I'm Movin' On Up

...to a WordPress "journal" on my professional author website: curtiscchen.com/journal

I will no longer be updating this site. So long, Blogger, and thanks for all the... dish?

Please update your bookmarks! (Do people even still say that?) Or, better yet, sign up for my mailing list to get all the latest and greatest news: news.curtiscchen.com

I Have Set a Dangerous Precedent

I missed blogging last Wednesday because I was driving to a writers' retreat, but nobody complained. (Maybe you were all distracted by the awesome new Puzzled Pint blog?) I will continue to make my best effort to blog weekly, but no promises, Mister Scott.

Anyway. A lot of terrible things have been happening lately, and we (as individual people) can't really do much about most of it. The world is full of systemic ills that require long-term solutions.

I can't tell you how to fix racism or improve disaster relief. But I can tell you how to make ringtones in iTunes, because I had to do this myself recently, and it was a bit of a pain to figure out.

1. Follow these instructions to change your import settings from MP3 to AAC.
2. Follow these instructions to create ringtone files, BUT...
3. ...BEFORE step 7 above, FIRST delete the .m4a library tracks (keep files on disk), THEN import the .m4r files

That's it.

I know, it's a tiny, small, insignificant thing, but the tallest dune begins with a single grain of sand. And it doesn't help with the problems of the day per se, but I appreciate anything that makes life a little easier. Even if it's a tiny, small, insignificant thing.

Big things take a long time to build. Big changes take a lot of little actions to bring about.

Meanwhile, as Abraham Lincoln once said: "Be excellent to each other... and party on, dudes!"

I Have Been Married for Ten Years

Our wedding anniversary date is actually tomorrow, but what with leap years and Daylight Saving Time and whatnot, I figure today's close enough to call it.

This past weekend, we attended the wedding of our friends Kenna and Ryan (whom I affectionately call "K&R"--I am, as you might expect, the only one who does this). You can search for #ConkaPotts on Twitter to get some idea of how fabulous it was. Being at another early-March wedding (which also featured a unity candle, and had a tabletop-game-centric "after-party" instead of dancing) reminded me a lot of our own celebration.

It really doesn't feel like it's been a whole decade. Our lives have changed quite a bit--we're living in a different place now, working different jobs, hanging out with different friends--but the most important things haven't changed. We still enjoy each other's company, even if it's sitting on the couch while I watch Arrow and she plays games on her iPad. We always want to share our favorite things with each other. We're still very much in love.

Happy Anniversary, DeeAnn, and here's to many more.

I Can Count to Fifteen

...which is the new number of Puzzled Pint cities. Boston had to wave off on Monday, due to weather, but we also added San Francisco proper at the last minute. Here's the current roster, with our February additions noted:

1. Austin, Texas
2. Bloomington, Illinois (NEW!)
3. Boston, Massachusetts (CANCELED)
4. Brooklyn, New York (NEW!)
5. Chicago, Illinois
6. London, England
7. Montreal, Canada
8. Phoenix, Arizona
9. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
10. Portland, Oregon
11. San Francisco, CA - City (NEW!)
12. San Francisco, CA - Bay Area
13. Seattle, WA - City
14. Seattle, WA - Eastside
15. Washington, DC

And we continue to get inquiries from other places. Not all of those pan out, obviously, but it's great that so many people are interested in Running More Games. :)

At this point, the "headquarters" team in Portland—six people, four of whom are co-founders (our fifth co-founder is running Pittsburgh these days)—is doing more event management and editorial oversight than actual puzzle creation. Which, again, is great; we love seeing the creativity and diversity of other people's puzzle ideas, and we're glad we can apply our experience to help them develop and refine those ideas.

But with diversity also comes differences of opinion. Reasonable people can disagree, and sometimes both sides have reasonable arguments for wildly divergent points of view. We're dealing with some ongoing issues which I think will come down to us having to make a decision about the fundamental nature and character of PP as opposed to other puzzling events: do we always want to be beginner-friendly? is there any reason we would ever say "no" to someone who wanted to start up in a new city? how much can we modify the structure of an event before it's no longer a "Puzzled Pint?"

I don't have all the answers, but I'm glad to be working with lots of smart people who can help us figure out these things. This is how we build a community. This is how we make something that can outlive us all. You know, like Islam.

