Trudy Myers's Blog, page 9

The Dr Who Cruise Part 6

Friday, October 27 –Mexico

The alarm got us up at6 AM. We crawled out of bed and got to the buffet for breakfast by 6:30. Aftereating, we slogged back to our cabin for bottles of water for the excursion. Weeach confessed that we were tired, and debated if we should even go on a 4-hourwalking tour of Mayan Ruins. So we went down to the ship’s conference center,where the group was meeting, to tell D we wouldn’t make it to the ruins. Thenanother elevator ride up to our cabin, where I fell into bed.

About 2 hours later, Iwoke up and climbed out of bed. Again. We had about an hour before lunch wouldbe served in the buffet, so we went to the card room, where I wrote. Hubby wasdone with his DW script and had turned it over to D on the only thumb drive hehad brought with him, so he didn’t feel he could write. He tried to playsolitaire on the laptop but got frustrated when it didn’t react as quickly ashe thought it should. He took the laptop back to our cabin and walked untillunch time.

We were joined in thebuffet by 2 other DW people, so we had conversation during lunch. Back in ourroom, we watched “Night at the Museum” (#1) to pass some time before we neededto head for the Music Hall, where Dominic would give a musical recital at 3:30.Dominic is a composer who has worked with the DW show.

We left our cabin about2:50 and went to deck 8 to stroll through Central Park, which took us right tothe Music Hall. We got there about 3 PM. The hall wasn’t open yet. We talkedwith a couple other early-birds for maybe 10 minutes, then Hubby wandered offinto Central Park. I followed him until I found a table where I could sit andcontinue writing. It wasn’t long before Hubby returned with a couple desserts,which we devoured at my little table. Then back to the Music Hall, where wecould now get in and choose our seats.

Hubby picked seatslocated in front of a small stage set to the left of the main stage. D asked usto move because the small stage was where Dominick was going to be. So we movedto seats at the bar, about 3 feet from where we had been sitting.

The music started at3:30 and continued until 4:33 or thereabouts. It was great fun, a compositionbased on DW music. After it was over, we all had to beat feet to the AquaTheater on deck 6, so the photographer could get our group photo taken. Afterthat, I stopped at the candy shop to buy some jelly beans, and then we returnedto our cabin, where I convinced Hubby to lay down for a nap.

About 7, we headed forthe social hour at the chosen bar. We traveled aft via deck 5, where we foundseveral members of the DW group waiting to get a group photo, so we joinedthem. After the photo, we went to the floating bar, which periodically risesvery slowly to deck 8. By the time we got off on 8, it was after 7:30, so Hubbyand I took an elevator back to deck 5 and joined the crowd collecting in frontof the doors for the Main Dining Room. At 7:40, those doors opened, and foronce, we were not the last ones to our table.

The Dining Room wasoffering lobster tails. I think everybody at our table ordered one. Some—likeme—also ordered a 2nd main dish. The lobster tails were served, andseveral of them were then handed off to people who had ordered one, but wanteda second. (The ship was charging for a second lobster tail, but not for othersecond main courses.) So, for 20-30 minutes, I sat with a lobster tail in frontof me as a favor for my husband. I was hungry, so I ate the carrots andbroccoli, which I wasn’t sure he would eat anyway. When Hubby finally finishedhis first tail, we were exchanging plates when the waiter grabbed the emptyplate and whisked it away, then brought my actual main course. It was cheesetortellini, and I enjoyed it a lot. I hope Hubby enjoyed his lobster tails aswell.

The Dr Who cruise - Part 5

October 26, Thursday –Roatan

We got up at 7 with noshore excursion to do. Hubby did have a 9 AM appointment with 2 other fanwriters to collaborate on a short story. The DW guests would do a table readingof the freshly written stories on the last evening of the cruise. Since he hadthat appointment, he opted to go to the buffet for breakfast. I wanted to go tothe Main Dining Room. I like the Main Dining Room for breakfast and lunchbecause it’s less noisy, less confusing and less hurried than the buffet.

After breakfast, I wentto the card room to do some writing. This would give the steward a chance toclean our cabin.

We had appointments atthe spa for a couples massage. We arrived almost ½ hour early and had paperworkto fill out. For some reason, when it was time for our massages, they decidedit was too soon after his stent was put, and they could not do a massage onhim. Who knew one would effect the other? So I was the only one to get amassage after all. I knew I’d been dealing with a lot of stress, but she wasreally working my muscles hard! Afterwards, she told me my leg muscles were ashard as a wall. A few hours later, I realized my calves were sore, and my upperback/lower neck felt bruised. (Hubby confirmed that I was bruised there.)

