More Con Report

I tried the Princess Leia Cinnamon Bun hairdo at the comic book convention today, and found out two very important things:
1. Murphy's Law of the Cinnabon-do: the buns will not turn out symmetrical.
2. When you have your hair done in the most infamous Princess Leia 'do, while dressed completely normally otherwise, people notice and remember you.

Lesson #2 brings me to the Panels, and more specifically, to talking to panelists later in the day. These conventions have a steady schedule of discussions with the invited guests--mostly artists, writers, and actors. One of the panels today was a chat with Jim Shooter. In the course of recounting his rise to the position of Marvel Comics Editor in Chief--a job he held when he was my age--he commented that he sold everything he ever wrote, starting with comic book stories to DC Comics when he was 13. That sort of cavalier statement is incredibly depressing for someone whose current publication highlight is news stories about raw sewage issues published in a second-rate weekly entertainment newspaper in a backwater city in Ohio. I asked him, in as many words, "What is the secret, then, of not writing crap?" Presumably, if the man has sold everything he ever wrote since junior high school, he knows something I don't.

He didn't have a secret formula for selling every word he ever wrote, but he did have some motivational advice that, for once, did not sound trite. When I caught up with Mr. Shooter after the panel to thank him for what he said, he had an even more helpful suggestion for an aspiring writer. Making an impression, even if it is as the chick wearing Leia buns with a Wonder Woman shirt, can have its advantages.