Mystery and occasional SF writer Bill Crider is stalking the con with his state of the art portable production studio, cornering writers and other guests for his patented video blogging interviews. Check out Bill Crider’s Pop Culture Magazine for all the carnage (which should be appearing any time now).

In other news, my writers’ workshop group managed to produce a race of super-intelligent, brain parasite-infested meercats during Julie Czerneda’s alien building exercise. Which was silly enough on its own, but really got weird when we combined with Scott Johnson’s group, which had invented a scaled, aquatic, marsupial ape with a membranous butt flap that was weather sensitive. The only thing missing from this first contact situation was Pinky and the Brain. Truly strange.

As for the rest of the night, a lot of it has been taken up with extensive debates with Chris Roberson and Jess Nevins on the how and why DC Comics has utterly screwed up the Legion of Super-Heroes. The concensus is that the Giffen run after the fast-forward following the Magic Wars storyline is the end-all, be-all, pinnacle of that long and storied series. Seriously. If DC had half a brain, they’d go back and follow through on Giffen’s plan to make Batch SW6 the true Legion and the "adult" Legionnaires head off to become the new Omega Men.

terwyn does not give interviews. terwyn does not have to.

my breakout critique group (from left): sarah arnold, wendy wheeler, eric holden, simon lex-lear, and marc moore. sarah told a story about how at a workshop years ago, rick klaw had blogged about what an amazing writer she was for a 17yr-old. which prompted her mother to print out the damn thing. good job embarrassing people, rick.

as a special treat for the writer’s workshop, we got a lecture by james p. hogan (not the same person as paul hogan). he sounds exactly like a mobster from ‘lock, stock, and two smoking barrels’! most of the information he gave is privileged, for instance, he’s optioned the film rights for ‘inherit the stars’. but don’t tell anyone. it’s a secret.

pictured are lawrence person and stina leicht. just as soon as i can catch lawrence saying something outlandish, i’ll post it here.

one of the high points of dillocon every year is the writing workshop, where participants get their writing critiqued and disassembled by real live pros. or in my case, an editor who is every bit as cruel and merciless as any other example of the form.

i’m very pleased with the group of students i’m teaching. all four have pieces with a strong and sophisticated core. i’m sure if i make any of them cry it will be a growth experience.

folks have already commented on dillocon’s laidback air. jayme blaschke said: "dillocon has the highest ratio of pros of any con other than world fantasy."

here’s austin writer fred stanton about to be workshopped. and a green mug.

here’s the panel of pros. not pictured: me.

wendy wheelerwas the only one with the willpower to hold her eyelids open while my flash charged.

the ‘credible creature’ workshop run by julie czerneda is probably very fun. but steve and i ducked out to use the wifi. work work work.

[  Mood: Evil ]
[  Currently: Watching Matthew use all the jokes I gave him for his posts ]

Matthew and I are already blowing off the Con, and it hasn’t even officially started!

We skipped out of the writer’s workshop session on world building to figure out this blog thang.

— Steve Wilson

by the time you read this entry it will already be out of date. instead of mere speculation, there will be fact (not FACT necessarily). there will be photos, commentary, and content. you will experience armadillocon as if you were there, even if you are there.

it ain’t a con if you ain’t tweaked out. it’s ten o’clock at night and i’m busy writing up my final critique for the writing workshop. jayme blashke is the head of the workshop, teaming up with melissa tyler. you may remember jayme as the previous revSF fiction editor. rick klaw, who preceded jayme will also be teaching at the workshop.

yep. it’s going to be revolutionSF central.

_matthew_bey