lydamorehouse: (Default)
Minicon is this weekend. These are the panels to which I was assigned. There are a number on here that have me head scratching a bit, like, what do I know about the Monkey King? (Answer: almost nothing). I am, however, not going to complain about getting to be on more than one panel with Wesley Chu. That's pretty cool. 

See some of you there, no doubt!





ON LEARNING HOW TO WRITE
Fri 5:30pm................................................................................ Veranda 1-4
The pathways to becoming a writer are many and varied. But not everyone can get a degree or attend expensive workshops. Can you learn to write by reading? How about reading and writing fan fiction? Is a beta-reader as good as an editor? Once you decide to sit down and write something, how do you improve your craft?
Deb Kinnard, Wesley Chu, Guy Stewart, Douglas Van Dyke, Ozgur K. Sahin,
Lyda Morehouse (M)


THE MONKEY KING GOES WEST
Sat 11:30am ............................................................................. Veranda 1-4
As the world becomes more diverse, the SF/F genre borrowed from everywhere. Eastern myths and magic are becoming increasingly familiar to Western audiences via books, movies and television dramas. Let’s talk about Monkey and his famous Journey to the West, martial arts, cultivators, yokai, immortal emperors, and other legends that are making their way to the rest of the world.
Peter Kacner, Anna Waltz, Delia Ihinger, Lyda Morehouse, Lisa Freitag (M)


THE PITFALLS AND BENEFITS OF WRITING HUMOR
Sat 7:00pm ................................................................Grand Ballroom East A
Great humor has the power to make the world feel a little bit sunnier. But what can you do when your slapstick falls short, your puns stink and everybody nose it, and your comedic timing…misses its cue? Come join us for a discussion about the often-underestimated work of making people laugh.
Eleanor Arnason, Wesley Chu, Melanie Meyer, Lyda Morehouse, Dex Greenbright (M)


THE RESTAURANT AT THE END OF THE BOOK
Sat 8:30pm ................................................................Grand Ballroom East A
Food often figures heavily in adventuring. Even video games have menus, these days. How do you invent food for your characters? Do you research planetary ecology, or historical cooking, or do you just make it up? Do you have any recipes? What fictional universe would you visit just to sample the cuisine?
Deb Kinnard, Wil Bastion, Steven Brust, CM Alongi, Ozgur K. Sahin, Lyda Morehouse (M)


WHO IS VOTING FOR TEAM ROCKET?
Sat 10:00pm………………………………………………….................... Veranda 1-4
The best worst anime characters: Who are your favorite villains? Who has the best evil laugh? Who has the best costume? Who would be the most fun to hang out with in bars? On missions? In the hot tub?
Lyda Morehouse, Jason Otting, Dani Sommer, Aaron Vander Giessen, Anna Waltz
lydamorehouse: (nic & coffee)
I'm in a weird mood today.

Ironically, it's due to something I was reading (which maybe isn't 'ironic,' Alanis, but more coincidental, as today is 'what are you reading Wednesday.')

Thing is, some time ago, I got another invite to a possible anthology that would revolve around magical realism.  As part of that, the editor sent me a sample story. I finally had a chance to read it today, and now I'm trying to think about what I would have to say in a magically realistic way. I tend to think of myself as a straight-forward writer... for the most part. I know that I have a tendency towards genre trope perversion, and I can be, as my former agent apparently used to say to sell my work, "Weird, but compelling." Which, when you think about it, pretty much could sum up magical realism as a genre. But, I'm just sort of in that nebulous phase of story writing where I'm just trying to wrap my head around what I might write and how I might write it.

This feeling is probably exacerbated by the fact that all I really want to write is more fan fiction. I've been on a streak. I have a number of pieces going, one of which is extremely self-indulgent, which means that it's tremendously fun. Who knew I had a secret yen to write slice-of-life on the farm stories?  NOT ME. But, apparently, I do. (Yes, this is still Bleach fic, so WTF. I should at least be a Silver Spoon fan.)

So, what have I be reading?

Honestly, not a huge amount. I did read the first volume of Nyankees which I LOVED because it was precisely what I wanted/expected. It's cats as people (and sometimes as themselves), running around doing hoodlum things, like fighting over food, territory, and lady cats. It's dumb AF. It's AWESOME af. 10/10 would recommend.

Also, some time before Christmas, I ordered a DVD version of the Bleach Live Action film, which finally showed up on Monday.

a montage of a bunch of bleach characters staring intently out at the audience--literally everyone is good looking
image: a montage of a bunch of real people Bleach characters staring intently out at the audience--literally all of them are super good-looking.


I bought the DVD from somewhere in Malaysia because the people I go watch anime with expressed an interest in seeing this and the hostess does not have Netflix. It is, so far as I know, still available to stream from Netflix, but let's be honest I own almost everything else Bleach related, so I should probably just own this. 

