Gen Con Next Week!

Next week I'll once again make the trek to Indianapolis, IN for Gen Con! Gen Con is one of the premier tabletop gaming conventions out there, but they also happen to have a superb writing track in the shape of their Writer's Symposium. Most of the Writer's Symposium events will take place at the Downtown Marriott, near the Indianapolis Convention Center, and that's where all of my panels will be. (My signings, on the other hand, will be in the massive dealer's room of the Convention Center.)

Check out my schedule, (mostly) complete with provided panel descriptions!

Thu 1 Aug

1:00 PM (Ballroom 3): What Are You Reading?

This one didn't have a description, but I assume it is The Panel in which we talk about what we're reading at the moment, and what we've read recently that is awesome!

4:00 PM (Ballroom 2): Who Said What? Clarifying Dialog

"He said, she said...does dialog always need tags? How can you keep readers from getting confused?"

Fri 2 Aug (Which is turning out to be an incredibly busy day for me)

10:00 AM (Ballroom 4): Scrivener Demystified

"So you've decided to ditch the notebook or Word to give this whole Scrivener program a whirl. Can this program make your process better? Come learn from LaShawn Wanak, A.E. Greenwood, Christopher Husberg, and more."

11:00 AM (Ballroom 1): Capturing the Creepy: Getting the Details Right

"Horror and suspense writers want to captivate their readers without grossing them out, or worse, boring them. Lucy Snyder, Richard Byers, Christopher Husberg, and others discuss how much detail is necessary."

12:00 PM (Ballroom 1): Business Plans for Writers

"Writing is a creative endeavor, but it's also a business. Which means...you need a business plan. Shanna Germain, Matt Forbeck, Christopher Husberg, and Keith Law discuss making one."

1:00 PM (Austin/Boston): Fractal Narrative: Understanding Story Structure

"Are you an outliner? then you need to understand story structure. A discovery writer? You need it, too. Archetypal structure is for everyone, and Christopher Husberg will tell you the basics." (This one's all me! It's also incidentally an adaptation of the presentation I gave in Brandon Sanderson's creative writing class earlier this year :-D.)

2:00 PM (Ballroom 4): Character Relationships in Stories

"Relationships are the backbone of your story. Our panelists Kristin McFarland and Christopher Husberg discuss writing realistic friendships, romantic partners, frenemies, and more."

3:00 PM (Atlanta): Midpoint: How to Get This Pivotal Moment Right

"Midpoint is considered one of the most important moments for character development in a story. Christopher Husberg, Kristen Britain, Bill Fawcett, and Elizabeth Vaughan tell you how to get it right."

5:00 PM (Vendor Hall): Signing

Sat 3 Aug

2:00 PM (Vendor Hall): Signing

Exploration (or: How I Got Published, Part 10)

If you’re writing in the science fiction/fantasy genre, then conferences, conventions, and symposiums (hereafter referred to simply as “cons,” because I don’t want to write all that out) are a must.* I’ve been going for about eight years, and I love it. At first, they were my way of exploring the genre—expanding what I knew, and how I wrote. While they still serve that function, they also help me in other ways, now , namely networking, getting my name out there, and meeting new people.

Basically, cons are important. Let me get right down to it and tell you why you should be attending them:

• To meet people! Other authors, agents, editors, reviewers, and—most importantly—fans (current or potential). Much of this counts as networking, which I’ll talk more about next week, but a great deal of it is just making friends (which is really what good networking comes down to anyway, I think). I’ve met many people at cons, a fair number of whom have become good friends. These people might be able to help my writing career someday, and they might not, but the truth is that’s not what’s important. (Contrary to what I though when I first attended cons—I thought I should only find and associate with people who could further my career, and I couldn’t have been more wrong. I wasted a lot of time at cons, psyched myself out of meeting a lot of cool people, and I generated more than a few awkward moments because of this mentality.) So go forth and meet folks—turns out they’re actually pretty cool.
• To learn things! Most cons offer a plethora of panels and presentations on just about anything you can imagine, from the craft of writing to Battlestar Galactica to how to find/speak to agents and editors (and how not to, incidentally, which might be even more important) and more.
• To see how professionals act at cons! If you’re an aspiring author, you’re also an aspiring participant on panels, readings, and signings. Get used to that, it’s an important part of the business—and a fun part, too! By watching professionals speak on panels, read their work, and interact with fans (and with other pros, for that matter), you can get an idea of how to act now. Ain’t nothing wrong with acting like a professional now, by the way—it’ll just make you more prepared for things down the road when you get invited to participate in cons.**
• To get out of your own head! Writing is a solitary thing, and I actually think that’s a big reason why many of us choose to pursue it. But no one is an island, and just because I’m an introvert doesn’t mean that I can survive on my own—I can’t. I need people, I need interaction, and at cons I can interact with my people. It’s a good thing.

If you’re an aspiring writer, you probably already know how important they are. So let’s get practical. Here are some tips on how to attend cons:

• Be nice—to everyone. Whether you’re interacting with a pro (another author, an agent, an editor, etc.), a fan, or someone in between, kindness is the best strategy. If we can find a way to do this simply because it’s something we want to do, that’s ideal. But, if you need real motivation, just consider the fact that literally anyone you meet at cons could one day be a pro, and could one day have a say in your career. If you were kind to them when they were a wide-eyed fan, they’ll remember it. If you weren’t, well, they’ll remember that too, if you get my meaning.
• Go with someone, or in a group, if possible. I didn’t do this, and I regret it. I wish I’d had the gumption to be a bit more outgoing at those early conventions, to ask folks I knew and friends I had if they’d be willing to share the cost of a hotel room or go talk to agents together or something. I didn’t, and I think things might’ve been a bit easier—or at least a bit more fun—if I had. If you don’t have friends that go to cons (I didn’t really, at least not at first), don’t panic. As I’ve said before, you can make friends there. Be nice, reach out to others. It’s scary, but it’s rewarding.
• Soak up the panels and presentations. There’s a lot of information to be had, and I still try to absorb as much of it as I can. However, don’t focus too much on the panels. I did that in the beginning because I felt awkward walking alone outside of them. Panels were safe to me, so I filled my schedule from dawn to dusk. I learned a lot, but I think my time would’ve been better spent—and happier—if I’d focused more on connecting with other people.
• Along those lines, TALK TO PEOPLE. Whether it’s in hallways between panels, in the dealer’s room, and especially at the bar in the evenings. If a group invites you out to a meal with them, go ahead and skip that “Networking” panel (or whatever) that you were going to attend and go to lunch with them! Doing is better than thinking about doing 100% of the time. (That said, don’t invite yourself to go along with a group to lunch—if you get an invite, be gracious and happy about it. If you don’t, no worries—you will.)
• Be as professional as possible. You don’t have to a suit or anything, or even business casual for that matter—I usually wear Buffy t-shirts and a jacket of some kind (because they usually keep temps low at these cons)—but you should look nice. (Of course, that might have different connotations depending on your personal style, and that’s okay—cons are a wonderful place to be exactly who you are. Although I will say, if you’re trying to network, it might be a good idea to hold off on the cosplay, as fun as that can be.) Shower daily and wear deodorant (you don’t think I’d have to say this, but trust me, I do). Brush your teeth. Carry mints around. First impressions are a big deal; be conscious of yours.
• Take advantage of free/cheap opportunities. There are a lot of them at cons, mostly in the forms of kaffeeklatsches, workshops, pitch sessions, and of course panels. Free things are the best—if you can get into a conversation with an author and ten other people (a kaffeeklatsch), go for it! But you find an opportunity to have your work critiqued by a couple pros and it costs twenty bucks or so, I suggest you take it. I did that a few years ago, and it was more than worth it—one of the pros who critiqued my work even gave me a shout out (sort of) in one of the panels she was on! It was awesome, and a great opportunity to meet other writers.***
• Don’t be a pitching robot. It isn’t cool to go around to everyone you meet and immediately pitch your book or whatever. Chill out! Almost everyone will eventually ask why you’re there, anyway. Let it come up naturally. (There is some exception to this when talking to agents and editors—there isn’t always time to get to know someone—but that’s a subject for another post.)
• After you’ve attended a few cons, think about attending one or two outside your genre. I’ve attended AWP and the Symposium on Books for Young Readers. While neither experience was particularly my cup of tea, it was helpful to see how things worked outside of my own genre.
• Have fun! That’s what cons are for—they’re for people who love all things SF/F to come together, talk about what they love, and get to know one another. Soak it up, enjoy it, and be a part of the experience.

