I had a lot of fun at FanX 2018, despite standing on cement for about 10 hours each day for 3 days hawking books at Bard’s Tower. My feet, legs, and back have mostly recovered now.
What made it so fun and enjoyable was seeing a lot of people I already knew, and meeting new people I hope to see again. All kinds of local (mostly Utah, but a few from surrounding states, and even one from Canada) writers were there, as well as many local artists. I’ve been around in the convention circuit since 1990 in Utah, so many of these people I have met many times. However, in this post, I want to focus on four people I hadn’t previously met: Mercedes Lackey, Melinda Snodgrass, Jonathan Maberry, and Ron Friedman.
Mercedes Lackey is one of my favorite short story writers. Yes, I know she’s written about a bazillion novels, too, but I haven’t read any of them (yet…I picked up the five books in the Secret World Chronicles while there). I have read a lot of her short stories over the years, though, and she really knows how to tell a story. In addition to that, she took time in between talking to fans and signing books to lend an ear to my questions and provide me with a lot of really useful advice and information about writing, how to outline novels, and so on. I have met hundreds of authors over the years, and she is in the top 1% as one of the absolute nicest people I have ever met. If you ever get a chance to meet her or talk to her, do it!
Melinda Snodgrass is a book/short story writer and screenwriter. If you watched Star Trek: The Next Generation, she wrote some of the best episodes in that series. Go look her up on IMDB. I’ll wait. See? She really knows her stuff. I haven’t read any of her stories yet, but I bought a few while there and I’m looking forward to them (especially the Imperials Saga). She was also very friendly, and she gave me a lot of good writing career advice and some insight into her experience editing the Wild Cards series with George R.R. Martin. Check out her works!
Jonathan Maberry is best known for his Joe Ledger and Rot & Ruin series, as well as many different anthologies he’s edited. He offered suggestions about editing anthologies, I enjoyed our couple short chats (the FanX programming people kept him really busy this year). I’ve read some shorts in the Joe Ledger series, as well as a few stories in the V Wars series (which is being made into a TV series by Netflix, due out around March 2019, I’ve heard), and he writes very well. I’m not big into zombie stories, but I like his style.
Ron Friedman has a time travel World War II novel, Typhoon Time, that came out a few months ago from WordFire Press. I haven’t read it yet, but it sounds intriguing. This was (I believe) his first time at FanX, and he sold out of his novel at the booth. Way to go! I enjoyed talking with Ron, too. I hope he continues to attend cons where I’m also there so I can chat with him again.
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