Hubby came back aftermy massage, and the two of us went to the buffet for lunch. Then we went backto our cabin to write, but Hubby seemed restless and kept going off to walkabout. One time when he came back, he brought the 2 women from Australia who werethe rest of his writing team. He had made a change to their script and wantedto get their opinions on it.

The two ladies hadfound themselves with nothing to do for the afternoon. D had told them to justtake a taxi to the dolphin experience, and everybody would meet there. Theywent to the taxi stand, but couldn’t get a good deal, so they just came backaboard. We had a nice chat, they approved the change to the script, and thenthey gave him their email addresses so he could send them a copy of the scriptonce he got home.

About 7, Hubby told meto go down to the Schooner Bar and he’d catch up with me. I said I would firstgo to the pizza place to fill my tumbler with pop so I’d have something todrink at the bar, and he said okay. With such a large group, we very nearlytook up all the seats at the bar, so I sat down with the first batch of DWpeople I saw, thinking I would see Hub when he arrived. A short time later, Timcame by and told me Hubby was farther into the bar, holding a chair for me. SoI went to join him, but if he was ‘following’ me, how did he get ahead of me?Why didn’t he call to me when he saw me come in? Is it any wonder we lose eachother?

We went to dinner, andthe guest at our table tonight was a companion of the Troughton DW way back inthe late 60s. Unexpectedly, another table complained that there were too manypeople at their table, and not everyone could sit down. So D went over to seewhat was going on, and even though he had already been at our table once, Rosscame over to join our table. Double fun! And there was no soup drama tonight,although the servers did break out into a dance. And those diners who were soinclined joined in.

Others at our tablewere going mini-golfing after dinner, while others were going bar hopping. Butour group shore excursion the next day started at 7:30 AM, so we went to ourcabin and to bed.

The Dr Who Cruise Part 4

Oct 25, Wednesday, -Cozumel, Mexico

We got up at 7 and hadbreakfast in the buffet. We had a shore excursion to learn about Mexico’s Dayof the Dead. We needed to be on the shore by 8:45 at Station 4. Just before weleft the ship, Hubby realized that he had left the camera in the cabin and ranback to get it. Sensory overload hit me as I reached the end of the dock andtried to find the sign for Station 4. I finally found it, hiding behind Station5, which was hiding behind Station 6. Oberto was our guide, and he hadpaperwork for me to fill out. I found a table and chairs in the shade andstarted filling out the paperwork. Hubby showed up, so I started filling outthe paperwork for him, and showed him where to sign in.

At 9AM, Oberto gatheredus all together and walked us out of the crowded business section to a placewhere buses and taxis were waiting. He divided us into 4 different groups andput each group into a taxi van. The taxis drove us to Playa Mia, about 10 minutesfrom the terminal.

At Playa Mia, there wasa tour put together by a cacao company, and that was what we were there for. Wewalked along a wandering path through a small patch of jungle. Along the way,we were shown a ‘typical Mayan hut’ and given a tiny tostada with a daub offilling as our first taste test. We were shown examples of the various spiceplants they add to their cocoa drink and given a small wooden spoon with somecacao candy on it for our 2nd taste test.

 

After that, we climbedto the 2nd floor of the cacao shop and were given a few minutes todecorate an altar for the Day of the Dead. Then we got to cross a bridge to the2nd story of the next building. They handed out small wooden skullfaces that we could color using sharpies. And when we finished that, they hadmore things to taste; enchiladas, toquitos, a deep purple water made by boilinga certain type of flower, regular water, and some Mayan cocoa. The food wasokay, and I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about spicy cocoa made with water and notmilk, but I tried it, and it was good.

We were given 20minutes to shop in the various stores, and there were several in the area.Hubby went down the street far enough to find 2 swimming pools and the shoreline.Then we were put back in taxis and sent back to the terminal

Sensory overload againas we made our way through the first building and its myriad shops. When wecame out into the sunlight, I asked Hubby where he wanted to go, and he said‘to the ship’. I said, “Come on, it’s this way,” and he said, “Go ahead, I’llcatch up.” I thought he wanted to find a bathroom, so I walked forward about ashort block, and then waited for him to ‘catch up.’ I must have waited at leasthalf an hour before I decided he was a grown man and the location of the shipwas obvious, so I made my way to the dock and walked most of the way to theship, then paused to sit on a bench and rest for a moment. And that’s where hefound me. He was angry that I’d ‘gotten lost’ when he had OBVIOUSLY told me togo ‘back to the ship’. Not the way I remembered it at all.

