| Wiscon 37 - Travel Edition |
[May. 23rd, 2013|07:13 pm]
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I started my day of travel with a 15 minute walk across the street to the hotel, with all my luggage. (76$ to pick me up at my house, 33$ to pick me up at the hotel. :P )Though I packed light! Fortunately the shuttle was early and I was early, so we left 10 minutes before we were scheduled to. I was very sweaty by that point, because muggy and damp and uphill and luggage.
We hadn't gone more than 10 minutes when we hit bumper-to-bumper traffic. Like, dude! I was expecting that once we got within spitting distance of Boston, not 10 minutes from my house! I hadn't been worried about making my flight until then. When we were still not moving much after 20 minutes, well.. it ended up not quite as peaceful a shuttle ride as it could've been.
At some point the traffic magically cleared. Seriously. There was no reason for it. Just.. poof, we're moving again. Of course we did hit more later on and etc and yay carpool lane. It was a bit after 9 when we got there. I'd been hoping for sooner, but it was okay.
Got my boarding pass lickedy-split, then went to security. Got my bag checked because there was no one to remind me I had stuck a partial bottle of soda in there, whoops. But they didn't blink twice at my ID that's lacking in an expiration date.
Southwest, yadda yadda, I was C16 if that means anything to people. Basically means I was one of the last people to board, so lucky me got a middle seat. But it was over the wing, which I prefer. Got Cheese Nips, honey-roasted peanuts, and a cup of icy Sprite. (I prefer the airlines that give you a whole can.) Normally I don't like Cheese Nips, especially more than.. two. But they were like the best Cheese Nips ever. Altitude will do that to you. Or being awake far too early in the morning.
Midway. Once you leave their restaurant hub and the security checkpoint, there ain't much. So it was a boring wait for the bus. It was a double-decker! I didn't brave the top deck though. They had 2 fours of seats (I've been reading The Killing Moon) with tables and cupholders, so I picked one of those.
You can't really write on said table. You can really type on said table. You can eat on it if you don't mind things sliding. The table shakes more than if I had the computer in my lap shaking with me. It would've had my motion sick before long. And it was just plain annoying. I couldn't stand it. So mostly I read, watched the scenery, spaced out.
An hour and a half after we left Midway, we passed O'Hare. o.O It felt like little to no progress. (We had stopped at Union Station.) So, very long bus ride.
Note for next year!! Leave from Manchester to mitigate the traffic issue. Arrive at Madison if it all reasonable, or Milwaukee if not. Or O'Hare third choice, though Southwest doesn't fly there. Also, move WisCon to Chicago to save us all some trouble. :)
Shuttle from hotel arrived pretty quick. I was afraid they'd all be busy going to the airport and back.
I am checked in. I even have my con badge. The governor's club lounge appetizer that's vegetarian is a chili cheese.. trumpet? And I'm not into spicy. I'm going to have to go scrounge up some real food before I end up in there again for dessert. :)
Did not make it in time for John Scalzi. Might have made it for the GoH readings if I'd hurried, but I didn't want to hurry. Okay. You're all caught up now! |
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| Things done and not done |
[May. 22nd, 2013|10:05 am]
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* Finish my project for school that's due tomorrow. :} Half my grade!! Grr.
I did it. 47. That's a 97. That's an A. I hope. Official grade not posted yet.
* Book a shuttle to the airport.
Done. Have to walk across the street to the hotel or spend 43$ extra dollars both ways!!
* Charge up my camera's batteries and make sure there's an empty card in.
Done.
* Read.. what do I need to read? Stuff! I should really read the Jemisin duology for a start.
Um. Yea. Meant to read Heart of Thomas. Didn't even search for it. Started The Killing Moon. Should I bring the sequel on the plane? Too much? They're pretty big books.
* Watch Iron Man 3, or I'm going to be spoiled rotten. Facebook and LJ have already blown up!
Saw Iron Man 3 and the Doctor Who finale. Behind on Game of Thrones. Have not seen Star Trek. And everyone's talking about Star Trek. Grr.
* Watch and/or read some queer anime/manga for my panel?
See Heart of Thomas above. Yea.. not so much.
* Do some Fake Geek Girl research?
Um... yea, didn't do that.
* Eventually... pack.
Still not started.
* Print out travel info, particularly the bus from Midway.
Did that anyway. Yay.
Also, did not get the print version of the trivia book even started. Well, slightly started, but yea.
