stillsostrange

My WorldCon was an unexpected whirlwind of delights. The obvious highlight was when matociquala and I presented the Campbell Award and I got to give the tiara and brand new scepter to an astronaut. Then Jessica Jones won a Hugo for "Smile," which filled me with violent, vicious glee. But I think my true favorite moment came during the Losers Party, when the band struck up the Time Warp for the second time. I don't believe I've ever been to a two-Time Warp party before, and I'm very grateful to grrm for providing that experience. I also participated in great panels, and had a blast with new friends and old friends and random passers-by. I am making every effort to attend in Helsinki next year.

And if you happened to see my Hugos dress, which I hope someone got a good picture of, I'll let you in on a little secret: Jobst: It Stays. I bought a backless bra to wear with that dress which completely failed to function. So in a moment of panic I borrowed matociquala's sock adhesive and glued myself into the dress. Everything stayed where it was supposed to for ten (10) hours, perfectly comfortably, even through the aforementioned two rounds of the Time Warp. Sorcery!

My agent sent me her notes for The Poison Court just before WorldCon. Now that I'm beginning to recover from the excesses of the con--not to mention driving to Minneapolis and back in four days immediately afterward--I will buckle down and turn those around. I also need to get cracking on another project, and figure out the three short stories I have in various degrees of completion.

I am in fact still alive. I had a great time at WorldCon, and promptly came down with con crud and failed to post about it.

Today I wrote a synopsis for The Poison Court and sent that and a partial to the Fabulous Agent. Tomorrow I get more color added to Octavia. Other cool things of a not-yet-speakable nature may also be happening soon. Updates to follow.

This is just to say that I'm not dead, Space City Con was a very good time, and that I have my second lesson in properly punching things tomorrow. Further updates to follow.

Friday July 12

4:30 PM VT Reading: Amanda Downum. Amanda Downum reads a work in progress.

Sunday July 14

1:00 PM F Egalitarian Character Trauma. Amanda Downum, Natalie Luhrs, Daniel José Older, Julia Rios (moderator), Sonya Taaffe. In 2008, Ekaterina Sedia wrote a blog post titled "PSA: Female Trauma!" in which she generated a list of traumatic things that can happen to female characters (spanning a scale from "high heels" to "losing a limb") that don't involve sexual violence. In 2012, Seanan McGuire blogged about an anonymous correspondent who asked her "when" her female protagonists were "finally" going to be raped, implying that rape is an inevitable outcome of being a woman. How can we counteract the predominance of sexual(ized) threats to female characters? Is it enough to simply write other things and move the Overton window, or does the status quo need to be directly subverted? Who's doing it right and what are some examples of doing it wrong?

2:00 PM F Stranger Danger: Secrets and Discoveries in Urban Settings. Amanda Downum, Lila Garrott (leader), Maria Dahvana Headley, Stacy Hill, Patricia A. McKillip, JoSelle Vanderhooft. In folk stories the forest is full of dangerous secrets and the village is usually safe as houses. When the village becomes unsafe, it's because the forest has violated the sanctity of civilization, as when the wolf takes the place of Red Riding Hood's grandmother. However, a slew of recent books find their dangerous secrets within the confines of cities: the many neighborhoods in Kathleen Tierney's Blood Oranges, the occupied city in N.K. Jemisin's The Shadowed Sun, the monster-populated New York in Seanan McGuire's Discount Armageddon, the gas-filled walled Seattle of Cherie Priest's Clockwork Century series. What is it about modern life that leads writers and readers to look for discovery and the unknown in cities? How do we cross the border from safety to danger when it's not marked by anything so concrete as the edge of the forest?

9:00 AM CL Kaffeeklatsch. Neil Clarke, Amanda Downum.

I have survived the Lovecraft Film Festival, where I had a delightful time, even though Portland insisted on being unseasonably warm and sunny all weekend. I hung out with lovely people everywhere, saw fun movies--the Cabal Cut of Nightbreed was worth the price of plane fare, even if they haven't found the footage of Peloquin's sex scene yet--went dancing, and ate way too much bar food. Okay, the bar food wasn't actually fun or lovely, but hopefully I'll stop doing my best Prince of Darkness swollen-with-evil impression by the end of the week.

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I have not been keeping good track of books this year, so the order of these is slightly dubious.

1. Alabaster: Wolves - Caitlin R. Kiernan
2. Song For the Basilisk - Patricia McKilip
3. The Changeling Sea - Patricia McKilip

I'm not sure why it took me so long to read this book, since I sought out so many other books in high school based solely on their lovely Whelan covers. This is a jewel of a book, perfect in my heart, and while I'm sure I would have loved it 17 years ago, I love it just as well or better now.

