All posts by correia45

Time is almost up for SAD PUPPIES 2: Rainbow Puppy Lighthouse the Huggening!

January 27, 2014 correia45 26 Comments

This is it everybody, your final chance to combat Puppy Related Sadness (PRS) is now! Only you can help support your favorite authors get a Hugo nomination, rather than literati message fic, so pretentious and boring that it is the leading cause of PRS. When a really crappy book gets a Hugo nomination, that is what it sounds like… when doves cry.

But you must register before the end of January! Go here to buy your supporting membership. http://www.loncon3.org/memberships/ For just $40 you can register to nominate and vote in the Hugos, and if you ACT NOW they usually throw in an eBook voter packet with all of the nominated works from the different categories so you can actually read the nominees and then vote intelligently. (unless you are a typical WorldCon voter, and then you just autovote for whoever is most popular to your clique, obviously). Sure, many of these works will suck, but it is still more valuable than the cost of the membership.

What is a typical WorldCon voter? Well, I’m glad you asked, but that’s tomorrow’s blog post. 🙂

Also, I’ve heard many people say that they haven’t registered because they believe that PRS is an unstoppable epidemic… But this isn’t the case. Nine out of ten veterinarians agree* that the people who already bought supporting memberships as part of Sad Puppies 1 WILL BE ABLE TO NOMINATE AGAIN THIS YEAR with no extra cost. They don’t need to register before the end of January, and they can nominate for the next few months. Since we almost succeeded in wiping out PRS last year, all we need is a little more help to put us over the top. MHL missed the final 5 by only 17 votes.

(*that last vet is just angry because I borrowed his lawn mower and haven’t returned it yet… Yeah, I know, way to be a jerk, Bill.)

Seriously, that last part is important. Everybody who voted last time can nominate this time. You just need to get your pins. But we’ve got a couple of months to get our noms in, so for January I’m just focused on getting people registered.

A couple of weeks ago you heard my heart felt plea to end PRS with our illustrated ad campaign.

https://monsterhunternation.com/2014/01/23/some-reactions-to-sad-puppies-2-rainbow-puppy-lighthouse-the-huggening/

But because CorreiaTech will not rest until it dominates the global entertainment industry, and our ultra high tech R&D department never rests, here is our illustrated plea in EXCITING CORREIACOLOR!**
**(also known as Photoshop).

VOICEOVER GUY! Now in EXCITING TALKING FILM!***
***(also known as YouTube) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzGKlOkQsxY

Insert Eloquent Manatee Here… Wait… Where’s Wendell?**** Oh, that’s right! Wendell has been offended. Somebody suggested that my fans were easily bamboozled by Sad Puppies (If I recall correctly, he suggested you guys were manipulated by rhetorical sleight of hand) https://monsterhunternation.com/2014/01/23/some-reactions-to-sad-puppies-2-rainbow-puppy-lighthouse-the-huggening/ And we all know that the only mammal at CorreiaTech cunning enough to pull off something that devious is Wendell.

So the BIG HUGO lobby has waged a slanderous campaign of character assassinatin and mud slinging against Wendell, suggesting that the people who care enough to end Puppy Related Sadness have merely been MANIPULATED BY MANATEES!

****(Wendell the Manatee was unavailable for comment, because he was golfing with Rush Limbaugh and the Koch Brothers at their secret country club… on the moon.)

Hmmm… Now that I’m thinking about it, if I ever get around to writing an actual Tom Stranger novel I am going to title it A Conspiracy of Manatees.
This has been a difficult battle against PRS, but we’re almost there! There are only a few days left to register! Won’t you take a stand against Big Hugo and end Puppy Related Sadness?

The Drowning Empire, Episode 44: Subotai’s Dilemna

January 24, 2014 correia45 2 Comments

The Drowning Empire is a weekly serial based on the events which occured during the Writer Nerd Game Night monthly Legend of the Five Rings game. It is a tale of samurai adventure set in the magical world of Rokugan.

If you would like to read all of these in one convenient place, along with a bunch of additional game related stuff, behind the scenes info, and detailed session recaps, I’ve been posting everything to one thread on the L5R forum, http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=295&t=101206

This week’s episode was written by Pat Tracy, who is playing Moto Subotai. During this session they are visiting his father, the daimyo at Journey’s End Keep. Stuff is about to get complicate for poor Subotai.

Continued from: http://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/2014/01/17/the-drowning-empire-episode-43-once-upon-a-time-in-the-ivory-kingdoms/

##
The stone was perfectly flat. Moto Subotai rubbed whetting oil upon it until the liquid began to bead on the smooth surface. With the tang of the dagger against the rough work table, he chose the angle that they’d taught him as a boy and carefully ran the stone down one edge of the tanto, then the other. It was a quiet pursuit, a pursuit that improved a person’s wa. He took comfort in it, the sound and feel of the stone against the steel surface.

Subotai took thirty-two strokes on each edge, squinted, then took thirty-two more. He lifted the carefully-folded linen cloth next to him and wiped the blade free of oil and grit, then held it to the light of the lamp. A tanto was a pretty thing, sturdier than the longer blades, the often forgotten element of the daisho, remembered only when one was called upon the expunge dishonor and debt with the ultimate act of a samurai, the tool by which he controlled the destiny of his family and clan.

Akodo Toranaka appeared, the smallest increase in his wariness and the hard set of his jaw the only hints that he was in the most difficult state that a hostage keeper could imagine. He was good at keeping his face, good and all the things that samurai valued. It was unfortunate that they had found themselves spirited into the Journey’s End Keep, that Toranaka was forced to trust in the questionable forbearance of the Unicorn. This was one part of the story. On the other side, Subotai’s father, Kohatsu-sama, was here, and it was said that his betrothed would return in a few days. One man’s fortune came at another’s expense, it seemed. That was the way the Fortunes structured the world. He would now have to ask something difficult of Toranaka, adding to his burdens at the least opportune time. It had been some time, and Subotai saw no way around it. The truth, at least part of it, would have to be told.

Toranaka nodded and took a seat at the low table. Subotai had asked to see him, and he would await whatever words were to be spoken. Though nothing outward was betrayed, Subotai imagined that Tora was considering the Utaku maiden he’d been arguing strategy with. She was handsome, and they were cut from the same cloth. They did not have minds that went in a thousand directions, but battlefields where strategies were tested. Subotai smiled slightly. He imagined Tora’s eyes lighting up in a private moment, his fist raised. “I will have cavalry!”

It was likely that he would not be there to see it., but he hoped Tora’s days were long, and that his dream of uniting the clans came true. With the gaijin threats from all sides and the Dark Oracle of Water, the Empire would need unity as it rarely had.

Subotai bared his forearm and put the tanto blade against his skin. The blade moved, all the hair parting and leaving a swath of bare skin. It was good, well honed.

“The reason I’ve asked to speak to you away from the others is this: I must tell you a few things, so that you might be prepared. It affects you more than the others, as you hold my parole.”

Toranaka raised an eyebrow.

“I have reason to believe that, some time in the future, I will be the subject of a blackmail attempt. The person or group who will do so have information that would serve as leverage for most men, information that could make things very difficult for me. When this happens, and they ask for something that I cannot honorably do, I ask that you be my second.”

“Your second?”

“When I use this,” Subotai said, holding up the tanto. “It is prepared, as am I. I have seen the thing done, and I trust your blade more than any others. I recognize that things will be difficult, and I will, of course, leave letters that will exempt you from all suspicion and wrongdoing, but I fear that I’ll need to buy back a debt of honor with my blood in the near future.”

