For a couple of days…
Fyrecon is in the bag. Interesting little con, still working through some teething pains, but good potential. The master classes were good to excellent, according to every one I talked to, and I know the World Building one with Larry Correia was excellent. Held in Layton, UT, the con organizers did a nice job of coordination with the local community, and the spaces were excellent (but the chairs sucked, nothing new there). There is plenty to do in the local area, if you decide to take a spouse that isn’t into writing.
One of the sidebar conversations I got into was about diversity and representation of characters in literature, and the evolution of the SJW/woke/whatever requirements, and what would happen if historical leading lights in fiction were to try to write their books today (Mark Twain, ER Burroughs, Howard, EE Smith, Heinlein, etc.) The consensus was that most of them could not get published anywhere in today’s environment, based on the ‘views’ today.
Which really made me wonder if people understand that ‘history’ cannot be adequately ‘viewed’ through the lens of today’s mores/morals, as those mores/morals have evolved considerably over the last 100 years. Whether the mores/morals of a ‘day’ were right or wrong, by today’s standards/views, those WERE the mores/morals that the authors dealt with or had AT THE TIME.
I actually wonder if Shakespeare could be printed today… sigh





