WorldCon Part 7 -- Creatures from El and Other Stories

8/8/2009
Saturday, 13:30
Bought a snail with flowers on its back at Creatures from El. Lovely, weird stuff. It's made using a wire form underneath with an air dry resin/clay sculpted over it and then glazed. Definitely art.

14:00 Neil Gaiman Reading
Heard Neil read a story about a dying sun and time travel and a flea market in Florida (that's all one story, though I see how you might think it's more a'ready). Then he read a love letter. From a statue. A stalking statue (sorry, that's a bit of a spoiler).

15:30 How to Pitch Your Novel
Quite a few people turned up to hear some rather predictable advice. Still there were some useful tidbits:
- If a publisher asks to see the best parts of your novel, they really want chapters 1, 2 and 3, not 1, 17 and 42.
- Money, generally, flows to the writers, i.e. to the "talent", e.g. at a restaurant (per Mike Resnick, who is an author and publisher; the editors on the panel didn't feel quite so strongly about this).
- Ace/roc is a good imprint for urban fantasy -- they do want electronic copy. Seems to be trending toward electronic submission from paper.
- Who you know certainly helps and can be used a couple of connections away, i.e. friend of a friend
- Longer workshops are worthwhile: Odyssey, Clarion East/West, Lincoln City
- Write (duh.)
- "Writers Market" contains a lot of dead markets and obsolete leads (along with some live ones)
- Writer Beware at SFWA.org
- Novel minimum word counts these days are 75-85K words
- Interzone is a UK short story magazine
- Don't necessarily need to have published short stories to get a novel published; the editors felt the forms were different enough.
- Need to sell 20,000 copies of a hard copy novel to make it profitable
The rest, including most of the Q&A, was just too "Duh."

I also "volunteered" a little for this panel, just helped move the tables and route the microphone wires so that all 4 panelist could sit together -- just wasn't going to work with them all at one 6 foot table and most people were just kind of staring at the awkward situation.

17:00 "Analog"
This was a panel to talk about what makes an Analog magazine story an Analog story. I don't read it much. Apparently Analog stories solve problems. They have a reputation as more "hard" science fiction than Asimov's magazine stories, which are more emotional. Analog tends to link the cosmic and man.
Maybe it's in light of the inevitably depressing previous panel (on first novel publication), but this panel, 10 minutes in, seems not quite pompous, but maybe a bit capricius. Two things about Analog and Asimov's: They love to print new stories from prior authors and short stories from established novelists. The Analog editor did say he's looking for stories about social paradigm shifts (I have an idea in that area). Along these lines the panel discussed that maybe "everybody doesn't need a job anymore"; certainly we can feed and clothe everyone without all of us working 40+ hour weeks. Another tact: Every story has an original speculative idea. "Pursue the next idea in this story." (I've forgotten what they meant by that.). "Don't need a single tone in a story, especially in a longer story." "Don't always need a happy ending." "Show a link between the very large and the very intimate." "Gratuitous sex (or anything) is bad for Analog." Apparently "Emergence" was a very popular story, by David Palmer; also "The Coming Convergence" by Stanley Schmidt.
By this point I'd had enough writerly advice, and was glad the session was over. I don't plan to go to any more of those this time.

WorldCon Part 6 -- Coraline to Cory

8/7/09 21:00
Friday (yes, it was a long day)

Melissa Auf der Maur joked, during her “Out of Our Minds” multimedia/rock show about being an opening act for Neil Gaiman’s presentation of Coraline, the movie. It was scheduled in the same room as OOOM, in the follow-on time slot. She was joking, but it was also clear that she, a genuine rock star, was being deferential to the literary genre rock star. Made her real.

