Drunken Owls and Other Delights

I really wanted to enjoy Worldcon this year.  Maybe it's because I'm a bit tired and cranky and we were going to a huge convention literally the next day after we got off the plane from London...but I don't think so.  Maybe I'm finding some of the con crowds irritating.  Sure, I'm still a bit irritated that I was pretty much passed over for being on panels because I'm a lowly self-published author with no known name...but I don't think that's entirely it either.  I think it's a number of things. 

I've come to the conclusion that Worldcon might be fast becoming the SFF version of the San Diego Comic Con, at least in terms of Big Names and ridiculously high attendance.  On the one hand that's cool, but on the other hand, in the two days we've gone, we've missed out on at least four panels due to overcapacity.  I just can't justify paying money to go to a convention when that happens.  Maybe the hosting cities need to realize they need a HUGE convention center to rent out and BIG rooms to ensure more people get in. 

And while I may well have been on a few panels when I went to it in Boston in 2004 had I been at my current writing/publishing level then, now I'm really starting to get the feeling that I have to either be much higher up on the food chain or know someone to get on one Worldcon panel.  More than once I've heard panelists the last few days casually mention how much they love Worldcon because it helped them get an audience when they were nobody, but in my experience it's starting to get harder and harder to do that.  I kind of feel that a glass ceiling is being erected, and only the invited few can get in.  I just can't justify paying money to go to a convention as a writer when I can only rise to fan level.

[Noted:  I'm not angry at the people chosen for the dedicated LGBT/minority/etc tracks at all.  They need this push more than I do.]

That said...I'm thinking we might be skipping out on Sunday and Monday, as we're both tired and irritable and not having nearly as much fun as we'd hoped.  We haven't even been able to track down any of our writer friends, save one due to a chance encounter during dinner outside the con.  I don't mind that Worldcon is bringing popularity to the genre at all, because I think that's kind of cool -- it's just that I think it's stopped being fun or accessible to me over the past few years.

And that said...we are definitely going to continue with the other local cons like BayCon and FogCon, and maybe expanding to other smaller cons both here and elsewhere.

Wait, we're heading to London in TEN days??  GAH!  I still have things to do!!!  Okay, not *too* much, but enough to keep me busy for the next week and a half.  Doing some catching up on the writing front, set up plans for the trip itself, and prepping my freebie cards for Worldcon when we return. 

[Speaking of Worldcon, not sure if any of you have heard the programming kerfuffle that happened this past weekend.  Long story short, it was a case of thinking they were doing the right thing but actually doing quite the opposite...many attendees (including Hugo nominees) were not put on any panels at all; panels suggested by authors/editors were assigned to completely different people; bio info was scraped from random internet places without permission; and other Really Unprofessional Mistakes.  As I've said elsewhere, I have a very small pony in this race and therefore those who had a much worse time of it should definitely get more airtime.  My small mare was that I felt I wasn't worth even a lousy rejection letter or any kind of communication saying 'sorry, you're not on any panels'.  Not sure if it was because I'm still an unknown, or that I'm merely a self-published author and shouldn't be taken seriously, or just that I didn't make the cut.  That's the problem with no communication: I have no idea why I didn't get picked.  That said, I go into more detail at the WtBT blog here.  Despite that, I'm still looking forward to the con nonetheless, because I'm looking forward to meeting up with writer friends and promoting In My Blue World, among other things.]

ANYWAY.  Looking forward to a nice relaxing vacation in the Big Smoke so I can visit friends, see the sights (including Abbey Road's Studio Two!!!) and other things.  Oh, and enjoying a good pint.


Hope everyone's having a good week!

July is already here and I've got a busy month ahead of me.  I'm not entirely done with In My Blue World -- I probably have two or three more scenes to write before this draft is done -- but I still want to get started on the revision.  I'd like to get as much of it done as I can by the end of this month so I have a new title to plug at Worldcon.  The actual release date probably won't be until late August or even September, but as long as I have it mostly done and freebie cards mocked up and printed, I'm fine with that.

That being said, I'm going to make good on my plan and give myself some social media detox while I'm at it.  I'll still pop up here twice a week along with my blog posts, of course.  But I'll only be on Twitter and FB to plug my ebooks (There's a Smashwords sale going on this month!  Go check it out!) and maybe say hello now and again.  I just need to take a mental break from it for a bit.

