Readercon, etc.
Jul. 14th, 2010 12:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
handful_ofdustI truly do think I may be the worst person in the world at this sort of summation. Still, the facts, in absolute basic:
1. Yes, everybody's right; Readercon is what all cons should be, and oh-so-rarely are. Ie, it's a social matrix made up of people who, in the main, came to think and talk rather than party (not that no partying gets done, though I--being a boring old married lady--did relatively little of it). Almost everywhere you go/look/listen, somebody's having a conversation you wish you were a part of...and more often than not, when they notice you listening in, that person will then invite you to become a part of it! Crazy.;)
2. Met all the people I'd hoped to, hung with all the people I'd hoped to (though some less than others) and met people I'd never thought of meeting, many of whom turned out to be awesome. Noticed other people out of the corners of my eyes. Introduced myself to people, and indulged my long-dormant fangirling side to a ridiculous degree. Peter Straub was nice to me yet again, even though all I talked about was boring domestic crap. David Anthony Dunham talked to me about building a series. N.K. Jemisin, Amanda Downum and Elizabeth Bear treated me like they wanted to talk to me longer. And the piece de resistance: Giving Caitlin R. Kiernan advice, which she later publicly acknowledged. Oh Em Gee to the infinite power, expletive deleted, all that.
3. Best part: Because I've officially been adopted as part of next year's Shirley Jackson Awards jury, I guess I'll "have" to come back next year.;) Steve may not be able to, depending on time and financial management issues--which is too bad, because he really behaved himself and had a great time too, even while making a constant string of the worst puns imaginable. (Some people have since suggested that this implies he'd be a great participant in the 2011 Bad Prose Competition, which I agree with. But, ya know...kid, work, stuff. And the fact is, even if we did co-write yet another incredible story in the meantime, my jury status means it couldn't be considered anyhow.)
Still: We lost to Stephen King! (For his novelette "Morality", which I haven't read.) As John Langan said at the time, in his habitually blithe, wonderfully resonant voice: "Hey, getting beat by King's the best thing that ever happened to me, in terms of showing my family that what I do really does mean something. That pushed me all the way from: 'Oh yeah, John's weird little hobby...' to: "Yeah, HE got beat by Stephen King! Somebody we've all actually heard about!"
(I also lost in the short story category, to the author of "The Pelican Bar", which I really need to look up, because her acceptance speech was a hoot. And maybe I should re-read some of Shirley Jackson's novels, too--I remember getting partway into The Bird's Nest in high school, but I don't think I've ever made it past We Have Always Lived in the Castle's amazing first paragraph. Though that stuck with me well enough to later look at a Ruth Rendell novela nd realize she was basically riffing off of the same template...functionally insane young girl squatting in ancestral home on the verge of bankruptcy, her hallucinatory fantasy-world threatened by outside forces which eventually cause tragedy...)
Okay, so that's about that. Hope I haven't made myself look too much like an idiot.
And now here we are back in the "real" world, preparing for yet another con--Polaris 2010, which starts on Friday. My schedule, for those who may be going, runs thusly:
Friday July 16
8:00 PM--Blast-Off Party
Saturday July 17
2:00 PM--Heroes: Season Four in Review
4:00 PM--Gender Roles and Feminism in SF
5:00 PM to 5:30 PM--Reading
7:00 PM--Supernatural: Drawing the Line Between Heaven and Hell
10:00 PM--Disabilities in SF
Sunday July 18
12:00 PM--Fridged!
2:00 PM to 4:00 PM--CZP Book Launch for A Book of Tongues and Chimerascope
This last part is somewhat problematic, because it means I'll be coming very late indeed to Steve's 40th birthday party, which is being held in Mississauga (about as far away from Polaris as humanly possible). Hopefully I can make it there for dinnertime,a t least, since his Uncle Bob (who married us) will be there, and wants to check in on the state of our union (ha ha ha). And also because I could do without a huge bag o' guilt being dumped on me, but lay that by.;)
Aaaand...now I need to go back to inputting notes and trying to generate copy, so adieux. Roughly 1,500 new words on Chapter Nine yesterday, plus three more rough poems, which I may try to hammer into shape later on. And then Cal, and the pool, etc.
