UPDATE: Now with links!
First, a welcome to any readers finding their way here from Kathryn Cramer’s blog! I ran into her at a panel this afternoon and she told me she’d linked to my coverage of Westercon–and sure enough, I see my readership has gone up. Some. At least temporarily. Please feel free to poke around now that you’re here!
I didn’t get Sunday blogged in detail because I was up late chatting last night and had a 10 a.m. panel this morning. But let’s see if I can’t catch up…
Sunday began with a panel on Group Dynamics in Speculative Fiction. S.M. Stirling, John Dalmas, Danita Maslan and myself attempted to identify some of the things that made hero’s (and heroine’s) groups work (or not work) in fiction. I’m not sure we were successful. At least, nothing we said made enough of an impression on me to remember it just a day later…I do know, though, that we failed miserably at coming up with examples of how fictional groups led by women differed from groups led by men, much to the disgust of my wife, who posed the problem to us. The audience came up with more examples than we did.
At 12 noon it was time for Writers at the Improv again. For a moment it looked like I would have to jump into the fray once more, but at the last moment Derryl Murphy showed up (he’d gone to the wrong room) and I was spared. The story featured hippopotami, aardvarks, a mysterious fleeing perpetrator, an ambidexterous gunman, and much, much more. (“Ambidexterous,” by the way, was the word I saddled them with. Sweet revenge; it’s the first time I’ve been in the audience for one of these things in years.)
I only had one other panel yesterday, on Writing From Both Sides of the Brain, which focused on the differing challenges of writing fiction and non-fiction. James C. Glass and Tee Morris were my co-panelists to begin with, joined in progress by Lisa Lee. James Glass focused more on the left brain/right brain idea of writing from both sides of the brain; he urges writers to write as fast as they can (right-brain writing), then use left-brain (analytical) writing during the editing and rewriting process. That’s for fiction; non-fiction almost always uses more left-brain writing because, especially in the more scholarly kind of non-fiction writing, you have to analyze what you’re doing as you’re doing. (Not to mention putting in footnotes, my recent bane in trying to get the Orson Scott Card biography finished quickly.)
Otherwise, the focus of the panel quickly became the balancing of fiction and non-fiction writing. Tee, Lisa and I all write some of the same kinds of non-fiction (even for some of the same publishers). We’ve all faced the feast-or-famine problem, where you go for weeks or months with not enough work, then get four or five major projects dumped on you all at the same time, all sharing roughly the same deadline. I pointed out that I probably got more fiction written when I had an ordinary job than since I became a fulltime writer, simply because I have to work on things I know will pay before I can work on fiction which, in my case, is still on spec. But we also emphasized that writing is writing: non-fiction isn’t a lesser form of writing than fiction, it’s just different, and it’s important to bring the same passion to a non-fiction project as it is to a fiction project.
I agree in principle, but it’s hard to be passionate when writing a book about, say fire preparedness. (Coming soon from Rosen Publishers!)
We relaxed after my last panel by having Barb Galler-Smith, Anne Marston and Jan Stirling (S.M. Stirling’s wife) up to our room for an hors d’ouvre or two, then went off for a quick dinner at the Mongolian grill in the Eau Claire Market food court before rushing back to get Alice in costume for the Masquerade.
Yes, our darlin’ daughter was dragooned into the Masquerade, not exactly against our will (since we obviously agreed to it) but certainly against our expectation. Fortunately, she had brought with her her “Princess” outfit, a shiny pink flapper-style dress, a tiara, a wand, a purse, and even a cell phone (!). This, combined with a brilliant (if I do say so myself) SFnal script identifying her as “Princess Annelise, ruler of the Barbieverse, where all movies star Barbie, all literature features Barbie, all fashions are Barbie fashions, and the only food eaten is Barbie-Q” made her a hit. She even won an award, for Best Use of the Colour Pink.
The Masquerade itself was short, but there were some excellent costumes. And the intermission entertainment–the entertainment between the end of the costume presentations and the awarding of prizes–was Once More With Feeling, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical. Having already sung the small but pivotal role of the Opera Elf in Once More With Hobbits on Thursday night, I was well-prepared to leap into the equally small but even more pivotal role of The Mustard Man. I delivered my one line, “They got the mustard out!” with panache and flair, I must say. Overall, the musical was enjoyable and, if musically uneven, enthusiastically presented. (An aside: I understand Robert J. Sawyer will be singing the role of the Mustard Man at the upcoming Toronto Trek production of Once More With Feeling. I’ve heard Rob sing before. It should be sonically fascinating.)
Our little princess was pooped by the end of the Masquerade; I helped her get settled in the room with Margaret Anne, then went off for a drink or two in the ConSuite, chatting with Danita Maslan and John Dalmas and others for a bit, before retiring at the remarkably early (fro a con-goer) time of just after midnight.
Still to come: Monday’s exciting events.
You can cut the suspense with a knife.
