Day 2 of Orycon30

Lesson One. Being overly-self-confident about not making wrong turns, leads to a wrong turn the next day. Sheesh. But at least it was corrected quickly.

Lesson Two. Beware of a woman's adrenalin rush. It far outlasts a man's. Be afraid, be very afraid. But then I think I knew this. Always good to be reminded of things we instinctively understand.

About to begin Day 3 of Orycon30. Definitely tired, yesterday was a long day.

Began Saturday, after that wrong turn, with a roundtable discussion on Mermaids and Sirens and Other Attractive Nuances. The discussion was led by Felicity Shoulders. An interesting discussion surrounding the theories of ocean myths, but also touched on River dolphins of the Amazons. A couple of book recommendations included Merman's Children by Paul Anderson and a book by Angela Carter, I believe is titled "Ash Puddle." I need to check more closely on the second book. Anyway, some interesting discussion

After perusing the dealer's room and the art show (where there was some wonderful art) and after spending money on fun and interesting things, I attended another roundtable discussion led by Leah Cutter and Mark Ferrari. Some interesting backgrounds on mythology and fairytales and delving in their tie-in for creating worlds and civilizations.

Then on to Metallurgy in Fantasy and Science Fiction which turned to a more technical discussion by Guy Letourneau, surrounding metals and colors of heat and atoms and hardness, and toughness... And I better refer to my notes. The hour went fast. And my brain was quickly turning to mush by this point. But definitely lots of good info.

The last two panels of the day, for me, were led by Rory Miller and dealt with fighting. I had heard Rory speak a bit last year and I knew these would be great panels. Lots of very useful information and pages of notes. Rory has written one non-fiction book on the subject--Meditations on Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence and that's on my to-buy list. Even in writing romance, one must be able to write realistic action scenes that are not take from other fiction, or television. These last two panels were very good. "Use of Force Policy: a civilian and writer's guide" and "Violence: How it feels, smells, tastes, looks and sounds like." Some good stuff.

As I said, it was along day, but well worth my time.

Today, I'll begin my day--after a gallon of coffee--with wounding, torture, and maiming characters. Working on Zytarri 2, definitely going to get some good stuff to think about. Should be interesting.

Did I mention I had a new release come out this weekend? Hot Male was released from Amber Allure. No, no violence. But yes, to some sexy gay males and a bit of scifi/futuristic going on.

Gotta run. More later.

Adrianna