Toranaka considered the revelation quietly for several seconds. “Do you know who this person or agency is? We could move to crush them. Anyone who resorts to blackmail is dark of heart, and the world would not miss them.”

Subotai shrugged. “I have been approached once. I didn’t know the man, and there were no clues that I could find to his identity. I can’t say, even, how the information he would use against me came to light. It is a secret that, to my knowledge, is only known by two living people, both of whom would rather that it were expunged and forgotten.”

“This secret involves you?” Toranaka asked.

“Yes.”

“A deed?”

“Not my own, but yes. More a state of being, really, a fact that cannot be changed. Something that has given me much to consider and great doubt over these last few years. In many ways, I think that it has made me try harder to be what a Samurai should, but at the same time, it calls all I have ever done into question. That is all I can say.”

“I would prefer not to see you initiate the rites of seppuku, my friend, but a samurai must do as his honor commands. I will serve as your second, if this comes to pass.”

A well honed tanto
and the shadow of the truth
honor must be served

Moto Kohatsu looked old and fatigued. He put up a good image in front of the partygoers, but Subotai knew his father, could see the pain and wear on his face. He had aged fifteen years in the last three, and anyone who had not seen it happen across the slow sequence of days found this perfectly clear.

Kohatsu leaned on the war table in his rooms, laughing sardonically. “I can see it in your face, my son. You don’t have the makings of a courtier, and I know well that this is the face of an old man. I have changed, become unlike the hearty samurai you grew up watching.”

“Becoming so well lauded and successful has not been without difficulty, I suppose.”

Kohatsu blew air out of his nose. “No. Nothing is ever easy. A man’s life is not long, so he must take pains to assure that it is worthy and filled with deeds. This I have done, and regret but little. I took a wound and am dying, though I cannot betray such a fact to the others. I would see things put right before I become too weak to fool my adoring Unicorn brothers, though. I would see you freed from the Akodo and prepared to rule in my stead.”

“Father, you have many good years left. I’m sure that the Shugenja will happen upon a draught that will restore your full powers.”

“No, son. They have tried, but this old wound saps my strength and erodes my ability to lead. I…cannot even ride well anymore. I have not been able to for a while. If I could have, you would have seen me at the head of the vanguard that lead you here. No, I am going to have to go to the monk’s life soon, and for not very long.” He laughed. “That’s all for the best. I don’t have the makings of a good monk.”

“Father…”

Kohatsu forestalled Subotai’s words with the flat of his palm. “Now, how shall we get you out of this hostage situation? I could arrange for Toranaka’s death easily enough. There are ways around these things.”

Subotai felt the blood leave his face. “Father, I believe that it would be a poor choice to harm Toranaka. He his an honorable man, and we have grown to be friendly in these years. I trust the man with my life, not out of duty but out of choice. We have gone to battle shoulder to shoulder too often to seem as enemies now.”

“You are young, son, and you have always been fair minded. Perhaps too much so. There are political exigencies that must come before friendship.”

Subotai sighed. “Perhaps, but not before honor. Were Toranaka made of the same stuff as Akodo Tetsuru, the mad man, I would have no quarrel, but he is a true samurai, the like of which there are too few in the kingdom today. It would be a shame to waste such a life, when I have heard that peace accords over Rich Frog are now well on the way to being completed.”

Kohatsu sagged into a chair at the side of the war table, his face ashen, his hands betraying a tremor. “Very well. I will try to hold out for you, but I can make no promises. Another season, perhaps two, is all I have left in me. If you are still entangled, the leadership and all its accolades will have to pass to another. I would find that most troubling, when your deeds and quality have been spoken so widely.”

“I will do all that I can do to be the man you would want as your son, Father. As to leadership here, I don’t know whether I am ready for such responsibilities yet. I am a sword fighter and a wanderer, a young and rootless man who has little head for business or the leading of men. There are certainly more deserving men in the fortress now, and I begrudge them nothing that they deserve.”

Kohatsu brought his fist down on the table. “None of them are my son! You are my legacy, Subotai. Your mother and I…well, you know your mother. It is no accident that I have not been home in many years. We did not long share an amicable union, and you are my only heir. I must see that you are well situated before I die. All else dwindles to insignificance in my vision.”

“I will be fine, Father. All is well.” The lie, while delivered with all the artifice Subotai could manage, hurt like splinters of broken pottery as it passed from his lips.

“That’s good. That’s good. Win yourself free of this, and return to me while what little strength I have persists. That is my wish, and my command.”

Subotai bowed.

“Now return to your friends. Enjoy the party in your honor. Eat well and dream of a day when all this will spring into action on your command.”

The father falters
time steals away his power
desperation grows

To be continued next week: http://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/the-drowning-empire-episode-45-the-duel/

If you want to read some of Pat’s regular stuff, he’s got a couple of great stories in this anthology, including one where somebody who might be Agent Franks (I can neither confirm nor deny) shows up for a cameo: http://rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=monshuntnati-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B008OJITTS

Some Reactions to Sad Puppies 2: Rainbow Puppy Lighthouse The Huggening

January 23, 2014 correia45 93 Comments

There have been a few blog posts pop up relating to my noble endeavor to end Puppy Related Sadness by going directly to my fans and asking for them to nominate me for a Hugo. As usual they’re written by humorless finger shakers or people who just don’t get it. But that’s okay, because I’m here to help!

Here is one that linked back to my blog today: http://file770.com/?p=15783 This is a pretty good one that brings up some interesting points, so it’ll serve to clarify a few things. The original post is in italics. I’m in bold.

Larry Correia’s Vulgar Blog Post – His Word

Actually, no. Somebody used that word to insult my shameless self-promotion, so I took it and made it my own, which is sort of what I do when people try to insult me. (as a result Monster Hunter Nation is now the #1 Google result for Cismale Gendernormative Fascism!)

Adam Roberts, meet Larry Correia!

Okay. Nice to meet you, Adam (okay, I’ve got absolutely no idea who that is, but we’ll run with it).

Last week Larry Correia served up a whole hot fudge sundae of self-promotion, victimhood, and smof-stomping in “Sad Puppies 2: The Illustrated Edition” at Monster Hunter Nation.

Self-promotion. Check. Victimhood? That implies that I’m sitting around rather than doing something, but hey, to left wingers “victim” is like an achievement, and since I’m normally just a filthy heartless capitalist 1%er on the internet, ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED! Smof-stomping? Sounds awesome.

Then he quotes me.

Some people rejoice in sad puppies. They say that having one tiny group of fans always vote for their favorites is “tradition.” They call popular authors’ attempts to stir up their non-WorldCon attending fanbase to vote in their little popularity contest as “vulgar.” By being vulgar and super non-traditional Larry Correia’s Sad Puppies 1 campaign only missed the Best Novel cutoff by a few votes, and those brave souls who supported him last year can do so again for FREE this year. But he needs more help… Larry Correia fans are far more likely to spend $40 on ammo, or snacks for the while they watch the new season of Justified than to join WorldCon, and if they actually attended a WorldCon they would probably be very, very bored.

But if somebody like Larry Correia would be nominated for a Hugo, then puppies everywhere would rejoice.

Indeed. And if you’ve watched the video you’re imagining Voice Over Guy and even the proper background music as you read that.

It really gravels him, as many fans as he has, that last year he lost what everyone admits is a popularity contest. Correia’s Monster Hunter Legion missed the 2013 Hugo ballot by 17 votes.

