Another one of those disconnected sort of Blogs:
Got back from the Shore Leave convention (Baltimore) late Monday night. I had a wonderful time, as usual! I talked to a few people I knew from MediaWest*Con (Lansing, MI), got autographs from a few of the celebrities, went to panels -- some about Trek, some about writing in general, and drank until 2:30 with the authors. Well, they drank, but I nursed a club soda on one night and a Screwdriver on the second night....
Never made it to the art show, which I usually make a point to attend. Entirely missed the panels by John DeLancie, which I did want to see. Unlike the previous years, I was on three panels, but because I felt a bit outclassed, I barely said a word on two of them. The third was on the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies -- I actually had an opinion on those, and I heartily recommended Ann Crispin's new novel, which is a prequel to the movies.
On the Thursday before the con, my roommate, Bonz, and I went to Gettysburg; on Friday, we went to Washington, D.C., and walked around. We saw the Capital rotunda after going through what was almost airport security. The good thing was that it was free -- my tax dollars at work. I had never realized that all of these historic place were so close to each other. I guess I have a Midwesterner outlook where things are a little farther away from each other.
(Back in my teens, my Mom and I visited a cousin of hers in Washington state. They took us to their cabin, "just around the corner." Two hours later, we arrived.)
I took a ton of pictures. Never let me loose with a good camera! This Canon is a good one. And I didn't miss changing film!
I'm also getting revved up again to write, which leads me to the next topic:
Fan Fic -- I got a review on my Quantum Leap/Star Trek: Voyager story that seemed to indicate that it was the best thing since toast. Immediately, my radar went up. Okay, it's a nice story, I like everything I write, I don't necessarily think it's great. She (I presume) wanted me to review hers, so I went to the site to look at it.
My eyes glazed over.
I usually have a good tolerance level for fan fiction, but I don't read much on fanfiction.net -- I prefer edited zines. While the ideas in her stories were interesting, the execution could have been a lot better. Maybe I'm just tired, but when I see a lot of exposition in the first paragraph, explaining who, what, and where, then I see multiple viewpoints in the same paragraph, then the scene changes without a # or some other indicator -- um. The spelling and the grammar are great. The person is not a young person, either; she's a couple of years younger than I am.
But who am I to say anything to her? I'm sure she's probably hoping for a great review, like some of the other ones I saw on her stories. (Which always makes me suspect the reviews on my stories.)
I know, I know. I'm the pot calling the kettle black. I got called out for the same thing in my opening paragraphs of my novel.
Not sure what to do here, but unless she wants the unglazed proof, I guess I'll either ignore her request or tell her that it's an interesting concept.
Writing: Haven't done much of it in the past week. Tried to do a little on the airplane, but between my big stomach and the guy in front of me leaning his seat back, I couldn't see the screen on the netbook. Did some writing, anyway, but the results were interesting. I did accomplish a bit, though.
But getting back to work has been a b**tch. Much as I like vacations, catching up with the day jobs is stressful, and always leaves me wanting to go back on vacation.
When is Shore Leave next year?
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