Martha Wells recounted the criticism that if you compared a Robert E. Howard story to a Lin Carter story, in a REH story you had the sense the city was real and continued on around the hero. In a Carter story, if the hero took a left instead of a right the city would be made of false fronts made of cardboard.

I’m a country girl at heart, but I love cities, because they do have character and a fingerprint as unique as any human being.

Agents and Editors: Why you need them–We didn’t get too much into the horror stories, but yes. You need them. A good agent protects your interests, a good editor is your champion inside the publishing house. Copy editors keep you from looking stupid.

The agent and editors panel.

Tomorrow — the YA panel and more ArmadilloCon goodness.

The workshop:

I co-taught with Rachel Caine, author of the Morganville Vampire Series and the Weather Warden series and a bunch of other books. Best quote: “I want to marry this story.”

And yes, the story was that good.

The workshop is a great experience for aspiring writers because it allows them to get feedback from professional writers and editors, AND they learn how to give feedback to their fellow students. Hearing a professional’s opinion is extremely valuable, but participating fully in the critique process, which means giving and taking critique, teaches you how to look at your own work in a different light.

Do. The. Workshop. Whenever you can, do a workshop.

The panels:

Hands down the best panel was the Research panel. The panelists discussed sources, cautioned against Wikipedia, and had excellent ideas for finding the telling details that bring their work to life. Period newspapers don’t just have news stories, they tell you what people wore, what they bought, how they thought.  University libraries, government archives, and friendly professors are all great sources. I think I brought away the most from that panel.

From left, Jess Nevins, Martha Wells, Joe McKinney, Cary Osborne, Melissa Tyler, Robert Bennett

The panel I enjoyed the most was on Writing Styles. Nancy Kress, Stephen Brust, Joe McKinney, and Paul Benjamin had a lively discussion on style, voice, and tone. Kress and Brust are excellent panelists and carried the panel with panache and some amiable bickering. It was fun, and the audience asked intelligent questions and made intelligent comments, and it doesn’t get much better than that.

Okay, that’s it for now. More in a few days, as I manage to dig out from under. Cons are great, but right now I feel like I’m two weeks behind.

Sa1300SB Writing Styles

Sat 1:00 PM-2:00 PM Sabine

S. Brust, S. Lynch*, P. Sarath, N. Kress, J. McKinney, P. Benjamin

Sa1500SA Saving your bacon- Why you need agents and editors

Sat 3:00 PM-4:00 PM San Antonio

A. Sowards*, J. Lansdale, S. Swendson, P. Sarath, J. Skillingstead, P. Kitanidis

Sa2000T City as Character

Sat 8:00 PM-9:00 PM Trinity

A. Downum*, I. Andrews, G. Andrews, S. Lynch, P. Sarath, C. Berg, M. Wells

Su1100DR Signing

Sun 11:00 AM-Noon Dealers’ Room

A. Porter, D. Potter, P. Sarath, L. Carl

Su1200SB Planning for Your Time Travel

Sun Noon-1:00 PM Sabine

J. Cheney, K. Kimbriel, L. Antonelli*, P. Sarath, M. Williams, R. Clement-Moore

Su1330P Reading

Sun 1:30 PM-2:00 PM Pecos

Patrice Sarath

Su1400T YA Panel

Sun 2:00 PM-3:00 PM Trinity

P. Sarath, R. Caine, M. Williams, P. Kitanidis, J. Kenner, R. Clement-Moore*

Yeah, Jonathan is keeping me busy this year. I’m also teaching at the workshop on Friday. The con is at a different hotel this year, so long-time attendees, take note. We are up at the Arboretum, not across the highway as in previous years.  By the way, check out the lineup of authors at this con. If you are on the fence about attending a professional writer’s conference, this would be a good year to take the plunge.

As mentioned in my wrapup, I was on the civil rights in SF panel.

It was disappointing. I think it’s time for convention programmers to understand that when you have a panel on a topic that asks questions about science fiction and civil rights, it is imperative to have persons of color on the panel. Because frankly, when the panel is a cross-section of white men and women, it is a failure right from the start. And yes, one can say that because there were women and a gay man on the panel it represented minorities but one would be copping out.

Because here’s the thing — there’s no shortage of women and gay men (and gay women!) in science fiction.

What there is is a shortage of black people.

So here’s how our panel went — Lee Thomas tried valiantly to make it about civil rights, David B. Carren made some excellent points about how Hollywood culture wouldn’t know a non-stereotypical Hispanic if one jumped up and bit Hollywood on the ass, and the rest of us struggled to speak with authority about a topic that doesn’t really affect us.