Ah, but here the obfuscation starts. First off, I was unaware that gravels was a word. Sweet. Second, Everyone admits it is a popularity contest? Really? That’s fascinating, because outside of a tiny insular group of folks that attend WorldCons, most people aren’t aware of that. In fact, me coming out and saying that it was just a popularity contest certainly managed to cause a lot of twisted panties. And most of that tiny insular group (smof, if you will) sure don’t like to come out and publicly admit that it is just a popularity contest. You see, the Hugo is SUPER PRESTIGIOUS and they’d love to keep it that way.

His strategy for avoiding the same fate in 2014 involves the rhetorical sleight-of-hand of convincing his fans that voting for their favorite (him) is a virtuous act of nonconformist rebellion, while the identical behavior directed by other fans towards their favorites (not him) is hideous elitism.

WHOOOSH. That is the sound of the Point flying past somebody totally oblivious.

Okay, let’s break this down for the utterly clueless. There’s not really any “rhetorical sleight-of-hand” involved with me going directly to my fans and asking them to pony up cash to vote for me. (I do like how it is implied that you guys are so easily bamboozled though).

If anything, compared to most self-promoting writers, I’m at least honest about it. The part that seems to get me in trouble is that I’m asking my readers instead of the proper gate keepers.

As for the nonconformist rebellion bit, he must have missed the last few years of internet arguments, literati trolling, and assorted BS my regular readers have watched transpire on this blog, Facebook, or Twitter, but that can’t possibly be why a bunch of you who don’t give a crap about going to WorldCon kicked in money to vote last year. I guess I’m just that good at stirring up nonconformist rebellion. Shrug.

Shouldn’t that work?

Considering how unpopular I am with the typical WorldCon attendee, and the fact that I missed last year’s short list by a handful of votes with a total that would’ve put me 2^nd or 3^rd in any prior year, and my entire suggested slate of nominees made the short list in every single other category, yep. Pretty much.

Along the way, Correia called on people to nominate his editor at Baen, Toni Weisskopf. Now that’s something I can agree with – Toni Weisskopf should be competing for a Hugo. She’s a terrific developer of talent.

So there’s hope for this guy yet!

Beneath a photo of Toni’s dog, Daphne, Correia continued –

Daphne is sad because most of her owner’s authors are despised and ridiculed by the traditional WorldCon voting crowd and the snooty literati. She knows that her owner deserves a Hugo for Best Editor because of her impressive career editing hundreds of popular works of sci-fi and fantasy and for discovering dozens of new authors who went on to be big sellers…

Yep. Now let me point something out for. You realize Toni is worthy, and you are apparently aware of her many remarkable achievements, but did you realize that the only Hugo nomination Toni has ever received was because of my campaign last year? Well, huh… Go figure.

But since we’re on this topic of this biased little popularity contest and how worthy figures like Toni have gotten completely hosed by this cliquish little group, were you aware that Stan Schmidt had been nominated over THIRTY times before he final won, and he actually had to retire in order to get that? If you want to talk about an editor developing new talent, you’d think the guy who edited Analog the entire time most of us have been alive, Schmidt should have won his Hugo long ago. But nope. He had a enough fans to get the nom, but since he wasn’t a WorldCon favorite, Stan was ignored.

And that’s in a category that at least has some different people win once in a while. Locus has won THIRTY Hugos. 30. Three zero. If you want a glimpse into the type of people who vote for the Hugos, they read Locus, and the only time I’ve ever showed up in Locus is on their bestseller list.

Hmmm… Maybe a little shake up might do this super prestigious award a little good!

For all that the Hugos are a popularity contest, fans are aware a writer can sell an enormous amount of sf — stuff they like! — without moving them to give him an award. One of my personal favorites, Mack Reynolds, sold hundreds of stories in his career, only one of which garnered a Hugo nomination.

Wait… So you’re saying that Mack Reynolds was really really good, but got mostly ignored because he wasn’t a fan favorite of one tiny splinter faction of all sci-fi readers, yet I’m the bad guy?

It sounds absurd to argue that Toni Weisskopf has rendered service to the field while pretending her authors – which is to say Baen-published authors – are generally despised and ridiculed.

You must not know very many Baen authors… We are the black sheep of sci-fi/fantasy, but the thing that really pisses off the groupthinkers is that we’re so damned proud of that.

And for the record, we’re only despised and ridiculed by the literati message fic types. Find some politically correct SMOFers (which is most of them), bring up Tom Kratman and watch them burst into flames. That’s really it for the ridicule though, since out in the real world we actually sell books by the ton and sleep on large piles of money.

Begin with Larry Correia himself. Worldcon members nominated Correia for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2011. They sure didn’t despise him that year.

Well, I can see that somebody totally doesn’t know the origin story of Sad Puppies!

Let me help you out. I got the Campbell nomination because one small contingent of WorldCon voters is made up of Baen Barflies, and I was the new writer that they all got behind that year, and that in and of itself was a miracle, since getting all the Barflies to vote together is like herding cats. Just ask them. But my first book had made a big splash with Baen readers, so they nominated me. Most of WorldCon didn’t despise me then because at that point they hadn’t heard of me yet.

Then my name showed up on the shortlist so they looked me up… Hoo boy. It was the end of the freaking world. Most of them didn’t actually read my book to know they needed to vote against me. They found out I was an outspoken, right wing political blogger, and gun rights activist. Critics came out of the woodwork. Smofers actively campaigned against me. If you voted for Larry Correia, you were a bad person. I was accused of misogyny, racism, hatey-hate-mongery, and why wouldn’t I keep my Jesus out of their uterus! My favorite post however was from a British blogger who said that “if Larry Correia wins the Campbell it will end literature forever”.

So about a week after I got the nomination, and estimating the number of Barflies going to Reno, I figured I would come in last. Bingo. Not that I mind, since the guy who won hasn’t published a book since and my 11^th is coming out this summer, so I’ve managed to squeak by (and personally, of the five of us, I thought Dan Wells was the most talented writer).

Watching people brag about how they hadn’t read me, and never would, but were super proud to vote against me because of my having the wrong politics was enlightening. But that’s only part of it. Actually attending that WorldCon was very eye opening. It is an extremely political environment. If you want to win, you suck up to the right crowd. If you don’t say the right thing to that crowd, buh-bye.

Now, talent and sucking up to the right crowd are not mutually exclusive. There have been some extremely talented nominees, but the only way to be a nominee is if you’re popular with the right people. But if you are popular enough, then the actual quality is irrelevant. You make it sound like everyone admits this, when in fact, very few do.

And this isn’t even getting into the many allegations of fraud and complaints of missing nominations I heard, which aren’t my stories to tell, but I’m a retired auditor, so let’s just say that the public part of Sad Puppies is only half the fun for me! Somebody really cynical might think I’m just doing all this as a way to collect data for analysis, but that’s just crazy talk. 🙂

So I decided in Reno that if this thing was just a popularity contest, since I was popular outside of this tiny group, why not just go directly to my fans, tell them about how it works, and then ask them to go vote?

When I left that WorldCon I had a long conversation with another author who I will not name. I won’t out this particular person because he is decently popular with the WorldCon voters clique and has won a Hugo. I told him what I was thinking of doing. His comment to me was that he was normally against my crazy desires to break everything (hey, former auditor, can’t help it), but in this case, the system sucked and needed it.

Of course, that was years ago. Since then my fans have gotten a lot of enjoyment out of literati twatwaffles coming around, picking fights, calling us names, and explaining how I’m not a *real* writer and my fans are dumb. So if you want to know how I got 100 people to kick in $60 last year to do this, it certainly isn’t because of my crafty sleight of hand, but rather because they’ve personally seen the snooty morons up close, and like me, rejoice in anything that pisses those people off.

