djonn: (woods)
On the one hand, I am woefully deficient in self-promotion, for OryCon was this past weekend and here I am, home again, having not posted about it beforehand. I was on two lightly attended but lively and thoughtful panels, and saw some folks I had not seen in many, many moons (one of whom has a book coming out in March!).

On the other hand, I have been productive, for at this just-concluding OryCon I wrote a filk (start to finish in under three hours, premiered at the circle Saturday night within moments of completion).

Naturally, it then went through a couple of wording tweaks when I got back to my room and wrote out a clean copy of the lyrics, but still, I'm glad to have resumed the tradition of writing a song at-con (even as OryCon is now planning to take a year off to regroup).

And here it is!  If you have not been watching Stargirl (the CW series, not the recent feature film), you should be - this is a pitch-perfect Silver Age DC comic deftly sort-of-transposed into the 21st century, and the ensemble cast is superb. The color palette is Batman '66, the visual style is Back to the Future, and the heroes are modern teens who are (for the most part) rather less angst-ridden than their Buffyverse predecessors.

This song, however, concerns one of the thorns in Stargirl's side, played with debonair panache by Jonathan Cake ("Oh, Charles, you know I have a flair for the dramatic gesture"):

ENTER THE SHADE

words: John C. Bunnell © 2021
music: "Drunken Angel" by Michael Longcor

Oh, a gambler I, and a rogue as well, and a gentleman besides,
And I've traveled round this world and back on some most peculiar tides;
I can tell of treasures best left lost and of ill-kept bargains made,
For I live my life in the shadows:
I am he who's called the Shade.

I freely grant I am no pure saint - I'm a thief, and yes, I've killed,
But the righteous need not fear my hand, for it's not their blood I've spilled;
I thrive by night and avoid high noon, for of darkness am I made;
And my soul is that of a shadow,
For I truly am the Shade.

Now a living Shade commands the dark and the shadows heed his call,
He may shape them too, howe'er he will, to hold his foes in thrall;
Yet I tell you this and I tell you true: you should rather be afraid
Of the evil beyond the shadow
Far more deadly than the Shade.

A shadow's edge is defined by light; in the dark it disappears;
And a shadow always stands alone, sharing neither joy no tears,
For the shadow never truly dies, though the mortal friends he's made
Turn to dust in the hands of the shadow
Who is doomed to be the Shade.

Yes, a gambler I, and a rogue as well, and a gentleman unwise,
For I find I cannot flee the trap that I fear I helped devise;
So between the light and dark I stand, my decision freely made:
For I am the eternal shadow;
I shall always be - the Shade.
 


djonn: (woods)

He lives!  (This is what happens when one has two DW identities; one gets out of the habit of switching, so that most of the -- still minimal -- updating happens under the ID where one is logged in.  I will try to be better about this going forward; OTOH, do see also the dedicated Webspace over at lonepenman.net.)  At any rate:

It's time to venture once again from Darkest Suburbia to the spectacle that is OryCon.  This year's schedule has a unique wrinkle: I've been tagged as the moderator for all five of the panels I've been assigned.  I hasten to note that this is not a complaint; in all cases, I checked the "willing to moderate" box on the survey of my own volition, and I'm pleased with the range of subjects I've drawn in the scheduling lottery.  Here's where you'll find me at the front of the room:

Friday • 2:00 pm (Overton) • How to Design the Perfect Politician
John C. Bunnell | Bob Brown, Mike Shepherd Moscoe

How do you design and implement a career-development program to produce elected officials and high-level administrators who can break free of the broken adversarial paradigm and actually work together with one another to solve society's problems?

Saturday • 10:00 am (Pettygrove) • The Right Writing Advice
John C. Bunnell | Elizabeth Guizzetti, John Hedtke, Esther Jones, Kat/K.R. Richardson

Panelists discuss how to handle feedback from beta readers, writing groups, friends and strangers-- including how to know whose advice to take, and how to accept criticism gracefully!

