Month: June 2014

Kudos and Corrections from Susan

Kudos and Corrections from Susan

I am currently reading “Dragon Harper” and I applaud your continuing to produce more books on Pern following in your mother’s footsteps. You are doing a great job in developing new stories in line with the former novels.

However, I am appalled at the usage of the word “butt” in it. I can’t believe it got past your editor or that they let it slide. “Bottom”, “behind”, “buttock” “backside” or even “gluteus maximus” would have been the proper wording. “Butt” is uncouth and low class!


Dear Susan,

According to Dictionary.com, butt means:”the end or extremity of anything, especially the thicker, larger, or blunt end considered as a bottom, base, support, or handle, as of a log, fishing rod, or pistol.

I’m sorry that the use of the word appalls you. I never even for a moment considered that someone would find its use objectionable.  I’m afraid that you are in a minority in your view that the use of this word is offensive.

I’m glad that you otherwise enjoy what I’m doing.

Cheers,

Todd

Wyrd Con 5

Wyrd Con 5

Wyrd Con 5 was great!

The convention was small and intimate, the people were awesome.

I learned about Conducttr™ — a brilliant system for handling social media interactions (games, advertising, promotions, you name it). It got me thinking about different ways of story-telling and how it would be possible to build some truly brilliant multi-media stories/games.

I got to be a starship captain! Not only that, my XO was none other than Jim Butcher!

He played his role with a Russian accent: “Kaptyan is a nice guy but he does not know how to talk to aliens. We talk with missile and lasers, that is only way.”

We had a great time on the ERS Takshaka, part of the Starship Valkyrie universe — it was a blast!

I would gladly serve again with any and all of the people who crewed, NPC’d, and refereed the game.

As an author, it was marvelous experience to immerse oneself in the role of a starship captain (and those Star Destroyers are big!)

Starship Valkyrie also has a Facebook page. If you’re in Southern California, you might want to consider commanding your own starship for your next party!

Wyrd Con 6 will take place September 24, 2015 in Costa Mesa at the Costa Mesa Hilton. If you’re into LARP, storytelling, transmedia or simply want to be a crewmember on your very own starship, you should seriously think of going!