For My Dad on Father's Day

Yesterday (June 20) I was taking BART up to San Francisco to hear The Brazen Hussies reading at SF in SF.

I was listening to some family tapes that I had digitized on my iphone and that I should get on CD and send to my dad and sisters.

I'm a toddler on the tapes and both parents are singing and reading with me - in the past I tended to fixate more on my mom's voice because I don't have her here in the world any more (she sings "Sweetheart, Sweetheart" and tells me she wouldn't trade me for a million dollars, and we sing "Plop, Plop, Fizz Fizz" and other stuff).

But I also can hear how much my dad loves me as well. He's actually on the tapes more than my mom - it seems like my mom is off in another room for parts of the time, since I can hear her distantly talking, but it's my dad who is directly interacting with me for a lot of it.

And I hear his love for language and his hope that I will also enjoy it as much -- in all the poems he has me repeat (such as "There was a crooked man, who walked a crooked mile...").
And stories he read to me on the tapes.

It's such a warm and familiar voice and I realize that this is probably the most familiar voice that I can currently still hear live. It's a voice I've heard literally all my life, and he still sounds so much the same, even now.

And it's a voice I don't hear often enough because I don't call him regularly, or hook up the webcam I got from work so we can video skype. (although I did do that today for Father's Day and it was quite fun).

After dinner when I get to the reading, I'm pretty relaxed before Lisa Goldstein kicks it off with the first story, which is in the first person and from a male perspective, which she says is new to her.

I've never heard this story before of course, and I've only just met Lisa an hour prior, but when she starts reading, I feel like I am suddenly at home.

Something kind of primal takes over - "listening to a story = safe at home with people who love me".
And the story itself is really really good - which accounts for quite a bit of this feeling...but the other part I realize is that I am so familiar with this and it's such a positive experience for me. And that started with my dad and my mom reading to me at an early age.

I settled down into the Variety Preview Room seat as if it was a comfy armchair in a living room with people who love me...and I just relax and stop caring about anything I might have been worried about before....
I'm aware of this more acutely because I was listening to the "toddler story tapes" so recently on the train, and feeling the same feeling wash over me then.

During Pat's story, which is next, I am thinking about my dad even more because of the character's dad in the story.

I am also thinking about my mom after hearing her voice so recently, and wondering what it would be like if she were there with me. I think she would have also liked these women and these stories. Lots of good female energy in the room (Pat, Michaela, Lisa, Carrie, Rina, Ellen, etc) - but it's not the same as having my mom around or even being able to picture her properly.

There's an empty seat on the right next to me and I am trying to picture my mom sitting there. I can't really picture her physically very well anymore. I'm kind of using the memory of hanging out with Ginny, but then imagining her with Mom's face and hair (which is kind of wacky).

During the more emotional parts of Pat's story with her character's dad, I actually put my hand on the seat next to me as if I was holding on to my mom or my dad, whoever is there.

So many people, both the characters in the stories and in the discussions over dinner, are taking care of their aging parents now - or have recently lost them.

My dad might be hard to deal with sometimes now, but I want him to know that he is appreciated and loved, and that I'm so happy he's still around!

Neil Gaiman on "Writing the Next Thing"

A Quote from Neil Gaiman's Journal (on his site:

Perhaps somewhat motivating...

Dear Neil, I am sure you have probably answered this question before and are probably, therefore, very sick of it. But, I still must ask. I am an aspiring writer and am wondering how you stayed motivated during times of great failure. I understand what many writers mean when they say the love of the art drives them. What I am concerned with is how to deal with the inevitable denial of a piece of literature that you have invested everything in?

Write the next thing.

Maybe the world will catch up with your brilliance eventually, or maybe you'll look back in ten years and decide it wasn't that great really after all. Doesn't really matter. Times of great failure or times of great success, the problem is the same (how do you keep going?) and the solution is the same: You write the next thing.

