Dispatches from Polaris!

Well, I’m sitting in a hotel room in north Toronto as I write this, with two days of the Polaris convention gone by and only one left to enjoy.

It’s been a great weekend so far. I’m fairly new to the ‘con game,’ and wasn’t really sure what to expect from this one based on the website, but there have been loads of great panels – from the incredible geek-off trivia contests, (I’m going to the finals this afternoon, based on my knowledge of Whedonverse canon,) to discussions of Trek, and Buffy versus Twilight.

There have also been more fantastic writing panels than I really expected, and it’s been great hearing what published sci-fi and fantasy genre authors think of topics like “What’s next for young adult readers,” “Right ways to write,” “Researching what you don’t know for your story,” and “Rebuilding worlds and history” — and joining into the discussion with other convention guests. On my schedule today for writing panels, I’m looking forward to “Our stories are just as much fun without romance” and “Making sentences,” plus a discussion on the legality and morality of fanfiction.

Let’s see, what else – I met Ethan Phillips from ‘Voyager’ and Mark Sheppard from ‘Firefly’ and got their autographs, and shot video of the contestants at the costume masquerade until my camera battery pooped out and my memory card was nearly full.

I should wrap up this entry, because I want to get all packed up before the charity auction starts, so that I can just swing by the room at ten and quickly check out before heading off to the ‘Classic tv crushes’ panel.

We’ll return to our regularly scheduled writing blog later this week.