Having found eachother, we went to our cabin for our special tumblers, and then went to thebuffet to hydrate and eat some lunch. That’s where we found A, another DWcruiser, so we sat and talked for a while.

Afterwards, we went toour cabin and worked on our stories for the afternoon. I laid down for an hournap, and Hubby got up and went walk-about a couple times. He’s not one to staysitting for long periods at a time. I also took a quick shower to wash away thesweat from our shore excursion, but by the time the ship pulled anchor and leftCozumel, I was deep into my writing.

When I decided to go tothe group’s social hour, the boat was rocking. I felt like I had lost my sealegs. This was a bit alarming because I ‘lose my balance’ entirely too often,even on dry land. But I got to the Schooner Bar safely and found a seat on thefringe of our big group.

Before long, it wastime to go to dinner. We had 2 go down 1 deck, and the elevators were mobbed,so we walked down the stairs, some of us gripping the banister as if our livesdepended on it. When we got to our table, we found that Tim and George were the‘monster’ guests for our table tonight. Tim is very outgoing and lots of fun.George has worked with Tim on lots of DW episodes, but this was his first timeon the DW cruise. He seemed to be warming up to the group’s off-beatcamaraderie.

We did have a touch ofdrama during our meal. Apparently, a server somehow dropped a bowl of soup.Some of the soup bounced as high as the ceiling, other splatters landed on 3 ofthe diners at our table. Hubby had a couple drops land on him. The lady next tohim went through two cloth napkins wiping off splatters that hit her. Tim gotso much soup on his shirt that he went back to his cabin to get a fresh shirt.Many jokes were made about the incident.

Several members of thetable decided to go do the onboard zipline. I don’t know if they got theirnighttime zipping done; the ship may have been swaying too much for thatactivity to be available. If not, they were looking forward to barhopping afterthat, so I’m sure they had lots of fun. Hubby and I didn’t have a beveragepackage that included alcohol, so we went back to our cabin to write, but thatdidn’t last long before we started yawning and decided to go to bed.

The Dr Who Cruise Part 3

Tuesday, Oct 24 – a Dayat Sea

This was a day at sea, andwe were supposed to sleep in, because all the breakfast venues opened an hourlater than usual. We got up at 7 and went to the Main Dining Room forbreakfast, only to find they weren’t open yet. So we grabbed an elevator to the15th deck, where the buffet was open.

Half an hour later, weheaded back to our cabin, and at 9:30, Hubby headed for the conference centerfor a 10 AM meeting with his writing team.

About an hour later, Iwent down to see how they were doing. D, the organizer of the cruise, was thereand was listing the days and times that he had activities planned. Lo andbehold, some of the actors who usually get cast as monsters in DW were giving apresentation at 4 PM THAT DAY on their work, complete with photos, videos andprops. I made sure of the presentation time when the meeting broke up, and thenHubby and I went to the card room (there was no library aboard the Wonder) todo some writing.

Around noon we went tothe Main Dining Room for lunch, then back to our cabin to relax. We consideredgoing to the hot tub, but opted to stay in our room and write.

At 3:30, we started forthe conference center, which should have been an elevator ride straight down 7decks, but we decided to walk to the aft (back) of the ship to check out avenue on deck 12 we hadn’t seen yet. It turned out to be an expensiverestaurant with ‘imaginative cuisine’. So now we knew.

While we were waitingfor an elevator, we met up with D (our cruise organizer), who started tellingus about some of the hassles of having such a large group. Then we realized wewere aft, and the conference center was forward, so we had to beat feet to getthere.

The ‘monster review’was 2 hours long and great fun. Ross, Tim and Jon had photos and videos ofvarious roles they had played, and not only in Dr Who. The photos included themin the make-up chair, usually getting lots of prosthetics put on. The videosincluded such things as a group of monster actors practicing walking in unison,in whatever strange style had been worked out for them. Tim even brought a maskthat fit over his head, and the hands that went with it for one of his monsters.

Before we knew it, itwas 6 PM, and since this was a formal night for dining, we needed to return toour cabins and change. I had brought a dress to wear for formal nights, and apair of heels, two things I hardly ever wear. Halfway to the aft of the ship, Iremembered why I hardly ever wear heels; my knees were complaining, my hipsweren’t happy, my ankles felt weak and uncertain, and my feet were screaming inpain. I decided right then that on the walk back to our cabin, I would take offthe heels and walk in my stocking feet. Unfortunately, when we headed back toour room, we walked through the Promenade deck, which was very crowded. I didn’tdare take off my shoes until we reached deck 10 and the relative emptiness ofcabin area hallways.