Lois McMaster Bujold is a 12-time Hugo nominee, 5-time winner – and 3 of her Hugo-winning novels were published by Baen.

You’ll note that in the prior posts of mine you went through, I always say most Baen authors, as in all but one. Lois is our one anomaly because there is a big group of WorldCon voters who love her. The Barflies are a small group, and there is some crossover between them and the Bujold fans, but there are more Bujold fans at WorldCon than there are Barflies. If Lois writes a Vorksogian novel, she is going to get nominated that year. The rest of us are fully aware of this. She’s had an entrenched fan base at WorldCon since 1989.

Once again, popularity contest, and she’s popular with that group. And I really like Lois! I think she’s an extremely good author. The main difference between Lois and the rest of us however, is that the average Correia/Ringo/Kratman/Hoyt/Williamson fan would rather set themselves on fire than sit through a WorldCon, especially when it is competing with DragonCon (i.e. Nerd Mardi Gras).

Other current Baen authors have history with the Hugo/Campbell awards from when they were with other publishers. Timothy Zahn won a Hugo and received two other nominations for short fiction in Analog.

Wait… So your evidence that the WorldCon voters aren’t biased against Baen is one of my publishing house’s authors won a Hugo in 1984? I was in 4^th grade. Many of my readers hadn’t been born yet. And judging by the general cardiovascular fitness of most WorldCon attendees, I’d hazard a guess that most of the people who voted in 1984 are dead now.

Wen Spencer won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer when she was with Roc.

So one of our authors won an award before she was published by us. Wow. That sure is some compelling evidence that the WorldCon clique isn’t predisposed to dislike stuff from Baen!

It is a little surprising that two leading alternate history authors, Robert Conroy and S. M. Stirling, who are up for the Sidewise Award almost every year, have never made the Hugo ballot. (Stirling’s Nantucket trilogy came out when he was at NAL/Roc, so as I’m suggesting, the pattern probably has nothing to do with Baen.)

Conroy and Stirling are both accomplished authors. Full agreement… Wait… So are you agreeing with me now that this popularity contest is stagnant and needs a good kick in the nuts?

You want to know why those guys win Sidewise Awards but not Hugos? (same reason I’ve won some Audies). It is a juried award where a handful of specialist experts read a bunch of submissions and weigh their relative merits, instead of a popularity contest decided by warring cliques of fandom. Sadly, which award has more name recognition to regular readers? Yep. The popularity contest.

However, I never said it was just about Baen (especially since this bias extends into categories other than best novel or best editor). This applies to anybody who isn’t popular with the in crowd in any category.

And there are some more Baen authors — Michael Z. Williamson, Eric Flint, David Weber, and Mercedes Lackey – who have provided so much entertainment over the course of their careers it’d be great to see them nominated someday.

Interesting. I’m friends with some of those people and have had long conversations with a few of them about this very topic… Want to guess which one of us they agree with? And if you think I’m militant about the bias in this business, Mike makes me look like a hippy with a Give Peace a Chance sticker on my Prius.

I too would like to see some of those authors nominated someday, but they won’t ever be nominated unless they do the same sort of thing I’m doing right now that you find so very distasteful. The only reason I can do this and have a chance of sneaking in is because I have a bigger online presence than the other people you mentioned, and my fans are hard core. If I thought I could pull this off with somebody else the literati found as uncouth as me, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

And the sad thing is if Flint or Lackey were to get a nomination nowadays, at least their politics would keep them from getting character assassinated the whole time.

In fact, the part I’m really excited about is if I do pull this off, I will have demonstrated once and for all that it is just a popularity contest, and then I can’t wait to see what authors way more popular than me do with this most prestigious award EVAR. I don’t know how many blog posts I saw lamenting some amazing favorite book of theirs not making the list. Good. Now you know what you need to do in order to get your favorite author on there for next time.

See, I suspect when you say self-promotion, you’re using it as something derogatory. Popularity contests are always about self-promotion. In the past, the Hugo was about self-promotion, only it was promoting yourself to the WorldCon crowd. After the reception I got from WorldCon, I figured what the hell, I’ll just go around them. Of course, the people most offended by this sort of barbarity are the people currently getting their way.

You mentioned Hideous Elitism earlier, as if I didn’t approve when other authors engaged in self-promotion. Quite the contrary. I think it is fantastic. Now you’re putting words in my mouth.

You’ll note that in all of these silly campaigning posts I’ve done, I’ve never bashed any other author’s promotion of their work. Take Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant for example. She promotes herself and is popular with the WorldCon crowd and has won some stuff. Good. I like her writing. I’ve VOTED for her. An author who doesn’t self-promote is a sucker. Look at last year’s best novel winner, John Scalzi. I am the political polar opposite of Scalzi. I disagree with Scalzi on about just about everything, but as a capitalist I’ll give him points for being such a shameless self-promoter, and the typical WorldCon voter loves him.

I think if an author wants to actually make a living at this stuff, they’d better be a self-promoting machine. My problem isn’t with the authors and other creative types promoting their work, since that is sort of our job. But some of us will never be liked by the average WorldCon voter. Period. My problem is with one tiny group of gate keepers declaring themselves the deciders of all that is good.

So we can either put up with the gate keepers, or we can go around them. I don’t know how you define “victim” but I’m guessing we have very different definitions of the word. 🙂

And since I’m on a roll, the comments to this blog post are good too.

1. Reed Andrus on January 22, 2014 at 3:47 pm said:

Larry Correia seems to be in the small-but-very-visible class of genre authors whose work is extremely good while (his in this case) personality sucks. There are a few others I could name, but probably won’t in the interest of fair play. Nice write-up on this particular innocuous kerfuffle.

My personality sucks. That is remarkably nice compared to most of the things I’ve been called on the internet. At least this guy was honest enough to admit that I can actually write. Most of the time they just call me names and haven’t actually read my stuff, so I call this a huge step in the right direction.

Luckily, the award is for Best, not Nicest. Though in all honestly I’d be curious as to what the criteria for “nice” would be to somebody like Mr. Andrus. I’m betting for the people on my side of the aisle that probably means not arguing back whenever somebody tells us how stupid we are.

1. J. C. Salomon on January 22, 2014 at 5:10 pm said:

There’s no “rhetorical sleight-of-hand” here. Larry is openly acknowledging the Hugo Awards as a popularity contest and he’s asking for votes. And anyone asking for votes while being less honest about this is fair game to be—rather gently—mocked.

“You can beat any system. All you do is turn the handle the way it goes, only more so.”

Now this guy gets it. And that is also a really good quote.

EDIT: Wait just a second… This post was from a website called File 770… That sounded strangely familiar for some reason. Oh, will you look at that. Thanks, Wikipedia. File 770 has won SIX Hugos for Best Fanzine and been nominated another TWENTY TWO times. Well, shucks. I can’t imagine why they’d think shameless self-promotion by a WorldCon outsider would be such a terrible thing!

And on that note, my nomination for best Fanzine will be going to http://elitistbookreviews.blogspot.com/, who Sad Puppies 1 got a Hugo Nomination for last year. 🙂

But since I’m surfing around the interwebs tonight, let’s see what other fun ad Puppies related stuff I can find in the track backs. From http://chris-gerrib.livejournal.com/

Okay, that is a very fair post, but the poster is missing one big part of the puzzle (and he did vote for me for the Campbell, so we’re cool) 🙂 He read MHI and didn’t think it was Hugo worthy. Fair enough, except that was my 1^st novel. I’m promoting Warbound, which is the 10^th novel I’ve written. You know what they say about practice. And speaking of the Campbell, like I said, I wanted Dan to win.