More and more, I’m learning to let go and really focus on that last thing, and it’s been fantastic. Cons are, by nature, inclusive. I've attended a fair number of them by now, and I intend to explore a whole lot more. Come be a part of it!

* I kind of think they’re important in pretty much any genre, too—but, of course, being a fantasy writer, I’ll talk about what I know :-).

** A caveat, here: not all professionals are worth emulating. Most of them certainly are, but some aren’t. Please be aware of who is treating others with kindness and courtesy—not only respecting people’s time and space, but their ideas and opinions as well—and who isn’t. Try to be like the former group of people.

*** Another caveat: don’t get ripped off. Like I said, if this kind of thing costs you twenty bucks or so, go for it! You might as well try it, and if it’s a good experience, wonderful, if not, you at least know it isn’t worth it. But if things start getting pricey, don’t feel bad about not jumping at those opportunities. They aren’t necessary, trust me.

Headshots! Part Deux

Sometime last year I posted some potential headshots that I sent to my agent for agent-y things. Well, I finally went and got some real ones taken, and the results are looking might fine. Here's a sampling:

Because I like nature! And I'm outdoors-y! And I wear scarves & leather!

Because I can be mildly smoldering! Also, because I love castles!

Because castles! again, but because I can be down to earth and relatable, too!

Because I can be jolly! And did I mention castles?

Because I just straight up murdered a person and didn't quite finish cleaning their blood off the door behind me!

Because I can look vulnerable and sexy (because sexy is sitting on the filthy stairs of a fake castle these days)!

Anyway, I'm happy about these. Who knows, you may even see one of them in a book one day O.o.

Education (or: How I Got Published, Part 8)

Whew. Well, I’m back! To say I’m caught up wouldn’t be entirely accurate, but I think I’m at least back on track.

Continuing my “how I got published” series, today I’m going to talk about education. To over-simplify things, there are two types of writing education: formal (MFA programs, paid writing workshops with professionals, etc.*) and informal (just about everything else).

Informal education is the most important, and that’s pretty nice because—guess what—it’s free! For me, my informal writing education consists of the following:

1. Writing (about 90% of it, actually) - to learn it I’ve got to do it.
2. Reading (around 9% of my “informal” writing education) - to learn it I’ve got to study it.
3. Everything else: community classes, podcasts, writing groups, panels and workshops at conferences and conventions, etc. (1%).

And, honestly, that’s about all I’ll say about that, because people seem to agree pretty unanimously that those things are important. What I’m going to focus on is formal education—I got an MFA in Creative Writing from Brigham Young University, so I’m qualified enough to at least throw my two cents into the ring.

