Day in the Life of an Idiot

I like the digital con experience a lot. 

I like it for all the wrong reasons, though, I suppose. As I was telling naomikritzer (who was there in-person) what I like about digital cons, especially ones like WisCON where I am not on any paneling, is that I can just attend as much or a little of it as I please. This is always true at a con? But I feel so much less guilt at a digital con when I swan off to go do something else for a day or blow off various standard events, like GoH speeches, etc.

I preface my report with this so that you're not surprised that I barely attended WisCON and,  in the same breath, I then report that I had an amazing time.

I attended exactly two panels. On Friday, I got a DM from jiawen on Discord and we agreed to hang out like we did at the last virtual WisCON. So, I popped into our usual jitsi meet space and she screen shared the "Let's Play" panel. Ostensibly, the panel was about the phenomenon of Let's Plays. If you don't know what a Let's Play is, basically it's watching or listening to someone else play a game. This runs the gamut of video gamers like Markiplier or the infamous PewDiePie to D&D podcast like "The Adventure Zone" to watching Will Wheaton playing board games on YouTube.... and there are a LOT of these types of shows and podcasts. A TON. The panel was meant to be about this phenomenon in general, I thought, but it ended up being hyper-specific to a podcast Let's Play that two of the three panelists were involved in. The conversation was interesting, but I had been hoping for a lot more discussion of the broad appeal of this entire genre. 

For once, on a WisCON panel, I kind of wanted the 101 version of this panel. But, alas.

Rachel and I still had a lot of fun using our private jitsi channel to comment to each other. As I joked to her, we were like the two women in the very back, by the door, having our own whisper conversation which is totally a Con Type, and, as a bonus, we disturbed no one since we weren't even on a public channel.

We chatted and gossiped a ton afterwards. These kinds of panels always makes us reflect on the Star Trek:RPG campaign that we are both involved in, so that was great. 

I dipped my toes into various threads on the Discord, but I never found a conversation that I felt compelled to do anything more than glance at and lurk around the edges of. I always like to read through the books and reading channels to see what people are recommending, for instance. But, I have only been reading manga lately and that never feels appropriate to add to books and reading, since most people consider anime and manga its own channel and this year WisCON didn't have a separate channel for either of those.

I also dropped my link into the Dreamwidth panel in the hopes of enlivening the discussions and connections here. *Waves* at anyone who might have followed me due to that.

I skipped Saturday, but yesterday I did another jitsi meetup with Rachel. This time we watched "The Social Contract for Tabletop Play." This one was quite good. I was impressed with all the panelists. I am not *as* much of a gamer as you'd think given that these were the only two panels I managed to attend, but it was more that I probably wouldn't have remembered to go to any, if Rachel hadn't prompted me. And, I have, in the last couple of years, become more and more interested in returning to gaming, even more than the one TTRPG that I am involved in. So, I mean, this wasn't JUST me following Rachel around to her interests entirely, either. 

That was my con? It probably sounds like absolutely nothing at all, but, even in Real Life(tm), I am not great about con attendance unless I'm scheduled to be on a panel, so it's always amazing to me the ways in which this felt exactly like being there in person often does. I mean, I missed all the cool parties, saw almost no paneling? But, yeah, I probably would have done the same in-person, anyway? So....

I had a good time, regardless.

How about you all? Did you have a good weekend? Anyone at the con in-person? Other digital experiences?

For whatever reason, my first day at WisCON was my best day at WisCON. That's not to say that I had a bad time the rest of the weekend, more that I kind of mostly didn't participate? Or... was very random in my participation level?

I did end up having lunch with jiawen and naomikritzer, on jitsi, which was lovely, but I didn't do a lot of other con events on Saturday. In the morning, I wandered around the various Discord channels, but never really settled into any particular conversations. I listened to people discuss the merits of Clarion on the # writers-octarine, but I mostly lurked because the time for which Clarion would have been helpful for my career is kind of passed... and when I did know a lot of people still going to the workshop, there were still two of them (East and West)--so that was some time ago. I bring this up because I found most of the online conversations I dropped into to be like this? Like, people were saying interesting enough things, but I didn't manage to connect to anyone for whatever reason.  The opposite was true with the hang-out. I'm swapping manuscripts with a woman I met there, already. But, this may be a function of a couple of things for me--namely, my age. I am an oldster, for the Discord crowd.  But, also I am the kind of extrovert that makes face-to-face connections far easier than I do text based ones.

