Report from Vericon
Feb. 1st, 2004 08:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oakenguyYesterday I spent the day at Harvard's little SF convention, Vericon. How little, you ask? I think 100 people came, tops. The biggest crowd I was in was the 25-person audience for the 'Humor in Genre Fiction' panel with Mike Carey (Lucifer, Hellblazer), Peter David B5 scripts, 60 novels, a zillion comic books) and this guy who looked about sixteen a webcomic based on Final Fantasy 1.
Which made it the perfect chance to bring in my little attempt at a comic book script and get feedback.
Mike Carey...okay, I don't swing this way, but he made me feel like a Japanese schoolgirl mooning over the high school senior. Huge eyes, hearts over my head, all that. He's *cute*, he's got a Liverpool accent, he's very modest about his accomplishments*, he's easy to talk to (we bonded over small talk about airports and Hugh Grant's career), and when I showed him my script he gave a big laugh at the joke on page 3, said some flattering things about it, and talked with me for ten minutes about ways to make it more publisher-friendly (find an artist with a distinctive style to help ensure it's immediately distinct from "Marvels" or "Powers", for one thing).
Peter David...different story. I was much more fanboyish around him--I've been reading him for over half my life, for one thing, and he's actually written some of the characters in my script, for another. Plus it was harder to get access to him--he's popular, his daughter's in town, and he's a talker with great anecdotes. Finally at the last possible minute I...well, let's put it in script format.
ME: M-Mr. David? Are you flying out tomorrow?
PAD: (In 'that's a silly question' tone) No, I'll be driving. Why?
ME: W-well, I, um, have this script, and, uh, if you were flying I thought maybe I could bribe you with some english toffee chocolates to just take a quick look at it and give me some feedback. (Inner voice: Oh crap! Oh crap!)
PAD: What sort of script?
ME: A-a comic.
PAD: Who're the characters?
ME: Uh...yellow journalists.
Pause.
PAD: How many pages?
ME: Um, 22? (Inner voice: I think...)
PAD: Lemme see it.
He reads. With a scowl on his face. Doesn't laugh once. The event (a milk and cookies 'story hour') starts up around us. He ignores it, keeps reading. I'm behind him trying to keep calm, also trying to remember where the closest bathroom is in case I need to throw up after he tells me what he thinks. Finally he finishes, puts the paper clip back on, sits thoughtfully for a moment. Waves me over.
PAD: Put your name, phone number, and address on this. I'm gonna take it home with me.
And so I do, brain spinning, thank him, and sneak out of the event because, hey, why press my luck?
So I dunno. Good sign? Bad sign? If it was crap he could've told me in two seconds, couldn't he? (Inner voice: Unless it was such crap he wants to look at again in amazement at how it just keeps spiralling further downward...) Gah. Gah. I'm too fragile for this sort of stress.
Anyhow, other Vericon stuff:
Harvard (surprise, surprise) has overachievers. There was one woman there who immediately reminded me of Paris from 'Gilmore Girls'--three times in my hearing, and probably multiple times elsewhere she mentioned that she'd just "made her first pro sale" of a short story. It was how she introduced herself at the writing workshop.
Also, at the Masquerade Ball there were your usual anime costumes, some folks in cloaks...and a woman in a ten-foot-high, rubber (that she'd molded and painted herself), five-piece, four-people-to-carry-in-and-assemble, ENT COSTUME. Complete with two tiny little Hobbits in the upper branches. (This is the same woman who was the main character and 'winner' of two larps she and I were both in, at previous Vericons).
Peter David was supposed to give a talk from 4:30 until 6, but my canny audience got him telling Babylon 5 stories. He ran until 6:45, and that's only because he had to be at another event at 7. Bwah-ha-ha.
And I now have a long list of anime I need to rent.
Okay, that's all.
*He opened his writing workshop by telling us about an anxiety dream he'd had two nights ago where he was the fifth Beatle. Paul and Ringo had called him up saying "Lets go on a reunion tour!" and he was on stage with them in front of ten thousand people, and they were performing "She Loves Me, Yeah Yeah Yeah", possibly the easiest song in the english language, and he COULDN'T REMEMBER THE WORDS.
Which made it the perfect chance to bring in my little attempt at a comic book script and get feedback.
Mike Carey...okay, I don't swing this way, but he made me feel like a Japanese schoolgirl mooning over the high school senior. Huge eyes, hearts over my head, all that. He's *cute*, he's got a Liverpool accent, he's very modest about his accomplishments*, he's easy to talk to (we bonded over small talk about airports and Hugh Grant's career), and when I showed him my script he gave a big laugh at the joke on page 3, said some flattering things about it, and talked with me for ten minutes about ways to make it more publisher-friendly (find an artist with a distinctive style to help ensure it's immediately distinct from "Marvels" or "Powers", for one thing).
Peter David...different story. I was much more fanboyish around him--I've been reading him for over half my life, for one thing, and he's actually written some of the characters in my script, for another. Plus it was harder to get access to him--he's popular, his daughter's in town, and he's a talker with great anecdotes. Finally at the last possible minute I...well, let's put it in script format.
