You Can Fly (World Fantasy 2017)

Last week I traveled to San Antonio, Texas to attend my very first World Fantasy Convention. It’s a huge gathering of writers, editors, artists, publishers, and fans of all things fantasy. This convention has been on my wish list for years, and with San Antonio being relatively close to Los Angeles, I finally decided to take the plunge. And boy, did I. This con left me gasping for air but wanting to continuously dive deeper into the fantasy genre and all its iterations at every opportunity. It was an overwhelming, enchanting, intriguing, and overall, fantastic (see what I did there?) experience. Let me attempt to summarize all the cool things during my three days at the convention.

So Long And Thanks For All The Fish

“I graduated.” This two-word statement carries the weight of two years’ worth of sleepless nights, deadlines, and enough frustration to fill the Mariana Trench (see what I did there). And yet, I have no regrets. My time at Stonecoast has pushed me to achieve writing heights I didn’t think possible. Now that I’ve had ample time to reflect upon my MFA journey, I’m amazed at how much I’ve evolved. The bright-eyed, bushy-tailed firstie who entered Stonecoast isn’t the same writer who graduated last month. So what’s different? What’s changed?

Fantasy Is A Tool Of The Storyteller

A couple of weeks ago, I ran into someone I’ve known for several years (an acquaintance I’ll refer to as “Boba Fett”), who asked me how my writing was going. This being my fourth semester with Stonecoast, I talked about the collection of stories I’m working on for my master’s thesis. I gave a very brief overview of three stories, just to give a taste of the kind of stuff I like writing: there’s a tale with a talking dragon, another featuring a ghostly girl, and another one about hills made of chocolate. Boba Fett, with one eyebrow arced slightly (I could see through his shady helmet), asked me what the other stories were like. I responded by saying, “Well, most of the stuff I write I’d classify as fantasy, but I like messing about in other genres, too.” Then, with a very serious face, he asked if I had ever considered writing “real stories instead of this fantasy stuff.”