Great WisCon GoH and Dessert Salon Summary

The title of the post is the link.
From "Feminist SF - The Blog!"

A great summary, especially of the GoH speeches.

Also this post about the opening ceremony.

There is a Feminist SF wiki with a page about Pat...which I found linked off of another post on this blog.

Some role models aren't as nice...

As those I met at WisCon this weekend.

After googling "Wiscon" in addition to looking at LiveJournal, I find Wil Wheaton has blogged about Elizabeth Bear's postings of stuff she's overheard as WisCon.

And then I found this awesome 2 part story (Part 1, Part 2) of what happened when Wil Wheaton met one of his heroes, William Shatner, on the set of Star Trek V.

Even famous people get to be dicks sometimes I guess, but Shatner could have been much nicer at the outset, especially to a fellow Star Trek actor.

If edited to be under 1000 words, this might be good for Can I Sit With You?

A Story Every Fortnight: The Hassler Memorial Challenge

I want to just push myself to write, and I don't think I can sustain a Nanowrimo every month.

If I can do this the whole year, and do Nanowrimo, I'll have about 20 stories plus another novel by the time WisCon comes around again next year.

Inspiration #1:
Jon Hassler was the first author who really responded to me (literally with several letters and postcards) and inspired me.
He just died this spring at the age of 74.
On Hassler's website there's a Q and A. One of the questions is:

Q. When and why did you begin writing? When did you first consider yourself a writer?

A. I began to write on September 10, 1970, at the age of 37. I believe I had imagined myself a writer form the age of five, when my parents read to me, but I was a late starter. On that morning I awoke to a voice in my head saying, "Half your life is over, Hassler, you'd better get started."

Note that eerily, the way it turned out, his life really was half over, but he wrote right up to the end.
And then this article goes into more detail about how he started - he sat down that morning and started writing the first story, finished it 2 weeks later. After 28 weeks, he had 14 stories.
This was 1970, and so there were 8 years of getting the stories published and trying to sell his first novel until 1977 when it was published (Staggerford).
So, I'm 34. I don't really know how much time I have. My mom died at 42. Who really knows?

Inspiration 2:
L. Timmel Duchamp (see Aqueduct Press Blog - could not find a personal site for her yet)'s guest of honor speech at WisCon, and the entire experience of WisCon.
There is nothing keeping me from doing this but myself, really.
And just like I had the Nanowrimo party and the play afterward with PM, EK, MR to look forward to, here I can look forward to going to WisCon next year and being able to say that I've done this. IN addition to Nanowrimo, and maybe even if I feel ready, applying to something like Clarion.

Inspiration 3:
Pat's work (and she didn't start writing until her twenties, so I'm just 10 years behind her, and 3 years ahead of Hassler).

So here's the thing, and I don't even need a bake sale to get it kicked off (or even need to tell anyone if I don't want to).

Every two weeks, on the same schedule as our sprints for work, I will write a story. The first "sprint" ends next Monday, which is only about a week, but otherwise I will be off kilter from the work schedule.
No promises as to the length of the stories, but they should have beginning, middle and end and they should be written as if someone is going to read it (even if they don't).
Let's see how this will work.

Geoff Ryman wrote 253!

I almost forgot about this interactive novel set on a London tube train.
He's the co-Guest of Honor with Ellen K for WisCon 2009.

Note in 2009 - I can't believe I forgot about this. Again, in the WisCon 2009 posts, not sure when would have been the best place to talk about it - probably in the panel discussion about his work but I didn't make it to that either.

I really liked this novel.

Inklings of WisCon

Sometimes hanging around all these talented writers, editors, and others at WisCon, I feel a little bit like someone who was there during the meetings of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis (the Inklings) when they were writing The Lord of the Rings and the Narnia series.

It's the same sort of feeling as getting Hassler's postcards when I was high school and college, but live conversation and/or eavesdropping is even better.

"The Inklings were literary enthusiasts who praised the value of narrative in fiction, and encouraged the writing of fantasy. Although Christian values were notably reflected in several members' work, there were also atheists among the members of the discussion group."

