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PART ONE.
The first part of which begins like this. I'm going through my online calendar just to make sure that I have all my WorldCON panels sorted out and in the right time zone, when I look at "The Immersive Possibilities of Horror Audio" and I happen to notice...
...I'M THE MODERATOR.
I'm pretty sure that I had checked that I didn't really want to be a moderator, but, just to be clear, I don't entirely mind. I clearly approved it? And, in many ways, I'm the perfect person to do this since I am NOT a podcast producer. Even Jennifer Brozek, who I'd initially thought was "just" an author, (like me) does a horror flash fiction podcast called Five Minute Stories.
BUT. It feels really weird to moderate a panel if you haven't at least heard of some of the work that the panelists have been involved in? So, I now have a "listening list" (like a reading list, only for podcasts) that includes: Call of Cthulhu Mystery Program, "Mother," She Wrote, The-Channel-Show, and Five Minute Shorts. One of the other people on the panel who didn't include his email seems to produce dozens of award winning podcasts of things like Murder on the Orient Express, Long Night in Egypt, etc.
Specifically, I am supposed to be discussing the immersive possibilities, which are described thusly: Eerie, unsettling, and spooky tales are a perfect fit for audio dramas. Our panelists converse on modern horror audio dramas, like The Lovecraft Investigations, The Magnus Archives, and Old Gods of Appalachia, and how they use clever sound design, ambient audio, and other audio techniques to immerse their audiences in the world of their stories.
Audio techniques.
Wish me luck, y'all. I know jack all about audio techniques! But, I suppose that my ignorance is where I will start. What are the basic audio techniques you might use to create atmosphere in your horror podcasts? Why are wind chimes inherently spooky and lonely sounding?
But, so that's kind of the stuff of nightmares.
Luckily, my panel isn't until Saturday and I can spend some time listening to the various podcasts and thinking up my questions. I do also hope to talk to the panelists about the actual podcasts listed since I'm a huge fan of all of them.
PART TWO.
It's not just WorldCON that is haunting me this week. Let me just go down everything I have to do. Tonight, Monday, at 6 pm, I'm going to be attending a ConFABulous programming committee meeting that I foolishly volunteered to be part of. Actually, I did this last year, too, and it was fine. Unfortunately, I have been feeling incredibly brain dead when it comes to panel ideas for a GLBTQIA+ (mostly gaming) convention. In fact, in desperation, I looked at what is being offered at WorldCON this week, in the hopes that it might at least clue me into what the hot new queer books/podcasts/movies/TV are this year. Alas, WorldCON has a number of queer-focused panels, but.. they don't name their sources! So, like they're going to talk about Queer Characters in YA Fiction, but they don't say, "like so-and-so in such-and-such." So, I need to spend a least part of today trying to put my finger on the pulse of what people might want to talk about at a queer gaming con. IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS, PLEASE COMMENT BELOW.
Okay, moving on. Tuesday afternoon I have a "how to" training session for WorldCON online. I am also meeting a friend for an online chat later, but that's fun and not work. That will be the carrot to the stick, if you will. I suspect the first will be tedious, but necessary. I always attend these, if possible, because there's always some secret that they forget to tell you in their written instructions that is both obvious and easy to miss. Like, where on the right hand side of the screen the whatever button is. (And we all know how crucial the whatever button is.)
Wednesday I might have started back up with my problematic D&D group because they are running an all warlock mini-campaign, which just sounded too fun to resist. Do I want to talk about this? Maybe, but not today when I'm generally feeling overwhelmed. I promise to post about it in a filtered/locked post.
Thursday, I have my first WorldCON panel at 7:00 AM, and then, exactly twelve hours later, I host my writers' group in-person at my house. My writers group, in their infinite wisdom, has decided that we need to meet in-person again (Congratulations! There's currently a surge in COVID cases across the nation!) I agreed to this with much grumbling because 1) see above (the grumbling), and 2) there has been a lot of noise throughout the years since we had to pivot to Zoom about how hard it is for people to concentrate online, etc., etc., and despite the fact that this has never been true for me, I do believe that it's a real issue for other people and I legitimately want to respect that (the agreeing).
May I just say? Despite this insistence, we have yet to have an in-person meeting where everyone actually shows up. At least two people have been (or will be) missing every time we do in-person meetings--we've only had one so far, and, to be fair, at least one of the absentees this time is from someone who will be in Glasgow, so I suppose I must forgive. However, I suspect this trend will continue because MOTIVATING YOURSELF TO GET OUT OF THE HOUSE IS HARD. This was my number two reason for not wanting to go back to in-person. (#1 being that COVID is not over, despite how much we want to think it is.) Luckily, I grumbled loudly enough that we are actually only meeting in-person for half of our regularly scheduled meetings. On the second Thursday of every month, we are in-person, but on the fourth Thursday we are still Zooming. I think that second bit (the Zoom meeting) will actually ensure that our group continues to actually function. We also all agreed that, should it just be easier (snow/weather emergency or what-have-you) we can just shift to Zoom.
Who knows? Maybe I will press that button Thursday if I feel overwhelmed.
Friday, thank god, I have nothing on. But then Saturday is my big programming day (including the one I'm moderating!) and I have one panel each, Sunday and Monday of next week.
AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!
I mean, I am actually incredibly chuffed (as one might say in the UK) about my WorldCON schedule. I'm very pleased and feel very, very lucky to be taking part in so many wonderful panels, but I like to really prepare for panels, so I am feeling like it's finals week, you know?
Okay. I'd better go off and try to figure out what the queer youth of today are up to!
