Sunday, June 20, 2010

Duckcon Day 3 - Leave the Con, Take the Cannolis

Okay, technically we haven't left the conference, since we're still here and the conference is gone.... but I couldn't help but riff on the famous line from The Godfather (instructions from a senior thug to a junior one just after a hit) "Leave the gun, take the cannolis."

The day began with two fire alarms (one after midnight, the other around 8am). After a breakfast event with Steve Miller and Sharon Lee, we watched a toy robot/car demolition derby and I had had one last panel, which turned out to be one of the most useful. Oddly, the panelists didn't show up, so we in the audience just took over and held the discussion among ourselves.

Then we went back to that great little Italian Restaurant, where we had a big meal we couldn't finish, and we turned down dessert.... until we thought "hmmm, we don't have to eat the cannolis now. We could take them with us for later."

And I have lots material for some writing posts coming up, not the least of which will be a series on What Writers Should Read.

Writers need to be extremely well-read, but we often don't have time to read as much as we'd like once we start writing. But reading isn't just a useful pass-time that we can shuffle to the side. All reading IS research, and foregoing important reading of other novels is a big mistake. But once you have an idea of the most critical objectives, you can do a better job of choosing your reading list - whether you have lots of time or none.

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