Con in Review – JordanCon 2019

I consider myself a convention veteran. I’ve been doing multiple conventions each year for well over a decade. But regardless of how many cons I’ve been to, going to a new-to-me con can be a bit daunting. As with any new environment, I wonder if I will know anyone, whether people will be friendly, whether I’ll fit in.

From April 26 to April 28, I went to JordanCon for the first time. There was an extra layer of “daunting” for this particular event. Although it embraces all manner of fantasy and science fiction now, as its name implies, it began as a tribute to the late Robert Jordan, author of the best-selling Wheel of Time series.

Why would that be daunting, you ask?

Because I’ve never read a book by Robert Jordan.

Ever.

There it is. My deep, dark secret.

Brandon Sanderson finished up the Wheel of Time series after Robert Jordan passed and even though I haven’t read those books, I have read several of Brandon’s books. So I at least had that going for me!

Even so, though, and more than usual, I wondered whether I would be welcome.

Friday

As a featured author at JordanCon, I was a guest panelist, and I was to teach two classes about writing. More on them in a bit! I picked up my badge along with a nice little swag bag from the programming staff, which included ear plugs, ibuprofen, butterscotch candies, and the all-important anti-bacterial gel!

My fear of not knowing anyone was completely allayed when I found my sales table. I shared a table with my friend Darin Kennedy, an author with Falstaff Books. He’d already completely set up by the time I arrived. He had half a dozen books, plus a whole bunch of anthologies. So his side of the table was completely stacked. And my side had my one book. It looked so sad!

But I loved sharing a table with Darin. He taught me a lot about how to engage with con folks as readers and potential buyers. He even has an amazing spreadsheet he created that he shared with me which tracks convention sales, costs, etc. It really was a great learning experience being paired with him!

Friday night was the Writers Workshop, which is a regular thing at JordanCon and completely separate from classes and panels. Two writing pro guests were teamed together with 3-4 novice writers, who each brought 3-4 pages of work to be critiqued by the pros.

I was paired with Faith Hunter. I know Faith from Dragon Con, well enough to say hello, but we’d never spent any time together. I admit to being a bit nervous. Faith has been a successful writer for ages. And here I was with my one novel, Jivaja. Okay, okay, I’ve spent a decade on the back end of publishing, doing editorial work, but she is a NYT bestselling author!

The workshop was lovely and my nervousness was unfounded. It was freezing in the corner of the bar, to where we’d decamped. Faith ended up getting a blanket from the front desk because it was so cold. So we all sat there shivering and discussing stories, critiques, and publishing. The authors we worked with took our constructive criticism well, and I was happy to know that Faith and I had very similar ideas as to what the issue was with each story. Even those of us with lots of experience sometimes appreciate validation. It was really fun sitting around in a group and talking about the stories, answering questions, sharing experiences. I think all writers conferences should do something similar.

Saturday

Saturday brought my first class: Writing Great Action Scenes. I’ve been teaching this class for over a decade — as long as I’ve been teaching writing classes, really. I think it was the very first class I developed.

I learned how to write action well by participating in online roleplaying games for ages back in the early days of the internet. So, as part of my class, I do an exercise where people pair up and write a scene together. The trick is that when they actually have to write the scene, they don’t get to talk. They have already planned how the scene is going to go, who is playing whom, and so when they’re doing the writing, it is very much like an online roleplaying environment, in that you’re not communicating with your partner outside of the scene. You must write your character’s actions in a way that makes sense to the other person without them having to ask you to explain. The class also touches on point of view as well, since each writer only has “control” over their own character. It was a fun — and funny — class!

Saturday evening featured what was termed the “Writers’ Pub Crawl.” It wasn’t really a crawl… it was a bunch of writers in a room, with booze, talking about writing and publishing. The event was loosely led by John Hartness (Falstaff Books) and Diana Pho (Tor Books). I didn’t really learn anything I didn’t already know, but I always enjoy when writers get together (and drink!), so I ended up staying in there a lot longer than I’d planned.

