liz_marcs | Shape of an L on my forehead...

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Shape of an L on my forehead...

How do I hate LJ? Let me count the ways. I had this very, very, very, very, very long post about the joys of

writercon and all the fabulicious people I met there.

And then it happens.

LJ eats my long, well thought-out post about

writercon.

*headdesk*

Please excuse the sound of weeping. No. Really. I'll be fine. Just after I slit my wrists.

Overall, I had a lot of fun. Mostly I stuck to the mechanical writing/publishing track as opposed to the philosophy track. It was a treat to see Jane Espenson in not just one, but TWO Q&As. How do I love her? Let me count the ways. There was the first Q&A which was more general where attendees could throw any question they wanted at her. Then there was the second Q&A where she was part of a panel on how to make the leap from fanfiction to original fiction (aka, how to get published).

Special thanks to the ConCom for getting her. She's written some of my favorite episodes, so it was oodles of fun for me.

I also met a boatload of people. Please don't be offended if I don't mention you (whimper) since my earlier long post was eaten....

First up: Major props to the ConCom for running a seamless con. If there were problems, I sure didn't see it. What few issues there were with the Imperial Palace (namely, the positively fucked-up layout of the hotel that had you dashing through the casino to get from the hotel wing, to the conference rooms, to the places where food was as well as some amount of booking screw-ups on the part of the hotel) were completely out of their control. I never saw anyone on the ConCom act anything less than professional and courteous to all attendees.

So, round of applause guys!

One key thing I learned: Deserts, me, and alcohol are not mix-y things. One drink and I was snockered. Now, I'm not a huge drinker as it is (maybe two or three a MONTH), but I had a drink three out of the four nights I was there and I would go *down.*

Another key thing I learned: After stumbling from the DeadDog party during the "Once More With Feeling" sing-a-long on the last night to pack my suitcase and get some sleep so I could face a 5 a.m. wake-up call to get to the airport, do not ever, ever, ever, ever turn on the AlphaSmart. I ended up writing three hours instead of packing my crap up and getting sleep.

At some point during the con, I did want to begin a chant for the het Xander-centric writers:

"We're here!
We don't write queer! (sorry!)
We'll be over there! (pointing finger to corner)"

Heh. Sorry. It was funny at the time.

Special thanks to

ponders_life, who spent a lot of time reminding me to "Listen to my body" when I was on the verge of overtired. She was definitely sensible and sane (along with her loverly significant other), while I was more apt to be an idiot of the first degree.

I engaged in just a little fangurl squeeing when I met

veggiebelle, who writes one of my favorite Xanders in fanfiction, and co-conspirator

airawyn, both of whom are now engaged in writing Heroes, which ranks up there in the "Why aren't you reading this?" list.

I got to hang with them and catch the new and improved "Pirate Battle" at Treasure Island. Three cheers for the MST3King! I'm pretty sure that I'll be quoting "Do ya wanna get salty!" for many years to come (or is that cum? not sure).

I also met the fabulous

autobadgirl and the very kewl

nwhepcat and got lunch with both of them during the very busy four days I was there. Plus,

nwhepcat made me Drabble in her workshop! Me! The drabble not so good, but I drabbled with 100 words straight-up.

Also in the same group, I finally met

nyc_herself, who so agreed with me that Vegas and the Imperial Palace was not a so great place. The ConCom is already looking for alternative cities (YAY!), so we both were applauding when we heard that.

Then there was the sharp and funny

bastardsnow, a fellow member of the "we're evil" contingent on the XanderZone. He was hanging with Rob Sorenson, who will hopefully be adding his stories to the Xander-centric I Need A Parrot Website.

I can't forget Alix Aadler, whose "Backstage" series is a fun addition to the fanfictional Buffy-verse. A funny story: After I started writing Living History, I found out about his "Whisper of a Moment," which featured, you guessed it, Xander dealing with a time traveler from the future. After suffering a small heart-attack, I e-mailed him and told him that I had no idea he'd written his story. He graciously e-mailed me back and said he was already aware of "Living History," but that my take was so different that he knew I wasn't cribbing from him. (wipes brow) BtW, "Whisper of a Moment" is a good story and I highly recommend it as a read.

Also met

honorh of OBAFU fame. Yes, she is evil, but only a little. *grins* I had lots of fun comparing the flora and fauna of Alaska vs. Massachusetts.

