On Tweets and Meets

So we're back from the LDS Storymakers conference! It was an awesome experience. We got to meet a lot of people (including Ailsa from our writing group! and Aneeka, also occasionally from our writing group!) and listen to a lot of incredibly interesting lectures on writing. The entire thing took pretty much two whole days, so I will try to distill some of the best parts into a five highlight list.

1. Yes, Howard Tayler, I will work very, very hard. Enough said.

2. Sandra Tayler managed to make finances both scary enough to pay attention to and managable enough that I am not totally panicking. Not bad for someone with a Humanities major.

3. Per David Wolverton, sci fi is about a sense of wonder. I should make an extra effort at including that. Heh heh heh...

4. No matter how well your day went at a writing conference, it will always still suck to come home to water leakage and fans trying to dry out your carpet.

5. I won a door prize! It included a discount for a content edit through Eschler Editing. Now what would I use that for... :) Mwahahahaha!

So those are some of the highlights. It was a lot of fun! I will probably write more about the whole thing later. Just giving a quick update.

Speaking of quick updates, I am now on Twitter. Not sure how I like it yet, but we will see what pithy remarks I can make to win the respect and admiration of the entire world, 140 characters at a time. Shouldn't be hard, right? Muttter, mutter, mutter...

On Returning Favors

So Joe tagged me in one of these social networking things, so I suppose it would only be fair to do it as well. Here goes nothing...

1. Do you think you are hot?

Well, this went somewhere creepy fast... I'll settle for 'hot enough for your mom.' Next question.

2. What is your desktop paper?

Nothing impressive. Just a canyon view that came with the machine, actually. Though I wouldn't mind changing it. Now that you mention it, I should probably get on that...

3. When was the last time you ate chicken?

Yesterday. With your mom. Man, I'm mature.

4. What are you thinking as you're doing this?

I am wondering what I am thinking as I am doing this. It goes into one of those recursive things, and eventually either Captain Kirk or Captain Tagon have to get me out of it.

5. Do you have nicknames?

Yeah...Quite a few actually. For some reason I seem to collect them as I go, for no apparent reason. I went by the name Paul in one class during softmore year in college. It took them a while to figure out that that was nowhere near my real name. Next question!

6. Tag eight blogger friends.

Since I suck at embedding links, I will just put the names. All eight are over there on the sidebar anyways. #laziness #randomtwitterreference #didIdothatright

Gamlia's Review
One Thousand and One Parsecs
46 Dogs
Life of a Story Engineer
M.K. Hutchins
Xister's Cutting Board
Come to the Pink Side We Have Cookies!
Kyler and Jeanette

7. Who's listed as number one?

My wife's book review blog, who is much more consistent and popular than me on the interwebs. Kind of a good first choice, dontcha think?

8. Say something about number five?

Hmmm. Megan's a good writer, and I've been glad to have her join our little writing group. Just read her latest draft of Contractural Gods, and I am looking forward to seeing it published somewhere so that I can buy a finished copy. Believe me, it's ready for it.

9. How did you get to know number three?

A lack of other options, really. :) Drek (or Ben as some might call him) is an old friend from the writing meeting back in Quark. He is one of the many who patiently told me Jakeson's character sucked as I resubmitted the first five chapters over and over and over again. Between that experience and the rest, we've gotten to know each other pretty well--at least well enough for casual death threats.

10. How about number four?

Funny story, I actually met Andy while I was on a blind double date that my roommate had set up for me. Later, she showed up at the writing group in Quark, and we've been friends since then.

11. Leave a message for number six.

Pat, I still haven't forgotten the revenge I owe you for setting me up on a blind double date. You will burn for it, burn I tell you!

12. Leave a lovey-dovey message for number two.

Ummm. I probably should have remembered better which of these things went to which person. I think I will spare Joe and me the discomfort here and say he's a great guy! With stories and a novel! Up on Amazon! Go buy them. That is all.

13. Do number seven and eight have any similarities?

Hmm. Aneeka, and Kyler and Jeanette. Well, Aneeka writes a webcomic about a MMORPG where her characters earn money to live etc, and Kyler likes World of Warcraft, which Chinese prisoners work in to make a living for their guards. Then Jeanette and Kyler both live in Utah, and so does Aneeka! Oh, and Kyler is from Canada, and Aneeka is from St. George, which are both strange, foreign lands that no one wants to return to. That's all I got.

And there we go! I think I failed at it, but oh well. Such is life...

PS Lambson, I did not forget about you. You sir, are simply not updating your blog. I need to know about dinosaurs now!

On Promotion

So one of the longtime friends (or at the least, adversaries) from the writing group has started up her own webcomic. I like it, and if you haven't already seen it, go check it out. The web address is http://navcomic.com.

Her webcomic is actually only one of a few I read, though. Girl Genius, Schlock Mercenary, Goblins, Order of the Stick and quite a few others are among the ones I check regularly. Do any of you guys read comics on the web, or am I the only nerd here that does? If you do, make sure to recommend your favorites. See ya!