f you attended the panels I spoke at during Further Confusion 2009 you might have gotten a piece of contradicting advice from me during the Character Development panel. I spoke about coming up with ideas to create fluid characters that are so well-known to you they are completely malleable in only the ways you know the character will act. I talked about simply observing people around you such as your family, friends, co-workers, classmates, and even random people in the supermarket.

"ind out what makes people tick," I said, "But whatever you do try to avoid casting yourself as a character, especially a lead."

say that as sound advice, but if you've read anything I've ever put together you might wonder why I'm clearly not heeding it myself. Kind of makes me seem hypocritical, yes? Much like the art of writing characters about other people, there's an art to writing about yourself - and it's not as easy to do so, especially if you're not out to come off as egocentric.

hen I spoke on the panels at Further Confusion I was speaking largely in regards to making characters for general fiction stories. I write fiction, yes, but the nature of what I do is highly personal. I'm writing out what are quite simply my own personal fantasies and dreams and naturally in my head I usually take role of one of the characters. If I didn't that would be pretty weird. My advice was sound for the nature of the panel, if you're writing an epic zombie survival story then you probably shouldn't cast yourself in it because you'll be too tempted to be the hero, or die dramatically, or generally just hog the limelight throughout the entire story and in a sense that does kind of make you look bad... in my opinion at least.

odesty is the best policy when it comes to writing about yourself in your own work. I try my best to keep Dracokon (the human) as regular as I am; he has no frills and no secret special abilities and I definitely don't play up anything that doesn't exist in me naturally. In my stories Dracokon works in a retail store, he has a close friend who cares about him but sometimes is an asshole for fun, and he lives in a quiet town. No surprise, those three points apply to the real Dracokon. There is no drama when I write about myself, just generally how I feel about reptiles and how eager I'd be to give an alligator a big hug so long as I get to keep my arms.

friend of mine with whom I spoke to about writing for a few hours during a party at Further Confusion raised a very peculiar point. "I'm surprised," he said, "you're not an arrogant prick like literally every other dragon character I have run into at this convention."

t was a very strange compliment, especially since he pretty much made a sweeping generalization about an entire sub-community of the furry fandom. I talked about how I'm kind of just a neighbor to the furry community and that my dragon avatar is remnants from my time in the Otherkin community and that he's kept around mostly for identification purposes. His comments made me think though in regards to what a person's character tells you about him or her. I believe he was implying that dragons have an inner insecurity and chose a wise, intelligent, and strong character like a dragon to make up for their own shortcomings. His words and thoughts, though, not mine. Don't shoot me. He praised me for being quite modest about my runaway success after having only put three stories online and said more people should take my example instead of chasing their own egos, which I thought was funny.

mentioned that story because it ties in with my above statement that modesty is the best policy when it comes to self-image. I am going to run the risk of sounding like a complete asshole when I say this, but I know I am good at what I do. I don't make it a point to rub that in anybody's face and I am quite the approachable person. I surprised quite a few people who were in the panel's audience when they wanted to chat afterwards and I happily agreed to do so over snacks. It's kind of upsetting that they thought I might have be unapproachable, because I'm quite the opposite. I wasn't born talented, no, I've been writing about anything that pleases me for close to 14 years. I've had plenty of time to get the hang of things and I don't mind sharing it with others; that's why I paid the incredible airfare and lodging fees to attend the convention. Some people might think of me as a celebrity or famous I'm not sure, but I digress. There are a lot of people who do what I do and who are a lot more well-known. I am still a new face here, but I also realize I'm just a guy like everyone else, and it's a concept that translates very nicely into my works of fiction that involve myself which so far includes all of them.

feel a little uncomfortable talking about things in the furry fandom that may or may not be true, because I myself do not identify as a furry and I am only moderately active in some communities. I have nothing bad to say about anyone or anything, but I will say that while I was kicking around in San Jose I did happen to come across some individuals whom I would say were not very approachable, and that's sad. If you're good at the things you specialize in, don't make yourself unavailable. You'll be remembered much more fondly if you stick around and be friendly, even to a few people, when they say "hello".

ith that said I will probably be attending this convention in South Texas this October called RealmsCon. It's closer to me than San Jose, California but still... I'm not looking forward to the drive! I'm not going to be on a panel or anything; I'll just be hanging out. It's not really a furry convention (it's about anime and stuff) but if you're attending and you see me there (look for my conbadge from FC2009) I encourage you to say "hi". I don't bite unless you want me to. :3

Much love,