Also *huggles* to

nikitangel. We didn't get a lot of hang time, but it's always kwel to see her in her fannish glory.

I know I'm leaving a billion people out, so I apologize since I'm basically re-writing this from memory. I had all these kewl links and a long list of names...*sob, sob*

But just a few final happy moments:

To everyone who braved the "Write Yourself Out of This Genius!" panel on plotting that I lead during the Writer's Salon: thank you very much for signing up and having fun. I was pretty much useless as anything more than a cheerleader. Everyone else had fantastic ideas and graciously lent support and a plotting hand to their fellow writers. I stand in awe of your talents and your graciousness. I can't wait to read some of the fic that results from the brainstorming.

To everyone who attended the Writer's Block Panel where I was one of three at the table: You all rock! I was shocked beyond belief so many people showed up. Once again, I pretty much did nothing but applaud since you all did more to help each other than any of us up there could've. Plus, some of the Challenges in a Can? I liked those.

And finally, getting a Xander-centric writer to give a dramatic reading of intentional Spuffy badfic "TI"? A dramatic reading that was good enough to get people to pay $4 to make me stop reading? (If I do say so myself...*grins*), you know it was a mind-bending con all around.

Overall, I had tons of fun meeting people and look forward to seeing you around LJ!

On another note: I have the next part of "Living History" ready to go. Special thanks to

hpchick for pointing out my "Disappearing Giles" on my test list. YIIIIIIIKKKKEEEEEE! I can't believe that stupid continuity glitch. I'll be a-fixin' that before I post it here.

Plus, I just threw something evil at Xander and Faith in a little later bit that smacked me in the mouth while writing on the plane ride back from Vegas. Nothing big, just a bit of information that they're forced to sit on until (or if) Catherine and Friends bugger off back to the future.

I hate to say it: The information they manage to con out of Charlie makes an evil sort of sense...

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Cool. I'm glad you had fun. :)

*icon love*

Ohhhh, if only....

Hee. It's great, eh? :uses it again:

Just wanted to say thanks again about the write-up you did, elsewhere. *I* very much appreciated it. ♥

I was delighted to meet you too--and add you to my FL. I hope we'll meet again--far, far from Vegas.

You and me both. *ugh* Still suffering from JetLag. I was less-than-productive at work.

Me too. Just sleepy sleepy sleepy.

I just wanted to let you know I really enjoyed meeting you and talking about writing, especially since we have such similar styles! And one of the highlights was the writer's block panel - it was the first time I ever drabbled! Thank you!

Thanks! It was nice meeting other writers in a pleasant atmosphere who were willing to look at all the characters on their relative merits.

As for drabbling? Me not so good at it. I'll probably be lurking on Open On Sunday, though. Sooner or later I'll get up the courage to actually try again.

Hey there! It was fab to meet you and hang a few minutes with the Xander crew, in all its permutations.

Still <3 the Alpha smart, you have such fun toys!

SunnyD

Wish I could take credit for the AlphaSmart solution. For that, you have to thank Nwhepcat who pointed me at the company.

But, yeah, it's a loverly thing that gets lots and lots of attention, especially by businesspeople on airplanes.

If you had asked me six months ago, I could've told you that the Imperial Palace wasn't a great place, and it's been four years, at least, since I've been to Vegas and close to a decade since I spent serious time on the Strip. I think it was either Spikewriter or Drinkthepoisonx that said that, if they held it at another place, a lot of people couldn't have come.

But I'm glad you had a good time, and I'm jealous that you met

nwhepcat!

*icon love*

It reminds me of something my dad told me: He was in the Air Force during the 60s and stationed in Japan. His job was to intercept "Russian trawler" messages and help decode them as well as dealing with high security coded messages between his base and NORAD (or whatever it was called at the time). It still blows his mind that my brother's laptop is more powerful than the room-filling computer he had to work with back in the day.

Yeah, the Imperial Palace is truly not a great place to stay. My brother warned me before I left. *bleah* Although, I have to admit, if the ConCom was balancing off cost vs. attendence, I don't blame them for choosing the hotel they did. It was a first con, after all, so the goal was to get attendence.

Hi. Welcome back to LiveJournal.

Sorry you didn't like Vegas. I liked it when I went a few years ago and I'm going again in a few weeks for a bachelorette part. We're staying at Treasure Island.