I didn't manage any panels until Sunday, but in all fairness that happens to me at Real Life (tm) cons, too. I guess I'm glad that I didn't end up paying the highest tier price for the con, if only because otherwise I would feel guilty that I didn't manage to do more with it.  I definitely felt that  what I got out of the con equaled or exceeded what I paid for, and, in my case, that wasn't nothing.

It is a little easier to wander away from the con, alas. I probably would have been busier at the con, but two weekend nights randomly became family game nights at home. I would have loved to have done a few more meet-ups, but so it goes.  Part of this, for me, is figuring out what I like in an online con, too.

I still say it was well worth it, and I'm very grateful that duskpeterson sent me a link to other online cons that are planned this year, because I am signing up for All The Cons!  (For others looking for the info, it's in the comments of my first WisCON report.) 

Otherwise, our Memorial Day was pretty rainy here, at least in the morning. I did do a little social distance hanging out in the backyard with a friend which was great until he got called back to work.  

How about you? Do anything special for the holiday? How was YOUR WisCON, if you went?

 As an old cyberpunk writer, I have to say that I'm deeply fascinated by how online communities are built and how things like Virtual WisCON work/don't work.  

So far? I'd say that it's working for me, on the whole. 

Yesterday, I interacted with the con in a number of different ways. I hung out on a couple of different channels on Discord, I 'went' to the You Tube stream of Rebecca Roanhorse's reading and Q&A, and joined a spontaneous jitsi meeting for writers.  I will detail my experience with each, below.

Discord:  I should preference any discussion about my interactions here by saying that I am an experienced Discord user. I have been on it for a couple of years already, having shifted to Discord to chat with a friend when Skype started acting up for her. I've created my own servers and joined existing ones. My profile on Discord is fannish, because that's exclusively what I use Discord for. My son uses Discord even more than I do, using the voice channel option to talk to friends, etc. So, even if I didn't know how to use a Discord function, I have another expert in the house.

So, my experience might be a little different from others, because I'm extremely comfortable reading and participating in conversations on Discord.

When you click on the WisCON link, it automatically dumps you into the "new arrivals" channel.  From there you can navigate out to other channels. I did what I always do when I'm new to a Discord server, which is I immediately went to read their rules or code of conduct channel, because some servers are very strict about keeping channels on-topic and I want to know what the culture is, obviously. 

WisCON seems pretty chill about the channels being on-topic. Administrators and moderators show up on your feed in a different color and I didn't notice one monitoring any of the chats I checked into, with the exception of # lobby-con.  Interestingly, I had my best experience in the lobby. I actually did that thing that happens at cons, where I happened to be in the channel when a couple of people I know dropped in an said hello.  So, I actually chatted with them (and a few other people I didn't know) about the Madison farmer's market, cheese curds, and life.  So, that felt very much like Con, honestly. 

The other channel I lurked on was # books-and-reading and read/"listened" to a conversation about the anti- culture of fan writing fandom. That one ended up feeling a bit cliquish, honestly? One of the users broke into the conversation to write something like, "If this were real life, I'd introduce [name 1] to [name 2]..." which is good socialization in real life, but on-line had the weird effect of making me, as a lurker, suddenly feel like I was intruding on a conversation between friends? The conversation then very much devolved into people they had in common, the places they lived, etc., and so I left the channel.  I mean, this is the sort of thing that happens at a con? But, it's different on-line because Discord does not let you know that people are 'in the channel' and not active. The only way you know someone is part of the "conversation" is if they post something.  So, this person couldn't have known that I was lurking and that I suddenly felt a little awkward when it was clear they were all real-life friends?  In other servers, this is where an active mod would come on and ask people to either stay on topic or move to a socialization channel. But, WisCON seems to be going for a very organic, make-your-own con on the fly vibe, which is perfectly okay. Like I say, things like this happen in real-life cons and I don't expect there to be someone on hand there to make sure conversations stay on topic. The # birds-of-a-feather area is clearly supposed to be informal. So, I'm not criticizing, just explaining my experience. Real life cons are like this, too.