I am thinking about trying to find a copy of "Bleach: The Musical," but then I would own a musical and... even though I love "Manly Dance" from the Bleach musical, I do not know if I could ever force myself through an entire musical, even one based on Bleach. You ARE talking to the one person who intentionally fast-forwarded through the music in Disney's "Frozen." In fact, I fast-forward through any musical number in almost anything I watch. And, no, I have never gotten into "Hamilton," which I do, in point of fact, know makes me a freak of nature.

Look, I don't like tomatoes, either, so I am possibly the only person I know who isn't terribly fond of pizza, which also makes me an outlier in American culture. (I love white pizzas, though, thanks to discovering such things existed when we went to Rome a zillion years ago with my parents.)

Anyway.

The other thing we've been dealing with again is Mason's late-night schedule. So, I've probably talked here, before, about how our clever boy has figured out how to get a later start at his high school. He doesn't have to go in until 8:50 am most days (Wednesdays are an exception because Washington has something they call "Foundations," which appears to be like home room, on Wednesdays.) He's arranged this because his PSEO classes allow him to be flexible about when he takes them. So, he's signed up for evening classes both semesters. This semester he has one on-line class, economics, and one in-class class, which is print making (which my art loathing child is hoping isn't too focused on drawing skills since he has NONE.) Between these classes, which often go until 7 pm;his robotics season, which has him staying until at least 5:30 pm; and his work, which, when he goes can go as long as 7 pm, Shawn and I have been struggling with pushing back our dinner schedule so we can all still eat together/eat decently.

We're old. 

We have been old, in fact, since we were young.

We like to eat at 4:30 pm. Don't judge!

Okay, you can judge, because everybody does--even Mason's friends called him an old man when he would leave a gaming session to go eat at our ridiculously early hour.  But, at least try to sympathize with the idea that a family that is used to eating at one time is now STARTING meal preparation THREE HOURS LATER than usual. We don't eat these days sometimes until 8 pm, which wonderfully European, but TOTALLY NOT US.

Shawn and I are thinking that we're just going to have to institute a kind of second dinner option, wherein we eat some kind of (potentially healthy) salad/appetizer some time closer to 5 pm, so that we all aren't hangry by dinner time. Mason, meanwhile, has always had the option of snacks either at St. Paul College or at his work.  I pack extra food on robotics days. So, he'll make it one way or the other, but Shawn and I have previously stared balefully at potato chips or just sitting and being sad until dinner time, so the pre-dinner dinner might be a solution for us.

I don't know how normal people even do this late eating thing. I suppose you also don't have breakfast at 6 am and lunch sometime around 10:30 am, eh? WEIRDOS.

Anyway, did y'all read anything interesting this week?

lydamorehouse: (ichigo hot)
 Not necessarily in that order.

Yesterday was a lot of picking up prescriptions for Shawn, doing laundry, and general "oh, you've been away, this needs doing" stuff. Including a trip out to our new vet in Maplewood to pick up more of Deliah's prescription for her pain meds. Considering all the cat illnesses we've had this year, Deliah is doing really well. Cat medical issues under the cut )

I also took Mason in to Washington for an appointment with his counselor. The way things work at Mason's school, the counselors are the ones who set schedules. He brought in the courses he'd signed up for already at St. Paul College (a history class and an English comp) and worked things out for himself so that he FINALLY HAS A DECENT START TIME.  Yes!  He's not going to have to be at school next year until almost 9 am (8:40 or something more like that, because of how classes are).

For Mason, this is ideal. 

As a teen and college-age adult, I craved the earliest morning classes. That's when my synapses are firing best. But, I was also never one to stay up until so far past midnight that it's technically the next day. 

But he got all his requirements sorted and decided to take AP (or CIS, "college in school," I can't remember which,) Statistics, since he didn't quite manage to test out of Calculus I and didn't feel like retaking it again right away. I think that was wise. He also may end up really enjoying statistics. 

That's all good news on the school front.

Meanwhile, Shawn texted me and said that she did NOT place at the State Fair for her rugs. Boo! Robbed!

As I predicted: suddenly, there was an influx of entries. Last year, there were only two (three ribbons are available) and other weavers must have noticed, because this year there were SEVEN entries. Shawn noted that the woman who won in BOTH categories (same woman, two separate size rugs) not only had been last year's winner, but also is what is known in the weaving business as an "art" weaver. Usually this means a smaller, hand loom. Not an industrial, working-class loom, like ours. We suspect we were dissed for being too "country" as it were. Shawn and I are going to make time to go, if only because we need to check out the competition. 