To make this easy, I’m going to break it down to a simple Pros/Cons list. Let’s do the Pros of my MFA program first:

• I learned a lot about the craft. I studied a lot of theory during my degree, and it was all helpful. They say you need to learn the rules before you break them—a saying I absolutely agree with—and I learned a lot of the rules in my MFA program. You can learn “the rules” in other ways, of course, but this was a structures, mentored, accelerated way to do it, and I’m ver glad I did.
• I did a lot of reading—a lot of it was theory, yes, but even more of it was just other authors, from classics to contemporaries and everything in between. Again, I could read stuff anytime, but this was guided, directed, mentored reading, and in my opinion that really does make a difference.
• I learned how to read (better). I wasn’t too shabby of a reader before, but my ability to critique and analyze definitely increased. This also carries over to my ability to participate in writing workshops and groups—I can give much more effective critiques now than I did before my MFA program.
• I taught writing—and not just freshman comp., but creative writing courses, too. I’m not sure if that’s something every MFA program offers—I know a lot of them do—but mine did, and it was a fantastic opportunity. Teaching required me to take things I’d learned and regurgitate them in a way that would be helpful to others, and that, of course, only helped me learn the concepts better.
• I met cool and interesting people, including professors I worked with, visiting writers, and students alongside whom I learned. We workshopped one another’s writing, went on retreats together, played a game of inner-tube water polo or two, and overall had a grand old time.
• I learned about genres outside my own. I took a creative nonfiction class and a Young Adult lit. class. I mentored under a phenomenal poetry professor who helped me understand the importance of words and meaning in poetry. I’m a big advocate of reaching outside of myself for different experiences, and my MFA program helped me do that. Each one of them was valuable to me.

You might be thinking, “That all sounds great! Sign me up!” And, well, it wouldn’t be a terrible idea. But before you do anything rash, let me tell you about the Cons:

• We didn’t talk much about the writing business. I took two classes that were exceptions to this, thankfully. In the YA lit class I mentioned earlier, the professor did make an effort to include some very helpful aspects of the writing business. Also, I took Brandon Sanderson’s writing course, and while it was technically an undergrad course I finagled the system in such a way that they counted it, anyway, and that course definitely spoke to the business side of writing. But, unfortunately, I think those two classes are exceptions rather than the rule. I could have easily gotten through my MFA program without picking up a lick of knowledge on the writing business. MFA programs are about craft and preparing people to teach writing more than anything; their primary purpose doesn’t seem to be to produce people who plan on writing in order to make a living. And that’s fine—just be sure you understand what an MFA program is offering before you get into one.
• Genre fiction is not generally what faculty expect or want MFA students to produce. There are exceptions to this, too (Seton Hill, most notably, has a low-residency Popular Fiction program), but the rule remains. BYU, given the types of popular writers who have come out of that university (Brandon Sanderson, Brandon Mull, and Stephanie Meyer to name only a few), was more lenient than other universities on this, but a sense a sense of mild disdain still lingered whenever popular genre fiction came up. People read it, but the idea of writing the stuff seemed to be the issue. To be fair, I think I should have been a bit more up front about my own predilection toward fantasy fiction. If I had, I honestly don’t think most people would have cared (my professors might have, but certainly not my peers). But there was a cultural, almost subliminal reaction against genre writing, and I fell into that way of thinking—or at least felt trapped by it, at any rate. At some point I even questioned whether I really wanted to write fantasy fiction in the first place—a phase I’m happy to say I overcame. And, well here I am.
• All that I learned about craft and all the reading I did, I probably could have brought about on my own—or at least without paying for and attending an MFA program. This isn’t much of a con, because I do think it would have taken years and years longer to absorb that information, but I’m certain I could have eventually discovered what I learned in less formal ways.
• They can be very competitive. Getting into an MFA program isn’t easy—I applied to thirteen programs and was accepted to two. 
• It costs money—a hard fact. There are a number of programs that will offer very fine stipends, scholarships, and paid teaching opportunities, but the more money they throw at you, the more competitive their acceptance rate.

So, while an MFA program is absolutely not necessary to “make it as a writer,” it may be a good idea. There are pros and cons, but for me, the pros certainly came out ahead.

That said, what certainly is necessary to “make it as a writer” is education in general. That education’s level of formality matters far less than whether it exists in the first place. Writing is a craft that can be learned like anything else, but learning is the active word, there. Writing and reading take priority over everything. Beyond that, the question is: what kind of education should you pursue to become a better writer? In the end, nothing else matters.

