Note: This review contains no game spoilers and no flamethrower-rants about the ending. For those interested in my analysis about the uprising over the ending (including spoilers) can read – The End Is Here… And The Fanboys Are Pissed – Bioware’s Mass Effect Ending Debacle. -Z

I’ve raved about the awesome awesomeness of Mass Effect 1 and 2 before. And recently I finally finished the third and final installment in the Bioware/EA series, Mass Effect 3.

After years of gameplay, hundreds of dollars and well over a hundred hours spent on the Mass Effect series, I’ve come to the end. Via Commander Shepard, I have traveled the length and breadth of the galaxy to stop many a nefarious plan. Along the way I’ve fought, killed, helped, hindered and/or coupled with: Humans, Asari, Salarians, Quarians, Hanar, Elcor, Geth, Rachni, Collectors, Reapers, Artificial Intelligences in the most smokin-hot computer chassis you can imagine, and I even found the Illusive Man (who sounds an awful lot like Martin Sheen.)

So how did I do? Let’s just say that by the end of the game, I had couples naming their offspring after me.

I can safely say that the Mass Effect series by Bioware is without a doubt THE BEST videogame I’ve played to date.

Awesome Writing

I’m a writer, so it should be no surprise that one reason Bioware games rock my world is the writing. The game designers really understand invoking the realism of these virtual places. The concepts. The situations. The different races, and their homeworlds. Here on Terra Firma I find politics about as interesting and useful as theoretical calculus, but I was really intrigued by the motivations and goals of the different races, and especially when those goals were conflicting. An overall theme of solving our differences so together we can focus on larger issues is always a timely one.

And when I say I love the writing, I don’t just mean the story, although that’s a big part of it. The descriptions and the attention to detail that goes into making the game real and fun and real fun is sickening. I found myself stopping to listen to the news broadcasts in the atrium. Even the weapons had stories behind them. The languages of the other races were a fun spice too. Hearing a drunken Tali call Miranda a Bosh’tet Cerberus Cheerleader was a highlight of the game. Just walking around and listening to conversations can be enlightening and entertaining. I made it a point to check in with each of my crew members after each mission, and caught them doing plenty of interesting things…

Yeah yeah, the ending was a disappointment for me, and a disaster for others, but don’t believe the hate. The five-minute lukewarm ending is not bad enough to ruin over a hundred hours of awesome gameplay.

Decisions, Decisions…

The writers at Bioware understand that RPG gamers enjoy a difficult decision just as much as a difficult headshot. Negotiating a dangerous conversation can be as rewarding as a firefight in a warehouse full of Brutes. Bioware knows how to write tough decisions into their game plots. Jade Empire, Neverwinter Nights, and Dragon Age are other examples of Bioware games that put you into situations with no easy way out. No “right” or obvious answer. No clear-cut Good or Evil, but shades of grey. No idea how your decisions might pan out or the repercussions that might haunt you later. You’ll be saving your game ALOT.

In Mass Effect, the decision-making aspects of the game were amplified three-fold. Decisions you made in each game carried over to the next game in the series. Major decisions affected the world in different ways. If you decide to kill off the last of an alien species, knock boots with a hot crewmate, or side with one resource over another, the next game in the series will carry over those decisions and all the repercussions that come with them. While it ain’t quite Skyrim as far as open-worlds go, (and even open worlds ain’t exactly as ‘open’ as we’re led to believe,) it’s still weapons-grade Role-Playing Game material. You’ll want to pause your computer and think before making some choices, and you’ll want to save often so you can take back your promises and ‘unscrew’ your crewmates!

Bioware Game Hint to Overcome the 50 saved games limit (PC only): You only get 50 game saves in Mass Effect and Dragon Age. When you hit the limit, simply close the game, then copy all but the newest of your saved game files to another folder, and restart the game. Presto, as many saved game slots as you can possibly need!

Art Direction

The Art of the Mass Effect Universe(Image Courtesy Amazon.com)

The book The Art Of The Mass Effect Universe really shows off the quality, consistency, thought and talent that goes into making the game look amazing. And when you consider just the stills from the game are artwork, the actual game itself is that quality on Red Sand.

You’ll get more than your fair share of lovely, multi-planet vistas, and more types of terrain than you can shake a Tantalus core drive at.