Neil gave an informative and entertaining introduction to Coraline. He answered a handful of questions, with much more information than was queried for. Good stuff, although he did manage to, toward the end of a very long answer to a short question from a cute young girl, oh, probably 8 years old and I’m guessing she stopped paying attention to the answer by then, drop an F-bomb. Oh, yes, I do – couldn’t at first – remember the question: “Where’d you get the idea for Coraline?” And he told about Holly, his daughter, making up stories and him looking at the shops for Gothic horror for 5 year olds and having to write it himself. But he can’t remember about the buttons for eyes and would need a time/space machine for that and, long story not so long, spilled the beans to his earlier self to jot a note about the buttons idea, but “F----“, now it’s tainted.
They had technical difficulties with the blue-ray player and since I’d seen what I came for (Neil live), I exited.

8/8/2009
Saturday

9:00 AM “Stroll with the Stars” or “Promenade avec les étoiles”
A group met outside the convention center each morning to take a walk around part of Montreal , I only went to this on Saturday, in large part because Cory Doctorow was scheduled to walk. We met at the fountain at Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle on the west end of the center. A star of the table tennis world also happened to be at the walk, Larry Hodges. Larry is also a science fiction author; he’s had several short stories published and is nearing completion on his first novel. I mostly chatted with him on the walk. The weather was very pleasant and we mostly strolled through Montreal ’s Chinatown district. At the end I talked a bit with Cory and took his picture with Larry, and Larry took a picture of me and Cory and I took a picture of someone else and Cory and Larry did one of his party tricks with a ping pong ball, levitating the ball in a stream of his breath, although it was difficult in the outdoor breeze. I gave Cory and Larry each an NATTC club pin. Cory ended up wearing his all day. Cory gave Larry his “Strolling with the Stars” pin. I may send a photo in to the national table tennis magazine (for which Larry used to be the editor). I then walked with Cory to his next session: autograph signing.

10:00 AM Cory Doctorow Signing

(Alright Mr. Ben McT., Cory told me he’s not much into playing sports, but he might like to try his hands at house fly catching, so perhaps if there is such a league, and it seems like a sci-fi kind of thing, then he may have been signing with the premier fly catching league’s Jupiter United squad, I don’t know. Actually, it was autographing again). I walked into the signing area with him and got on the back of the short line that had already formed there, awaiting his appearance. He wore the NATTC pin while signing (he had a moderate line the whole hour, I checked back, and snapped a picture). I think he appreciated being asked to sign a printout of the first pages of Makers, his new novel currently being serialized pre-publication on tor.com. He also signed Little Brother for me.

Aside: “In what world is that considered dry?” I asked myself after washing my hands and being obliged to use the air dryer – no paper towels available. Even the “Blast” dryer with its high velocity air force (and 80 dB sound) after 20 seconds was still visibly, tactilely, if-not-quite-drippingly, wet. The “what world” part struck me as apropos, here at a sci-fi convention. Perhaps I’m easily amused at the moment.

WorldCon Part 5 -- Out of Our Minds

8/7/2009 Cont’d
19:00
Went along to the “Out of Our Minds” multimedia presentation by Melissa Auf der Maur. Turned out to be an incredibly personable experience. She’s a first time WorldCon-ner (any ‘Con, I’d guess) and still a bit uncomfortable with sci-fi ultra geeks but she marched through technical difficulties and played electric bass solo, clearly missing her drummer. She also showed the film and the music video (unfinished at this point) and played 3 songs while a video montage of the black & white (and red!) comic interspersed with her live on the big screens. She told us some behind the scenes details, like that the Ford Taurus was demolished but the old truck was barely scratched, and that she had never played solo w/just her voice and bass for a live audience and that she was nervous – had been practicing in her living room. She was rewarded with a warm ovation and plenty of fans, now and future. She stayed on stage, chatting afterwards with a bunch of folks that came up; and she handed out buttons and stopped for photos. Of course her being an attractive woman wasn’t lost on this crowd, but she signed autographs and was very cordial. She gave a lot of her self, and the people left wanting more.