So what else should I be doing this month?  Well, I've got to read stuff for the Hugos!  I downloaded the packet the other day and I just need to drop it all into my Nook.  Surprisingly, I've already read most of the Best Novel nominations so I'm good there.  I do quite enjoy reading the short stories and novellas for this -- I don't get around to reading them all that often (although I really should visit Tor.com more often, considering they always have some fine reading there) and this is a good time for me to get caught up with the good stuff.

New month, new goals.


Hope everyone has a good week! :)

First off, the happy news. HUGE congratulations to Cixin Liu for winning the Best Novel Hugo for The Three-Body Problem. It's one hell of a great novel, definitely one you should all read.

Now, let's get this off my chest.

Let's talk about the SFF genre for a moment, just for what it is--a subcategory of fiction that leans less towards literary (though can include variants of it) and more towards the imaginative (although it doesn't always need to be a requirement). Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem, which is about a potential alien invasion, though framed in the context of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and math and science nerdiness. Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, which has little to no overt SFF components other than a young boy's overactive imagination. Rachel Hartman's Seraphina and Shadow Scale, which deal with dragons as the excluded Other, and a young girl trying to return peace to her land. Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni, at its heart a Jewish love story based in Manhattan that happens to feature the titular characters. Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto series, which a bumbling outcast ninja grows from a knucklehead goofball to his village's leader by sheer determination and crystal-clear focus on his goal--to protect everyone in the same village that hated him for his past history. Yasutaka Tsutsui's Paprika, in which a female neurologist and her team find a new method to combat neurological disorders, only to end up fighting a disturbed fellow scientist bent on using their method for mind control. Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, in which a man must try to keep his sanity while fighting an alien war he doesn't fully understand. Mark Z Danielewski's House of Leaves, in which the physical dimensions of a house literally become the amplifier of a couple's disintegrating marriage. Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, in which a terrorist act turns San Francisco into a police state, and a teenager committed to personal freedom.

These are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of stories out there in this genre that I write in. One could easily argue what is and what isn't genre, but that's completely a matter of opinion. Some of these are filed in YA, others in comics, others in literary fiction, while some are completely at home in the SF/F section of your local book store. Point being, there's all sorts of stories out there, covering all sorts of subjects, in all sorts of settings.

Yes, there are also the military SF stories and the classic space operas. There's also the vampire stories, the steampunk stories, the alternate reality stories, the New Weird stories. The only reason I don't mention them here is merely because I'm not a fan of them. I acknowledge they exist, I'm sure they're well-written, and I have nothing bad to say about them at all. I just don't read them because I'm not interested in them.

The issue I find the most irritating about the Puppies is that my and others' disinterest in those subjects is perceived as a legitimate reason that the Hugos are politically rigged. Even more so that I apparently have to explain to many of them that I'm not saying that I think the stories suck and that they should all be thrown in a fire and burned to a crisp at a toasty 451°F. I just don't like them. I don't like whiskey either, but that doesn't mean that I demand all distilleries be closed forever. I just happen to like vodka and rum instead.

There's a lot of life to be lived out there. It's too short to waste time forcing myself to like something that doesn't jive with me at all. Someone else will like it, I'm sure. Hell, I'm pretty sure I'll have detractors with A Division of Souls, if it ever gains any traction. And I'm cool with that. It's not for everyone.

What fascinates me in a car-crash sort of way is the reaction that this sometimes just doesn't seem to be enough for the Puppies. In a very short, unscientific version of this manufactured War On Genre:
--Certain writers (many rightwing conservatives) (no, really, I'm not making that up) complain their works aren't getting nominated, or are passed over for more "liberal" stories (such as the Cixin Liu novel, which in reality is FAR from being a liberal story).
--Fault is then placed on the readers, who are obviously being given the Kool Aid of said 'liberal' writers*
--Writers then realize that via a loophole in the voting process, they can stack the deck by getting a bunch of people to purchase the voting fee (a reasonable $40 this year) so they can throw in all kinds of distinctly right-wing and conservative-leaning stories and writers.**
--Many fans who are annoyed and angered by this disgusting stacking of the deck "to prove a point" decide that instead of voting for stories that may or may not even be quality, a No Award response is given instead.***
--Honest voting, honest vote counts, and rule abiding show conclusively that a majority of the readers would rather vote for quality over personal politics.
--End result 1: Absolutely NONE of the Puppy-backed stories win a single award.
--End result 2: Nearly all of the Puppy-backed followers are, appropriately and predictably, violently upset that their nefarious plans did not work, and said nomination riggers state loudly and angrily that This Only Goes to Prove That The Hugos Are Rigged.
--End result 2.5: Puppies are also outraged that the genre is full of Social Justice Warriors and that we're now being forced to read about Asians and Blacks and Queers and Girls and (gasp!) Feelings! How DARE they tell us what to do! This is a free country! Rights! Morality! USA! USA! Whatever Amendment I can use for this one!****
--End result 3: Many level-headed fans shake their head at all this nonsense and happily continue reading whatever the hell they like to read.