The first part of which begins like this. I'm going through my online calendar just to make sure that I have all my WorldCON panels sorted out and in the right time zone, when I look at "The Immersive Possibilities of Horror Audio" and I happen to notice...
...I'M THE MODERATOR.
I'm pretty sure that I had checked that I didn't really want to be a moderator, but, just to be clear, I don't entirely mind. I clearly approved it? And, in many ways, I'm the perfect person to do this since I am NOT a podcast producer. Even Jennifer Brozek, who I'd initially thought was "just" an author, (like me) does a horror flash fiction podcast called Five Minute Stories.
BUT. It feels really weird to moderate a panel if you haven't at least heard of some of the work that the panelists have been involved in? So, I now have a "listening list" (like a reading list, only for podcasts) that includes: Call of Cthulhu Mystery Program, "Mother," She Wrote, The-Channel-Show, and Five Minute Shorts. One of the other people on the panel who didn't include his email seems to produce dozens of award winning podcasts of things like Murder on the Orient Express, Long Night in Egypt, etc.
Specifically, I am supposed to be discussing the immersive possibilities, which are described thusly: Eerie, unsettling, and spooky tales are a perfect fit for audio dramas. Our panelists converse on modern horror audio dramas, like The Lovecraft Investigations, The Magnus Archives, and Old Gods of Appalachia, and how they use clever sound design, ambient audio, and other audio techniques to immerse their audiences in the world of their stories.
Audio techniques.
Wish me luck, y'all. I know jack all about audio techniques! But, I suppose that my ignorance is where I will start. What are the basic audio techniques you might use to create atmosphere in your horror podcasts? Why are wind chimes inherently spooky and lonely sounding?
But, so that's kind of the stuff of nightmares.
Luckily, my panel isn't until Saturday and I can spend some time listening to the various podcasts and thinking up my questions. I do also hope to talk to the panelists about the actual podcasts listed since I'm a huge fan of all of them.
PART TWO.
It's not just WorldCON that is haunting me this week. Let me just go down everything I have to do. Tonight, Monday, at 6 pm, I'm going to be attending a ConFABulous programming committee meeting that I foolishly volunteered to be part of. Actually, I did this last year, too, and it was fine. Unfortunately, I have been feeling incredibly brain dead when it comes to panel ideas for a GLBTQIA+ (mostly gaming) convention. In fact, in desperation, I looked at what is being offered at WorldCON this week, in the hopes that it might at least clue me into what the hot new queer books/podcasts/movies/TV are this year. Alas, WorldCON has a number of queer-focused panels, but.. they don't name their sources! So, like they're going to talk about Queer Characters in YA Fiction, but they don't say, "like so-and-so in such-and-such." So, I need to spend a least part of today trying to put my finger on the pulse of what people might want to talk about at a queer gaming con. IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS, PLEASE COMMENT BELOW.
Okay, moving on. Tuesday afternoon I have a "how to" training session for WorldCON online. I am also meeting a friend for an online chat later, but that's fun and not work. That will be the carrot to the stick, if you will. I suspect the first will be tedious, but necessary. I always attend these, if possible, because there's always some secret that they forget to tell you in their written instructions that is both obvious and easy to miss. Like, where on the right hand side of the screen the whatever button is. (And we all know how crucial the whatever button is.)
Wednesday I might have started back up with my problematic D&D group because they are running an all warlock mini-campaign, which just sounded too fun to resist. Do I want to talk about this? Maybe, but not today when I'm generally feeling overwhelmed. I promise to post about it in a filtered/locked post.
Thursday, I have my first WorldCON panel at 7:00 AM, and then, exactly twelve hours later, I host my writers' group in-person at my house. My writers group, in their infinite wisdom, has decided that we need to meet in-person again (Congratulations! There's currently a surge in COVID cases across the nation!) I agreed to this with much grumbling because 1) see above (the grumbling), and 2) there has been a lot of noise throughout the years since we had to pivot to Zoom about how hard it is for people to concentrate online, etc., etc., and despite the fact that this has never been true for me, I do believe that it's a real issue for other people and I legitimately want to respect that (the agreeing).
May I just say? Despite this insistence, we have yet to have an in-person meeting where everyone actually shows up. At least two people have been (or will be) missing every time we do in-person meetings--we've only had one so far, and, to be fair, at least one of the absentees this time is from someone who will be in Glasgow, so I suppose I must forgive. However, I suspect this trend will continue because MOTIVATING YOURSELF TO GET OUT OF THE HOUSE IS HARD. This was my number two reason for not wanting to go back to in-person. (#1 being that COVID is not over, despite how much we want to think it is.) Luckily, I grumbled loudly enough that we are actually only meeting in-person for half of our regularly scheduled meetings. On the second Thursday of every month, we are in-person, but on the fourth Thursday we are still Zooming. I think that second bit (the Zoom meeting) will actually ensure that our group continues to actually function. We also all agreed that, should it just be easier (snow/weather emergency or what-have-you) we can just shift to Zoom.
Who knows? Maybe I will press that button Thursday if I feel overwhelmed.
Friday, thank god, I have nothing on. But then Saturday is my big programming day (including the one I'm moderating!) and I have one panel each, Sunday and Monday of next week.
AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!
I mean, I am actually incredibly chuffed (as one might say in the UK) about my WorldCON schedule. I'm very pleased and feel very, very lucky to be taking part in so many wonderful panels, but I like to really prepare for panels, so I am feeling like it's finals week, you know?
Okay. I'd better go off and try to figure out what the queer youth of today are up to!
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