One Step Closer To Virtual Reality

I’ve said it before, but Video Games are the path that leads us to the holodeck. Movies going 3-D? Feh. Games have interactivity, and that’s the key.  And so far, no one can touch Bioware for the number of epic cutscenes that make you feel like a real hero in an interactive movie instead of a nerd playing a video game.

If sci-fi ain’t your thing, then try out Dragon Age 2, which deals out the same high level user experience and cut-scenes galore, plus intuitive, interactive gameplay.

What’s the Future of the Future?

In a behind-the-scenes interview Martin Sheen dropped a hint that we may not have seen the last of the Illusive Man. And this was BEFORE Bioware promised an extended-cut ending to placate fans who were displeased with the series’ ending. I wonder if there’s a movie deal in the works? Or a sequel? Although it would be tough to follow up such an amazing and epic story, I certainly would line up to see Bioware try…

Imagine a cross between the action of Fight Club, the mystery of recent Sherlock Holmes films, a splash of horror a’la Seven, the darkness of The Crow, and maybe a dash of paranoia from Angel Heart or Jacob’s Ladder…

I know, you can’t really imagine such a thing. So stop stretching your imagination and go see The Raven starring John Cusack as the enigmatic granddaddy of all horror authors, Edgar Allen Poe.

The Divine

I haven’t seen a bad John Cusack film yet, and he continues to impress even though he still looks, sounds and acts like John Cusack, and you half expect him to whip out a boom box and hold it overhead like he did in Say Anything (1989). All the same, he does a great job as Edgar Allen Poe…that is to say, a drunken lush of an author-slash-suffering-artiste.

The sound was wonderfully loud and clear. I usually make mental notes about the score/soundtrack throughout movies, but The Raven kept me so engaged that I never had time to notice the music. Obviously, this is a good thing, because bad background music will pull me right straight out of most films, and that didn’t happen here. Till the end credits anyway, see below.

The Splendid

The horror that occurs in The Raven is the top-shelf psychological stuff crossed with enough really-real gore to set a disturbing mood and enough mystery and mind-screwingly, insidious, underlying darkenss to keep you biting your nails right up until the end.

You needn’t be well-versed in the works of Edgar Allen Poe to appreciate this film. I doubt there’s any historical accuracy in this, but it’s a good primer of Poe’s stories for those who don’t know much about them. Many of his classics come up throughout the movie, wonderfully woven into the actual plot by a serial killer who murders his victims in the method of Poe’s writings: The Pit and the Pendulum, The Cask of Amontillado, (which I’ve been apparently pronouncing wrong all these years), Murders in the Rue Morgue, Masque of the Red Death, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven (of course)…

The Tragic

Don’t try to solve the mystery. I’m not spoiling anything by telling you there aren’t enough clues shown in The Raven for you to solve it. In fact, I’m saving you the trouble. Just keeping up with the plot will keep you busy. Actually, the film attempts  to duplicate the hectic pacing and feel of the recent series of Sherlock Holmes films, with limited success.

The denouement seemed like a “we’re about to run out of film!” rush-job. While it provided ample closure after a marginal climax, it would have done better as a cookie; a bonus feature shown after the movie credits.

At the very start of the end credits there was some annoying music and some metallic-animated-thing that that was so utterly bizarre that if it didn’t actually say “The Raven” in it, I’d swear the projectionist screwed up the reels. My guess is that someone got a new After Effects Plugin. It belonged in a music video behind a Tool song remixed into dubstep.  Whatever it was, it did not belong in this movie.

The Raven

If you like your fiction as dark as your coffee, and if you enjoy John Cusack, then you owe it to yourself to check out The Raven while it’s still in theaters.

A hefty package showed up today from Sam’s Dot Publishing. It was no surprise that my preordered copies of Sky-Tinted Waters had arrived. The second MNSpec compilation was supposed to be completed in time for this year’s MiniCON, but the printing was delayed. Just as well, because I wasn’t able to make it to MiniCON this year. But the book is out NOW, and I’m told the release party will happen at CONvergence 2012.

The cover art for Sky-Tinted Waters looks great. It was a rush to open the box and see the lush, multi-colored landscape, Ethereal Beach II by Mitchell Davidson Bentley. Nice work.

