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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>This is the first time I've been to Dragon*Con and
I found it pretty daunting. The majority of the events were spread over 3 large
hotels, with 3 to 7 floors each. Most administration issues and a few other
events were in a fourth hotel. It was just overwhelming. My Wolfe experience at
DC was similar to that at the SciFi Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Seattle.
At the large cons, Wolfe qualifies as a rock star among the SF writers there. So
having casual interaction with him is just not likely. On the other hand, Wolfe
had far more panels assigned to him than he did at little Windy Con (where he
seemed to be treated as a "local" writer).<BR><BR>He did two panels in the
morning and early afternoon (which I did not make). They were Writers panels on
"Story-telling" and selling speculative fiction. On Saturday, he did a panel on
creating Characters. <BR><BR>On Sunday he had solo panel: a general Q&A. I
did not have the guts to ask questions on the level that the Wolfe List did for
"Book of the Long Sun." I do know from experience that Wolfe can be very
dismissive (not in a mean way, but dismissive none the less) when you ask
questions he doesn't want to answer or does not interest him to answer. This
inevitably has the effect of the questioner "losing face" among the rest of the
audience and slinking back into his chair. So you've been warned. <BR>The
Q&A started at 11:30. I got there at 11:20 and found that he had
started whenever he arrived. He was already well into the panel when I got
there. A guy who got there at 11:15 told me the same. The panel officially ended
at 12:30, but no one needed the room until 2:00 so he kept going until 1:00 when
he decided he needed to stop so he could get lunch in before his book signing at
2:30.<BR><BR>I don't know if everyone got their books signed (I did). The
moderator had to make an announcement that people should not waste time
schmoozing to ensure everyone in line got a chance to have their books
signed before the time ran out. Now that I think about it, perhaps I should have
gone to the end of the line attempted schmooze after everyone else went
through.<BR><BR>On Monday, he had a panel that billed as a last chance to ask he
and other writers questions. <BR><BR>---------<BR>Here's some AEG grist for the
mill. Wolfe talked about how much he enjoyed Cassie in "An Evil Guest". This is
how he described the end of the novel: "Cassie loved Bill Riese and at the end
of the novel she goes to Woldercon to look for him."<BR>He pronounced Riese as
"rise". I don't know if this has been discussed here but it implies how he came
to the name "William Riese": ("will rise"). I intended to ask him about this as
soon as I got a chance but I never got a chance.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>-------------<BR>"An Evil Guest" seems to be still
very near to his heart. He remarked approvingly when I brought it to him to
sign. So if you want a happy introduction, I suggest you offer it to him to
sign. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>--------------</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>In another panel, he said that a good villain is
someone who misses being a hero by just a little bit (I think he's said this
other places as well). He offered Bill Reise as a good example of this. He asked
us for examples of good villains. I suggested that Typhon might have fallen
under that definition although there is not a lot of backstory to him. He agreed
that Typhon was a good villain, and said he probably should have done more
with him but he never did. Then he remembered 'Book of the Long Sun'. Someone
affirmed that 'yes, Typhon sort of was on the Long Sun' and Wolfe corrected him
"No, no 'sort of', he *was*."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>So there's some more applicable information
about Wolfe's opinion of soul-iteration (Mr. Million,
chems, Thecla-in-Severian, inhuma, Scylla-in-Oreb, ad
nausem).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>------------------<BR>"The Sorcerer's House" is due
out in April. He has finished the 3rd re-write of an additional novel (one more
re-write to go). The protagonist of the latest novel (not TSH) is an attorney
named "Skip Ricen" (I don't know the actual spelling). I asked him if the
similarities in the last names (Ricen/Riese) meant that the novel was in the
same universe as AEG. He didn't say 'yes' or 'no'. He said that he didn't see
how the two names are similar. This is an example of the sort of dismissiveness
I was talking about. I didn't initially slink back to my seat. I said "Really"?
But he didn't respond that so did at last I slinked away.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Instead of elaborating on the new novel, he went
on to remark that using the name "Bill Reise" in AEG and in "The Other Dead
Man" was "just me dropping the ball."<BR>-----------------------<BR>When people
asked panels for practical questions for becoming successful writers, Wolfe
inevitably gave the most practical answers: specific advice that people could
positively use everyday:</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>* "Write 10 minutes everyday. If you do that, you
will never have 'The Novel I Once Tried to Write'. It will always be 'The
Novel I Am Writing'.<BR><BR>* "When I started, I got up early and wrote for a
couple hours until Rosemary got up and made me breakfast. Then I went to work
and then <spent time with my family>. I went to bed early because I knew
I would get up early. On Saturday and Sunday I would write about 2
hours."<BR><BR>* "When someone says they want to become a writer, the best
answer is "Don't". Because, if they really have the desire to be a writer they
will do it anyway. I would have been inspired by advice like that."<BR><BR>*
"I read negative reviews, but I don't let them affect me. If you cannot do
that you should not read negative reviews."<BR>Incidentally, most of the other
writers on the panels apparently read negative reviews even though it greatly
affects them. They compensate by imagining the reviewers as small meaningless
people who are beneath contempt, yet are held in contempt anyway. Wolfe also
pointed out that by the time a review comes out, he hasn't even looked at the
book in question for a year or more.</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>-----------------------</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>He told lots of stories about being an
engineer:</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>* "Has anyone heard the one about when I blew
myself up and thought I'd blinded myself?" </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>*"I was on the team that designed the cooker part
of the machine that made Pringles" (He went into detail about how they are
manufactured.) And he said that one of his coworkers was from Idaho and was
fetted as hero when he went home because Pringles was making them all rich
(P&G was buying up lots of potatoes.)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>* That last one seems like an inspiration for the
conversation with the potato farmer in 'Peace'.
Here's another possible 'Peace' backstory. In a story about "How I
became Dr Frankenstein" he mentions large metal doors that opened into a more
public area. (The story itself about being Dr Frankenstein does not seem to
have anything to do with Peace)</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2
face=Arial>--------------------------------</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT size=2 face=Arial>I'll post again as I remember
stuff.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>J.</FONT></DIV>
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