I Survived My First Surrey International Writers' Conference #SiWC14

And the proof, as usual, is on Twitter:

twitter.com/search?q=%40curtiscchen%20%23siwc14&src=typd

Highlights included: finally meeting Stephanie and David in person, after many online writing Hangouts; seeing my VPXII classmate Katrina again and getting an autographed copy of her book; learning about book publishing contracts and romance novels from literary agent Lisa; and hearing the fabulous Diana Gabaldon read three different "wedding night" scenes aloud in a room of appreciative listeners (mostly women, natch).

If I can make my schedule and budget work for 2015, I'll definitely go back. And next time I'll wear the tux on Saturday. #nocontextforyou

I Will Not Get Paid This Much for Any of My Novels

But it's nice to see that publishers still believe in science fiction.

Last month, this bit of news showed up in the Publishers Lunch daily newsletter:

Try not to think about the fact that Weir originally self-published his first novel, The Martian. Or the fact that he also got a six-figure publishing deal for that book. Or the fact that The Martian is now being made into a movie, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain, scheduled for release in November of 2015.

That way lies madness.

One of the most valuable lessons I learned at Viable Paradise (which is happening again this week, by the way) was this:

Do not compare your own writing career to any other writer's career.

Everyone finds a different path to publication. Everyone has a different story—literally. Keep writing. It'll happen. And meanwhile, make sure you're enjoying the ride, because it'd be a shame if you didn't have some fun during those years (and yes, it will take years).

In related news, huge congratulations to my fellow Pacific Northwest writer Jason Gurley, who just sold his novel Eleanor to a publisher! (Oddly enough, his book was also self-published originally, and it also went to Crown—just like The Martian. Coincidence?)

Jason and I, along with thirty other authors, will be attending Story Con this Saturday at the Fort Vancouver Community Library. If you're in the Portland, Oregon area, stop by and check out the panels, readings, and signings—I'll be moderating a panel on flash fiction which I promise will not be boring!

www.storyconvention.com

I Will Miss Being Here

It's the middle of Week Six now, the final week of Clarion West 2014, and I've turned in my final story for critique tomorrow morning. It's all downhill from here: just seven more stories to read and give feedback on, then we party and clean up the house before scattering to the winds.

I'll miss being here, but I'll also be glad to go home. I'm planning to take a week off to catch up on sleep and filmed media (the last two episodes of Orphan Black season two! Movies, including but not limited to How To Train Your Dragon 2 and Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes!) and generally recharge my brain. Then it's straight back into rewrites on the Kangaroo novel.

Because I have an agent now! Sam Morgan of JABberwocky Literary Agency is representing my novel WAYPOINT KANGAROO, and I couldn't be happier.

Without going into too much detail, Sam made me an offer on July 7th, I did my due diligence for a couple of weeks (while at Clarion LIKE A BOSS), we signed the paperwork on July 23rd, and then Sam beat me to the punch on Twitter.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Welcome to the @awfulagent team, the one and only @curtiscchen!

— Sam Morgan (@samroebuck) July 23, 2014

That's fine; I was busy writing a new, 6,000-word Jake and Andy mystery which didn't totally suck. I'll super-spam my friends and social media followers next week! STAY TUNED.

SnoutCast #199: Breakout Things

In which we recount our excellent "room escape" experience at Puzzle Break Seattle, and respond to some more listener mail.

[ Download mp3 - 28 MB ]

00:59 - "escapist"
01:20 - Team Goats Under Snout escaped the room in 40 minutes!
18:09 - Listener Mail re: should we continue this podcast?
28:39 - The End

What Else?

• Interested in presenting at Game Control Summit 2014? E-mail Linda!
• The Room 2 released for iPad this Thursday (and the original is still just $2)
• We'll always have Puzzle Hunt Calendar

Tell us we're wrong on the Internet! E-mail podcast@snout.org or post a comment at www.snout.org/podcast.

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "Skullcrusher Mountain" by Jonathan Coulton

[ Subscribe to SnoutCast / iTunes link ]

 

My 40th Birthday Survey Results

TL;DR: Despite an unfair advantage, my sister still wins. :)

Back in September, I asked people (by e-mail and social media) to fill out a quick survey describing how long we've known each other, where we met, and their first impressions of me in five words or fewer. It turned out to be the second best birthday present ever! (The best was, of course, The Double Secret Game.) Below are the results of this completely unscientific study.

