This weekend was Penguicon, just north of Detroit. Penguicon is a weekend event for authors, artists, crafters, computer geeks and fans of just about anything. There's lots of cosplay, people selling silly buttons, computer security seminars, author readings, panels on publishing, a dance, a poetry slam, and food.

I was on a panel about planning a story vs just writing and seeing what happens. I brought a couple of the poster-sized plot layouts I made for Carol to show one way of planning a story.

I also delivered a talk on psycholinguistics and tailoring your prose with careful word choices.

The author readings were poorly attended (to be polite). Two authors shared each reading slot, and the audience was generally 2 or 3 friends of each author.

The book store, however, did amazingly well. I sold all the books I had available to sell, and several authors also sold all of their books. I don't know if the attendees are just hungry for paper, or it was a better location or what. In years past, folks were lucky to sell a single book.

In between the panels I was on and the ones I listened to, I chatted with friends, ate a few meals and just had fun.

Caz got a chance to spend the weekend with his puppy-peeps, so he's a happy puppy. The cats got me to themselves while I was home (sleeping, but home) so they were happy.