Eastercon ...

[tamaranth]

Currently suffering a recurrence of the dizziness / sudden fatigue that last year resulted in a spectacularly bloody head-furniture collision. Luckily I'm better at managing it now, so while I did have to pace myself, I survived Eastercon without any trips to A&E.

Part of 'pacing myself' involved frequent solitary downtime, despite which I was still too vacant to hold up one end (corner?) of a conversation by Sunday evening. Damn! Lots of interesting, smart people who I don't see enough of, and I had to retire, zombified.

Did swim every day (lovely luxurious pool), get lots of daylight (nice light lounge bar), avoid crowds (spacious venue), wander through the bluebell wood, and spend Friday afternoon sitting by the lake reading. (Kindle problems resolved, at least temporarily, with help from Amazon.)

My Panels, let me show you them ...

Friday evening: Not the Clarke Award. I was hoping to stir up dissent in this, but tragically the rest of the panel mostly agreed with me. <g> Was pleased to find my gut feeling re the Ness (that it doesn't stand alone) contradicted by owlfish and others: was amused by moderator major_clanger's comment that The Dervish House doesn't need a map in the front because it's a real place. (Although, actually, my argument stands.) My free drink for this panel was djinn and tonic.

Saturday evening: Doctor Who viewing with gummitch and doubtingmichael. I liked 'The Impossible Astronaut' very much.

Sunday morning: Outsider View of Fan Fiction. Somewhat blunted by there being no outsiders in the audience. We did have a nice chat about why we write fanfic and why it is just as 'real' as Proper Published Stuff.

Sunday evening: Sex Love or Money: Modern Vampire Fiction. Was at a disadvantage in this one, as I don't do TV and have neither seen nor read the Sukie Stackhouse / True Blood canon. Did manage to burble on about early Laurell Hamilton and very early Anne Rice.

Monday afternoon: Great Women of SF. Courtesy of iansales, we had a List of 150 Women SF Writers. (la_marquise_de_ and I scribbled on it quite a lot.) Didn't manage a lot of meta in this, though did raise the point that quite a few of the writers on the list were one-hit wonders -- one SF novel, then fantasy or mainstream. I'm thinking about whether this is as true of male writers as it is of female writers -- or indeed whether I'm extrapolating from too few data points (Mary Doria Russell, Rhoda Lerman, Sarah Hall, Amanda Hemingway, Audrey Niffenegger are the ones that spring to mind right now).

Also very much enjoyed the Diana Wynne Jones Memorial panel, Alternative Histories, the BSFA Talk (Prolegomena to a Steampunk Catullus -- Dr Gideon Nisbet extremely funny and erudite) and the BSFA Awards, which picked the winners I would've picked. Brain currently too post-connish to discuss here at any length, though: sorry!

Comments

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Re the fanfic panel, what ARE these questions people always ask and aren't meant to? i was mystified. (even more mystified that at one point they asked me to be on it..)

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

ps Audrey Nifenegger's second novel is fantasy OK but surely her first was too? Eaither way she seems to be sticking to her guns.. she's also a Dr Who fan!

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

"Why do you have to make everything about sex?" is one of the more vexing ones. As is "Why are you wasting your time on fanfic instead of writing proper fiction?"

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

They're both fantasy in a sense, sure: but the first one has SFnal trappings, and the second has horror trappings (and a shoutout to The Girl in the Fireplace!)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

did raise the point that quite a few of the writers on the list were one-hit wonders -- one SF novel, then fantasy or mainstream. I'm thinking about whether this is as true of male writers as it is of female writers -- or indeed whether I'm extrapolating from too few data points (Mary Doria Russell, Rhoda Lerman, Sarah Hall, Amanda Hemingway, Audrey Niffenegger are the ones that spring to mind right now)

Cecelia Holland needs to be on that list, I think: lots of historical novels, and then Floating Worlds, and if she's written another SF since I haven't seen it.