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Con Report: IKKiCON 6 January 20th, 2012

I like going to conventions. I really do. And that was why I scheduled my crazy cross-country move for the weekend after IKKiCON (December 30-January 2; Austin, TX). I didn’t want to miss the show, dammit! But that was also why I was scatterbrained and distracted all weekend — impending cross-country moves do that? And that is also why I’m writing a con report three weeks after the fact. Let’s see if I’m still ridiculously verbose…

Possibly the most awkward and amazing photo I took all weekend. An accurate portrayal of conventions everywhere.

…Yup. Still am. 3569 words. I’M NOT SORRY.

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NaNoWriMo 2011 December 4th, 2011

So this was, hands down, my most successful NaNoWriMo ever.

I hit 50,000 words a full week before December, and I managed to continue following the three rules I set last year: no flashbacks, no writing out of order, and no werewolves. Contributing factors to this success include the fact that I did a lot more pre-planning than usual. I actually had an outline this year! With a beginning, a middle, and an end! And subplots and stuff! It’s amazing how much direction using a classic seven-point plot system can give your story.

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Kuretake brush pens, Uni-ball white pens September 24th, 2011

So… I bought more pens. I think this is starting to become a problem. I have more pens than I have space to put them in pencil cases, cups, and jars. No more new pens for the rest of the year, all right? Break these in first.

What I got this time:

I wanted to see how the Kuretake Fudegokochi compared to my Tombow Fudenosuke, but ended up getting a bunch of other Kuretake pens because I was curious. And then to bump the order over $25 for free shipping, I threw in a few white gel pens for further experimentation. I don’t dislike my Sakura Gelly Roll,  but I’ve never tried anything else either.

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Some new pens September 6th, 2011

So a few weeks ago, I bought some new pens to play around with.

Allow me a moment to plug Jetpens.com, which done wonderfully in keeping me supplied with awesome Japanese pens, because after coming back from Japan, where I had access to a freakin’ seven story Itoya store for two weeks and where I bought like ¥15000 worth of pens and markers, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to resupply on some of the things I brought home.

But this order was less to resupply and more to find things to experiment with! There were a few things I wanted to try out as far as new pens went:

  • Fountain pens! Are they a good alternative to actual quills/dip pens?
  • Gel pens? I hear they’re good for inking?
  • Alternative tech pens? Copic Multiliners’ nibs are too fragile, Microns are fickle, and it is stupidly hard to find Staedtler at my local supply stores.
  • Refillable alternatives to my beloved Tombow Fudenosuke brush pens?

After like an hour of poking around the site, this is what I ended up with:

The photo’s a little misleading by the way — also pictured are my Pentel pocket brush (front) and my Tombow Fudenosukes (back). I forgot to include the Pilot G-3.

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Camp NaNoWriMo 2011: Endnotes September 1st, 2011

Yeah, so my Camp NaNoWriMo progress ended up being pretty sad.

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Con Report: San Japan 4TW August 13th, 2011

You may recall that I said Anime Overload would be my last convention of the season. Well, five days before San Japan, I magically acquired a table. And then I panicked all week about the super last-minute arrangements I needed to make. But everything worked out and it was all worth it because San Antonio Pinky Pie knows how to throw a convention party.

PINKY PIE APPROVES OF THIS PARTY 8D

This report is 5621 words long. Just so you know.

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Camp NaNoWriMo 2011: Prelude July 31st, 2011

For NaNoWriMo website functions to be available in other months has been an oft-wished for feature since the event’s inception, and it seems it’s been at least partially fulfilled with the launch of Camp NaNoWriMo. Now, July and August are noveling months too, joining Script Frenzy (April) as officially sanctioned NaNoWriMo spin-offs. Seeing as Camp NaNoWriMo’s goals are nearly identical to the November original though, I wouldn’t really say it’s a spin-off as much as it is an extension, like their Young Writers’ Program… The only difference between the Camp version and the “real” version is the fact that both July and August have 31 days, not 30. Thus, 50,000 words of a novel in 31 days — July or August, your choice (or hey, maybe both! 100,000 words in 62 days!).

Since the Camp NaNoWriMo site launched at the very end of June, I didn’t jump on the July round. But the August round starts on Monday, and I think I’ll go ahead and give it a go.

Outside of NaNoWriMo, I really haven’t written much fiction in the last few years, so having an early NaNo might be nice. I will, of course, still be participating in the traditional NaNo in November — can’t break that seven-year streak — but writing elsewhere in the year! What a wonderful idea!