* I don’t have much experience with professional writing workshops and/or retreats. (I’m not talking about conferences or conventions, where these things usually have a minimal cost—I mean the big ones, usually on location somewhere, with some big names brought in or running the thing that usually cost $1,000+.) I’m sure there are pros and cons to these events—I’ve heard many wonderful things about them, and a few horror stories, too. Like everything, the way to approach them seems to be with lots of research, to discern whether they’re right for you.

Guess what, folks!

IT'S OFFICIAL!

Let it henceforth be known that I, Christopher Husberg, shall have a novel, published and in bookstores and on Amazon and everything, in 2016!

I'm ecstatic to announce that Duskfall, book one of the Chaos Queen Series, will hit shelves roughly eighteen months from now, published by Titan Books, and I couldn't be happier about it...

...

...except for the fact that they're actually going to publish all five books in the series*, ZOMG YOU GUYS CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE IT?!?!

Image courtesy of robynize

So, basically, this is PHENOMENAL news and everything is wonderful and life is full of roses and smooth baby bottoms no wait that's not right life is as smooth as a baby's bottom yes that's what I meant because a life full of baby bottoms would be weird anyway if a picture is worth a thousand words than a gif is worth a thousand pictures right so that's like a million words so here's a few million words worth of me being excited:

Image courtesy of wedoitbetta

Image courtesy of PeetaEverdeen

Image courtesy of ReactionGifs

Whew. Okay, I think that's out of my system. Anyway, I'm excited, there will be a whole lot more news to come, everything is awesome (oh, I should have done THAT gif!), etc. etc., yay and such.

* A book a year, beginning next year! Yay! Except...wait...a book a year, that's 150-200k words per book, which means...maths are hard, wait, it means...it means...

Head Shots*

So, my agent asked me yesterday whether I had an "author photo." I briefly panicked, responded that I did not, and then scoured my Facebook photos and the photos on my hard drive for anything that might pass as a head shot. Turns out I take very few photos of myself, alone, that are remotely serious or professional in nature. The following are what I came up with:

This one was actually cropped from one of my engagement photos with Raych. So, in addition to now being deprived of the best part of the photo, it's also, like, 7.5 years old. Otherwise it was a pretty good option. Notice the very natural, effortless, not-awkward-at-all way in which I am diagonal.

Ok, I actually love this picture. Look at that eyebrow. Botox accident? Dwayne Johnson impression?** Who knows. But, again, this picture is just as old as the previous one, and I'm just not that same little boy anymore.

So I sent this to my agent as more of a joke, but he didn't comment on it so maybe he thought I was serious? Who knows. Also, I'm trying really hard not to pun on the "joke" and "serious" parts of that previous sentence. Must...resist...punnage...

Um, because I'm awesome, and top hats are totally in right now. As are blurry photographs.

Also more of a joke (because who DOESN'T want to think their favorite author is a a white walker???). But, even if it wasn't all weird and inverted, color-wise, it's got me with long hair. And I ain't got long hair no mo. :'-(

As you can see, the first batch I sent my agent was abysmally*** slim pickings. Unsurprisingly, he asked if there was anything else. So I took the following improvised selfie:

The resolution isn't that great, and I find this photo unsubtly ironic  in many ways (even if only to myself), but it's a good representation of the current Me, and isn't awful. 

So, yeah, that's my temporary author photo. (No need to panic--this photo won't actually go in any books, it's just something my agency needed on-file for some stuff.) On the to-do list now, of course, is to get one professionally done. I can only imagine that being awkward. To me it just sounds like taking school photos all over again, and to that I say: ick.




* Not FPS shooter head shots, mind you, or the type of shot that kills zombies. Just photos, people.

** Full disclosure: I stole both of those jokes from Facebook comments. ...thanks, Aunt Jeanne. And Dad. (No, seriously, look:)

*** "Abysmally" is one of those words that suddenly becomes hilarious when you look at it long enough. Amiriteoramirite?