This weekend, I got to the second convention this year: ICON 34. I haven’t been to ICON since 1997 and it was a much different beast than I remembered. I got used to GenCon’s massive nature that the small town sci-fi convention.

But, even that said, I found some writers that I actually respect and love their work, including Jim C. Hines (well, like him down, I actually never picked up a book of his until this weekend) and Mickey Zucker Reichert. It was actually very nice, both from meeting them but also seeing how much they like their fans. I can only hope to be one of those some day.

It was also neat to talk to Jim about Anton Strout, though briefly. I like seeing that emotion. Mickey also ended up talking to someone about the “spark” of writing and gave me some really good directions to check out for that. And, in response to that, someone mentioned there was a writing group within a few miles of my house. Double score.

Did a bit of gaming networking too, including finding a possible gaming group. Apparently, when I said I ran a “cheerful, story-based Changeling game in HERO”, I got some perks of interest. So, if things go well, I might be able to get a gaming fix in there.

One of my friends from Iowa the first time (also an ex, I call her Poofy) pointed me in the direction of Dominion, the card game. Wow… I like that game, even though I played it one. So many dimensions to plan ahead and it isn’t intrinsically player verses player. Yes, everyone is trying to beat each other, but you don’t *have* to attack each other. And, because of how the game works–and what I consider the best bit–you don’t know if you won until the end.

Side note, anatomically correct Hello Kitty dolls!

I came out of the convention excited about writing again. We’ll see if it lasts, but I also realized a few things I was doing wrong with Oile and in the world in general. So, I dusted off my Fedran site and started working on some of the world building again. Mostly to support Oile, but also to integrate some of the Mudd and Scions stuff together so I can work on it.

ICON 35′s theme will be steampunk. While I went to the steampunk panels, they were a little too vague for me. From their point of view, if it has smoke, oil, and fantastic mechanicals, it is steampunk. I can work in that definition easily, though it did point out I need to polish up Oile a bit more. I love the whole magic verses engineering in my world, by the time I finish anything of note, it will be a passing trend. But, still going to write it, I think there is a lot of interesting things.

And… I found someone who actually read the Oile stuff. Poofy gave me good feedback on some little bits she read, so that got me renewed interest in polishing it up and keep on writing. A single good comment will keep me writing for weeks.

To add to the writing networking, found a local small press publisher that actually prints books in my genres. Not entirely sure if I would head that direction. I considered it, but talking to Ms. Reichert about getting published in small presses that went out of business is to aim high.

I can do that. :)