WisCON Report
May. 30th, 2007 09:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseWe’re home safe and sound and now I’ve had time to reflect on the con and whatnot and I thought I’d do a quick write up.
Shawn and I dropped Mason off at his grandfolks’ on Thursday night. I should mention that as we left I discovered one of the tetra plastered to the bio filter quite dead and, upon closer examination, I noticed that the entire pod developed spots overnight. I dosed the tank with PemaFix and left instructions with the house sitter to continue the meds. Even so, I figured we’d come home to a dead tank.
We left in high spirits despite all that. Shawn had wisely bought Mason a portable DVD player and we brought along all his favorites. It made the trip really smooth.
After spending the night in LaCrosse, Shawn and I headed off in the morning. Last year, my folks reported that there were a few tears of missing ima and mama, but this time on Friday morning Mason looked at me (shortly after I told him he could not have chocolate sprinkles for breakfast) and asked, “Shouldn’t you be going to Madison now?” Clever boy knows gramma’s a softie and the sooner the parents are off, the sooner the party starts.
We got to con early, but the hotel was able to get us in early. Shawn always books us in the governor’s suite and I have to admit it’s a luxury I enjoy. Chocolates on the pillow and access to the club with its continental breakfast and other goodies. I’m telling you, rich people get all the perks.
My first panel wasn’t officially a panel at all. It was the mid-career writers’ reception. Naomi Kritzer was the official facilitator, but she’d asked me to be there to keep things focused on our secret agenda, which was to have this be the shop-talk version of the mid-career writers’ gathering. It went well, but as no one really knows about this option yet, and they set it up so early in the con schedule (actually a good placement as the other one is traditionally at the end, but people wouldn’t necessarily have known to come early for it) it wasn’t extraordinarily well attended. Hopefully, as people find out about it, we’ll get a bigger turn out.
Shawn and I went out to Porta Bella for diner. We had a great time despite the fact that every time we go we’re struck by the fact even though the place has awesome ambiance, the food is startlingly mediocre. We took advantage of the darkness to make lots of googly-eyes at each other and spend some much needed grown-up time together without the kidlet.
Fade to black…
The next morning, I had “Explain Slash to Me” at the ridiculously early hour of ten a.m. Sharyn November <http://www.sharyn.org/> (editor, Firebird Press) was the moderator and that was a trip. She ran the panel with an iron fist (to be polite.) That being said, I felt it went better than panels like this has in the past, possibly _because_ Ms. November kept the audience participation to a minimum. As much as I love hearing about all the various kinds of slash out there, sometimes that’s all the panel ends up being – an evangelical “witness” session for slash… so maybe her aggressive approach to moderation worked in this instance.
After lunch break, where I got to hang out with Anne Harris and Eleanor Arnason, I moderated “Sexism: A Spotters’ Guide.” Frankly, I was dreading this and thought I might have to play the WisCon Drinking Game, wherein you take a swig of something any time someone mentions a feminist buzzword, ala. “Patriarchy.” I would have gotten lightly buzzed at this panel, but I think we ended up having an interesting discussion if only because at one point I broke and got my media fandom all over the nice feminists. I felt a little bad for Graham Sleight (SF critic, <http://www.gsleight.demon.co.uk/>), the token SNAG (sensitive New Age guy, although he was really more a SFG, sensitive feminist guy), but still. And despite my snarkiness, I actually learned some cool things about language from our resident linguist, MJ Hardman (oh, what a ironic surname that is, isn’t it?)
Speaking of which I was actually in the company of a woman whose surname appeared to be “Mankiller” at the BroadUniverse rapid-fire reading, where I read a short snippet of my new-ish messianic chick-lit (novel? Short story?) “The Second Coming of Emily.” I actually wrote a little bit more on that and am seriously thinking about turning what I have into a chapter for Wyrdsmiths. The other readers were the usual mix, which is part of the fun of the BU reading… it’s always a complete mixed bag. I fell in love with Jennifer Pelland’s (SF/F author, <http://www.jenniferpelland.com/>writing all over again when she read a little bit of what I called her, “Elephant Man story.” I begged her for the full version and I believe she said it would be out in Helix Magazine some time soon, so watch for that.
