LTUE 2025 Write-Up: Day One · 6:14am February 14th
Hello readers! Sorry for the lateness of this post, and the fact that I’m going to try and keep it a little succinct. Simply put I am beat after the first day of LTUE. Mostly my knee, since I did a lot of walking today and that knee is a bit of a troublemaker. I’ve popped an ibuprofen and iced it, so hopefully after a nice night of rest it’s ready to go again tomorrow.
Anyway, if you’re not familiar with these, I do try and do a sort of daily summary of the panels I’ve made it to (or was on) at LTUE in order to give those of you who didn’t make it some quick highlights of the symposium. The hope is that you’ll be able to glean a little bit of writing advice … and put next February 13th-15th on your calendar!
But until then, kick back and take in a glimpse of what my LTUE experience! Starting with—
For Love of Dragons
My first panel of the day, bright and early at 9 AM. And this was one I was on, all about—what else—the mighty dragon and its place in fiction. And yeah, as you might have guessed, this was a lot of fun. The discussion named a wide range of dragon books as well as what roles dragons can take in stories. I focused on the change over time of dragons in literature, from the dangerous monsters and beasts of older Fantasy to the magical-horses of Pern, to the subversion of old tropes in the 90s with books like Dealing with Dragons, all the way to the modern take on dragons as characters and protagonists in their own right.
We love dragons, because dragons are cool. Oh, and a two-legged dragon is a wyvern. The panel was in full agreement on that.