Genre writing is always evolving. Did Wells and Shelley expect Tolkien to be such a huge thing? Did Bester and Doc Smith expect Gibson and Stephenson to be such a huge thing? Probably not, but I'm sure they embraced the change anyway. Fans read whatever captures their interest, then and now, and that includes new stories, uncharted territory, and even stories of Other People.

Really, that's all this boils down to--fear of change, which in America tends to be a very conservative world view. [Actually I'm sure it's like that everywhere. I'm currently reading a history of 70s UK that shows members of Parliament reacting the same way to "liberal permissiveness".] Sure, tempering change with responsibility and a reasonable amount of attention is always a good thing, but let's be realistic: things change whether we want them to or not. Nothing gold can stay. *****

So let's accept that there are Things We May Not Like Out There, and Things We Like That Aren't Popular, AND THAT'S OKAY TOO and move on.


* Yeah, I know using the old Jim Jones bit here is in poor taste, but I'm proving a point. Their reaction to 'liberal bias' in SF/F does in fact tend to lean towards such tasteless descriptions.
** In a fascinating turn of events, this move actually kind of backfired on them, as many of their suggested writers pulled themselves out of the running--some of them first-time nominees--simply because they felt this was a ridiculously petty move. Integrity over politics, yay!
*** My favorite responses thus far on Twitter have been "I don't even care about the Hugos/I don't even read SF, but good on them for ruining the party for the liberals!" So scorched-earth damage is better than a decisive win? I guess?
**** Actually, that's a bunch of bullshit, and I'm pretty sure they know it. They just don't like to read about Asians and Blacks and Queers and Girly Things, and I'M OKAY WITH THAT. I'm not about to piss in your cornflakes because you dare to read something I don't like.
***** I too have learned to embrace this. There are quite a number of places and things in my life that I wish I could revisit but no longer exist, at least not in the way I've known them. And I've made my peace with that.

This past weekend was one of shopping and erranding. We drove down to Palo Alto (why yes, as a matter of fact I do get the Radiohead song stuck in my head whenever we're down that way, why do you ask?) to Fry's Electronics so I could suss out cameras. While I do have a nice compact Samsung 15 megapixel point-and-click camera, I've been wanting to step up my photography game and try something a little more high end. I ended up with this Sony A58, and I'm loving it so far. There's a bit of a learning curve with all the bells and whistles that come with it, but it's gotten big reviews as a perfect starter camera if you're looking to level up.

[You can see one of my first experiments here at my Tumblr.]

In other news...Spare Oom is finally clean and back to normal, many things shredded, and all the cleaning done. I even managed to squeeze in two WordPress blog entries in yesterday! Woo! Not much else to report...the local YMCA should open back up today (it was closed for its annual powerclean and fix-broken-stuff time) so we'll be back on the treadmills again...also need to start getting some SF Symphony tickets as they finally go on sale today.

Also--HOKEY SMOKES WE'RE GOING TO LONDON IN A FEW WEEKS. Worldcon is gonna be fun and we'll get to meet up with a lot of our friends again, and I'm also really looking forward to exploring the city too! I do of course have a list of places to hit that are Beatle related. Many musical photo-ops have been planned. :)

Hope everyone has a nice week!

