I hate sitting for portraits, but sometimes one
simply must indulge the peasants.
I can reach you from here. You know that right?
Eeeeek, a peeping paparazzi!
Are you really leaving again? I'z gonna cry.
Carrot tops:
Both kinds:
Friday, July 31, 2009
Friday Cat Blogging--now with bonus carrot blogging
Feed me, Seymour! Or, Bob. Really anyone will do.
I hate sitting for portraits, but sometimes one
simply must indulge the peasants.
I can reach you from here. You know that right?
Eeeeek, a peeping paparazzi!
Are you really leaving again? I'z gonna cry.
Carrot tops:
Both kinds:
I hate sitting for portraits, but sometimes one
simply must indulge the peasants.
I can reach you from here. You know that right?
Eeeeek, a peeping paparazzi!
Are you really leaving again? I'z gonna cry.
Carrot tops:
Both kinds:
Thursday, July 30, 2009
You Know What I Hate About Being a Writer? Writing.
First of all, I have to apologize for the silence here at the blog over the last several days. I kind of forgot that our usual main poster, Kelly, was still on vacation. Plus, I didn't have much to say about writing over the past few days that couldn't be summed up by the above subject line.
Normally, I enjoy my work tremendously. I love that my day job is basically getting to play pretend. Many days, I even love wrestling with words, phrases, clauses, etc. I usually don't complain about revision, either. I can even find enjoyment, many times, in publicity work.
But the last couple of days have been kind of hard. I think everyone who writes as a significant part of their life (or even who just wants to write as a significant part of their life) experiences days like the ones I've been having lately. Wherein, what I really want to be is a writer who doesn't have to ACTUALLY write.
A couple of things conspired to put me in this mood. One, I got the opportunity last week to step into a novel writing class for a friend who was off at a convention where she was up for an award. It was at the Loft, and it was great deal of fun. The students were engaged, and they thought my life was the bomb. They gave me a bunch of critique to do, which I can always fool myself into believing is writing work (when really, you know, it's not writing.)
Then, a few days ago, I got a spontaneous call from Wyrdsmiths' very own Sean M. Murphy who suggested that we should "hang out." I had a planned lunch date with another writer friend Rachel Gold, and the three of us ended up having a great time talking about writing, brainstorming stories in progress, and generally, as my family would call it "talking smart" in the backyard.
Talking about writing, IMHO, is WAY more fun than writing.
Especially when I got a rather lukewarm response from my editor about my current YA project. I'd sent her the first sixty pages, which is something, btw, that I never, EVER do, but she wanted fodder for cover art and... despite all those inner voices that screamed "noooooo, let no one see the unfinished rough bits outside of the sacred ground of writers' group!!!" I decided to send it anyway. I knew the piece was flawed -- I ended up with a talking cat for Chrissake -- but, the professional part of me wanted my editor to have a chance to direct the shape and tone, etc. of this novel because she's been very clear that there's "in-house buzz" over this project.
The writer part of me just wanted to be recognized for my genius.
Not to have to frickin' work for it.
Sheesh.
And now, I find myself thinking, "well, I need to get to work." Meanwhile my wounded ego looks around and says, "Shiny!" to anything not writing related (even dirty dishes!) because I don't want to deal with the actual writing part of being a writer.
And, yes, I would like some cheese with that w(h)ine.
Normally, I enjoy my work tremendously. I love that my day job is basically getting to play pretend. Many days, I even love wrestling with words, phrases, clauses, etc. I usually don't complain about revision, either. I can even find enjoyment, many times, in publicity work.
But the last couple of days have been kind of hard. I think everyone who writes as a significant part of their life (or even who just wants to write as a significant part of their life) experiences days like the ones I've been having lately. Wherein, what I really want to be is a writer who doesn't have to ACTUALLY write.
A couple of things conspired to put me in this mood. One, I got the opportunity last week to step into a novel writing class for a friend who was off at a convention where she was up for an award. It was at the Loft, and it was great deal of fun. The students were engaged, and they thought my life was the bomb. They gave me a bunch of critique to do, which I can always fool myself into believing is writing work (when really, you know, it's not writing.)
Then, a few days ago, I got a spontaneous call from Wyrdsmiths' very own Sean M. Murphy who suggested that we should "hang out." I had a planned lunch date with another writer friend Rachel Gold, and the three of us ended up having a great time talking about writing, brainstorming stories in progress, and generally, as my family would call it "talking smart" in the backyard.
Talking about writing, IMHO, is WAY more fun than writing.
Especially when I got a rather lukewarm response from my editor about my current YA project. I'd sent her the first sixty pages, which is something, btw, that I never, EVER do, but she wanted fodder for cover art and... despite all those inner voices that screamed "noooooo, let no one see the unfinished rough bits outside of the sacred ground of writers' group!!!" I decided to send it anyway. I knew the piece was flawed -- I ended up with a talking cat for Chrissake -- but, the professional part of me wanted my editor to have a chance to direct the shape and tone, etc. of this novel because she's been very clear that there's "in-house buzz" over this project.
The writer part of me just wanted to be recognized for my genius.
Not to have to frickin' work for it.
Sheesh.
And now, I find myself thinking, "well, I need to get to work." Meanwhile my wounded ego looks around and says, "Shiny!" to anything not writing related (even dirty dishes!) because I don't want to deal with the actual writing part of being a writer.
And, yes, I would like some cheese with that w(h)ine.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Authors' Creative Spaces
A couple of Wyrdsmiths were photographed for this project: http://www.whereiwrite.org/. Check it out.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Friday Cat Blogging--Where did you get that hat?
Sun Queen
The late nights are killing me.
It will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine.
Has you seen my poolboy, I have this itch....
Step away from that laptop, Mister.
I stolz yer new hat and shrinkified it!
The late nights are killing me.
It will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine.
Has you seen my poolboy, I have this itch....
Step away from that laptop, Mister.
I stolz yer new hat and shrinkified it!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
What Are You Readng?
Just curious... what are people reading these days?
Me, I've been reading eight year old comic books, mostly bits and peices of J. Michael Stracznisky's AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, and then blogging about them with geeky enthusiasm and wild abandon elsewhere.
You?
Me, I've been reading eight year old comic books, mostly bits and peices of J. Michael Stracznisky's AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, and then blogging about them with geeky enthusiasm and wild abandon elsewhere.
You?
Monday, July 20, 2009
Monday Morning WIP
What's everyone doing on this fine Monday morning of June 20, 2009, the fortieth anniversary of the moon landing?
For my part, I'm off to the airport to pick up a friend returning from Europe. After that, it's back to the salt mines. Rinse, wash, and repeat.
For my part, I'm off to the airport to pick up a friend returning from Europe. After that, it's back to the salt mines. Rinse, wash, and repeat.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Friday Cat Blogging--Needs more...Isa-belle
Isabelle: "Is dat a car or a really big mouse?"
Leith "Srsly."
Why yes, I did barf in your luggage, why do you ask?
Wait, you didn't get my good side.
Sunlight and shadow.
Don't move, I's gonna leap in yer laps!
That's no cat, it's a space station!
I'z in yer shelves out-cutin' da other gluten free cat!
Nom da Rice cakes? Or da Lasagna noodles?
Leith "Srsly."
Why yes, I did barf in your luggage, why do you ask?
Wait, you didn't get my good side.
Sunlight and shadow.
Don't move, I's gonna leap in yer laps!
That's no cat, it's a space station!
I'z in yer shelves out-cutin' da other gluten free cat!
Nom da Rice cakes? Or da Lasagna noodles?
Thursday, July 16, 2009
So You Want to Be a Millionaire...?
I had one of those conversations with the uninitiated that I hate. One of Mason's friends from school has a mom who decided that, after having met me, that writing must be "the life." She started a book and now called me up to basically ask when she could expect the money to start rolling in.
I hate to burst that bubble of enthusiasm. I don't want to have to tell people that I could not afford to stay home an write if my partner didn't pay the bills. Money isn't the reason a person should consider a career in writing, because even when it's going gangbusters, like it is for me, it comes in drips and drabs and you can't count on it to pay the bills. You just can't.
That conversation sucks. Nobody wants to hear it. Everyone wants to hear how easy it is to break in, and how we're all going to end up like Stephanie Meyer or J.K. Rowling or Stephen King. It's really, really hard to tell someone who is looking for some hope and inspiration that those people are lucky and they only represent 1% of writers. Most of us don't even make above poverty level wages. Sorry.
*sigh*
I didn't actually get around to all that on the phone. That's a conversation, I decided, for face-to-face. Instead, I told her to enjoy the process. Keep at it. Writing can be a very fulfilling and creative and wonderful way to spend your time. And if you can find the writing itself an enjoyable task, then rest... well, the rest won't seem so bad. Honest.
I hate to burst that bubble of enthusiasm. I don't want to have to tell people that I could not afford to stay home an write if my partner didn't pay the bills. Money isn't the reason a person should consider a career in writing, because even when it's going gangbusters, like it is for me, it comes in drips and drabs and you can't count on it to pay the bills. You just can't.
That conversation sucks. Nobody wants to hear it. Everyone wants to hear how easy it is to break in, and how we're all going to end up like Stephanie Meyer or J.K. Rowling or Stephen King. It's really, really hard to tell someone who is looking for some hope and inspiration that those people are lucky and they only represent 1% of writers. Most of us don't even make above poverty level wages. Sorry.
*sigh*
I didn't actually get around to all that on the phone. That's a conversation, I decided, for face-to-face. Instead, I told her to enjoy the process. Keep at it. Writing can be a very fulfilling and creative and wonderful way to spend your time. And if you can find the writing itself an enjoyable task, then rest... well, the rest won't seem so bad. Honest.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
CONvergence 2009 day 5 (Sun) Kelly's Con Report
DAY 5
Yes, really, Day 5--this was a very long, very cool con.
We started the day off by hitting Perkins for breakfast with Anton who happened to be the first liaison we bumped into: "Hi Anton." "Would you like to go out for breakfast?" "Yes." "Let's go." Everyone should have liaisons.