Opening to the table of contents, I had to laugh. My story, Pinky the Invisible Flying Pony vs the Giant, Carnivorous, Poisonous, Exploding Spider-Leeches took up three whole lines! And I was pleased to see “…an invisible flying pony” get special mention on the back cover.

Little did I realize, those extra lines would be taken back…with interest! As I read through Pinky…etc, I was disappointed to find that seven of the eight section breaks were missing from the story. The text just ran together, which affected the pacing and obscured the location changes, making the story confusing. I’ve noticed this same problem in several other stories in the anthology, so I’m guessing it’s some kind of conversion error and not an editing decision. Unfortunately, there was no ARC (advance release copy) to proofread for typos or errors like this. I’ve hand-written the section breaks into the books that I’m personally handing out. Oh well, it’s a small price to pay for taking up so much space in the table of contents!

If you pre-ordered a copy of Sky-Tinted Waters from me, I’ll get you a signed copy next time I see you.The book should also be available soon at Sam’s Dot Publishing Bookstore. And stay tuned for updates about the upcoming book release party at this year’s CONvergence.

The cover art has just been released for the upcoming MNSpec Anthology, Sky-Tinted Waters and it looks great! It’s exciting to see this project come together after months of planning, writing, submitting, editing, and waiting.

Click on the graphic at the right for a larger pic.

Sky-Tinted Waters is being released by Sam’s Dot Publications, and edited by Michael Merriam. The book will contain my mega-titled, dark fiction short story, Pinky The Invisible Flying Pony Vs The Giant Carnivorous Poisonous Exploding Spider-Leeches. I can’t wait to see the words in print!

All told, Sky-Tinted Waters will contain 20 stories from my fellow authors of the Minnesota Speculative Fiction Writers’ Group, AKA: MNSpec.

The book should be available soon, and there will be a release event including readings and signings by contributing MNSpec authors at the 2012 CONvergence festival, July 5-8 at the Sheraton Hotel in Bloomington, MN.

OK, too much coolness in one place to be ignored. Avoid this at your peril.

This info all taken from their official press release:

The Bands

Phantom Tails – City Pages Best New Band of 2011, Phantom Tails formed in early 2009 as Orion Treon, Logan Kerkhof, Sergio Hernandez and Dave Dorman naturally came together out of their previous projects. They wield analog synthesizers, fuzz bass, and surf guitar while brandishing electronic drum beats sampled from vintage 808 machines, and sonar whale recordings.

Phantom Tails on Bandcamp
Phantom Tails on Myspace
Phantom Tails on Twitter

Fort Wilson Riot – the Minneapolis- based duo of Amy Hager and Jacob Mullis have no shortness of ambition, having put out two EPs and two full-length records in five years. Amy’s soprano floats over Jacob’s growl and yelp, but there is nothing easily classifiable about the Fort Wilson Riot sound. From the crashing guitars and keys, to the blasting uplift of trumpet and harmonica lines to the dancing thump of electronic drums, Fort Wilson Riot are an energy that grabs hold and takes you on a journey.

fortwilsonriot.com
Fort Wilson Riot on Twitter
Fort Wilson Riot on Facebook

The New EPs

The Armageddon Experience – Phantom Tails are releasing their followup to Songs of the Hunchback Whale called The Armageddon Experience. This new EP contains five new songs:

• Flotsam & Jetsam
• Dressed Wounds
• Onward & Awkward
• Young Rapture
• Glacial Drumlins

These songs don’t stray far from the gritty mix of heavy drum samples, spacey keyboards, and unexpectedly catchy hooks featured on their 2010 debut, Songs of the Hunchback Whale, but go further to establish their ‘deep space doom funk’ sound. The new songs draw from apocalyptic landscapes and natural disasters as depicted in  film and art and then mixed with rhythmically dynamic negative space and Latin polyrhythms. Recorded and mixed by Ross Nueske and mastered by Greg Reierson of Rare Form Mastering.

Generation Complex – Fort Wilson Riot’s new EP, Generation Complex is the band’s fourth record. Here’s the track list:

• For All The Little Things
• The River Song
• The Appendix Song
• Generation Complex Pt. 1 (Diamonds In Your Eyes)
• Generation Complex Pt. 2 (A Night Alone)
• Song for Sympathy

Live versions of “For All The Little Things” and the “Generation Complex” songs were released previously as part of Fort Wilson Riot’s Daytrotter session and all the tunes have been developed and honed through two years of touring. Generation Complex was recorded in borrowed houses and friends’ basements, including Phantom Tails’ home and was mastered by Rob Schlette.

