About Writing On Wednesdays: Boogie To The Vampire Vibes

Edward in the sunlight was shocking. I couldn’t get used to it, though I’d been staring at him all afternoon. His skin, white despite the faint flush from yesterday’s hunting trip, literally sparkled, like thousands of tiny diamonds were embedded in the surface. He lay perfectly still in the grass, his shirt open over his sculpted, incandescent chest, his scintillating arms bare. His glistening, pale lavender lids were shut, though of course he didn’t sleep. A perfect statue, carved in some unknown stone, smooth like marble, glittering like crystal.      ~Stephenie Meyer in Twilight

Experts gathered together to discuss more on my favorite subject of vampires: Faith Hunter, Kalayna Price, Theresa Bane, Tony Ruggiero.  We had lots of fun in this discussion. This is also the last post about Stellarcon.

Theresa Bane is a Vampirologist and author of Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology. “Vampires prey on the most precious in society,” explains Theresa. As an expert on vampires she doesn’t believe in the blood drinking fiends or the psychic ones.

The concept of the psychic vampire evolved in the sixties from slang such as ‘negative energies’ or getting certain ‘vibes’.

Those who practice vampirism are called lifestylers. The police call Theresa for help on some of their cases but her expertise is only with the vampire myth. Really? Modern day police actually have to know about vampires? She couldn’t tell us about any of the cases but talk about being freaked out.

Instead of advising them to sharpen some stakes and approach said vampires only in daylight she advises them to call Michelle Belanger who is a lifestyler. I’ve seen Michelle in several specials on TV including: The History Channel, A&E and on the Reelzchannel Twilight specials.

About Writing on Wednesdays: Can Science Steal the Story?

Ok. Let’s try this again. I accidentally trashed the first try. Sorry.

Tedd Roberts, Toni Weisskopf, Gray Rinehart and Christiana Ellis were on a great panel at Stellarcon called Science Vs Story.

Toni Weisskopf took over Baen Books as publisher after Jim Baen died. She is a hoot. She is in your face and says it how she believes it. I think it’s safe to say you will always know where you stand with her.

Now all through the weekend I heard a lot about information dump, don’t do it. The first thing that came out of Toni’s mouth was she is a fan of the info dump. In her words, “…give me the effing science. Be specific and get to the point.”

Gray Rinehart, her General Slushmaster, had just said in another panel not to info dump. He was sitting next to her as she said this and gave her the ‘are you kidding me’ look. I had to laugh because I’m sure they had a talk about that later.

A colorful, larger than life woman Toni was eff this and eff that for a while until she stopped and apologized. Editing and publishing induced “passionate” feelings in her, she said.

The panel touched very little on the science versus the story angle but I do like a well written sci-fi story, especially a good space opera. It’s important so we will talk about it.

About Writing on Wednesdays: Rules For Writers

Every writer has his or her own approach to writing but when we write the same basic rules apply to all of us. Most rules are inviolate, some are more like guidelines while other rules are made to be broken.

As writer’s we want to use our voice to create characters and worlds that has readers coming back for more.  Whether we break or bend the rules or not we are manipulating them to create our own unique voice.

The trick is to know which is what. Got that? The first rule before breaking the rules is to know the rules. You have to know what you’re doing and why before you decide not to do it.

The Ten Rules About Writing panel was hosted by Amy Sturgis, Faith Hunter and Allen Wold at Stellarcon.  They had a lot more than ten and I added to their list. The distinction between rules that can not be broken or bent and the ones that can are my own.