LIT SOUP

40 days and 40 nights...

2009-07-03T03:56:00.003-04:00

...of rain. Everlasting, blasted rain. Welcome to New Hampshire this year. Welcome to Odyssey.

It rains. A lot. So much rain. We have had three days without rain since I arrived on June 6th.

It's the morning of July 3, 2009, and I'm writing this while wearing flannel pajama pants, fleece socks, and a heavy sweatshirt because my window fan registers the temperature at 59 degrees. Have I mentioned that we have no heating in the dorms where we're living? It is July and I'm dressed like this.

I'd almost imagine that I'm in some sort of post-apocalyptic world, but I'm told that other parts of the country have sun. Seattle, for instance. And NYC seems to be in a rare tropical period, where it's sunny and humid, then pouring rain, then sunny again. But at least it's warmer than it is here. It gets to 75 or 80 degrees some days, but only for a few hours at a time. I may freeze to death before this workshop is done.

And how is the weather by you guys? Do you have summer, yet?

(Yes, really, I just wrote an entire blog post complaining about the weather, but it is seriously putrid here most days.)

Captain Eo is dead

2009-06-25T21:52:00.003-04:00

There will probably be countless debate, tribute, and vilification of Michael Jackson, now that he's dead. Cherie Priest has a great, short post that expresses my feelings.

For me, he will always be Captain Eo from the movie they showed at Epcot when I visited in 1988. Enjoy!

Part One:

Part Two:

Books for Breasts

2009-06-22T19:33:00.003-04:00

I have my third story due on Wednesday morning at 7:30am, so I'm only popping in really briefly here...

I wanted to let you know about a wonderful thing that my friend, James Maxey, is doing to support breast cancer. He lost his partner, Laura, to the disease in 2005, and has been a passionate supporter of breast cancer research ever since. Now, he's offering a signed copy of his latest book, DRAGONSEED (Solaris, 2009), to anyone who donates to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation through "Team Dragon", which is the fundraising team he's set up.

Many more details can be found here, at his blog post about Books for Breasts.

If you have a little bit to spare, it's well worth it. One of our good family friends had breast cancer, and my husband's grandmother died of it two years ago. It affects everyone, in every walk of life. Almost everyone knows someone who knows someone who's lost a relative or a friend to this disease. Now you know me. Please go read James' post.

At Amazon

2009-06-18T22:47:00.001-04:00

Just a quick note that THE KING'S DAUGHTERS by Nathalie Mallet is now available at Amazon.

Orders being filled now! =)

Wordnerds

2009-06-17T23:14:00.003-04:00

Have I mentioned yet that Odyssey is everything I hoped it would be and more? It is exhilarating and stimulating, at the same time that it is fatiguing, and I'm learning a million and one things about writing. Melissa Scott is coming as this week's lecturer guest, and we're rolling along on writing new things and discussing our strengths and weaknesses with Jeanne Cavelos (who runs Odyssey).

Plot is one of my weaknesses, which I knew before I came here, and she is so good at helping me with it that I want to put her in a box and take her home with me. =)

The best part of Odyssey though is that I'm surrounded by wordnerds. There are sixteen of us, all passionate about writing, and wanting to talk about it all the time. We have conversations at lunch, in class during our break, walking back and forth from the dorms, and even in the car on the way to dinner (we had a 21st birthday to celebrate today). I can't tell you how much I enjoy being around people who I find intellectually stimulatng, and who are also funny and kind. I would post pictures and names, but I don't want to do that without asking people first. There will eventually probably be a picture of us in Locus at some point, since there usually is of the class as a whole.

Everything has been lovely here, with the exception of the rain and the unseasonable coolness (down to 50-55 degrees at night!). It's supposed to rain the rest of the week, so we've been making a point of going outside to eat our lunches, and then sitting and soaking up the sunshine on the lawn by the dorms, while we read stories for critiques.

