• Matthew Wayne Selznick debuted Brave Men Run last week! Congrats, Matt!
• This week’s Key to Publishing #2 (check Adventures in SciFi Publishing for #1)
• Truths - my confessional about bad habits in writing. MY bad habits.
• Promo: John Payne fancast
• Writing and Tracking through Subversion (from Jennifer)
• MFA/MFYOU
• Robert’s write-every-day blog
• New Fantasy Magazine- Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Originally published at The Murverse. You can comment here or there.

Here it is Saturday morning and day 2 of Readercon.

One of my favorite panels was "Generation Dark." The primary focus of the discussion tried to answer the question "Are kids today seeking out darker literature than kids in past generations?" There was a general consensus that kids are focusing more on dark fantasy or dark romance rather than horror. This can primarily be seen through the examination of standard horror characters such as vampires, zombies, and werewolves that have been romanticized with increasing frequency over the last decade. Now, instead of taking on horror roles, these once reviled and dangerous beings present themselves in dark fantasy and romance stories as saviors, lovers, or protectors of young women or girls in trouble. The conversation covered more examples than this, but most of the panelists agreed that horror fiction is continuing to be a troubled genre while its tropes are given new life (or perhaps half-life) in dark fiction or dark romance.

Another panel that I enjoyed was "F&SF + MFA >0." The crowd was pretty big, much bigger than I expected. The panelist included Jim Kelly, John Kessel, and four graduates from Carolina State Univ and Stonecoast. Unfortunately, the audience had more questions than the panelists could answer due to time constraints. I don't think they have planned on such an energetic crowd, but there seemed to be a clear indication that SF&F writers are interested in the idea of getting an MFA in their field. The long and short of the discussion is that no writing program can make you a better writer or guarantee you a job or publication upon graduation. Only you can make yourself a better writer through the practical and continued use of the knowledge and skills you acquire through the study and practice of writing. MFA programs, when well chosen to fit the students needs, can be extremely useful. However, receiving an MFA is not a quick fix or a ticket to publishing. You have to still put in the writing time because there are no shortcuts to success. As for getting a job with your MFA, the most important thing is to get your work published.

Overall, it was a positive session with a realistic take on the value of entering an MFA program. The key benefits to an MFA program were highlighted as (not listed in order of importance) a) getting a credential on your resume, b) establishing yourself within the writing community, c) learning how to read as a writer, d) having 2+ years to work 1-on-1 with a published and successful writer, e) exposing yourself to new writing techniques, f) learning about literature and trends in and out of your field, g) exposing yourself to different forms of writing, h) identifying a variety of ways to make a living with your writing, etc. I could go on and on. Can you tell I loved the panel? But above all, the panelists stressed that receiving an MFA isn't necessary to becoming a published writer.

Now, it's time for breakfast.

This is the last of Readercon (technichally Day 4 but only Day 3 Paid).

It has been an interesting year with interesting wide-ranging panels and, as always, it's been fun seeing and hearing from people I'd not previously known about:

• the discussion of Farah Mendelsohn's "Rhetorics of Fantasy". I used to love these kinds of discussions. Still do, but the cynical side of me now wonders what are the practical uses of these kinds of studies. They exist to perpetuate academia but really offer no insight into human struggle or the act of writing or how to manage a team of 70+ employees. Still, interesting conversation and John Clute was a a revelation.
  
  
• Breaking Into the Ghetto explored David Anthony Durham's entry into the fantasy field after having received acclaim as a literary author. David Anthony Durham is bright and articulate and I have to check out his books. This perception/discussion of moving between the ghetto genres of SF/F and the lofty field of literary genre was pervasive this weekend, partly because one of the guests of honor, Jonathan Lethem, is 'guilty' of having abandoned SF for the cleaner air of literary writing. Lots of interesting discussions on the genre front.
  
  
  
• "F&SF+MFA>0" panel was one of the livelier ones. Though Andy Duncan entertained and informed with humor I'm left thinking that it's not for me.
  
  
• Readings. Best so far by David Anthony Durham. Best not to mention who gave one of the absolute WORST readings I've ever attended.
  
