What Am I Up To?

Earlier this month, I attended Gen Con, focusing on the Gen Con Writer's Symposium.  If you haven't attended the panels in GenCon before, it's well worth your time whether you're aspiring to write or are already in the trenches, submitting your work.  I took copious notes and learned quite a bit.  I'd attended last year, but this year I also chose to pay for a feedback session with professional authors.  They had excellent feedback on one of my short stories.

I'll be attending the World Fantasy Convention in October, and I signed up to do a reading.  I'll be practicing in front of my wife, who will prepare me for any possible distractions, as she did in preparation for my reading at Gen Con.  She would cough loudly, laugh randomly, stand up and walk into the other room, or pretend to check her phone for text messages.  And while she's doing so, she's still observing everything so that at the end, she's telling me how best to focus, emote, etc. (she's a professional actress and comedian).  I haven't decided on what I'll read just yet, but I have enough time left to prepare.

As far as writing goes, I'm working on a novel featuring Katsu and Tsukiko, who are the main characters in "Shadows in Sakamura" that was published in the latest issue of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly.  The novel reveals how they became as they are - one shadowing the other.  I really love writing this story, but it's not easy; this is probably the hardest I've ever worked on any writing project to date.

I can't say how much time I've spent just reading about the Japanese Edo period or looking at art and pictures of Japan.  Sometimes I just get lost in the research - fascinated by all of the details.  So much of what I'm studying will never end up on the page directly, but it's helping me to build this fantasy world - one that I hope absorbs readers.