I think you can say I'm having fun, and I'm going to come back with a bunch of stories to revise and submit. If you can, seriously think about applying next year. =)

First BY BLOOD WE LIVE review

2009-06-17T03:38:00.000-04:00

While I remember, I'd like to mention that we have the first review in of BY BLOOD WE LIVE, which is the new vampire anthology edited by John Joseph Adams--it's out in August!

From the review: In By Blood We Live, John Joseph Adams has put together a collection of vampire stories that not only flows well together but shows off the best and worst aspects of our favorite creature of the night.

You can preorder the book here.

The Morality of Business

2009-06-16T15:59:00.002-04:00

I have spent the better part of this day quietly contemplating in my head what Twitter should do about the situation in Iran. If you're just joining us, they're killing students in Tehran and there seems to be a mini-revolution going on because of the election. It's bloody and it's bad, and the only way a lot of news is getting out is THROUGH Twitter.

But the students and other Iranian citizen journalists are starting to have a hard time getting through to the proxy servers they've been using to access Twitter. The Iranian government is actively working to censor them and to shut down any news getting out of the country. There are a lot of good people out there who are trying to run proxy servers to help the Iranians access Twitter to get the news out; there's one guy in LA who says he has up to 750 people hitting his server every minute, according to the NY Times. But as soon as the proxies go up, the Iranian government is working to shut them down.

There's little that we can do as private citizens. I have no way to march to Iran and tell them to stop killing their citizens. But I think that a public company, such as Twitter, has a bit more responsibility, especially since their service has become practically the only news source for the entire rest of the civilized world. Even major newspapers are pulling stories off of it. It's a revolution in journalism that shouldn't be stopped by a government that attempts to govern through violence.

I think that Twitter has a moral responsibility to help the people getting killed in Iran. I know it's a difficult thing for a private entity to act against a foreign nation, but there are extra servers they can set up. There are ways they can help provide more proxies. There are ways that they can globally fuck with the Iranian government's censorship. I think they should do it. I think they have a responsibility as a business that has unwittingly gotten embroiled into politics; I think they must act or they will regret doing so. Even now, the United States State Department is urging Twitter to once again delay system maintenance, so as to keep the posts from Iran flowing.

I have great faith in the hivemind of the Internet. I have great faith in the power of the people. I have great faith that if enough of its users demand that Twitter do something, then they will be forced to do so via the will of the people. So please retweet this blog post. Please leave comments, as I'm eager to hear your opinions; comments are moderated, but I release them quickly. Please link to it and spread the word. If we say nothing, if we try to do nothing, then we are just as guilty in those deaths.

In the meantime, here's some other stuff that you can do, via Scott Westerfeld.

FIRE by Kristin Cashore

2009-06-15T23:32:00.002-04:00

In the books read department, when I couldn't sleep on Saturday night...

25. FIRE by Kristin Cashore
I was incredibly lucky to snag a copy of this at this year's BEA and I adored it. I think it touched on a number of themes that are very close to my heart, and at the end, I wanted more. I know it's a prequel to GRACELING, but it's really Fire's own story, which is great. If you liked GRACELING, you'll love FIRE. I eagerly await BITTERBLUE.

And it also has one of the most simply perfect last lines I've ever read in a novel.

Monsters in Iran

2009-06-15T03:44:00.003-04:00

I'm at Odyssey now, without a TV, but as far as I can tell that's a good thing. Since the 24 hour news networks don't seem to be covering what's happening in Iran very well, my husband tells me, and I'm literally getting my news from people Twittering from Iran, including pictures.

And they are horrible pictures.

These are the not-so-horrible-pictures.

There are others that are excessively graphic. They have blood. They have conceivably dead students, judging from the blood. I thought hard and long about putting up the link to them because they are so graphic and so horrifying. And then I thought that I needed to put the link up because as terrible as they are and as much as I want to cry from them... people need to see what the Iranian government is doing to its students.

THE FOLLOWING LINK CONTAINS PICTURES THAT ARE NSFW AND MAY BE UPSETTING TO MANY PEOPLE. PLEASE BE WARNED OF THIS, IF YOU CHOOSE TO CLICK ON THE LINK. THEY ARE MOST DEFINITELY NOT FOR CHILDREN.

