Baycon: Saturday report
May. 28th, 2016 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjThere's still something about the physical layout of the hotel that is just throwing me off balance. And whether it really is drifting cigarette smoke in the lobby and cafe areas or simply the ordinary dry hotel air, my lungs and sinuses have been vaguely unhappy all day. This contributed to just throwing in the towel after dinner and retreating to my room.
But I had a lovely long chat with Setzu over morning coffee. And the panels were enjoyable. I was audience for a "favorite villains" panel which included some interesting ways of looking at different flavors of "bad guy" and how they contribute to the story. After lunch I was on a panel on how to dress your characters (we turned it into a combination of issues with clothing authenticity in historic settings, and the narrative functions of clothing, as well as descriptive pitfalls). It suffered a bit from disorganization and lack of direction by the moderator, but I think the audience (who participated quite a bit) had a good time. Then I was on a rather small panel (with similarly small audience) on "genre ghettos". We talked a lot about niche marketing, how to find audiences for books that fall between cracks and how those audiences can help spread the word. Plus the ways in which reader and bookseller preconceptions about genre can hamper getting books in the hands of their intended audience.
After that I was feeling a bit peckish and after trying unsuccessfully to linger in places where I might pick up dinner partners (see previous comments about unsatisfactory layout & traffic issues), I settled for a lonely burger and then called it a day.
But I had a lovely long chat with Setzu over morning coffee. And the panels were enjoyable. I was audience for a "favorite villains" panel which included some interesting ways of looking at different flavors of "bad guy" and how they contribute to the story. After lunch I was on a panel on how to dress your characters (we turned it into a combination of issues with clothing authenticity in historic settings, and the narrative functions of clothing, as well as descriptive pitfalls). It suffered a bit from disorganization and lack of direction by the moderator, but I think the audience (who participated quite a bit) had a good time. Then I was on a rather small panel (with similarly small audience) on "genre ghettos". We talked a lot about niche marketing, how to find audiences for books that fall between cracks and how those audiences can help spread the word. Plus the ways in which reader and bookseller preconceptions about genre can hamper getting books in the hands of their intended audience.
After that I was feeling a bit peckish and after trying unsuccessfully to linger in places where I might pick up dinner partners (see previous comments about unsatisfactory layout & traffic issues), I settled for a lonely burger and then called it a day.