Last night I worked at Maplewood Library, which was strange on a lot of fronts. First off, I haven't worked in so long that I made a few rookie mistakes (the game CDs do not go on the shelf!) and generally felt like "what is work??? How done?" But, luckily, the people I was working with felt the same way as they hurried to get some of the end of the night stuff done on time so that they could watch "Big Brother" in the backroom. I have not seen an episode of "Big Brother" since it was first popular a thousand years ago; who knew it was still going? They were both super into it, though, which I found very charming. And, honestly? It was pretty dead. Yesterday was the first day of the State Fair and you could tell. Every place that wasn't the Fair Grounds was pretty slow.

Also I heard all sorts of stories about weird things that happen in libraries, including, last night, about the time that one of the circulation staff discovered a dead body. 

This is actually a sad story, as it involves a homeless person who probably OD'd. Apparently, the library used to have a small homeless camp sheltering UNDER their back deck. This is not surprising, as libraries are becoming the front lines for homelessness and other social work care. When I was working last night, three people came in for "care packages," which are just basics: a water bottle, a protein bar, some other stuff like that. But, they just come up to the information desk and ask for one and the staff puts them together in a plastic bag. I do not think this is standard. I think this is something that the Maplewood staff took on themselves. 

At any rate, the story of the dead body is basically that the staff person was taking her lunchtime walk, which brought her past the homeless camp, and a regular resident there had a "not home" sign on her camp for just too many days for the staff person to be comfortable with, so she got a social worker to investigate and sure enough, she was "home," just dead. The mystery is: who put up the sign? Speculation is that there was a boyfriend well known to the staff and that the boyfriend supplied the drugs, knew she might OD, and put up the sign. Not cool, boyfriend. But, that's it. I mean, Roseville, will get dirty diapers in their book box, but not so far as I know, dead bodies under their deck....

Maplewood, for all that it is a suburb, does have it's share of weirdness. I have worked there when fist fights have broken out and the police needed to be called. People muttering about Jesus is just background noise, so long as it doesn't disturb the other patrons....

So you know? If the staff want to hide in the backroom for an hour, who am I to point fingers?
lydamorehouse: (Default)
Thursday, July 5

3:30pm
Death Note Fan Panel
Are you a fan of Death Note? With the release of the American Netflix version released last year, let's talk about what we loved and didn't care for in Death Note manga, anime, & movies. Panelists: Lyda Morehouse (mod), Kristopher Pflipsen, Susie Kline, Jei Herald-Zamora


Friday, July 6

9:30am
In Defense of: Timothy Dalton as James Bond
Was Timothy Dalton all that bad? Come and argue with us. It will be fun. Panelists: John White, Ty Blauersouth, Lyda Morehouse (mod), Nathan Anderson, Jeremy Stomberg

7:00pm
CONvergence Poetry Slam
Nerds have words, and we want to hear them! Show up, sign up, and if the lottery gods are kind you (yes, you) may be drawn to read two three-minute poems to an audience of drunken strangers, and watch your heart and soul assigned numeric value. Panelists: Allison Broeren, phillip low, Dan Marlow, Cole Sarar, Bryan Worra, Lyda Morehouse, Ben San Del, Pat Harrigan, Sam Cook

10:00pm
Pounded in the Butt by the Chuck Tingle Fan Panel
Talking about Chuck Tingle and his work. Panelists: Kristina Winn, Rory Ni Coileain, Lyda Morehouse (mod), Jonathan Palmer, Sharon Stiteler


Saturday, July 7

12:30pm
Literary Awards
Does getting a literary award help your career? What's the impact, both positive and negative, of being recognized for your work with a big, heavy, piece of metal or glass? Panelists: Amal El-Mohtar, Lyda Morehouse, Naomi Kritzer (mod), Eleanor Arnason

5:00pm
Understanding the Hugo Awards
There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the Hugo Awards for the last few years. What’s it all about? Panelists: Lyda Morehouse, Scott Lynch (mod)

lydamorehouse: (Renji 3/4ths profile)
 Who on earth thought it was a good idea to teach a class AT BEDTIME??!!

For those of you who don't know this about me, I've been a lifelong 'lark.' A morning lark is the opposite of a night owl.  Even when I was a teenager, I used to regularly get up an hour or so before my parents and make coffee, go for walks, and generally enjoy the solitude of the early hours. To be perfectly honest, in high school, I often used the extra hour or hours to do All the Make-Up and my hair. (Hard to even imagine now, isn't it?)  

These days I wake up a little earlier than I'd like. Mason's school starts at 7:10 am (first bell) and so our house is up starting anywhere between 5 and 5:30 am.  That's a bit early for me, and a lot of days I push it by pulling myself up long enough to brush teeth and get dressed and then I collapse back into bed until 6:00 am, which is much closer to my natural wake-up time.

I also typically really prefer to get 8 hours of sleep. So, staying up past 10 pm gets rough.