Dave bought The Sandman Book of Dreams, which is an anthology of stories inspired by The Sandman series, and edited by Gaiman and Ed Kramer.
One of the most interesting things about this anthology is reading his introductions at the beginning of each story; he talks about where he met each author and how - some of them in signing lines at readings.
It reminds me of his introduction to Ellen Klages' Portable Childhoods and his descriptions of Ellen.
What would it be like to have such an intro written about me someday?
This book has Lisa Goldstein, one of the Brazen Hussies, and Delia Sherman, whom I met at WisCon, and also Tad Williams. We met Tad at a convention here in the Bay Area, but can't remember which one.

New Play about Hedy Lamarr

Frequency Hopping, a new play about Hedy Lamarr, who was in my Nanowrimo Novel after Peri told me about her...

It is playing in New York.

Breaking the Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fiction

I checked this out from the library before going off to WisCon (as part of a small "anthology orgy" with On the Couch: Great American Stories about Therapy, and Caught in the Organ Draft: Biology in Science Fiction, which was edited by Asimov).

They're all overdue now - I am renewing this online because I am just starting it now.

Some comments quoted from Terry McMillan's preface, which are trying to help me write:

"Writing is personal. Try to write the kind of stories you'd like to read. Do not write to impress. Do not write to prove to a reader how much you know, but instead write in order to know.

...
Everyone has a different opinion about what a good story should do and here are a few that I love:

'A story is a war. It is sustained and immediate combat.'

'Your character should want something and want it intensely. It need not be melodramatic, earth-shattering or tangible. But it should be important to them whether or not they get it.'

'A good story is a power struggle between equal forces. Something keeps getting in the way of the protagonist from achieving whatever they desire.'

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.

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...

How to Survive in the Line of Fire

I want to write about this now while it's still fresh in my mind...might be good for the germ of a future story.

I was riding BART and reading Pontoon, by Garrison Keillor (which is making me nostalgic and thinking a lot since it has a mother dying plus a woman going home to MN for her wedding...). Also the book review on this link has Keillor with a shaggy graying beard.

I was late (it was after 9 am) so I didn't have a seatmate for most of the trip until Civic Center when a woman sat down next to me.
When I was packing up Pontoon to get off at Montgomery, I see that my seatmate is reading a little card that is titled "How to Survive in the Line of Fire" and has all of these tips and diagrams for trying to stay out of harm's way in that situation.
It looked like something from those Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbooks, and after googling around, I am pretty sure it was.

It made me wonder why she has this at this time. Does she have the whole set and she reads one each BART ride to be prepared? They are meant to be humorous but this one was a bit surprising to see she was reading it specifically.
When I got up I accidentally jostled her and all this colored paper she had fell on the floor. I helped her pick some of it up. It looks like she is making a card for someone - she also had colored pencils...
Is she making a card for someone going into the Army? Is it just a joke card? The tips were so realistic that it seems it wouldn't be a joke.
She was in her thirties or early forties, long brown hair curly in ponytail. She was grateful for me trying to pick up the papers even though I could only grab one and hand it to her before I had to run off the train.

It was also kind of weird since I am not usually on this train at this time - I missed my appt in Rockridge so wound up taking the train up from Millbrae like normal.
Side note - coming out of BART I also saw a woman wearing the same boots I just bought on Saturday. She is thin enough that she can tuck her jeans into the tops of the boots...

Portable Childhoods by Ellen Klages

I'm actually rereading Adventures in Time and Space with Max Merriwell right now, but I wanted to write about Portable Childhoods since I realized I only need a quick spiel on the Facebook thing.

And of course this is just me writing reading notes. I'm sick right now also and am writing this in bed on the laptop (having just had some generic Nyquil like cold medicine). It's kind of comforting to have Portable Childhoods and Max Merriwell hanging around. Also I just reread Points of Departure, but I guess that is a different post.