Also, do not know yet what I'm reading at the OA reading and thus do not have a printout of said non-existent thing. I could ask trivia questions from my book that are quiltbag or Wiscon-related? I have a copy on my ereader, so that might sort of work.
I fly tomorrow! Won't make it in time for the reception, unless I came straight from the union with all of my stuff. |
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| My WisCon schedule! |
[May. 9th, 2013|09:12 am]
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I won't be arriving in time to go to Scalzi's reading. I'm not sure yet if I'll get there for the WisCon readings at A Room of One's Own. Once again I failed to send in a story to get critiqued. One of these years I will be in the writing workshop!
Saturday 1pm
It's Not For Girls II: Attack of the "Fake Geek Girl"
Over the past year, a lot of noise has been made about the terrible scourge of "fake geek girls" roaming through cons, game stores, comic stores, and the like, waiting for hapless male geeks to devour…except no, what? Exactly what "cred" do you need to be taken seriously as a geek and/or fan? Do "fake geek girls" actually exist? Should it matter? Who are the gatekeepers of geek culture? There have also been some excellent internet take-downs of this idea, from blogs to comics, Twitter feeds to Facebook. Let's discuss both the idea of "fake geek girls" and the conversation that has been developing on the topic.
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I'm moderating this one. I'm glad they moved us out of the 6th floor room they had us in. I think it might be a popular panel! I could be wrong though.
Saturday 10:30pm
Gay & Lesbian Characters in Anime & Manga
Is the Boys' Love genre an appropriation of gay male sexuality, or an expression of female sexuality? Are there realistic series about gay men outside of BL that were written by/for men? What about realistic lesbian characters? Let's talk about the representation of LGB characters in anime & manga—what we've seen, and what we'd like to see.
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Yea.. I should really do some research for that. Any suggestions? I'm hoping the Tiptree auction ends before this, because I like staying at the auction until the end.
Sunday 1pm
Outer Alliance reading
Outer Alliance is an organization for writers and readers of science fiction, fantasy and horror that advocates positive portrayals of LGBTQ characters. We will be reading from a wide range of fiction that fits this description.
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Two at 1pm. Guess I can't have any extraordinarily long lunches. Also.. need to write a story for this. Can't read the same one from last year!
I have to leave the con on Monday sooner than I probably actually want to. But what with buses to Chicago and the timechange and not wanting to get home /incredibly/ late at night.. not much I could do. I don't mind missing SignOut and all, but there's an anthology panel I wanted to go to! |
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| Things to do before WisCon |
[May. 7th, 2013|09:06 am]
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* Finish my project for school that's due tomorrow. :} Half my grade!! Grr.
* Book a shuttle to the airport.
* Charge up my camera's batteries and make sure there's an empty card in.
* Read.. what do I need to read? Stuff! I should really read the Jemisin duology for a start.
* Watch Iron Man 3, or I'm going to be spoiled rotten. Facebook and LJ have already blown up!
* Watch and/or read some queer anime/manga for my panel?
* Do some Fake Geek Girl research?
* Eventually... pack.
* Print out travel info, particularly the bus from Midway.
Oh yea.. and write a story appropriate to read at the Outer Alliance reading. Piece of cake.
Addendum: Er, yea.. totally forgot I was trying to get a print copy of my trivia book done. School seemed to be the priority, so I was assiduously procrastinating that. |
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| Who's on the Merlin discs? |
[Apr. 26th, 2013|02:48 pm]
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Merlin Season 1 disc art.
1. Merlin
2. Arthur
3. Uther and Gaius
4. Gwen and Morgana
5. The dragon
Yup, that about sums it up. The women aren't very important. But at least they beat the dragon.
For the record, it's a horrible picture of the dragon. |
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| In which I tally the women in genre reqs on that io9 article about that Strange Horizons article |
[Apr. 25th, 2013|11:46 am]
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So I waded through the comments on the io9 article about the Strange Horizons number-crunching. A lot of people replied to one specific request for female authors, with varying levels of enthusiasm, for lots of women to check out.
I did a tally.