Saturday • 11:00 am (166B) • Care & Feeding of a Successful Book Group
John C. Bunnell | Gibbitt Rhys-Jones, Theodore J. Williams

I want to talk about books year-round, not just at con. Where to look for like-minded souls, how to go about setting things up, and how to keep people interested once you've lured them in.

Saturday • 7:00 pm (166B) • Paths into Fanfiction: Challenges & Exchanges
John C. Bunnell | Elinor Gray, Kara Helgren

Whether you're a writer looking for a fresh challenge or a reader hunting for a particular kind of story, there's probably a curated fanfic exchange on the Net that can supply just what you're looking for. From Yuletide to Holmestice, from Kink Bingo to the Ficathon that Goes Into a Bar, we'll talk about how challenges and exchanges work, where to find them, and catalogue some of the more memorable works they've produced.

Sunday • 10:00 am (166B) • Holmesian Apocrypha: Women of Baker Street
John C. Bunnell | Karen L. Black, Elinor Gray, Shawna Reppert

This isn't a panel about Sherlock and his adventures – it's one about the rapidly growing number of tales featuring his sisters (Enola), multi-great granddaughters (Charlotte), rivals (Irene Adler), and other notable women in his orbit (Mary Morstan, Mrs. Hudson, Mary Russell). And then there are the universes in which the original Holmes was a woman all along.

djonn: (raven)

OryCon begins tomorrow (where did the time go?), and I have an unusually busy schedule for the weekend.  (Three panels as moderator?  What was I thinking?  What were they thinking?  Don’t answer that….)  Here’s where you’ll find me:

Friday, 4 pm • Oregon • Funny Filk
*Andrew Ross, John C. Bunnell, Cecilia Eng, John R. Gray III, Frank Hayes

Sharing the songs that tickle your funny bone.

Saturday, 11 am • Idaho • Hold Onto Your Reader
*Shawna Reppert, John C. Bunnell, Diana Francis, Frog Jones

The wrong word choices can throw your reader right out of the story. Learn how to maintain suspension of disbelief.

Saturday, 1 pm • Hamilton • Back Story: Too Much, Too Little, Just Right
*John C. Bunnell, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Matthew Hughes, G. David Nordley, Erica L. Satifka

What to use, what to lose. Writing the details without having to explain every last one.

Saturday, 4 pm • Roosevelt • Improv Writing
*John C. Bunnell, Susan R. Matthews, Todd McCaffrey

Everyone starts the first couple lines of a story and then passes the pad clockwise. We`ll continue each other`s stories for about a page and then read them out loud to each other. Not specifically for writers, any and everyone welcome.

Saturday, 5:30 pm • Grant • Reading
John C. Bunnell

Sunday, 12 noon • Madison • Synopses, Summaries, Book Descriptions and Other Horrors
*John C. Bunnell, Jason Gurley, Matthew Hughes, Bill Johnson, MeiLin Miranda

Few things exasperate writers more than condensing their masterworks into a single page synopsis–or worse, a 150 word book description!  What to include, what to exclude, and strategies to keep it fresh and reveal your voice without sounding unprofessional.

Sunday, 1 pm • Idaho • Structurally Speaking
* Dale Ivan Smith, John C. Bunnell, Matthew Hughes, Bill Johnson, Mary Rosenblum

Stories have rhythm. Is there One True Pattern, or can we mess with it? Are we really bound to the Hero’s Journey, or are there other models?

djonn: Self-portrait, May 2025 (Default)

It is, of course, the last possible moment -- but I will in fact be at OryCon this very weekend here in Portland, and my panel schedule is as follows.  (Yes, on both days I have back-to-back panels, and yes, in both cases they're scheduled in rooms at opposite ends of the hotel.  Fortunately, in both cases I am also the moderator of the first panel in the set, so I can invoke the Dark Powers Of Moderation to wrap things up in a timely fashion.  In at least one case, this may involve the use of stopwatch alarms....)