My copy is paperback and is signed but I think I bought it from Amazon, so that is mysterious. I didn't remember having noticed that it was signed when I bought it on the site. Maybe I should have bought it locally (and could have had Ellen sign it too, I guess) --- but I wanted it pretty quickly.

I like Neil Gaiman's intro because he paints a pretty good picture of what Ellen seems to be like in person (he calls her "a force of nature" which is quite fun) and how that differs from her writing. It's also obviously quite cool to have him writing the intro at all. I blogged here earlier about when we first met Ellen at the Gaiman reading in Berkeley - she was sitting behind us and we heard "nebula award" and our ears perked up. Then Dave actually asked her who she was. I think she thought we were more than a little crazy.

Basement Magic
I loved this one, maybe partly because I share this fascination with basements and I kind of miss not having one here in California. That one house we saw that was quite crappy, almost sold itself to me on the strength of having a huge, albeit unfinished, basement.
I also think Dave would be interested in this story with the stepmother theme too .
motherless daughter, strong female role model in Ruby, magic that comes true...

Intelligent Design
God as being almost like a spoiled child, making the world by whim, while his grandmother is the one who's been there even longer...
I think overall I didn't like this one quite as much as the others, but still liked it.

Green Glass Sea
Doesn't need much more description other than that I love Dewey (and I wonder when her birthday is).
And where is my copy of Green Glass Sea?

Clip Art
Nice "documentary" of a young girl who collects paper clips. amazing amount of detail with the clips and their names, and the cutting between different scenes...

Mobius, Stripped of a Muse
Ever increasing layers of authorship -- a scene...it goes for a while, and then the unseen writer is like, "no that's not working" and the scene starts again....
It sounds like an improv game almost (and maybe it is).
I liked this one a lot. Good pre-nano story.

Time Gypsy
I love this one -- woman goes back in time to meet physics scholar she's admired all her life, and winds up falling in love..

I bought this as a chapbook when I was at borderlands. Maybe at the same time I bought Green Glass Sea..
Part of why I like this is just the fandom of finally meeting and getting to know, someone you've admired for a long time.

A Taste of Summer
This is probably my favorite story in here that I hadn't already read before. I just love the feeling of adventure when she actually crosses the street, looking for refuge, and the cool science-y role model type that Nan is. Really similar to my character in the Nano (and not suprisingly).
I also liked how Nan isn't conventionally dressed - showing Mattie that's it's ok to wear men's clothes....whcih she hadn't really seen before.

Portable Childhoods
This one, sometimes I see myself in the unnamed child and sometimes in the mother, who always seems a little bit amazed to have this person in her life, her daughter, who is her own little person - different from the mom, and she wonders if the two would have been friends.
Also please note on p158 - there's a whole thing about St. Elmo's Fire, interesting because of Pat's affinity for St. Elmo.

And all the stuff about shuffling cards -- how important it is to learn and what a milestone it is. I totally feel that way too. I learned to shuffle at my grandma's house because we were playing a lot of solitaire, and I wanted to shuffle better. Dr. Gammell wound up teaching me.

And last but not least
In the House of the Seven Librarians
Which i had already read in the Firebird anthology but I love so much. And here kari is going to be a librarian.

And the best part -- the afterwod for me..
" I didn't start writing, or at least writing seriously, until I was almost forty."
there's hope yet for me!
Jon Hassler had said the same thing.

WisCon

I just registered to go to WisCon to reserve it in there right after the wedding time.
I also booked a room in the Concourse Hotel where the con is held.

Only thing now is to book a plane flight - may fly to Minneapolis and drive to Madison from there, especially if one of the twins wants to go.

Here's Pat's guest of honor (and TipTree founding) speech, at the 1991 WiscCon.

NaNo Dedication

Trout in the Dishwasher, by Solveig Pederson

Inspired by Pat Murphy, Susan Juby, Madeleine L’Engle,

Madeleine E. Robins and Ellen Klages

For David, who does keep me fed and almost sane, and makes life fun.

