Alternative writings

Better update.

I went to the Once upon a time panel with authors Lynn Flewelling, Christopher Paolini, Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, Megan Whalen Turner and Brent Weeks.

The first question put to the panel was, "Can an everyman character be in epic fantasy or does it require epic characters?"

The general consensus was that you can. And in fact it helped the readers relate to the characters and stories. There were two dissenters on this, one was Paolini, the other I didn't get the name of. They said that they liked the larger than life characters because they can do all sorts of neat things. Because they are awesome and super-powered. And that is awesome.

And then she went on to say that they called that sort of character a Mary Sue and she didn't see anything wrong with that.

The question was passed to Paolini where upon he declared, "If that's your definition of a Mary Sue, then I guess that makes Eragon one!" Hah Hah. The other panelists looked a bit uncomfortable at that sort of thing. The whole Super-Powered awesome characters are AWESOME bit.

Some (I don't remember who) said that nobles and kings are hard to relate because they're rich and noble and who here is a king?

This I don't believe. I think if you're a good enough writer you can write an interesting rich and noble character. They have the same problems as everyone else does, if not more because they can have the issues of ruling people.

Then they started talking about chosen ones and the idea of Destiny. Paolini did admit that Eragon was a chosen one. But he also said that he was trying to play with the idea of destiny and prophecy by having someone learn that they were going to do something and then killing themselves so that they wouldn't. I don't remember that. But whatever.

TI think it was Brandon Weeks who said that following the Hero's Journey so strictly to the letter, like Lucas did in Star Wars Prequels wasn't a good idea because you ended up shoehorning things into there that didn't always make sense. Things like heroes should have a virgin birth so... Ankain was made from midiclorens. Paolini had a confused look on his face when this was said.

He is aware of fan fiction and slash fic. He also admits to faking in his languages. His final piece of advice on languages was that "apostrophes are fun!"

Right then.

When he saw that my Eragon book was all full of notes and sticky tags he wanted to know why this was. I admitted to be doing some critical work on his books. He was interested and flattered. I was coy, not actually saying I thought they were bad.

Later, today, I actually had a conversation with him where upon I asked about the lack of Galby and he said he was trying to do an, "Orson Wells" (I think) where you hear about the bad guy a lot but don't see him until the very end. He promises that we will actually see Galby in book four. As for the picture of Galby in the guide to Alagesia, he said that someone else was supposed to draw it, but they couldn't do it, so they were going to use a picture of the Ra'zac. He said no, to let him do it, and he stayed up all night drawing it.

I'll take that as a fairly reasonable answer. Though I do worry that even as a bad sketch he looks like a typical Evil Dude.

He said that no, he didn't think Eragon was a Mary Sue. And we started talking about what Mary Sues were before he had to go off to do an interview. He did ask for my card though. Which I gave to him.

We'll see if anything happens. XD

Christopher Paolini is going to be speaking at Comic Con.

Cue evil laughter here.

Have managed to actually get something coherent down on paper for my presentation at Comic Con. I'm about two thirds done, I would guess. Then refining it. And then done!

Other stuff to do:

Make a list of comic books I want to try and find.
Make a list of trading card singles I want to find.
Make business cards.
Pack.
Figure out what's happening with my mom and brother who may or may not be coming down.
Make plans to meet up with people.
Panic.

Meanwhile, eggs.

Well, this week is getting better.

The nice folks at Comics Arts Conference emailed me saying that they noticed I wanted to speak at Comic Con in San Diego and that they hadn't actually started looking at those applications yet. They said I could still speak at WonderCon if I wished though. They also said they noticed I worked at a Jewish Institution and they were having a panel about Jews in Comic books called People of the [Comic] Book". Would I be interested in that, instead. I said sure and after talking with the guy in charge of that panel he said that I'd be perfect as the literature discussant.

PLUS he offered to feed me a few meals and help me find food.

So... so far. So good.

As for my original paper, they said it was highly likely to get approved for Comic Con.

Submitted:

1. Abstract for Comics Arts Conference that happens at San Diego Comic Con paper dealing with the nature of Hal Jordan's fall and return to grace and the making of Parallax a separate entity.

2. Short story to abyss and apex.



Currently, hoping more that 1 gets accepted than 2. Cause speaking at Comic Con would be Awesome Sauce.



Also, cat has absconded with Yellow Lantern power ring. This is probably Not. Good.


And, got in injected with radioactive things today for the bone scan. Initial results? They found a spot on my skull and think that the doctor might want to get it X-Ray'd. A spot like I smacked it good sort of spot.

I got into the Lost Panel today, which was the one big thing I wanted to do. I shan't say anything because I don't know who's a fan here. But they had a lovely vid of Sawyer with lots of no shirtness before Josh Holloway came onto the stage. Michael Emerson was there too, as well as
Jorge Garcia and Dominic Monaghan. They were very silly and enjoying themselves a lot. I could tell.

Later I got Peter David's autographs on two books. One of them being Q-Squared, which is my all time favorite Star Trek book. The other was Sir Apropos of Nothing, which I had on hand because dungeonwriter borrowed it for some reading on the trip.

Thus, I am happy.

Yesterday on the trolley ride back to the hotel we ran into a twitward. We were talking about Bella's pregnancy and how it was two months and everything like that and it was as if this girl had turned off her brain, going with "It's a vampire, so it's okay". The fact that Renesemememe wouldn't have a chance to have a childhood got brushed off with "she's immortal, she'll have time for that." but she wouldn't. It was kind of frustrating, but we didn't get too deeply into it because we were in public and didn't want to cause a scene.

I handed off a proposal for my book on writing to an academic publisher and she seemed to be really interested. She says she'll let me know with in a week or so. I hope so. I have to go back and get her card tomorrow, because I was a silly thing and forgot it.

That's it for now.

Eggs!

I made it down to San Diego in one piece, which is awesome. No problems with the car and we made good time. Currently we are in the hotel room waiting to go and get our passes. Preview night starts at six. So we're going to go down and get our passes in a few hours.

The hotel is really nice and comfy. It's a bit aways from the convention center, but close to a trolley stop.

More later. Hopefully pictures too.