I received 110 total responses, the first on September 4th (DeeAnn, testing the form) and the last on October 2nd, the day after my actual birthday. The majority of the responses--71 people, or just over 65%--came in during "opening weekend" (Thursday, September 5th, through Sunday, September 9th).

Mmm... pie chart...

Not surprisingly, the biggest segment of responders was in the 2-5 year range (2008-2010). We moved to our current home area--Portland, Oregon--in late 2008, and about a year later started making a real effort to get out of the house and meet people. There's another big cluster of responses in the 1-2 year range (2011-2012), which includes several Sea Monkeys and more awesome Portlanders.

The second biggest segment was the 10-20 year range (1992-2002), which includes some college friends, my wife, and other people we know from living in the San Francisco Bay Area for over a decade. Many of those are Gamers, and all of them are fantastically creative and generous, because that's how we met them: through doing cool stuff for fun!

My favorite part, though, is the five-word first impressions. Here's the word cloud (minus seven people who opted out of this public analysis):

"IN NO MORE THAN FIVE(5) WORDS: what was your FIRST IMPRESSION of me?"

Of course, some of those individual words don't make much sense out of context. In no particular order, here are a few of my favorite five-word first impressions:

• "Tall guy likes Star Trek"
• "quiet, tall, and hungry"
• "Quiet, but lots in there."
• "Kind of mopey, I think."
• "inclusive trekkie asian ambitious nice"
• "Guy interviewing me" (from a former co-worker)
• "He looks like Mr. Spock."
• "He likes everything I like!"
• "Intriguing -not normal"
• "still waters run deep"
• "someone I'd like to meet"
• "Clever non-aardvark Bastard"

But honestly, it's the entire collection of responses that is most striking. You can see some of that in the word cloud--I am clearly known far and wide for my love of Star Trek, and also for being tall and quiet. I guess I knew a lot of this already, but it's nice to have actual data. You know, science and all that.

I also provided a form field labeled "Anything else you'd like to tell me?" in case five words wasn't enough. Some of those responses were pretty great, too:

• "Yes, but I had a stroke so I can't write it."
• "Don't make a fucking W with your fingers.
  
  It's been great getting to know you over the years through games, social events, and those crimes we agreed never to discuss. Here's looking forward to another 9 years! Cheers!
  
  Corby"
• "Dude, if I could remember things that happened years ago, I wouldn't have got into the habit of writing stuff down. So, uhm, don't trust that memory of your first impression too far. Oh, wait, I write stuff down, so I don't have to remember: Here's the earliest mention of you on my site: http://lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us/anecdotal/hunt/5/05.html#happybirthday"
• "Funny, the 'how long have we known each other' question was surprisingly difficult to answer. I played in your Hogwarts Game in 2006, but don't really think that counts - I was looking for some kind of definitive 'social' connection. I decided to go with what I could mine from Gmail:
  
  Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:23:59 -0700
  To: Jeff Phillips
  From: Facebook
  Reply-to: noreply
  Subject: Curtis C. Chen confirmed you as a friend on Facebook...
  
  ~Jeff"
• "I like you. I don't want to punch you in the face."
• "Your creativity inspires me!"
• "I think it's a very good reflection on my taste in friends that many of them are able to reinvent themselves, take chances, create new amazing things, and involve others in their projects. You can do all that (and more), and it is for that reason you're my friend."
• "Thanks for introducing me to Larry Niven!" (his books, not personally)
• "The first time we met, I totally profiled you.
  
  Our section of the airport was nearly empty. We were both waiting for our connecting flight to Martha's Vineyard to attend Viable Paradise. I saw you working on a laptop that had a bunch of stickers on it. Laptop and stickers somehow screamed 'science fiction nerd' even though I couldn't see what the stickers were exactly. I consulted my own machine, saw that there were two distinctly Asian names on the VP student list. You looked more like a Chen than a Ha (though of course you could've easily been a Terhune, Johnson, or Kloos). I approached cautiously, half-expecting you to explode: 'What? So you see an Asian guy in an airport and just assume we all write science fiction??!' To my perhaps visible relief, you just smiled and shook my hand.
  
  Happy 40th, Curtis!" (from a VPXII classmate)
• "You introduced me to the Hollywood Bowl. I've been following classical music ever since." (from a high school friend)
• "It was my third date with Wei-Hwa and I remember him inviting us along to dinner with you guys. It was a great time."
• "You know the line from the theme from the movie Shaft that goes 'who's the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks? Shaft!'
  