These are the horrible pictures from the University of Esfahan.

I sit here, in my safe little dorm room in New Hampshire, and I am utterly horror-struck that they are killing students. Or attempting to kill students. I'm not very sure on the details right now. I just see the pictures and it hurts.

There are monsters out there. And they are killing people.
-------
FYI: Two of the most informational twitter feeds at the moment are @Change_For_Iran and @persiankiwi. Hooray for citizen journalism.

Books read

2009-06-13T17:14:00.002-04:00

In a bit of catchup, I think I shall list all the books that I've read in the past few months, since my last book post.

21. AT LAST COMES LOVE by Mary Balogh
Book Three in the Huxtable series, which I found slightly stronger than the other two. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying these books, but it bothers me that the people in the family are all so good. SO good...

22. SEDUCING AN ANGEL by Mary Balogh
Book Four in the Huxtable series, where the characters are still good. Decent book though. I am greatly looking forward to Con's book because Con is such a wonderful demon of a man.

23. THIS DUCHESS OF MINE by Eloisa James
Jeli's story! Jemma and Elijah were always two of my favorite characters in the Duchess stories, and I was very pleased to find that she managed to give them a happy ending. And oh my, I never knew that chess scenes in bed could be written to be so deliciously sexy. I'm also really looking forward to the last book in the series, which is Villiers and Shakespeare-based, a bit. Loving the Montague daughters and/or crazy Lisette. My money is on Lisette and Villiers. =)

24. THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins
I didn't read this for the longest time, and then I finally bought it and was completely hooked.

And that's it for now, although I'm almost done with a few other books that I'm sneaking in before bed. There's just something so unsoothing about the thought of retiring to bed with my Kindle to read...

Odyssey: Week #1

2009-06-13T14:02:00.001-04:00

This is both a blog post about Odyssey and an experiment to see whether I can post to Blogger via e-mail... let experiment commence!

Odyssey is wonderful. Every day I am required to be up and in class by 9 am. This is a gargantuan task for me, considering that my normal habits are that of a night owl, but I have managed so far. We have class from 9 am-1 pm; the first part of the class is when Jeanne Cavelos lectures on the topic of the week, and the second part of class involves lengthy critique circles, which are at the heart of the workshop. We do two crits a day on Tuesday-Thursday, and then three crits on Friday and Monday.

This, quite obviously, makes for a lot of work. I have spent the majority of my time here reading other people's stories, making detailed line edits, and writing out my critiques. Given the fact that my crits tend to be ~1000, give or take some depending on the story, I've estimated that I've written ~9000 words of critique this week. And more next week!

It is exhausting. I kept trying to get at least seven hours of sleep a day, even if it was spread out over two naps, but then I would wake up and feel like I hadn't rested at all. And then my back started hurting, and I put two and two together, and realized that the mattresses here are utter crap (typical of college mattreses). So I caved in and paid lots of money for a memory foam topper, which came yesterday, and is like heaven. I think I slept ten hours last night. Absolute heaven. =)

Let's see, what else. They discourage blogging at Odyssey, partially due to the time-sink given the fact that you need to write AND do crits, but also because there are certain things that shouldn't be told to others. So you'll never hear about my reactions to the critiques of my own stories, or what i think about other people's work. You'll also never hear about my other Odyssey classmates (there are 16 of us total), unless they give me specific permission to talk about them. Suffice it to say that all sixteen seem like genuinely awesome people, I love my roommates, and everyone here can WRITE. It's humbling and happy at the same time, to be among people who can kick my butt at writing.

Back to the (mostly) non-personal stuff, I guess!

My first story is up for critique on Monday and is titled "Appeasing the Glacier". I'm currently working on my second story, which doesn't have a title, but involves a character named Susan and a library drop-box. That story is due by 7:30 am on Monday, and is going to be mailed to Patricia Bray for a private critique in two weeks. We get a combination of in-class and private crits, with both the writer-in-residence (Carrie Vaughn this year!), Jeanne herself, and our lecturer guests.

