the one who funded our hotel room, yay!). Saturday morning we woke up around nine, left the room around ten thirty, and had breakfast.

I spent most of my morning hanging out with the Lojban people - Bancus, rlpowell, Tene, Matt, Neptunepink, djanatyn, Hugglesworth ... and some people I don't know the names of - and admiring the pretty costumes of other con attendants. I wandered the Dealer room/Artists alley and found some things I was interested in, but wanted to give myself a chance to think about before buying (this ended up being a good thing, and saved me a good $150 on a bodice I might have never worn).

My first panel was at one, and then I was in panels until four - when I got a half-hour break - and then I had one more at five.

At six I wandered back to the room where all the Lojban attendees were chatting, and it was decided that it was up to me and one other person to decide what we were all going to eat for dinner. I was informed this was because we happened to be the most picky eaters out of the group - I found this to be an understatement. The other person, who I'll refer to as "P,"  was so much pickier than me it was scary. I know I'm a picky eater. I've been working very hard to change this aspect about myself. And, most of the nearby restaurants were places that I would have been alright eating at. P was .... a lot pickier.

We ended up deciding (I ended up dictating, really. P ... kinda freaks me out. A lot. I don't like being around him) on a nearby Indian restaurant that offered takeout, and Tene, Bancus, and I loaded up in the car and headed out.

Unfortunately I was very disappointed with Priya's (the restaurant). Worst mango lassi I've ever had (which brings my total of mango lassi's from different restaurants to 3), tiny tiny portions, and ... I don't know, it just seemed to be low quality - especially for the price we were charged. Bancus footed the bill, and I worry that he was essentially ripped off :(.

After eating (I didn't eat much, which is becoming disturbingly normal) I went to one more panel - which I kind of regret wasting my time on. Then it was ten at night and I was tired and Tene and I decided to go up to go to sleep. This ended up turning into a sleep over - as rlpowell, Bancus, and I stayed up late into the night chatting about all sorts of things, and Tene played Disgeae on my PSP and contributed every now and then. It was really fun and I enjoyed it. We finally went to sleep at, like, three in the morning.

Sunday I didn't go to any panels, although I wanted to, but I did get to go shopping! I bought some nice steampunk goggles (pictures to come soon), debated over the bodice I had tried on the day before (decided against it - pure leather, which means it wouldn't breathe well, and I wasn't sure where I would wear it - I don't really go to RenFests, and it wasn't quite steampunk enough to match my outfit), bought a medium-sized bottle with a leather holster (Tene and I have plans for this), and got some nice, padded leather cuffs. A very lucrative trip.

Shortly afterwards we got back into the rental car and took rlpowell to the airport, then drove around (I slept in the backseat) for a few hours before going to the airport ourselves. We almost missed our flight to Phoenix (we were there early, but the flight was leaving early. We didn't realize how close we had cut it until we heard my last name on the intercom, followed by Tene's and Bancus'), and were very lucky we didn't.

One other thing that happened to me happened on Saturday that had me giddy for much of the day following. I have been a fan of Cherie Priest since I first learned of her at Penguicon in 2008. After sitting in on one of her panels I got up the courage to request she sign my copy of Boneshaker, and I ended up asking her if it would be alright if I emailed her and asked her some questions about writing and the business and everything. She was very friendly and told me: "Yeah, of course!"

While I haven't gone through with it yet, I'm definitely going to. I hope to become friends with her over email - because she is so awesome, and it would be great to have some connection to the writing world. But mostly because she is awesome and I think she would be a great person to be friends with/close to.

So much happened, though, this post really doesn't do it justice. I learned so much at the panels I went to, even though I didn't really go to many. I'm just so excited to share everything I learned.

The last awesome thing about this weekend: I had confidence in myself and my self-esteem was at a ... well good level! I felt confident and sexy and pretty and I didn't have any of that self-hate and self-doubt that has plagued me for years. The best part? It hasn't left me yet! I still feel great. I'm trying my hardest to keep this feeling working - and I think I've realized that it is (a least partially) a choice to be happy or not. I mean, I've been acting like my depression and my emotions are something that are being done to me, something outside of my control And to some extent that's true: I have a chemical imbalance in my brain, I cannot control the fact that something related to my serotonin levels is messed up. But I can control how I react to it. Right now, it's easy, and I'm scared of it becoming a lot harder. But I hope that I'm on the right path to finally feeling like a normal person.

Things I Learned: How We Learned to Love Distopia

So, I finally get around to telling all about my adventures at Penguicon. I'll be posting one of these a day, on weekdays, until I'm done. So, enjoy! :)

Also, I apologize, but this first one is going to be choppy, I'll try to edit it in the future.