  Well, if you were black, and a detective, and hugely promiscuous, and your name were Shaft instead of Curtis, I would think that song would apply perfectly to you.
  
  And even though you are none of those things, I think the song applies to you anyway.
  
  Happy birthday, Mr. Not an Aardvark!"
• "I heard 'I'm an Aardvark' on my kid's Sesame Street playlist just last week!"
• "Welcome to the old-timers club, sonny."
• "You have only two years to plan your next birthday project. 42. It is the number after all."

But all that said, I think this is my single favorite overall response (from my younger sister):

Thank you to everyone who participated, and thanks for reading all of this rambling analysis! Those interested can view all the public raw data and do the math yourself. Feel free to share your own conclusions in a comment below. :)

I'm Sure You're Shocked...

...by the results of this online quiz I just took. Procrastination!

Your results:
You are Jean-Luc Picard

Jean-Luc Picard 65% Worf 65% Mr. Scott 60% Geordi LaForge 60% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 55% Uhura 55% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 55% Spock 52% Beverly Crusher 50% Mr. Sulu 45% Will Riker 45% James T. Kirk (Captain) 45% Chekov 40% Data 38% Deanna Troi 35%

A lover of Shakespeare and other fine literature. You have a decisive mind and a firm hand in dealing with others.

Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character am I?" quiz...

SnoutCast #184: People Who Love People Who Love Puzzle Hunts

Congratulations to our friends Sunshine and Acorn on their fantastic nuptials, which featured crossword cake, electronic art, and thrilling dances!

[ Download mp3 - 25 MB ]

00:59 - "matrimonial"
02:29 - POP QUIZ: how are weddings like puzzle hunts?
06:47 - digression and experiment
07:57 - specific cool things from Acorn & Sunshine's wedding
10:45 - expressions, not gifts
14:35 - a big event... OR THE BIGGEST EVENT?
20:15 - deciding what your event is going to be
23:14 - tolls and traditions
27:06 - The End

Tell us we're wrong on the Internet! E-mail podcast@snout.org or post a comment at www.snout.org/podcast.

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "I Feel Fantastic" by Jonathan Coulton; excerpt of "I Swear" by The Minions from Despicable Me 2 soundtrack

[ Subscribe to SnoutCast / iTunes link ]

 

SnoutCast #164: Rhymes with "Hoary"

This podcast is like a storybook story, and it's as real as the feelings you feel.

[ Download mp3 - 37 MB ]

00:58 - "bookish"
03:12 - you, too, can send us an e-mail
04:54 - comparing XCOM strategies
05:50 - look, it takes a long time to write a novel
08:24 - the cool thing that happened recently: Query Shark!
13:54 - from query to synopsis to manuscript
22:10 - Hogwarts and the endless story conferences
27:38 - riffing on tropes, like you do
29:36 - who else loves deadlines?
38:40 - upcoming events: Portland Afoot Game (May 4th), DASH 5 (May 18th)
39:36 - The End

Tell us we're wrong on the Internet! E-mail podcast@snout.org or post a comment at www.snout.org/podcast.

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "I Feel Fantastic" by Jonathan Coulton

[ Subscribe to SnoutCast / iTunes link ]

 

FREE eBook of My First Fiction Sale

Now through the end of Saturday (January 5, 2013), you can download a FREE Kindle edition of the first short story I ever sold! It's titled "At Long Last, Love," and it's part of the anthology From the Porch Swing - memories of our grandparents.


http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00ATT9W7E/curtiscchensfree

"At Long Last, Love" was the first fiction piece I ever sold for actual money, so I'm still nostalgic about it. :) For those interested, you can read the backstory of the sale on my blog and livejournal.

If you want to see how much I've improved as a writer since then, please peruse my other, more recent work at curtiscchen.com.

SnoutCast #146: Listener Mail et cetera

In which we review what some of our listeners had to say about previous podcasts!

[ Download mp3 - 26 MB ]

00:59 - "reactive"
01:55 - Re: "Hangry is the Hunter"
10:48 - Re: "Deadline City"
28:11 - The End

Tell us we're wrong on the Internet! E-mail podcast@snout.org or post a comment at www.snout.org/podcast.

