Spring Confabs

It's a sure sign of approaching spring when I emerge from hibernation and mingle with people in a big way. Okay, so technically spring was still a month away during ConDFW, and although it had been warm earlier that week, that weekend was rather wintery. But I tend to think of spring as more of a mindset than a specific date or weather forecast, so it still works.

They brought in some heavy hitters this year, with both David Weber (author of the Honor Harrington series) and Jim Butcher (of Dresden Files fame) as special guests. The autograph lines stretched all the way across the hotel lobby.

I sat with Jim on a panel about world building, and it's always interesting to hear from other authors how they approach the task. One perk of writing a very popular series is that fans can help you keep track of the details of your world. Jim admitted to using Wikipedia as a reference on his own work because the people who care enough about all those little details to maintain a Wiikipedia entry are the same ones who are most likely to notice if he messes up on a detail in a book. If he needs to remember some fact from a previous book, he can look it up on Wikipedia. Must be nice. For now, I suppose I'll stick with spiral notebooks full of scribbled notes about the important details of my world, along with my now- battered Manhattan bus route map with notes scrawled on it.

Also on the urban fantasy front, Rachel Caine has just launched a new series set in the world of her Weather Wardens series. UNDONE is the first book in the Outcast Season series that focuses on the life of a former Djinn. Rachel also has the popular young adult Morganville Vampires series, which is being developed for a possible television series in Great Britain.

Incidentally, if you're wondering why all the urban fantasy novels seem to have backward-facing, leather-clad women with tattoos on the covers, it's all about selling books. The publishers see that novels that look like that are popular, so they make other novels look like that. The covers convey the impression of a tough woman who can take care of herself, which is what many of the readers of this kind of book want. The authors have very little say in what goes on the covers of their books, and just because the covers look alike, it doesn't mean the books are all alike, so be sure to look beyond the covers.

Until next time ... Shanna

Shanna Swendson writes "Fairy Tales for Modern Times" and is the author of the Enchanted, Inc. series about a Texan in New York City, a magical NYC. Visit her website or blog for more information.