The Dr Who Cruise Part 2

Monday, Oct 23 – A Dayat Cocoa Key.

 

We got up at 7 and wentto the buffet for breakfast. The ship had docked at Cocoa Key, but hadn’t givenout any newsletters to tell us what to expect. We didn’t know when we could goashore, or even what deck we needed to go to in order to do that.

Sunday, I had walked12,250 steps, far more than the 2K I sometimes manage at home. My legs hadached all night and were still ackey, so I took a pain pill. But my legs stillbothered me at 10:40 when we left the ship to look around the island. It wasn’tlong before I admitted I needed to sit for a while. I found a lounge chair andsat down in the shade. Hubby went off to look around.

 

About 1 ½ hours later,when he came back, my legs felt much better, and I was more alert. He was tiredfrom walking almost 10K steps already, so he sat down to rest. I checked mysteps, and I had already walked 7K steps. Hubby rested for about 15 minutes,then we walked back to the ship.

We went to GuestServices to ask about internet service. We had brought a laptop for Hubby towork on, but we couldn’t get Word to work because it ‘couldn’t confirm we hadan account with Microsoft, so please connect to the internet.’ What a bummer.We don’t usually buy an internet package on a cruise ship because the serviceis so lousy. But he couldn’t work without Word, so we bought internet servicefor 1 day to see if that would solve the problem. After all, I had used thelaptop for a couple of weeks when my desktop died, and it had worked fine, butit was always connected to the internet during that time.

 

We took to our cabin theinstructions for signing in, and I sat down to work with the laptop, getting itonto the internet. Hubby laid down on the bed and fell asleep. He almost nevertakes a daytime nap. He woke up about an hour later and asked how I was doing.I was done, and Word was working perfectly. He rolled over and went back tosleep for another hour. So I changed some color settings to see if he could seethe cursor any easier. He had complained how hard it was to see a white cursoron a white background. I played some games, but the color was odd; red cardswere black, and black cards were blue.

Hubby awoke about 3,and we went to the pizza place for a bite to eat. After returning to our cabin,he worked on his stories, and I worked on my blog.

About 6 o’clock, weleft to explore a section of the ship we hadn’t been to yet, the Boardwalk. Ithad a carousel, a candy shop, a hot dog stand, a hamburger joint, a sports baror two and a rock-climbing wall, so it didn’t take us long to explore it.

We still had a ½ hourbefore meeting the others for social hour. We thought about going to thefloating bar and riding it from the 5th deck to the 8thdeck, but it had already left deck 5 and hadn’t yet reached deck 8. So wereturned to our cabin and got the special tumblers that proved we had abeverage package, and then came back for social hour. With a group as large asours, it’s hard to find enough chairs in any 1 bar, but we did the best wecould.

We had a nice dinnerwith 2 actors who played various monsters on Dr Who. Hubby did his interpretationof a social butterfly, flitting from table to table to talk to members of thetalent and some fan writers about some ideas he had for a story. After dinner,we returned to our cabin, worked for about an hour, and then turned in.

The Dr Who Cruise Part 1

About every15 or 16 months, a friend of ours organizes a Dr Who Cruise. It generally isfairly small, maybe 40 people. This year’s was the largest so far, with 72guests signing up for it, including about a dozen ‘talents’ and 26 members ofone family! The next few blogs will follow Hubby and me as we enjoyed thecruise.

 

Sunday, Oct22 – We’d been looking forward to this cruise, and now it wastime to get to it. First, I got out of bed at 5:20 AM to load the dishwasher,because who wants to come home to a sink full of dirty dishes? Then I cleanedout 3 email boxes and packed my cpap for the trip. About 9:30, we tossed thesuitcases into the Toyota, put my car in the garage, and we were off.

 

Getting tothe parking lot at Port Canaveral was mostly uneventful, although there hadbeen some confusion when I wanted to mapquest the directions to get there.Turns out there are 2 lots with very similar names, and I had made areservation at Lot B when I thought I was making a reservation at Lot A. Butthat got straightened out before we left home, and the directions to get therewere simple. However, we didn’t see the sign for the parking lot until we weredriving past it, so we made a couple u-turns to get back to it. We arrivedabout 2 minutes late for our reservation, but we were the first ones on the11:15 shuttle to the ship. By 11:25. The shuttle was full to the gills and tookoff.

 

This was aWestern Caribbean cruise on the Wonder of the Seas, Royal Caribbean’s largestship. We’d been to the Caribbean several times but traveling with our DWfriends was always fun.

