Today started off with the workshop I signed up for:

Wold’s Writers Workshop — AC Crispin, Allen Wold, Darcy Wold, (Tom Doyle – not scheduled but present) (3 hours)

The assignment was to write the first 100 words of a story, what Mr. Wold was calling the ‘hook.’ Then we got to read our creations to each other and hear feedback from the three writers and one reader on the panel. This was a little scary for me, but not too bad — definitely not as scary as it would have been even a few months ago! They liked my hook and had only minor quibbles with it. Generally, everybody in the room had a marvelous hook. It was very informative.

When the critiquing was finished, AC Crispin gave a short talk about Writer Beware, and how to avoid scams and bogus agents.

Science Fiction Without Science — Catherine Asaro, Eric Choi, Tad Daley, Inge Heyer, Edward M. Lerner

The two big topics were FTL and time travel, and its effect on people’s view of the universe. People don’t realize just how incredibly BIG the universe actually is!

Romancing the Paranormal — Victoria Jansen, Sherin Nicole, Jean Marie Ward

What was the difference between paranormal romance and urban fantasy? And why was it so popular? The most solid answer, at least about vampires, was that: here’s a man who can love us forever, how romantic is that? It’s definitely a subgenre that’s here to stay, in the opinion of the panel.

FTL – What the Hell? – John Ashmead, John G. Henry, Yoji Kondo, Lawrence M. Schoen, Bud Sparhawk

This felt like Science Fiction Without Science, except that FTL and time travel were equated instead of treated as separate topics.