WorldCon, Part IV -- The Neil Gaiman Signing

15:30
Friday, still. Started to listen to Connie Willis, Charles Stross, Cory Doctorow reading but it turned into SRO (Standing Room Only) so I gave up my seat between Connie's introducing herself and setting up the formant and her starting to read. Just as well, the 4:00 PM signing line for Neil Gaiman had started, even with pre-allocated tickets. (I picked one up about 9:40 am, thankfully no line for that and earlier than the warned 10:00 am which conflicted with my first panel today), so I was early, about 3:45 but already 140 people back in the line (the guy collecting tickets mentioned the count a couple people before me -- there were still 6 dozen people behind me). And it took an hour and a half to get to Mssr. Gaiman, I had boned up on my signing etiquette and already had my limit 2 items tagged with the dedication name and had eaten, etc. and had something to read with me and met the people near me on line, so it wasn't too dreadfully boring. Neil was astoundingly patient and listened to my prattle about Caralyn's name often being gotten wrong, just like Coraline and I ended up very pleased with the mouse doodle on Coraline and the headstone doodle on The Graveyard Book. Hey, I just realized (okay, I'm a little slow), that he put "CHIP" on the headstone, like I'm R.I.P. -- Not quite yet, Buddy!

WorldCon Diaries, Part 3

8/7/2009
9:50
Sitting outside a lecture room for the 10:00 am panel, reading Little Brother, when Cory Doctorow walks by – not a big coincidence, he’s on the 10 am panel, still he nods and says “hi” and it’s a little surreal.

The panel is “Intellectual Property and Creative Commons ”, not a whole lot here that I’m not already aware of, but it’s fresh to hear it straight from people who are pioneering it. Doctorow suggests googling “model creative commons license” for a sample, but I didn’t find anything better than just going to http://creativecommons.org/.

10:00
New Media Panel
Cory Doctorow mentioned mixing Skype (internet based telephone calling) with digital music such that while skyping with his wife, he can hear the music, but she can’t – and he can work and listen and chat, and she can work and chat – without the music, something they can do while he’s traveling but not while he’s home.

Cory Doctorow at both these first two panels, after 30 or 45 minutes, adjusted from a normal seated posture to a cross-legged, “Indian-style” (is that “Native American-style now, or just politically incorrect to attribute to any cultural designation?), still in a regular chair. Nice to have young joints.

Steven R. Boyett was also on the panel, he has a new book, I guess and one (Ariel) coming back into print; he’s also a podcast DJ for exercise music, etc. He’s kind of a “modern man”, as opposed to Neil’s more “renaissance man”, who was also on the panel, but seemed a little cranky – or maybe he was just being obstinately retro; he was still entertaining and the largest presence on the panel, the Con’s “rock star”. He looked dead tired even though this is only the second day of the convention. All the panelists held their own, though, even Melissa Auf der Maur, who apparently is a legitimate rock star. I’m not sure from what group(s), but one of the songs is in Rock Band (the videogame). Tobias Buckell, another panelist, is a NY Times best selling author and Ellen Kushner, from NPR and more, moderated. Melissa was clearly a bit out of her element, not knowing much about sci-fi literature, comics or the internet – but she knew music and film and was very open about it. She’s also a native of Montreal, and went to high school with one of the audience members, so provided some local “color” (including her long red hair).

14:30 (let’s see, that’s 2:30 PM)
Lebanese for lunch at the food court in the mall adjoining my hotel and between it and the Palais. Lebanese seemed like very unusual ethnic fare for a food court until I realized that it has a French heritage so is likely right at home in Montreal. I had falafel on pita bread, it was probably good but I don’t think chipsters like falafel. Had ham & egg croissant from another food court stand earlier for breakfast – it seemed French, too, rather than getting the English muffin version.

Canadian Astronauts, Nobel Economists

Continuing my WorldCon diaries, there were some pretty prestigious performers:

8/6/2009
20:00 (That’s 8:00 pm)

Canadian Astronaut and Member of Parliament, Mark Garneau, gave the keynote for the opening ceremonies. He mentioned Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, a book I read once upon a time after another ebullient recommendation. I don’t remember it much at all, other than that it wasn’t my favorite.