Any time a female author was mentioned, I noted it. Whether they were directly a suggestion or just came up in the discussion. Here's the results:
Six Times
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Ursula K. Le Guin
Octavia Butler
Five Times
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Connie Willis (once in the context of Harlan Ellison)
Four Times
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Lois McMaster Bujold
Anne McCaffrey
Three Times
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N. K. Jemisin
Nalo Hopkinson
Robin McKinley
C. J. Cherryh
Tanith Lee
Jacqueline Carey
Kage Baker
Mira Grant/Seanan Maguire
( More behind the cutCollapse )
Things I noticed:
* The Jane Austen Book Club was referred to without mention of the author, Karen Joy Fowler (who also isn't in the above list)
* Harry Potter was referred to without mention of the author, J. K. Rowling (who also isn't in the above list)
* The Hunger Games was referred to without mention of the author, Suzanne Collins (who also isn't in the above list)
Who's Missing?
(This isn't a trick question.)
(Or is it?) |
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| "Women" in Genre |
[Apr. 24th, 2013|02:02 pm]
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I posted a mini-rant on Facebook about the whole #womeningenre thing. I'm not going to rehash it here.
Strange Horizons posted a gender count of sf/f reviews in review publications. It should be noted that Ladybusiness also did a count of sf/f reviews on blogs.
io9 reported on it with "Handy Charts Reveal Why You've Never Heard of Most Female SF Authors". It's probably getting more links because of the catchy title and increased readership of io9 versus Strange Horizons. It also shares better on Facebook.
Leaving aside whether or not I have heard of "most female SF authors". Well, maybe not leaving it aside. I don't read the reviews in any of these publications, so that's not how I'd hear about them anyhow!
Now leaving it aside, as you probably won't be too surprised to note, the comments are full of people (I'll leave it at 'people') asking for recommendations for female sf/f authors to read. And then other people suggesting some.
Really?! Really?! You need to ask a [expletive deleted] question like that?!
Ways to find good female sf/f authors without asking in the comments on an io9 post:
1. Google 'female sf/f authors' or 'women science fiction authors' or some similar search. Voila!
2. Look at your favorite awards list. Note the female-sounding names. Have at it.
3. Browse the shelves of your local library or bookstore for female-sounding names or people who look like women in their author photo or for female pronouns in the author bios.
4. Ask on Facebook. Your friends know your tastes more than random io9 readers do.
5. Look at your Amazon or Goodreads or LibraryThing recommendations for, again, female-sounding names.
6. Read everything on the Tiptree Award lists. Even if it's by male authors. It'll do you good.
7. Look at the books on your own shelves, real or virtual, for female authors. Have you read them yet? Did you like a particular author? Read the rest of her stuff!
8. Look at the past guests of honor of WisCon. Not all are female. Not all are authors. But a lot of them are both!
9. Look at the freaking #womeningenre tag on Twitter, for cripe's sake.
10. Because 10 makes a nice round number. The next geek you run into -- it might be your wife, your son, your bff, a coworker, whatever -- ask them, "who are some of your favorite female sf/f authors?"
Message ends... |
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| My experience starting to read Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne |
[Mar. 23rd, 2013|03:02 am]
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I just had an interesting experience starting to read Monument 14. I must have had some pre-conceived notions of it, although all I could consciously remember was that it was a YA book, I was reading it because it appeared on a list of potential nominees for a local YA library list/award thing, and it was science fiction. Having now read like a chapter and glanced at the cover, I now also remember it was post-apocalyptic and takes place in a store, survivalist kind of thing.
So why did I go into it thinking the main character was male? Because, apparently I did. Was it the title with a number in it? Was it because post-apocalyptic is usually male? (It's not.) Was it some subtle thing I was picking up from the cover, which I hadn't even really looked at? (The focal point is a character seen from the back who's wearing a hoodie. Literally the only thing you can tell about them is that they're not bald, probably not blond, and they have two arms and appear to be standing.) Someone wearing a hoodie might default to male in my subconscious.
Was it the starting out in second person? That's only the first paragraph. It's a distancing technique that a male narrator might use... maybe. Was it the running for the bus? Was it the little brother?
Because I definitely thought the character was male by that point, even before the line about going to the Salvation Army together for electronic parts.
Not long after that, I was thinking.. I bet the author is male. So I glanced at the cover to see that the author is Emmy Laybourne and probably female. This did not change my opinion of what I thought the narrator was. I admit I did believe I would enjoy the story more knowing that than if the author had been male.
I didn't start to question that the narrator was male until s/he was hiding under a seat and paralyzed into inaction by the shock of the circumstances they were in. Now, it's perfectly legitimate for a male character or any human being to not be galvanized to move in an emergency situation. To want to help out, but be unable to. And yet.. that's not the narrative I've come to expect in post-apocalyptic YA with a male protagonist. So I wondered.