One Vinyl To Pull Them Both Together

Take the two new EPs from these two great bands and put them back-to-back on vinyl, and you get one awesome double-EP. Phantom Tails The Armageddon Experience on one side, and Fort Wilson Riot’s Generation Complex on the other. This natural pairing offers up two sides of the Twin Cities’ best core-shaking, hard-dancing, guitars-and-electronic-drums-driven rock n’ roll in one incredible package.

The “Phantom Riot” Event (and how to get Free Beer!)

The split vinyl will be released at “Phantom Riot”, a double-headliner all-out party at the Triple Rock Social Club on Saturday, December 3rd, 2011. The first 24 fans to buy the vinyl at the show get a free Pabst Blue Ribbon!

WHERE: Triple Rock Social Club
WHEN: 9PM, Saturday, December 3, 2011
HOW MUCH: $5, 21+

“Phantom Riot” is sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon and 89.3 The Current.

The Second Chance

• Dec 5 @ High Noon Saloon – Madison, WI
• Dec 6 @ Borg Ward – Milwaukee, WI

And now for something completely genius:

Suffering from TMI? (Too Much Information?) Here’s how to take control of your incoming information in three simple steps

The Samsung Droid Charge is one of those phones you hear about that does just about Everything. Text messages. Voice mail. E-mail. E-books. The interwebs. Twitter. MyBook. FaceSpace. Google+. Paypal. Bank Account updates. RSS feeds. Stock prices. Netflix. Weather alerts. If you have a fetish, there’s an app for it.

Yep, it does pretty much everything except make quality phone calls.

The great thing about having a phone like this is that you can connect to everything, everywhere, no matter where you are, at any time.

The bad thing about having a phone like this is that no matter where you are, everything, everywhere, can connect to YOU, at any time.

Once I got e-mail and all the apps and services hooked up, they all started clamoring for my attention. There wasn’t an hour of the day that something wasn’t ringing, pinging, tweeting, texting, alerting or messaging me.

So I had to do something. And on an author’s budget too, therefore hiring a “personal assistant” is out. So I turned to technology to crack down on the incoming data streams.

Here’s the tactics I used to fight back against info overload.

Step 1 – Eliminate the Negative

The first step I took to control my incoming data streams was to filter out the unwanted crap.

E-mail

It didn’t take long for me to realize that most of the junk e-mail I receive is my own fault – Ticketmaster. Eventful. Jambase. Forum updates. Band e-mail lists. Newsletters from other dark fiction authors, etc… I signed up for all this stuff. But whenever I’d check my e-mail, I’d simply delete them out of the way to get to my important mail. Now that every single e-mail alerts my phone, it’s an endless interruption of unimportant information.

So the first step in reducing info overload is to unsubscribe. Be honest with yourself about how many times you REALLY read that e-mail compared to the number of times you delete it unread, or file it away to read on a someday that never happens.

It only takes a couple clicks to get unsubscribed from an e-mail list. If you aren’t sure of the source of the e-mail (or you didn’t ask to receive it) don’t delete it, and don’t try to unsubscribe! Mark the message as SPAM and let your spam filter take care of it.  This tells your mail host and your mail client software that the sender is a spammer, and should be blocked in the future. The more you use your spam filter, the smarter it gets about who and what to block out.

Obviously, if you signed up for a mailing list and don’t want to receive it anymore, don’t list it as spam! Simply unsubscribe. If there isn’t an unsubscribe link in the mail, just reply to the mail with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.

Social Media

RSS feeds, LinkedIn, FaceBook, MySpace, Google+, Twitter etc. Trust me, these things will still be there when you WANT to view them. Unless you have NO life whatsoever, there’s no need to receive real-time updates from social media. At the very least, go into the preferences and turn off the notices you don’t want to get, or change your subscription to a weekly consolidated update.