  
• Jonathan Lethem has a stream of consciousness approach to answering questions. He'd be fun to have a discussion with but i have the feeling my poor brain would be dust at the end.

Those are a few of the panels and ideas out and about. I am not a good networker so I haven't actually spoken with many people, but I'm sure affinity8's ears must be bleeding by now by now, and possibly emjay_dee's as well, what with having to be the person to hear me babble on about things I haven't the nerve to say to others.

I'm off to the dealer's room for some purchases by Carol Emshwiller, Howard Waldrop, Paolo Bacigalupi and perhaps Elizabeth Hand and David Anthony Durham. Then a panel and some readings then home and back to employee reviews and one last day of visiting

It's been fun having affinity8 here for the visit. It's been a privilege to witness her path to success and I know it'll continue. If only she'd write more SGA fanfic; damn, Supernatural. (after all, it is all about me) ;-) 

We're running a secure erase on our old computer. Should take about, oh, sixteen hours. Goodbye, little Io! You were a fine G4. You always performed well, but you're too old for our crazy modern needs. I have no idea what we're going to do with it once it's clean again. Give it away if we can, I guess.

We're recycling a bunch of old software CDs and floppy disks while we're at it. Applications I never learned to use, apps that are no longer supported, apps that have been absorbed into iLife, and a huge collection of fonts back from the days when I was font-crazy. Man, that was a fun hobby. Just looking at Pumpkinseed makes me nostalgic.

The new iMac is a thing of splendour, I must say. My photos look fantastic on it. I should take more photos. Maybe tomorrow. I didn't even bring my camera with me today to my Old Norse lesson. I didn't get to sleep until 2:30am and I figured I'd conjugate a few verbs, wow Evan with my mad declension skills, and then waft home for a nap. But Peet's wireless was on the blink and there was a huge arts and crafts fair on, so we opted to walk around and see art.

I had such a good time! There were some really nice booths of art and photography. We talked to several of the artists, and Evan got some advice that made me laugh: he asked one of the painters what he should do to get started as a painter, and the guy told him to get a camera. Take lots of photos, he said, and teach yourself composition. Best thing you can do for yourself as an artist. Right on, painter guy!

This evening John and I went to a barbecue in San Jose and I got to see lots of South Bay friends I haven't seen in months, plus Peter Larsen who was visiting from Rhode Island ("The state everyone uses as a yardstick for how big something is.") We told him about discovering Rhode Island sauce, the mystery condiment in Sweden. He was impressed. Or possibly appalled, the facial expression is similar.

Home again to deauthorize and decommission, and somehow it's after one even though I haven't had enough sleep all week. If I just turn off the computer and step away I might actually get a full eight hours.

People have asked me how they can help with Playing For Keeps promotion. I was more than happy to comply with some art from some very helpful friends, JC Hutchins and Tee Morris. Feel free to take the ads, put them on your site, and link back either here or playingforkeepsnovel.com! (And if you want a 120×600 graphic, click here)

And thank you! (And thanks JC and Tee!)

PFK Wallpaper: 800, 1024, 1152 and 1280

Originally published at The Murverse. You can comment here or there.

• I was interviewed 7/16 by Hollywood Jesus - it was an IM interview, so if some of my answers seem a little stream-of-consciousness, that’s how I am in chat…
• My interview with Gem from Time Well Wasted went live this morning.

More coming soon!

Originally published at The Murverse. You can comment here or there.

Net access is limited because of disagreements with the hotel about a reasonable price for net access, or alternately because I'm being cranky. So, I'll be brief.

Jim Kelly's two one-act plays tonight -- thought-provoking, funny, a little confusing. Science fiction as drama is harder than it looks, I'm sure.

Doyle and Macdonald at their kaffeeflatsch -- clever and charming, as always.

Underused alternate history milieus (a panel) -- man, there are tons of them. You should be writing them for me I enjoy. More on that when I get home. Feel free to remind me about that.

Debra Doyle, Greer Gilman, et al on the philology panel -- sort of an ecstatic experience. I'm not sure I'll be able to talk intelligently about what they were saying. The sort of word-root insight and language beauty that I usually look for in poetry or really good prose.

