JordanCon

[Deleted]

I will be at JordanCon this weekend. I was only planning to go today, but several other things got cancelled or moved, so now I'm going all weekend.

It's probably my favorite convention, both for its excellent writer's track, and because it's very friendly and laid back. It's also only five miles from my house, so I get to sleep in my own bed.

Tonight Brandon Sanderson will be doing a live broadcast of how he writes, so I thought maybe y'all might be interested in that: waygatefoundation.org/

I am bringing cards made for my first book with free SW coupon codes on the back, a paperback of the first book, and several copies of the third/fourth chapter of Catalyst for the peer review tonight (I need to write/rewrite the very beginning). I put a stack of cards on the brochure table last year aside from handing a few out, and got about fifteen downloads and one review. So not bad. Cards are from Vistaprint. I did the design.

[Pru Freda]

Good luck, Lynn, and have a great time.

[Suzy]

Oh, I'm jealous! I wish there were things like that going on where I live.

Have a great time, Lynn!

[Daniel]

Sounds like fun! Have a great time. One of these days, I'd like to go to one of those.

[Deleted]

Well, I learned today that magic realism is supposed to be the new big trend. Ghosts, etc, but in the background. I still haven't had anyone give me a good definition for magic realism.

[Alan Petersen]

I like your cards!

Magic realism? I did a search in the Kindle store couldn't find much. The "Ghosts" category is pretty big. I've always liked a good ghost story (that's a great book from Peter Straub, too bad it hasn't been published for the Kindle). If you find any example of these books in this hot sub-genre, please let me know, very curious what that is all about.

I guess after vampires, werewolves, witches, it's ghost stories set in the real world time. I would think a YA book set with ghosts might be popular. Instead of brooding vampire who falls in love with a troubled/shy girl, a brooding ghost falls in love with a troubled/shy girl.

Ghost erotica.

[Becca Mills]

Lynn, those cards are gorgeous! I hope they bring you some new readers.

I think of magic realism as a lit fic thing. Like Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

[Deleted]

Yeah, I was familiar with it from lit fic, too, but I guess it's branching away from that.

[Deleted]

Princeton has the best definition of magic realism that I found, but it's still pretty vague: www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Magic_realism.html

I guess movies like Cloud Atlas and such would fit in that category.

Magic realism or magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements are blended into a realistic atmosphere in order to access a deeper understanding of reality. These magical elements are explained like normal occurrences that are presented in a straightforward manner which allows the "real" and the "fantastic" to be accepted in the same stream of thought. It has been widely considered a literary and visual art genre; creative fields that exhibit less significant signs of magic realism include film and music.

As used today, the term is broadly descriptive rather than critically rigorous: Matthew Strecher has defined magic realism as "what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something 'too strange to believe'". However, it may be that this critical perspective towards magical realism stems from the Western reader's disassociation with mythology, a root of magical realism more easily understood by non-Western cultures. Westerners' confusion regarding the style of magical realism is due to the "'conception of the real'" created in a magical realist text; rather than explaining reality using natural or physical laws as in typical Western texts, magical realist texts create a reality "'in which the relation between incidents, characters, and setting could not be based upon or justified by their status within the physical world or their normal acceptance by bourgeois mentality."' Today, there are many varieties of writers whose work is categorized as "magical realist", to such an extent that critics and readers alike are confused as to what the term really means and how wide its borders are.

[Becca Mills]

Interesting, Lynn -- thanks!

[Deleted]

Highlights of yesterday:

■ People keep giving me free books, including Star Wars: Kenobi and His Majesty's Dragon

■ Gender Equality in the Wheel of Time panel
Some tough issues in this one, but I have to admit I was not much of a fantasy fan before the Wheel of Time because everything I read had one token woman wearing a chainmail bikini, or a useless damsel who just had to be rescued every five minutes. We looked at both the highs and lows of the Wheel of Time when it came to the genders

■ Brandon's lecture on the Rules of Magic
I had seen the videos of this lecture, but it was cool to hear it in person.

[Deleted]

I forgot to mention yesterday the lovely kaffeklatzch with the lovely and brilliant Harriet McDougal. I didn't even have any questions, I just wanted to go soak up her aura. the kaffeklatzch's are limited to 10, so the signups are a bit cutthroat. I got up so early to go yesterday that I was about dead by Brandon's lecture. I love conventions, but I don't hold up at them very well. I've learned that I need to set boundaries and keep them, and that's really hard when there's so many fun things.

Highlights of today:

■ Brandon read from the sequels to both Steelheart and Mistborn: Alloy of Law. Both have quite awhile before they come out, so I'm going to try to be patient for more.

■ The yearly pitch panel. Shook like a leaf, but went without notes and made myself go near last. Thinking back on it, I wish I had just stepped out of it, since I didn't realize time was almost up and there were a bunch of people who still wanted to go. Several people told me they liked my book idea (the one I'm finishing up now in Camp Nanowrimo and has the girl with the gun on the cover). I love the cover, but now I'm starting to wonder if the gun will be a problem for a YA crowd.

[Becca Mills]

This is all really cool, Lynn. I'll be watching that Sanderson vid, that's for sure. I hope I don't find out I've been breaking any rules. Good for you for making a pitch! Maybe you could pull an E.T. and change the gun into a walkie-talkie.

I have to admit, I never went back to The Wheel of Time after Jordan died. Are the Sanderson books good? I like his Mistborn.

[Deleted]

Becca Mills they're excellent. He did a great job.

Mistborn is my favorite series, and I'm not generally a fantasy fan (the whole women thing + a total boredom of dungeon/quest stories).

His rules are sorta different from what you hear elsewhere. He explained that a bit, saying in his very first panel he said that magic should have rules, and everybody else on the panel roasted him, arguing that rules ruin the "feel" of fantasy. I don't remember if he tells that story in the video or not.