Friday, 11/8

Synopses, Summaries, Book Descriptions and Other Horrors
Madison • 3:00pm-4:00pm
Few things exasperate writers more than condensing their masterworks into a single page synopsis--or worse, a 150 word book description! What to include, what to exclude, and strategies to keep it fresh and reveal your voice without sounding unprofessional.
(*)John C. Bunnell, Mary Rosenblum/Mary Freeman, Sheila Finch, Linn Prentiss

Books to movies, to comics, to movies, to books
Hawthorne • 4:00pm-5:00pm
Modes of presentation and limitations therein.
(*)Rob Wynne, John C. Bunnell, Claude Lalumiére, Viktor Maddok

Saturday, 11/9

Fantasy and Science Fiction Literature turned into good movies
Hawthorne • 10:00am-11:00am
F/SF turned into movies.  What has worked and what should have been left on the bookshelf?  What would translate really well into a blockbuster hit and why?
(*)John C. Bunnell, Steven Hoffart, Vincent P. Vaughn, Sandra Jean King, Jean Lamb

Will Pad Devices replace Desktops and Laptops?
Alaska • 11:00am-12:00pm
Not a religious debate.
(*)Mark Niemann-Ross, Jean Lamb, John C. Bunnell, L. Pierce Ludke, Ben Yalow

djonn: (woods)
For anyone who cares to find me, my OryCon schedule for this coming weekend:

Friday • 3 pm / Morrison
Three Thumbs Up
*John C. Bunnell, Aaron Duran, Craig Laurance Gidney
A field guide to the craft of book & film reviewing -- and to navigating the jungle of review outlets available in today's print and Web worlds).

Saturday • 2 pm / Roosevelt
We Will Call This Story..."This Story"
*Todd McCaffrey, John C. Bunnell, Linn Prentis, Nisi Shawl, K. C. Ball
Can you tell a story's content from its title?  Are there good books with bad titles (and vice versa)?  And how much should marketing considerations influence a choice of titles?

Saturday • 3 pm / Lincoln
The Unique Challenges of Urban Fantasy
*John C. Bunnell, A. M. Dellamonica, Craig Laurance Gidney, Dale Ivan Smith
Whether it's wizards in Walla Walla or vampires in Vancouver, how does one effectively blend classic fantasy elements with modern settings and characters?  Alternately, what about examples of how not to mix magic with pop culture?

Sunday • 2 pm / Oregon
New Song Contest
John C. Bunnell, Bob Kanefsky
From what I'm told, we'll be judging entries as composed and submitted by interested attendees. 
djonn: Self-portrait, May 2025 (Default)

Next week is going to be insanely busy, largely -- but not entirely -- because we're only a couple of weeks away from the release of my first ebook, "Charmed, I'm Sure", by Uncial Press, and it's time to get my act together and promote the story.  Herewith where you'll be able to find me:

Tuesday evening, Nov. 13 (7:00 pm) is the monthly Science Fiction Book Group at Powell's Books @ Cedar Hills Crossing (read "Beaverton"), which I co-moderate with [livejournal.com profile] martianmooncrab; our book for the month is Young Miles by Lois McMaster Bujold.  Discussions are informal, newcomers are always welcome, there are generally cookies of some sort, and Peter-in-charge-of-the-SF-section often has surplus advance proofs available for interested participants.

On Wednesday, Nov. 14 at 7 pm, I'll be part of a fourteen-author signing event, also at Powell's Books @ Cedar Hills Crossing.  In addition to talking up the upcoming ebook release, I'm told that there should be copies of Fantastic Companions and Swashbuckling Editor Stories on hand, and I understand that there may be a drawing or two during the evening.  Among those slated to appear are [livejournal.com profile] davidlevine, [livejournal.com profile] lilithsaintcrow, [livejournal.com profile] ramblin_phyl, and [livejournal.com profile] jaylake [business travel again, darnit!], as well as a number of non-LJ-enabled folk.

