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| 2008-05-26 02:29 |
| Late Night Wiscon Post |
| Public |
| cons |
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Which means 3am east coast time... no wonder I'm yawning.
Just came from the Gaylaxicon party. Gaylaxicon, the sf con for gays, lesbians, queerfolk of all kinds, and their friends, will be in Washington, DC in October and I might go... I also got to read a short, sexy excerpt of my fiction at the Lethe Press party, part of my story in the PERIPHERY anthology, and had much fun.
But to recap from earlier, the Polyamory in Fiction panel went really well. Mary Anne Mohanraj, Katie Clapham, Moondancer Drake, Magenta, and I all turned out to be poly ourselves. (Sometimes you get a panelist who has a purely literary interest in the topic, but not this time.) The room was pretty much packed, and from the nodding heads in the audience I would say at least 90% of them were poly, too. Many of them shared personal anecdotes and things as we went along talking about representations of polyamory, good and bad, in things like Torchwood and Laurell K. Hamilton.
We started off talking first in the Green Room for panelists before the panel, trying to come up with some really recent examples of poly relationships in sf/f other than Torchwood and stuff in paranormal romance. ( Read more... )
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| 2008-05-25 15:23 |
| Wiscon, midday Sunday |
| Public |
| cons |
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Back in the room now for a bit of downtime and more tea.
I've been living on hot tea today because allergies, blargh.
The con com is also going around sticking up signs everywhere saying "Stomach Flu Going Around Wiscon! Wash Your Hands!" I honestly think the hysteria created by the signs will probably result in more psychosomatic illnesses than the reminder to wash hands will prevent. It's a con after all. People are run down and tired and exposed to a lot of germs from people not from their native area.
I had the soup and salad bar for lunch in the hotel restaurant to combat the bug, because soup is like that. And tea, lots of tea, with lunch, in the green room, brought to the panel, and now I'm brewing a pot of it in the in-room coffee maker. tea tea tea. My sinuses feel perpetually dry and gunked up. Maybe I shouldn't have alcohol tonight. (All I had last night was about ¾ of a bottle of Guinness.)
So I forgot to write about last night's Earring Haiku Party. Elise Matheson makes a ton of earrings. You pick out a pair of earrings from the table, you show them to her and she gives you a title. You write a haiku using the title and earrings as your inspiration, and then you give her the haiku, and you keep the earrings. Here's mine:
LANDING BEACON
perfect rocketship
you orbit but you never
touch metal to soil
( Today's Panels so far )
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| 2008-05-25 09:17 |
| I forgot how tired I am on Sunday of of a con... |
| Public |
| cons |
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And this one keeps going! There's till parties tonight and stuff tomorrow, too! *groans*
Surely, I'll feel better after I eat something in the green room.
Meanwhile, here are the panel descriptions of the two panels I'm on today, and then tonight is the Periphery Party where I will be doing a rapid fire reading.
10 am Time To Put Down The Laptop?
Everyone and her sister/brother/dog seems to be blogging these days. Do you find blogging a waste of creative energy and a bane to more polished fiction? Does talking about your process keep you from engaging in it? Counting your words rather than crafting them? Or do you think this is a false economy of scarcity? Does blogging actually help you write more, better, faster, better-crafted? If so, how?
M: Alan Bostick, M.K. Hobson, Naamen Tilahun, Cecilia Tan, Vylar Kaftan
4pm Pansexuality and Polyamory: The New Face of Romance in Fiction?
Torchwood, The Anita Blake Series, The Merry Gentry Series, The Monroe Children of the Moon Series—notions of sexuality are broadening and alternatives to traditional pairings are emerging. How does the romance narrative manage to change to fit these new trends?
M: Cecilia Tan, Moondancer Drake, Magenta Griffith, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Katie Clapham
Allergies are bad again today, making the dark circles under my eyes even more extreme. Perhaps I should just give in and do a Janeane Garofolo eyeliner job.