This week's lecturer guest was Jack Ketchum, who I found to be as charming as I remembered him, and who gave us a wonderful lecture on how to create a powerful opening. We had to read two stories by Jack before he came, "Luck" and "Returns". "Luck" is something of a Western, which I liked, but "Returns" made me bawl like a baby. It's a short piece about a man who comes back from the dead to see his cat Zoey, and terrible things happen to the Zoey in the story--and by the end, I was hysterical, for obvious reasons because MY cat is Zoe. I ended up calling Chris up at 2 in the morning and insisting that he tell me that Zoe was ok... he was somewhat disgruntled. =) Zoe was fine. We've been webchatting through Skype, so that I can see her every couple of days.

[brief pause in this blog post, as I made egg salad for myself and my roommates, and now I'm at the kitchen table, finishing this]

Next week's lecturer guest is Melissa Scott and after that is Patricia Bray. And now I'm off to change out of pjs and write my story... more blog posts later! =)

Workshop reminder

2009-06-06T12:39:00.002-04:00

Just a reminder that I will be attending the Odyssey Writing Workshop starting tomorrow and running through July 18th. I will be back at work full-time on July 20, 2009.

WE ARE NOT CLOSED TO QUERIES.

I put that in all caps because it's important to make that clear. Jodi is in charge of holding down the fort while I'm gone, and she'll be happily reading submissions. On the rare chance that she finds something to pass on to me (~2-5% of total submissions), I won't get a chance to read it until the middle of July. I'm only doing work for clients while I'm there.

But please don't let that stop you, as I'm still looking for clients, and would love to find the next great writer!

Odyssey blog posts will commence on Monday or so. =)

THE KING'S DAUGHTERS, finally!

2009-06-03T16:08:00.003-04:00

After many delays and some growing pains, I am happy to announce that the sequel to THE PRINCES OF THE GOLDEN CAGE, THE KING'S DAUGHTERS by Nathalie Mallet, will be hitting a store near you in a few weeks! This is the link to the Amazon page, but they haven't fixed the pre-order button yet.

However, Night Shade Books, Nathalie's publisher is holding a sale!!!

The details are as follows:

Sale: 50% off all in-stock and forthcoming Night Shade titles

It’s that time of year again, sale time at Night Shade Books. We’ve got a lot of big new titles coming in, and we need to clear space in a big way (and pay off a few print bills)! So for the next two weeks, from Wednesday, June 3 until midnight on Wednesday, June 17, we’re offering 50% off all in-stock and forthcoming* Night Shade books, with a four book minimum order. Just use the coupon code 50NSB2009 at checkout, and we’ll do the rest!

THE KING'S DAUGHTERS and many other Night Shade titles are available for purchase at www.nightshadebooks.com. You can also order some of John Joseph Adams' anthologies there (WASTELANDS, THE LIVING DEAD, BY BLOOD WE LIVE, THE IMPROBABLE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES), as well as many other great titles by other authors who I don't represent. =)

Nathan, I claim victory!

2009-05-31T23:07:00.002-04:00

To recap: I signed up this year to be part of Brenda Novak's auction for diabetes research. It's a REALLY good cause, especially since I'm at risk for it myself (I'm insulin-resistant).

I agreed to read a proposal.

When my auction was being purchased for about $280, I declared war on Nathan Bransford.

And today, I went to the auction site, when it ended, and found out...

... that somebody had purchased my services for $1150. I am flabbergasted. Honored and flabbergasted at the exact same time. My husband says I am clearly in the wrong line of work, and should be working as a freelance editor instead; I reminded him that good agents have a strict code of ethics and that I have no desire to go against it.

But damn.

Thank you, whoever you are, alextill. You've bought a lot of good research with your purchase. =)

And Nathan didn't do too badly for himself either... he was bought for $913.

