This year’s LTUE - Life, the Universe, & Everything Symposium was something special. I’ve attended at least 6 times over the years, maybe more. At first when I was a wee baby writer and my eyes were so wide the whole time as I took in a ton of information from all of the awesome guests.
Later, I attended as a guest myself a few times, and one of the first full playtests of Arium: Create and Arium: Discover took place in the LTUE game room. I then moved to Florida and hadn’t been (other than virtually for one session) since 2019.
This year with Arium long since published, nominated for The ENNIE Awards, and closing out sales of our initial print run, I worked with the incredible Dax Levine and immeasurable Ryan Bouché to bring Arium and Adept Icarus full circle back to LTUE in a huge way! I was invited to be a special guest for gaming and we hosted Arium 42 (commemorating the symposium’s 42nd anniversary!)
104 people were in attendance for 2 hours of Arium 42, and they built an unforgettable interconnected world on 4 moons and 2 planets for use in fiction, games, and more! What an amazing experience! Friends and family came from everywhere to help: Emily Earhart, Katie Young, Adam Clayton helped at our booth and the event! Remi Munn and Christopher Munn were a huge help. Mari Anne Murdock, Daniel Yocom, John Mabey, Erika Kuta Marler, Wade Edwards, Ravyn Evermore, Ethan Sproat, and so many more I know I’m forgetting helped make this a huge success.
Thank you all so much! I’m working with a small team to compile and publish the results of this mass world building session and Adept Icarus will release it under the Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license for anyone to use in their creative endeavors!
Special thanks again to Dax and Ryan who helped plan and execute this dream come true event! It wouldn’t have happened without you. I honestly don’t know how to thank you enough.
ALSO I'm once again going to be a panelist, presenter, and moderator at the LTUE Symposium in February!
LTUE is one of the most affordable writers'/creatives' conferences out there (extra discounts for if you're a student) while still giving you a massive bang for your buck. They have eight different 'tracks' for presentations and panels (writing, world building, art, TMA, academics, books, gaming, and professional development), but you can attend literally whichever sessions, panels, or presentations you want, so you can mix and match interests and professional goals.
It's super educational and I highly recommend it to anyone trying to go pro with their creative works, but it's also fun. Like obscene amounts of fun. It's all the best of a convention while also providing genuine professional opportunities. People come in cosplay, Sunday Best, and/or street clothes; I was on a panel last year next to an author with electric purple hair and a real silver fairy tiara whilst I was wearing a t-shirt with a sunglasses possum on it, and the guy on the other side of us was in a full suit and bowtie. There was a life-size Springtrap cosplay out in the main lobby. I pitched for the first time ever to 3 actual literary agents and got 3 requests. I got personal career advice from a 25+ year industry pro. A 12 year old with a "future author" pin asked me questions on my presentation and took notes, and so did an octogenarian in rainbow suspenders. I was taught how to write a professional query letter-- that has a 16% positive response rate, where standard is ~10%-- by a former lawyer in a pirate hat.
It's good vibes only, man.
But you'll also find professional agents, editors, artists, authors, directors, game devs and so on. It's a huge geek-fest that puts people at all levels of the professional world on equal footing. They've even got gaming events and filking circles.
In short, it's networking, fun, hyperfocus material, and professional-level education in equal measure.
I seriously can't say enough good things about it (and not just because I'm involved). There's something for every type of creator/creative out there, 11/10 highly recommend.
Anyway, here's what I'll be up to as a guest during all three days under the read more. (tl;dr conclusion, if you plan to attend and want to meet up, message me!)
Thursday
Original presentation (academics track): Folklore of the American South. An overview of myths, monsters, and old wives' tales from the rich storytelling heritage of the Southern States. AKA I finally have a platform to yell about my cultural heritage and by golly am I gonna yell about it! 10 am (yes it's a bit early, but I swear it'll be worth it! Y'all know you wanna hear about the Rougarou the destiny-determining powers of cornbread!)
Friday
Panelist: Shellshocked: Writing PTSD. Injecting realism into and dispelling myths surrounding characters with PTSD. AKA how flashbacks do and do not work, how to avoid making your character a caricature, and how to be sensitive so you don't use peoples' actual lived experiences as a sensationalist, reductionist cash grab. 10 am.