YouTube:  So, one thing I really do love about the virtual con is that I have my phone set to beep me when WisCON sends out a notification of an event. I was in the middle of a late dinner when Rebecca Roanhorse started her reading, but I was able to jump in online about fifteen minutes in. I went to the Discord and went to # links-to-streams and clicked through to the reading there.  

Watching that reminded me that I'm not actually a giant fan of readings, in general.  But, I LOVED the Q&A session, so that was worth it.  Tempest did an excellent job as interviewer/moderator, IMHO.

I honestly thought the YouTube thing would be weird/distancing, but it was fine.  

Jitsi:  There is a section of the Discord for meet-ups spontaneously generated by anyone. It is in the # spontaneous programming channel. A con-goer named 'W' posted that they were hosting a jitsi for writing, and I asked if it was a hang-out for writers or if we would be hanging out and writing. Since it was at 10 pm CST, I did not feel like I could stay up to silently writie, so I was happy to discover that W was planning on conversation unless people really wanted to write together. I had a little trouble joining it because I wanted to switch over to my new iPad and for some weird reason clicking through from Discord didn't launch my app and so it never properly connected my microphone? But, when I opened my app and plugged in the jitsi address it worked perfectly, so whatever.

I should also note that I'm also extremely comfortable on jitsi as it is the video-conferencing option of choice for my regular RPG group. So, it was weird for me to have so many problems connecting.  I blame my own unfamiliarity with my new tech, the new iPad. 

Jitsi is just like zooming or Google hanging out so I had a lovely time chatting with my fellow writers in the meet-up.  We all used the chat function to exchange Twitter handles so now I'm Twitter friends with a half-dozen new people, which is wonderful.  By CHANCE I ended up in a room full of people who either loved cyberpunk or quirky religious stuff and so I did a thing I never normally do when not on panels, which is I pitched my own writing. I had the very weird experience of people saying, "Oh, I've heard people talking about Archangel Protocol before," which... only at WisCON, because, seriously, no one else has ever heard of me.

I have really discovered that I have no problem whatsoever connecting with virtual strangers on the internet any more than I do in real life. This is where being an uber-extrovert comes in handy. 

So, I ended the evening feeling like WisCON was a really fun con to be at virtually. It will be interesting to see how today progresses.

I wonder, however, how other people are doing with it? 

I missed a lot of the excitement this weekend over WisCON's harassment subcommittee's decision because we were in a small, resort town in Wisconsin enjoying our friends' cabin at Crooked Lake.  I took some awesome photos, but the uploading thingie here on LJ is still being stubborn so I may have to point interested parties to another site.  The lake was ice cold, but Mason, being Mason, braved it anyway.  I ended up in the water, too, though initially under much duress.

But, because we were away from Twitterverse and the rest over the weekend, a lot of what needs saying abut WisCON's decision has already been said.  I have to admit that I'm far less invested in this, despite knowing Jim personally (he was my agent), because I haven't been a regular attendee at WisCON for nearly a decade.  It used to be one of my favorite cons.  The ratio of writer-to-fan was skewed heavily toward the writer end of the scale and, at a certain point in my career, WisCON was the place for me to meet colleagues, agents, and editors in a relaxed setting.  I suspect that's probably still true, but when I switched to being a romance writer I felt less welcome, though never explicitly so.

So, everything I have to say about this is as a complete outsider. My only point is one of comparison. This year at CONvergence, I had a programming issue come up.  I felt it was handled so professionally and swiftly that I don't even feel the need to rehash the details here, except to say that I wish that WisCON could learn and take notes.  The programming head responded to my complaint within hours of my issuing it (even though it was the day after the con and everyone had every right to be off-the-clock, as it were.)  Not only that, but they had a very clear and firm policy that was expressed in unambiguous language to all parties involved.  There was a clear electronic "paper trail." When it seemed we'd reached an understanding, the programming person basically said to me, "I feel from your previous communication that you consider this resolved, but please let me know if there is any part of this issue that you feel is not resolved.  If you feel it is resolved, we will consider this matter closed."