After breakfast we made our way back to the convention and crafted a scavenger hunt for Jenn. No, really. Laura was doing some kids' science programming and she needed 2 toilet paper rolls, a stack of 3x5 note cards, a cup of peanut M&Ms, a foam plate, and a couple of other things. So I called Jenn and asked if she was up for finding a list of strange items for Laura's event, and not only was she up for it, she seemed pretty happy to have an actual challenge as part of her liaising. It took her just under half an hour.
While Laura was teaching science to the kidlets, I wandered off for a chat with my friend Karl, who I do not get to see very often the exigencies of life and schedule being what they are. In the process I ended up providing another old friend with the final square on his nerd bingo card: "published science fiction author," and having my picture taken with a very polite young fan (young being a relative term which I now apply to anyone under the apparent age of about 25).
Back at the kids programming room Karl got sucked into helping rearrange furniture and I bumped into the fan who picked up my old license plate and the copy of Weird Tales at the auction, and we chatted for a bit. Turns out he grew up a mile or two from where I'm now living. Then Laura was done and we were off to my interview.
Interview, for a con?
Yep. CONvergence does a video-taped interview with every GoH, usually as late as possible in the con so that they've had a chance to experience a good chunk of the con. I suspect it also helps to give the interviewer and interviewee some common ground beyond the GoH's work. That latter wasn't a problem with my interview since it was done by Tim Wick who (as was mentioned earlier) I have known since I was 6.
It was actually a lot of fun as Tim and I have crossed each others' paths with varying degrees of contact on and off for 35 years now and it's interesting to talk about the parallels and divergences. For example he got out of theater as a primary career in part for the same reasons I did--falling in love and realizing that theater and real relationships make for a really really hard mix to manage.
Apparently some of the notes we struck hit home for our camerawomen as well (another theater refugee) who said she had a real hard time not laughing so loud as to be heard on camera several times. I'm not sure if any portion of the interview will be available anywhere other than the CONvergence 2009 DVD, but if it is and you're still curious about my rug-burned knees story, there's a close up of the injury and an explanation in the interview.
Bigger picture
The other thing the interview did for me was to help put the whole weekend in perspective since career perspective was part of the flow of conversation. The biggest component of that in regards to GoHing is, in retrospect, getting a sense of how much the work I do matters to readers. As much as I may make light of what I do, telling stories is important. It's important enough that good stories change peoples lives. That's why we have fandoms and cons and why people like me get the amazing opportunities we do to connect with readers, both through our work and through things like being invited to be a Guest of Honor at a convention or to read and sign our books.
At a big multi-media con like CONvergence my part of that is only a tiny sliver of what draws in fans, but it's still important and that's very very cool. It's stunning and humbling as well. Enough so that if this writing thing ever takes off to the degree that Laura and I can afford that getaway place in Scotland, we're naming it "Flabbergasted."
Final panel
After the interview I needed to head off to my final major piece of programming:
3:30 PM: The Twin Cities School (Panelist(s): Kelly McCullough, Hilary Moon Murphy, Michael Merriam, Ruth Berman
In which we talked about the Twin Cities writing scene: Whether there's a distinct regional voice (no). Its history (deep and long). How you can be a part of it (write something). Why it's so strong (incredible fan support has a huge amount to do with it). Etc. This was a fun, hopeful, panel to close out the con.
Jerry Pournelle was wrong
My next event was closing ceremonies where I was supposed to get up and say something about my experiences at the con when I was introduced. Here is approximately what I said:
"Jerry Pournelle was wrong. I'm a Writers of the Future winner, an event where they treat you amazingly well. So well in fact, that Jerry Pournelle told a bunch of us: 'Enjoy this experience as much you can, really soak it up because you will never ever in your writing careers be treated this well again.' Jerry Pournelle was wrong. At CONvergence I was treated not just as well as I was treated at Writers of the Future. I was treated better. I've had an incredible experience here this weekend. Thank you all so much."
Other random notes from closing ceremonies: I got a tribble. So did Laura. They were on all the GoH seats as well as scattered throughout the main stage seating. I got to see Dwayne hit a near life size picture of Wolverine with a cream pie, and Brian hit himself with another. Like opening ceremonies these were handled expeditiously and professionally. I now know the ASL sign for ball--translated from the chanting of the crowd demanding the return of the beach balls we'd been batting around.
Dinner
After closing ceremonies we went to Khan's Mongolian Barbecue. "We" being the GoH's and spouses, all or most of the liaisons, and some substantial chunk of the concom--something like 40 people in all. Dwayne had at least three fortune cookies because he couldn't get an actual fortune, just platitudes. In fact, with two exceptions all we got were platitudes and only one of those exceptions was a fortune. The best non-conversation / company thing about Khan's was the incredible care they took with Laura's food, scrubbing out a separate cooker and having the manager cook her meal himself to make sure her food didn't get contaminated with gluten from the house sauce. On her second go-round the manager went so far as to take her food away from her before she could eat it and to personally fill a new bowl and cook it for her because he realized that the cook he'd assigned the task had made a mistake with the sauce. Incredible service.
Dead dog
With our return to the hotel we headed for what had been con-suite and sat around with Brian, Jenn, and Lisa for a bit, noshing, chatting and drinking more of Brian's bourbon. Since we were pretty beat, we decided to call it quits sooner rather than later and were actually about to head back to our room when Anton showed up and "very subtly*" suggested he'd really like it if we stayed around for just a bit longer. Then he went off and made a quick call. Okay, at this point we kind of guessed something was up, but even so I was totally stunned when Perrin showed up with a big blue box and handed me a beautiful glass award/sculpture thingie commemorating my stint as a GoH.
One of things about this con that I have to note here was the capacity of the people involved, both at the concom level and in terms of fans for surprising and delighting me. Every time I thought to myself, "well, that's it, I'm so blown away that I can't be blown any further" along would come someone or something else to make me that much more happily astonished.
Now, as you will remember, Laura and I had been on our way to bed before the trophies arrived. But of course we had to stay for Brian's presentation. And then Dwayne and Charlotte showed up so we stayed for that (Pat was in his room asleep at this point but came out later after we had left). And then Perrin insisted that, if I was going to make happy sounds about Brian's bourbon, I really ought to try some of the single-malt he was carrying for comparison and I would have been a very ungracious GoH to refuse that, right? But some hours later we finally did head for bed, where I did not pack before sleeping, which will amaze and shock those who know me well.
And then it was Monday and time to return to the real world, where I do not have liaisons eager to make sure that I get fed and caffeinated on a reasonable schedule, nor people lining up to get me to sign their books, or invite me to parties displaying murals of my characters.
Alas.
And, yes, of course, I'm going back next year.
Yes, really, Day 5--this was a very long, very cool con.
We started the day off by hitting Perkins for breakfast with Anton who happened to be the first liaison we bumped into: "Hi Anton." "Would you like to go out for breakfast?" "Yes." "Let's go." Everyone should have liaisons.
After breakfast we made our way back to the convention and crafted a scavenger hunt for Jenn. No, really. Laura was doing some kids' science programming and she needed 2 toilet paper rolls, a stack of 3x5 note cards, a cup of peanut M&Ms, a foam plate, and a couple of other things. So I called Jenn and asked if she was up for finding a list of strange items for Laura's event, and not only was she up for it, she seemed pretty happy to have an actual challenge as part of her liaising. It took her just under half an hour.
While Laura was teaching science to the kidlets, I wandered off for a chat with my friend Karl, who I do not get to see very often the exigencies of life and schedule being what they are. In the process I ended up providing another old friend with the final square on his nerd bingo card: "published science fiction author," and having my picture taken with a very polite young fan (young being a relative term which I now apply to anyone under the apparent age of about 25).
Back at the kids programming room Karl got sucked into helping rearrange furniture and I bumped into the fan who picked up my old license plate and the copy of Weird Tales at the auction, and we chatted for a bit. Turns out he grew up a mile or two from where I'm now living. Then Laura was done and we were off to my interview.
Interview, for a con?
Yep. CONvergence does a video-taped interview with every GoH, usually as late as possible in the con so that they've had a chance to experience a good chunk of the con. I suspect it also helps to give the interviewer and interviewee some common ground beyond the GoH's work. That latter wasn't a problem with my interview since it was done by Tim Wick who (as was mentioned earlier) I have known since I was 6.
It was actually a lot of fun as Tim and I have crossed each others' paths with varying degrees of contact on and off for 35 years now and it's interesting to talk about the parallels and divergences. For example he got out of theater as a primary career in part for the same reasons I did--falling in love and realizing that theater and real relationships make for a really really hard mix to manage.
Apparently some of the notes we struck hit home for our camerawomen as well (another theater refugee) who said she had a real hard time not laughing so loud as to be heard on camera several times. I'm not sure if any portion of the interview will be available anywhere other than the CONvergence 2009 DVD, but if it is and you're still curious about my rug-burned knees story, there's a close up of the injury and an explanation in the interview.
Bigger picture
The other thing the interview did for me was to help put the whole weekend in perspective since career perspective was part of the flow of conversation. The biggest component of that in regards to GoHing is, in retrospect, getting a sense of how much the work I do matters to readers. As much as I may make light of what I do, telling stories is important. It's important enough that good stories change peoples lives. That's why we have fandoms and cons and why people like me get the amazing opportunities we do to connect with readers, both through our work and through things like being invited to be a Guest of Honor at a convention or to read and sign our books.
At a big multi-media con like CONvergence my part of that is only a tiny sliver of what draws in fans, but it's still important and that's very very cool. It's stunning and humbling as well. Enough so that if this writing thing ever takes off to the degree that Laura and I can afford that getaway place in Scotland, we're naming it "Flabbergasted."
Final panel
After the interview I needed to head off to my final major piece of programming:
3:30 PM: The Twin Cities School (Panelist(s): Kelly McCullough, Hilary Moon Murphy, Michael Merriam, Ruth Berman
In which we talked about the Twin Cities writing scene: Whether there's a distinct regional voice (no). Its history (deep and long). How you can be a part of it (write something). Why it's so strong (incredible fan support has a huge amount to do with it). Etc. This was a fun, hopeful, panel to close out the con.
Jerry Pournelle was wrong
My next event was closing ceremonies where I was supposed to get up and say something about my experiences at the con when I was introduced. Here is approximately what I said:
"Jerry Pournelle was wrong. I'm a Writers of the Future winner, an event where they treat you amazingly well. So well in fact, that Jerry Pournelle told a bunch of us: 'Enjoy this experience as much you can, really soak it up because you will never ever in your writing careers be treated this well again.' Jerry Pournelle was wrong. At CONvergence I was treated not just as well as I was treated at Writers of the Future. I was treated better. I've had an incredible experience here this weekend. Thank you all so much."