He said MHI is just basic Let’s Go Kill Some Monsters fiction. Okay, but Warbound is the last book of a trilogy which is a totally different series, and as far as originality goes, I don’t know, it is a pretty standard diesel punk, 1930s alternative history, super heroes with sci-fi based extraterrestrial magic, noir-pulp, epic fantasy, Tesla weapons, gangster, zeppelin, great depression, samurai power armor novel…

(though my favorite negative review is, and always will be, the guy who said the Grimnoir trilogy was just ripping off the X-Men when I had FDR try to round up over a hundred thousand people who were considered scary to put them in concentration camps. Holy crap.)

My Grimnoir trilogy has already been nominated for a bunch of other awards, including the Hugo equivalent of other countries, and won a couple of juried awards like two Audies for best audiobook, so it isn’t like I’m just chucking crap at the wall to see what will stick. This is actually a good book, not that very many WorldCon voters would ever look at it otherwise. 🙂

Quick Reminder, SAD PUPPIES 2 only available until the end of the month

January 21, 2014 correia45 17 Comments

Watch this video and feel the infinite sadness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzGKlOkQsxY

That’s right. The clock is ticking. What have you done to end Puppy Related Sadness today? If you don’t register as a WorldCon voter before the end of January then it will be too late, and puppies will be sad. FOREVER.

For only $40 you can become a member and nominate books, stories, and related works that are actually entertaining for the Hugo awards. (Like Warbound) Go here to combat PRS: http://www.loncon3.org/memberships/

Some people rejoice in sad puppies. They say that having one tiny group of fans always vote for their favorites is “tradition”. They call popular author’s attempts to stir up their non-WorldCon attending fanbase to vote in their little popularity contest as “vulgar”. By being vulgar and super non-traditional Larry Correia’s Sad Puppies 1 campaign only missed the Best Novel cutoff by a few votes, and those brave souls who supported him last year can do so again for FREE this year. But he needs more help… Larry Correia fans are far more likely to spend $40 on ammo, or snacks for while they watch the new season of Justified than to join WorldCon, and if they actually attended a WorldCon they would probably be very, very bored.

But if somebody like Larry Correia could be nominated for a Hugo, then puppies everywhere would rejoice.

This puppy belongs to Baen’s publisher. We will call her Toni. No. The publisher. We will call the puppy Daphne… Daphne is sad because most of her owner’s authors are despised and ridiculed by the traditional WorldCon voting crowd and the snooty literati. She knows that her owner deserves a Hugo for Best Editor because of her impressive career editing hundreds of popular works of sci-fi and fantasy and for discovering dozens of new authors who went on to become big sellers, but Daphne’s sadness swells when she finds out that because Toni doesn’t like to throw away large sums of money promoting boring ass message fic about dying polar bears and is one of the only publishers brave enough to actually publish right wingers or militant libertarians like Ringo, Kratman, Williamson, Hoyt, or Correia, then her owner will be ignored by the literati, UNLESS YOU HELP… (Daphne is also sad because she just got spayed, but today we are concentrating on the whole Hugo thing).

PRS isn’t limited to just puppies. The Hugos have become so snooty and pretentious that even this baby… Er… Hell, I don’t know what that thing is… But look at that sadness.

Damn, that’s cute.

So won’t you help the poor whatever the hell that is? Only you can stop Puppy Related Sadness.

My schedule for LTUE

January 20, 2014 correia45 6 Comments

Life The Universe and Everything is Utah’s big writing symposium. It is excellent. If you are an aspiring writer, and you can get to Provo, you need to go. Compared to other events of this type it is super cheap for participants. I want to say it is like $30. This isn’t a fluffy fan event with people in costumes, it is all writing, business, nuts and bolts, how to get stuff done, professional advice all the time.

EDIT: BUT FIRST YOU NEED TO ASK YOURSELF, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO END PUPPY RELATED SADNESS TODAY?!

Okay, now here is the schedule:

LTUE SCHEDULE

Thursday, February 13, 2014

9:00 AM:

– The Writer’s Workspace

M Angie Lofthouse

Clint Johnson

Dene Low

Robison Wells

Shirley Bahlmann

Tristi Pinkston

– Keep It Sigil Simple: Creating a high quality eBook.

Jared Barneck

Push Button Technology

Brook West

Scott R. Parkin

Brett T.M. Peterson

M Emily Younker

Kevin H. Evans

– Disease and Epidemics

Diann Thornley Read

Johnny Worthen

M Daniel Coleman

– Agent or No Agent?

M Bree Despain

Christopher Loke

David Baxter

Kasie West

Mette Ivie Harrison

Natalie Whipple

10:00 AM:

– From Start to Finish: Prewriting

M Eric James Stone

Holli Anderson

Johnny Worthen

Lu Ann Brobst Staheli

Michaelbrent Collings

– Write What You Don’t Know

Bill Housley

C. Michelle Jefferies

Julia H. West

Nathan Shumate

M Stacy Whitman

– Is Beauty Skin Deep … and Is That Enough? Minimalism vs. Complexity in Societies and World Building

Bruce H. Allred and E. A. Younker

– Monsters You’ve Never Heard Of

Robison Wells

M Andrea Pearson

Mikey Brooks

Shirley Bahlmann

Larry Correia

Renee Collins

– Writing and Personal Health

Jaleta Clegg

Jessica Day George

Karen C. Evans

L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

M Mette Ivie Harrison

Paul Genesse

– Getting Wikipedia to Work for You

Joe Monson

11:00 AM:

– Editing

Berin Stephens

Christopher Loke

M Laryssa Waldron

Lu Ann Brobst Staheli

Natalie Whipple

Pen Names

Andrea Pearson

Dave Butler

Heather Moore

M Mikey Brooks

Stan Crowe

– Joss Whedon is My Master Now

Bree Despain

Michael Young

Peggy Eddleman

Robert J Defendi

Chersti Nieveen

– “A Ferromaritime People”: Collective Amnesia, Cultural Identity, and Personal Freedom in China Miéville’s Railsea

Kristy Stewart

– The Hero’s Journey and the Virgin’s Promise: Patterns and Archetypes for Better Characters

Deren Hansen

Why Economics Matters

Orson Scott Card

L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

M David Ferro

Eric Swedin

Robison Wells

Sandra Tayler

12:00 PM:

– Writing Natural Dialogue

Candace J Thomas

D.T. Read

David Powers King

Derrick Duncan

M Karen C. Evans

Heather Moore

– High Art and High Craft: the Short Fiction of Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov

Charlie Pulsipher

M David Ferro

Roger White

Orson Scott Card

Peter Orullian

– How to use a sketchbook

M Jessica Douglas

Bryan Beus

Justin Kunz

Jess Smart Smiley

Robison Wells

– Building Professional Relationships in the Publishing World

Donna Milakovic

– Slower Than Light Travel

J. David Baxter

Ami Chopine

M Brad R. Torgersen

Emily Martha Sorensen

Costuming

Anna Dye

Sarah Seiter

M Heather Monson

Kjirstin Youngberg

1:00 PM:

– Writing Children

M Aaron Johnston

J Scott Savage

K.L. Morgan

Lehua Parker

Sandra Tayler

Tristi Pinkston

– Writing From an Outline

Dave Butler

Karen E. Hoover

Laryssa Waldron

Robison Wells

S. M. Anderson

M Shallee McArthur

– H.G. Wells and the Origin of Hostile Aliens

We’ve never forgiven Mars

Deren Hansen

Eric Swedin

Helge Moulding

Shirley Bahlmann

Effective book covers

Jess Smiley

M Isaac Stewart

Nancy Fulda

Mikey Brooks

James Owen

– Reading of James Arrington’s play YOUtahneeks.