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "I Feel Fantastic" by Jonathan Coulton

[ Subscribe to SnoutCast / iTunes link ]

 

SnoutCast #134: The Doubleclicks

A conversation with @TheDoubleclicks, Angela and Aubrey--as seen in WarTron! [Get their music from Bandcamp]

[ Download mp3 - 25 MB ]

00:59 - "nerdy"
02:07 - will we ever stop talking about WarTron?
04:16 - sister act
05:28 - earlier: a band named Charisma
08:56 - "Deadlines are good!"
11:04 - creating the "Imposter" song
16:30 - all about the Ladies of Ragnarok tour
22:27 - you can go to Puzzled Pint if you finish writing your erotica song
26:29 - The End

Tell us we're wrong on the Internet! E-mail podcast@snout.org or post a comment at www.snout.org/podcast .

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "Tom Cruise Crazy" by Jonathan Coulton; excerpts from "Imposter" by The Doubleclicks

[ Subscribe to SnoutCast / iTunes link ]

  

SnoutCast #126: Puzzled Pint, Two Years Later

Vic, Matt, Ana, DeeAnn, and Curtis started this crazy Puzzled Pint thing back in July of 2010. How's it doing nowadays?

[ Download mp3 - 21 MB ]

00:59 - "non-alcoholic"
01:54 - PP's 2nd birthday party
04:29 - the numbers: 25 events, 131 puzzles, 30 bars, up to 59 players
07:07 - bigger, longer, harder... (goodnight everybody!)
10:36 - why only 6 events had meta-puzzles
17:57 - the future
22:11 - The End

Tell us we're wrong on the Internet! E-mail podcast@snout.org or post a comment at snout.org/podcast .

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "Shop Vac" by Jonathan Coulton

[ Subscribe to SnoutCast / iTunes link ]

 

SnoutCast #124: Three Things

Show notes? You want me to write up show notes when we're prepping for a live-fire Dry Run in just four days? Well, okay.


[ Download mp3 - 23 MB ]

00:58 - "contingent"
01:51 - backstory
05:53 - "few" vs. "several" vs. "many" vs...
10:01 - philosophy and Hogwarts
14:36 - weddings gone wrong
16:53 - yeah, the oak and the reed, that's the ticket
20:20 - mmm... doughnuts...
24:36 - The End

Tell us we're wrong on the Internet! E-mail podcast@snout.org or post a comment at snout.org/podcast .

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "Re: Your Brains" by Jonathan Coulton

[ Subscribe to SnoutCast / iTunes link ]

 

About Last Night...

This photo from last night embodies many of the things I love about Portland, Oregon.

Seated, clockwise from left: Joe, @snarke, @AubreyCello, myself, @JadeE1024, @FlameIsLove, @DeeAnnSole, @rmalena, @brittamarie, @ghalidrim, and @mariafi. Photo by Angela of @TheDoubleclicks. (Not pictured: Ana, Rob, and Matt, who arrived later.)

We had all gathered at the Funhouse Lounge to see The Unscriptables perform a Star Trek: The Next Generation improv show. I wasn't sure how crowded the place might get (being listed on GeekPortland is usually a huge nerd magnet), so I proposed we all meet at 5pm, when the venue opened, and enjoy happy hour while playing some games.

Photo by @ghalidrim.

It's not easy to find a game that can handle fifteen players, but Cards Against Humanity worked well. It was sometimes hard to hear across our four-tables-pushed-together, especially over the lounge music--but the woman working the bar asked us for requests (since we were the only people there for quite a while), so at least we were talking over songs we mostly liked.*

@JadeE1024's winning "haiku."

After we finished our supergame, our nerd party split up into smaller groups. Some of the menfolk dove into Lords of Waterdeep, DeeAnn and I introduced Aubrey to Zombie Dice and Bananagrams, and others just hung out and chatted. All enjoyed happy hour food and liquid refreshment.

That would have been a great night right there. But then the Unscriptables show started, and it did not disappoint. If you're anywhere near Portland for the next two weeks, and you have ever liked TNG, go. Closing night (May 26th, Memorial Day weekend) is the Borg episode, and if we weren't so busy with WarTron I'd totally be there.

@TheDoubleclicks with "Troi" and "Riker."

I'll be honest: When we moved to the Portland area in 2008, I was a bit apprehensive. I mean, we knew it was going to rain a lot (not to mention that first winter--yikes!), we'd been swindled out of $15 during our very first visit years ago (Thanksgiving weekend, no less--what is wrong with people?), and there were just a lot of unknowns.