All the same, as Camp NaNo feels peculiarly un-kosher to me, I don’t think I’ll feel bad deviating a bit from the usual ruleset. To promote the spirit of spontaneity, it is against NaNoWriMo protocol to continue previously started manuscripts, or to rewrite existing material. Well, screw that. I think I’ll be rewriting portions of the 2010 NaNo novel, Lehelle, for Camp NaNo 2011. Or maybe it will actually be a prequel. I’m not sure. See? It is still nebulous enough to be spontaneous. Kind of. I’ll also only be aiming for 30,000 words, personally. Actually, I think I’d probably be pleased if I could managed 20k. I’m taking an actual vacation in the middle of August, so we’ll see how that goes.

Camp NaNoWriMo: An idyllic writers’ retreat, smack-dab in the middle of your crazy life — yeah, pretty much.

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Con Report: Anime Overload 2011 July 17th, 2011

Anime Overload in Austin, TX, marks one year of me working the Texas convention circuit. It isn’t exactly a year since the con moved up a month from last year, but man, it doesn’t feel like I’ve been back here that long.

The Fake Lemonade Stand @ Anime Overload 2011

Now that I think about it, there aren’t actually a lot of cons I’ve hit more than once — just MomoCon and AWA, both of which I attended twice as an artist, and both of which were pretty inconsistent when I compare them year-to-year. AO this year was similarly bizarre. It was hosted at the same weird venue, the North Austin Events Center, but despite a bigger effort on the advertising front this year, attendance felt very, very down. Mel (Mistyibuki), the Artist Alley coordinator, said that 2010′s numbers were supposedly around 1,000. This year… well, maybe they hit 1,000, but it really didn’t seem like it. And when the whole con’s in one room, it’s pretty easy to tell if there are people around or not.

This report is 4459 words long, but surely you’re used to this by now?

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Con Report: A-kon 22 June 20th, 2011

A-Kon is the oldest anime convention in North America and a convention I had wanted desperately to attend for many years after finding out there were such things as crazy weekend gatherings of otaku and their ilk.

Years later though and having tabled my way through a dozen other cons, I wasn’t as raring to go because the Dallas location felt inconvenient. I don’t really know anyone in Dallas and wouldn’t have a couch to crash on; it’s a longer drive, and man, A-kon’s tables are expensive! But as I hit up other cons on the Texas circuit, hung out on the Artist Alley forums, and made friends with other artists, it felt less and less like a big deal. It’s the biggest con in the state. There’s really no good reason for passing it up! So I decided to go for it when the tables came up for purchase. Those suckers sold out in less than two minutes of keyboard-mashing, eye-twitching, heart-racing insanity, but I am master table wrangler!

The calmness depicted in this picture is exactly the opposite of how the weekend was.

Ladre was generous enough to offer me space in his room at the con hotel, which would be shared with a lovely bunch of other artists, including Tracie (Silver no Miko), Chrislea, Cathy (Meomeo), Xanseviera, and (fellow SCAD grad!) Missy (Zimmay). At Matsuri, Chuck and I discussed the possibility of carpooling to Dallas, along with his friends Erika and Meagan. Things were coming together nicely!

…Of course, the best of plans tend not to go as planned. Thursday of the con was one of the most stressful Thursdays ever, and there have been many Thursdays. On the bright side, the weekend did not consist entirely of Thursdays.

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Con Report: Comicpalooza 2011 June 3rd, 2011

Whelp, back from my first full-fledged comic convention, (STAPLE! was too indie to count), and it was pretty all right.

For having a super long guest list comprised almost entirely of people I’ve never heard of, Comicpalooza didn’t actually feel all that different from an anime convention to me. There were many more comic-, sci-fi-, and game-related cosplayers, and the crowd skewed older, but I didn’t feel nearly as out of place as I did at STAPLE! Things were pretty run-of-the-mill, really — maybe this is because Comicpalooza is officially a cross-genre convention encompassing comics, sci-fi, and pop culture, and included anime-related programming for the first time in 2011?

This is kind of an irrelevant photo of Captain Jack Sparrow being confused by my (fake) lemon.

Traffic throughout the weekend left a bit to be desired though, with a majority of artists reporting lower-than-average sales. The layout of Artist Alley probably had a lot to do with it, and post-con murmurs have further pointed out that Dallas Comic Con being the weekend prior probably didn’t help either. I also agree with the crowd that says downtown Houston probably isn’t the best place for a convention in general…

Today, my essay-length con report-writing skills clock in at 3835 words. I hope I’ve included enough pictures to break up the monotony!

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