Other random notes from closing ceremonies: I got a tribble. So did Laura. They were on all the GoH seats as well as scattered throughout the main stage seating. I got to see Dwayne hit a near life size picture of Wolverine with a cream pie, and Brian hit himself with another. Like opening ceremonies these were handled expeditiously and professionally. I now know the ASL sign for ball--translated from the chanting of the crowd demanding the return of the beach balls we'd been batting around.
Dinner
After closing ceremonies we went to Khan's Mongolian Barbecue. "We" being the GoH's and spouses, all or most of the liaisons, and some substantial chunk of the concom--something like 40 people in all. Dwayne had at least three fortune cookies because he couldn't get an actual fortune, just platitudes. In fact, with two exceptions all we got were platitudes and only one of those exceptions was a fortune. The best non-conversation / company thing about Khan's was the incredible care they took with Laura's food, scrubbing out a separate cooker and having the manager cook her meal himself to make sure her food didn't get contaminated with gluten from the house sauce. On her second go-round the manager went so far as to take her food away from her before she could eat it and to personally fill a new bowl and cook it for her because he realized that the cook he'd assigned the task had made a mistake with the sauce. Incredible service.
Dead dog
With our return to the hotel we headed for what had been con-suite and sat around with Brian, Jenn, and Lisa for a bit, noshing, chatting and drinking more of Brian's bourbon. Since we were pretty beat, we decided to call it quits sooner rather than later and were actually about to head back to our room when Anton showed up and "very subtly*" suggested he'd really like it if we stayed around for just a bit longer. Then he went off and made a quick call. Okay, at this point we kind of guessed something was up, but even so I was totally stunned when Perrin showed up with a big blue box and handed me a beautiful glass award/sculpture thingie commemorating my stint as a GoH.
One of things about this con that I have to note here was the capacity of the people involved, both at the concom level and in terms of fans for surprising and delighting me. Every time I thought to myself, "well, that's it, I'm so blown away that I can't be blown any further" along would come someone or something else to make me that much more happily astonished.
Now, as you will remember, Laura and I had been on our way to bed before the trophies arrived. But of course we had to stay for Brian's presentation. And then Dwayne and Charlotte showed up so we stayed for that (Pat was in his room asleep at this point but came out later after we had left). And then Perrin insisted that, if I was going to make happy sounds about Brian's bourbon, I really ought to try some of the single-malt he was carrying for comparison and I would have been a very ungracious GoH to refuse that, right? But some hours later we finally did head for bed, where I did not pack before sleeping, which will amaze and shock those who know me well.
And then it was Monday and time to return to the real world, where I do not have liaisons eager to make sure that I get fed and caffeinated on a reasonable schedule, nor people lining up to get me to sign their books, or invite me to parties displaying murals of my characters.
Alas.
And, yes, of course, I'm going back next year.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
CONvergence 2009 day 4 (Sat) Kelly's Con Report
Getting going
As some of you may recall I ended Friday in a case of complete gearstrippage due to all the cool stuff that had happened. Thus I began Saturday in a sort of advanced state of shock exacerbated by knowing what my first panel was going to be. More on which, later.
I had an earlyish panel, so we didn't have time to got for breakfast and I just asked my liaison if she could grab a couple of sausage and egg biscuity things from Burger King for me and some yogurt for Laura and bring them by the room. I found this remarkably hard to do, despite the fact that that's one of the reasons they assign us liaisons.
I'm not that into me
So, my first panel on Saturday was one that I had very mixed feelings about beforehand:
11:00 AM: The Works of Kelly McCullough (Panelist(s): Kelly McCullough, Eric Heideman (mod), David Lenander (mod)
The reason for this is that I'm just not that into me. Now, don't get me wrong, I've got a very healthy ego and I love to be the center of attention--I am a former actor after all. But at the same time, one of the joys of writing for me has turned out to be the time I spend alone sunk into make-believe worlds. Over the 18 years I've been writing my extrovert/introvert balance has shifted from 90/10 to something more like 50/50. Beyond that, I feel like I haven't really got a large enough published body of work to make for much of a discussion.
Maybe in five years if all the books now under submission are published (which would bring me to 25 across 9 series when the proposal books are added in) there will be something to be said about my body of work. But now...I was more than a little worried about this panel. Needlessly, it turns out. David and Eric were fabulous at making me feel comfortable and making comments and asking questions that really made for a good discussion. Further, I had a great, interested, audience that included quite a few people who had beta read for me at one point or another and who could talk about my work in ways that never would have occurred to me. That said, this panel took a lot out of me, both in terms of worry beforehand and hard mental work during.
Which is why it was great that my next panel was:
12:30 PM: Meet the Wyrdsmiths (Description: Kelly McCullough, Lyda Morehouse, Naomi Kritzer, Sean M. Murphy, Doug Hulick
where I could sit back and let my fellow Wyrdsmiths carry most of the load. I've done four or five of these panels now and they're always an enormous amount of fun, in part because I know going in that the panel will go well. There are any number of ways a panel can fail: bad group dynamics, bad moderator, lone wolf panel hijacker, insufficient material, no audience interest.... With the Wyrdsmiths I know that 1-4 aren't going to be an issue and that thus far the audience has been amused by "The Wyrdsmiths Variety Hour." Even more than that though is that I know going in that I will be on a panel with friends who share my passion for writing.
In which I "volunteer" to moderate
After the Wyrdsmiths panel I had my third back--to-back programming item of the day.
2:00 PM: Genre Blender (Panelist(s): Kelly McCullough, Jeannie Holmes, Matthew Davis, S.D. Hintz, Dana Baird, Jerrod Balzer
When I arrived at this panel I was intercepted by my liaisons bearing diet coke and asking what I wanted them to bring me for lunch. Lunch? That's a great idea. What are you having? Pizza? w00t! Me too. Can you tell I was getting used to having minions?
Since I hadn't really had much previous interaction with the other folks on this panel I asked the "who wants to be the moderator?" question, which is essentially an invitation for everyone else to say "You!" which they did. I was okay with that for a number of reasons. 1) I'm pretty good in the moderator's chair. 2) I would often rather moderate than hand the gavel to an unknown quantity. 3) The moderator doesn't have to talk as much as everybody else if the panel is of any reasonable size.
So how did the panel go? Funny you should ask. I have almost no memory of this panel beyond the opening. I know that it went fairly well despite being somewhat low energy, beyond that.... No idea. Several days of being on had put me in a sort of fugue state where audience response was of more interest to my processing centers than precise tracking of what the hell I was saying or other higher cognition functions.
Then my pizza arrived! It turns out that the blurring was from lack of food as much as anything, and eating helped me recover enough for:
3:30 PM: Kelly McCullough Signing
I headed for the table where I was supposed be signing, pizza in hand (actually I ate at the table in the passing time between events).
our narrator (me) pauses and blinks because...there were people waiting in line to have their books signed, twenty minutes ahead of time.
Now that may not seems unusual to the people reading this, but this is the first time I've ever had a signing go like that. Usually I get to a bookstore about ten minutes early, get set up, and maybe one person arrives just at the opening. Then people trickle through, or if I'm reading, there are people waiting when things start, having arrived at most ten minutes early, and most of the rest show up in the first five minutes. I don't know how many books I signed because I was too busy signing and chatting with my readers to keep track (another first), but Laura and my liaisons tell me that I had 20+ people, which is more than double my next largest pure signing event and bigger even than most of my reading/signings. Again, stunned and humbled.
Time for a liedown
This is the point at which Laura, in consultation with Jenn and Lisa decided it was time for me to go have some down time, which was a really good idea. Then, since we had five conflicting invites to dinner, mostly from people we get to see rarely, we had Jenn and Lisa scare us up some take-out and went back to our room, inviting our various dinner invitors to come back and hang out with us. 2-1/2 hours of not being on as GoH was just what the doctor ordered. I loved the whole CONvergence experience and would sign up to be a returning GoH in a heartbeat, but it was really nice to spend some time just chilling with old friends. Plus, there were fireworks. Our room had a great view of at least two sets.
After that we headed out to the parties, MNPoly (since several of the gang hadn't yet seen the Furies) and Skepchicks, because that's where a number of our friends were hanging out. Not too long after that Laura turned into a pumpkin and I had to take her back to the room, where I almost immediately conked. As it turns out, our timing was perfect, as a medical emergency resulted in a half hour lockdown of the entire wing of parties we had just left, which would have resulted in me falling asleep in a corner of the skepchicks room.
BTW: This programming event never happened. I swear.
11:30 PM: Guest of Honor Cage Match (Panelist(s): Patrick Rothfuss, Kelly McCullough, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, Brian Keene, Joel Hodgson, Mary Jo Pehl, Dwayne McDuffie
As some of you may recall I ended Friday in a case of complete gearstrippage due to all the cool stuff that had happened. Thus I began Saturday in a sort of advanced state of shock exacerbated by knowing what my first panel was going to be. More on which, later.
I had an earlyish panel, so we didn't have time to got for breakfast and I just asked my liaison if she could grab a couple of sausage and egg biscuity things from Burger King for me and some yogurt for Laura and bring them by the room. I found this remarkably hard to do, despite the fact that that's one of the reasons they assign us liaisons.
I'm not that into me
So, my first panel on Saturday was one that I had very mixed feelings about beforehand:
11:00 AM: The Works of Kelly McCullough (Panelist(s): Kelly McCullough, Eric Heideman (mod), David Lenander (mod)
The reason for this is that I'm just not that into me. Now, don't get me wrong, I've got a very healthy ego and I love to be the center of attention--I am a former actor after all. But at the same time, one of the joys of writing for me has turned out to be the time I spend alone sunk into make-believe worlds. Over the 18 years I've been writing my extrovert/introvert balance has shifted from 90/10 to something more like 50/50. Beyond that, I feel like I haven't really got a large enough published body of work to make for much of a discussion.