"Special Economics" story by Maureen F. McHugh

This line, I don't think I would have read anywhere else:
(the character has just bought a cell phone from a plastic cell phone kit that you throw in a kettle like a dumpling and it forms itself into the shape of a phone...)

"She bought a newspaper and scallion pancake from a street food vendor, sat on a curb, and ate while her phone dried."

--From The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Ellen Datlow, who organized last night's dinner at Restaurant Magnus.

quotes relating to mothers, a bit late

It's a couple weeks past Mother's Day, but I'm sitting here thinking about my mom and about part of a story I heard read today, and a quote from Garrison Keillor that I found again on Sharyn November's website.

Odd connections, but here goes.

I went to a reading of Aqueduct Press writers, which included Eileen Gunn and Eleanor Arneson, as well as Andrea Hairston who read from her novel Redwood and Wildfire. At one point in the reading I was starting to go off into tears- without using too many details, the main character's mother dies, and the narrator is just blunt about it - she was gone and she was never coming back.
And the character says (or thinks, I can't remember) - something like "She was never really dead. Redwood is a spell that Garnet left behind and she lives on in Redwood this way" (I am misquoting because i didn't write it down exactly -- Garnet, the mom, is a conjurer in 1898 in the American South, and she is murdered by a gang of white men. And so Redwood decides to become a conjurer also and that's apparently the content of the rest of the book.

I followed her out to the hallway to tell her how meaningful this was, but she was quite busy and I kind of felt like it wasn't the most original comment...but it was what was happening for me in that moment. I also told her about the SF Fringe Festival because she said she was putting on a play in January. I feel a bit dumb about that too because she's been a theater professional for 30 years apparently, and knows about fringe festivals.

Then -- just now I went and looked at Sharyn November's page she made about her mother, and again found this quote she listed from Garrison Keillor.
I don't think I can read this quote too many times. Although I have to modify the number since before it said "having picked up so much of her in 34 years.

You are the continuation and resurrection of your mother, having picked up so much of her in 16 years, and so you go on, as her living legacy to the world. You'll miss her every day of your life and there's no getting around that. But she gave you precious gifts and you bear them onward.

Just wanted to say - it is nice being around Tom and Ginny this weekend but it was a bit eerie waking up on Friday morning and hearing them talking. It felt like I was a little kid again, hearing the murmuring of mom and dad (either before I went to bed or before I woke up).
And Ginny's voice, when muffled by two doors, plus only listening out of one ear, does sound like my mom. I guess it's the similar accent, too.

Cerise Review of DD:HH

I just got back from the Capes and Consoles party which is co-sponsored by Cerise Magazine (and Iris Gaming Network), and talked to Robyn Fleming (wanted to tell her I enjoyed her panel on Friday).
And was pleasantly surprised to find a mostly positive and spot on review of DD:HH in their May issue when I got back to my room and started clicking around their site.

This is the same reviewer who reviewed Wedding Dash and wasn't too happy with the script. We think this was partially because of misreading a dialog box - I think it was the "did you get a career yet?" line. I'm pretty sure that is not what the line said, but I can't remember what we meant right now.

Overall, she did enjoy DD:HH though, it looks like she even got people to play multiplayer with her. She loves the teenagers, although I was entertained by this:
"(Unfortunately, this game breaks no heteronormative bounds. Girls don’t flirt with girls.)"
We had to do some struggling to get the Sims in Sims 2 to "Propose Union" to their same-sex partners (in 2004, before Gavin's help) - so for this audience, I'm not sure if we could push to have same sex teen couples and Wedding Dash same sex weddings, for that matter...

The WisCon program is crazy...

Crazy Busy!
Several programs I want to go to are happening at the same time. I guess that's a good thing. It's not for lack of trying on the planners' part -- there are things going on every day, and scheduled into the night.

I went through the program today while on the plane, and kept almost exclaiming "Dang!" out loud when coming to a conflict.

It's my first time at WisCon so I have no idea what I'm getting into.

Met a very nice woman in Mpls airport, on her way to WisCon with baby and hubby. She was also having issues with Northwest Airlines (hers were much worse than my one delay).

