{"id":342,"date":"2005-11-04T23:53:37","date_gmt":"2005-11-05T03:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/?p=342"},"modified":"2005-11-05T13:13:50","modified_gmt":"2005-11-05T17:13:50","slug":"what-im-not-doing-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2005\/11\/04\/what-im-not-doing-this-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"What I’m Not Doing This Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

For quite a long time, I had reserved this weekend for a trip to Madison to attend this year’s World Fantasy Convention<\/a>. I’ve always enjoyed WFC<\/a> when I’ve attended it before, and I was looking forward to meeting a bunch of authors I like, as well as having a chance to see old friends again, and have old friends introduce me to new friends.<\/p>\n

However, I’m not there.<\/p>\n

When I found out that I had to be in Boston last week (and consequently spend a week away from my wife and child) I decided that I wasn’t going to follow it up with another 5 days away to do WFC<\/a>. I admit that hearing that old friends Gwenda<\/a> & Christopher<\/a> weren’t going after all<\/a> made this decision easier, and hearing that Scott<\/a> & Justine<\/a> couldn’t go also helped–I was quite looking forward to meeting them and hanging out with them “in the tribe”. (That’s another one of those cases of “authors whose work I dug before Gwenda<\/a> met them and pronounced them to be ‘our kind of people’ as well”.)<\/p>\n

Still, I would have loved to see Adam<\/a>, and Gavin<\/a>, and Kelly<\/a>, etc.<\/p>\n

So, since I can’t be there, let’s just go through the program<\/a> and see what I would be doing if I were there. This is the “based on the program” plan, which likely would have gone astray as I veered into bar-con, or got pulled into a poker game, etc. This list is more like “what I would have done at WFC<\/a> if I didn’t know anyone there”, which is patently not the same thing as “what actually would have happened”.<\/p>\n

Thursday<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first couple of time slots here don’t really hold my interest. I would have gone to Gender-Bending Fantasy<\/em> for the chance to meet Justine<\/a> in the flesh, but since she’s not there…<\/p>\n

The 7PM panel Working On Your Craft: Writing as an Evolving Process<\/em> is intrinsically interesting to me because I’m big on the notion of process philosophy–direction being more important than destination–and also because I’d want to get some insight into Holly Black<\/a> (many of who’s YA books are in the collection) and Sarah Zettel<\/a> (who’s early SF books I liked, and who’s Isvalta fantasy series I’ve heard good things about but haven’t read yet.).<\/p>\n

At 8PM things get interesting. I’d probably have checked out the first half of the The Bathroom: Necessities of World-Building<\/em> panel, since it seems to be the only program item for Kristine Smith<\/a>, and I’ve enjoyed her Jani Kilian books, so I’m interested in seeing her talk, and perhaps meeting her.<\/p>\n

At the 8:30, though, I’d probably sneak out and make my way to Jane Lindskold<\/a>‘s reading. I’ve liked a few of her books over the years, most recently including Child of a Rainless Year<\/a>, and she also has that rubbed off Zelazny<\/a> glamour.<\/p>\n

At 9:00, it would be all about the Paul Witcover<\/a> reading, since I’m a huge fan of both Waking Beauty<\/a> and Tumbling After<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There’s no other ‘must do’ item for me on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Friday:<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The odds are good that I would have slept in until at least noon. (If I was up earlier, I’d have checked out The Bedroom, or What’s This Sex Scene Doing in My Fantasy?<\/em> because I bet TNH<\/a> talking about sex scenes would be really funny, and the interview with Peter Straub<\/a>).<\/p>\n

At noon it would have been Images of Women in Fantasy Literature<\/em>, for Graham Joyce<\/a>, Justine<\/a>, and Jane Lindskold<\/a>. If the panel wasn’t holding my attention, I might have snuck out at the halfway point to see if Jay Caselberg<\/a>‘s reading was from his third Jack Stein book.<\/p>\n