Maybe in five years if all the books now under submission are published (which would bring me to 25 across 9 series when the proposal books are added in) there will be something to be said about my body of work. But now...I was more than a little worried about this panel. Needlessly, it turns out. David and Eric were fabulous at making me feel comfortable and making comments and asking questions that really made for a good discussion. Further, I had a great, interested, audience that included quite a few people who had beta read for me at one point or another and who could talk about my work in ways that never would have occurred to me. That said, this panel took a lot out of me, both in terms of worry beforehand and hard mental work during.
Which is why it was great that my next panel was:
12:30 PM: Meet the Wyrdsmiths (Description: Kelly McCullough, Lyda Morehouse, Naomi Kritzer, Sean M. Murphy, Doug Hulick
where I could sit back and let my fellow Wyrdsmiths carry most of the load. I've done four or five of these panels now and they're always an enormous amount of fun, in part because I know going in that the panel will go well. There are any number of ways a panel can fail: bad group dynamics, bad moderator, lone wolf panel hijacker, insufficient material, no audience interest.... With the Wyrdsmiths I know that 1-4 aren't going to be an issue and that thus far the audience has been amused by "The Wyrdsmiths Variety Hour." Even more than that though is that I know going in that I will be on a panel with friends who share my passion for writing.
In which I "volunteer" to moderate
After the Wyrdsmiths panel I had my third back--to-back programming item of the day.
2:00 PM: Genre Blender (Panelist(s): Kelly McCullough, Jeannie Holmes, Matthew Davis, S.D. Hintz, Dana Baird, Jerrod Balzer
When I arrived at this panel I was intercepted by my liaisons bearing diet coke and asking what I wanted them to bring me for lunch. Lunch? That's a great idea. What are you having? Pizza? w00t! Me too. Can you tell I was getting used to having minions?
Since I hadn't really had much previous interaction with the other folks on this panel I asked the "who wants to be the moderator?" question, which is essentially an invitation for everyone else to say "You!" which they did. I was okay with that for a number of reasons. 1) I'm pretty good in the moderator's chair. 2) I would often rather moderate than hand the gavel to an unknown quantity. 3) The moderator doesn't have to talk as much as everybody else if the panel is of any reasonable size.
So how did the panel go? Funny you should ask. I have almost no memory of this panel beyond the opening. I know that it went fairly well despite being somewhat low energy, beyond that.... No idea. Several days of being on had put me in a sort of fugue state where audience response was of more interest to my processing centers than precise tracking of what the hell I was saying or other higher cognition functions.
Then my pizza arrived! It turns out that the blurring was from lack of food as much as anything, and eating helped me recover enough for:
3:30 PM: Kelly McCullough Signing
I headed for the table where I was supposed be signing, pizza in hand (actually I ate at the table in the passing time between events).
our narrator (me) pauses and blinks because...there were people waiting in line to have their books signed, twenty minutes ahead of time.
Now that may not seems unusual to the people reading this, but this is the first time I've ever had a signing go like that. Usually I get to a bookstore about ten minutes early, get set up, and maybe one person arrives just at the opening. Then people trickle through, or if I'm reading, there are people waiting when things start, having arrived at most ten minutes early, and most of the rest show up in the first five minutes. I don't know how many books I signed because I was too busy signing and chatting with my readers to keep track (another first), but Laura and my liaisons tell me that I had 20+ people, which is more than double my next largest pure signing event and bigger even than most of my reading/signings. Again, stunned and humbled.
Time for a liedown
This is the point at which Laura, in consultation with Jenn and Lisa decided it was time for me to go have some down time, which was a really good idea. Then, since we had five conflicting invites to dinner, mostly from people we get to see rarely, we had Jenn and Lisa scare us up some take-out and went back to our room, inviting our various dinner invitors to come back and hang out with us. 2-1/2 hours of not being on as GoH was just what the doctor ordered. I loved the whole CONvergence experience and would sign up to be a returning GoH in a heartbeat, but it was really nice to spend some time just chilling with old friends. Plus, there were fireworks. Our room had a great view of at least two sets.
After that we headed out to the parties, MNPoly (since several of the gang hadn't yet seen the Furies) and Skepchicks, because that's where a number of our friends were hanging out. Not too long after that Laura turned into a pumpkin and I had to take her back to the room, where I almost immediately conked. As it turns out, our timing was perfect, as a medical emergency resulted in a half hour lockdown of the entire wing of parties we had just left, which would have resulted in me falling asleep in a corner of the skepchicks room.
BTW: This programming event never happened. I swear.
11:30 PM: Guest of Honor Cage Match (Panelist(s): Patrick Rothfuss, Kelly McCullough, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, Brian Keene, Joel Hodgson, Mary Jo Pehl, Dwayne McDuffie
Monday, July 13, 2009
Monday Afternoon Tuesday Morning WIP Open Thread
"What's for Breakfast," it should be known, was in no way meant to substitute for our traditional Monday work-in-progress open thread. Accordingly, breakfast having been had a while ago (even by us late risers), now's the time to ask: what's on your plate, metaphorically or literally speaking, today?
Sunday, July 12, 2009
CONvergence 2009 day 3 (Fri) Kelly's Con Report
Breakfast
We had breakfast at the OPH again, this time with Dwayne, Charlotte, Anton, and Anton's friend Tom. Laura had banana pancakes, and I had basted eggs and country bacon, yum. More cool conversation. Dwayne, like Laura is a physicist, and Charlotte told an amazingly cool story about meeting Jim Henson when she was a kid and how he helped her start down the path to becoming a TV writer.
Programming!
I was highly scheduled on Friday with no passing time between my first three events, which meant I was a little late to my reading. If not for the efficiency of my liaison Jenn, I'd have been a lot late, and probably never have found the photo shoot.
12:30 PM: Beta Reading: Relying on the Honesty of Friends (Panelist(s): Kelly McCullough, Elise Matthesen, M. K. Melin, Kathy Sullivan
This was a fun panel with a lot of useful advice on how to give and receive critique.
1:00 PM: GoH group photo shoot.
We got a tour of the back passages of the hotel on our way to this event, which was in a section of ballroom seemingly cut off from everything but the catering entrance. We were all pretty punchy for the session and got some great silly shots including one with Joel Hodgson punching me in the jaw and another recreating the shooting of Jack Ruby--did I mention we were really punchy? The final, official, version has Dwayne and I and a couple of others holding Joel horizontally in the air in front of the rest of the group. Dwayne's taking most of the weight with me getting much of the rest. There was also a really great group shot with us and all of the liaisons. Afterward we signed copies of our badges and a number of tee-shirts as prizes for various awards and charity purposes. As a side note, we also signed a set of the group shots on Saturday for similar purposes.
2:00 PM: Kelly McCullough GOH Reading
I was about 8 minutes late to my own reading, and then it took a couple more minutes to get started as the con was giving Inkheart tees away to people who showed up in an unannounced prize. I read from SpellCrash, the forthcoming final book in the WebMage series and it seemed to go over well. I was still mighty punchy though, so I did more humorous and editorial asides than I might have otherwise. Also, being late meant I was forced to end with my protagonists falling through space, instead of at the rest point I'd hoped to get to a couple of pages later. After the reading, one of the people from the MNPoly room party stopped by to invite us to stop by and see the life-size mural they'd done of my Furies as part of their Greek gods theme--punchy as I was this didn't fully register but I did jot down the room number and promise to drop by.
3:30 PM: Inserting Humor Into Your Writing
(Panelist(s): Kelly McCullough, Brian Keene, M. K. Melin, S.D. Hintz, Jerrod Balzer, Patrick Rothfuss
I think there were actually even more of us there because of one or two late additions, and the room was packed. The panel went all right due to handing over the moderation to Pat, who isn't afraid to be a hard-ass moderator, but it was a little unfocused as usually happens with large panels.
Before the panel, my liaisons stopped by to make sure I got fed, and somewhere in here is when I started leaning on them for stuff that I just didn't have the time to do. I asked Jenn to fetch me some caffeine, and either she or Lisa kept showing up with diet coke when I needed it thereafter and Megan offered to run grab me some egg rolls from the con-suite which sounded lovely, so she sprinted off to fetch them. Have I mentioned how very taken care of I felt at this con? Thank you all!
Afterward another of the MNPoly folks stopped by to let me know about the mural. She also noted that she was cross-playing as Raven from my books. At this point the idea of a mural and someone dressing as one my characters seemed cool, but still didn't really sink in due to the intensity of my schedule thus far.
That's also when the folks from the House of Toast stopped by and got me to come up with a toast recipe--which I wrote on the paper plate they handed me and then signed, promising to try to stop by their party later.
5:00 PM: Why Writers Should Archive
(Panelist(s): Kelly McCullough, Meredith Gillies, Elise Matthesen, Lynne Thomas
Another fun one. Lynne, who archives my stuff, graciously consented to be the moderator. In addition to being a fine moderator, she is both articulate and funny. So are Meredith, who I had never met before, and Elise. That's really all you need for a good panel, but this one also had the fact that all of us are passionate on the topic going for it. Oh, and props. Meredith had brought some copies of items from her collection (she runs the giant bat cave under the U of Mn) and I had hauled along a box of manuscripts that I needed to pass off to Lynne.
Intermission
In which I slipped my handlers' leash and went to dinner with friends from out of state. Okay, that's not completely true. I asked my liaisons nicely what I needed to do if I was going to go off grid for a bit and let them know where I was going and that I would be back after dinner. Laura and I then went to dinner at the Good Earth with our friends Tom Foster (who was Laura's office mate in grad-school) and Pamela Gay (who is a big name astronomy podcaster among the many science outreach hats she wears).
Furies...OMFFSM!
So, after dinner we stopped back at the room, dropped some stuff off and then headed for the parties. We did stop in at House of Toast briefly in here, but they were really packed and we ended up getting distracted by something shiny and wandering off before we got any toast:-( We also stopped at COF2E2 and I had a Tickled Goblin which was actually quite yummy.
Then we went to MNPoly and there were my Furies and Jess in Raven garb, and I pretty much stripped all the remaining gears on my mental transmission. The red carpet treatment and all the attention I was getting had already made this both a fabulous and surreal weekend and led to midwestern me losing a steadily increasing number of gear teeth--going further and further into a sort of state of shock--but the mural and crossplay just completely blew my mind. I was really stunned and humbled and it wasn't until we came back a bit later with Lynne and Michael Thomas, and Michael made some comment about how cool it was that I had someone cosplaying my main character and life-size fan art that it actually sank in. WOW, just WOW.