 

Once we gotto the terminal, it was practically a walk-through to get to the ship. Ofcourse, my artificial knees set off the security alarm, so that slowed us downa bit, but not for long.

 

The firstthing to do is to go to our muster station, so we know what to do ‘in case ofan emergency’, so we asked how to get there. Our muster station was through thespa area and deep in the fitness area, which seemed a strange place to put it,but we didn’t ask questions. Perhaps there was a nearby exit to the outsidedeck that I didn’t notice.

 

The buffet isalways a madhouse on debarkation day, so we thought we’d try the main diningroom, but that had a private event for those passengers who had bought the ‘key’package, and we hadn’t, so we ended up in the buffet anyway. At least we got toclaim our soft-drink package and didn’t have to rely on the buffet’s watered-downjuices.

 

By the timewe finished lunch, our cabin was ready for us. But we had packed everything inthe suitcases except our travel documents and whatever I could stuff in myfanny pack, so there was little we could do there until our suitcases showedup. In the meantime, we explored various decks, looking for ‘quiet spots’ wherewe’d be able to work. John had brought some short stories to on and edit on thelaptop, and I would be writing on my blog and current WiP using pen and paper.

 

We went tothe fitness center about 4:30 to see if they drew our names for a spa raffle.We didn’t win anything in the raffle, but we decided to sign up for theManagers Special, which was a 75 minute massage. We made our appointments forThursday at noon, without knowing what our DW schedule for that day might looklike.

 

Our cabin wasa surprise. It was pretty much a normal cabin, except it had an extra 7 or 8feet to it. The ceiling sloped down in that area, and in the middle of the slopewas a big picture window looking out over the bow of the ship. Next to thewindow was a button and a sign asking that we close the curtain in the eveningsso as not to disturb those working on the bridge. It took us a minute to figureout that button, which was 3 buttons in one, but we did understood it beforenight fell.

 

Our group’sdining time was 7:45PM, and those who wanted to could meet at the Schooner Barat 7:00 for a social hour. At about 7:45, we would all go down to the MainDining Room and find the table we were assigned to. On the first day, I didn’trealize the Main Dining Room was located on 3 decks, so I went down to deck 4,because that was where I remembered seeing the sign for it. There was a longline to get in, but it moved pretty quickly. When I got to the maître d’ andgave my cabin number, he informed me I was on the wrong floor and sent me up todeck 5. When I got to the deck 5 maitre d’, he started to show me to my table,got distracted by his radio, and told me to ‘look around, your party is aroundhere somewhere.’ I knew a moment of sensory overload; there was a sea of facesaround me, and I couldn’t pick out 1 that looked familiar. Then I heard Hubbycalling my name, and I was united with the friends who were sharing a tablewith us.

 

After dinner,those fans who were interested went to the conference center to discuss ‘creativeendeavors’ for the cruise. Sometimes the fans write a short DW episode and filmit during the cruise, but with only 7 days, that didn’t seem feasible. So itwas decided to split the creative fans into groups and let them write stories5-7 pages long. On the last night of the cruise, the professional talent wouldread the stories out loud to the group.

 

The gatheringwas turned over to the creative fans. I couldn’t participate this time becauseI had deadlines to meet. Hubby was placed in charge of one writing group, and hespent some time talking to the other members about story ideas. Eventually, we crawledoff to our cabin and went to bed.

Report on Bartow Con

I knew Bartow Con was cominglong before it got here. But for a long time, I didn’t think I would be goingto it. They had no more vendor’s tables, and the word was that the Klingontable would be outside. I burn at the drop of a sunbeam and don’t handle heatwell, so I saw no reason for me to go.

 

But then I was remindedthat I was navigator for my husband’s shuttle. I couldn’t get my own costumedone in time, so I borrowed a TOS (the original series) costume and got myselfready to navigate. By then, thank goodness, the ‘club’ tables had been moved toa room inside the building. So we loaded up the shuttle with cargo and apassenger and headed out.

 

The event was held onSaturday, Oct 14, at the Bartow Civic Center in Bartow FL. We had to have ourarea set up and ready by 9:30 AM on the 14th, or we could arriveFriday afternoon and set it up. We opted to set up on Friday, so we left ourhome about noon, picked up our passenger about 1, and headed for Bartow usinghighways and some local roads. We thought about using I4 to get us abouthalfway there, but it was several miles north of our position, and would havetaken us longer.

 

The trip was uneventfulexcept we accidentally turned a little early before we actually reached BartowCity Limits. Luckily, that road dumped us onto Old Bartow Road, which wefollowed south and came right to the hotel we had booked. So we checked in, unloadedthings not needed at our table, and had a very late lunch before we went to theCivic Center.

