This is the forth part of my wrap-up of the Life, The Universe, and Everything 2018 writer’s conference held in Provo, Utah between February 15-17.
Keynote Guest of Honor: Jo Walton
Jo Walton said the secret of writing is to just do it. Continue reading
This is the third part of my wrap-up of the Life, The Universe, and Everything 2018 writer’s conference held in Provo, Utah between February 15-17.
Kinship Systems from Around the World
Daniel Jeffery said threat of injury is a deterrent to predators. They don’t want to attack unless they’re sure of success. In poetry, you can only break the rules if you know you’re breaking the rules.
Megan Hutchins explained that in matrilineal systems, your sister’s son is your heir while your own sons are somewhere else, which can make for an interesting dynamic in fiction. Leonardo da Vinci was a bastard child and didn’t fit into a kinship system, which led to him becoming an apprentice. Often the most interesting stories are those of people who don’t neatly fit into their society. Continue reading
This is the second part of my wrap-up of the Life, The Universe, and Everything 2018 writer’s conference held in Provo, Utah between February 15-17.
The Slush Pile Simulator presented by Angie Fenimore
This was the most depressing panel I attended. Angie Fenimore started out by telling us that 3,000 books get published every day. Most of them are self-published so it’s a good idea to have an agent or an editor to give you an extra edge. How do you get an agent or editor? Editors and agents are looking for the ideal client, someone who is professional and stands out. Continue reading
I recently attended the Life, The Universe, and Everything 2018 writer’s conference in nearby Provo, Utah between February 15-17. There were usually several panels going on at any given time, so I obviously didn’t see everything, but I did take notes on the panels I attended. I was disappointed that the SWAG bag didn’t have any free ebooks to download this year, but since I’m still catching up on the books I got last year, that’s probably for the best. Continue reading
“I had begun to throw on my clothes, but the way Larry said that stopped me with one leg in my jeans, the other hanging in air as I hopped around with all the dignity of Kanye West at the Grammys.”
The Longest Con by Michaelbrent Collings is a semi-autobiographical horror comedy that takes place during a Comic Con type convention. There are cos-players, panels, vendor booths, celebrities like Stan Lee, a game room, and everything else you’d expect at such a convention. However, there’s also a hidden world of supernatural creatures including brownies, dwarves, vampires, werewolves, witches, succubi, gremlins, and so forth who like to go to conventions dressed up as people… and not all of them like to play nice. Continue reading
I can’t help comparing Byron’s poems to those of Keats and Shelley. Like them, he liked writing about Greek mythology, gave long descriptions of nature, and had an obsession with death. Byron seemed to write more about lost love than they did. He also lived longer than them and produced a lot more writing. Perhaps due to this, he moved on from the familiar themes into new territory. Compared to them, he was also something of a bad boy and gave us the Byronic anti-hero. The protagonists of his poems and plays are often deeply flawed, yet still sympathetic characters. (Byron even makes us feel sympathy for the Biblical Cain.) Continue reading
Lord Byron died before he was able to finish writing Don Juan, which is too bad because although it did kind of drag in the middle, it started to get good again towards the end. Byron kind of just made Don Juan up as he went, but in a letter, he did indicate that he had a vague overall plan: Continue reading
Well, this is it. We’ve finally reached the final canto of Lord Byron’s Don Juan. (He did get a few stanzas into Canto 17 before dying, but there’s not much there to comment upon.) I’ll do one more wrap-up post after this, but we’ve pretty much reached the end. Continue reading
So, as Canto 15 opens, Don Juan is still staying with some wealthy friends in the English countryside. Some of the married ladies are interested in Juan, including his host, Lady Adeline. As in the cantos before, not much happens in this canto either, but we do get more of Byron’s famous digressions. Continue reading
In Beyond: Two Souls (2013), you play Jodie Holmes (Ellen Page), a girl who is linked to another soul named Aiden. Working with this other soul, Jodie has several unique abilities including remote viewing, telekinesis, the ability to possess other people, speak to the dead, have visions, super healing, the ability to make herself bulletproof, and probably others I’ve forgotten. Continue reading
Mania Delight 