It was amazing.  It was so professionally handled that I almost wondered if the folks at CONvergence were all required to take conflict management courses.

Having a clear, unambiguous policy was paramount to my feeling satisfied by the concom's response to my issue.  The programming head was able to say, "CONvergence expects x of this kind of panel" and there was no, "but we will review this if y or z is involved."  The hammer came down hard.  In fact, it was so intense I was like, "Uh, I'm not sure..." to which I was given a polite, but firm, "Understood, but these are the rules and we're clear about them, full stop."

Granted, this is an entirely different issue than harassment. But, the fact that this was how a relatively minor programming issue was dealt with, it gives me the sense there are even more clear and firm policies in place for other infractions.  They have a well-thoughtout harassment policy written in their souvenir program, for instance, though I'm not sure how well it would work for WisCON's clientele.  That aside, JUST the way this was dealt with could be a lesson for the WisCON folks, you know?

CONvergence is much, much larger than WisCON.  Not only is it on a significantly larger scale, but CONvergence's mission is very different from that of WisCON.  However, I think that WisCON could take note.  If they survive this particular misstep (and I do have to wonder if they will), I think it could behoove them to talk to bigger, more professionally run cons.  I'm sure a con like CONvergence has to deal with police calls and all sorts of things that a small con might never have to, but I would think that, if anything, this whole sexual harassment issue should show WisCON that maybe being prepared for all future contingencies might be a plan, so that there are clear rules and consequences from the start... for the next problem that comes up, because there will be one.

So, that's my two cents.  There are a myriad of other issues involved that I'm not going to comment on because I'm very much removed from the WisCON community.

With luck, I can get some photos of our trip up somewhere.  

I think the heat and humidity melted my brain. It certainly ated my ability to do much other than lay around yesterday after Eleanor, Mason, and I hit Como Zoo. It was actually pretty pleasant walking around for the most part, but we luckily gave up before 2:00 pm when the humidity, etc., became soul crushing.

It was quite fun to show off the new interpretive center, tropics trail, and fern room to Eleanor who had not been to Como since all those big changes. It's funny the sort of vicarious pride I have. I didn't build it, after all. But I think it's getting to share the joy of discovery. We got to the big cats by early afternoon, and the Siberian tiger was making "sick cat" moans (or perhaps roars, but they really sounded a lot like what my cats do right before they hork up a hairball.) The osterich also looked pretty miserable, but the giraffe and primates couldn't have been happier. I had been hoping the polar bear exibit would be open but I guess we came a month too early. We also missed out on the butterfly garden, though they had the tent set up. Alas.

I also didn't get much writing done yesterday because we're such complete luddites that we have no central air (no cable, and no wifi... what, am I living in the Stone Age? Yes, I am.) It was too hot to even consider lugging the window air-conditioner out of the attic, so we all just collapsed on the bed and tried not to dehydrate on the spot. Now that it's a bit cooler, I think we'll plan ahead. If this is what May is going to be like, I dread June, July and August.

However, by sitting absoultely still with a fan pointed at my body, I was able to get some reading done. I finished PRETTIES, the second book in Scott Westerfeld's UGLIES series, and ran over to my shelf (despite the sudden burst of sweat that caused) and picked up SPECIALS. This is a great series; have you read it? It's a YA, but it's really very good science fiction (which I would expect from the author of EVOLUTIONS DARLING, among others.) Westerfeld is someone who has one of those literary voices that I just sink into, you know? I'm usually a very slow reader, and I've been pounding through this series. I did find an adult series of his at a used bookstore that I initally bounced off, but I'm looking forward to trying the books again once I finish these.

I'll miss you all at WisCON, though I think I'll be there next year. Perhaps by myself, though figuring out the logistics of this maybe somewhat difficult. I'm thinking that Shawn and I will bring Mason down to grandma and grandpas as usual, and then I'll abandon Shawn and family for a day and one evening (so like, I drive down early Saturday morning, and then drive back Sunday morning) so I can at least attend one day and still get some time in over Memorial Day weekend with my folks. At WisCON I'll need to crash in someone's room, but I have a year to make such arrangements if we decide to do it this way. It's better than nothing, and I will have a science fiction novel to promote, as RESURRECTION CODE will be out by then (it should be out this December, in fact.)