 

It took us maybe anhour to unload our shuttle and set up our area. Other Klingons were alreadythere, helping the Federation set up their area, but they were mostly done withthat and were very helpful in getting us set up. Having accomplished that, wewent back to the hotel, had supper and settled in for the night.

 

In the morning onSaturday, hubby was a bit under the weather, so I drove our passenger to theCivic Center and dropped him off. On the way back, I stopped and got some basicmeds to treat my hubby. He was mostly garbed when I got to the hotel room, so Ihelped him finish up, and we were off, arriving at the Civic Center a fewminutes before 10, which was when the even began. I dropped Hubby off at thedoor, then parked the shuttle in the grass with the other shuttles.

 

Our space was in a roomwith 4 ‘clubs’ having space, and half the room was set up as a panel room. Ittook some time for people to find this room, but by the time the first panel tookplace about noon, visitors were pretty common. Two more Klingons showed upabout 10:30, meaning we had 8 Klingons in uniform for this event.

 

I spent most of the dayat the table space, handing out brochures, business cards and keychains. That allowedthe others to wander about the con, seeing what was where and who was there.About 4 times, hubby came back with a cup of flavored shaved ice, which weshared between us. One time, he sent me to get a shaved ice, so I could getwhatever flavor I wanted. On my way, I picked up a bag of popcorn, which turnedout to be very salty. And another time, one of the Klingons was enjoying someBirthday Cake-flavored cotton candy. I had never heard of that flavor, so sheoffered me a taste. I pulled off a tiny fluff, and it very definitely tastedlike birthday cake!

 

Three times, wegathered all the Klingons together to get some group photos taken at variousphoto opportunities. The photos were fun, but the process of getting everybodygathered together in one place was like herding cats!

 

Let me describe thevenue. The civic center has 2 ‘main entrances’, both of which open into a largeroom with a stage. This room was filled with vendors selling books, patches,uniforms, foodstuffs, craft items, retro toys… Lots of stuff! There was asmaller room to the south of the west entrance, and this seemed to be full ofartists selling their wares. If you turn north before you come in the westentrance, there is another room with more vendors and a guy with 4 or 5backdrops for photo ops. Now, back through the main room. On the north side ofthe stage, there was a short hallway that led to the VIP room, where the mediaguests were selling photos and autographs. There were also other VIPs, such asbest-selling authors and the like. If you go through this room and out theother side, you come to an open-air hallway and you find the room where we werelocated.

Several food truckswere in the parking lot outside the west entrance. If it sounds confusing, it was;there was at least one room I wasn’t aware of before we went to it to havephotos taken.

I think we were allagreed that Bartow Con 2023 was not a bad effort for a first con. I don’t knowwhat kind of meeting rooms the local hotels might offer, but they might deservea look. If the committee finds the Civic Center is their only choice, theymight make maps of the facility available, either on the wall near doorways orin a brochure that also lists the panels and where they are located. And ifthey can find another room, they might consider offering gaming, which isgenerally pretty popular at these types of gatherings. I wasn’t able to watchit, but I understand their costume call was popular, and in front of the stagewas crowded as people waited to hear who won what prize in which category.

 

After the last panel inour room ended about 5:30, 5 or 6 of us started tearing down our display. Iwalked to the shuttle and brought it around to the closest entrance so we couldload up.

 

Five of us were stayingat the same hotel, so we all went to supper together and enjoyed ourselvesbefore returning to our rooms for the night.

 

In the morning, wepiled our suitcases in the shuttle and headed out a little after 9. I was alittle foggy-headed this morning and found myself confused about what directionwe would turn as we tried to follow the instructions backwards. Once Iconfessed that, our passenger got out his Google Maps and took over navigating,sending us cross country on county roads and local streets until we finally gotto his house. We helped him unload his stuff, and then headed home, arrivingabout 11:30.

 

We feel the journey wasa success.

Writing Is Like Sewing

I’ve been spending sometime these last few days sewing on a new costume for myself. At first, Ithought I had a deadline that it had to be wearable by Saturday, Oct 14. Duringthe 2nd day of working on it, my husband pointed out I didn’t needit until the middle of February. Whew! That was a big relief. Because, based onhow much I was getting done each day, it was NOT going to be done by Oct 14.Not unless I started working on it every waking hour, and even then it would beiffy. Besides, concentrating on that and doing nothing else would lead tomassive fatigue, lots of mistakes and TONS of frustration.