An odd T-shirt I saw -- "I put the 'sexy' in dyslexia." Readercon humor. Several people are wearing their "English doesn't borrow from other languages, etc." T-shirts, which I understand is a James Nicoll quote. (Wish he was making money from the T-shirts.)

Korean BBQ -- tasty, but I hope the grease spatters will wash out of my shirt.

The Tom Disch poetry-reading video shown last night -- sad beyond words. Disch's suicide earlier this month has been a dark cloud in an otherwise clear sky.

The Kirk Poland Bad Prose Competition -- about to start. A Readercon must-attend.

I headed up to Readercon on Friday afternoon, making a pit stop at Patterson's Back Bay Dancewear on the way. Alas, they did not have quite what I wanted in stock, but they could order it, and it would arrive in three business days, which alas does not work for me, because in three business days, I'll be in Worcester for my dance class. So I'll look elsewhere early next week (maybe the place in Newton, maybe the place in Worcester, maybe Teddy's Shoes in Cambridge, although that's less likely), or wear my china flats on Thursday or something.

Then it was on to Readercon itself. I dumped a stack of books at the Broad Universe table and headed for my first panel (the writing groups one) where there were nearly as many people on the panel as in the audience. Then on to a stint at the Broad Universe table in the dealers room, then dinner, panelage, blah blah. I thought I might go home after my 7:00 panel (Waking up Sober Next to a Story Idea, in which I was the token baby writer among the panelists) because I was feeling rather out of sorts over the whole Helix thing. There are at least three writers at Readercon who are very much in the anti-Helix camp, and I found myself getting paranoid about how widely-spread the disdain was for multi-pubbed Helix authors. Plus, Andy had already left, which left me essentially alone. But I started running into people that I wanted to talk to, and then I had a few really enlightening conversations about the whole issue with a few other folks who are in my boat, as well as a few seasoned genre veterans who've been watching it from the outside, which was really, really helpful. And in the end, I ended up staying long enough to give away all my stickers at the Meet the Pros(e) party.

Today I spent a whopping two hours at the convention, then it was off to the Boston Fetish Fair Flea Market. The staff were extremely gracious towards me, treating me like a special guest, which was just lovely. My audience at the reading? Well, small. And I had about a dozen walk-outs over the course of the story. I think some were simply hoping for more sex, and others I think were bothered by the way the story wasn't 100% fetish-positive. And that's absolutely a fair cop. "Captive Girl" is a story about a woman who discovers she's a fetish for her lover, and has real struggles with it. It takes an uncomfortable look at the nature of consent. And I can see how someone who wanted an afternoon of fetish fun would be unhappy with that. Andy and I spent the hour after that looking at all the vendors, and it became clear to me that I was a tourist and not a participant. And you know what? That's cool. I'm glad to have been a tourist in that world for an afternoon, but it would be unfair to go back and be a tourist again. People don't go to the Fetish Flea to have Jane and John Vanilla gawk at them.

Of course, I did gawk at the ponies. OMG, they are the cutest BDSMers ever! Bondage gear...with prancing! And Maureen's pony had this incredible dignity about him. It really was something to behold. I think he might inspire a story some day.

After the ponies, Andy and I headed out for dinner, then came home. I'd originally planned to head to Teddy's Shoes on the way home, but I was just too damned tired. And while I'd love to go back to Readercon for the Kirk Poland competition at 10:00, I'm not sure I want to get my ass in the car alone (Andy's gaming) to make the drive when I'm this tired. I'd planned to spend my evening working out choreography for Thursday, but it's so freakin' hot, plus see above comment about being tired. But I have done some more dance name research. I'm still pondering Verity and Una/Oona, and have also tossed the following into the mix: Juniper (a play on Jennifer Juniper), Eris (although I fear that might be too pretentious), Morrigan (see previous comment), Nemesis (see previous comment), Zia, and a few others that I'm a little less thrilled with, but have scribbled in my notebook nonetheless.

Today I ended up doing Karaoke with my flatmate, and a couple of construction guys he teaches English to every week.