James Arrington

– How to Make Up Martial Arts

Michaelbrent Collings

Adam Meyers

Valerie Mechling Holley

2:00 PM

– New Adult Novels

M Adrienne Monson

EA Younker

Jen Greyson

S. A. Butler

Stan Crowe

– Naming Your Characters

David Powers King

Julia H. West

M K.L. Morgan

Marinne Carter

Paul Genesse

Teri Harman

– Modern Fantasy and its Relation to Folklore: Lloyd Alexander, Susan Cooper, and J. K. Rowling:

Adam Meyers

Dave Butler

Dene Low

Mikey Brooks

Stacy Whitman

– All About Armor

M Michael Kupari

Kevin H. Evans

Dan Willis

Scott Bascom

Heather Moore

– Narrative Drive

Megan Hutchins

– Why Write Poetry?

Michael R. Collings

Steven C. Peck

Michael Young

M Charlene C. Harmon

3:00 PM

– Genre Mashups

Angie Lofthouse

Julie Frost

M L. E. Modesitt, Jr. (moderator)

Lisa Mangum

Stephen Miller

Steven Diamond

– The Inklings and their Disciple: Lewis, Rowling, Tolkien

Exploring the ties between Narnia, Hogwarts, and Middle-Earth

Candace Thomas

Dave Butler

M Dene Low

Michael R. Collings

– Queries

C. Michelle Jefferies

Christopher Loke

M Jaclyn M. Hawkes

Peggy Eddleman

Shallee McArthur

Jenni James

– Gamer Girls: Why you should have one in every campaign

M Janci Patterson

Natalie Whipple

Adam Meyers

Stan Crowe

J.R. Johansson

– Motives and Writing for Youth

J Scott Savage

– Apocalypses Throughout History

Eric Swedin

Aneeka Richins

David Ferro

M Johnny Worthen

Deren Hansen

Bill Housley

4:00 PM

– Humor

Berin Stephens

Randy Tayler

M Robert J Defendi

Stan Crowe

Jenni James

– How to Submit Your Writing

Anne Sowards

Brad R. Torgersen

Christopher Loke

Michael Young

Sara B. Larson

M Shallee McArthur

– Small Press Publishing

C. Michelle Jefferies

Candace J Thomas

M Chas Hathaway

S. M. Anderson

Scott William Taylor

Charlene C. Harmon

– The Importance of Internal Consistency in Story Telling

Roger Bourke White Jr.

– Making Old Ideas New

Daniel Coleman

Being a Foreign Speaker

M Heather B. Monson

Anna del C Dye

Helga Moulding

Karen C. Evans

Charlie Pulsipher

Joe Vasicek

5:00 PM

– How to Write a Villain

Aaron Johnston

Charlie Pulsipher

Heather Ostler

M Helge Moulding

Robert J Defendi

– Writing, Literacy, and Culture

Orson Scott Card

M Clint Johnson

Megan Hutchins

Laryssa Waldron

Johnny Worthen

Ami Chopine

– Beyond the Brothers Grimm

Cinderella tales on an international scale

Jenniffer Wardell

Dene Low

Stacy Whitman

– A Look at Salt Lake ComicCon

M Blake Casselman

Dan Farr

Bryan Brandenburg

Jannette Newton

Randall Lloyd

Ryan Call

– How To Write Page-Turning Action

Larry Correia

– Jack Vance and Patricia McKillip

Painting worlds with words

Bryan Beus

Mikki Kells

6:00 PM:

– Scene or Summary

Clint Johnson

Heather Frost

M Nancy Fulda

Scott R. Parkin

Annie Oswald

Jenni James

Publishing in Today’s Market

Anne Sowards

Christopher Loke

M J.R. Johansson

Laryssa Waldron

Lisa Mangum

Peggy Eddleman

– Digital media/drawing

Andrea Hatch

M Carolyn Nicita

Ami Chopine

Travis Walton

JJ Harrison

Steve Keele

Kevin Keele

– Stealing from History

Orson Scott Card

Peter Orullian (m)

L. E. Modesitt, Jr. (m)

Mette Ivie Harrison (m)

Michael R. Collings

– Planet Building

Brook West

David Powers King

Eric James Stone

M Jaleta Clegg

Joe Vasicek

David Farland

7:00 PM

– Reclaiming the Vampire

Adrienne Monson

Andrea Pearson

Janci Patterson

M Jess Smart Smiley

S. A. Butler

Sarah E. Seeley

– : Time Travel, Technology, Social Impact, to Say Nothing of the Dog

How can fiction this fun also be this deep? And what about Montmorency the dog? Come learn why Connie Willis has racked up more of SF’s major awards (the Hugo and Nebula) than ANY other author.

Ami Chopine

Angie Lofthouse

Jessica Day George

Dene Low

Mette Ivie Harrison

– Gaming: What’s the point?

M Robert J Defendi

Brett T M Peterson

David Whitaker

Charlene C. Harmon

Dan Willis

– Henchmen Don’t Have to Suck

Leigh Averett Owens

– The Culture of Immortality

Paul Genesse

M Clint Johnson

Jen Greyson

Adam Sidwell

Stephen Miller

8:00 PM

– Revision Processes

Dr. Michael R. Collings

Jason A. Anderson

M Kasie West

Peggy Eddleman

Renee Collins

Michelle Witte

– Promoting Your Work on the Internet

David Baxter

M David Farland

Heather Ostler

J.R. Johansson

Marinne Carter

Larry Correia

– Plot a Novel in One Hour

Robert J Defendi

– Magic, the Gathering Celebrity Tournament (4-6 hours)

– Filking (until it stops)

– Marketing Games

M Craig Nybo

Adam Meyers

Scott Bascom

J D Raisor

===*===

LTUE SCHEDULE

Friday, February 14, 2014

9:00 AM:

– The Rules of the Genre

M Brad R. Torgersen

Eric Swedin

Michaelbrent Collings

Stephen Miller

Anne Sowards

Elana Johnson

– Graphic Novels

Aneeka Richins

M Blake Casselman

Brian C. Hailes

Jess Smart Smiley

– Signing a Contract

Bill Housley

Brett T.M. Peterson

M Jaclyn M. Hawkes

Kevin H. Evans

Lisa Mangum

S. M. Anderson

– Michael Moorcock: The Fantastic Worlds of the Champion Eternal

Swords-and-sorcery adventure (with an underlying edge)

Berin Stephens

Helge Moulding

Pendragon Inman

— Revising Beyond the 3rd Draft

Rachelle Christensen

– FTL and Time Travel

Jen Greyson

Kjirstin Youngberg

Liesel Hill

M Mette Ivie Harrison

James Wymore

10:00 AM:

– From Start to Finish: Drafting the Manuscript

Eric James Stone

Holli Anderson

Johnny Worthen

M Lu Ann Brobst Staheli

Michaelbrent Collings

– Recharging Your Creative Battery

M Donna Milakovic

Jason A. Anderson

Kasie West

Laryssa Waldron

Shirley Bahlmann

Teri Harman

– Classic Juvenile Fantasy

L. Frank Baum, Edith Nesbit, C. S. Lewis, Diana Wynne Jones

Emily Martha Sorensen

Karen E. Hoover

Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury

– Book Trailers

Shauna E. Black

– Cryptography 101

Eric Swedin

J. Dan Raisor

Steven Davis

Scott Bascom

M Helge Moulding

– Writing The First Few Pages

J Scott Savage

Janci Patterson

Laura Bingham

Natalie Whipple

M Suzanne Vincent

Anne Sowards

11:00 AM:

– Your own EPUB and MOBI Documents

Kristy Stewart

– Short Stories in a Nutshell

Megan Hutchins

– Building a Community Among Your Readers

Sandra Tayler

Religion in Disguise and in the Open: Tolkien the Catholic, Lewis the Anglican, (Card the Mormon)

Orson Scott Card

Dr. Michael R. Collings

M Aaron Johnston

– The Future is Already Here

Brett T.M. Peterson

Emily Younker

Rachel Ann Nunes

C. Michelle Jefferies

M Stephen Miller

Brandon Gillespie

– How To Make A Graphic Novel

Jess Smart Smiley

12:00 PM:

– Writing Romance

Anna del C. Dye

Jen Greyson

Jenniffer Wardell

Joe Vasicek

Rachel Ann Nunes / Teyla Branton

M Stan Crowe

– Prologues and Epilogues

Brandon Sanderson

David Powers King

Anne Sowards

Marinne Carter

M Michael Young

Paul Genesse

– Roger Zelazny: Amber, Lord of Light, and So Much More

Golden Age heroes with New Wave literary chops

Helge Moulding

L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

Dene Low

Scott R. Parkin

– How to do backgrounds

M Brian Hailes

Jessica Douglas

Bryan Beus

Sarah Seiter

Justin Kunz

Mikey Brooks

– Psychology of a Serial Killer: Keith Jesperson

Al Carlisle

– The Curse of the Jungle/Ice/Desert Planet

Brook West

M Eric James Stone

Nancy Fulda

Aleta Clegg

Sarah Seeley

Roger White

1:00 PM:

– Young Adult Writing Panel

Anna del C. Dye

Berin Stephens

Dan Willis

Heather Ostler

M Janci Patterson

Jessica Day George

– This is Your Life

Aneeka Richins

Bree Despain

Chas Hathaway

M K.L. Morgan

Lehua Parker

S. A. Butler

– Selling Your Short Story

Brad R. Torgersen

Emily Martha Sorensen

Eric James Stone

M Jaclyn M. Hawkes

Megan Hutchins

Suzanne Vincent

– How to Create (and play) the Perfect Character

M Adam Meyers

J D Raisor*

Tom Carr

Charlene C. Harmon

Douglas Whitakker

– Finding and using references in your art

M Bobbie Wilcox

Justin Kunz

Cliff Green

Travis Walton

Constructed Languages: When Apostrophes Just Don’t Cut It

Orson Scott Card

Dirk Elzinga

M Michael Young

Stacy Whitman

Ami Chopine

– Film Festival

2:00 PM

– Writing Drama

C.K. Edwards

Clint Johnson

Daniel Coleman

M Laura Bingham

Shallee McArthur

Larry Correia

– Drawing Upon Folklore

M Brook West

Mikki Kells

S. A. Butler

Stacy Whitman

David Farland

– Jules Verne

The first successful sf author, and a lodestar for today’s steampunk writers

Brett T.M. Peterson

Dave Butler

Deren Hansen

Karen Anne Webb (possibly)

– The Great Chain of Evil

Dr. Michael R. Collings

– Artists collaborating with each other and with writers

Brian Hailes

Mikey Brooks

Jessica Douglas

M Blake Casselman

Isaac Stewart

James Owen

– Applied Biotechnology

Ami Chopine

Charlie Pulsipher

M Scott Bascom

Sarah Anderson

– Film Festival: Pinkerton’s (episode and Q&A)

Tom Carr

Stephen M. Harmon

3:00 PM

– Writing for Boys

Jaleta Clegg

Karen E. Hoover

M Robison Wells

Stephen Miller

Larry Correia

J. D. Raisor

– Characters that Live and Breathe

C.K. Edwards

Candace J Thomas

M D.T. Read

Heather Frost

Mikki Kells

Peter Orullian

– Playtesting: Why, How, and with whom

M Craig Nybo

Robert J Defendi

Derrick Duncan

Karen Anne Webb

– Xenobiology 101

Steven C. Peck

M Nathan Shumate

Eric James Stone

Daniel Coleman

Roger White

– Don’t Fill Your Plot Holes with Sand–The Power of Outlining

Rachelle Christensen

– Adam Sidwell Presentation

– Film Festival

4:00 PM

– Action Sequences

Aaron Johnston

Adrienne Monson

M Dan Willis

J.R. Johansson

S. A. Butler

Valerie Mechling Holley

– Short Vs. Long Fiction

M Angie Lofthouse

David Farland

James
Wymore

Julie Frost

Lehua Parker

Nancy Fulda

– Marketing Yourself as an Author

Annie Oswald

Bill Housley

M Chas Hathaway

Heather Ostler

Shawna Fillmore

Teri Harman

– Writing Fantasy: Using Words to Build Worlds

Douglas Whittaker

– Writing and Your Brain: Making the Most of Your Writing Time

Derrick Duncan

Two papers (25 minutes each):

The Speculative Turn: Why Imagination is at the Heart of Thinking

Adam Wilson

The Human Behind the Pixels: Avatars and Self Identity in Video Games

Kristine McLain

– Film Festival

–

5:00 PM

– The Screenwriting Process

Craig Nybo

Fiona Ostler

M Nathan Shumate

Scott William Taylor

Michaelbrent Collings

– Edgar Allan Poe

The master of mystery and fantastical horror

Adrienne Monson

Heather B. Monson

Karen E. Hoover

Liesel Hill

Michael R. Collings

Scott Bascom

– Rules for Writing Magic

Al Carlisle

Brandon Sanderson

M Emily Martha Sorensen

John Brown

Natalie Whipple

Teri Harman

– A Writer Needs Space

Angie Lofthouse

– Two Papers (25 minutes each)

Electric Lady: Janelle Monae, Afrofuturism and the Android

Marina Tijerino-Abe

Facing Our Demons: The Deconstruction of Self & Other in Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Jeffrey Pannekoek

– Geology For Writers

Cliff Green

Jaleta Clegg

M Isaac Stewart

L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

Tom Carr

Brook West

6:00 PM

– How to Write a Hero

Julie Wright

Peter Orullian

Sara B. Larson

Larry Correia

– Originality

Daniel Coleman

Dave Butler

M Nathan Shumate

Roger White

Stacy Whitman

– Breaking and Fixing Games

M Craig Nybo

Scott Bascom

J D Raisor

– Drawing textures

Carolyn Nicita

Brian Hailes

M Jessica Douglas

Bryan Beus

Justin Kunz

A Serious Look at Comedy

Berin Stephens

– Writer’s Groups 101

Anna del C. Dye

Donna Milakovic

Julia H. West

Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury

Liesel Hill

M Scott R. Parkin

7:00 PM

– Co-Authoring: Dos and Don’ts

Julie Wright

Karen C. Evans

Mike Kupari

Steven Diamond

M Valerie Mechling Holley

– Learning from Failure

Brad R. Torgersen

M Brandon Sanderson

Daniel Coleman

Jenniffer Wardell

Sara B. Larson

James Owen

– How to lay out comic panels

Andrea Hatch

Brian Hailes

Travis Walton

M Jess Smart Smiley

– Vivid and Clear

John Brown

– A Day in the Life of a Medieval Peasant

David Farland

Jacklyn M. Hatch

K. L. Morgan

Shirley Bahlmann

M Dan Willis

Robert J Defendi

8:00 PM

– Mass Autograph Signing

9:00 PM

– Mass Autograph Signing

– Filking (goes until everyone goes to bed)

