I'm back in the real world, having left Balticon in my rear view mirror far sooner than I would have wished. Here are somme random thoughts I jotted down about the con, which easily ranks up there with GenCon in terms of overall coolness. Expect much geeking out about it in the next Radio Active.

3 p.m.: How the internet helps small presses publish books / Derby / Scott Edelman(M), Mike Walsh, Elaine Corvidae, M.T. Reiten

Scott Edelman: Is it helpful? It's actually damaged one aspect of small press magazine publishing because it's replaced the zine niche.

Mike Walsh: A book that was refused by the big sale chains; SCIFI did nice review, but it was BoingBoing that really drove a sales spike. Also, while not being in a big chain used to be a horrible thing, Amazon now offsets that.

Elaine Corvidae: Growing up in small town, if a book wasn't on a shelf, you really couldn't get it (or not know about it). The benefit of the internet is that sites get exposure. Points that she's publishing her books for free on her site, which fuels sales of print edition.

M.T. Reiten: Internet helps with reach, but challenging aspect is marketing.

Scott Edelman: Seeing authors give away review copies of book or magazine to see if it leads to a buzz.

Scott Edelman: Locus is our New York Times. Everyone wants a review there. Joe Hadleman's always going to get a review there; how do you get one as a small press.

Should you distribute your first book online?

"Why Writing Can’t Be Taught And How To Teach It": Jim Kelly(M), Mur Lafferty, David Moldawer, Lee C. Hillman

What can't you teach?

David Moldawer: A writer's "voice" isn't something that can be taught, it can only be built up like a callous.

Lee C. Hillman: Can't teach how to listen, how to hear, to tell the difference between a sentence that flows and a sentence that doesn't.

Jim Kelly: Reads for MFA program, Clarion Workshop program. Looks at what's sound, what can be helped. What can't be taught: the restless need to write, well done social interactions between characters, the knack jumping into other people's skulls. Ability to learn; some people are just there to meet faculty/writers and aren't willing to learn new things.

What can you teach?

David Moldawer: How to write a book -- how to get into the trenches and write the book. Then how to re-write a book, to cut out chapters, re-write chapters. e.g. cut a scene by removing the first and last page; most times it'll be better.

Mur: Teaching how to edit; how to be cold and analytical. Teach what to cut. Learn the rules -- e.g. show don't tell. Going through as editing, you can realize mistakes and go back and edit.

10 p.m.: Crowd Sourcing / Belmont /Mur Lafferty(M), JC Hutchins, Chris Lester

Turning Fans into Minions!

JC Hutchins, 7th Son Trilogy, got two book deals from St. Martins Press for 2009 releaase. Chris Lester, Metamorph City. Mur of ... Murverse (Playing for Keeps, Geek Fu, Heaven, etc).

They can't do it all, so they need help. JC Hutchins -- there's more social tools now; started in 2006, only really MySpace for promoting self. There were podcast directories, and asked listeners to promote the site.

Chris used crowd sourcing before he launched site. Asked people to be voices, worked networking angle of podcasting community, talked to friends for voice actors, tried to pull in as many people as possible, which helps distinguish the group.

JC Hutchins returns to crowd-sourcing for 7S Oblivion by soliciting fan creations, including audio, video and written work.

Chris set up a mailing list of people who want to volunteer, he then sends e-mail to list asking for specific things he needs (e.g. secretary). Chadwick Paddington says he wants forums, so he went out and bought TheCurse.org, setting up fan site for Metamorph City.

Mur created Tales of the Third Wave as an outcropping of Playing for Keeps. Kris Johnson was first to contributed.

2 p.m.: Video Podcasting 101 / Belmont / Working with the basics: Earl Newton(M), Brand Gambin, Tee Morris, Chris Condayan, Jason Adams, Jon Stallard

Video Podcasting 101 featured Earl Newton (Video Podcasting for Dummies) as the moderator (strangerthings.tv), Chris Condayan, (MicroWorld.org), Brand Gambin (CallsForCthulhu.com, Tee Morris (teemorris.com/), Jason Adams (Jason Adams, Jon Stallard (geekradiodaily.com).

Tee Morris & Earl Newton -- when you need the videos, get into video podcasting. But it's harder -- you have to worry about makeup, visuals, lighting. Something else is to consider is enhanced podcast with still images, links, etc. Good thing, but some people still demand standard radio. So if you do enhanced you're going to need to manage two feeds: enhanced and standard.

1 p.m. Live! Takeover! (Audio Drama) / Belmont / Mur Lafferty(M), Jason Adams, JR Blackwell, Christiana Ellis, JC Hutchins, John Cmar, Laura Burns

Mur Lafferty and Jason Adams began The Take Over as a video project at LuLu, but then they lost their jobs and the project went into limbo. Now it's back as an audio drama, and the first two episodes debuted at Balticon42.

The live show began with a rousing singing of Re: Your Brains led by J.R. Blackwell, then launched into the meat of the first episode, in which ZombInc -- a company in which upper level management are all zombies -- is taking over a web development company. It'll be a full-blown, 10-episode audio drama available in June. Check it out at http://zombinc.net/ or MurVerse. The live version should should be online at some point.

After staying up too late playing Savage Worlds (and then, admittedly, a little Grand Theft Auto) I managed to haul my ass out of bed and hit the roud, finally arriving at Balticon around 10:30. Now I'm hanging out in the lobby with Doug Rapsome, Mur Lafferty, Jared Axelrod, and a bunch of other folks sucking down the free wirelness as they work on their scripts for the Live! Takeover! zombie business workers event at 1 p.m.

It's a good day to be a geek.

I'm going to my first-ever science fiction convention this weekend as a travel south to Baltimore for Balticon 42. It seems strange that I could be as into scifi as I am, particularly books and novels, and never gone to a convention, but its never really been my scene. Generally speaking, if I'm going to spend $50 to go to a con, I'd rather spend that time playing games than wandering from seminar to semainar.

So what's different about Balticon? Friends. A hell of a lot of my online friends are going to be at the convention, and I'm hoping to hang out with them and engage in actual, real time conversations with people I've known for years.

Crazy, isn't it?

Of course, it won't be all jabbering, all the time, so I've browsed the Balticon schedule [PDF] and noted the stuff I'm particularly interested in. I can't say I'll definitely be at all these things, but there's a pretty good chance I will be. The only one I'm hellbent on attending is Mur Lafferty and Jason Adam's live recording of the Geek Fu Morning Show - After Dark. I've been listening to Mur since the beginning of the podcast era, and I can't miss a chance to see Geek Fu live.