The Dynamic Trio
Here's a guarantee for first-time Con-goers who show up five minutes before the first panel on Friday night without registering in advance: they won't take plastic at the sign-in. Fortunately the ATM in the lobby hadn't been run dry yet, and I made the opening panel "The Dynamic Duo - Revealed!" just as Scalzi said, "OK, let's get started."
I mentioned in my first post how I found out about the event on John's blog and this panel was the primary reason I decided to go: to see John, Justine and Scott try and crack each other up. Kind of strange to lead with the main event, but I was not disappointed.
A disclaimer at this point: I chose to go mainly by first names in these posts not because "I'm on a first-name basis with these famous writer-folks cuz me and 400 other total strangers saw them at a Con once and they were really nice"1, but because they have short, difficult-to-misspell first names. Attach no further significance to it. I also refer to John as "Scalzi" a lot because it sounds like an Italian motorcycle brand: Ducati, Bimota, Scalllllziii. You could get a speeding ticket just saying the name.
Within the first 30 seconds it's clear these three enjoy each others' company and have done this sort of thing in the past, because they start out talking about Scott's zombie obsession. Apparently one of Scott's pass-times is to examine any building he's in to see whether it would be a good stronghold in the event of a zombie apocalypse. Somerset Mall, just down the road, apparently would suck because it doesn't have a gun store. However, there are several thousand-pound "Feng Shui" balls in the atrium he decided could be ferried via elevator to the second floor and rolled down the escalators for some primo zombie-smashing entertainment.
We were (and are) in the midst of a cold snap of epic proportions in Michigan; temps down into the high single-digits with a wind chill below zero gave Justine ample excuse to declare that people who live in cold climates need their heads examined. After I made a few round-trips to my car sans coat, it was difficult to argue with her.
Eventually they got around to talking about books. If you're not familiar with their respective street-cred, here's the ADHD version. Scalzi's first published
novel was the completely-great OLD MAN'S WAR, which I believe has made Robert Heinlein sigh happily in his grave. Justine's MAGIC OR MADNESS series largely takes place in a made-up world she calls "Australia", full of strange magic, beautiful landscapes and utterly improbable language. Scott is best known for his UGLIES trilogy, which is about the Republican Party.
Gold, gold, gold. I learned more about writing in that first hour than I had in the previous year.2
Scalzi proposed that YA (fiction aimed at 12-17 year-olds) is the prime driver of SF/F in general. He points out that almost anytime you ask someone "what was the first SF you ever read?" they name one of the classic Heinlein juveniles.3 Scott phrased it as "the hand the rocks the cradle rules the world."
There was some discussion about how and why to do this thing called YA. Scott and Justine put it down to the emphasis on pure story, Harry Potter being a prime example. Justine emphasized that "We love J.K. Rowling" not just for the story, but as Scott puts it "she made it cool to be seen carrying around a big honkin' book."
And it's easier to sell books when you're dealing with teens, too. They talk to each other -- face to face and online -- about the stuff they like. They push books on each other the way no adult can. The swarms of responses on their author blogs is a testament to it. When I asked if they spent a lot of time around teens to stay in touch with their audience, Scott said it would be harder to about teenage rebellion if they had teenagers, because the rebellion would be against him! At the same time, whenever he does need to "touch base" he can go on the forums at scottwesterfeld.com and say, "hey, anybody out there know about...?"
As an aside, Justine referred several times during the panel to posts on her blog aimed at beginning writers, which I made a note to check out. She wrote them after being awed at how many members of her fan club were writing books of their own -- some as young as ten -- and they're terrific. How to write a novel and How to rewrite are perfect places to start. Thanks for paying it forward, Justine.
Next up, the Opening Ceremonies gets short shrift and why the second cup of coffee is almost always a mistake.