Today, I set theproject away and worked on my husband’s costume, which needed some repairs.That he wants done by Oct 14, and I think I can get it done. If I don’tsuper-glue my fingers to it.

But I got to thinkingabout how much sewing is kind of like writing. Or vice versa.

The typical person whowants to sew a dress, for instance, starts with a pattern, a plan. Much like aperson who puts together an outline to help them get from concept to a roughdraft.

But I’m starting fromscratch without a pattern. I know what I want it to look like, but I’m workingon it much like I work on a story; by trying to figure out how the pieces gotogether as I go along. I don’t often sew by the seat of my pants, but Idefinitely write that way.

The first part of mystory, er, costume, is to take strips of different materials and sew themtogether to make a striped body. Kind of like pulling together sentences andparagraphs to make a scene.

Once, I wasn’t payingmuch attention, and I sewed the seam on the wrong side. So I had to take timeto rip that seam out and do it correctly. Rather as if I had written a scenethat didn’t take the story where I wanted it to go, so I had to try again.

Later, I will have todecide where the neck and sleeves go and cut the striped material accordingly.Consider that the first couple passes of editing or re-writing: Cutting outwords, paragraphs, even entire chapters that aren’t needed for the finalproduct.

And finally, there’sall the hemming and doing the finishing touches of the costume. That, I figure,is like a final polish to a story.

Hey, don’t blame me ifyou think my muse has got a screw loose, comparing sewing and writing. Possiblyshe does (have a loose screw) but sewing and writing have both been on my mindthis past week.

Lost Continent

We’ve all heard ofAtlantis, which was a ‘continent’ or at least a city that reportedly sank intothe ocean due to some natural disaster. Every few years, there is some reportin the news of the latest theory about where that continent or city waslocated.

When I was considerablyyounger, I read at least one book about the lost continent of Lemuria. I keepwanting to say the book I read was written by Lin Carter, who did write aboutLemuria (before it sank into oblivion), but it was so long ago that the name ofthe continent is all I remember. Nowadays, Wikipedia says that a lost continentcalled Lemuria was proposed in 1864 by zoologist Philip Sclater, who theorizedit was located in the Indian Ocean. The idea was debunked in the 20thcentury once scientists understood plate tectonics and continental drift.

But a team ofscientists really have discovered a lost continent now, which they are callingZealandia. Most of it is underwater, but New Zealand and some other islandsstand up far enough to be above the ocean. Zealandia is more than half the sizeof Australia, and it extends northwest and southeast of the New Zealandislands.

It was a part ofGondwana when that supercontinent existed, but when it started to break apart,Zealandia was one of the parts, breaking away around 81 million years ago. Then95% of that part, Zealandia, sank beneath the waves.

The scientists havefinished mapping Zealandia recently after 20 years of work, and they state thatit contains a vast array of diverse rocks that proves it is made of continentalcrust, so it is not just a section of seafloor.

Zealandia is sometimesreferred to as Earth’s 8th continent.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zealandia

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/techno...

Report on Necronomicon 2023

We got home from Necronomicon about 7 PM on Sunday. We lefteverything in the car to be unloaded in the morning, because we were tired. (Wearen’t spring chickens any more!) But I’m counting the convention a success!

We left about 8:15 AM on Friday to pick up Mark, who wasgoing with us. His house is about an hour from our home, and the conventionhotel was a little more than an hour from his house. Being old and intimidatedby our smart phones, we tend to print the route we need to take by usingmapquest or google maps on our desk computers. It worked well for this tripexcept at the end, where the instructions said things like, turn right and go387 feet, make a u-turn and go 219 feet, turn right and go 121 feet. How are wesupposed to measure feet when we’re in a car? Anyway, I told my hubby to make au-turn at the first intersection, only to realize that intersection led to theparking lot of the hotel we wanted! By the time I realized that, he had madethe u-turn and was at the lights where we had originally turned right.Eventually, we turned around and got to the hotel.

It was a little after 11 AM, and my table was supposed tobe set up by noon, so we decided to get a luggage cart to take my 5 boxes ofbooks to my table. But we actually unloaded everything onto the luggage cartand I went inside to see if we could check in for our hotel room. Yes, wecould! So John and Mark took the boxes to my table, where John startedunpacking the books; Mark took the luggage to our hotel room; and I got us allregistered for the con. Then I went back to the table, handed out badges andprogram books, and finished setting up the table. Now I could settle in for therest of the day, talking to the other authors in the Author Alley and trying tobe friendly to potential customers that walked by.