Which means that the two of us earned over $2000 combined. And that's not even counting all the other fabulous agents who were part of the auction as well. We should declare war next year again!

So thank you, everyone who participated. I feel entirely warm and fuzzy right now because you've done a very good deed. =)

BEA

2009-05-31T00:20:00.002-04:00

I seem to be in the habit of doing con reports lately (almost typed "book reports" there), so here, have an abbreviated one for my day at BEA. I am exhausted, by the way. Came home, went to Cheeburger Cheeburger with Chris, watched Britain's Got Talent finale, and now to bed.

The con report, in bullet form:

Full of books! But not as many books as in years past.
Full of Twitter friends! Met the wonderful Colleen Lindsay and her friend from Washington, whose name is Adrien, I believe. Finally met Alyssa of the red trench coat, after searching for her for part of the day. =)
I now have an ARC of FIRE by Kristen Cashore. Not signed, as I got there too late for that, but I begged one from the Penguin people. I am good at begging. See next point.
I adore Brandon Sanderson, who not only remembered me, but let me take two books--one for me and one for Jodi. Brandon is good people. He signed both.
I realized it had been THREE years since I had last seen Brandon. He lives in Utah, for pete's sake. Then, I went to go see George Mann and get his book, on his signing line. I see George more often than I see Brandon, and George lives in freaking England. What is wrong with this picture?
Let's see, more books! Collected various ARCs that interested me, plus talked to people at various booths.
Discovered that JJA's name is like a magic password...hey, it's good to be the agent!
Found Ron Hogan and said hello.
Went to a sci-fi panel that I didn't know was happening: saw China Mieville, John Ringo (in a kilt), and Kelly Link speak. Got China to sign my book.
Discovered that tons and tons of friends and accquaintances were at said panel with me. Yay!
Discovered that Kelly and her husband Gavin had had a baby, Ursula, and the proud papa showed me a picture of her. She is beautiful and tiny. =)
Discovered my friend Lee was at BEA! So happy!
Finally met Nick Mamatas in person--the world did not end.
Got invited to a Baen meet-and-greet.
Went there. Talked to more fascinating people. Met the science fiction & fantasy buyer, Jim, from B&N. I like him. Saw Tom Doherty as I was walking out and told him how much I adore Tor. Talked to too many other people to name, not least including, Toni Weiskopf, Jim Minz, Alethea Kontis (Lee!), Stephen Segal, and many others. I like my SF clansfolk.
Found out, right before leaving the Baen party, that the Viz people were not coming back for their books (this is what happens at the end of BEA, btw, where most of the companies let people take the floor displays, etc. Usually on Sunday.)
Hence, swooped up lots of manga and the two new SF novels that were translated from Japanese, all courtesy of Viz.
Happy end to a tired day.

Good night. =)

States visited

2009-05-29T14:32:00.001-04:00

This is more for my reference, than for anything else. 25 seen, 25 to go.

Just a reminder: If you'd like me to attend a conference and you're in one of the states I haven't visited... you have a better chance of me going! =) Yay for liking to travel and see everything!

visited 25 states (50%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or vertaling nederlands duits?

Libba Bray, I Love You

2009-05-28T01:48:00.002-04:00

Which is an odd post title, but sometimes you read blog posts at 1:45am, and realize that one of your favorite writers is just that much more awesome for her political beliefs.

One of the best blog posts I've ever read about Proposition 8

Mad Scientists and Wizards Exist?

2009-05-28T00:53:00.004-04:00

I was all excited about these two deals. Quite excited, in fact. And I e-mailed them off yesterday, so that there wouldn't be ANY confusion about the wording, like in the past, and so that they would be posted EXACTLY as I had written.

But the idiots over at Publisher's Marketplace (and I do indeed think they are idiots, in this matter), have somehow decided that neither anthology is FICTION, but is instead, NON-FICTION. Because you know, mad scientists, evil geniuses, and WIZARDS exist in the real world.

I have e-mailed them to see if they will correct it, and not look like idiots anymore.