Voice Calls

If you find yourself receiving a lot of unwanted voice calls, Google Voice is the answer. I created a group in Google Voice called F-list. Contacts who annoy me, hound me, or take advantage of my phone number by calling me at odd hours with stupid questions get added to the F-list. I’ve set up Google Voice to direct anyone on the F-list to go directly to voice mail. they don’t even ring my phone. Its like a spam filter for phone calls. To do this in your own account, log into Google Voice then click the little gear in the upper-right corner of the screen and select “Voice Settings”. Under the “Groups” tab you can define the specific routing rules, custom message and whether to screen the calls or not.

There is another way to do this without using google voice. If your phone lets you assign a different ring tone for different people or groups of people, some of them can be set to the lovely sound of “Silent”. You might even be able to do this for numbers that are not already in your phone’s contact list. Unlisted numbers and first-time-callers will be forced to leave a message.

Many people won’t even leave a message when they get dumped to voicemail, so this tactic significantly reduces the number of incoming calls and messages. If the F-lister does leave a message, Google Voice translates it into text and sends me an e-mail along with an attached mp3 of the message! Reading through the message is much faster than actually listening to some F-lister blather on, and I’ll decide whether or not to call them back.

Often I’ll e-mail or txt them back instead of calling.  Migrating the conversation to text messaging or e-mail makes people cut the crap and get straight to the point about why they are calling.

Step 2 – Accentuate the Positive

In the first step, I showed you how to reduce the incoming data streams by cutting out the junk. In this step, I’ll show you how to promote the good stuff that you actually want to get.

E-mail

Gmail’s Priority Inbox feature is a great tool for prioritizing e-mails. You give it feedback about which mails are important and which aren’t. Eventually, it learns which e-mails are priority. E-mails from your mom, your agent and your BFFs will rise to the top of your inbox.

If you aren’t using gmail, then check to see if your mail client has some kind of filtering you can apply, perhaps a set of rules to forward to your phone if the call is from [insert name of stalkee here].

Social Media

I have a feeling that if you’re addicted to rss feeds like Digg, Lifehacker, Conrad Zero: Dark Fiction Author, or social media sites, you’ll make time to view them on a regular basis. But if you gotta be a virtual stalker and get bleeding-edge updates, then set up the social media or rss feed to notify you by e-mail and let the Priority Inbox rules from above do the filtering for you.

Voice Calls

Once again, Google Voice is your hero. Similar to the F-list I mentioned in the previous step, I created an A-list of contacts whose calls are routed direct to my cell phone. This is for close friends, family, my agent, and Suzanne Vega.

Truth to tell, I actually have my ringer off quite a bit, so even A-listers have to leave a message. And sometimes it takes me hours or even days to get back to them, but I do get back to them. But leaving the ringer off when you don’t have time to talk is only fair to both you and those calling. (Yes, even when it’s your mom!)

Step 3 – The Unpublished Masses

So you’ve cut out the crap, and added all stalkers, government agencies and your student loan officer to the F-list. You’ve added your mom, your agent and Conrad Zero to the A-list. These simple steps might be all you need. But there are some things you can do with the remaining group of “everything else”.

The last tip is to help reduce your signal-to-noise ratio by creating different types of alerts for the different types of notifications.

I turned off notifications for general e-mail, but I still allow Important e-mails to vibrate once, but not actually ringing the phone. Texts are a short bird noise (like a tweet). When these alerts come in, I don’t need to look at my phone to know what kind of alert it was, and if it’s important enough to interrupt what I’m doing at any given moment.

All other calls (not A-list or F-list) are allowed to reach my cell during daytime hours, and dump to voicemail on evenings/weekends.

JEI (Just Enough Information)

When you’ve implemented these steps, you’ll have three distinct lists of incoming communication:

• Stuff you want (A-list)
• Stuff you don’t want (Spam, F-list, etc.)
• Everything else

I hope these tips help make your day simpler, quieter, and more productive. If you have any useful tips for reducing information overload, please share them in the comments.

If I’ve mastered anything about writing, it’s How To Put Off Writing By Reading More Books About Writing. And Larry Brooks latest work Story Engineering: Mastering the 6 Core Competencies of Successful Writing made me put all my writing on hold until I finished reading it.

Lots of writing books focus on a single aspect of the writing craft. Books on Character, Plot, and such abound. It’s rare books like Stein On Writing by Sol Stein, Story by Robert Mckee and Story Engineering by Larry Brooks that present a top-level perspective of many essential writing aspects at once and shows how they interrelate.