I will also be at OryCon on Nov. 16-18, participating in panels and generally hanging out.  My schedule so far looks like this:

Friday - 1:00 pm (Eugene): With Harry Potter done, how do we keep the kids reading?
Friday - 2:30 pm (Salem): Reading: "Charmed, I'm Sure"

Saturday - 1:00 pm (Portland): The Romance of Piracy: how did they transmute ruthless murderers into Johnny Depp?
Saturday - 3:00 pm (Salon A): Life After Harry Potter

Sunday - 12:00 noon (Portland): Writing for Young Adults and Bringing In The New

If you see me, remind me to breathe....

djonn: (butterfly)

Next week is going to be insanely busy, largely -- but not entirely -- because we're only a couple of weeks away from the release of my first ebook, "Charmed, I'm Sure", by Uncial Press, and it's time to get my act together and promote the story.  Herewith where you'll be able to find me:

Tuesday evening, Nov. 13 (7:00 pm) is the monthly Science Fiction Book Group at Powell's Books @ Cedar Hills Crossing (read "Beaverton"), which I co-moderate with [livejournal.com profile] martianmooncrab; our book for the month is Young Miles by Lois McMaster Bujold.  Discussions are informal, newcomers are always welcome, there are generally cookies of some sort, and Peter-in-charge-of-the-SF-section often has surplus advance proofs available for interested participants.

On Wednesday, Nov. 14 at 7 pm, I'll be part of a fourteen-author signing event, also at Powell's Books @ Cedar Hills Crossing.  In addition to talking up the upcoming ebook release, I'm told that there should be copies of Fantastic Companions and Swashbuckling Editor Stories on hand, and I understand that there may be a drawing or two during the evening.  Among those slated to appear are [livejournal.com profile] davidlevine, [livejournal.com profile] lilithsaintcrow, [livejournal.com profile] ramblin_phyl, and [livejournal.com profile] jaylake [business travel again, darnit!], as well as a number of non-LJ-enabled folk.

I will also be at OryCon on Nov. 16-18, participating in panels and generally hanging out.  My schedule so far looks like this:

Friday - 1:00 pm (Eugene): With Harry Potter done, how do we keep the kids reading?
Friday - 2:30 pm (Salem): Reading: "Charmed, I'm Sure"

Saturday - 1:00 pm (Portland): The Romance of Piracy: how did they transmute ruthless murderers into Johnny Depp?
Saturday - 3:00 pm (Salon A): Life After Harry Potter

Sunday - 12:00 noon (Portland): Writing for Young Adults and Bringing In The New

If you see me, remind me to breathe....

djonn: Self-portrait, May 2025 (Default)
And so another OryCon passes into legend.

From my perspective, things went very well indeed. Got to read a chunk of "Dances With Coyotes". which appeared to have moved several copies of Fantastic Companions (thank you, Lady Jayne!). Did a number of other panels -- more than usual, thanks to all the writers off at WFC; two that went particularly well, I thought, were a small group session on flash fiction (in cooperation with the perennially erudite [livejournal.com profile] snarke) and a panel on the hows and whys of critiquing.

The souvenir book and pocket program, both DTPed by yours truly, seemed to be well-received; there were a couple of scattered reports of pocket programs with duplicated signatures, but I never actually saw one, and so the glitch seems to have been isolated.

Then there was filk programming; I suspect I'm going to miss some credits here -- I think there are more Oryfilkers on LJ than I'm immediately aware of -- so bear with me. As music GoH, [livejournal.com profile] filkertom was a showstopper (well, actually, a showstarter, but you know what I mean) and in any case a great hit -- if I hadn't already been convinced I'm going to need to acquire the second "24-Hour Project" album, the couple of numbers from it at the Smith-concert convinced me all over again. Also particularly memorable were [livejournal.com profile] cflute (correctly observing that it takes four or five people to even attempt to replace a Cat [aka [livejournal.com profile] catsittingstill), [livejournal.com profile] vixyish (darnit, I still say Mal's Song should have won its category, especially now that I've actually heard it live -- and yes, I'll send along the Peabody filks), and [livejournal.com profile] tfabris, who had somehow previously sneaked in under my radar but is clearly too talented not to lure back. I did, in fact, write a minor filk during the Friday night circle, and -- with due blame credit to [livejournal.com profile] cadhla for the inspiration -- debuted a lyric recently insta-ed in her LJ in one of the circles.