Shawn and I spent Saturday night in… wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
Sunday morning was the “Transsexuality as Trope” panel, which given that a surprising number of the panelists weren’t quite sure how we ended up on the panel went pretty well. I made, perhaps, the worse personal mistake of my life (and one that may guarantee that I will never moderate the T panel again,) when I used the wrong gender tag to refer to one of our panelist. She was very kind when I apologized profusely afterward, but I felt like, as they say in
Despite my personal snafu, the rest of the panel went well. E. Bear and I scuffled it up a little, but the dust hardly even flew (which is too bad in a way, since, as I have said, I rather enjoy fighting with her.) The panelist I enjoyed the most was Charlie Anders (author, co-editor of Girl Geek, <http://www.charlieanders.com/>), who had some awesome ideas for stories that might include historical T characters. She sent me the links to their wikipedia page –
I’m actually doing a little thinking about this challenge, since I have never set out to try to write a T story and there really do seem to be a dearth of things out there -- good or bad. Plus, I’ve always loved a good spy story and maybe I can science fictionalize some of the bits of these people’s lives… like it might be fun to do a “send up” of the classic Amazonic “utopia” and have a trans character infiltrate that culture.
Anyway, the next panel was the BSG one and it also went well, but it was clearly one of those topics where I thought we could very easily have talked for six hours instead of one. We hardly spoke of Starbuck at all, but Jef Smith gave me the link to a great new time waster, the LJ community What_The_Frak? <http://community.livejournal.com/what_the_frak/profile> I’m totally planning on joining up (actually, I already sent in my request and am waiting for approval) and spending all my writing time yakking about BSG.
The only party I attended was the Wyrdsmiths’ on Sunday night, but I stayed up until the last swan sang at 2:00 am. I got a chance to hang out with
charliegrrl and one of her partners, Annalee Newitz (Wired editor and much, more <http://www.techsploitation.com/>), whom I also had the pleasure of “debating” on the BSG panel. They introduced me to all of their awesome friends who I’m deeply honored liked me just as much as I liked them (or at least made me feel that way.) We spent a lot of time fondling my monkey (long story) and making up the “two a.m.” panel ideas, like, “Animals: How They Get High” and other such silliness.
I drove back home in a sleep-deprived haze, especially since my father had to unexpectedly work on Tuesday so we didn’t overnight in LaCrosse as planned. As usual, I’ve come back from WisCON anxious to write and inspired to do some good… or something like that.
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no subject
Date: 2007-05-30 04:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-31 12:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-30 04:38 pm (UTC)i can definitely be a hardass moderator, mainly because i want to keep things moving and not let the audience hijack a panel. (i do try and do it with a sense of humor.) in this case it turned out there were lots of people who really did not know what slash was, so the very basic approach with definitions seemed to help.
you guys also talked up an awesome storm. for which, thanks.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-31 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-31 04:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-31 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-30 04:39 pm (UTC)And "Mankiller" is actually her writing pseudonym, because she's a member of the same nation as Wilma Mankiller.
Anyhow, good to see you again, even if it was only in small chunks! This WisCon seemed to be a bad one for spending any quality time with people.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-30 06:49 pm (UTC)...Some day I hope to actually talk with you at a WisCon instead of just saying hi in passing....
no subject
Date: 2007-05-31 12:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-31 07:56 am (UTC)Wow, I'm really really excited that you might actually do something with the random stuff I was throwing out there. And this sounds super intriguing, especially the "infiltrating a send-up of a classic Amazonic utopia" thing. Do let me know if you actually finish this story, because I'm dying to read it!
no subject
Date: 2007-05-31 08:54 pm (UTC)However, for the first time in my writing career I actually have more ideas than I have time to write.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-01 04:07 am (UTC)I definitely know what it's like to have too many ideas and not enough time to write them. Unfortunately, sometimes I can't tell that something's a bad idea until I've already spent a lot of time writing it...
no subject
Date: 2007-05-31 08:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-31 05:31 pm (UTC)Yes, Dr. Hardman's name is funny as hell. I kept being distracted by the difference in feeling between the phrases "hard man" and "hard woman."
Anyway, it was really cool to meet you.
- the person on the far left of the panel
no subject
Date: 2007-05-31 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-01 03:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-06 06:35 am (UTC)