Forgot to tell you...yesterday I stopped by Edge's really nice setup in the dealer's room at Worldcon and said hi...and ended up finally buying Not Your Father's Horseman. Just thought you'd want to know. :D

--Did a morning walk with emmalyon on the waterfront. VERY nice walk, even if it is tourist central! I think we were early enough that we missed most of the tourists, though...again, Montreal is a VERY nice city. Quite like it here. :)

--Worldcon Good: Lots of really interesting panels this year...they either shook it up or the planners were just a bit more creative this year. Lots of stuff for us to do! Also, everything is pretty much on the same floor, so no flying all over creation. It's quite a big layout, though, but I can't complain. Also, there's a well-stocked convenience store down on the first floor of the building if I need emergency snacks.

--Worldcon Bad: Not so much with the signage this year. Nearly all the cons I've ever been to have had some sort of posterboard in front of each door to say what's where, but it's sadly absent this year, so one can only hope they're in the right room. Also, we found the dealer's room quite by accident and actually had to ask a dealer what the hours were, since they were not in the schedule book, outside the door, or anywhere else. Okay, it was posted somewhere (lynxreign found it by accident, I'm yet to find it), but it's not in an obvious spot. Oh, and the dealer's room looked a little sparse this year...we're hoping that more vendors are going to be here this weekend.

--Worldcon Comme Ce, Comme Ca: Still the usual socially inept congoers that can get aggravating, but I've pretty much gotten used to it. ;)

--MOUNTAIN DEW SANS CAFFEINE. What the hell is up with that?!?? O_O
Okay, I kind of do know...caffeine is a regulated substance up here in Canada, so it's cheaper to keep it out. Still...it's like having Frosted Flakes without the frosted, y'know?

--SOUND FROM THIS MORNING FIGURED OUT, SORT OF: The University isn't too far from here, and also I saw an anti-abortion march later on, so there must have been some protesting going on. Whistles I can understand...moose mating calls, not sure about that one...

--Last panel was with Paul Krugman and Charles Stross chatting (sitting at a Dick Cavett-style setup, as Lynxie called it), just going on about all sorts of things from what the future might look like to economics (after all, Krugmann got a Nobel in it!) to all sorts of things. It amused me greatly that Cory Doctorow sat directly in front of us and could NOT stop playing FreeCell on his Palm Pre during the whole panel. :p

--Some Eden Cycle ideas and thoughts milling about in my head during a few panels. This always happens...I didn't get much written down, as there's not much to write just yet, but I'll definitely do a bit of planning once it fully forms up there in my cranium.

On that note...I'm tired, my feet hurt, and I still haven't quite figured out where I'm going tomorrow. Will need to do that either tonight or tomorrow. Must sleep now. *zzzzzz*

Have you figured out how you're driving up to Montreal from MA? I know you and yours are probably going a slightly different way, but for emmalyon and I, we're probably just doing Rt 2 to Rt 91 and northwards on various highways...

Let me know if you have anything planned out, as I'll be driving the emmawritermobile...thanks!

The Good:
--It was great to see a lot of my favorite (and some fellow) writers again. I probably should have been more social with some of them, but exhaustion (damn you, altitude!!!) and a full schedule kept me from stopping and saying hi to more of them. I was happy to see kateelliott and say hi, and did chat with a few others, but it seemed I did more "fly-bys" than anything else. I saw a lot of writers while on my way to somewhere else. And I seem to have been following S.M. Stirling around quite a bit, so perhaps I should start reading his books...? :p

--They did a GREAT job of ensuring that many of the panels they thought would have a large crowd were actually in large rooms. I've gone to cons where the rooms got too full because Extremely Famous Author was put into Broom Closet Named After Local Governor. I'm glad they put some thought into the logistics this time.

--Many of the panels were humorous and light, even informative, and extremely varied. I've noticed that each Worldcon I've gone to has its own handful of panels unique to that con, and this one was library-centric, interestingly enough. I didn't go to those, though...I stayed with a lot of the writer-centric ones. I'd say the Urban Fantasy themed ones were the best for me, as I've come to the conclusion that UF is my genre of choice with writing.

--The Dealer's room was small, but there were a good number of tables that had a very good choice of stuff. And of course, Everyone's Favorite Curmudgeonly Bookseller (Larry Smith, natch) was there with a very good selection. I'm happy that I got to see a lot of books from online friends there (antonstrout,vg_ford, and mizkit to mention a few), and I hope they sold well!