Later, (~10:30) as I was standing on the bridge-side balcony people-watching and trying to process the whole experience, Brian Keene came along with a couple of bottles of really smooth bourbon and sent one of his liaison's off to find a cup for me--Laura can't drink it because of possible gluten issues. His timing couldn't have been better, because A) I was still kind of shocky, and B) I had agreed to do a bit for villification tennis at 11:00 that included me taking a stage kick to the groin and I hadn't done stage-combat or any kind of show in years which meant that C) a little loosening up was called for. The bourbon definitely loosened me up.
11:00 PM Vilification Tennis Main Stage
Having never been to a Vilification Tennis match before I didn't really know what to expect beyond having a vague idea that two sides would be hurling (often unprintable) insults at each other. This despite the fact that VT and I had overlapped at the Ren Fest by a year or two.
The intro delivered by Tim Wick who is the VT referee was both very funny and quite offensive. That's the point, and it was strongly suggested that if you could be offended now was the time to leave. After the initial part of the intro Tim wandered up to the front of the audience and introduced and picked on me, well us really Tim, myself, and our old friend Karl who wasn't there. Tim and I have known each other since we were 6 and have been friends since we were 9 and Tim killed my very first D&D character, so there was a fairly rich vein to tap in terms of growing up geek together. Not, as Tim pointed out, that either of us has moved out of geekdom.
Apparently being a middle-aged balding science fiction author who is married to a physicist doesn't make me one of the cool kids. Who knew?
My bit in VT was a sort of half-time interlude in the shape of a family-feudesque gameshow, played for laughs not points. We got quite a few. I also got a mock "kick in the junk," a knee actually, but kick was the phrasing in the question. Apparently I haven't forgotten how to make it look real, since I got a number of very concerned sounding "are you okays?" from the other players. Oh, and I also got rug burn on my knees--different bit about which I can only say: "Khaaaaan!"
Then it was over and very late and time for me to go to bed.
We had breakfast at the OPH again, this time with Dwayne, Charlotte, Anton, and Anton's friend Tom. Laura had banana pancakes, and I had basted eggs and country bacon, yum. More cool conversation. Dwayne, like Laura is a physicist, and Charlotte told an amazingly cool story about meeting Jim Henson when she was a kid and how he helped her start down the path to becoming a TV writer.
Programming!
I was highly scheduled on Friday with no passing time between my first three events, which meant I was a little late to my reading. If not for the efficiency of my liaison Jenn, I'd have been a lot late, and probably never have found the photo shoot.
12:30 PM: Beta Reading: Relying on the Honesty of Friends (Panelist(s): Kelly McCullough, Elise Matthesen, M. K. Melin, Kathy Sullivan
This was a fun panel with a lot of useful advice on how to give and receive critique.
1:00 PM: GoH group photo shoot.
We got a tour of the back passages of the hotel on our way to this event, which was in a section of ballroom seemingly cut off from everything but the catering entrance. We were all pretty punchy for the session and got some great silly shots including one with Joel Hodgson punching me in the jaw and another recreating the shooting of Jack Ruby--did I mention we were really punchy? The final, official, version has Dwayne and I and a couple of others holding Joel horizontally in the air in front of the rest of the group. Dwayne's taking most of the weight with me getting much of the rest. There was also a really great group shot with us and all of the liaisons. Afterward we signed copies of our badges and a number of tee-shirts as prizes for various awards and charity purposes. As a side note, we also signed a set of the group shots on Saturday for similar purposes.
2:00 PM: Kelly McCullough GOH Reading
I was about 8 minutes late to my own reading, and then it took a couple more minutes to get started as the con was giving Inkheart tees away to people who showed up in an unannounced prize. I read from SpellCrash, the forthcoming final book in the WebMage series and it seemed to go over well. I was still mighty punchy though, so I did more humorous and editorial asides than I might have otherwise. Also, being late meant I was forced to end with my protagonists falling through space, instead of at the rest point I'd hoped to get to a couple of pages later. After the reading, one of the people from the MNPoly room party stopped by to invite us to stop by and see the life-size mural they'd done of my Furies as part of their Greek gods theme--punchy as I was this didn't fully register but I did jot down the room number and promise to drop by.
3:30 PM: Inserting Humor Into Your Writing
(Panelist(s): Kelly McCullough, Brian Keene, M. K. Melin, S.D. Hintz, Jerrod Balzer, Patrick Rothfuss
I think there were actually even more of us there because of one or two late additions, and the room was packed. The panel went all right due to handing over the moderation to Pat, who isn't afraid to be a hard-ass moderator, but it was a little unfocused as usually happens with large panels.
Before the panel, my liaisons stopped by to make sure I got fed, and somewhere in here is when I started leaning on them for stuff that I just didn't have the time to do. I asked Jenn to fetch me some caffeine, and either she or Lisa kept showing up with diet coke when I needed it thereafter and Megan offered to run grab me some egg rolls from the con-suite which sounded lovely, so she sprinted off to fetch them. Have I mentioned how very taken care of I felt at this con? Thank you all!
Afterward another of the MNPoly folks stopped by to let me know about the mural. She also noted that she was cross-playing as Raven from my books. At this point the idea of a mural and someone dressing as one my characters seemed cool, but still didn't really sink in due to the intensity of my schedule thus far.
That's also when the folks from the House of Toast stopped by and got me to come up with a toast recipe--which I wrote on the paper plate they handed me and then signed, promising to try to stop by their party later.
5:00 PM: Why Writers Should Archive
(Panelist(s): Kelly McCullough, Meredith Gillies, Elise Matthesen, Lynne Thomas
Another fun one. Lynne, who archives my stuff, graciously consented to be the moderator. In addition to being a fine moderator, she is both articulate and funny. So are Meredith, who I had never met before, and Elise. That's really all you need for a good panel, but this one also had the fact that all of us are passionate on the topic going for it. Oh, and props. Meredith had brought some copies of items from her collection (she runs the giant bat cave under the U of Mn) and I had hauled along a box of manuscripts that I needed to pass off to Lynne.
Intermission
In which I slipped my handlers' leash and went to dinner with friends from out of state. Okay, that's not completely true. I asked my liaisons nicely what I needed to do if I was going to go off grid for a bit and let them know where I was going and that I would be back after dinner. Laura and I then went to dinner at the Good Earth with our friends Tom Foster (who was Laura's office mate in grad-school) and Pamela Gay (who is a big name astronomy podcaster among the many science outreach hats she wears).
Furies...OMFFSM!
So, after dinner we stopped back at the room, dropped some stuff off and then headed for the parties. We did stop in at House of Toast briefly in here, but they were really packed and we ended up getting distracted by something shiny and wandering off before we got any toast:-( We also stopped at COF2E2 and I had a Tickled Goblin which was actually quite yummy.
Then we went to MNPoly and there were my Furies and Jess in Raven garb, and I pretty much stripped all the remaining gears on my mental transmission. The red carpet treatment and all the attention I was getting had already made this both a fabulous and surreal weekend and led to midwestern me losing a steadily increasing number of gear teeth--going further and further into a sort of state of shock--but the mural and crossplay just completely blew my mind. I was really stunned and humbled and it wasn't until we came back a bit later with Lynne and Michael Thomas, and Michael made some comment about how cool it was that I had someone cosplaying my main character and life-size fan art that it actually sank in. WOW, just WOW.
Later, (~10:30) as I was standing on the bridge-side balcony people-watching and trying to process the whole experience, Brian Keene came along with a couple of bottles of really smooth bourbon and sent one of his liaison's off to find a cup for me--Laura can't drink it because of possible gluten issues. His timing couldn't have been better, because A) I was still kind of shocky, and B) I had agreed to do a bit for villification tennis at 11:00 that included me taking a stage kick to the groin and I hadn't done stage-combat or any kind of show in years which meant that C) a little loosening up was called for. The bourbon definitely loosened me up.
11:00 PM Vilification Tennis Main Stage
Having never been to a Vilification Tennis match before I didn't really know what to expect beyond having a vague idea that two sides would be hurling (often unprintable) insults at each other. This despite the fact that VT and I had overlapped at the Ren Fest by a year or two.
The intro delivered by Tim Wick who is the VT referee was both very funny and quite offensive. That's the point, and it was strongly suggested that if you could be offended now was the time to leave. After the initial part of the intro Tim wandered up to the front of the audience and introduced and picked on me, well us really Tim, myself, and our old friend Karl who wasn't there. Tim and I have known each other since we were 6 and have been friends since we were 9 and Tim killed my very first D&D character, so there was a fairly rich vein to tap in terms of growing up geek together. Not, as Tim pointed out, that either of us has moved out of geekdom.
Apparently being a middle-aged balding science fiction author who is married to a physicist doesn't make me one of the cool kids. Who knew?
My bit in VT was a sort of half-time interlude in the shape of a family-feudesque gameshow, played for laughs not points. We got quite a few. I also got a mock "kick in the junk," a knee actually, but kick was the phrasing in the question. Apparently I haven't forgotten how to make it look real, since I got a number of very concerned sounding "are you okays?" from the other players. Oh, and I also got rug burn on my knees--different bit about which I can only say: "Khaaaaan!"
Then it was over and very late and time for me to go to bed.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
A Tradition of Reading
In the years B.C. (before child), my partner and I had this wonderful habit of reading to each other during the performance of arduous chores, particularly she would read to me while I was doing the dishes. We recently resurrected this tradition. Now, not only is the kitchen cleaner on a more regular basis, but I also get the pleasure of hearing various horror short stories in collection (the book we chose for this time.)
A couple of days ago, she read me “Sredni Vashtar” by Saki (H. H. Munro.) If you are a fan of horror, you may know the author from her/his more famous “The Open Window” (not to be confused with the movie classic “Rear Window.”)
“Sredni Vashtar” is the name of a weasel that a young, sickly British boy discovers caged in the back corner of a mostly-forgotten garden shed. There is also a hen living there, upon which the boy lavishes attention (because, in the way of British boys in novels and short stories, he doesn’t get much love from his nanny or completely absent parents.) But, it’s the ferret/weasel that he *worships.* Literally. On “holy” days or days to celebrate certain personal victories, the boy brings Sredni Vashtar delicacies which he places lovingly and with much ceremony in front of the weasel.