And the final thing on Saturday’s schedule was the Dance Party. I wanted to mention this, because I found the dance party to epitomize how I’ve found JordanCon is a bit different than other cons. JordanCon attendees are invested in the events at the con.

For most cons I’ve been to, if there’s a dance party, people will show up, hang out for a little while, and then wander off to be social, find room parties, or maybe go to bed.

No so at JordanCon. Attendees at JordanCon are invested in the programming. It’s not a huge convention — several hundred people. Yet, the ballroom remained completely packed even up until about 1am, when I went to my room. I heard tell that partying went on through until at least 4am. That’s dedication! 🙂

Sunday

My first session on Sunday was a pitch critique. I was on a panel with three other editing/publishing pros and four or five people volunteered to have their pitches critiqued. A pitch is how you introduce your book to an agent, editor, or even a potential buyer at a sales table. It’s a challenging thing to crystallize a book down to a two-to-four-sentence pitch.

The most common mistake in this pitch critique session (and is often the most common mistake) was the authors trying to tell the entire story in those sentences. The purpose of the pitch is to get the other person interested enough to either ask to see the manuscript/buy the book or to ask questions about the book (so you can then entice them to ask to see the manuscript or buy the book). The authors took suggestions very well, which seemed common for the aspiring authors at this convention. They all took criticism like professionals.

After the pitch crit, I taught my class on the dreaded synopsis: Shrink That Story! A Guide to Synopsis Writing. Like pitches, synopses are challenging to write if you don’t approach it the right way. Whittling 300+ pages down to one or two is, again, daunting and difficult. You have to decide which subplots to include, if any, and then which characters to mention within the synopsis. My class teaches both of these things and makes synopsis writing very simple. I plan to release a short video class detailing my method sometime this year. I’ll keep everyone updated on when that happens. 🙂 I had more than one writer come to me after the class, telling me how mind-blowing my approach is. That has been a common reaction over the years.

My final event was a coffee klatch. I was paired with another author and we spent an hour around a table with a couple people, chatting about writing and our books. Since I’m an unknown author, for all intents and purposes, the four people who showed up came for the other author, Blue Cole. They were all very nice and we talked about writing in general, as well as our books and current projects. It was a relaxing way to wind down the weekend.

Dealer Room & Art Show

Just a quick note about the dealer room and art show. JordanCon combines their vendors and art show into one gigantic room, which I think is a clever way to make sure people see the art, which was phenomenal.

I found JordanCon’s vendor selection to be really diverse and there was so much stuff in there I wanted to buy, but just didn’t have the budget for. I find that most conventions’ vendor rooms are the same. Lots of comics, comic collectibles, books, some art, and that’s mostly it.

JordanCon’s was different. There were books, comics, and some collectibles, but there were a lot of artisan booths as well. One vendor creates the most beautiful resin masks (and I collect masks; I wanted them so bad!). Another vendor had leather-bound journals and notebooks.

I did end up buying one thing for my niece. One of the vendors creates these amazing dragons from modeling clay. There was one that was dark blue, wearing a fez and bow tie, and holding a timey-wimey clock. Since my niece and I have been binge-watching Doctor Who together for quite awhile (I turned her on to it), I had to buy the adorable little guy for her! I’m sure you understand. 🙂

Summary

Overall, I really enjoyed JordanCon and I plan to go again next year, if they’ll have me. One thing I regret is that I didn’t take any photos. I am horrible at remembering to do that at conventions. I don’t know why!

Anyway, if you’re local to Atlanta, or within a reasonable driving distance, and consider adding JordanCon to your convention list. It’s a reasonably sized, fun convention whose attendees are very enthusiastic about the programming. I absolutely recommend it to science fiction and fantasy fans!

What cons have you been to recently? How did you like them? Any fun ones coming up? Post below!