I’m an SF-con newbie; my only prior con-going experience was Westercon in 2003. I can find my way around, but so far I’m too introverted to socialize. Still, it’s a lot of fun, directly and indirectly. Directly, ’cause I get to be around writers (including some of my favorites) and hear what they have to say; indirectly, ’cause I get to marvel at the practitioners of pastimes that I’d never go for, like filking and costuming.

All that exposure to writers gets me thinking about writing. I decided I was done writing fiction after last year’s NaNoWriMo, but even before this con the desire to write was sneaking up on me again. Now I’m planning to fit some short-story writing into my daily routine.

In that context, a little encouragement goes a long way. Today I came across Kathy Sierra’s blog, Creating Passionate Users, and spent the better part of an hour reading great stuff like How to create a non-fiction bestseller and its sequel. Then I found her Computer Book Author’s Manifesto at O’Reilly.

All those posts are about books, and I’m definitely still in the article-writing stage. But they get me excited and ready to believe I might actually be able to do this after all.