The English language selection wasn't great, but I did manage to sing Runaway Train (Soul Asylum), Losing My Religion, With or Without You, and Sweet Child of Mine,

The only problem with karaoke in Vietnam is that it judges you based on how well you keep to the tones in the original song. Which tends to be great for Vietnamese people doing Vietnamese songs, but us non-Vietnamese people ended up with between 83-85% on all our English songs. The Vietnamese guys with their Vietnamese songs got around 92% on average.

But then I did That One Chinese Song I Know, and I ended up with 98%. Which just goes to show that it's much easier to get it exactly right when you're singing in a tonal language :)

Ok, I probably spelled that wrong, but I am entirely too wiped out to care enough to actually look it up. I guess it would have taken less time than writing that last sentence. And this one...anyway...

Camp is over. I am no longer Program Aide Director. I handed off my 'bag of tricks' to the new ladies taking over for me, last night at camp fire. My girls made me cry. They gave me a send-off fit for a Boggy (that's me. I know. Geektastic. But it's camp.) They wrote me a song, sung to the tune of "I'm too sexy" and performed it for me last night around the campfire. Then I got a 46 person hug that nearly toppled me. It was amazing. I'll miss it; but not enough to keep doing it. I'll never escape camp entirely. Once a girl scout, always a girl scout. But I am officially retired from the 'leader' position.

I am finally dry. A week in the sun melted about 10 lbs of sweat off me. On top of the heat was the sort of humidity New England almost NEVER gets. I felt like I was in the Louisiana bayou. Now camp is dissembled and packed back up in the barn. I have NO PAPERWORK to do anymore. When I show up at camp next year, it'll be to say hi and bask in my former glory and then leave before I so much as perspire a thimbleful. 

Who am I kidding? I'll go back next year, roll up my sleeves and pitch in. It's just what I do. The thing is, I won't HAVE to. I can leave when I need to leave without feeling bad. And that makes all the difference in the world.

Dear Car,
You suck. I know, I know, I was the one driving. The one in control when we lightly tapped that car in front of us, but I have to think it wouldn’t have happened if you’d been a somewhat more advanced auto. I mean, if you’d have the velvety smooth voice of Kit from Nightrider you could have warned me, “Excuse me, Dfable, I would be remise if I did not point out that the driver we are following has a penchant for breaking unexpectedly.”

Yes, I know you have a voice--a flat anonymous voice that tries to get me to take an unknown road when I know I should just stay on 95. Luring me out to the boonies doesn’t really count as intelligence. But it’s not just about the fact that you didn’t have the ability to warn me that has me upset. I’m upset because if you had half the skill of Batman’s car you could’ve popped up on two wheels and vroomed around that pesky bumper and the long line of traffic and taken me straight to Readercon with no issues.

How bad do you have to suck to not even be able to do that? I mean, it’s not like I’m asking the impossible. It’s not like I’m asking you to pick your chaise up like a skirt, which I’ve seen many a cartoon car do, and tiptoe on tinkling wheels around the object in question. I’m not naïve. I know THAT would be impossible, but a warning, a flop to the side two wheely. Come on, those things are not hard. And, while I’m pointing out your flaws, I would like to say if you had half the balls of Speedracer’s car you would’ve just jumped over that minivan. You probably don’t even have a secret button that secretes high power octane in a burst that can blow Racer X out of the water. Stupid car.

Maybe I’m being unfair to you. I mean, maybe if you could speak you would complain that you get what you pay for or that I need to go back to driving school or maybe you’d just turn to me in the voice of a somewhat cartoonish old man, and say, “Oh, Magoo, you’ve done it again.”

Sincerely,
Your Disappointed Driver

Yes, mentions, plural :) Both "Mercytanks" and "The Last Stand of the Elephant Man" got them. Huzzah! They mark my first appearance in the SF honorable mentions section.

And I also got a mention in the intro...kinda:

"...and [Magazine that shall not be named] had another strong year, publishing good work by Robert Reed, John Barnes, Jennifer Pellard..."

*sigh*

Thankfully, if you Google "Jennifer Pellard" the top hit is an LJ entry by me bitching about how people sometimes misspell my name that way.