I've been chatting on line with someone who will be doing the Madison as setting panel (my books are mentioned in the description,) and it made me all nostalgic to go. Also, I got invited to participate in another MIND MELD conversation/discussion and suddenly I didn't feel quite as ostracized by the SF community as I sometimes do. What's funny to me is that it's really all about publisher's labels. I've always had romance in my books and fantasy, and Tate's books just capitalize on what was always there --- but the spine says romance and that's that. Locus doesn't even note when my books come out any more (though to be fair, they did review the first few Tate books and the Many Bloody Returns anthology I was involved in.)

Sigh.

Poor me, I guess. ;)

The point is, I miss WisCON and am starting to feel ready to go back. I only hope they'll have me.

I don’t really have much of substance to report from this year’s WisCON, other than to say that I had a really great time hanging out with everyone there. It was especially cool to finally meet in the flesh Lynne and Michael Thomas, my number one fan xochiquetzl, and reconnect with countless confriends like David Levine and his partner, Charlie Anders and her partner Anne L., Cliff (whose last name I’ve never learned, and see pictures of his fiancée), Warren and Betsy Urbik, Tracy Berg, and, as my local friend Harry pointed out: actually spend time just talking to people I should be able to see every day like all people in the Twin Cities fan/writing community. Plus, I actually met some new people, which is always a bonus.

I have to apologize to everyone who hoped to see me on the Slash 201 panel, but I ceded my seat to Beth Friedman in exchange (I hope) for good con karma. She was one of the people who ACTUALLY got a blank con slate (no computer glitch for her) and she’d been really keen on Slash 201 according to her LJ. I love being on slash panels, but I’ve been granted my share over the years. And, according to Charlie, they used all sorts of phrases I’m not sure I knew: “OC,” etc. Sounds like I’m possibly not ready for the advance level classes. Maybe next year!

So, as for the actual events as I remember them….

Shawn and I dropped little boy off at the grandfolks’ on Thursday afternoon, and then headed for Madison Friday morning. The weather was sunny and cool (my favorite combination, especially for driving).

Shawn and I talked without interruption (wow!) and listened to music on our MP3 player (loudly!) on the way down. I actually thought of a couple of things that I want to add last minute to the latest Tate book. The first is “cow tipping.” I’m sure some of you may have heard that “cow tipping” is a Wisconsin past time. For those of you who have never heard of it, here’s the myth: cows sleep standing up, so reckless youths sneak into the barn late at night to “tip” cows. If you’re from New York you may be asked to participate in this fun event. Don’t be fooled. This is much like hunting “snipe,” a game meant to embarrass city slickers. Cows actually sleep lying down. You can see them doing so in the fields early in the morning. We passed a bunch on our way down to Madison. It reminded me of the time I was asked to go “cow tipping” and was actually led into a pen containing a single “cow.” Yeah, it was actually a bull, and let’s just say my so-called friends found it HI-larious watching me scramble the hell back over that fence. Anyway, I thought it might be fun to have someone from Garnet’s extended family invite Sebastian out “cow tipping” after the wedding as a sort of hazing/welcome-to-the-family joke.

We got to the Concourse hotel way before official check-in, and since we’d asked for adjoining rooms with Sean M. Murphy, we were told we had to wait for housekeeping. I gave my cell number to Ivan, the very handsome in a European-sort-of-way, amber-eyed concierge, and after some fussing around ended up working on the final draft of Tate’s book at Michelangelo’s Coffee shop, where I ran into the WisCON writer’s respite folks which included my former student Gary as well as friends Leah Cutter and David Levine. Since they were clearly all still working, Shawn and I found a quiet table and I plowed through the easy changes. I finished everything that didn’t require major revision by the time Ivan called.

