October, with record heat and scorching temps, is finally winding down and as November comes sweeping in with mild temps in the mid seventies, it can mean only one thing: summer is still not over in Southern California!*
Okay, TWO things. World Fantasy Con is nearly here.
This is my second WFC and I’m really glad it’s close to home this year. It’s a lot easier to pack when I don’t have to worry about fitting everything into tiny suitcases and 3oz bottles.
WFC comes along at a good time, too. I’ve been very busy and need a break from the routine to shake things up a little and hang out with other writers and talk shop.
To that end, I’m looking forward to seeing some old friends and making new ones, too.
Here’s my WFC Schedule, for those who want to come find me. I’d love to see you!
Friday 8p Mass Signing (at Edge for Rigor Amortis & Broken Time Blues)
Saturday 6p Edge Book Launch & Reading
Saturday 8p Inkpunks Group Reading
Sunday 10a Crossed Genres Group Reading
The locations of my readings is currently TBD, but watch the halls for updated information. For bonus points, all of the Inkpunks have posted their schedules over on our site (thanks for wrangling that, Morgan). Many thanks also to Galen Dara for our beautiful flyer!
This weekend, I attended the World Fantasy Convention for the first time. I had an amazing time, though it flew past in a blur!
The best thing about cons is seeing friends you’ve made in real life and online. Several folks from my Clarion West class were there this year (hope to see the rest of them next time), and it was fantastic to see them again. In the last year I’ve gotten to know a lot people on Twitter and Facebook and finally met many of them “in the flesh” this weekend. Good times. I can’t wait to see you all again.
I didn’t have time to make it to all the panels and readings that I wanted to, but then I suspect that’s always the case whether you’ve been to a con one time or twenty.
Rather than try and detail everything, I’ll just mention a few highlights:
some of the Rigor Amortis Crew (photo courtesy of John Remy)
Rigor Amortis: Not only did our little book of zombie romance & erotica have a showing at the mass-autograph session (my first book-signing, whee!) but Edge/AXP invited us to read several stories at their Saturday afternoon reading, too. A few minutes before, I went someplace quiet and read my story aloud. I have to admit, I was a little nervous–and I became more so when I rediscovered all the explicit bits in my tale. And I was going to read in front of strangers!
Happy to say, it went really well, and I think people really enjoyed it. Thanks to all who came out to hear — special thanks to Brian and Anita Hades and Janice Shoults of Edge for hosting us. VERY special thanks to my fellow contributors Sarah Goslee, John Remy, Steven Scearce, and Jacob Ruby for their awesome reading and friendship. EXTRA special thanks to editors Erika Holt and Jaym Gates without whom such an amazing project would still just be an ephemeral joke on Twitter.
Reading "Take it Off" (photo courtesy John Remy)
Finally, thanks to John Anealio of the Functional Nerds podcast, who performed the world premiere of “An Undead Love Song,” co-written by another awesome Rigor Amortis contributor R.S. Devin (who couldn’t be at WFC unfortunately–hope to meet you next time). I’m still humming along!
Panels: My favorite panel this year was on the Argentinian writer Jose Luis Borges and how he’s influenced speculative fiction with his amazing body of work. (Okay, the topic was really on what modern spec fiction writers have swiped from Borges…) But all that swiping was well deserved. Kudos to Jeffrey Ford, Ted Chiang, Darryl Schweitzer, John Kessel, and Theodora Goss for a great discussion on how Borges has influenced them.
I don’t write stories like Borges did, but his fiction has been a huge influence on me. For one, I love how he makes ideas the main protagonists of his stories. As Ted Chiang said: “…his work is the distillation of pure ideas.” Bingo. How else could you make an infinite universe-sized library a character? Borges creates sometimes impossible places that are bewildering to visit, but I like to go back again and again.
Conversations: Yeah, this kinda goes back to what I was saying about all the friends I met at WFC, but so what! I had many wonderful conversations with so many people that I can’t do justice to them all here. Sometimes the chat was on obscure and exciting topics like mythology, or Borges, or how to write a novel. At other times the conversation turned to our obsessions with food and drink or TV shows.
Sometimes, especially late at night (er, early morning), there were just sleepy silences and comfortable chats with old friends.