		May 27, 2009


		Non-fiction: Anthology		John Joseph Adams's THE WAY OF THE WIZARD, a mixed reprint/original anthology featuring tales of magic and mayhem from bestselling authors, to Sean Wallace at Prime Books, in a nice deal, by Jenny Rappaport of The Rappaport Agency (World English). jenny@rappaportagency.com

		May 27, 2009


		Non-fiction: Anthology		John Joseph Adams's THE MAD SCIENTIST'S GUIDE TO WORLD DOMINATION, an all-original anthology featuring superhero stories narrated by mad scientists and evil geniuses, including new work from several NYT bestselling authors, to James Frenkel at Tor, in a nice deal, by Jenny Rappaport of The Rappaport Agency on behalf of the L. Perkins Agency (World English). jenny@rappaportagency.com

THE MAD SCIENTIST'S GUIDE TO WORLD DOMINATION, by the way, was Book A from the blog post of a few weeks ago. John was so wonderfully patient about the fact that it took fifteen months that somewhere along the way I promised I'd make him a mad scientists cake. We will be researching options and pictures will eventually be posted here... =)

F&SF Competition

2009-05-27T10:58:00.001-04:00

I am about to run out the door to meetings and BEA stuff, but my lovely client, Carol Pinchefsky, has requested that I post this. Carol is one of the contest editors at The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and informs me that you have TWO days left to enter this. Follow the instructions below!

COMPETITION #78:
THE SECRET HISTORY OF F&SF

Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine, originally titled The Magazine of Fantasy, was founded in 1949 by Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas…or was it? Describe, in 50 words or less, the secret origins of F&SF. Alternate histories, imagined conversations, and science-fictional (or magical) twists on the truth are more than welcome. Another welcomed element: funny.

Example:

Shirley Jackson and Theodore Sturgeon leave a little basket on the doorstep of Anthony Boucher with a tear-stained note: “Please take care of our baby. Raise it as if it were your own.”

You have six chances to rewrite history before midnight EST, May 28th. Send your entries to carol@cybrid.net.

Please remember to include your telephone number and snail-mail address.

PRIZES: First prize will receive a sub- scription to F&SF good for the next sixty years along with a copy of The Diamond Jubilee. Second prize will receive advance reading copies of three forthcoming novels. Any runners-up will receive one-year subscriptions to F&SF. Results of Competition 78 will appear in the Oct/Nov. 2009 issue.

Judges are the editors of F&SF, and their decision is final. All entries become the property of F&SF.

Pokes the blog

2009-05-26T13:54:00.001-04:00

You all seem very silent lately! Let me know what's on your mind!

THE BURNING SKIES releases!

2009-05-26T08:16:00.003-04:00

I am happy to announce that THE BURNING SKIES by David J. Williams has now been out for an entire week! That means it should now be at a local brick and mortar bookstore by you, as well as available for ordering on Amazon.com and many other online stores.

It is a wonderful sequel to Dave's first book, THE MIRRORED HEAVENS.

As Dave first described it to me, "It makes THE MIRRORED HEAVENS look like a particularly civilized tea party." There is intrigue and action, plus some great character development, as Autumn Rain continues to fight... this time, in space!

Wiscon Days #2-#4: Good Night Aerobics

2009-05-26T07:47:00.002-04:00

I should preface this post by the slight reminder that I am out-of-shape, and I have fibromyalgia, which does not take to unexpected exercise very well.

Saturday dawned bright and early, and I even wrote a blog post! I went and had a nice breakfast with John Joseph Adams, Ted Kosmatka, and John's friend, the infamous Rob. Rob actually has a last name, which is Rob Bland, but I had heard John talking about how cool and awesome Rob was for... god knows how many months... and I couldn't remember ever meeting him (although it turns out I had, in March 2008). Which is why Rob has gotten stuck in my head as "the infamous Rob", and it turns out that he is actually just as cool and awesome as John said.

Anyway!

After breakfast, which started at 9:30am, I had a scheduled lunch with Jim Frenkel, one of the editors I do business with... at 11:30am. Saturday was scheduled to be the day of eating.