Then I took a shower and the Relaxicon of WisCON truly began. Shawn and I went out to Porta Bella, which is our favorite romantic diner out spot. It’s actually featured in two Garnet Lacey stories, the first of which is the short story “Fire and Ice and Linguine for Two,” and the second is the opening scene in “Dead if I Do” (the book that’s due at the publisher in a matter of weeks). I have to admit that normally, we have had only what I would call “okay” food. We go mostly for the atmosphere, which can be summed up in two words: dark and elegant. It’s really, really DARK in the restaurant and the booths are extremely intimate. This year, however, the food was amazing. I had the goat cheese filled ravioli with chicken and porta bella mushrooms and it was actually one of the best meals we had at this con. Shawn was also extremely happy with the handmade pizza she got. We ate ourselves silly.

Then, we, ehm, went to bed early. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more, say no more.

Saturday morning was the only day we set an alarm. We headed out to the farmer’s market bright and early around seven o’clock. It was gorgeous. Every year we get three things: two dozen potato doughnuts, squeaky cheese (aka cheese curds), and Amish pocket pies (this year’s choices: strawberry rhubarb and blueberry.) That, along with a café miel from Michelangelo’s, was breakfast. Yum. We strolled a lot and checked out all the flowers and jewelry booths. I made a note that I absolutely HAVE to include the farmer’s market if I get a chance to in later Tate books. Also, I nearly bought a pair of earrings I can’t wear (I’m allergic to metal/nickel and my holes have closed up) because they were made from cool old Soviet coins.

We relaxed (wink, wink, nudge, nudge…) until my panel at 1:00, which was “Endings.” The panel was fine, but I thought it could have been more lively. I blame the subject which really isn’t something a lot of people get really riled up about, you know? Still, I met some new people and agreed to make a book exchange with the moderator (Jim Monroe) who writes apocalyptic, post-rapture fiction, which might be just up my alley.

Shawn and I went to one of the many Indian/Tibetan restaurants for late-lunch/early diner. I had something that nearly rivaled my Porta Bella pasta, which was a chicken, pea, potato curry thing, which I can’t remember anything much about other than “yummy!” (This con was a lot about food for me, it turned out.) We also checked out both of the New Age/Pagan shops on State Street. The one which I base Garnet’s bookstore on is S--, the one just a few blocks from the Capitol, but there’s also a new one a few doors down which we always like to check out as well. We didn’t end up buying much this year (taxes sort of put the kibosh on our usual once-a-year spending spree,) but we did a lot of window shopping. We also had to check out “Soap Opera” our favorite bath shop, and taste test a few of the massage oils.

I ended up going to parties on Saturday night, the most notable being the release party for “Superpowers” a book by David Schwartz, whom I just happened to have met a couple of times here at home – once when I was out being interviewed by Haddyr for the Minnesota Women’s Press, and again when I was dropping off books for WisCON at Dreamhaven. He had a contest for a copy of the uncorrected proofs, which I entered. I am sorry to say, however, that I did not win – as, though I could remember one of the Green Lanterns (amazing given that was a DC question), I flubbed the original line-up of the New Mutants (the only one that came to me was Sunspot, and then after that I drew a complete blank.) I was truly mortified, but as the winner had already gotten a copy of the book, I got it as a consolation prize. Turns out Naomi Kritzer really wants to read it, so I’m going to give it to her first (since I’m such a slow reader, with my dyslexia and all.) I spent much of the rest of the evening feeling deep shame at having been shown up on a Marvel Universe question. Captain America would be so ashamed of me!

Then I danced with some really cool women, whose names and identities are lost in the haze of too much Mike’s Hard Lemonade. We did the Hustle and the steam shovel and should have nailed the dance contest, but I think that died before it had a chance to start (a dance contest at a science fiction con? Can anyone say high school all over again?) I suspect it got more exciting later.

I drifted toward the Tor party as I’d promised Xochiquetzl that I would “flit” with her and jiawen (as well as meeting up with Charlie and Anne). The Tor party being the Tor party was overcrowded and hot, but I managed to stay and shout at a few friends until I met up with Xochi and the others. I had a great conversation about “The Wire” with former panel-friends from Chicago/Think Galactic, whose names I’ve also spaced on (too much alcohol, damn it!) Plus, I got to chat with former Loft students Tim Mulcahy and Gary (argh! No last names in my head!!) However, it was much good times.