And for my mom, Diane Marie Dahlen Pederson. 1948-1990

“Anything that doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And later on you can use it in some story.”

-- Pat Murphy, The Wild Girls

I'm not going to do much with the NaNo "novel", at least not right now, but can post the dedication page, and more info than I sent in a larger group email earlier, about some background.

Last night I went to the NaNo party at Root Division .
That was quite fun as my first time - Chris Baty actually bestowed me with a sticker on my crown (yes, paper Burger-King like crowns, but they were generic, not actually from Burger King). The stickers had numbers for how many NaNos one has won. Many have 6s or 7s on their crowns by now, it's been going on for 9 years.

I was also glad I was there to hear Chris' toast because it really captured the feeling of - "wow, we've been writing every day or trying to now, as much as possible for a month, and now...we don't have to anymore...but we kinda still want to!"

He told a story about accidentally bringing his laptop with him to a concert last night (after he was done with his NaNo) and then having to sadly leave it on his bed, crying its "dell tears" in its neglect.

Then I went to Killing My Lobster's first all female show - "For the First Time" which was appropriate for the first-time NaNo person, and conveniently next door to Root Division where the NaNo party was. The link is to a SF Weekly review of the show, which is pretty spot-on - there were parts that were amazingly funny but parts that were not.
Ellen and Mad met Pat and I there. More details/thoughts to be written in my actual journal...

And here's the NaNo Dedication (see below) - I had emailed out the basic dedication but not the paragraphs below of extra background info. See I don't want to email out the novel but will talk about bits.

In addition to the major literary inspirations below, Annie Lennox was my constant companion throughout the entire month, and actually popped up at the main character's door during a North Dakota snowstorm looking for refuge.

Also, my co-workers Shannon and Peri have been thanked in person and on Facebook -- Shannon brought up the idea of cooking trout in the dishwasher, and our co-worker Amy did it and wrote about it on facebook, getting my attention.

Peri told me about the cryptography career of actress Hedy Lamarr, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr) which gave my 12-year-old main character, Anastasia, an interesting topic for her combo science/writing project, and resurrected a huge amount of word count in the middle of the month. This article is really a great summary of her career as inventor, with a lot more detail than I found on the wikipedia.
It's really fascinating about the culture clash between the military and Hedy and her co-inventor, as their patent was partially inspired by a player piano, and as soon as the military read that, it lost a lot of credibility.

NaNoWriMo - done on time!

Here's my last posting in the "30 minute word wars" for NaNoWriMo.

My main character got caught up in an interesting conversation, and then a dream sequence followed, which carried through most of the last 5,000 words, written today, the last day of Nano.

It feels pretty good - I was able to finish on time even though I spent 10 days at least in the middle of hte month obsessing about my apartment hunt.

I'd like to thank:

* Dave, for being very understanding and supportive, and cooking endless meals for me.

* The word wars on the Nano site, which provided structure for the task of writing thousands of crazy words so quickly.

* Annie Lennox and her new album, "Songs of Mass Destruction"

* Pat Murphy, Madeleine Robins, and Ellen Klages, for providing inspiration, and the impetus to actually finish, because we are seeing a play on Dec 1 and I told them all I'd be done before that time!

Wild Girls Writing tips

These are from the back of "Wild Girls" - quotes from Pat's fictional writing teacher, Verla Volante:

A good writer tells the truth by telling lies.

When you're talking to a character, you find out what they think and feel. But what a character feels isn't always true.

Pay attention. Notice things and think about what you notice.

Sometimes you're writing about one thing and you realize that you're really writing about something else.

You can work on a story while you're doing anything that doesn't engage your whole attention.

Anything that doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And later on you can use it in some story.

SunPath's early writing

I took a picture of this picture with my treo and there it is. It would probably look nicer if I used my other camera, but oh well.
I'm using the site "www.platial.com" to make a list of places I've lived, but don't have many pictures I've actually taken to put in there until getting to the California era.

