meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Writing Excuses

Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 10: The Dos and Don’ts of Attending Cons

Writing Excuses

Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler

Business, Careers, Fiction

4.61.4K Ratings

🗓️ 3 August 2009

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Last week we discussed what kinds of events that you, the aspiring author, should be attending. This week we cover what you should and shouldn't be doing there. And we start with some don'ts.

The word of the day? "Booth Barnacle."

If last week's 'cast was a little long-winded, this one is downright rambling, coming in at a hefty nineteen minutes and thirty-eight seconds. Oh, the anecdotes! If you thought we were name-dropping last week (Phil Foglio, Kevin J. Anderson, and Lawrence Schoen) this week we throw around names like Larry Niven, Steve Jackson, John Ringo, and Tom Doherty. We sure hope you can learn from our meandering, celebrity-brushing reminiscences.

And speaking of celebrity-brushing, brush up against us this week in Montreal at the World Science Fiction Convention! The Writing Excuses Panel is on Friday from 2:00pm to 3:30pm in P-513C, and will feature all three of your Writing Excuses hosts with as-yet-unnannounced special guests from the world of publishing, editing, and of course authoring genre fiction.

And again, on the topic of celebrity-brushing and networking in general: one piece of linkage you introverts (and you untrained extroverts) absolutely MUST have - "Networking 201: How to Work a Room," by Diana Rowland.

The long-awaited writing prompt (last week we just gave you the first half) is... a man arrives at a convention with something important in his pocket. It is an entire universe... and it has not been peace-bonded.

This week's episode of Writing Excuses is brought to you by the bad accents of Dan and Howard as they pitch Dungeon Crawlers Radio. Our Sponsors: * Check out HomeServe and use my code homeserve.com/excuses for a great deal: https://www.homeserve.com * Check out Talkiatry and use my code Talkiatry.com/WX for a great deal: https://www.talkiatry.com Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/writing-excuses2130/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This year my family will be having our 67th annual Christmas Eve dinner.

0:04.8

It's a menu passed down from my grandmother through my mom to me.

0:08.8

The entire family shows up.

0:11.8

I'm talking fourth cousins once removed and this is not an

0:15.1

exaggeration which means that during the lead up I don't have time to menu plan or

0:20.0

cook anything else. That's when I turn to prepared meals like Factor, America's

0:26.0

number one ready-to-eat meal delivery service. Factor can help you eat well for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with chef-prepared, dietition approved, ready-to-eat meals delivered straight to your door.

0:37.0

It allows me to save time and not eat garbage while tackling all my holiday to-do's.

0:42.0

So if you want to cross meal prepping... while tackling all my holiday to-do's.

0:42.6

So if you want to cross meal prepping off your list

0:45.8

this holiday season, consider factor.

0:48.4

You can skip the meal planning, grocery shopping,

0:50.9

shopping, shopping, prepping, and cleaning up, and get factors fresh never frozen meals delivered

0:55.8

to your door.

0:56.8

They're ready in just two minutes, which my dad says is the appropriate amount of time to cook

1:01.4

a meal.

1:02.4

He has no idea. The point is, all you have to do is heat and enjoy.

1:07.0

And if you're trying to squeeze writing into the holiday press, it might be useful to know that Factor isn't just for dinner.

1:15.1

Count on extra convenience any time of the day with an assortment of 55-plus add-ons to suit various

1:20.8

preferences and tastes.

1:22.8

So you can carve out some writing time in the morning by choosing quick breakfast items,

1:27.2

lunch to go, grab and go snacks, or ready to eat cold-pressed juices, shakes, and smoothies.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.