The entertainer was Sabrina Argonier, a contortionist in a hula hoop, a very strong hula hoop, she was all over inside and out of that thing, on the ground and suspended in the air. The “Guests of Honor” were introduced, including Élisabeth Vonarburg who’s birthday apparently is today and Neil Gaiman, who gave a three minute impromptu prepared speech.

21:00
Paul Krugman and Charles Stross in Conversation.

This started out with the “where’s my flying car?” discussion, but included some other interesting points, like that the “Military Industrial Complex” has been supplanted, or joined, by the “Communications Complex”: telcos and intelligence agencies and what not. Another was that somewhere in the past 30 – 50 years people getting rich switched methodology from “Wealth Creation” (Carnegie, Rockefeller, etc.) to “Wealth Concentration” (Warren Buffet, Bernie Madoff, etc.)

22:30
Walked on the street from the Palais des Congres to the Delta Centreville Hotel and a party for Vonarburg (let there be cake). “What’s this knot of 20 or so people out front of the Intercontinental Hotel?” I asked myself enroute. “Oh, there’s Neil Gaiman (so it’s his crowd); and he’s doing introductions! ‘This is Karen Somebody, Karen, this is So-and-so.’ Poor lucky bastard (meaning Neil).”

Winging to WorldCon

I plan to run a series of my notes from my trip to WorldCon / Anticipation – the big Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention winding up today in Montreal (yes, in Canada ). I had very limited access to the Internet while there, so I jotted notes in a Moleskine pad, so they are from a few days ago, maybe next time I’ll be set up to live blog it.

8/6/2009
11:30
Flying to the 67th WorldCon, Anticipation, in Montreal . Hopefully building some good karma – but did feel a bit like I was in a David Sedaris skit – was asked to switch my 6B aisle seat for a bulkhead seat up front, 1C, so that a couple could sit together. No problem for me, just want to arrive safe & close to on schedule (unlike these folks) -- lots to do and see this weekend. 15 minutes late boarding….

12:30
Finished the first “Part” of Cory Doctorow’s Makers novel serialization. Only printed 2 parts – already wish I’d printed more. Not so unsettling as Little Brother, more energizing/provoking like Dan Pink’s Free Agent Nation or Dave Winer’s ventures. Still on the plane. Need to pee.

16:55
First panel: John M. Ford (Apparently known as “Mike” in everyday life). A few folks lingered before the prior panel finished, but it really started filling about now. I guess it was to be expected; Neil Gaiman sheduled (I missed the “c” on purpose there, as one of the, I guess, locals, was saying it that way just now). Novels of interest: Final Reflection, a Star Trek book, from the Klingon POV; How Much for Just the Planet, another Star Trek story. Web of Angels, arguably the first cyberpunk book. The Final Tax wreckless Eric (My notes fail me here – get used to it). From the End of the Twentieth Century short stories; Heat of Fusion.

Pastiche: Green Eggs and Ham in Casa Blanca, apparently written in a comment on Patrick Neilsen Hayden’s Making Light blog.

They ended a bit early, some thought only an hour was scheduled but ‘twas 90 minutes so the after 60 part was Q&A and ad hoc, until an audience member stepped to the mic and told Ford’s bar joke: “Werner Heisenberg, Kurt Godel and Noam Chomsky walk into a bar…” The end of the joke was declared the final word.

Afterthought: the room was full, 200+ people and all the seats, okay 90%, were bad – because it was a flat room with crowded, orthogonal rows of connected chairs. More than one row back and there were heads in your way. The panel was in the same chairs as the audience. Either a dais or bar height chairs and tables would have cured it – or 180 fewer people.