--Downtown Denver is QUITE nice, even if the lack of any major hills was disquieting to me. Their 16th Street Mall--a 1.25 mile stretch of closed street (no cars, free bus only) full of neat stores and great food--was a very fun place to visit, and only two blocks away from our hotel. Honestly? It's what Market Street here thinks it is and what Mission Street wants to be, but both fail miserably. ;)

--The Tattered Cover Bookstore at the other end of said Mall is one of the neatest bookstores I've been to, and it's very reminiscent of The Toadstool Bookshop up in Keene NH.

--Now I see what they mean by "Big Sky". I mean, DAMN. That's a whole lot of it...! O_o...

The Bad:
Well, not too much to complain about, except:

--Since we were sharing the convention center with another convention (John Deere, apparently), we drew the short straw and our rooms were waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay at the other end of the convention center. I do think we got our quota of walking in just getting to our area.

--Food, or lack thereof. Absolutely NO convenience stores within the con center. A few overpriced sandwich/pastry places that were only open at certain times of the day. A VERY small handful of food stalls that had a VERY small handful of selections with little nutritional value. We found it easier to stop at Walgreen's or the hotel store the night before and load up.

--Got a little annoyed on Saturday when I walked out of two panels out of sheer boredom. I hate doing that.

--Is it sad that this is yet another con where I can safely say I'm the thinnest fat guy there?

--Yeah, the altitude. I didn't think it would bother me, but I found myself tired and cranky a lot, and I hope I didn't bother emmalyon that much with my occasional kvetching. After the first day, though, I think I did okay. Just that first day where I pooped out at 4pm and headed up to the room to pass out for a bit.

The Ugly:
I'm sorry, but I have to say this: the fans.

Not all of them, mind you. A good number of them are fine, and I can forgive the occasional social faux pas. And I have no problem if they happen to be overweight and/or carrying Book Bags of DOOM (aka rear-facing battering rams), and/or have to get around using those scooters. I can even forgive the filking (oops, did I say that aloud? :p ), which makes both of us twitch.

But what I cannot STAND is the Science Fiction Fan As Comic Book Guy. Good for you that you know obscure SF trivia, dude. Good for you that you own a rare first edition of someone's book. But we Do. Not. NEED. TO. HEAR IT. And please, for the love of Cthulu, STOP PREFACING YOUR QUESTIONS. I friggin' HATE that. And if you looked at the author you're questioning and noticed the look of pain on their face, you'd learn that Brevity = GOOD.

Oh--and if you can't hear them, ASK them to speak up. Don't be so friggin' rude and yell "I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" at the top of your voice. Trust me, it's annoying to EVERYONE involved.

Other than that, I can deal.

----

Overall, I wasn't as impressed with this con as I have been in the past--perhaps it was because I had some misgivings right out of the gate with this one. No fault of the city, just that it just felt a bit underprepared, underplanned and not as exciting. Added to the fact that the sheer number of memberships that were being resold online kind of made me wonder if some people were actually jumping ship.

On the other hand, I did enjoy a lot of it, I was able to add a few more names to my roster of agents/publishers to annoy send stuff to when it's ready to be submitted. And I'm still thrilled that I came up with some great ideas for future LLB-themed books.

So yeah, this con was a toss-up, but I had fun. And I'm looking forward to next year's con, which is in Montreal--this means I can do a two-week vacation and combine the con with a visit to New England and all my friends and family therein. :)

Okay, and Worldcon is officially over for this year. I have comments I'd like to make concerning said Worldcon (some good, some not so good, but it all evens out), but I'm too tired and full of delicious food from Paramount Cafe in downtown Denver (quite possibly the BEST restaurant in the neighborhood). Once we're back home at a normal altitude and there are actual hills nearby instead of in the distance (heh), I'll get more elaborative.

I will say that I was happy to have come up with some nifty ideas for the Love Like Blood universe while here, pretty much all of it bursting forth when I was listening to an agent who was talking about Urban Fantasy and how much she loves reading it (let's just say that my brain immediately went "Okay...how would I sell LLB to her in as few words as possible...?" and erroneously--or not--described Gabriel as a "sleeper vampire"...it just went from there).

Not only that, I thought of a YA version of the LLB universe in which a kid vampire moves to a new town and is worried not about fitting in with the popular crowd as he is that the adults will peg him as part of the Trenchcoat Mafia. More on this later--this one promises to be a LOT of fun to write. ;)

So on that note, I'm going to goof off on the internets a little while longer then call it a night. See you on the flipside! :)