John and Mark sometimes sat with me at the table, studyingthe schedule, reading the program book and talking about whatever was on theirmind. At times one or both would wander away to check out a panel or activity,the art show, the dealer’s room. I made a fast walk around the dealer’s room,but never got to the art show. I tried to talk to the other authors, but onFriday, the tables to the left of me and directly across from me were empty.And after a couple of hours, the table across from me and to the left wassuddenly empty too. There had been an author there, with his book, but now hewas gone, and nobody saw him pack up and go.

The con had an activity called ‘Cthulu Crafts’ all 3 daysof the con, which John went to see what it involved, looking for something thatKlingons might be able to use. He talked to the host and mentioned thatKlingons had an activity they did called ‘Paint and Take’. Later on Saturday,the young man in charge of scheduling stopped John in the hall and asked ifmight be interested in doing a ‘Paint and Take’ at the next con. So John andMark started talking about finding other Klingons to come with them next yearand what they might be able to do besides a Paint & Take. I wonder whatcustomers would say if I manned my table as a Klingon for a day at next year’scon.

John and I had 2 panels to do. The first was on Saturday at11:15 AM, and it was on ‘What Inspired Me to Write’. I had come up with 7questions to help keep the conversation going. With 6 panelists, we filled upthe hour and didn’t get too repetitive, so I was feeling pretty good. We alsohad an author there who was one of the con’s Guests of Honor, and he sometimesput in his 2 cents worth, which was also an ego boost for me.

Our 2nd panel was Sunday at 11 AM, and this onewas about “How I Write.” Again, 4 other authors joined us, and only 1 was arepeat from the day before. I had 9 questions to ask, and the answers werediverse, pointing out that there is no one ‘correct’ way to right, er, I meanwrite.

Two people approached me during the convention. One was aneditor who was looking for free-lance work. It is very hard to edit your ownbooks, so I may be looking her up. The other woman was a free lance graphicartist. I may soon have work for her, too.

At 8 PM on Saturday, there was a panel on self-publishingthat I wanted to go to, so John and I took down the table about 6:30 so I couldget supper, since I hadn’t gotten any lunch. The restaurant was quick atgetting our food to us, and I had some time to spare before the panel, so Iwent up to the con suite, and had some chips, a glass of cola, and some popcorn before I went to the panel.

Now, self-publishing is a big subject to cover in 1 hour.And when the hour was over, Brenda (only 1 panelist showed up) decided to takeus to Salon G, which was supposed to be empty for the next hour. But when wegot there, another group had been given the room to use, so a few of usdie-hards who wanted to know more gathered around an empty table in AuthorAlley and talked for another 1 ½ hours. By then I was the only one leftlistening. Brenda gave me her personal email address, in case I had morequestions, and promised to introduce me to Kevin on Sunday, who could give memore information on email lists.

Sure enough, as soon as I got my table set up on Sunday,Brenda was there with 2 men to talk to me; Kevin about email lists, and Robertof Westerfield Studios. So I had a talk with Kevin about email lists andbookfunnel. And then I had a nice talk with Robert about multi-media and how hecould help me get the word out about our books. He mentioned some things that Iknew existed but didn’t have a clue how to do.

And everybody told me to start getting our books made intoaudible books!

I considered it a very productive convention for me, havingmade those contacts and had those conversations.

And the cherry on top of the whole convention was that Isold 4 books! That’s the biggest sales I’ve had at any convention. My salesactually covered the cost of the table for once!

Two of the books were John’s ‘The Stone Builders’, whichyou can download for free at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/565000. Init, Humans and Wassarans have co-colonized a planet, and now they discovered itwas colonized once before by a race who built everything out of stone. But theStone Builders had abandoned their colony in a hurry. Why? And was the threatstill here?

The third book was John’s ‘The Waste Gun’, where ascientist has found a way to get rid of radioactive waste permanently. But aneco-terrorist sees it as poisoning the Earth and is determined to stop him.This one isn’t available as an e-book right now, as I flubbed up the formattingof the manuscript before I got it published as an e-book, but I’ll let you knowwhen it is published.

The final book was an anthology of short stories aboutvampires called ‘These Vampires Don’t Sparkle’. This one wasn’t published byme, but I have a story in it, on page 155. I don’t know if it was everpublished as an e-book, but the hard copy was put out 9 years ago by SkyWarrior Book Publishing. There is a 2nd volume called ‘TheseVampires Still Don’t Sparkle’. I just checked with Amazon, which said volume 1was out of print, and they only have 1 used paperback of volume 2 for sale. Somy chances of getting any more of either one of them are pretty slim.

I look forward to going back to Necronomicon in 2024.