Live From Lunacon50!

This diary for liveblogging the dKos Meet&Greet at Lunacon 50 as advertised by Swordsmith.

It's a dark & stormy night (to quote an old, old SF writer) here at the M.C. Escher Hilton in Rye Town, New York, deep in darkest Westchester County.

2150 EDT:  Swordsmith is here.  about half a dozen folks here already.

2157 EDT: I wasn't joking about the weather.  It's god-awful.  A few inches of snow earlier today, now it's sleet coming down by the bucketload. (If I have my units correct.)  I'm thinking The Day After Tomorrow may not be so far-fetched after all.  We've already got the first 10,000th of a continental glacier covering the New York metro in one night, starting from the hoar-frost layer up.

2220 EDT:  More people showing up.  Several lurkers, and a few others who don't have their password handy, so they're offline.

Swordsmith was just telling us a couple new books of his that are coming out, plus a project he's working on with Unitary Moonbat.

•  tip jar

  for us starving artists...

  by zeke L on Fri Mar 16, 2007 at 06:59:48 PM PDT

  •  a foot of snow...

    ...is on the way down, but the hotel is on its way to overflowing. (We were afraid of cancellations, but there were more people asking for last-minute rooms than canceling.

    I just came from the meet the pros, talking with Charles Pellegrino about his role in the James Cameron Jesus documentary and hanging out with Chris Moore and many others.

    Plus I went to a great presentation on SketchUp, a free 3D modeling application from Google (done by two of the artists here). And my Friday night gaming demo had a big crowd.

    by Swordsmith on Fri Mar 16, 2007 at 07:04:12 PM PDT

  •  Yeah... it's past 10pm...

    ... and I forgot about dinner. We drove in yesterday to help with the organizing and avoided the snowy mess. Yay!

    I attended 'So It's Your First Con' and was advised about '2-5-1' rule. That is, don't forget to take 2 meals, 5 hrs of sleep and 1 shower per day. 'And don't get the numbers mixed up!' Although 'some people do take more than 1 shower', the panelists had pointed out.

    I'm impressed with what art by Dave Seeley I've seen so far and look forward to exploring the rest of the Art Show.

    by tita weng on Fri Mar 16, 2007 at 07:19:38 PM PDT

•  You are intrepid indeed

  it's NASTY out.  I'm here in Manhattan, but interested in what goes on

  by plf515 on Fri Mar 16, 2007 at 07:00:44 PM PDT

  •  pretty good crowd

    couple hundred people here at the con, so far i'd say.  i guess if you're staying at the hotel it's no big deal.

    but i don't blame you - i wouldn't come up from NYC tonight either.  maybe you can make it tomorrow.

    by zeke L on Fri Mar 16, 2007 at 07:12:21 PM PDT

•  long time listener, first-time caller....

  Woo-hoo -- my first DKos meetup!  It is my 15th (maybe?) Lunacon, though.

  This should be fun...

  by mlecin on Fri Mar 16, 2007 at 07:11:28 PM PDT

  •  14th for me...

    A bunch more folks arriving now...

    by Swordsmith on Fri Mar 16, 2007 at 07:26:31 PM PDT

•  Newbie Writer's Perspective

  I've been asked to post my diaries on here in addition to my regular blog, www.themoralorder.com ...

  So my friends, I am definitely in the right place.   The first convention activity I went to was called "Networking for Authors," and I definitely learned a cornucopia of helpful things.
  Firstly, I learned of a convention next weekend that has thinks called "pitch sessions" where you pitch and idea to a panel and if they think it is good enough, they move you on to round two: just like American Idol for writers.  I'm going to be focusing on conventions with those for certain.

  One of the moderators of the panels, a guy named David Mack, wrote some Star Trek-themed novels and did some DS9 episodes way back when, and he was intrepid in his discussion of his six-degrees approach to networking.  I guess I'm out because I'm too gay to really date any of the female publishers that he used to ... but  ... well ... don't women like it when you don't try to sleep with them on the first date? LOL.  I guess I could always come out to them after I broke up with  them.

  The other moderator was a fantastically-coiffed nobel-looking editor of www.SpaceAndTimeMagazine.com Hildy Silverman, who gave a few specific pointers about when to be and where.    I learned some great tips, including some absolute no-nos:

  >>Never submit anything that violates the writers guidelines for a commissioned piece.  i.e. if there is "no swearing" - they mean it! Not even if it's artistic license!
  >>Always thank people for reading and giving their opinions on your work, even if they tore it apart.  (This reminds me of my first "rejection": ..."It was a word salad, well-tossed."
  >>Follow through and contact the companies if a submission deadline has passed.

  Woo hoo! Having fun so far percolating the brain.  What else shall I learn today??

  by jeremydfw on Fri Mar 16, 2007 at 08:19:40 PM PDT