At some point during the con, I did want to begin a chant for the het Xander-centric writers:
"We're here!
We don't write queer! (sorry!)
We'll be over there! (pointing finger to corner)"

BWAHAHAHAHAHA! What were there like 5 of you?

I was going to rec "Heroes" on the XZ. *pouts* You beat me to it.

Thanks for reccing Rob Sorenson's fics. I read about half of them last night.

"Living History"- I was going to wait until you posted here to give you feedback, 'cause I'm a little intimidated by the list. I'm glad I didn't wait and that it was helpful.

I'm trying to give my feedback more substance than, "Me likes. More please."

Ooh..while you were in Vegas,

doyle_sb4 started the

buffyverse1000. Have you checked it out yet? There are a few good Xander drabbles and ficlets. I think my favorite is the Buffybot/Illyria one though. It just cracked me up.

Geez! Don't be intimidated by XZ! We need more members of the "We're evil" gang to speak up and recapture some sanity over there. Or is that *impose* some sanity over there? *heh*

I'm almost tempted to start a cheer for our corner of XZ-dom, but somehow I don't think the ListOwner will love me for it. As it is, he's probably annoyed with the fights I get into with certain members on the list.

Truly, you catching that horrible mistake was unbelievably helpful and saved a lot of my pride. I'll be uploading the corrected version to XZ tonight.

*dies of embarassment*

Still fighting the good fight Liz? Gotta give you points for persistance if nothing else. Why certain people have a compulsion to attack those who don't like the same chars as them I have no idea. Maybe if they didn't take things so damn personal Xanderzone would have even more members than it already does.

Anyway kudos on the whole Living History epic.

Only, get back to Where Fools Go soon, pretty please.

Keith

Glad you had a good time at the con - I'm *so* jealous of everyone who managed to go! I really, really hope the success of it will lead to a repeat and if there is I'm so there!

BTW, you're getting bigged up on the Nick Brendon forums after Lexie recommended your fic! Just thought you might like to know!

Heee. Good to know!

Plus, I've been gratuitously pimping the I Need a Parrot site. I'd really like this portion of the BtVS Wrtier's Guild to stick around. I think it's marvelously run and that you're doing a wonderful job.

Don't listen to the lunatics that have "issues" with some portions of the site. I think the vast majority of Xander-centric writers are grateful for it.

*whistles "we're evil" at certain people*

Thank you! I'm not letting the nay-sayers get to me actually, there are always going to be people who don't like something about the site. Whether it's the fact that I have categories for slash or that they don't like the graphics, or whatever. I'm not going to make everyone happy but so far the people I respect - the people I wanted to attract to the site when I took it over - are responding positively to it. Denise and I are getting so many nice emails of support and suggestions from people on an almost daily basis now. Well, actually I tend to get the "I can't find how to do this" emails while Denise gets all the "the site rocks!" ones.... I'm not bitter, honest! *grin*

And then there's you, our unofficial spokes-person! I couldn't pay for the PR you're providing us with even if I had money! Thank you so much!

Hee! Fabulous Moi? Thanks chica! You were the very most of cool and when I grow up I want to be just like you darling! So....

Do you want to get salty?

"Wanna get salty" is sooooo my new pick-up line.

Wonder what your students would do with that line. (Pictures Sponge Bob Squarepants fic...and angry parents...)

Such cheese-tastic goodness right there.

See now they'd see that as all innocent, it's just us that are the pervs.

Mmm Cheesetastic goodness!

We didn't get a lot of hang time, but it's always kwel to see her in her fannish glory.

Whee! You know, you are the person who kept popping up in my conversations last weekend. It seems I was the only one among my friends who knew how cool you are! They kept trying to introduce me to you, promising I would really like you. Hee.

Heee! I put on my social butterfly suit for the con. Glad to see my clever disguise worked...

My favorite bits were still the Jane E. bits, especially the second one where there was a smaller group and we got to talk about publishing and selling stories. The woman was extremely gracious about answering questions and being helpful (as was all of the people on that panel).

I'm really wishing now that I had seen the second Jane panel. I didn't realize she'd be on it, and I got caught up at the Ceasar's Palace swimming pool. But, WriterCon was pretty much a good time whereever you went!