Met Jim, had a good lunch with him, and then walked back to the hotel. At which point my stomach started being unhappy, which is actually not the fault of ANYONE I had eaten with, but more the fact that my digestive system likes to have its quirks.

So I retreated to my hotel room and slept for a long, long time on Saturday. Woke up finally in time for the Tiptree auction and the parties (I was underwhelmed by the auction, but also, not feeling particularly great still.) I made the rounds of the parties with Holly and Jodi, as well as our friend Laurel and her husband Chris. They were tremendous amounts of fun, particularly getting to meet new people and see old ones--I could name names, but it might be too many. Suffice it to say that I was happy to see my friend Erin who had come all the way from California, and I was also happy to see my friend Ben who had come all the way from Switzerland. And to meet many more people, including Mary Anne Mohanraj (spelling?), who I learned is the author of a choose-your-own adventure erotic novel, which I now feel compelled to find and read. Out of pure curiosity.

Holly and Jodi and I finally made it back to our room at 3:30am, at which point Holly decided we were doing aerobics. We were not drunk. We were just insane. Or rather Holly and Jodi were insane, since they did the ENTIRE workout, and I only did part of it.

I cannot tell you what part of my brain compelled me to join in for a third of the workout, but I think I'd like to disinherit that part. My legs hurt. It is now Tuesday morning and my legs STILL hurt. Good night aerobics are NOT A GOOD IDEA.

Happily, although my legs still hurt terribly on Sunday and Monday, my stomach was feeling better. I went to some panels, discovered that Jack McDevitt is a very interesting man to listen to, met many more new people, and went to the Tiptree ceremony and dessert buffet.

Which is the point in the convention when I realized that I felt very out-of-my-element.

I was sitting at a table with some very nice people. And they were discussing how they had gone to Wiscon for decades, and they were all much, much older than me. And although they were very nice, I suddenly felt trapped. I had nothing in common with any of them, other than a love of science fiction. I didn't believe in the same things they were talking about. It's a very hard thing to quantify because they were completely and totally nice individuals. But I didn't belong.

And then there were the Wiscon guest of honor speeches, which were both lovely. Geoff Ryman was serious and intelligent; Ellen Klages was hilarious because well, it's Ellen Klages. And Ellen started talking about how she had come to Wiscon seventeen years ago, and she had finally felt like she had found her tribe. And I realized that this wasn't really my tribe.

I don't know what my tribe is, but this year's Wiscon wasn't it.

I enjoyed myself at the convention. I enjoyed seeing friends I hadn't seen in a long time. I enjoyed meeting one of my favorite authors, Patricia Wrede, and discussing sock knitting with her. But I don't know if it's just because I have different priorities in life or because I like different things or because I just feel that the graying of science fiction conventions is something that makes me feel very alienated at times. Or maybe I'm just a different type of feminist, and I have different priorities in life.

So I left the convention and made my way back to the airport on Monday with John Joseph Adams, Rob, and Genevieve Valentine (who is lovely, although I hadn't met her before Wiscon), since we all had the same flight. And we went out to dinner at the airport and hung out and joked around... and that was when I really felt that that was my tribe Or my kind of people. Or at least, people I enjoy being with and potentially being friends with. And I don't know if Wiscon will ever be that for me.

I may come back to it. I may not come back to it. But this is my con report about it.

I am nothing, if not honest. =)

Wiscon Day #1: No Cheese Yet

2009-05-23T09:20:00.002-04:00

After much mishaps involving flights and the Cleveland airport and the utter horror that is Great American Bagel... I arrived at Wiscon yesterday after having been awake for seventeen straight hours.

I checked in. I found my roommates. I attended the Gathering, which was neat and full of wonderful stuff and a lovely woman named Shira gave me not one, but TWO cookies, which sustained me nicely. And then I decided that I really needed to sleep, and went to nap for ~3 hours.

