noncon________21 February, 2010
hey thur folks!
i just got back from an awesome weekend at noncon in frigid but beauteous poughkeepsie, ny! it was pretty sweet. unlike the last con, only about 25-30% of the population was in costumes like this. which was still kinda strange. but i had great company!
for one thing, my brother and his girlfriend becky came up from the big city fer cool peeps to help me hold down the fort. they also showed me pretty much the most insanely awesome piece of child television ever (see below). i also totally lucked out because ayse was there. as always, she was pretty much the most supportive / coolio personage for miles around.
except i also had some awesome artsy neighbors. first they had the artists way hidden away in the boonies, but eventually the moved us (splitting us up in the process). see, when i first arrived i was sitting next to mark holmes and luke mierisch (two extremely cool guys who have a studio called enigmaworks). mark is an amateur boxer / awesome artist and extremely funny and smart guy (characteristics he shares with his partner in crime luke…well, except for the boxing). luke is a self-proclaimed brush/paint/paper snob (and well-qualified to be so). i’ll try and post some of his paper and brush recommendations when i have my notebook around next time.
aaaaanyway, i was also sitting by lucy knisley (pronounced “nicely” or thereabouts) who is incredibly cool in person, so if you run into her, just try to soak it all in. she’s got it all going on ’cause she’s from chicago, published on simon & schuster / :01 first second (at only 23ish) for her awesome book french milk (about her time in paris); she also wears plaid on plaid (ya-yuh!) and attended the cartoon institute. i mean people seriously only come about 11.3% cooler than that and then they have to be wearing no pants and named natalie portman. what? oh. right. she was also there with danielle corsetto, who’s been running girls with slingshots for nigh on five-an-somethin years now! wowzers. anyways, everyone who was an artist at the con was pretty much a ton of fun and were definitely the kinda folks you’d want to knock back a few beers with on a purely ummm metaphysical level or something.
then i lucked out a couple more times. noncon had some neat guests, including ken levine, the creator of bioshock and tamora pierce (!). when i recognized her climbing the stairs to our hidden artists’ alley haunt, tamora (aka tammy) pierce actually bought a book (!!) and kindly gave me some words of wisdom which i will brokenly reproduce for the edification and benefit of others here. i paraphrase (loosely):
- “take advice and criticism with a grain of salt because you should
- go with your gut” (which is, incidentally, also good life advice)
- “base characters on real humans an allow them to depart form their real life counterparts. also, don’t tell people when you base characters on them for several reasons including (a) they character will do (shameful) things they would not, (b) the character will do things they would, in fact, do but are ashamed that they would do” (and/or (c) you may get sued for copyright or something if you base them on a character that is someone else’s intellectual property).
- “write in the way and order which comes naturally to you.
- do not read creepy stories after it gets dark.” jes sayin’.
she also gave some talks and panels along with other folks. excitements! i sold perhaps ten or so books to other folks and probably made more than i spent on gas, hotels, food, etc. good when that happens. now, the aforementioned japanese children’s show!