Congrats to everyone else in the honorable mentions, and special congrats to current and former members of my writing group Yoon Ha Lee and Margaret Ronald

For the two crickets in the far left of the stadium:  I'm going to start working on Project C more seriously over the next couple of months, along with the agent hunt and second draft of the Body mod.  If you'd like to be included in filtered discussion about the project that I have in mind, and occasional questions to people about the project, please respond to this thread.  I'm going to filter-lock the posts for Project C, because some of the architectural and topic posts may ruin the eventual experience for some people, once I start talking about it in detail.  I know this is really obtuse at the moment... that's kind of the point until I can bounce concepts off of people.

In broad-brushstrokes, Project C will be a collaborative, exploration-based SF survival storygame, possibly using the LJ infrastructure.

I have been working on a short story which is dripping with potential--potential does drip, right? Sadly, I cannot figure out what I'm doing with it. I've tried everything: write the ending, write character sketches, write the outline, write the world-building stuff. Nada. Zip. That story will not gel. So I give up on it for now. I guess I don't have anything to say yet, just some cool ideas. I'm going back to the story that amuses me the most, the Wodehousean-Georgian murder mystery currently titled "Moongarden." As it happens, the moon garden doesn't come into the murder mystery part, it's just a nice atmospheric place for a ghost to meet with his human agents. Eventually it will have to have a proper title, but I'm not bothered. The happy thing is the first draft is quite good, and I am having fun working on the second draft.

San Francisco has been 65F and foggy with a side of overcast and wind all week. No photography has taken place, but I am no longer unhappy about the camera I'm not getting because the new computer is fulfilling my new tech needs (and fueling my new tech "where the hell are my shortcuts?" frustrations). I'm still jealous of anyone with a new iPhone or camera, though, so my chill is kind of superficial.

Still, it's Friday and I always like Fridays. Tomorrow is another Old Norse lesson and Sunday is my writing group, so there will be no sleeping in either day, but there will be naps. Naps and software installation.

The poll about The Sims is closed. Only those who want to read about it, or don't mind at any rate, will be seeing entries about the game. The rest of you may set the sporks down.

Why haven't I packed my luggage yet?

Why do I procrastinate every time I should be packing to go on a trip?

Why do I persist in thinking I will be able to sleep on the airplane on outbound flights, when that trick almost never works (for me)?

How will I decide which chocolate to bring to Readercon, and which to save for Worldcon?

Why don't I have any good snack food for the flight?

What was I thinking when I bought those Roasted Garlic Triscuit?

In what universe does it make sense for "Triscuit" to be a plural form?

Why did I bother responding to that error-filled political e-mail I got last night from $FamilyMember?

Should I be using an LJ cut?

Why am I still not packing my luggage?

And why did the handsoap in the bathroom at work today smell like black olives?

With my first public solo performance coming up, I'm starting to think more seriously about the issue of taking a dancing name. And I don't think I want to take an Arabic name. A lot of the tribal folks that I've seen either use their own names (Rachel Brice), use unusual Middle Eastern names (Asharah), or take non-Arabic names (Phoenix, Aepril). I'd been thinking of using a Latin name, an Amazon name or perhaps an Irish name, but so far, nothing's really jumped out at me.

Names that seem okay, but not thrilling, are Una (Latin and Irish), Temira (Hebrew, means "tall"), Alcippe (Amazon), Verity (Latinish), and...I need to do more research.

I tried to find writerly names that would also make good dance names, but have so far failed. I also went through the constellations to see if I could come up with a science-fictiony name, but nothing jumped out at me.

I could just be lazy and use my old Arabic SCA name: "Layla." Meh.

For pre-Batman dinner, why don't we meet at 6:30 at the Lebanese Taverna? Leave a comment if you're coming, to dinner or the movie, so we know how big a table to colonize/how many spaces to save in line.

Seriously, how does one pitch a show to Bravo? Because sanj and I were just watching the Project Runway premier, as one does, and talking about how much better we could have done*, as one does, and we just got the BEST IDEA EVER for a Bravo talent-search show.

( Seriously, you would all watch this. Or be on it. )