Yes, I'm home.
1. Yes, everybody's right; Readercon is what all cons should be, and oh-so-rarely are. Ie, it's a social matrix made up of people who, in the main, came to think and talk rather than party (not that no partying gets done, though I--being a boring old married lady--did relatively little of it). Almost everywhere you go/look/listen, somebody's having a conversation you wish you were a part of...and more often than not, when they notice you listening in, that person will then invite you to become a part of it! Crazy.;)
2. Met all the people I'd hoped to, hung with all the people I'd hoped to (though some less than others) and met people I'd never thought of meeting, many of whom turned out to be awesome. Noticed other people out of the corners of my eyes. Introduced myself to people, and indulged my long-dormant fangirling side to a ridiculous degree. Peter Straub was nice to me yet again, even though all I talked about was boring domestic crap. David Anthony Dunham talked to me about building a series. N.K. Jemisin, Amanda Downum and Elizabeth Bear treated me like they wanted to talk to me longer. And the piece de resistance: Giving Caitlin R. Kiernan advice, which she later publicly acknowledged. Oh Em Gee to the infinite power, expletive deleted, all that.
3. Best part: Because I've officially been adopted as part of next year's Shirley Jackson Awards jury, I guess I'll "have" to come back next year.;) Steve may not be able to, depending on time and financial management issues--which is too bad, because he really behaved himself and had a great time too, even while making a constant string of the worst puns imaginable. (Some people have since suggested that this implies he'd be a great participant in the 2011 Bad Prose Competition, which I agree with. But, ya know...kid, work, stuff. And the fact is, even if we did co-write yet another incredible story in the meantime, my jury status means it couldn't be considered anyhow.)
Still: We lost to Stephen King! (For his novelette "Morality", which I haven't read.) As John Langan said at the time, in his habitually blithe, wonderfully resonant voice: "Hey, getting beat by King's the best thing that ever happened to me, in terms of showing my family that what I do really does mean something. That pushed me all the way from: 'Oh yeah, John's weird little hobby...' to: "Yeah, HE got beat by Stephen King! Somebody we've all actually heard about!"
(I also lost in the short story category, to the author of "The Pelican Bar", which I really need to look up, because her acceptance speech was a hoot. And maybe I should re-read some of Shirley Jackson's novels, too--I remember getting partway into The Bird's Nest in high school, but I don't think I've ever made it past We Have Always Lived in the Castle's amazing first paragraph. Though that stuck with me well enough to later look at a Ruth Rendell novela nd realize she was basically riffing off of the same template...functionally insane young girl squatting in ancestral home on the verge of bankruptcy, her hallucinatory fantasy-world threatened by outside forces which eventually cause tragedy...)
Okay, so that's about that. Hope I haven't made myself look too much like an idiot.
And now here we are back in the "real" world, preparing for yet another con--Polaris 2010, which starts on Friday. My schedule, for those who may be going, runs thusly:
Friday July 16
8:00 PM--Blast-Off Party
Saturday July 17
2:00 PM--Heroes: Season Four in Review
4:00 PM--Gender Roles and Feminism in SF
5:00 PM to 5:30 PM--Reading
7:00 PM--Supernatural: Drawing the Line Between Heaven and Hell
10:00 PM--Disabilities in SF
Sunday July 18
12:00 PM--Fridged!
2:00 PM to 4:00 PM--CZP Book Launch for A Book of Tongues and Chimerascope
This last part is somewhat problematic, because it means I'll be coming very late indeed to Steve's 40th birthday party, which is being held in Mississauga (about as far away from Polaris as humanly possible). Hopefully I can make it there for dinnertime,a t least, since his Uncle Bob (who married us) will be there, and wants to check in on the state of our union (ha ha ha). And also because I could do without a huge bag o' guilt being dumped on me, but lay that by.;)
Aaaand...now I need to go back to inputting notes and trying to generate copy, so adieux. Roughly 1,500 new words on Chapter Nine yesterday, plus three more rough poems, which I may try to hammer into shape later on. And then Cal, and the pool, etc.
Yes, I'm home.
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Date: 2010-07-15 05:04 am (UTC)