Last conference post! Probably going to take a break after this, so don’t expect another peep from bookmarkedone for a few days. At least.

Drumroll, please!

Because we’re going to go through this one faster than either of the previous two because Your Blogger is Tired and Has been Promised Pizza.

Let’s go!

Day 5: Final Day!

First session was cancelled due to a panelist’s illness (sorely lamented), so all of us who hadn’t refreshed the schedule and still got up at weird hours just bumbled around chatting, writing, and generally making trouble.

Second session was on character building. I would have felt worse about having a hard time focusing except I looked at the Discord chat and everyone was saying the same thing. Five days of odd hours and we’re all sitting in a less lively presentation with eyes glazed like overfed sheep in a summer meadow.

Third session talking with Gareth Powell about the enduring influence of the space opera and how it’s changed with time…and probably some other stuff I missed–yes, I’m sorry, the presenter had this lovely soft voice–I think this was the one when the chat started talking about militant science fiction vegans? Don’t quote me on that, I was only half reading as it was going on. You get a bunch of sleep deprived writers together, stuff happens. I’d say herding cats, but the number of times I’ve casually dropped into this weird hybrid roleplay/storytelling/oh-but-what-if-then this week is beyond even that. Apparently my common ground with a lot of the people I’ve stumbled into on Twitter and the ProWritingAid crowd is

• writing
• goblincore
• forests
• those three witches from Macbeth

…and not sleeping nearly enough.

This is probably when I should confess that between LTUE and ProWritingAid…I did like LTUE’s conferences better. Even with the Discord making a livelier conversation that we were all missing, it wasn’t official with the group, so the feeling I always get when using the chat features during a conference that I’m whispering in the back of a lecture hall or passing notes or doing some other unsavory activity that’s going to get a Dark Glare and a ruler smacked in my vicinity was doubled.

Especially during the weirder sidetracked discussions still stranded in Zoom chat and admitting how tired and unfocused we all were.

At LTUE, often the presenters were in the Discord and watching the other panels themselves, asking questions, posting memes, and being helpful. It’s…quite a different thing.

Skipped the networking event, but everyone came back to Discord gushing with stories, so it sounds like a good time was had by most.

Last panel of the conference was Scene Craft. It’s one I probably should go revisit because of the interesting use of psychology and character…that promptly dissolved into discussing timelines and whether time is actually linear…like we didn’t actually discuss circularity of time and time travel…but I was thinking it.

Probably wasn’t the only one.

And that…was the end!

Sort of.

The Discord isn’t going anywhere, and while I’d like to say I didn’t intend to bring a force of chaos and only appear to chant fight, fight, fight when the opportunity so conveniently arose (in my defense, it arose a lot)…well, sometimes fate deals you a hand and there’s no point in denying it.

I’m going to have so much fun.