Conventions are a lot of fun. I get to meet readers. I get to talk about my work. Best of all, I get to meet other writers and share jokes about typefaces that would cause any reasonable human’s heart to seize as a desperate bid to end the boredom.
Such was the fun I had this weekend at JordanCon, a conference dedicated to Robert Jordan and his Wheel of Time series. The series, incidentally, was presciently named by Jordan, given that its completion transcended any previous notion of time. Not even Boston’s Big Dig took as long to complete.
Fun fact: Just like the Wheel of Time, Boston contracted author Brandon Sanderson to wrap it up.
Another fun fact: The conference hotel’s staff are not strong French speakers, but might be “Dumb & Dumber” fans which is often better.
The hotel’s staff are not strong French speakers.
Length aside, the Wheel of Time describes a captivating world, and I was pleased to see people cosplaying as characters from it. On Friday I joined fellow authors Anthony Taylor and Blue Cole in reading a couple of submissions from attendees. I offered critiques that I hope those writers found helpful. Their writing was already pretty good, though, I must say.
On Saturday I joined Jeremy Hicks at the author tables and attempted to sell my books by telling people not to read them. I’ve been experimenting with reverse psychology. Results inconclusive, but I did get a weird look from Mr. Hicks for free.
The effects of my sales technique are clearly visible here.
Sunday began with a kaffeeklatsch, again with Messrs. Taylor and Hicks, during which I brought up Hard of Hearing Vader and demanded that everyone watch it at once. They agreed with the proviso that I stop shouting about it.
If you haven’t seen Hard of Hearing Vader, you should. It’s by Jon Friedman and it’s the best. SERIOUSLY, IT’S AMAZING. Oops. Shouting again.
“God, that was amazing,” you’re thinking. “I wonder if there’s a twitter account of that.” Yep: @DeafVader. And creator Jon Friedman has one too: @friedmanjon.
Sunday and the conference wrapped up with a panel with Saladin Ahmed who has been nominated for a Hugo award. I believe that nomination required some sort of hand-to-hand combat or a bike race on BMX bikes. Maybe both. I’m not clear on how it works, exactly, but he’s a nice guy and he makes good books.
Thanks so much to Jordancon for having me. I hope they’ll have me back next year!