Surrey Day 1—Storylines and the 20s

On Friday, my smartphone informed me that since I’m in the foreign country of Canada, roaming charges will apply. 

This flag outside my room was at least fifty feet wide

Susanna Kearsley gave an interesting workshop on weaving together a twin-stranded storyline, which I certainly do in my War of the Worlds mashup (a single strand sample is here), and my historical fantasy Virgin Unknown (sample here). 

Often, at science fiction conventions or writers’ conferences, speakers will refer to scenes from movies to illustrate their points.  This has to do with many people in the audience seeing the same movies, and even if we’ve read the same book, we might visualize the scenes differently.  Even with The Lord of the Rings, people will refer to the movies, not the books, to make a point. 

Susanna Kearsley mentioned The Words, starring Dennis Quaid—a movie I haven’t seen—to illustrate the twin-stranded story.  After she was done speaking, I mentioned In Good Company, where every scene is a contrast between an older man played by Quaid and a younger man played by Topher Grace.  She stated that Dennis Quaid must like that sort of story, since he was also in Dreamscape.  I recognized that one, saying it was the first PG-13 movie. 

The evening dinner had the theme of the roaring 20s, and although I did not dress for it, these ladies certainly did: 

They have their steampunk, clockpunk, and dieselpunk blog here.