Panelist: Life After Coming Out. How to feature queer characters in more than just coming-out plots. AKA OwnVoices is not an excuse to exclude the reality of queer people in your built universes; don't write a story that's not yours to tell, but for the love of all things holy there's more stories to tell about queer folks than just The Big Realization! 11 am. (whew mercy, they gonna have me hoofin it all across that hotel RIP my ankles and my asthma)
Panelist: Fat Doesn't Mean Unfit. What it says on the tin. AKA a bunch of chubby folks are gonna demolish your fatphobia and why that's an important and good thing. Also I have a degree in health so I will be demolishing that fatphobia scientifically. 5 pm.
Saturday
Moderator: Dining Throughout History. A panel about how food, meals, and feeding communities did and did not work throughout history. AKA ancient Romans absolutely DID have takeout on the regular, and you're not a failure for not making 3 square meals a day at home with all-fresh all-natural ingredients. I mean, your characters aren't failures.... Yeah. That. 9 am.
Panelist: Nonnormative Relationships and You. The whats, whys, and hows of all the different non-romantic/nonsexual relationships your characters can find themselves in. AKA no shade to the romance crowd, but can we please stop forcing characters to kiss just because they're in physical or emotional proximity??? 11 am.
Moderator/Facilitator: Do-It-Yourself Medical Care: Hands-On First Aid. Come learn how to effectively injure and care for your characters by actually doing it! The caring part, not the injury part. We do not condone irl violence in the Marriott and as mod I will be obligated to fight you if you attempt to injure another participant. I can tell you right now as a both a stress crying asthmatic and the parent of a toddler with professional experience handling and subduing dangerous animals, it will be highly embarrassing for everyone involved.
I seriously cannot tell you how excited I am for this one! It's me and four other authors who are also trained in medicine/health, so we're working hard to make this an informative and relevant experiential learning opportunity. They're only giving us 45 minutes, unfortunately, but we're already coordinating to try and pack in the most opportunities and most interesting exercises possible. It's gonna be so fun!! 1 pm, do not be late, we can only fit so many people and training dummies into the room!
Moderator: A Brighter Future: Solarpunk Fiction. A panel discussing the Solarpunk genre, why it's relevant, the ways conflict and worldbuilding would be different in a Solarpunk setting, etc. AKA a bunch of neohippies walked into a bar professional panel and decided to rant about sustainable living. 3 pm.
The rest of the time I'll be flitting around attending panels and presentations, checking out the art show and vendors room, socializing/networking, generally vibing, and maybe getting in a few pitch sessions. If you want to meet up, shoot me a message! I'm always open to Friending, and I know all the good places to grab lunch.
In case anyone is interested, the Life, the Universe, and Everything symposium is February 16-18, and I’m both a panelist and presenter.
So if you want to hear me be sponsored to Go Off about ex post facto queer character representation, depictions (&lack thereof) of chronic illness in fiction, how horses and pack animals DON’T work (and how they do so you can stop mis-writing them), and (mis)representation of the US South as a Fantasy/Fiction setting, HMU and I’ll give you my schedule. :3
A gift from the "Life, the Universe, and Everything Symposium" for being their Special Guest this year! The HEAVIEST golden dragon pen in the land, which I shall treasure forever and use to sign all kinds of mysterious and magical contracts, and a tasty TASTY tasty chocolate dragon treat from @thetrufflecottage (We're big on dragons at this con)
I love this conference, and have been attending since my teen years. It means so much to me that now I get to share my own experience on panels and presentations--I hope they have me back for many years to come!! (I am sorry I could not stay for the banquet this round)
For those of you I just met this year, and the treasured old friends I only cross paths with in the shadow of the everlasting hills, thanks for making this year such a great one! I SWEAR I'll remember business cards next time. I mean, why on EARTH would I forget them for a THIRD year in a row?!?
There is no better place to learn about the craft, business, and passions of writers and artists! Can't wait for LTUE 2021!
I did a #copicmarker demo this last weekend at #ltue and created this little #sketch of my #originalcharacter Naia. #artistsoninstagram #purplehair https://www.instagram.com/p/BuMQozCFM8o/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=11mhlkzedpsiy
