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!

Brazen Hussies 6/20

Lisa
Magic of everyday life
Rick
Literature of the imagination

Lisa is very close to magic realism

Micky (Roessner) - we can write what we want in speculative fiction

Pat - fascinated with gateways that take u to fantasy world
Science - you are figuring out diff portals
Pat advice earlier during the break about advising writers how to find an ending - it's usually already there in the story.

Example - when she read this story last year, she did not know last
year that rocky would be so important

Lisa - it is really fun writing - although perspective about stuff no
one has seen before

Rick asks Pat - You are describing stuff the reader has never seen
She does not know if it is a fantasy element or not
If 3rd person the author is telling you what happened.
But in 1st the char is telling you what is happening

Pat: This story would be different if read in the New Yorker.
The viewer/reader completes the Story

I write the words but you complete it says Pat.

Michaela - 2 nd person has Creepy quality to it

Michaela's next novel is 1st person
Extrapolating but no wonder.
Pat talks about "The Woman in the Trees" (from Points of Departure ) which was in 2nd
person.
Workshop said it should not be in 2nd person, but she left it there because she did
not want reader to be able to escape

Pat brings up conversation I started or at least contributed to, at the break about fairy tales.

(Brought up the Book of Lost Things by John Connolly).

Pat points out her fascination with Peter pan and her story on her
site called peter

I find it really interesting to look at fairy tales, says Lisa, who wrote a
story called Ever After.

Lisa brings up her fairy tale research

Rick - science fiction takes us back to the ability to look at the
world for the first time.

Transformative view of the world...

Ellen question
Where does fantasy go ?
They say speculative fiction can be everything
Ellen says what about the bar fight? (regarding what is fantasy, what is "hard science fiction", and what is speculative fiction).

The Hussies basically agree that they don't want to get into the bar fight.

Pat says -I choose not to fight - it's all marketing.

It is in the eye of the heholder...someone might see Pat's story as speculative, another might see it as completely realistic.

But that is what is great about YA - you see all the genres mixed together on the same shelf

Rick - we are all just looking for a decent book to read.

Michaela and Pat (and Ellen! and also Lisa!):
We love research!

Lisa is also a research junkie.
Question about the Bart train now going to Millbrae....
Being in the shape of an aleph for Dark Cities Underground.
But she is sad now it goes to Millbrae and therefore no longer in that shape.

Ellen question: Do you feel like writing sometimes feels like homework
Because research is so much fun?

Pat example of research getting carried away - In Clan of the Cave Bear, character stopped in the
middle of a chase scene to talk about basket weaving.

WisCon 33: Favorite moments

My favorite moments of WisCon 33.


Also in reading the Chronicles of WisCon 32 I think I missed at least 60% of what was fun then - so I know this is just a small chunk of what everyone else experienced. But it is my chunk.

1. Ellen Klages' Guest of Honor speech
(Right afterwards I ran up to my room and wrote a long email to my husband about the impact of this speech).
Also glad that I planned in advance to sit with bindr and Vy (and it turned out, Rina, Jacob, Amy, Anna, Matt, and Rez) for the dessert salon, which offset quite a bit of "who am I going to sit with" anxiety that had started to kick in already on Saturday.
Getting to hear Ellen read ALL of "Time Gypsy" at her reading on Saturday, since I love that story. With lovely and well-acted English accent for the character Sarah Baxter Clarke.
And of course the Tiptree auction!

2. Finally getting to read the end of Pat's story from her reading!
(the portion she read at WisCon is the 3rd time I've heard a portion of it, due to faithful attendance at her Bay Area readings!). Very moved by the 2nd half of the story.

3. Hanging out with folks after the Governor's Club closed on Saturday night.
Eating rhubarb pie provided by Geoff Ryman after it had mysteriously appeared in his room (after we determined it was not Nisi's pie), watching Pat entertain people with her bristlebots, and discussing some "interesting" YouTube vids.