===*===

LTUE SCHEDULE

Saturday, February 15, 2014

9:00 AM:

– Writers on Writing

Elana Johnson

L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

Mette Ivie Harrison

Nancy Fulda

M Sara B. Larson

Shallee McArthur

– Character Development

Brad R. Torgersen

Candace J Thomas

Jaclyn M. Hawkes

Jenniffer Wardell

Julie Wright

Peter Orullian

– Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein: The Grand Masters

Their best work, and what you can probably skip

Brett T.M. Peterson

Eric James Stone

Dene Low

M Scott R. Parkin

– Self-Publishing Pros and Cons

Aneeka Richins

Fiona Ostler

M Jaleta Clegg

Pendragon Inman

Sandra Tayler

James Owen

– Story Turns

John Brown

10:00 AM:

– From Start to Finish: Selling the Novel

Holli Anderson

Johnny Worthen

Lu Ann Brobst Staheli

M Michaelbrent Collings

Larry Correia

Michelle Witte

– History Matters

Craig Nybo

Deren Hansen

Eric Swedin

J. D. Raisor

Kevin H. Evans

M Suzanne Vincent

– Writing Religion

M Brandon Sanderson

Dr. Michael R. Collings

K.L. Morgan

Laryssa Waldron

Mette Ivie Harrison

Stephen Miller

– The Rhetoric of Superheroes: How the Heroes Can Be Brought into the College Writing Classroom through William Perry’s Developmental Theories & Civil War: A Marvel Comics Event

Holly Katherine Guile

– Writing Solid Dialogue

Angie Lofthouse

– The Engines of Exploration

J. David Baxter

Brett T.M. Peterson

Dan Willis

Sarah Seeley

M Younker, EA

11:00 AM:
– Keynote Speaker: Orson Scott Card

12:00 PM:

— Writing Hard Science

Eric James Stone

M Helge Moulding

James Wymore

Nancy Fulda

Roger White

Scott R. Parkin

– ePublishing Short Stories

M Bill Housley

EA Younker

Elana Johnson

Joe Vasicek

Paul Genesse

Scott William Taylor

– Classic Juvenile SF

Robert Heinlein, Madeleine L’Engle, Andre Norton, John Christopher (and a few modern takes)

Jaleta Clegg

Emily Martha Sorensen

Kjirstin Youngberg

– A Scratching at the Window: Revisiting Croglin Grange and the Hidden Lore of the British Vampire

Jeff Bond

Art for art’s sake

M Bobbie Wilcox

Jessica Douglas

Brian Hailes

Sarah Seiter

Justin Kunz

Steve Keele

Kevin Keele

James Owen

– Write Like Your Brain Works

Dene Low

1:00 PM:

– Death and its Consequenses

Al Carlisle

Dan Willis

Heather Frost

M Jason A. Anderson

Julie Frost

Sarah E. Seeley

– Writing Without an Outline

Berin Stephens

C. Michelle Jefferies

James Wymore

Jenniffer Wardell

Kasie West

M Marinne Carter

– Ender’s Books: The Author, the Adapter, and the Analyzer

Orson Scott Card wrote them originally. Jake Black adapted them to other media. And Michael Collings tells us what it all means.

Orson Scott Card

Michael Collings

M Aaron Johnston

– Using Games in the Classroom

M Karen Anne Webb

Sandra Tayler

Jaleta Clegg

Heather B Monson

– Unusual Art forms

Carolyn Nicita

M Nathan Shumate

Sarah Seiter

Cliff Green

– Presentations and Personal Likeability

Donna Milakovic

2:00 PM

– Who Influenced Me as a Writer

M Eric Swedin

Holli Anderson

Jessica Day George

L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

Tom Carr

Peter Orullian

– Writing for Comics

M Aaron Johnston

Blake Casselman

C.K. Edwards

David Baxter

Bill Galivan

– The Future of Writing

Chas Hathaway

M David Farland

Michaelbrent Collings

Mikki Kells

Rachel Ann Nunes / Teyla Branton

Larry Correia

– Time management for artists

M Brian Hailes

Mikey Brooks

Cliff Green

Travis Walton

Jess Smart Smiley

– Plots to Die For—How to create suspense and mystery for a page-turning novel

Rachelle Christensen

– The Best Books for Children and YA

Pat Castelli

3:00 PM

– Writing Horror

Andrea Pearson

Dr. Michael R. Collings

Johnny Worthen

Lisa Mangum

M Michaelbrent Collings

Dr. Steven Peck

– Wrapping Things Up

Bree Despain

Chad Morris

Janci Patterson

Megan Hutchins

Michael Young

– The Dramatic Downside of Modern Technology

Diann Thornley Read

Laura Bingham

C. K. Edwards

Natalie Whipple

M James Wymore

– Shut Up and Sit Down

Skype call with Paul and Quins

– Lovable Bad Boys

S. M. Anderson

– Learning Advanced Writing Techniques From Joss Whedon: A writer’s in-depth look at the stories of Buffy, Firefly, Dollhouse, Avengers, and beyond.

Chersti Nieveen

4:00 PM

– Writing Children’s Books

Chad Morris

M J Scott Savage

Mikey Brooks

Sandra Tayler

Stacy Whitman

Tiffini Knight

– Horror on the Edge: How Far is Too Far?

Andrea Pearson

M C.K. Edwards

Dr. Michael R. Collings

Jason A. Anderson

Sarah E. Seeley

Steven Diamond

– Holy Gothic Archetypes, Batman!:  Batman as Superhero Gothic

Robert Marchetti

– Why you should write short fiction and how it can help launch you as a novelist

Brad R. Torgersen

– 1000 Ideas in an Hour session and structure discussion (registration limited to 50)

– Orson Scott Car

– Designing Campaigns

Scott Bascom

Robert J Defendi

M Derrick Duncan

Adam Meyers

Douglas Whitaker

J. D. Raisor

5:00 PM

– Description in Writing

Diann Thornley Read

David Powers King

M Mikki Kells

Sarah E. Seeley

J.R. Johansson

– ePublishing: How to Start

Dene Low

Jaclyn M. Hawkes

M Nathan Shumate

Robert J Defend

– Writing for Film

M Blake Casselman

David Farland

Fiona Ostler

Michaelbrent Collings

Scott William Taylor

Tom Carr

– Q&A: art in industry

M Jess Smiley

Sarah Seiter

Cliff Green

JJ Harrison

Steve Keele

Kevin Keele

James Owen

– Verisimilitude: How Illusions, Confidence Games, and Skillful Lying Can Improve Your Fiction

Deren Hansen

– 1000 Ideas in an Hour session and structure discussion (registration limited to 50)

Orson Scott Card

6:00 PM:

– Creating Subplots

David Farland

Jaclyn M. Hawkes

M Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury

Megan Hutchins

– Starting the Next Project

M Donna Milakovic

Emily Martha Sorensen

Joe Vasicek

Julia H. West

Julie Frost

Michelle Witte

– The Funny Men: Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett

Humor, especially broad humor, in speculative fiction

Jaleta Clegg

Brandon Sanderson

Daniel Coleman

Karen Anne Webb

Jenniffer Wardell

– How to Format Your eBook

Derrick Duncan

– Worldbuilding 101

Amber Argyle

Steven Davis

M Blake Casselman

Julie Frost

Isaac Stewart

7:00 PM

– Banquet ($30, prepaid)

Toastmaster: Brandon Sanderson

– Filking

8:00 PM

– Banquet, cont.

– Filking, cont.