Creepy right?
What’s kind of interesting about this story? It kind of plays with your horror story assumptions. You know something bad is going to happen involving the weasel, but I, at least, was totally routing for the boy to get his way over the awful nanny, especially when she decides he spends too much time in the shed and is determined to sell off the beloved hen and… kill? (it’s implied, but not really stated) Sredni Vashtar.
I don’t want to give away the ending, in case you decide to look it up for yourself, but let’s just say I was deeply satisfied by the ending even though part of me knew it was morally wrong to feel that way.
A very worth while short. And it sort of makes you ask yourself: do people make their own gods? Did this boy invest Shredni Vashtar with magic powers simply because he BELIEVED, or… is everything that happened just coincidence???
Cool premise, don’t you think?
A couple of days ago, she read me “Sredni Vashtar” by Saki (H. H. Munro.) If you are a fan of horror, you may know the author from her/his more famous “The Open Window” (not to be confused with the movie classic “Rear Window.”)
“Sredni Vashtar” is the name of a weasel that a young, sickly British boy discovers caged in the back corner of a mostly-forgotten garden shed. There is also a hen living there, upon which the boy lavishes attention (because, in the way of British boys in novels and short stories, he doesn’t get much love from his nanny or completely absent parents.) But, it’s the ferret/weasel that he *worships.* Literally. On “holy” days or days to celebrate certain personal victories, the boy brings Sredni Vashtar delicacies which he places lovingly and with much ceremony in front of the weasel.
Creepy right?
What’s kind of interesting about this story? It kind of plays with your horror story assumptions. You know something bad is going to happen involving the weasel, but I, at least, was totally routing for the boy to get his way over the awful nanny, especially when she decides he spends too much time in the shed and is determined to sell off the beloved hen and… kill? (it’s implied, but not really stated) Sredni Vashtar.
I don’t want to give away the ending, in case you decide to look it up for yourself, but let’s just say I was deeply satisfied by the ending even though part of me knew it was morally wrong to feel that way.
A very worth while short. And it sort of makes you ask yourself: do people make their own gods? Did this boy invest Shredni Vashtar with magic powers simply because he BELIEVED, or… is everything that happened just coincidence???
Cool premise, don’t you think?
Friday, July 10, 2009
Friday Cat Blogging, Now With Hot Squirrel Action
Synchronized napping.
I will go outside if you carry me.
Squirrels!
Squirrels! Jordan's down left.
Hey Bob, you find anything?
Damn cat's still there.
Here I come to save the day!
I will go outside if you carry me.
Squirrels!
Squirrels! Jordan's down left.
Hey Bob, you find anything?
Damn cat's still there.
Here I come to save the day!
CONvergence 2009 day 2 (Th) Kelly's Con Report
Pre-Panel
Started the morning with breakfast at the Original Pancake House with Mandy, Mark, Megan, Laura and returning GoH Brian Keene who I'd never met before--great guy. OPH can do most of their pancakes and waffles gluten free which made them a great fit for Laura. Wonderful food and good company.
Afterward we headed back and wandered around the con for a bit, catching up with numerous friends and people-watching--which latter is one of the great joys of CONvergence. I didn't have anything scheduled until five, and was pretty much free to roam until then, so we did.
Panel
My first panel was at five "Going from a Poor Unpublished Author to a Poor Published Author" with fellow GoH Pat Rothfuss. It was pretty much the Pat and Kelly show and a fun panel since I like Pat (having previously guested with him at the Chippewa Valley Book Festival) and we play off each other well. The focus was mostly on how you get from writing to getting paid for writing, and surrounding subtopics.
Opening Ceremony
My next event was Opening Ceremonies scheduled for seven, where I would have the arduous task of standing up and waving to the crowd when they introduced me. Yay, very hard to blow standing up and waving, right?
The plan was to head over about ten minutes before the event began and meet my liaisons for an escort down to the front row. At a quarter to seven we were standing on the bridge-side balcony overlooking the pool. At the time I noted that we needed to get moving in about four minutes, since we didn't have far to go. Five minutes later, my liaison Jenn, magically appeared to let us know it was time escort us over to the main stage. Let me note that I hadn't seen either of my liaisons in over an hour, nor noticed anyone else from the liaison corps. Yet, in the very instant that I was in danger of being a minute late, Jenn appeared. I will happily recommend any of the CONvergence liaisons for Secret Service duty should they want.
So, then we get into the back of the main stage and find out that the previous event is running a little long. I took that as a sign that I had a moment to duck off to the men's room and did so. When I came back I discovered that from the back Jenn and Laura are very nearly twins (see my picture post earlier this week). I managed (only just) not to wrap my arms around the wrong redhead and we waited two more minutes before heading down to our seating.
Okay, you remember that I noted that all I had to do was stand up and wave at the right moment? Well, I blew it by standing up way too early and then being stuck there for some time when the very on top of it techies hit me with a spotlight through my whole intro. Everyone else, perhaps learning from my mistakes, got it right, standing briefly at the end of their intros. Sigh.
BTW, I normally skip opening ceremonies at conventions for a variety of reasons, but these were fabulous--fast, funny, and soon over. Several of the other GoH with much more experience at this whole routine told me that these were the best they'd ever seen.
Dinner
After the ceremonies we headed out for dinner. We being me, Laura, fellow GoHs Pat Rothfuss and Dwayne McDuffie, Dwayne's fiancee Charlotte Fullerton (who writes for a number of television shows), Anton, Megan, and fellow Wyrdsmith Sean Murphy (who is also my brother-in-law). Over the next 2-1/2 hours we had a wide-ranging discussion about art, politics, religion, and all those things you talk about with smart opinionated people.
And then to bed.
Since Friday was going to be my longest day of the convention Laura and I headed to bed pretty much right after dinner.
Started the morning with breakfast at the Original Pancake House with Mandy, Mark, Megan, Laura and returning GoH Brian Keene who I'd never met before--great guy. OPH can do most of their pancakes and waffles gluten free which made them a great fit for Laura. Wonderful food and good company.
Afterward we headed back and wandered around the con for a bit, catching up with numerous friends and people-watching--which latter is one of the great joys of CONvergence. I didn't have anything scheduled until five, and was pretty much free to roam until then, so we did.
Panel
My first panel was at five "Going from a Poor Unpublished Author to a Poor Published Author" with fellow GoH Pat Rothfuss. It was pretty much the Pat and Kelly show and a fun panel since I like Pat (having previously guested with him at the Chippewa Valley Book Festival) and we play off each other well. The focus was mostly on how you get from writing to getting paid for writing, and surrounding subtopics.
Opening Ceremony
My next event was Opening Ceremonies scheduled for seven, where I would have the arduous task of standing up and waving to the crowd when they introduced me. Yay, very hard to blow standing up and waving, right?
The plan was to head over about ten minutes before the event began and meet my liaisons for an escort down to the front row. At a quarter to seven we were standing on the bridge-side balcony overlooking the pool. At the time I noted that we needed to get moving in about four minutes, since we didn't have far to go. Five minutes later, my liaison Jenn, magically appeared to let us know it was time escort us over to the main stage. Let me note that I hadn't seen either of my liaisons in over an hour, nor noticed anyone else from the liaison corps. Yet, in the very instant that I was in danger of being a minute late, Jenn appeared. I will happily recommend any of the CONvergence liaisons for Secret Service duty should they want.
So, then we get into the back of the main stage and find out that the previous event is running a little long. I took that as a sign that I had a moment to duck off to the men's room and did so. When I came back I discovered that from the back Jenn and Laura are very nearly twins (see my picture post earlier this week). I managed (only just) not to wrap my arms around the wrong redhead and we waited two more minutes before heading down to our seating.
Okay, you remember that I noted that all I had to do was stand up and wave at the right moment? Well, I blew it by standing up way too early and then being stuck there for some time when the very on top of it techies hit me with a spotlight through my whole intro. Everyone else, perhaps learning from my mistakes, got it right, standing briefly at the end of their intros. Sigh.
BTW, I normally skip opening ceremonies at conventions for a variety of reasons, but these were fabulous--fast, funny, and soon over. Several of the other GoH with much more experience at this whole routine told me that these were the best they'd ever seen.
Dinner
After the ceremonies we headed out for dinner. We being me, Laura, fellow GoHs Pat Rothfuss and Dwayne McDuffie, Dwayne's fiancee Charlotte Fullerton (who writes for a number of television shows), Anton, Megan, and fellow Wyrdsmith Sean Murphy (who is also my brother-in-law). Over the next 2-1/2 hours we had a wide-ranging discussion about art, politics, religion, and all those things you talk about with smart opinionated people.
And then to bed.
Since Friday was going to be my longest day of the convention Laura and I headed to bed pretty much right after dinner.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
CONvergence 2009 Day 1 (Wed) Kelly's Con Report
I'm going to break my con report across multiple days because it was a really experience dense con for me.
Packing and the drive in
Getting everything we needed for GoHing at a 4 day convention into the Smart was a fun challenge. It was also really cool to drive the brand new micro-car in to the convention. It was the last time I was allowed to drive for the weekend as both Laura and I were concerned that I would be too distracted once things got going.
Arrival
Laura and I arrived on Wednesday evening and were met by Mandy Temple who gave us our room keys in the club floors of the north tower. We unloaded and grabbed some snacks at the club lounge then checked the room out--pausing periodically to look down at the Smart and squee. After unpacking we headed down to the pre-con reception.
Reception
The reception was a big informal event with snacks and drinks and fabulous cake.
I met up with my guest liaisons there, Lisa and Jenn who had signed up for the task of making sure I made it to all my programming and generally catering to my every whim as a GoH, tasks at which they excelled. I also met liaisons Anton and Megan, and Mandy's husband Mark. I met several of the others as well but the six named here are the ones who primarily took care of Laura and I. The liaison corps is incredible and we were pretty much treated like royalty for the duration of our stay with the con, though I am perhaps a bit too midwestern to revel in it as much as I should have.
