Author Nation
A November at Raconteur Press by Editor Lisa, Part the Third
Come Monday morning, Raconteur Press descended onto the 2024 Author Nation conference at the Horseshoe: the four of us sipped the firehose of seminars and panels covering everything from Amazon ads to character crafting to sci-fi and fantasy meetups. We learned things we’d like to implement, how to hone some of the things we’re already doing, and had a couple of “head canon” moments (as Jonna called them) getting our minds blown with a few things we didn’t realize. I shamelessly passed out my first batch of business cards ever, telling anyone and everyone to check out our anthology calls (like you can here).
Jonna and Nick attended Amazon advertising and KDP seminars while I attended storycraft and workflow strategy seminars, hoping to come back a slightly more useful copy editor. Nick and I attended a few storycraft talks together, but mostly we did our best to divide and conquer, as there were, at times, up to eight presentations going on at once.
We’re excited about the limits to which we can push our book formatting software Vellum to showcase even better artwork by Cedar and Sarah with Midjourney. I definitely agree with Nick that screenwriter T. D. Donnely’s class on character crafting was one of the best, arguing masterfully that vulnerabilities, incongruities, and transformations make endearing (and enduring) characters. I attended lectures on collaboration, project organization, travel hacks, as well as worldbuilding, scene structure, revision processes, as well as a crime and mystery panel and a sci-fi meet up with Jonna. Another favorite I enjoyed was Kevin J. Anderson’s uplifting and motivating “Popcorn Theory of Success” speech, which is, in fact, quite humble.
The conference was really winding down by Friday, thank goodness, and the only talk left for us was a MilSF panel that Nick and I attended. One panelist said he liked Star Wars three times. I asked them what pure military materials inspired them, and they couldn’t name anything, only other MilSF or SF. When I mentioned Starship Troopers, they all happily chirped, “That movie has a shower scene!” I bit my tongue, recalling the words of Ben (“you’re going to need a three-hour shower scene to save that movie”).
Stay tuned for the wrap-up of Lisa’s Day Out!
David Weber's "Honorverse" also comes to mind for MilSF. When I was in Army Officer Basic over 20 Years ago, "Starship Troopers" was on the "recommended reading list"--not because of a shower scene or even the Sci-Fi themes. It was on that list because it displayed the Army values of Loyalty, Duty, Selfless Service, Honor, and Personal Courage.