I'm back from a successful trip to Indy. My promised photos unfortunately did not pan out - I only had my cel phone and the collection of snapshots I took essentially boils down to a group of bright blurry objects and another group of not so bright blurry objects. Ah, well.
Since I was only there for the one day, I didn't get to see everything, but I had an enjoyable time. Wandered the main hall and spent far too much money on books. Attended 3 hours worth of panels, took a lot of notes, and spent a few hurried minutes eating over priced fast food. (Downtown Indy has one of the best choices of dining experiences I've encountered, and yet I still gravitate to the McDonalds and pizza-by-the-slice joint. Go figure.)
Of course, the main reason I went was the annual Battletech Iron Writers' competition. The rules are simple enough - you're given a topic, keyword, or closing sentence and have one hour to write a story. Easy to contemplate, sometimes harder to actually do. Last year I was down to the last second and clocked in with about 600 words or so - super short even for flash fiction. This year, I had the essentials done in 45 minutes, and had four solid pages of text. I don't expect to win - there were 16 entries and half the professional novel writing team was participating - but I'm pleased that I had an easier time of it this year, and I hope to do better when I participate again next year.
So, all in all, a good trip. Maybe next year I'll actually play a game.
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