Other points of note:
This is when I got my amazing custom designed badge and signed a poster with the same Mel/Connie art as the badge for the chai drink recipe they asked me to concoct for Cof2e2 (the con's coffee house). I called my drink the Tickled Goblin: chai, milk, chocolate, and whipped cream. I also chatted with a young fan named Jon who was quite excited to meet the author of a book he very much liked.
I was already pretty dazed by everything as I was introduced to Chris Jones (who did the amazing badge art) and Jon Olsen (who was involved in THACO) as well as several more con-com folks. I also re-met Peter Verrant and Michael Lee. After that I sat around with Laura and Pat Rothfuss and chatted with an ever-changing circle of people, many of them old friends, including Tim, Pat, Karl, Jody, Angie, Ed, and several more folks whose names are currently escaping me--have I mentioned that I'm really bad at names? After a while the reception wound down and Mandy escorted us back up to our room to make sure we were comfortable.
Post-reception
We chatted very briefly with Mandy as she dropped off a big bag of snacks and soda (they'd asked me for a list several days before) and my master schedule, which included several non-public events like the GoH group photo shoot and my interview time and location. I also handed off the items I'd brought for the charity auction: a copy of the Weird Tales that debuted my first story (the original WebMage short), a limited edition promotional paperback that ACE put out with a number of authors' first chapters entitled "Urban Noir," and a custom license plate (Womp Rat) from a Hyundai I'd owned back in 2001--a Hyundai's not much bigger than 2 meters....
After that, Laura and I collapsed in a happy heap and went to sleep.
Packing and the drive in
Getting everything we needed for GoHing at a 4 day convention into the Smart was a fun challenge. It was also really cool to drive the brand new micro-car in to the convention. It was the last time I was allowed to drive for the weekend as both Laura and I were concerned that I would be too distracted once things got going.
Arrival
Laura and I arrived on Wednesday evening and were met by Mandy Temple who gave us our room keys in the club floors of the north tower. We unloaded and grabbed some snacks at the club lounge then checked the room out--pausing periodically to look down at the Smart and squee. After unpacking we headed down to the pre-con reception.
Reception
The reception was a big informal event with snacks and drinks and fabulous cake.
I met up with my guest liaisons there, Lisa and Jenn who had signed up for the task of making sure I made it to all my programming and generally catering to my every whim as a GoH, tasks at which they excelled. I also met liaisons Anton and Megan, and Mandy's husband Mark. I met several of the others as well but the six named here are the ones who primarily took care of Laura and I. The liaison corps is incredible and we were pretty much treated like royalty for the duration of our stay with the con, though I am perhaps a bit too midwestern to revel in it as much as I should have.
Other points of note:
This is when I got my amazing custom designed badge and signed a poster with the same Mel/Connie art as the badge for the chai drink recipe they asked me to concoct for Cof2e2 (the con's coffee house). I called my drink the Tickled Goblin: chai, milk, chocolate, and whipped cream. I also chatted with a young fan named Jon who was quite excited to meet the author of a book he very much liked.
I was already pretty dazed by everything as I was introduced to Chris Jones (who did the amazing badge art) and Jon Olsen (who was involved in THACO) as well as several more con-com folks. I also re-met Peter Verrant and Michael Lee. After that I sat around with Laura and Pat Rothfuss and chatted with an ever-changing circle of people, many of them old friends, including Tim, Pat, Karl, Jody, Angie, Ed, and several more folks whose names are currently escaping me--have I mentioned that I'm really bad at names? After a while the reception wound down and Mandy escorted us back up to our room to make sure we were comfortable.
Post-reception
We chatted very briefly with Mandy as she dropped off a big bag of snacks and soda (they'd asked me for a list several days before) and my master schedule, which included several non-public events like the GoH group photo shoot and my interview time and location. I also handed off the items I'd brought for the charity auction: a copy of the Weird Tales that debuted my first story (the original WebMage short), a limited edition promotional paperback that ACE put out with a number of authors' first chapters entitled "Urban Noir," and a custom license plate (Womp Rat) from a Hyundai I'd owned back in 2001--a Hyundai's not much bigger than 2 meters....
After that, Laura and I collapsed in a happy heap and went to sleep.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Realism in Comic Books?
Yesterday the mail carrier delivered Mason's Marvel Adventures All-Ages SPIDER-MAN #52, "No Substitutes" (Mark Sumerak).
As usual, I brought it to school and Mason devoured it in the back seat. The nice thing about this routine? On the days I bring comics, Shawn and I can have a mostly-interruption free conversation about her day. Mostly because Mason will still sometimes blurt out with, "Shhhh, I'm trying to read!"
I ended up reading the issue myself, and I want to make one comment about it. First of all, I love the all-ages titles, and I'm only bummed that they stopped producing Fantastic Four All-Ages, because those were Mason's favorites. My theory? FF is too science fiction, even for comic books. I mean, they go into space on a regular basis. I'm not sure a lot of kids these days find that plausible... I mean, unlike, say radioactive spiders giving you super powers.
Anyway, in Spider-Man All Ages, Peter is still a high school teen at Mid-town High or wherever. In this issue, he's leaving the public library and, thanks to his Spidey-senses, stumbles across a secret cabal of villains (psuedo-"Hydra" types). Anyway, he accidentally leaves his biology report on at the scene of the crime after beating up the baddies, and picks up their top secret plans (conveniently in a similar manila file folder) instead. The next day, Peter is mortified to discover he doesn't have his homework. But thinks it's going to be okay when there's a substitute teacher, Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman to those in the know.) No, she comes down hard on him and puts him in detention, which Spidey is kind of grateful for because he's realized that maybe the bad guys might now know his secret identity thanks to his mix-up.
Little does he know that Spider-Woman has his biology report which she found at the scene, and she thinks he's an agent of not-Hydra. At any rate, adventures ensue and, of course, Spider-Man and Spider-Woman end up defeating the evil not-Hydra's plans to blow up Times Square.
The best part of this issue, however, is that the author, Sumerak, finally punches through one of those superhero tropes I hate. The trope (or maybe it's better defined as a crutch) is that people can spend all day with the alter ego of the superhero, talking to him/her, and somehow not recognize their mannerisms and/or voice behind the mask ten minutes later when the hero comes to their rescue. I roll with that because it's so common that I tell myself that the Marvel Universe is populated with people who either chose to ignore the obvious (in the case of Aunt May and MJ "denial isn't just a river in Egypt") or are merely, in the words of my favorite Lois & Clark episode, "galatically stupid."
In this issue, however, at the end when Spidey says he has to leave before the not-S.H.I.E.L.D agents arrive to debrief the heroes to protect his secret identity, Spider-Woman lets him ago with a "you've helped tremendously--" (then, after he's swung a good distance away she says in smaller letters, thus quieter,) "Mr. Parker."
And he never notices. I think it would have been even more awesome if she had just said "Thanks, Mr. Parker," and for him to go, "You're welcome" and zip away, and never notice that he'd answered to his real name, because don't you always figure that might happen some day? (And actually Bendis plays with that in the New Avengers when Daredevil accidentally calls Spider-Man "Peter" in front of Captain America and then stops and says, "Uh, you know Spider-Man is Peter Parker, right?")
I love stuff like that.
It's very Joss Whedon-esque. By that I mean, for a moment, it steps out of your "comfort zone" if you will and says, "why do we roll with that crutch/trope, anyway?" It makes you realize how much wider the world can be if you play with the established "rules."
It's a good lesson in writing, actually.
As usual, I brought it to school and Mason devoured it in the back seat. The nice thing about this routine? On the days I bring comics, Shawn and I can have a mostly-interruption free conversation about her day. Mostly because Mason will still sometimes blurt out with, "Shhhh, I'm trying to read!"
I ended up reading the issue myself, and I want to make one comment about it. First of all, I love the all-ages titles, and I'm only bummed that they stopped producing Fantastic Four All-Ages, because those were Mason's favorites. My theory? FF is too science fiction, even for comic books. I mean, they go into space on a regular basis. I'm not sure a lot of kids these days find that plausible... I mean, unlike, say radioactive spiders giving you super powers.
Anyway, in Spider-Man All Ages, Peter is still a high school teen at Mid-town High or wherever. In this issue, he's leaving the public library and, thanks to his Spidey-senses, stumbles across a secret cabal of villains (psuedo-"Hydra" types). Anyway, he accidentally leaves his biology report on at the scene of the crime after beating up the baddies, and picks up their top secret plans (conveniently in a similar manila file folder) instead. The next day, Peter is mortified to discover he doesn't have his homework. But thinks it's going to be okay when there's a substitute teacher, Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman to those in the know.) No, she comes down hard on him and puts him in detention, which Spidey is kind of grateful for because he's realized that maybe the bad guys might now know his secret identity thanks to his mix-up.
Little does he know that Spider-Woman has his biology report which she found at the scene, and she thinks he's an agent of not-Hydra. At any rate, adventures ensue and, of course, Spider-Man and Spider-Woman end up defeating the evil not-Hydra's plans to blow up Times Square.
The best part of this issue, however, is that the author, Sumerak, finally punches through one of those superhero tropes I hate. The trope (or maybe it's better defined as a crutch) is that people can spend all day with the alter ego of the superhero, talking to him/her, and somehow not recognize their mannerisms and/or voice behind the mask ten minutes later when the hero comes to their rescue. I roll with that because it's so common that I tell myself that the Marvel Universe is populated with people who either chose to ignore the obvious (in the case of Aunt May and MJ "denial isn't just a river in Egypt") or are merely, in the words of my favorite Lois & Clark episode, "galatically stupid."
In this issue, however, at the end when Spidey says he has to leave before the not-S.H.I.E.L.D agents arrive to debrief the heroes to protect his secret identity, Spider-Woman lets him ago with a "you've helped tremendously--" (then, after he's swung a good distance away she says in smaller letters, thus quieter,) "Mr. Parker."
And he never notices. I think it would have been even more awesome if she had just said "Thanks, Mr. Parker," and for him to go, "You're welcome" and zip away, and never notice that he'd answered to his real name, because don't you always figure that might happen some day? (And actually Bendis plays with that in the New Avengers when Daredevil accidentally calls Spider-Man "Peter" in front of Captain America and then stops and says, "Uh, you know Spider-Man is Peter Parker, right?")
I love stuff like that.