For those dying to know what the six core competencies are:

• Concept
• Character
• Theme
• Story Structure
• Scene Execution
• Writing Voice

There may be other elements of writing, but I doubt anyone will argue that these six are essential. Story Engineering not only explains each element in detail, but also takes examples from popular bestsellers, and shows you exactly how it’s done.

Tools, Not Rules

My only criticism of Story Engineering is that the useful information is slathered in a thick coating of the author’s opinion on how you should use these tools. He rails against the practice of organic writing (also known as ‘pantsing’) suggesting you must have your story structure in place before writing a word, or you’re signing your own rejection letter.

I’ve already thoroughly examined this topic in a previous blog post, Let the Muse Run Free or Tie Her Down? Organic Writing vs Outlining. The short version is that no one can or should tell you how to write. The six core competencies in Story Engineering are tools, not rules. They are descriptions of good writing, not prescriptions of ‘the way thou shalt write it.’  There is no question that an awareness of these core competencies will make you a better writer. But how you implement them (or knowingly break them) is up to you.

Despite the strong personal opinions, Story Engineering has plenty of excellent core content. Here’s how I recommend approaching the book to get the most out of it:

1. Start by previewing Chapter 8 – The Development Process, which presents the top-level concept of a “Beat Sheet” and gives a method for organic writers to implement the six core competencies. Starting with this information will give you a context for the rest of the book. Reading chapter eight again when you get to the end of the book will really gel all the pieces together.
2. Skip the first 18 pages. Or read them for what they are, an opinion. In fact, you can safely start at chapter five.
3. If you’re the kind of writer who doesn’t outline, bring a lot of salt.

合計 (In Summation)

For those getting their Fringe on this week, I recommend Michael Merriam’s Darkly Through the Light Waters, Twin Cities Tales.

Michael is a great writer and reader. His performance is a hybrid of an author reading and a minimalist, one-man show where the one man happens to have the script with him on stage.

The three stories Michael presents are short, entertaining and chock-full of magical beings, action and romance. Think True Blood without the vampires.

Here’s a copy of the flier which gives you pricing, schedule and more description:

A Convention for High-Level Author Discussion

The 4th Street Fantasy Convention Conversation describes itself this way:

• a convention for people who are serious about good fantasy and good stories.
• a weekend of high-quality, high-intensity, mind-stretching fun.
• a single track program sized so that everyone can experience the same panels.
• fascinating conversations.
• an opportunity to promote interest and quality in fantasy literature.

I like that they call it a Conversation, not a Convention. The panel programming is structured like a Convention, but the audience is allowed to interact  add, and steer the conversation (under the control of a panel moderator). Some of the best conversation for me was found outside the actual programming, when writers would break into groups between panels, kibitzing in the back room, noshing at nearby venues, assembling in the hotel bar for some social lubrication, or taking over the conference room after hours for a late-night music jam.  The ability to digest and process the info with other authors is great because it allows you to take the high-level theory back to the day-to-day applied practice of writing.

Fourth Street is geared more toward art than craft. The level of discussion is more philosophical and abstract than the discussions we have at MNSpec Writer’s Groups. The topics are heady, and even panel topics that were started simply because “I didn’t like it when author X did this…” end up getting analyzed at a high level that might throw newer authors. With a roomful of experience, intelligence, alcohol and overcompensating introverts, your mileage will definitely vary. You could get moments of non-topic pedantic bullshit, but the results are usually writer-philosophy-Nirvana.

Who-All Was There

It was good to see a respectable turnout of my fellow MNSpec writers: the talented, published (and MODEST, damn him) Michael Merriam, his lovely wife Sherry Merriam, the uber-talented Dana Baird, the lovely and talented and very pregnant Abra Staffin-Wiebe, the cheerful uber-hipster couple Eli Effinger-Weintraub and Leora, and the charming Tracy LaChance. It was comforting to know that we could have taken the conference if we had to (except maybe Elizabeth Bear, she seems like a scrapper) but fortunately it didn’t come to that. It would be great if MNSpec could have an even greater presence at 4th Street in 2012. I was glad to have plenty of people I knew at the convention, because socializing is a major component of the event, and if you have people there whom you know, (or if you’re naturally outgoing and extroverted) I think you’ll get more out of it.