Woke up. Was dragged, sleepily, to noodles and company. For future reference, do not believe them when they say their pad thai is not spicy. Came back with my crowd, met Jim Frenkel in the lobby (a Madison native), who informed us that there were so many good restaurants in Madison that we were simply not allowed to eat at a chain again. =)

Napped again, thus completely missing the opening ceremonies. I needed the second nap though, really did.

Woke up, part two! Went to the sixth floor where there were parties! Saw an entire room of people singing along to Dr. Horrible, which was playing on a small TV. While the sight was cool, I was unable to muster enthusiasm to stay there, when I own Dr. Horrible already and can sing along to it any time I want (I do not).

So we went across the hallway to the party for Galaxycon, which is from Minneapolis. And met up with some of my other friends who I hadn't seen in ages, and enjoyed much needed caffeine in the form of a can of real Coke. =) No diet for me, no siree! And although there was some cheese at the Galaxycon party, which I was assured was very nice...it did not look like the kind of cheese I would enjoy. I am very picky about the cheese I eat, and tend towards hard or semisoft varieties--this looked distinctly soft. Not that soft cheese is a bad thing, but it's not the right cheese for me.

After that, I wandered off to the lovely Elise's haiku earring party, and am now the owner of a cute pair of earrings--which Elise tells me are really stylized Chinese bats. You picked a pair of earrings, brought them to Elise, she told you the title of the earrings, and then you had to write a haiku to that title.

My very quick haiku, which probably could have been better... (the title is Elise's).

Happiness on Wings
by Jenny Rae Rappaport

Imperial wing
Dark against the summer sky
Cool jade brought to flight

After that, I met my client, Anne Harris, in the hallway, and had a lovely time talking to her and her friend JJ (last name escapes me, sorry!). We eventually ended up in the bar for awhile, where I got a chocolate martini (good!), which then eventually killed me because I was still so tired. And then bed, eventually!

For future reference, my roommates at Wiscon are Jodi Meadows, my assistant and friend, and our friend, Holly McDowell.

As Holly is now almost done getting ready, it's my turn to go make myself presentable, before I go have breakfast with two of my clients--Ted Kosmatka and John Joseph Adams.

More later!

(See, I'm making good on my promise to blog!) =)

Name a topic aka Wisconsin!

2009-05-21T01:12:00.004-04:00

Like half the science fiction and fantasy community, I was roped into attending Wiscon many months ago. I had never been. I kept citing excuses like it was too close to BEA (which I need to attend), or that the fact that it was a feminist convention scared me (I took college courses with *angry feminists*; they are somewhat frightening).

But no, my glorious assistant, Jodi Meadows, roped me into going somehow.

So Wisconsin, here I come--in about twelve hours! I'm deliberately keeping the convention relatively low-key, since I come home and go pretty much straight to BEA. Then, after BEA, I go right to Odyssey. Right about now, I feel my head is about to explode from so much stuff to do before I leave for that.

Hence the really, really light blogging lately.

I will attempt to write some blog posts about Wiscon. I'll also be doing blog posts for Odyssey, when I get there.

And in the meantime, in the two weeks until I go to New Hampshire... I invite you all to give me topics to write about! Suggest a topic in the comments! I can't promise that I'll answer all the topics, but I'll pick the ones that interest me, and get at least a few blog posts written up.

Comment away!

PS. I am sad that Adam Lambert didn't win American Idol. But at the same time, I am happy that he won't be saddled with the baggage that goes with being the winner. And I've discovered that the new Green Day album heals my soul. Thank you, Green Day. =)

For the record

2009-05-19T22:23:00.001-04:00

I liked both Adam Lambert and Kris Allen tonight, although I would prefer that Adam win. I'll buy both their CDs though.

And OMG, how much awesome is GLEE? It is seriously wonderful. I laughed, I sang along, I grabbed the cat at the end and danced around my living room. (The cat was not pleased.)

I cannot wait for it this fall.

Sound off with your thoughts, but remember to keep it civil! =)

*wanders off to sing Journey along with iTunes*