It's very Joss Whedon-esque. By that I mean, for a moment, it steps out of your "comfort zone" if you will and says, "why do we roll with that crutch/trope, anyway?" It makes you realize how much wider the world can be if you play with the established "rules."
It's a good lesson in writing, actually.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
CONvergence 2009 1st (photo) post
I'm not up to writing a con report yet, so here are a few photos from my camera.
We got our new Smart car the day before the con
The car from our room
My badges...OMFFSM Chris Jones drew a
Connie/Melchior hybrid badge for me!
Did I mention OMFFSM? This rocks!
My schedule is on the kiosks...coooool...eeep.
Vilification tennis, in which
I get rug burn on my knees
OMFFSM it's a life-size mural of my Furies!
Created by the folks at the MNPoly party
They also had someone (Jess Karels)
who was cross-playing Ravirn
(updated with censored version)
A really cool raven mask—nothing
to do with my books, just cool
One of these women is my wife, one is one
of my guest liaisons. I managed not to grab
the wrong redhead during the convention,
but it was close a couple of times
My mother-in-law had the same problem
From the front the resemblance isn't
_quite_ as strong, but wow
Finally, this was a complete surprise
and I was pretty much speechless
(not a normal condition for me, btw)
And that's just skimming the visual surface. It was an incredible weekend.
We got our new Smart car the day before the con
The car from our room
My badges...OMFFSM Chris Jones drew a
Connie/Melchior hybrid badge for me!
Did I mention OMFFSM? This rocks!
My schedule is on the kiosks...coooool...eeep.
Vilification tennis, in which
I get rug burn on my knees
OMFFSM it's a life-size mural of my Furies!
Created by the folks at the MNPoly party
They also had someone (Jess Karels)
who was cross-playing Ravirn
(updated with censored version)
A really cool raven mask—nothing
to do with my books, just cool
One of these women is my wife, one is one
of my guest liaisons. I managed not to grab
the wrong redhead during the convention,
but it was close a couple of times
My mother-in-law had the same problem
From the front the resemblance isn't
_quite_ as strong, but wow
Finally, this was a complete surprise
and I was pretty much speechless
(not a normal condition for me, btw)
And that's just skimming the visual surface. It was an incredible weekend.
Monday, July 06, 2009
Recovering from the Con...
As has been mentioned, CONvergence was this past weekend. I was thinking that if any of the Wyrdsmiths write con reports we could list links to them here (except Kelly, of course, who has no other blog, who will just have to write here):
Lyda's Con Report
Naomi's Con Report
Tate's Con Report (yes, slightly different)
It would be cool, too, if you would add your con report to the comments!
Lyda's Con Report
Naomi's Con Report
Tate's Con Report (yes, slightly different)
It would be cool, too, if you would add your con report to the comments!
Friday, July 03, 2009
Friday Cat Blogging
Summer and the living is easy.
Die, Ebil Couch, Die!
Arghhh! Chipmunk! Arghhhh!
Relax, I killz it with my mindz.
Does you likez, mah new split-level?
Die, Ebil Couch, Die!
Arghhh! Chipmunk! Arghhhh!
Relax, I killz it with my mindz.
Does you likez, mah new split-level?
Thursday, July 02, 2009
CONvergence is Immenent
Which is why, I suspect, it's pretty much crickets over here. Kelly may already be there (though not to worry, gentle readers, I see he has a "Friday Cat Blog" all set up in the queue.) If you somehow haven't heard, Kelly is one of the guests of honor at CONvergence this year.
When we occasionally talk about self-promotion there's usually a very quick, off-hand, "Oh, and go to conventions."
Most of the time, that's excellent advice. But not all science fiction conventions are created equal, and what you get out of a convention is really dependent on what you're looking for and, potentially, what you're willing to put into it.
You have to ask yourself: what am I looking for?
If you're looking to connect to other fans of a particular genre, TV show or movie, you can attend nearly any science fiction convention and not be disappointed. If you're not sure your particular "fandom" (area of obsessive interest to the layperson) is represented at the con you're considering attending, most cons post a sample, thumbnail, or even complete programming schedule on-line several weeks before the start date. If you feel you have something new to contribute to the discussion of your fandom, most con coms (the guys and gals in charge to the layperson) are more than happy to consider you as a panelist, but to do that you often have to get in on the programming process a lot earlier, like in the idea generating stage, or be in the know with someone on the programming committee.
Why do this if you're a as-yet-unpublished author? Won't showing off your inner geek bust the whole professional image you've been so carefully cultivating?? Well, depends on your area of fandom, but one of the best panels I was ever on was my very first where I got into a heated discussion about the movies of Ripley Scott. I didn't even have a story published, but I ended up making really great connections with the other panelists, one of whom later brought me into her circle of friends that included some movers and shakers in the publishing industry.
You never know who knows who, and even if nothing comes of it having fun is always good, you know? (People can tell if you've come to a convention just to "work," too.)
And that's the other thing. It's never too early to cultivate a fan base. If you are well known and well liked in the science fiction community (or even just someone that triggers a "I think I remember liking her/him on a panel...") it's more likely that people will want to buy your book when it comes out. People like to support friends. They like to be able to say, "I knew her/him then!" (I know *I* do at any rate.)
If you're going to connect with other writers or to learn about the interests of various agents/editor/etc., find a convention with a strong literary track (using the above methods.) These kinds of panels are sometimes more difficult for a beginning author to get on because the competition at this level is more fierce. But you can still attend as an audience member and take mental (or real) notes. But whatever you do, don't rush the editor/agent after the panel to try to press your business card into their palm. I was once at a WorldCon panel where it was a mob scene after the "Meet the Agents" panel. I'd hoped to say hello to someone, but it was pretty useless... and you can always see if you can find yourself in a conversation with someone later on at a party. (Although I try to never mention that I'm a writer or hand off business cards at parties either, unless asked. Thing is? Editors and agents come to parties to relax, not do business. It's good to respect that.)
Even if you never press palms with the person you've been hoping to meet, you can always start that query letter with "I saw you on the [fill in the blank] panel at [fill in the convention]..." they might not be impressed, but they will recognize that you're an active member of the community and have at least potentially learned a thing or two about how the business works.
It's always a question about how much that sort of thing works, because, of course, in the end it's the story that sells itself. You can sell without ever attending a convention. I know plenty of people who avoid conventions like the plague and still sell quite successfully. However, I also know from personal experience that there are times when meeting someone gives you that two extra seconds to help sell your story.
And when you're published, of course, whatever panels you are on help introduce you to your colleagues and potential readers... just make sure, ehm, that dealers' room actually sells books....not to mention YOUR books. (Not that THAT's every happened to me, no sir!) Similarly it's always good to stop by the dealers' room and say "hi" to those hardworking booksellers and offer to sign stock.
At any rate, you never know. Whatever else, conventions can be a great deal of fun. For me, that always makes them worth attending.
See you at CONvergence.
When we occasionally talk about self-promotion there's usually a very quick, off-hand, "Oh, and go to conventions."
Most of the time, that's excellent advice. But not all science fiction conventions are created equal, and what you get out of a convention is really dependent on what you're looking for and, potentially, what you're willing to put into it.
You have to ask yourself: what am I looking for?
If you're looking to connect to other fans of a particular genre, TV show or movie, you can attend nearly any science fiction convention and not be disappointed. If you're not sure your particular "fandom" (area of obsessive interest to the layperson) is represented at the con you're considering attending, most cons post a sample, thumbnail, or even complete programming schedule on-line several weeks before the start date. If you feel you have something new to contribute to the discussion of your fandom, most con coms (the guys and gals in charge to the layperson) are more than happy to consider you as a panelist, but to do that you often have to get in on the programming process a lot earlier, like in the idea generating stage, or be in the know with someone on the programming committee.
Why do this if you're a as-yet-unpublished author? Won't showing off your inner geek bust the whole professional image you've been so carefully cultivating?? Well, depends on your area of fandom, but one of the best panels I was ever on was my very first where I got into a heated discussion about the movies of Ripley Scott. I didn't even have a story published, but I ended up making really great connections with the other panelists, one of whom later brought me into her circle of friends that included some movers and shakers in the publishing industry.
You never know who knows who, and even if nothing comes of it having fun is always good, you know? (People can tell if you've come to a convention just to "work," too.)
And that's the other thing. It's never too early to cultivate a fan base. If you are well known and well liked in the science fiction community (or even just someone that triggers a "I think I remember liking her/him on a panel...") it's more likely that people will want to buy your book when it comes out. People like to support friends. They like to be able to say, "I knew her/him then!" (I know *I* do at any rate.)
If you're going to connect with other writers or to learn about the interests of various agents/editor/etc., find a convention with a strong literary track (using the above methods.) These kinds of panels are sometimes more difficult for a beginning author to get on because the competition at this level is more fierce. But you can still attend as an audience member and take mental (or real) notes. But whatever you do, don't rush the editor/agent after the panel to try to press your business card into their palm. I was once at a WorldCon panel where it was a mob scene after the "Meet the Agents" panel. I'd hoped to say hello to someone, but it was pretty useless... and you can always see if you can find yourself in a conversation with someone later on at a party. (Although I try to never mention that I'm a writer or hand off business cards at parties either, unless asked. Thing is? Editors and agents come to parties to relax, not do business. It's good to respect that.)
Even if you never press palms with the person you've been hoping to meet, you can always start that query letter with "I saw you on the [fill in the blank] panel at [fill in the convention]..." they might not be impressed, but they will recognize that you're an active member of the community and have at least potentially learned a thing or two about how the business works.
It's always a question about how much that sort of thing works, because, of course, in the end it's the story that sells itself. You can sell without ever attending a convention. I know plenty of people who avoid conventions like the plague and still sell quite successfully. However, I also know from personal experience that there are times when meeting someone gives you that two extra seconds to help sell your story.
And when you're published, of course, whatever panels you are on help introduce you to your colleagues and potential readers... just make sure, ehm, that dealers' room actually sells books....not to mention YOUR books. (Not that THAT's every happened to me, no sir!) Similarly it's always good to stop by the dealers' room and say "hi" to those hardworking booksellers and offer to sign stock.
At any rate, you never know. Whatever else, conventions can be a great deal of fun. For me, that always makes them worth attending.
See you at CONvergence.
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