I just returned from Creatures, Crimes and Creativity (C3) Con in Columbia, and if I was looking for a great introduction to the active writing community, I couldn’t have chosen a better Con.
Out featured keynote speakers were Jonathan Maberry (jonathanmaberry.com), who has written in virtually every genre (he’s thinking of trying romance next), and who has a work ethic that put most of us to shame. He also is a prolific martial arts writer and comic book writer.
Peter Blauner (peterblauner.com) has worked as a journalist, novelist and screenwriter who is perhaps best known for writing for the Law and Order franchise, and serving as Co-Executive Producer on Blue Bloods. Their talks were incredible.
All authors attending the Con participated in at least one panel; I served on two. The first was entitled Back From the Dead, and explored the process of bringing back characters when they either were dead or just supposed to be dead. Sandra R. Campbell (sandrarcampbell.com) was our moderator, and the panel consisted of Weldon Burge (smartrhino.com), Belinda Gordon (belinda-gordon) and me. The panel is picture below, though it’s not a particularly good picture of me.
My second panel was entitled Science Fiction: Sex, Death and Reincarnation: How Weird Was That?? And it was described thusly.
No matter how weird science fiction gets (and it can get pretty weird), it still always feels like a pale reflection of the incessant nuttiness of the real world. Sex, Death and Reincarnation.
Both panels went off without a hitch.
Another excellent speaker was Debbi Mack, who led a session on social media, and she’s led me (with the able assistance of Belinda Gordon and Christina Deering) to re-establish my Facebook author presence and to get started with Twitter. Thanks friends!
Next year’s Con is October 5-7, 2018, and you know exactly where I’m going to be then!