The Moon is Free

NPR’s Morning Edition news program this morning (well, yesterday, now, since my blog post was delayed) stated, as a prelude to stories about the Chinese and Indian space programs, that we (the United States) had “conquered” the moon 40 years ago, by landing on it. My thought was that we hadn’t so much conquered it as merely “touched” it. And we’ve done little more to tame it since then. I’m not sure that’s a problem, I don’t think there’s a big reason to establish a regular presence on the moon, or to establish an ability to exploit it’s natural resources, although in one of the follow on stories they mentioned that 100 tons of Helium-3 per year, which apparently is plentiful on the moon, would be enough to meet our current terrestrial energy needs. Maybe it is worth going back to the moon.

My Remembering My Dinner With Andre

Perhaps it is just because it's evocative of my halcyon days at university, you know "those butt planted, heel slamming mornings" (sorry I've drifted off into someone else's poem). Rather: when my intellect was precipating from the academic solution that I was immersed in. Or maybe it was a novel film for 1981, but I've just watched the freshly-released-on-DVD-and-now-available-at-Netflix "My Dinner With Andre". It is surely a remarkable, simple film. You remember, the film that suggests that once in a while you go through a day using only you're left hand (if you are right-handed), just to be sure that you shake your life up a little, often enough. And that maybe flags sewn for a purpose, to fly over your endeavors and your friends and capture their essence for you to hoard, that well, maybe such things can be evil incarnated inanimately -- and the solution is to burn them and bury them, ritualistically. And that maybe we live our lives in a trance and maybe we need an occasional trance to make us live our lives alive. And where you can see Wallace Shawn say "Inconceivable!" six years before he does it again in "The Princess Bride". Ahhh.

US Open Golf at Bethpage Again in 2009

I guess this review is relevant again for the next few days.

Who the Hell is Baylock Matherbee?

Two reviews in one day. I sum this one up with, "like a well-baked potato." It's of an unpublished science fiction short story by a friend.

Franken Still Slogging Forward

I've finally posted a quick review of Al Franken's Lies ... A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Here's a quote: "Sure, Franken uses humor to make his points, but he's largely 'kidding on the square'. "

Experimental Theatre: Contemporaneous Shakespeare

My daughter (12) told me about an idea, while setting the table for dinner the other day, that she thinks would be cool. She thinks someone should put on simultaneous stage plays, like split the stage in half, one traditional Shakespeare, with the "thees" and "thous," and one "translated" into modern English. I liked it too. Archaic language vs. modern idioms. They could have mirror images of the sets and action with the spot lighting bouncing back and forth.

Shakespearean: “Harken! Doth mine ears deceive me?”
Modern: “Say what!?”

Easy to play it for laughs, with some talent it could be commentary on modernity.

Kennedy Family Puts a Dog in the Whitehouse

After failing for decades to put another (human) family member in the Whitehouse, including the tragic deaths of Bobby and John Jr, the unsuccessful candidacy of Teddy and Caroline eschewing even a Senate seat, the Kennedy family has finally managed a different feat -- putting a dog in the Whitehouse.

Young Natalie Merchant and the Poor at Easter

I dug a 25 year old cassette tape out of the center console of my 13 year old truck today while driving to drop a check off at my dentist. (Not quite as painful as a procedure, but a little bit cringe creating even so.) The music was fresh once more, 10,000 Maniacs "In My Tribe". My gawd, Natalie Merchant, you sound young! Through the magic of recorded media it is a young you; I guess I've lately listened only to recent renditions of your older lyricism. Of course you were young then, about twenty years old twenty five years ago. You're younger than I am so let's not reverse the math to see where we are now, but you are singing idealized lyrics, the promise of youth. Did we change the world, bend it to our better vision? Are you (are we) doing it now, with the election of Barack Obama, the popularizing of Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert and, possibly, the election of Al Franken? Along with the rise of the third world from poverty and preventable diseases? Will there be poor always, pathetically struggling? It's a good Easter question, and I'm not the only one who is asking. (See also Matthew 26:11, Deuteronomy 15:11, Mark 14:7, etc.) For now I'll listen to my youth, and to Natalie Merchant's, and to the other 10,000-plus maniacs I have known.