4. The strong emotion when K. Tempest Bradford (and Catherynne M. Valente) introduced Nisi Shawl and presented her with the Tiptree Award. (And Nisi introduced her mother Rose!)

5. Random conversation with Jennifer Stevenson in dealer's room which led to an invite to join her and friends (Margaret McBride, Anne Harris , and Victoria Janssen) for lunch.
Both conversation and lunch invite initiated by Jennifer - next year I will practice the art of striking up more conversations). Enjoyed the conversation at lunch (touching on many topics) and got some extra info from Jennifer re: targeted marketing, and also Roller Derby!

6. The panels overall! The Kickass Moms panel still sticks in my head the most. commented on it on live journal.

7. Parties on Sun night:
Getting more writing advice/support from Eileen Gunn and Diane Silver and hearing about Eileen's Microsoft past. Meeting Georgiette who has been coming to WisCon since WisCon 3 (and was wearing a beautiful dress).
I, on the other hand, was not wearing a beautiful dress! While I would not have ventured into the Fancy Dress party by myself with no fancy dress, I was with Pat which made it easier.

8. Signout - Briefly meeting Catherynne M. Valente (I love In the Night Garden but haven't yet read Palimpest, which she signed for me).
In chatting about my name she tells me that she too will soon have a "Russian Z name husband". (hers more Russian than mine since he lived there until he was 12 years old. Hopefully my Z 3rd gen Russian husband will come to WisCon next year).

9. Non-WisCon but still important to the weekend - Memorial Day picnic with my godparents at their house after they picked me up at the Concourse on Monday (and then dropped me off at the airport).
Really nice to talk to them and start transitioning back to the "real world"slowly. If I plan this well enough hopefully this can be a WisCon tradition, as I was also able to see them last year. Their house is so comforting.
They have lived there for over thirty years. They met my parents when all were young working in Monroe, WI, where I was born. It's really inspiring just to watch them interacting together - they are one of the main current role models for a long and happy marriage for my husband and I (since his parents divorced when he was two and my mom died when I was 16). My godmother wrote this email about my mom for me a couple years ago.

Regrets on WisCon:
I wish my flight hadn't been delayed since I missed all of Friday night - got in really late at 12:30 am by cab, but jazzed and hard to sleep.
Wish I had planned my panels out a little more, I feel like I missed several that I should have gone to (plotting the novel, romancing the beast, children's books that we remember... etc)
Wish I had talked to more people and put myself out there a bit more.
Wish I had read more of Geoff Ryman's work and Nisi Shawl's, before WisCon.
Or at least remembered that Geoff also wrote and coded the interactive novel 253, which I loved! So I could talk about it.

Podcasts from Pat Murphy and Carol Emshwiller's SF in SF readings

Rina Weisman of Tachyon Publications has posted the links to several podcasts done at the SF in SF reading I went to on 6/21 -- with Pat Murphy and Carol Emshwiller.

I was really interested to hear the interview parts which we in the audience only vaguely overheard at the event.
The interviewer asked Pat some good questions about The City Not Long After and her process of writing that and wandering around San Francisco dreaming it up, and about Wild Girls. Yay!

It's also quite fun to listen to Pat's story again - I was just drinking it in when I first heard it and didn't realize I would get to hear it again.

The part about the fairy meetings at the fictional toy company are just hilarious and I can hear myself laughing again in the background on the podcast, almost.

"my fairies wear clothing of tanned mouse leather...they are grimy, hardscrabble fairies..."

(I remember when I heard that line initially, I picked up on the word hardscrabble, since Hassler had his "hardscrabble girls".)

aargh! The ending in the middle again!

Podcasts (the interviews are the last two links):

Carol Emshwiller, Pat Murphy and Terry Bisson at SF in SF:

Carol Emshwiller reads at SF in SF:

Pat Murphy reads (and throws cards) at SF in SF:

Carol Emshwiller interviewed at SF in SF:

Pat Murphy interviewed at SF in SF:

Writing Rules that Carol Emshwiller likes to break

At the link above.
On Saturday night I went to go hear Pat Murphy and Carol Emshwiller read as part of the SF in SF series. I really enjoyed it, it's such a treat to have Carol visiting here (as she divides her time between Bishop, CA and New York City) and plus, Pat read a story that was fresh from her head (just written this week).