Then, after all was over, I came home and slept a lot....
djonn: Self-portrait, May 2025 (Wabbit)
And so another OryCon passes into legend.

From my perspective, things went very well indeed. Got to read a chunk of "Dances With Coyotes". which appeared to have moved several copies of Fantastic Companions (thank you, Lady Jayne!). Did a number of other panels -- more than usual, thanks to all the writers off at WFC; two that went particularly well, I thought, were a small group session on flash fiction (in cooperation with the perennially erudite [livejournal.com profile] snarke) and a panel on the hows and whys of critiquing.

The souvenir book and pocket program, both DTPed by yours truly, seemed to be well-received; there were a couple of scattered reports of pocket programs with duplicated signatures, but I never actually saw one, and so the glitch seems to have been isolated.

Then there was filk programming; I suspect I'm going to miss some credits here -- I think there are more Oryfilkers on LJ than I'm immediately aware of -- so bear with me. As music GoH, [livejournal.com profile] filkertom was a showstopper (well, actually, a showstarter, but you know what I mean) and in any case a great hit -- if I hadn't already been convinced I'm going to need to acquire the second "24-Hour Project" album, the couple of numbers from it at the Smith-concert convinced me all over again. Also particularly memorable were [livejournal.com profile] cflute (correctly observing that it takes four or five people to even attempt to replace a Cat [aka [livejournal.com profile] catsittingstill), [livejournal.com profile] vixyish (darnit, I still say Mal's Song should have won its category, especially now that I've actually heard it live -- and yes, I'll send along the Peabody filks), and [livejournal.com profile] tfabris, who had somehow previously sneaked in under my radar but is clearly too talented not to lure back. I did, in fact, write a minor filk during the Friday night circle, and -- with due blame credit to [livejournal.com profile] cadhla for the inspiration -- debuted a lyric recently insta-ed in her LJ in one of the circles.

Then, after all was over, I came home and slept a lot....
djonn: Self-portrait, May 2025 (Default)
Busy busy busy....

Leaving in a few minutes for OryCon, where I am actually pretty heavily scheduled this year (no doubt due to WFC drawing off a lot of potential guests). You can find me on:

Friday 2 pm -- Introduction to Filk (Eugene)
Friday 6 pm -- Reading, "Dances With Coyotes" (Salon C)

Saturday 10 am -- Flash Fiction (Salon F/T1)
Saturday noon -- Writing for YA & Bringing in New Readers (Portland)
Saturday 1 pm -- Electronic Fanzines & Other Time Sinks (Salon F/T3)

Sunday 11 am -- Critiquing Writing: Why & How (Salon B)

And of course at open filking....

Fortunately, so far people seem pleased with the Souvenir Book and Pocket Program, my major contributions as part of the concom this year.
djonn: Self-portrait, May 2025 (Wabbit)
Busy busy busy....

Leaving in a few minutes for OryCon, where I am actually pretty heavily scheduled this year (no doubt due to WFC drawing off a lot of potential guests). You can find me on:

Friday 2 pm -- Introduction to Filk (Eugene)
Friday 6 pm -- Reading, "Dances With Coyotes" (Salon C)

Saturday 10 am -- Flash Fiction (Salon F/T1)
Saturday noon -- Writing for YA & Bringing in New Readers (Portland)
Saturday 1 pm -- Electronic Fanzines & Other Time Sinks (Salon F/T3)

Sunday 11 am -- Critiquing Writing: Why & How (Salon B)

And of course at open filking....

Fortunately, so far people seem pleased with the Souvenir Book and Pocket Program, my major contributions as part of the concom this year.
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