Neil Gaiman Graphic Novel Review

See why I ask whether "a theme was concocted to connect..." in my Creatures of the Night review.

American Democracy vs. Richard John Neuhaus's Kind

I heard this story on NPR on my way home from work last night; it's about recently deceased theologian and author Richard John Neuhaus. Somewhere in the middle author George Weigel lauds Neuhaus as "a genuine democrat with a small 'd'" -- apparently Neuhaus was a proponent of Christianity driving public policy in the U.S. I don't know if he plainly argued against our separation of church and state (or Christianity and State, the way these things tend to be; no one gets much of a hearing who is against the separation of non-Christian religions and U.S. government), but these people continue to miss the most basic point of this tenet of our democracy: codifying separation of religion and government was explicitly done (and continues) to protect the most faithful.

Yes, almost exclusively Christians at first. The founding fathers were not particularly concerned with protecting Jews, Muslims, Hindus or atheists in the late 1700's. For one thing there just weren't very many around in post-colonial America.

When Weigel said Neuhaus was a "democrat", I thought "No way;" but had to correct myself. Yes, technically a democracy is ruled by the will of the majority. So he can be genuinely democratic -- but that doesn't make him a tremendous supporter of American democracy. True little 'd' democracies, though, are characterized by the tyranny of the majority against the minority. American democracy has a great pillar in our "Bill of Rights", a set of tenets that protect individuals and minorities and that can't be overturned by a simple majority -- they require a strong super-majority to change them, being, as they are, a part of our Constitution.

Protection of the minority (and individual) is in all of our best interest -- sooner or later we all find ourselves as a minority of one kind or another, or standing alone in some predicament either on principle or through unfortunate happenstance.

So unless, Father Neuhaus, you plan to always be in the majority, you and those you would have in your flock, please help us to preserve our protections; to solidify our rights and embrace our separations where they are emplaced to deny tyranny and injustice. If you are comfortably ensconced in your majority, here's just one example of how majority can be fleeting, if you are a U.S. citizen and caucasian you are currently in the majority. Reuters tells us that you likely will not be by the year 2050 -- you'll be a plurality, i.e. less than 50% of the population, not enough to vote your will onto society even in a little 'd' democracy. So if you are under the age of 35, there's a good chance you'll live to be in a racial non-majority. Let's keep the Golden Rule in mind. Let's bring morality into our government as often and deeply as possible, but we can do that without the accoutrements of organized religions.

Rest in peace.

Obama Bandwagon

I'd swear I'm seeing more Obama bumper stickers now than ever before. Right up until the election you really had to keep your eyeballs peeled in order to spot the handfull of cars with Obama propaganda on them. Ever since then it seems the percentage of cars on the road here in Northern Alabama with "Obama '08" or "Yes We Can" (still not many "Alobama" slogans around) has been, it seems to me, steadily increasing. Now even a short ride to the store often contains a sighting.

Not that it's a problem for me. I'm as enthusiastic as ever about our choice for "next President", even if the timing, what with the economy wretching, is a bit of a downer. And I'm psyched to see more and more people jumping on the Obama Bandwagon -- I hope we really do all rally around him and our new Congress and make this a greater country and a great time to be in it. Only a dozen more days until the swearing in!

Losing My Motherboard

A friend sent me a reference to Google Linux.

Yeah, I said, hard to know where to focus forward. Currently I’m resisting modernizing my home computers – the newer one, that my son and I built back in ’02, is losing its motherboard. Leaky capacitors – it’ll still boot if you try several times in succession; I guess the capacitors build up a charge and then acquiesce. I’m going to try replacing the old motherboard with one that came out in ’04 (couldn’t find my exact model) – still using IDE drives and DDR (184 pin) memory. Meanwhile my son is now a sophomore in college and on his second laptop in 3 years….

SILive Island Girl Hat Tip

I got a(nother) mention in Island Girl’s blog.