I was forewarned that there is a “country club” feel to the 4th Street convention, and I can tell you this is  is kinda-sorta true. A high percentage of people attending conference have been there before. I would say less than 10% of the group were first time attendees. Overall the regular crowd was friendly and accepting of The New People. There is also the core group that created 4th street called the Scribblies. These are the royalty in the not-so-invisible hierarchy of 4th Street. You don’t have to bow to them, but it’s clear that they run the show.

If the Scribblies are the Royal Court, then the Queen would be Janet Grouchy, the real power behind making 4th street a success. Janet is actually a Momma Duck in Disguise who made sure we were all taken care of over the long weekend. She was my personal caffeine source, keeping me supplied with Diet Coke and Louisiana Coffee for my high-octane needs. Janet was the epitome of Southern Hospitality. She checked on each table personally to make sure our lunches were alright before she sat down herself. Fourth Street is very lucky to have someone like Janet to coordinate this awesome event/resource for writers.

Highlights

Conrad Zero and the Queen of Urban Fantasy, Emma Bull

The #1 highlight of the convention for me was when one of my personal hometown heroes Emma Bull sat down beside me, and we got the chance to chat. For those who don’t know, Emma Bull wrote War for the Oaks in 1987, which is considered to be the book that defined the Urban Fantasy genre, and had a huge impact on my own writing career. I told Emma that her work inspired me greatly, but that she should not feel responsible or guilty for any stories I might publish because of that inspiration. After three days of observing Emma in action, I can tell you she is smart, sparky, fun, and still passionate about writing after almost 25 years. She is living proof that writing will not eventually turn you into Harlan Ellison.

Another personal highlight was during a panel called “Off with ‘is head!” which discussed how, when and why authors might kill off main characters. One audience member was struggling to come up with an example of a character who become immortal, even mythological, by transcending death. I yelled out “Frodo Lives!” The guy looked equal parts confused and annoyed, like I had Tourette’s Syndrome or something. I could just as easily have yelled out “Jesus Christ!” but I figured more of the audience had read The Lord Of The Rings than The Bible. (I’m waiting for the movie myself.) But seriously, I didn’t just make up this phrase. If it has it’s own wikipedia page, it qualifies as pop culture. Good thing I had a +3 Potion of Snub-Resistance on me.

The “Another Panel” is complete genius. If anyone tries to take the discussion off-topic (intentionally or not) people can claim “That’s Another Panel” in which case someone writes it down on a board and the discussion returns to the topic at hand. At the end of the weekend, the last panel is called “Another Panel” where the list of topics is examined for further discussion.

There was so much book/author-name-dropping that it made me feel guilty for not reading more. The good news was that I was able to add a whole slew of fiction books to my amazon wish list. (Thank goodness for free wireless.) and a slew of movies to my Netflix queue. Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Bookstore had a handy table at the conference with an assortment of books by the authors in attendance.

I picked up a copy of The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, and got Scott to sign it. Scott is a great speaker with a great sense of humor and an odd combination of gregariousness and modesty. One of the discussion panel topics was about killing off main characters, which apparently happens in this book. Of course, I immediately had to buy it. Not because a main character dies, but I told Scott that any author willing to take chances like that is going to take chances in other areas too, and that’s the kind of author I want to read.

The best parts of 4th street for any author are information, motivation, and networking. Just talking about writing with writers, and bouncing around so many great ideas made me want to go home and write ten novels. If you’re a writer in the Minnesota/Minneapolis area, you owe it to yourself to attend the 4th Street Fantasy Conversation.

Things I learned at 4th Street Fantasy Conversation 2011

• If you have a clean house, you are not an author.
• If you aren’t a control freak, you aren’t really an author.
• Weight gain in authors is also known as “street cred.”
• Write better.
• Write things you have a passion for.
• Simply because you talk a good talk on a panel doesn’t mean your writing is good.
• Simply because you botch or get trounced on a panel doesn’t mean your writing sucks.
• You’re never going to keep your audience if you worry about keeping your audience.
• The deadline for your Science Fiction manuscript is Fantasy, and the deadline for your Fantasy manuscript is Science Fiction (esp since it involves Time Travel.)