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| 2008-05-24 12:12 |
| America & the Madison Farmers market |
| Public |
| cons, travel |
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Haven't seen much con yet today since I spent the morning at the Farmer's Market which covers the whole square in front of the capital building here in Madison.
I didn't expect to cry during the Farmer's market, but I got hit with a triple whammy. First, I saw the two nice Midwestern PFLAG ladies sitting at a little table handing out flyers and free stickers and all. I went up to them intending to tell them about how as a judge for this year's Arch & Bruce Brown Foundation we read the manuscript for a children's book about the founding of PFLAG. All I could get out was "Thank you so much for being here," before I got too choked up to say anymore.
( Read more... )
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| 2008-05-24 09:58 |
| World of Cocktails and Books |
| Public |
| cons |
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So regular readers of this blog know that a few weeks ago, for the release of my new book of short stories published by Running Press, entitled WHITE FLAMES, we threw a book launch party at my house. It was a co-launch party with Nina Harper's SUCCUBUS IN THE CITY.
corwin invented a cocktail for each of them, but I realize I never put the recipes online!
I'll remedy that now while I tell you about the three very delicious cocktails being served at Wiscon parties last night.
First was the SMOKING PIGEON, which if you read the opening part of Jennifer Stevenson's hilarious and sexy romp THE BRASS BED you will understand. And this drink, literaly, smokes--or steams--or outgasses--or whatever the proper scientific term is for when a bit of dry ice is submerged in a potent mixture of tasty alcohol and makes it look like something Professor Snape would make Neville Longbottom drink. If you search LJ for "smoking pigeon" surely you will find someone who took photos of it...
The launch party for THE BRASS BED was a co-party, too, for Ysabeau Wilce's FLORA'S DARE, the second book in her Flora series, so she was serving a drink called the Flora Segunda. She said it was basicaly the same as an actual cocktail called the Flora Dora.
And then at the Carl Brandon Society party, Claire Light was pouring not B-52s, but C-52s. See the recipe below to find out the difference.
( Recipes below the cut )
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| 2008-05-23 20:47 |
| At Wiscon! |
| Public |
| cons |
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So here I am at Wiscon, the feminist science fiction convention, having a blast, as usual.
I will admit that in the years before I started coming to Wiscon, I was leery that feminism could be much fun. Most of my firsthand experience with feminists, of course, was with dour and/or victim-mentalitied proponents of the anti-sex movement back when I was in college. Brown had a women's studies building called the Sarah Doyle Center that I NEVER DARED SET FOOT IN until long after I had graduated and was invited back to speak as an alum.
But Wiscon is, happily, much more a Bastion of Fandom in all its Glory than it is representative of any branch of feminism.
And it is fun. And brainy. And brainily fun. And my brain is funny.
( Details... )
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Turns out I will be on programming at Boskone this weekend. I'll be there Friday night, speaking on a panel on Utopian Fiction, and one on Erotica. If I can find a room to do it in, we may also have a little book launch party for Best Fantastic Erotica. More champagne!
No idea what's going on with my sleeping. Three nights in a row I've had some form of insomnia, and didn't get more than 5 hours uninterrupted any of the three. So, yes, I am a zombie now.
Meanwhile, things are moving along for my upcoming book of erotic short stories, White Flames. I've returned the proofs, there is a cover design which I'll soon have a copy of I can share here, they're asking for my photo.
And anyone who wants a review copy of Best Fantastic Erotica (I mean, if you actually have a place to review it and aren't merely trying to scam a free copy), speak up now. They're mailing in a few days.
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I'm blogging this from the annual Arisia SF Convention where the wireless is free, the costumes are hot, and the fun never stops. I go to a lot of science fiction conventions but Arisia has been and still is the one that is consistently the most fun.
I typically do a Friday night smut reading at the con. There are times when I invited other readers to join me, but for the past ten years or so I've pretty much done it solo. I will regale the audience with funny, hot, smutty, intense stories for an hour to two hours, and I am very pleased that typically all day Saturday I will run into people who thank me for helping get them laid.