4. Steles of the Sky - Elizabeth Bear (in draft)
5. The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison (ARC)
6. The Paris Affair - Teresa Grant
7. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld - Patricia McKilip

Another con survived, and this time without "Hotel California."

ArmadilloCon is over, and I had a lovely time. I missed the waterfall in the lobby on Friday, but I was out for dinner and drinks with the Bat City Novelocracy at the time, so it wasn't as disappointing as it might have been. My reading went well, I gave away two ARCs of A Fantasy Medley 2, and my panels were smart, fun, and contained no slut-shaming at all*. The writing workshop also went smoothly. We even got to blindfold the workshop students and do terrible things to them.

And did I mention I have ARCs for A Fantasy Medley 2? I drew names out of a bowl at the reading, so I should probably use a slightly more sophisticated system of placing the next two. Suggestions?


* Sadly, I'm told that wasn't the case in other panels. Panels, I am disappoint.

I did, in fact, make it home from Boston. Which is half a shame, because I love Boston, but the airport Hilton is too expensive to become a second home. Readercon was lovely, with highlights including drunken yoga in the lobby and cocktails at Drink.

The very best news, though, was that arcaedia likes the draft of Dreams I sent her. Six and a half years and several drafts later, my little novel has finally grown up. (Which doesn't mean it's ready for submission yet, but so close!) Now I can really start brainstorming for Dreams 2: Byakhee Boogaloo.

ETA: I forgot the other half of today's noteworthy events. First, I've been talking to my tattooist about my next tattoo, a companion piece for my octopus--either a friend or an assistant to answer his fanmail. If he comes up with a sketch we like, the painful part should begin in August.

And in an effort to make the real estate on my arms a little more appealing to potential tattoos, I joined a gym today. Climbing is still the best workout I'll ever get, but the climbing gyms are far, and the new place is right down the street. It's also nice because no matter how hormonally incompetent I may become, I can still manage a leisurely pace on a treadmill or bike. In the airconditioned shade. I meant to run in for maybe half an hour tonight, and stayed for an hour. Now I just have to keep this up enough to warrant the (small) expense.

Friday, July 13

12:00 PM VT Reading. Amanda Downum. Amanda Downum reads the forthcoming novelette "Bone Garden." (Also known as boywhores vs. oracular demons, or the story in which I kill sovay horribly.)

2:00 PM CL Kaffeeklatsch. Elizabeth Bear, Amanda Downum.

3:00 PM F Anthropology for Writers. James L. Cambias, Christopher M. Cevasco, Amanda Downum, Francesca Forrest, John H. Stevens (leader), Harold Torger Vedeler. In a 2011 blog post, Farah Mendlesohn wrote, "'Worldbuilding' as we understand it, has its roots in traditions that described the world in monolithic ways: folklore studies, anthropology, archeology, all began with an interest in describing discrete groups of people and for that they needed people to be discrete." This panel will discuss the historical and present-day merging and mingling of real-world cultures, and advise writers on building less monolithic and more plausible fictional ones.

(This seemed like a good idea during sign up, but I have no idea what I'm going to talk about and expect to embarrass myself completely.)

Saturday July 14

2:00 PM G The City and the Strange. Leah Bobet, Amanda Downum, Lila Garrott (leader), Stacy Hill, Ellen Kushner, Howard Waldrop. In The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs writes, "By its nature, the metropolis provides what otherwise could be given only by traveling; namely, the strange." N.K. Jemisin's Inheritance trilogy demonstrates that epic-feeling fantasy can still take place entirely within the confines of a single city. Fictional metropolises such as Jeff Vandermeer's Ambergris, China Miéville's New Crobuzon, and Catherynne M. Valente's Palimpsest are entire worlds in themselves, and the fantasy cities of Lankmar and Ankh-Morkpork shine as centers of intrigue and adventure. In what other works, and other ways, can cities be stand-ins for the lengthy traveling quest of Tolkienesque fantasy?

3:00 PM NH Group Reading: Ideomancer Speculative Fiction. Mike Allen, Leah Bobet, C.S.E. Cooney, Amanda Downum, George Galuschak, Claire Humphrey, Nicole Kornher-Stace, Kenneth Schneyer, Sonya Taaffe. Authors and poets read work from Ideomancer Speculative Fiction, one of the longest-running speculative fiction webzines still publishing.

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In other news, Brave was adorable, and I strongly support the message that all family problems can be solved by turning someone into a bear. But I'm very disappointed that Robert Carlyle and Jonny Lee Miller weren't in it.

jimhines has an excellent post on sexual harassment today, including links about where to report harassment in SF/F circles and the Backup Project.

If you are being harassed at a con or other event where I'm in attendance, please feel free to grab me for backup. I'm pretty terrible when it comes to confrontation, but I am more than happy to escort anyone out of an unpleasant situation, or help find security, or just hang out and glare until the dickbag in question goes away.