My Loft class **STARTS** at 7:30 am and goes until 9:30 pm. Yesterday was my first class and it went well--aided by a bit of caffeine from the coffee shop at Open Book.  I have an even dozen students, who all seem very smart and engaged. I think we're well-primed to have a good class in terms of discussion, etc.  For those of you who have taken classes from me (or, frankly, have seen me on panels at local conventions,) know that I put a LOT of energy into my teaching.  I'm also an extrovert, which means I leave class with INCREASED ENERGY.  Coming home and bouncing around until 10:30 pm = NOT GOOD COME 5 AM.

SUPER. NOT. GOOD.

I was Madame Cranky-Pants in my typical low point (--my biorhythm is such that even on good days I'm lackluster from about 2 pm - 4 pm.) I may or may not have shouted at my family, "I'm not passive-aggressive, I'm just aggressive! No, I'M JUST ANGRY." But, luckily, at this point Mason and I were lugging this ridiculously heavy kitty litter box out to the car and alternately yelling and laughing. Even so, I had been seriously bitchy previously.  

I'm NOT made for late nights.

And, yes, yes, you night owls are all laughing your heads off about how "early" this all is.  Just try to imagine having to teach a class at 6 am and you might understand.
lydamorehouse: (more renji art)
Last night was CONvergence's 'opening night.' Traditionally, there's a Guests of Honor/Former Guests of Honor mixer held on Wednesday night to kick everything off. Eleanor Arnason (GoH 2001) and I (GoH 2012) went together.

I managed to loose my voice yesterday afternoon, so I squeaked a lot, and pretty much everyone who heard me gave me advice about how to conserve it/help it. (All of which I intend to take.)

The party itself was surprisingly fun.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, the CONvergence people are always awesome and know how to throw a good party. It's more that as a visiting artist/writing professional in a room of one's colleagues, sometimes the atmosphere can be kind of... well, daunting. You look around the room and you think, "Wow, all these writers/artists/media stars..." and your next thought is often, "What am I doing here? Compared to them, I'm nobody."

Like actors, writers are often seen as 'only as good as their current project' (at least among ourselves.) This, I've found is far less true out in the Real World. If you've written and published once, for most people, you're always a professional writer. The latter makes far more sense than the former. A book, once published, is always there for people to see. Regardless, a fellow author is likely to ask, "What are you working on now?" And, when the answer is, "Oh, um... nothing official," it can make for a very awkward night.

For whatever reason, last night, I didn't feel any of that. I saw a room full of people, many of them friends I hadn't seen in a while, and then I found the corner of anime fans and we squeed about the fact that the newest season of Free! started.

Seemed like an auspicious start. Fingers crossed that the rest of the con goes as well.

If you're attending con this year, here's a lovely pointer to my CONvergence schedule:

http://schedule.convergence-con.org/lyda.morehouse#.U7VFsl5hPwJ

You can also get from there to the main programming schedule. CONvergence is amazing because they also have this whole 'app' thing figured out. You can download any number of amazing things to keep track of your con and follow along with live tweets and everything. (Didn't I say? These CONvergence people are GOOD!)

As you can see if you go to my schedule, I'm going to be hopping this con. Today, I have THREE Panels:

DYSTOPIAN YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE
5:00 - 6:00 PM, Edina
The huge new thing - and they're all becoming movies now! Discuss the Hunger Games, Divergent, Matched, Legend, Mazerunner, and more. Panelists: Lyda Morehouse, Hilary Moon Murphy, Kethry Burke-Scovill, Christine Norris, Pete Hautman

FEMALE SUPERHERO MOVIES: WHY CAN'T WE HAVE ONE?
7:00 - 8:00 PM, Edina
Where are the Black Widow / Wonder Woman / etc. movies? Panelists: Shawn van Briesen, Joan Sullivan, Kelly Pesola, Jonathan Palmer*

(*I'm listed on my own schedule as being on this, but I'm not in the program. I'll show up and hope they're feeling generous and let me on. Perhaps I can wow them by the fact I've read the new Black Widow title.)

INTRODUCTION TO ANIME
8:30 - 9:30 PM, Plaza 2
Intrigued by anime, but don't know where to start? This is the panel for you. Come learn the lingo, the classics for a strong anime foundation, and how to avoid accidentally showing your children hentai. Panelists: Jessi Silver, Lyda Morehouse, Heather Deakman, Damarra Atkins

I suspect I'm on the last panel intentionally as a newbie. Since I'm not sure I've watched all the anime classics. My introduction to anime was pure accident (Starblazers was on my TV at 6 am when I was 12 or so--I didn't even know it was, as we called it then, "Japanimation" until someone typed on a screen and the characters weren't familiar to me) and I've been feeling my way through the genre, ever since... but I supposed that's a good counterpoint to the methodical, careful researcher.

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