Title: How We Learned to Love Dystopia
Presenters: Sarah Monette, William Jones, Daniel J. Hogan, and Elizabeth Bear
Date and Time: Friday, April 18 at 8:00pm

Utopia has no plot. It cannot have plot. Plot come from two sides of a conflict fighting with one another. There are few Utopian stories, because there is nothing really to tell. The happily ever after ending is not pleasing. It doesn't feel true to us as humans, because life is full of strife and hardship, but in a Utopia everything is perfect. There is no hardship to be suffered.

Dystopia, on the other hand, is full of stories. The stories of where the dystopia began, how it grew and took hold. The accounts of those oppressed in the society - the freedom fighters and those they fight for. The tales of how the Dystopia ends.

Dystopia stories often incorporate the Utopia as well - the place where everyone is happy and content, where there is no suffering or sadness. In the end, however, all of these stories are revealed to be about a Dystopia disguised as Utopia. The people are oppressed, but do not realize it (The Matrix, Brave New World). They are controlled by forces outside of their control, and they don't try to stop it. They are happy, but not truly. A happiness caused by lies and drugs.

A true Utopia - one where there is no pain, no suffering, everyone is happy with their lives and themselves - is no more possible to our minds than Santa Clause or the Tooth Fairy. The belief and faith needed for a Utopia to be believable does not exist any longer. Not with all the pain and suffering we witness in the world around us.

For each story that dystopia gives rise to, there are different takes that they can be portrayed through as well - The people who become legends because they get out. The cautionary tales and the fairy stories. The metaphors, written 15 years in the future - about the world here and now, that we live in. The stories that are epiphanies. Where the character and/or the reader come to an "aha" moment by the end.

Penguicon Day 1

WARNING LONG POST IS LONG!

Well, here I am, comfy in bed at the Troy Hilton in Michigan. I've been to one day of Penguicon, and I'm mostly enjoying myself. Yesterday was an adventure, though ...

So, Tene and I left for the airport around 10, our flight was scheduled to leave at around 12:30am. It left on time and all was well.

Ended up falling asleep on the flight. It was uncomfortable but - hey - whatcha gonna do?

Problem #1: My glasses broke in-flight. I'm not entirely certain as to how. I put them in the pocket of the seat in front of me before I fell asleep. But ... When I woke up they were gone. I eventually found them by my seat - apparently run over by one of the stewardess carts. Nothing fell off, but the left side was bent out of shape - the metal hinge twisted, and the plastic cracking. I put them in Tene's glasses' case and didn't worry about them again.

The plane took us to Atlanta, and we had a short layover before finally getting into a smaller plane to get to Detroit. Aside from me having issues with turbulence and general fears of flying, everything went well. I slept better on this flight.

We landed in Detroit at 9am local time. Didn't have to wait for luggage (yay carry on!), found an over-priced cab, and went to our hotel.

I slept in the cab, which hurt my neck.

Finally we got to the hotel. This is where I learned that Tene had not pre-registered for the con, and as a result we couldn't get registered for a while. While this was mostly okay, after some other adventures we could no longer get into the Consuite.

At the hotel I decided to replenish my energy, and had a long nap. I was wakened by Tene, who then asked if I wanted to go pick up one of the panelists from the airport. This panelist was Eliezer Yudkowsky who posts regularly to Overcoming Bias. So, we borrowed one of the Conhosts cars and went to the airport to pick up Eliezer. Everything was fine, I was just there to keep Tene comfy. I fell asleep in this car too.

At the airport I waited with the car while Tene went to go find Eliezer. Unfortunately, I was left in the "No parking, no standing" zone - where there was supposed to be "active loading and unloading, only." After being yelled at by a policeman on a motorcycle, I decided to move out of the way.

I ended up getting lost, and couldn't find my way back to the terminal until I'd gone around the airport 5+ times. I was not happy.

Once my anxiety attack was over, I found myself back at the hotel! Still unregistered, we couldn't find Matt (who owned the car we borrowed). Tene called him, and got permission to borrow the car again.

We went to the mall nearby, and found a Lenscrafters. They failed at an attempt to fix my glasses, but put them back together enough that I could wear them. Now they work okay, the lenses were in good shape, but the side post falls off sometimes

Well, we finally got back to the hotel, registered, and then went off to see the panels. I went to the three literature ones, which were very interesting, and I got to meet Tamora Pierce. That was cool.

I'll go into the panels later, for now, my adventures are hopefully over.