I'll update with the podcast links from the readings.
The post linked above has some good advice from Ms. Emshwiller, as originally published at Fantastic Metropolis.

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.

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.

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."

Online interview with PM

I found a long bibliography of Pat's work on the Speculative Fiction Database, and while poking around I found this interview -
in which her interviewer, who's interviewing via chat, suddenly disappears, as she nonchalantly continues the interview with herself, and then smoothly welcomes the interviewer back to his own interview:
"Welcome back Jim! While you were gone, I started talking about my new book from the Explo, The Color of Nature..."

Wonderful example of, even apart from her writing, why Dave and I both think she's so awesome.

Another reason: The Brazen Hussies Blimp.

And yet another reason: interview chat taking place while Pat has to run off and corral the Blimp.
So Folks...let's give Pat a hand so that she can supervise this rather wild blimping.

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.

There and Back Again, by Max Merriwell, by Pat Murphy

Rereading There and Back Again because I picked up a nice pre-signed copy at Borderlands Books when I bought The Wild Girls.

This is Pat's space-opera homage to The Hobbit -- but here it's not Bilbo, it's Bailey Beldon, a norbit (I think I read somewhere that the word was coined for Pat by Ellen Klages) who ventures forth from The Restless Rest, his cozy home in our solar system's asteroid belt, in the company of Gitana, a mysterious female wizard-like figure, and Zahara, with her group of "sibs" (female clones).

What I love about this book is that I usually get caught up in all of the stuff Pat herself has dreamed up - the 'pataphysicians, the space travel through black holes, etc, the base 12 math, etc.

-- and I forget about the underpinnings to Tolkien. But when there's a more clear or obvious reference (such as when Bailey finds his "ring" and goes through the riddles scene)
I think - "Oh cool, that part is familiar - that's how she tied that in..."

I had forgotten that this book, like "Adventures in Time and Space..." and "Wild Angel" has a "mysterious Murphy" -- here, it is "The Curator" who presides over a host of artifacts which sound suspiciously like they could also be Exploratorium exhibits!

I like the cover as well - maybe because every time I look at it, it reminds me of Annie Lennox, who is another of my favorite people.

I also love the character of "Fluffy"! Read the book to find out who (or what?) Fluffy is!

The Wild Girls, by Pat Murphy

This is the review I posted on Amazon.
I wrote more about this in my journal and in an email to Pat.

I love this book.

I don't want to give any spoilers about the content, and I think there's enough information about the book at Pat Murphy's site and here on Amazon for readers to learn about that. The book itself is just really good.

Plus, it makes me want to
1. write more, and
2. also get to know my mom better via the questions that Joan and Fox learn to ask in the book (unfortunately this is not possible for me, except via #1).

Pat has written that she wrote the book for the twelve-year-old that she once was, and I feel like she wrote it for the twelve-year-old that I was also. And for the 33-year-old that I am now (and all the ages in between).
I bought an extra copy for my 13-year-old niece.
The woman working at the bookstore where I bought the book (Sorry Amazon, I went for a local bookstore on this one) told me that she has been waiting for this book "for years!"

December 5, 2007
I still love this book.
It really did serve as a good inspiration for my NaNo novel.

Discovered recently the link to Pat on the Speculative Fiction Database
which also includes her birthdate. We are both Pisces, which somehow does not surprise me too much.
Useful for potential gift surprises...

The Falling Woman, by Pat Murphy

I am resurrecting my blogging habit here since I'm also keeping my iRead app on Facebook updated.
This is Pat's Nebula-winning novel -- it's been often described as more mystic realism than science fiction, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.
I could not remember for sure if I had read this already or not. There is some sort of parental abandonment/early loss thread that is certainly present here (although it doesn't speak to me as resoundly as "The City, Not Long After" does.
Here Elizabeth leaves her daughter Diane to go off and be an archeologist.