I'm so glad to have met you, honey. What you said at the CockTail party really meant a lot. *smooch*

Now I have a Xanderfan on my FL! *G* I mean, if that's okay. ;)

No sweat. I friended you back. :-)

I honestly don't get involved with the shipper wars and try to steer clear of some of the wankier aspects of Buffy-fandom, so I generally don't have issues with anyone from any corner.

The only time I get issues is when someone starts pounding on my head simply because Xander happens to be my fave character in the Buffyverse or flaming me because they think I shouldn't writing be Xander-centric stories. Since I really haven't written any character-bashing pieces, I really don't understand why what I write gets some people's backs up. *shrug*

I call me Switzerland, I guess. *grins*

Switzerland is good. Just don't steal anyone's gold. ;)

I don't understand why the hostility has to exist between fangroups at all. I mean really, isn't there room for all of us?

nikitangel says I MUST read your work, so I'll be getting on that shortly. :)

Sounds like it was a blast. :) Maybe I can make it next year, if I start collecting now. *crosses fingers*

The ConCom was talking 18 months to two years before the next one, so you have time.

I know they're hoping to get Drew Goddard for the next one. Honestly, I like Jane E more as a writer so I was very glad to get to see her this time around.

(*note to self: Have two years to finish original fiction novel and find an agent...)

I was fangirly right back at you - I was so excited to meet you! I'm such a huge fan of your fics.

"We're here!
We don't write queer! (sorry!)
We'll be over there! (pointing finger to corner)"

So very true! I can actually picture us marching around the room. Next time, we need a sign. Or little flags to wave.

I even have a battle cry:

"Hammer cozy!"

Heeeee! I have to admit that *was* pretty hilarious.

That's it! Those can be our flags to wave next time!

Okay, maybe not, but the whole hammer cozy idea is hysterical

Forgot to say - Thank you for the rec of Heroes! That means a lot to us, and we're so incredibly grateful.

Also, I've joined XanderZone, but I'm still trying to get into the groove of the conversations. My goodness, it's a busy place!

Oooooh deahr. I did warn you. *grin*

No worries. Very soon, you'll be ignoring 90 percent of the posts (I suggest you go "No Mail" and read it via a Web browser to save you the pain.) You'll also figure out which writers you like, which stories might be interesting to follow, and which people you want to kill in many messy ways.

Remember: I'm grabbing you for the "evil contingent."

XanderZone is *great* for reaching a broad audience of people who just like Xander as a character (the list has approximatley 1,470 people on it last I checked). Most of them don't speak up (usually), so don't let some of the stories/authors/weird bitterness/anti-Spike posts drive you crazy. In addition, a lot of the silent majority will follow recommendations off-list and try out new authors that don't fit the "stereotypical mold" that seems to follow the XZ like a plague (some of it is deserved, I have to admit).

I generally stay out of the really wanky threads, although whenever I spot character-bashing, I do tend to get very annoyed and start "yelling" in text. *heh* However, because I avoid some posters/authors, I do miss quite a bit unless someone brings it to my attention or someone from the "evil contingent" starts kicking up a fuss.

Actually, it's just good to see you check it out. We definitely need more high-caliber writers over there who tries to do all the characters justice. *whimpers and hopes you'll stay*

And don't worry. Us evil people have your back. :-)

I'm discovering that the web thing might be the way to go. I started with the individual e-mails, but that was completely overwhelming. Then I switched to daily digests, but even those are a little daunting.

So... About this evil contingent. Do we have an evil password or an evil handshake or something? Or should I just put a sign on my forehead that says, "Evil"?

Also, once I get to the point where I have a clue, would you recommend that I post fics via e-mail or upload the file to the group?

Welcome back! Your account makes me want to write Buffy-verse fanfiction, if only to go to events like Writercon;-).

Thanks so much for the lovely recs. I now have so many more stories to read and authors to fangirl. Yay!

*bows* You're very welcome.

There were plenty of people who were there who didn't write fanfiction, although I think most of those people were angling to be beta readers.

Hey, chica! It was so great hanging out with you! Glad we met after all this time.

We didn't make it to Treasure Island, but

autobadgirl and I did scope out some of the Strip late Sunday.

Still trying to recover from the con and the 4 days on the road....

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Shape of an L on my forehead...

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Viva Las Vegas!

Re: Viva Las Vegas!

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XZone

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