When the con was in the Park Plaza hotel, where it was for many years, I would usually do this reading in the largest breakout room they had. But now that the con has moved to the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge, where space is limited, the only space they had for me was in the sleeping room for one of the con committee. It was incredibly gracious for them to let me put a dozen or so eager (and horny) fans onto their bed, not to mention another dozen on the floor, another dozen in a few chairs in the room and sharing them, and standing in the entryway, and crammed in the doorway...
Maybe photos will tell this story a bit better:
( If there had been rafters, there would have been people hanging from them... )
Anyway, Best Fantastic Erotica is launched! We sold probably a dozen copies of the book plus a lot of others. A good time was had by all. We had sparkly bubbly of the alcoholic and non-alcoholic kind.
other notes:
Best button I've seen so far:
"I am Dyslexia of Borg. Your Ass Will Be Laminated."
Best T-shirt:
"National Sarcasm Society. Like we need you."
More later if my battery power holds out.
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So I'm speaking at a con in Western, MA on August 11th, and thought I'd share the details, thusly...
A message from the Chair of 2Pi-Con:
I was speaking to some of my staff the other day, and one of them mentioned that he hasn't heard much buzz about Pi-Con this year. I found that surprising because 2Pi-Con is shaping up to be an amazing convention, and everyone should know about it. That's why I'm spreading the word here. 2Pi-Con should not be the greatest con that no one knew about.
Why is it so awesome?
Let's start with our amazing guests. Our Guest of Honor is C.E. Murphy, the author of Urban Shaman and Thunderbird Falls. These books are very enjoyable examples of urban fantasy, and rapidly growing genre of modern magic. Ms. Murphy is coming all the way from Ireland to participate in Pi-Con.
We have three fantastic web comic artists coming to Pi-Con: Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content, XKCD of XKCD, and The Ferrett of Home on the Strange. We were excited to have just one of these amazing artists. When we found out that all three were coming, we nearly... well, let's just say we were really excited.
Additionally, we will have a number of local artists populating our new Artist Alley. They will have everything from photographs to sketches to sculpture and chainmail jewelry. This is, of course, in addition to our extensive dealers room.
For many conventions, Friday is something of a warm up day. Not Pi-Con. Our Friday gets right into things. Gaming starts early, panels start at 5:00 PM. At 8:00, Voltaire takes the stage for an encore performance after this room-filling appearance last year. Following Voltaire is a performance by the Pioneer Valley's own live Rocky Horror Picture Show cast, the Come Again Players. While we encourage you to come for the whole weekend, we do offer a $15 rate for Friday only. That's a pretty good deal for gaming, panels, Voltaire and Rocky.
There's more. We have Cecilia Tan {hey, that's me!} of Circlet Press on Saturday. Jeff Mach, the organizer of Labyrinth and Wicked Faire will be there all weekend running panels and playtesting his new game Slash: the RPG. Jeff Lord, Holly, and Frank Hunt of Phoenix Swords will be running discussions about and live demonstrations of swordplay. MaryAnn Johanson, author of The Totally Geeky Guide to the Princess Bride, will be in attendance discussing all manner of popular media.
The list goes on and on. We'll even have a panel in the hotel swimming pool as well as a panel which will take place in cyberspace!
Registration is only $30 for the whole weekend as long as you preregister before July 31st. Prices at the door are $40 for the weekend, $15 for Friday, $20 for Saturday, and $10 for Sunday. This is an event you do not want to miss. See you in August.
For more information, visit www.pi-con.org.
-Michael Whitehouse
chair, 2Pi-Con
It'll be my first time at this con, I figure I'll drive in for the day. Anyone else going?
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Anyone going to World Horror in Toronto who wants to carpool up there? I already have transportation back from there arranged, but to go up there from Boston if anyone would like a passenger who can drive an automatic and who will share gas and tolls on the way up, I am trying to find my cheapest way there.
I believe I have crash space already arranged but anyone who is looking for a roommate, let me know, too and I'll check.
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