Post Shore Leave, Fan Fic Reviews, and Writing

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?