And the lone black person in the audience that I noticed got up and left about 15 minutes in.

Why didn’t she stay? Why didn’t she stand up and at least say what everyone was thinking — “why are you people up there talking about this when you don’t even have the black perspective on the topic to talk about it?”

And she’d be right, and I’m calling this woman out right now and saying, “You didn’t help the discussion by walking out. You should have stayed and asked questions and made comments and challenged the dumb-ass panel that was all wrong for the topic.”

We don’t need white people on a panel talking about why there aren’t more black people reading and writing science fiction and fantasy. We need more black people on panels like this, discussing this extremely important topic and reaching out to readers who may think that science fiction has nothing to do with them.

So, I am calling out to convention programmers — stop doing this type of programming unless you are fully committed to finding the people who are most affected by it and can talk about it with authority.  And that means thinking seriously about the black people you know already in the science fiction community and asking them to speak on this topic and you know what — maybe then we’ll be talking to each other and not at each other. At this point in the game, good intentions are not enough.

This is a hugely important dialog to have, and we’re not doing it right. Not with that stupid racefail with everyone talking at each other and through and past and over and everything but to one another.

And not with last week’s ApolloCon civil rights panel.

A lot of it is already a blur that first night, what with meeting friends, enjoying a first swing through the dealer and art rooms, and dinner in the bar. My first panel was on “What they didn’t know then we know now,” or what predictions science fiction writers failed to make. Interesting discussion, and I discovered there were two people in the audience who had read the same obscure Ann McCaffrey anthology as I had (Get Off The Unicorn, if you are interested). The panel went into Heinlein a lot. We could have gone all night; well, other people could have gone all night. I was in bed by midnight.

Up early the next morning for the writers workshop. Everyone gave and received excellent feedback on their stories. I think the workshoppers got a lot out of it.

From left, Elze Hamilton, Raymon Daniel, Kyle White, Laurie May, Amy Thorp, Lee Lackey

The other writing panel I was on, Writers Boot Camp, or No Excuses! Panel, was also a blast. We talked about how to make room for writing in your life by making it a priority, not an afterthought. A lot of it is time management as well as managing the expectations of the people around you, who may not understand how important your work is. Good stuff for everyone to think about.

Rosemary Clement Moore, Katherine Eliska Kimbriel, Michael Bracken, Patrice Sarath, Rhonda Eudaly

I was on the Civil Rights panel as well, but these never get as in-depth as they should and I can’t help but feel we’re asking (and answering) the wrong questions.

Plenty of fun at the masquerade, lots of excellent parties as well. I got to catch up with Kimberly Frost, my partner in Robert Earl Keen appreciation (and an all around fun person and talented writer), and it was over all too quickly.

By the way, driving home there was a massive traffic jam on 290, but I managed to make a U-turn and go out 21 through Bastrop and thence home. Wow, that was a pretty drive. Even though it takes me out of my way, I may go that way all the time. It’s a lovely drive, through tree-lined streets that hardly feel like Texas at all.

Page Readers Show

I will add a link to the podcast when it’s complete.

Thanks and hope to hear from you!

Portulaca in my backyard. I grew this! Or at least, I haven't killed it yet...

This is Lily. She's 12 and kind of awesome.

This is not my backyard, but as a side note, my brother-in-law built a stonehenge in his backyard before he moved. It's still there. But this is the real Stonehenge.

Still Stonehenge. Still not my backyard.

No, but it's the Queen's front yard. Or garden, technically.

This is the house where Jane Austen and her family lived for several years. The house was a modest cottage, and I think it must have been the model for the cottage the Dashwoods were exiled to. (Aside: Austen’s portrayal of how the brother disinherits his stepmother and stepsisters is a modern illustration of the process of rationalization and where it takes us. She really was better at human behavior than her current popularity gives her credit for.)

The kitchen: I can’t remember now if this is a replica kitchen or the actual one that cook would use while the Austens were in residence. It’s very similar to the one in the Keeler Tavern, which is from the same era albeit roughly a thousand miles away.

Donkey cart that Jane and Cassandra took rides in.

I love these. These are pattens, worn to keep ladies’ feet out of the mud. The description talks about how Ann Eliot can’t stand the sound of clacking pattens on the streets of Bath.

“When Lady Russell, not long afterwards, was entering Bath on a wet afternoon, and driving through the long course of streets from the Old Bridge to Camden Place, amidst the dash of other carriages, the heavy rumble of carts and drays, the bawling of newsmen, muffin-men, and milk-men, and the ceaseless clink of pattens, she made no complaint. No, these were noises which belonged to the winter pleasures: her spirits rose under their influence; and like Mrs. Musgrove, she was feeling, though not saying, that after being long in the country, nothing could be so good for her as a little quiet cheerfulness.