This is my Treo wallpaper to inspire me to write more.

Birthday at The Tech

I went to the Tech Museum in San Jose today to see my friend Michelle and tour her exhibit she designed - NetPla@net.
This picture is linked to a webpage I made while I was at the Tech - visitors log into the exhibits with bar code arm bands and so each person can make a webpage with pictures of them using the exhibits, etc. Michelle's cat is on one of the default page backgrounds for the website creator program.
This picture is me winning a virtual arm wrestling - I arm wrestled with someone at the Tech, but I could have arm wrestled against people at museums across the country.
I also had fun playing with the Virtual World, which is the kid version of Linden Labs' Second Life online world for adults.
Kids can sit around a circular table, each with their own terminal, playing the game. They didn't seem to be using the "chat" feature much, instead just yelling out "where are you!" and "Look, someone's swimming!"
One kid figured out how to "fight" by throwing objects at other people.
This was my character:

There is a catapult in the game which was pretty fun - a pig is nearby to catapult and you can also catapult yourself or other people. Kari may enjoy this virtual verson of the Monty Python catapult I gave her for Christmas.

Solveig's Polysyllabic Spree - March

This is the running Books Bought/Books Read log in homage of Nick Hornby - see posts in February 2005 on his book "The Polysyllabic Spree" where he did the same thing.

March 2005
Books Bought/Checked out from Library

• Good Faith, by Jane Smiley. Checked out from Library, 3/2.
  
• White Doves at Morning by James Lee Burke - checked out 3/2
  
• Etymology for Everyone by Kati's former prof, Anatoly Liberman
  
• Dark Fields of the Republic book and tape - by Adrienne Rich. I can't find my tape of this so I am ordering a new copy.
  
• an anthology book/CD of Adrienne Rich reading her poetry (forget the title)
  

Books Read:

• The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (omigosh, good book to kick off the Month of March. Finished 3/1/05.)
  
• John Dunning's latest Bookman novel - in progress
  
• Get a Financial Life by Beth Kobliner - I read bits of this at various times along with Smart Women Finish Rich by David Bach for inspiration.
  

Solveig's Polysyllabic Spree - February

In Homage to Nick Hornby's columns:

February 2005 (Feb. 22 on)
Books Bought:

• The Polysyllabic Spree, by Nick Hornby. Bought on Feb. 22 at 826 Valencia Pirate Store. Signed up for Children's Book Writing and Publishing Seminar for Kari and I.
  
• Talking Back: What Students Know by the students of Leadership High School in conjunction with 826 Valencia. Also purchased at the Pirate Store. I then walked down Valencia looking for a bathroom and for The Time Traveller's Wife. I stopped at Modern Times Bookstore, found a bathroom and also found The Time Traveller's Wife, but it was a new copy.
  
• Continued on down the street and stopped at DogEared Books where I found The Time Traveller's Wife used. Blog to come when I read it. I was also looking for Pat Murphy and Lisa Goldstein but did not find them even in the fantasy bookstore that is also on this street.
  
• How to Make Your Child a Reader for Life by Paul Kropp. I also bought this at DogEared Books as research for teaching literacy to families. But then the next day I missed the tutoring orientation for the literacy program because my job interview went too long! When buying the DogEared books, I realized that I had left the other 2 books in the bathroom at Modern Times, so I went back up and got them on the way back to the car.
  
• E-Learning Book by Michael Allen - I don't remember the exact name of this book but I ordered it because I was going to apply for a job at Allen Interactions (the company founded by Michael Allen). It looks good but I haven't applied for the job yet so the book may be less practically useful than I thought.
  
