2006 Dargon Writers' Summit

Visit our 2006 Summit Flickr page to see all the photos plus captions!

This year's Dargon Writers' Summit was held in Cincinnati, Ohio, on the banks of the Ohio River, at the place where the states of Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio meet.

Actually, most of our time was spent in northern Kentucky, because that's where the airport and our lodging were. Most of the attendees were put up in the home of this year's host -- Liam Donahue -- and that's also where we held our working sessions.

The Summit began with a drive down into the Kentucky hills for a breathtaking hiking trip through Red River Gorge Geological Area -- site of over a hundred natural sandstone arches -- and the Natural Bridge State Park, whose main feature is a 65-foot high arch that spans 78 feet.

During our spare time, we viewed an exhibit of Rembrandt etchings at the Cincinnati Art Museum, attended a butterfly show at the Krohn Conservatory, wandered around scenic Mt. Adams, and checked out the Newport Aquarium's collection of sharks, alligators, otters, and avians. We also had some fabulous meals, including Cajun at Knotty Pine on the Bayou, Thai at Teak, Italian at Brio, and ice cream from Graeter's.

Our working time included the presentation of a white paper by Liam on point of view and perspective in writing, and another on medieval ships and shipping by Jim Owens. We also had an interesting writing exercise before Liam led a discussion about Dargon's money systems. We put some more work into our next large story arc, and got a lesson in how to manage projects by Jon Evans.

However, the most dramatic development of this year's Summit was when our leader, Ornoth, told us of his need to step down from the leadership role. That led to a redistribution of responsibilities that should bring new energy and produce several positive changes to the magazine and the overall Dargon Project. The first example of this was a complete revamping of our mentoring program for new writers, which will hopefully help us get more new names in print in the pages of DargonZine.

Liam did an excellent job hosting this year's Summit, and we're very happy with the work we accomplished. At the same time, it was really motivating to be able to spend time with our fellow writers, enjoying the sights and the food of Cincinnati.

At right are thumbnail versions of some of the pictures we took at the 2006 Summit. Clicking on an image on this page will bring up the full-sized picture with a detailed caption. The photos generally are a reasonably-sized 30-75k each.

If you find these images interesting, check out the pictures and description of our other Summits on our Dargon Writers' Summit page.