1PM-2:30 is a tough call. The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror<\/em> would be an interesting subject, I like to see Gavin<\/a> moderate, and I’d like to meet Strahan<\/a> after reading his blog<\/a>. On the other hand Fantastic Houses<\/em> is a pretty great topic, and it has Gene Wolfe<\/a>, who is awesome on panels. (He and Rosemary are also awesome at parties.)<\/p>\n

2:30-4PM is even worse. There’s no way I’m going to miss Graham Joyce<\/a> reading for the first hour–I’ve seen him read before and he’s great–but I would really hate to miss the Beyond Folk Music<\/em> panel. The chance to see Adam<\/a> shine, to listen to PNH<\/a>‘s acerbic insight, and to watch them interact would be great. Also, I’ve quite enjoyed most of Louise Marley<\/a>‘s books, and with her background and common incorporation of music into her work, it just makes sense for her to be on a music panel. The same is true to a lesser extent for Sharon Shinn<\/a>. I guess I’d catch the last half-hour of the panel, and regret the the scheduling of the first hour against Joyce<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4-5:30 is pretty clearly the Fantasy in Unexpected Places<\/em> panel, since I’m a fan of everyone on there, and I like the topic.<\/p>\n

That would have got me through Friday’s program, although there likely would have been lots of dealer’s room trips, and quite a bit of circulating during the autographing session. (And lots of kicking myself for not bringing everything that I should have brought to get signed.)<\/p>\n

Saturday:<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite my inherent preferences, I would have had to get up early on Saturday for Adam<\/a>‘s reading–both to support my pal, and because I’m curious about what kind of reader he would be. Since I was up anyway I’d slip into the end of the Working On Your Craft: Writing as an Evolving Process (2)<\/em> panel to see what Joyce<\/a> and Wolfe<\/a> had to say.<\/p>\n

In the next slot the decision is made easier by the fact Scott<\/a> couldn’t actually attend–that means I could go to the Early Fantasy Illustration<\/em> panel and listen to Charles Vess<\/a> without feeling too badly.<\/p>\n

There’s no “must do” activity for a while after that, until the back-to-back Gene Wolfe<\/a> and Kelly Link<\/a> readings. <\/p>\n

Then I’d check out the first half of the Graham Joyce<\/a> interview, and sneak out to go to Jeffrey Ford<\/a>‘s reading. (Curse the schedulers again. How do you put Joyce<\/a> and Ford<\/a> up against each other?). Then I’d probably sneak back in to the interview.<\/p>\n

At 8 I’d probably check out A Maze Demands a Minotaur<\/em> just because I’m a pretty big fan of Walter Jon Williams<\/a>. Without any other input, that same reason might take me to the Other Forms of Storytelling<\/em> panel.<\/p>\n

Sunday:<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sunday I would have happily slept in until 11, when I would want to catch the Wee Folk, Good Folk<\/em> panel, since it seems to be the only program item for Martha Wells<\/a>. I’ve been a really big fan of hers since The Death of the Necromancer<\/a>–any time you can write a hero who is both Professor Moriarty and The Count Of Monte Cristo, and have that just be the background for a great fantasy story, you’ve got me. (I’ve read her entire oeuvre since.) Susanna Clark<\/a> might also be interesting to hear, but I wouldn’t get up early for her if Wells<\/a> weren’t on the panel.<\/p>\n

I’m not much of a banquet guy, but I certainly wouldn’t mind hearing the Judge’s Panel, if for no other reason than to listen to PNH<\/a> and Ford<\/a> talk about good books.<\/p>\n

And that would finish up the program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For quite a long time, I had reserved this weekend for a trip to Madison to attend this year’s World Fantasy Convention. I’ve always enjoyed WFC when I’ve attended it before, and I was looking forward to meeting a bunch of authors I like, as well as having a chance to see old friends again, and have old friends introduce… Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","xfolkentry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5UQvw-5w","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}