• The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy. Ended up checking this out from the library to reread as I could not find it used on Valencia
  
• Dark Cities Underground and Travellers in Magic by Lisa Goldstein - also checked out from the library with the Murphy book on Thursday. I started reading Dark Cities sitting on the floor in the library stacks because I was so curious about how in the world she is going to blend children's stories, BART, etc. It is really cool - she also has Egyptian deities in the book as well.
  
• The Sign of the Book by John Dunning - I found a signed copy of this at "A Clean, Well Lighted Place for Books" while attending the SARK reading Friday 2/25, there. Dave and I really like the Bookman series but neither of us knew this one had been published. So it was a good surprise for Dave. I also bought another copy of SARK's Creative Dreams book to serve as a present for someone else.
  

Books Read:

• Nick Hornby's Polysyllabic Spree
  
• Talking Back I just finished on 2/25 and about to blog it...
  
• New Yorker - I have a free subscription from KQED membership and have been reading it religiously along with the Newsweek free subscription.
  
• Library books get priority so the Goldstein books may be next. I still need to find Moominsummer madness and return to library... sigh...
  
• Dark Cities Underground by Lisa Goldstein - 2/26
  
• Travelers in Magic by Lisa Goldstein - 2/27
  
• The City Not Long After by Lisa Goldstein - 2/28
  

WonderCon, William Stout, Dragons, and Dinosaurs

Yesterday Dave and I went to WonderCon and saw William Stout, among many others, including Joss Whedon, Kevin Smith, and Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca in "Star Wars".)
Stout illustrated the book Dinosaurs which I have from its early edition and now is rereleased as The New Dinosaurs. I could have bought a signed edition of this book for $100 at the con but since both Dave and I are unemployed, I instead had Stout sign the free "Dragons" poster above, and I bought a copy of his 2nd Dinosaur sketchbook (below).
The Dragons poster is to promote the Animal Planet series coming out on March 20 which will have CGI representations of dragons and research on the question of whether or not dragons (as pictured in world story and mythology) actually existed. Check out the link on the poster graphic above. The Animal Planet website is quite awesome and has a lot of footage from the show.

Here's Stout's Dinosaur sketchbook #2 which I bought for $15. Right after I bought this, a guy came up behind me and asked "Do I need to pay money to get your autograph?"
Stout replied, "No..." but unspoken was perhaps the thought "No, but I wish you would _want_ to buy something just because you admire my work enough to ask for an autograph."
Dave got a lot of autographs yesterday and of course we couldn't buy something from everyone but I think he tried to at least buy a couple sketches, especially from people that he admired. After I had bought the book and had Stout sign my poster, Dave arrived separately (when we were trying to meet up again after separating for awhile) and Stout also signed Dave's historic "Daily Bugle" notebook - he did another short dinosaur sketch in the book but it was one of the most detailed that anyone had done previously.

The Dinosaur sketchbook is quite awesome - it has several sketches relating to the Disney Dinosaur movie. The most interesting is to read Stout's notes in the margins about all the details of the dinosaurs he's drawing - for example, he lists the various points of difference between a female dinosaur and a male dinosaur in one drawing of a female.

Other WonderCon stuff:

(Dave also has autographs of "Jay and Silent Bob" aka Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes in the book of record, as well as Sergio Aragones, Joss Whedon, and many others). He caught Kevin (above) and Jason at the escalator as they were trying to go somewhere but had been mobbed by fans.
During Kevin's talk, he had said "I wish I could hear from more people who are just moderate fans and aren't afraid to say so" in response to one of the many questioners saying "I'm a huge fan..."
So when getting his autograph, Dave said "I'm a moderate fan..." and Kevin retorted, "Then you're certainly wasting a lot of time here then, aren't you?"

We did not get Christian Bale, star of Batman Begins and previously adored by my sister Kati. He was at the show to promote the movie and in the midst of a huge room full of people waiting to see the Batman preview, I felt unable to spend the time to tell him as directed by Kati and Julie, "There are two women in Minneapolis who are still big fans of your performance in Newsies!"