Anne did not share these feelings. She persisted in a very determined, though very silent disinclination for Bath; caught the first dim view of the extensive buildings, smoking in rain, without any wish of seeing them better; felt their progress through the streets to be, however disagreeable, yet too rapid; for who would be glad to see her when she arrived?”

These were costumes from the recent BBC production of Emma. They had costumes and bonnets scattered throughout the house and they were lovely to see up close. I remember these costumes from the production and they look amazing up close. A funny thing happened; there was a sign saying, no pictures of the costumes, so I began to put my camera away. But the docent said, “no it’s all right, you can take photos, just not with a flash.” Cool! So, I bring it out again, checked the settings, and beginning clicking away.

Another visitor, an older lady, told my very sternly, “The sign said no pictures.”

“Oh I know,” I said, “But the museum guide said it was all right, just not with flash.”

“Ah,” she said. “I never should have said anything; I always get in trouble when I do.”

This is Austen’s writing desk; I like to think she sat at this very window while writing her work. She revised and wrote her novels here, and was happiest in this house, it seems. There was a reproduction of a long letter from Cassandra to her niece Fanny on Austen’s death; poor Cassandra. She was devastated and trying to bear up under what must have been a terrible sorrow.

Finally, a bright silver teapot and berry spoons. Who doesn’t need a silver teapot and berry spoons? And a butler to polish it all, and count the silver every night. We were in the Victoria & Albert Museum and there’s a whole gallery of silver cutlery from various eras. Shiny! As Wash would say.

When I drive people from the airport in Austin, I point out landmarks like the University of Texas tower, known for Charles Whitman’s killing spree, or various bars and other landmarks where famous people played.

When Martin picked me up from the airport, he casually noted, “There’s Windsor Castle.”

This picture doesn’t do it justice — this was sort of a driveby on my last day, but I love the way the castle rises over an impeccably mowed lawn.

We also visited his old school.

My high school didn’t look like this — my college didn’t look like this. This is one of the many pictures I took of Winchester. (I’m not going to make a Hogwarts comparison, I’m not going to make a … never mind. It was inevitable, and in fact I made the comparison while touring the place.)

This is the Trusty Servant. He’s sort of the mascot. There’s all sorts of symbolism explained in the side panels, but they never adequately explained the animal head.

We visited Winchester Cathedral too. I love churches. I love stained glass. I love the transfiguration of glass + light into sacredness. Considering that I’m fairly irreligious, that’s certainly incongruous, I know. But then, I have a friend who’s an avowed atheist, and she loves to sing along to Christmas carols.

To be continued…

Steampunk couple at Odyssey

About 1,500 people showed up for Odyssey 2010 last weekend, and I was surprised at knowing a good handful of them. That’s mostly because of Martin Owton, my friend and critique partner, and the London T Party.

Aside from the hotel being like a rabbit warren, with tight corridors and low ceilings, making me very claustrophobic, the con was great. I sat with Liz Williams at the book signing, got Joe Abercrombie and Iain Banks to sign books for me, and even signed a few things myself, which kind of surprised me.

Iain Banks was great. His author interview was one of the best ones I’ve ever attended. He was very funny and self-deprecating, and came across as genuine and likeable.

From left, Martin Owton and Gaie Siebold, on the right Juliet McKenna

The writers workshop on Saturday afternoon was a success. I critiqued with T Partyers Sarah Ellender and Gaie Siebold and I think we gave the attendees their money’s worth.

Writer's workshop

After the workshop, we trooped off to a pizza joint around the corner, only to find after a 90 minute wait that the restaurant had run out of pizza. Some people left in search of different fare, but the rest of us stayed and had pasta, which was very good, although possibly that was because by then we were ravenous.

Female hero panel

Sunday my panel on Female Heroes was very well attended and was lively and interesting. Jaine Fenn, Sam Kelly, myself, a panelist by the name Pink Dormouse, and Lilian Edwards engaged the audience in a spirited back and forth discussion. The room was full and we had trouble getting to all the questions and comments because there were so many people, which is the trouble with successful panels.

I think this panel was better than the one on the same topic I did at Aggiecon, but I also think I’m done on this subject. I think that the sexism that once plagued fantasy and science fiction has largely been made moot. Do we still need to discuss it? Or at least, are there different questions to ask at this point?

I talked with a few agents and editors and made some good contacts, which is always the point of these events. I foisted Gordath Wood on Juliet McKenna, who was kindly interested in it.

All in all, a successful convention. Wish I could go every year, but my bank account would not like that very much.

More later.