At this point, I went back to figure out what had led me to think it was a male character, and was it actually a male character? And there was no sign I could see either way. So then I continued reading in ambiguity. Then there was a line about the super-popular football star boy which called him, in the narration, 'beautiful'. Around about then, I was convinced it was now a female character. A male character who didn't do anything heroic in the opening scene and characterized another boy as "King of the beautiful"?
Then finally someone called the character by his(?) name. Dean.
So I'm going to operate on the assumption that this is a male character, until proven otherwise, who may or may not be straight.
Cory Doctorow, while I was at Clarion, said that the narrator always knows his or her gender so you should let the readers know as soon as possible. I don't agree with that. On all counts. They don't always know, and you're not always obligated to tell the reader. Although you probably should unless the ambiguity serves a purpose.
But anyway, I kind of like it when I don't know, because then I can analyze my own assumptions. Was there a cue in the first few paragraphs that I picked up on when I read it, but missed when I reread them? Or was it really not stated until the name "Dean" appeared on page 14. Coincidentally 14.
Well, anyway, let's hope the rest of the book is as interesting as the games I was playing in my head! |
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| Arisia Take 2 |
[Jan. 25th, 2013|05:14 pm]
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Arisia was a bit of a blur. Not because I did a lot of things, or that I got drunk a lot, because I don't drink. I still had a cold and I tried to take it easy. But somehow I don't feel like my memory was working quite up to speed. At any rate, I did do things!
Saw some great costumes. The TARDIS dress that's going around, I saw that. I actually attended the Masquerade, but I caught that one in passing before that. I also saw the creepy weeping angel stalking the con. That was seriously freaky. The moon jelly at the Masquerade was absolutely gorgeous. And it glowed in the dark! It was awesome. Saw lots of Doctors, mostly 11. There was a toddler 11 who was, of course, adorable.
Because I've mostly going to WisCon and Readercon in the last 5 years, with 1 Boskone thrown in, Arisia was definitely a different sort of con. Not just the costumes, of course. The dealer's room was actually overwhelming to me. Lots of costuming stuff, or knickknacks and things for your home. If I had had a plan or a house, I would've totally bought stuff. (I think maybe I'm repeating my earlier lj post..) Well, anyway, it was cool. The art show was also interesting, though I couldn't really say better or worse than WisCon or Boskone. Managed to sneak into that about half an hour before it closed.
I attended 3/4s of the bellydancing. That was cool and was eye-opening to me. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, and was so totally geeky. I encourage people attending Arisia to go see it.
I watched the unaired pilot of Big Bang Theory. That was interesting. Sheldon was _very_ sexual, which I didn't like. But there was an actual female geek. (Who was also a sort of love interest, but.. I suppose we can't have _everything_, can we?) I sort of feel like we need a Friends of Hilda. Gilda? Drat, what was her name?
I also attended the Lightning Talks. That was interesting. Even if the first one was all about meat. I like the format, since you can sort of sample all sorts of stuff in 10 minute chunks. It appeals to the knowledge grazer in me.
I was on a panel as a pinch-hitter. The panel would've only had 2 people without me. Which probably wouldn't have sunk it, since we only had 1 audience member. But that's all right -- we had a good discussion -- on the future of disabilities and what sf shows us, etc. We touched on technology, society, laws, etc.
I attended a bunch of panels, including several of the queer panels.
Now, some things I did miss, because I decided sleeping or being a slug in the hotel room was a better plan. And once because the Thai delivery person, mentioned in the previous post, wanted me to come to the lobby to pick it up. There wasn't any good place to sit down there and eat that wasn't already taken, so I went back to my room. And then inertia, and an optic migraine out of nowhere, kept me there.
I got to see a 3D printer in action at the maker showcase. I didn't stick around and ask questions or anything. But I did learn they smelled. :)
Well, all in all, a successful Arisia experience. I'd go back. I wish it wasn't in January, when I'm likely to be recovering from Christmas and likely to be sick or risk getting sick by going... and of course the hotel is a bit expensive. But the con had free wifi (tho the hotel didn't. Hear that Readercon?!?!) and offered a few cheap/er/ alternatives to the hotel restaurants. But still overpriced, of course.
I feel a little more prepared for Boskone. Maybe I'll order from the Mexican restaurant this time.
UPDATE: Oh yea! And I went to an OA meetup. That was cool. I really need to make more of an effort to do that sort of thing and socialize, rather than just be audience or panelist or shopper throughout a con. :) |
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julieandrews