In "The City" Jax's mom actually does die, but her spirit still seems present in San Francisco, and it appears that in "The Wild Girls" -- Fox's mom inexplicably leaves her and her dad. Fox believes that her mom must have turned into a fox.

The Shadow Hunter by Pat Murphy

Buy on Amazon!
I also found this book at Borderlands on Oct 25 along with "Green Glass Sea" - an autographed copy of the 2nd edition of Pat's first novel!
I think I had never read this before - it's very interesting in that she wrote the book in 1982 (on a typewriter as she points out in the intro) and then went back into the story in 2002 to "update her future" - adding things like cell phones and such that are now prevalent but were pretty uncommon or not invented in 1982.
It's an interesting meta-time machine right there - the character of the Neanderthal boy in the book is brought forward into an utopian world created by a scientist (reminded me a bit of the Jurassic Park island) and then the 2002 version of Pat goes and reframes the future to fit the new future.
(She compared this a bit to trying to fix just one thing in a kitchen - you end up wanting to redo the whole thing).

I liked the book and Pat's ability to put us in these different worlds and minds, even in the 27-year-old "promising young writer" version of herself, as she put it.

Adventures in Time and Space with Max Merriwell by Pat Murphy

"
Adventures in Time and Space with Max Merriwell is about the nature of reality and the nature of identity-and some of the confusions of being a writer. "
-Pat Murphy, from her website.
Adventures in Time and Space with Max Merriwell (Buy on Amazon).


This book is just crazy good!
I remember liking it the first time I read it but is even more entertaining now after having met and hung out with Pat a little bit. (This copy was actually a gift from her, given to me at our gamegirls design meeting).

I'm not sure I'll ever again have the experience of reading a book with so many identities, alter egos, pseudonyms, and even characters named directly after the author, all sharing various traits with the author which are very fun to try to puzzle out, during a span of time when I'm actually in communication with the author herself.

In this book we have: a cruise ship, an author on board (Max Merriwell) who writes as two different pseudonyms (Mary Maxwell and Weldon Merrimax). And wait, Pat Murphy (the real one I've met) wrote and published two previous books under these same pseudonyms (Wild Angel by Mary Maxwell and There and Back Again by Max Merriwell).
And even weirder, the pseudonyms appear as real people on the ship as it is passing through the Bermuda Triangle, causing very mysterious events.
There's two women traveling on the ship, Susan, the main protagonist, who is a bit unsure of herself after a divorce and gets a good pep talk on confidence from Mary Maxwell - see below.

Susan is a big fan of both Mary and Max and has some commentary on these books she's reading (She's reading Wild Angel on board), and is traveling with a friend, also named Pat Murphy!
(the fictional Pat Murphy is a young graduate student in physics who is writing the Bad Girls Guide to Physics: and Pat and Susan had met while working at the SF Public Library)

Of course, Pat Murphy (the real author, the one who also works at the Exploratorium and studied biology) actually "collaborated" with the fictional character and put up a real website at the www.badgrrlzguide.com link above. I was really entertained to find this out, I think I didn't bother to check it when I first read the book.
(Apparently the hope was that the Exploratorium would eventually publish a Bad Grrlz Guide to Physics...I'd guess the URL was going to be used for that).

Pat's also provided some entertaining points on differences between real and fictional Pats (fictional is a better pool player, and so on) and includes in the website the recipe for the famous
Flaming Rum Monkey, invented in the novel.

On top of all this, for the price of admission we also get a lot of writing advice (Max is having a writers' workshop on board, saying a few things that I actually remember hearing from Pat when attending a seminar she gave at a conference) plus Clampers and a giant squid!