But now that we've been here almost four years, I can say without a doubt that I'm very happy in our new home. We've made many new friends, started new traditions, and we don't plan on leaving any time soon. We love Portland!

Even if you do run into the occasional creepy clown room.

SRSLY, WTF? Photo by @ghalidrim.

* It turns out that a Pandora station set to "Jonathan Coulton" plays a mostly decent mix of JoCo, TMBG, Weird Al Yankovic, Barenaked Ladies, and Cake, with a few random nuggets of Da Vinci's Notebook and Garfunkel and Oates.

Paint and View

Last weekend, we went to GameStorm 14 and had a great time. On Saturday, we brought along our friend Darla (it was her birthday), and also gave her a gaming miniature we'd picked up for the con's mini painting contest on Sunday. She didn't enter the contest, but she did end up painting the mini and gifting it back to DeeAnn.

Before I show you the photos, I want you to understand that the original object was just a tiny hunk of gray plastic. It looked something like this:


(image from halforums.com)

That's not the actual mini (I didn't take a photo, and I couldn't find it online), but it's similar in that the monochrome plastic obscures a lot of the detail that was sculpted into the figure. Also note, that circular base is just one inch across. It's tiny. Painting one of these things is all about tiny brushes and getting the details right.

Now, this is what Darla produced, four days later:



Notice the terrain? She added that. Rocks and grass. The base used to be just a flat circle.

As for the painting, did you notice how the individual buttons and stitches pop, and all the different textures on the clothing, skin, and weapons? Click the image to embiggen:



I'm telling you, that girl got skillz.

Ignite Portland 10: Win, Kill, or Rock

Last night, I gave a presentation on "A Homebrew Cat Feeding Robot" at Ignite Portland 10. It was very well received. In fact, depending on who you ask, I achieved one of the following:

• "won" (1 2 3)
• "killed" (1 2)
• "rocked" (1)
• "brought the house down" (1)

Thanks again to everyone on Twitter who gave positive feedback!*

Now I'd like to talk about the "brought the house down" moment, which was as gratifying as it was surprising--to me, anyway. (This is your cue to TL;DR.)

I did not expect this particular slide, a graph of our cats' weights during 2011, to get such a huge response. I knew I found it amusing, but it was one of the last slides I'd created, almost as an afterthought:

Our friend Richard suggested that after all the stories I'd been telling about the cats and their auto-feeder, this image simply nudged me "over the top" in terms of hilarity. (DeeAnn actually, literally wept with laughter. That reaction may have made me the happiest of all. I mean, I like all y'all, but I love my wife.)

Does this somewhat unwitting success mean that I've attained "unconscious competence"--i.e., that a particular skill has become second nature to me? I don't know. That seems a bit presumptuous after a single performance that went well. But it is encouraging. No less than six people came up to me after my talk and complimented me in person. That's huge, especially when you consider that this wasn't a traditional "show"--this was a bunch of geeks getting together to share their crazy ideas in five-minute chunks. I hadn't expected to connect so strongly with the audience.

I'm not lingering on this to crow over my triumph**, or stroke my own ego; I am honestly trying to figure out how I did so well. Because this has a bearing on other skills I'm working to develop and hoping to make a living with. To wit, writing fiction. (Making puzzle hunts is a distant, pie-in-the-sky second--as far as I can tell, nobody has ever succeeded in turning our particular type of events into a viable, consumer-driven business.)

At the moment, the only thing I can identify as a contributing factor is the thing everyone already tells you to do: practice. Put in the hours, do the work, keep doing it until you improve, and then do it some more.

I directed a lot of focused effort into the five minutes I did at Ignite, and that was backed by many years of experience giving presentations and performing in front of an audience. It's going to take a lot longer before I have the same kind of handle on fiction writing--which, if not a more complicated undertaking, certainly comes with less immediate feedback. I think of it as the difference between driving a car and making a car. A lot more work needs to go into the latter, because you can't make adjustments on the fly, as you can in the former situation.

Automation is hard. I guess that was the main point of last night's talk. But it is doable, and anyone can figure it out, if you're motivated and persistent.

So I'm practicing. I'm working. I'm not stopping. We'll see what happens.

(Photo by @geekportland)

* other words used to describe my talk included "great" (1 2 3 4 5), "loved" (1 2 3), and "awesome" (1 2); and at least two people ranked me among the best talks of the evening (1 2). Woot!

** I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS. (Sorry, had to say it.)