Though I tried to tell Shawn I needed to go attend Sean M. Murphy’s panel on Clichés and Tropes on Sunday morning, she reminded me that I had some revisions to finish on Tate’s novel, so I blew him off in favor of writing. I’m happy to say, I got everything done. The only thing left to do is let Shawn read the final, final draft and then it can go off to the publisher this week! Hooray!

After I finished up the draft and we checked out of the hotel, we stopped by the dealer’s room, and finally had a great conversation with Lynne and Michael Thomas (who had previously found our meeting “anticlimactic.”). I also met Chicago fan/editor Steve (Schwartz? Damn surnames!). I also got to catch up with Warren and Betsy Urbik near their jewelry booth. Xochi joined us, and, as Shawn always calls it, I “held court” for a while, which I secretly always enjoy.

Shawn I left early, missing out on much of the stomach flu glory, though I seem to have had a touch of it this afternoon. I hope all of y’all are doing okay! We dutifully washed our hands early and often and used antibacterial lotion at every turn. Though I was sad to leave before the con was over, it was good to get back to LaCrosse and hand with my folks and Mason. We heard about the tornado that struck close to St. Paul and were anxious to get back to see if the kitties and fish were okay!

You couldn’t even tell there’d been a storm nearby as we came into town. The papers showed houses smashed to splinters, and I thought for sure we’d see downed trees. But, this morning when I was out digging in the dirt to plant seeds, the ground was even dry and hard packed. I don’t know if it even rained here.

However, I should say that everyone was fine, even the new tetra. The kitties had snarfed all their food and looked mournfully at us when we came in, but somehow they survived on those “jungle pouches” of theirs. Most of the plants in the new tank survived, too, though my favorite one got quite yellow. Hopefully, now that the grow light is back on full-time, it will make a recovery. The tetra tank had also lost about a gallon of water to evaporation, but otherwise they seemed no worse for wear. We still seem to have our snail castaways as well.

So, how about you? How was your con? If I mentioned you but flubbed/forgot your surname, feel free to correct my drunken haze! I’d love to be able to say “hi!” next time we meet and remember your damn name.

I just got my final programming from Wiscon and here it is....





What? You see a whole lot of nothing, well, that's because that's exactly what I've been scheduled for. I got panels, no party, no reading, nothing.

That's a whole lot of awesome. (sarcasm.)

...but apparently due to a miscommunication, Wyrdsmiths won't be having its annual Sunday night party at WisCON. I'm of two minds about this. The front part of my brain is sort of disappointed. We usually have a pretty good turn out, and have, in the past, used the party as an excuse to hand-out a free self-published sampler of our members' work (ala New Wyrd and Tales from the Black Dog.) Without a party, there's really no point in going to the effort -- not to mention the expense -- of producing an anthology/sampler.

The back part of my brain is fairly relieved. The anthology is a lot of work, although, admittedly it's not usually work that I do -- that burden usually falls to Sean M. Murphy and Bill Henry. But, this year it would have required me to actually write something as my coffers of unpublished shorts is completely empty. Writing short stories is something that I really struggle with -- and it usually takes me a long time to write one that I'm satified with. So I always hesitate at the idea of "giving away" something that hasn't gone to market, because, well, I not only do I tend to work really hard on the story that appears in it, but I also have to pay to produce our sampler and my short stories sometimes actually sell, and thus make money for me.

The party is also usually a lot of work -- again, something I have to admit usually falls on other people's shoulders, although I have taken part in a few last minute shopping ventures with fellow Wyrdsmiths. And, of course, I try to be the hostess with the mostest (although that's not usually a lot of work for me, either).

On the flipside, having an annual Wyrdsmiths party means there's at least one party venue when friends know where to find me "after hours." Because Shawn and I have made WisCON into our once a year vacation-without-the-kid, I've noticed a tendency in me to simply disappear after my final panel of the day and thus I end up inadvertantly making myself inaccessable to people. This year, at least, I'm somewhat required (or at least expected) to attend the release party for PERIPHERY, the erotic science fiction lesbian anthology that will be debuting at WisCON in which I have an AngeLINK story. So, I guess what I'm saying is look for me there.

As usual, I will not be attending the SIGN OUT.

We just can't stay the extra hours on Monday -- not with a little boy to fetch and grandparents (my folks) to rescue. :-)