Here is the conversation between Mary Maxwell and Susan which I am trying to keep in mind when I find I'm losing confidence and/or trust in myself. The other thing that is good to remember at those times is Pat (real Pat) calling me "a force to be reckoned with!"

" Mary was leaning back in her chair, studying Susan's face. 'I think you tell yourself the wrong sort of stories,' Mary said.
'What?' Susan said, startled, but trying to remain relaxed.
'You kick yourself for getting lost. You tell yourself that you don't look good with short hair. You avoid taking the shortcut. Little things, but they all add up. You don't trust yourself at all.'
Susan didn't know what to say. 'I suppose you're right,' she began. 'But...'
Mary held up her hand. 'No buts,' she said firmly. 'You need to learn to trust yourself, to trust your abilities. There are so many possibilities for a woman who knows how to use her imagination.' Mary sipped her drink, still considering Susan.
Susan bit her lip, feeling inadequate. Mary seemed to be taking her on as a sort of project, and Susan wasn't sure how she felt about that. She leaned back in her chair, wondering how she might distract Mary and take her attention off of Susan's shortcomings." (bold type added by me above)

Susan sees Weldon Merrimax at the bar and thus is able to change the subject.
I really see a lot of myself in these comments about Susan. I showed this passage to my therapist because we've been talking a lot about me not being able to take praise very well and being so hard on myself. Also I totally do this same thing when I feel too under the microscope with my therapist, I try to change the subject and start talking about something completely different, even though we're actually there for the express purpose of looking at these kinds of things for me. Must be more than a little frustrating for her.

Game Developer's Conference, Pat, Ames, and Writing

Spent most of the afternoon on Friday with Pat walking around the Game Developer's Conference, apologies to Pat for this picture because I forgot to get a better one of her later on.
This is Pat listening/ talking to Ames and I after we sat down to have a beer after wandering around the show, and then Ames saw me and ran over to say hi.
This was such a fun conversation that I forgot to get my coat out of our company's booth before the booth was dismantled, and our studio head took it back in his car.

Pat and Ames found they share a love of wolf stories, which was quite cool! Ames and I were also inspired to write, especially to try writing in the morning although I meant to do that this morning (Saturday) but did not.
In riding home on light rail I found also that Pat and I have a similar attitude on the "adventure" of public transit: it's kind of a pain and a stress to get on and to the public transit, but once you're on it, you don't really get as stressed as you do when driving and you really feel when driving as if you could have controlled the situation if there's traffic, etc. But on transit, if it's late, it's late. Pat actually took BART to Caltrain, then Caltrain to light rail, to get to the show.

Women on Writing Conference, Pat Murphy

I am really jazzed right now because I just went to a "Women on
Writing" conference today and got to meet one of my favorite authors,
Pat Murphy. I did also get many other books signed and heard Janice Mirikitani but I want to give her her own blog entry after I have actually read her book I bought.

Here's the blog spiel I wrote here about Pat Murphy's book The City Not Long After...
Here's her
biblio/awards page
She is awesome!

I had finally found a copy of this book (The City Not Long After) in a
used bookstore after looking for it hither and yon(I hear a paperback edition is coming
out this spring) and so I emailed her since she lives in the Bay Area
to see if she would be signing somewhere since I now finally have a book of my own to sign, and she told me she would be speaking
and signing books at the conference, so I decided to go, especially
since it was on my birthday.

It was very inspirational, I had told her it was my birthday so she
actually brought another one of her books for me as a present (although I didn't take it because it was the collection of short stories that Dave gave me initially that got me started reading her work.) The workshop that she led was also very productive, I actually have a little germ of a plot that I did not have yesterday, as she led us through the questions she asks herself when getting started on a new writing idea.

It was so nice to actually have an extended conversation instead of my
usual tongue-tied talking at book signings, where I usually say only:
"Thank you so much for coming... my name is Solveig - yes, pronounced
Sol-vay...yes it is a Norwegian name...I really like your work.
Bye..."

It also turns out there's an additional connection in that we have some common interests in the game industry . . .