ME: M-Mr. David? Are you flying out tomorrow?
PAD: (In 'that's a silly question' tone) No, I'll be driving. Why?
ME: W-well, I, um, have this script, and, uh, if you were flying I thought maybe I could bribe you with some english toffee chocolates to just take a quick look at it and give me some feedback. (Inner voice: Oh crap! Oh crap!)
PAD: What sort of script?
ME: A-a comic.
PAD: Who're the characters?
ME: Uh...yellow journalists.
Pause.
PAD: How many pages?
ME: Um, 22? (Inner voice: I think...)
PAD: Lemme see it.
He reads. With a scowl on his face. Doesn't laugh once. The event (a milk and cookies 'story hour') starts up around us. He ignores it, keeps reading. I'm behind him trying to keep calm, also trying to remember where the closest bathroom is in case I need to throw up after he tells me what he thinks. Finally he finishes, puts the paper clip back on, sits thoughtfully for a moment. Waves me over.
PAD: Put your name, phone number, and address on this. I'm gonna take it home with me.
And so I do, brain spinning, thank him, and sneak out of the event because, hey, why press my luck?
So I dunno. Good sign? Bad sign? If it was crap he could've told me in two seconds, couldn't he? (Inner voice: Unless it was such crap he wants to look at again in amazement at how it just keeps spiralling further downward...) Gah. Gah. I'm too fragile for this sort of stress.
Anyhow, other Vericon stuff:
Harvard (surprise, surprise) has overachievers. There was one woman there who immediately reminded me of Paris from 'Gilmore Girls'--three times in my hearing, and probably multiple times elsewhere she mentioned that she'd just "made her first pro sale" of a short story. It was how she introduced herself at the writing workshop.
Also, at the Masquerade Ball there were your usual anime costumes, some folks in cloaks...and a woman in a ten-foot-high, rubber (that she'd molded and painted herself), five-piece, four-people-to-carry-in-and-assemble, ENT COSTUME. Complete with two tiny little Hobbits in the upper branches. (This is the same woman who was the main character and 'winner' of two larps she and I were both in, at previous Vericons).
Peter David was supposed to give a talk from 4:30 until 6, but my canny audience got him telling Babylon 5 stories. He ran until 6:45, and that's only because he had to be at another event at 7. Bwah-ha-ha.
And I now have a long list of anime I need to rent.
Okay, that's all.
*He opened his writing workshop by telling us about an anxiety dream he'd had two nights ago where he was the fifth Beatle. Paul and Ringo had called him up saying "Lets go on a reunion tour!" and he was on stage with them in front of ten thousand people, and they were performing "She Loves Me, Yeah Yeah Yeah", possibly the easiest song in the english language, and he COULDN'T REMEMBER THE WORDS.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-02-01 05:56 am (UTC)WOW!!! That's awesome, Brian :)
Harvard (surprise, surprise) has overachievers. There was one woman there who immediately remined me of Paris from 'Gilmore Girls'--three times in my hearing, and probably multiple times elsewhere she mentioned that she'd just "made her first pro sale" of a short story. It was how she introduced herself at the writing workshop.
That sounds more like she's an over-boaster. Did Peter David ask for her number?
no subject
Date: 2004-02-01 06:21 am (UTC)I suspect that the offer of bribing him was quite a good move - not because he would want the chocolates so much as because it was unusual. Watch out - if you use this move often, and then you become really famous and start doing cons yourself, all of /your/ squealing fanboys/girls will be pressing you with not only their dubious scripts, but their dubious amateur candymaking efforts as well.
Oh, and I entirely agree with you about Liverpool accents. That alone would have probably had me smitten too, if I'd been there, while I would have been scowling right back at Peter David, muttering things about sexist jokes in his writing. Everyone's a critic. :)
Have you stopped feeling like throwing up yet? I worry about you. You're so good.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-01 07:17 am (UTC)Or the title. "She Loves You." :)
Re:Peter David
Date: 2004-02-01 07:27 am (UTC)I can relate to that anxiety dream,that happened to me on stage a couple of times,it's a horrible feeling :S.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-01 09:17 am (UTC)I think it's a good sign. If he only wanted to laugh he probably just would have said "Can I take this with me?" and not asked for your info at all.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-01 10:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-01 02:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-01 02:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-01 05:57 pm (UTC)comic genius?
Date: 2004-02-01 07:45 pm (UTC)comic genius?
Date: 2004-02-01 07:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-02 05:59 am (UTC):)
no subject
Date: 2004-02-02 06:40 am (UTC)Vericon Guests
Date: 2004-02-02 10:08 am (UTC)Congratulations, Brian. I hope this works out well for you!
Stephen of the South
no subject
Date: 2004-02-02 12:33 pm (UTC)You are so brave and it's great that he took the script and it's a good sign and everything went well and I hope you are feeling better and I don't feel like breaking up the sentence, so there, so you'll just have to live with my breathless excitement for you because you rock and it sounded like a good con!
!
Other Rose