My godmother came to pick me up at the airport because I'm staying with them tonight, and a woman came up to us to ask where the shuttle was for the Concourse Hotel (where WisCon is being held).
It was kind of fun to explain that I didn't need a shuttle, I had a ride. Unfortunately I couldn't help her either.
Really fun visiting with Tom and Ginny - they were quite tired after their days at work, and I am still on California time so I'm awake...
I'll probably have to see their alpaca farm in a different visit...

The Opposite of Love by Julie Buxbaum

Excerpts from email to Julie Buxbaum, who came and spoke to our group at Kapp's Pizza last week:

(also fyi - there was this Washington Post review, which was favorable, but Julie pointed out that it didn't go very deep into the emotions of the characters. It's all well and good to be Carrie Bradshaw's smarter sister, but that's not all this book is about.)



I went and bought the book at Books Inc down the street that night and finished it the next day. Unfortunately I wasn't thinking about the impact of crying at the end, and wound up finishing it while sitting at Peet's Coffee and starting to sob.

On top of how the book speaks to me, as a woman and a motherless daughter, I also find it very inspirational to hear of people (especially people close to my age) writing first novels successfully.
I did the National Novel Writing Month last year (NaNoWriMo) and was really happy to finish something that vaguely is a connected storyline, in 50,000 words and 1 month!
Right now I am at WisCon, which is a feminist sci fi and fantasy convention, and hoping to recharge batteries here.
One of the women in my life who is one of my "Ruths" (author Pat Murphy, she was the officiant at my wedding) flies to Madison from San Francisco every Memorial Day for WisCon, for almost 20 years now --- she thinks it's pretty cool, and it looks like it will be.

Anyway - quick list of my favorites in The Opposite of Love:

* Ruth and the book club. Emily's thoughts about how much she wants to be with this group of older women, regardless of what they're reading, really hits home to me.
Especially as I get older (I'm 34, Mom died at 42) I am more and more drawn to women who are in their 50s and 60s at least. They are the only models really for what it's like to live longer than 42.
And Ruth being a career mentor for Emily too, as my friend Pat is (although my writing is just getting going, she's also a good overall career mentor. Just in the 2 years I've known her she's had some of the most interesting jobs ever.)

* picture of Emily's mom on the beach - taken before she was born, connecting to a mom she never knew. I have a similar picture of my mom standing in front of a lake, and I always thought it was weird that I feel closer to this picture than to the later pictures that I remember being there for. nice to see a character having the same feelings.

* writing the letter to her mom and the feeling that she sees her around - this is part of what my NaNo novel was about.

* I really liked the prologue with the ultrasound (or is it sonogram) -- we know that there is a baby coming eventually, and there is a father, but don't know who the father is exactly. I think you did a great job with the character of Andrew also -- As I got to know him better, I really felt so hopeful that it would indeed turn out to be Andrew who is the father.
Very real, but not sappy, descriptions.

* references to other people being "grownups" -- their friends having a "grown-up" apt, and so on. My husband and I still talk like this sometimes!

* the whole theme of being afraid to really commit. Sometimes I just want to push people away because I am afraid of losing them if they get too close. I'm pretty happy that my husband withstood previous attempts to do this and stayed with me, and that we are married!

Anyway - thanks again for coming. I hope that your work on the second book is going well. I'm looking forward to reading it.

Remembering Jon Hassler

I was very sad to hear that Jon Hassler had died in March - Kari told me during the wedding week. She had thought I must already know, since it was all over the news in Minnesota at the time.

I signed the online guest book link that Dave found. I hope his wife and family are doing ok.

It's also really amazing that he kept writing even during the worst of his disease. Apparently there will be a new novel called "Jay O'Malley" which he was able to finish before he died.

Note on May 22 -
I reread Staggerford and A Green Journey again after buying them at the fountain of all lost books, BookBuyers in Mountain View.
It made me miss him more- there's a lot of stuff I didn't notice the last time I read.

1. I was a person nosy about teachers, and here's a book about a high school English teacher that is pretty candid - it begins "First hour, Miles yawned."

2. In both books I realized that I was gravitating toward the Miss McGee character and that I identify pretty strongly with the "hardscrabble girls" that she would take in and help out. I think I would have let her do that for me but maybe I would be resentful about it, I don't know.