Would anyone be interested in having a little netbook gathering since there won’t be a netbook panel again this year? People who are interested in netbooks could come and ask questions and paw at netbooks, people who own them can talk about the awesome stuff they’re doing with netbooks, and some other netbook-related activity.
Thoughts?
Last year’s POC dinner was a big hit and folks have been asking if we’re going to do it again. I say: YES. Because I loved it and want more. This year we’ll have several gatherings just in case someone can’t make one or the other, though only one will be POC-only. If you identify as a person of color, you are welcome at these events.
Friday POC Dinner — 5:30 – 7:30
This is WisCon’s dinner block, so there isn’t any official programming to miss. I made a reservation in the Concourse’s restaurant (the Dayton Street Grille) for the private back room. To join us, just say you’re looking for the POC Group.
They won’t do individual checks for a group our size (I predict at least 15 people, last year we had 30) so bring cash. The menu for the restaurant is here.
There are also two Carl Brandon events happening on Friday and Saturday which are good places to hang with POC and allies. The Carl Brandon party on Friday night at 8:45 in room 607 and the Carl Brandon luncheon at 11:45 on Saturday (meet in the lobby).
I had wanted to do a second big POC-only meetup event, but perhaps this would be better coordinated at the con itself. We can do it in the POC safe space (the Solitaire room) if we want. Plus, last year we had several informal group meals of awesome POC-ness.
Because I have been disconnected from most of the blogosphere due to my intense (yet awesome) job, I have no idea if anyone is coordinating a mass POC meetup thing similar to what we had last year. I would be very happy to organize such a thing if no one else is doing so, but given that people liked it so much last year it would not surprise me one ounce if there was already something in the works. (And, if there is, someone let me know. I shall be there!)
I have less than a week to go before WisCon, hooray! Thinking of that made me realize that I haven’t posted my panel schedule here. It’s light this year and thus I will likely be a lot saner. But I am contemplating doing a panel in the overflow room. We’ll see. Meantime, here you go:
Fri 4:00 – 5:15PM – Conference 4
Lynne M. Thomas, K. Tempest Bradford, Evelyn Browne, Kathryn Sullivan
There is a perception that there weren’t many women in Doctor Who fandom before the New Series was launched. This is patently false. Women have had a major role in Doctor Who fandom since the inception of the show. Do women approach and experience their Doctor Who fandom (or other media fandoms) differently than men? This panel explores different approaches to media fandom by the women involved in it, functioning within an assumed male–dominated fandom. Approaches to fandom discussed will range from feminist critique to costuming to fan fiction.
Sun 10:00 – 11:15AM – Michelangelos
K. Tempest Bradford, Mary Robinette Kowal, Kathryn Sullivan, Lynne M. Thomas
Sun 2:30 – 3:45PM – Assembly
Nisi Shawl, K. Tempest Bradford, Moondancer Drake, Nabil/nadyalec, Michelle Kendall
Fail is not the topic of this panel; instead, we want to hear about where you feel like your group was well represented in fiction by someone from outside it. This panel is the carrot, not the stick!
Sun 4:00 – 5:15PM – Caucus
Shira Lipkin, K. Tempest Bradford, Michelle Kendall, Rachel Swirsky
Sexual assault and rape frequently get used as symbolic plot devices, with no consideration of how sexual violence actually affects survivors and the people around them. Let’s discuss books that accurately portray the repercussions of and recovery from sexual assault, as well as those that merely use it as a shortcut to character development and those that end up glorifying it in the process—and how we can write about sexual assault and rape in a way that is true to the character and respectful to survivors. Note: this is a discussion of rape and sexual assault in fiction, and is not the place to discuss our personal experience with sexual assault.
Yes, the majority of my panels are on Sunday :) Which makes it likely that Saturday something fun will happen. Stay tuned.
I know, I KNOW. I am horrendously late informing you of this event. I cannot explain myself except to say that I have been horrendously busy and thought I’d done at least some of this promotion before now. I suck.
But you’re not doing anything important on Friday night, so please come:
The Chicks Dig Time Lords anthology is a celebration of Doctor Who from the perspective of female fans. Join us as we read our essays, talk smack about the Doctors we love (and hate), the compaions we cheer for (and hate), and the Whoniverse we adore.
Contributors Catherynne M Valente, Franesca Coppa, Deborah Standish, and K. Tempest Bradford will be there along with cover artist and Torchwood Babiez co-creator Katy Shuttleworth.
I haven’t posted to this blog in a long while, sorry. My job is pretty intense (but awesome) and I have a million other projects and jobs going on, which means my fun time is limited. Or I’m just tired. But some fairly significant things are going on and I’ve been extremely remiss in mentioning them.
A big one is that a few weeks ago Jeff Vandermeer emailed to tell me that I was one of the first nominees for the Last Drink Bird Head Award. This is a new award he and Ann Vandermeer came up with that focuses on service in the genre community. “The purpose of the awards is to celebrate those in the genre community who enrich us with their time, energy, and words, often for causes greater than themselves.” The categories are:
I was nominated in the Gentle Advocacy category: In recognition of individuals willing to enter into blunt discourse about controversial issues…. The awards were given out at World Fantasy and, despite being up against John Scalzi and Nick Mamatas, I won! Yay!
I actually hadn’t expected to, so I didn’t prepare an acceptance speech, though I did give one. But if I had prepared one, I would have said a lot more stuff. First that my fellow nominees are completely worthy of this award as well. Nick in particular since he’s one of the people who taught me the benefits of being fearless and saying what needs to be said when shit is really wrong in the world.
Second, that the award and the awardees acknowledge that it’s not always easy being a Gentle Advocate, an activist, or someone who repeatedly engages in discussions and debates of heated topics. It does help when people have your back, even if they’re just the lurkers in email. I’m fortunate in that I have many people at my back who aren’t shy about being vocal about it, including the Vandermeers and Scalzi and Mamatas. Having people around you who you’re confident will tell you when you’re wrong and aren’t afraid to back you up when you’re right is the key to sanity. I have tons of people like that, and I appreciate the hell out of all of them.
Last, I’m really proud to be the first recipient of this award and glad that it exists, because there are so many others deserving of it, and I’ll be really happy to see them nominated in the future. And thanks again to Ann and Jeff for the honor and for creating the Last Drink Bird Head Awards.
You can see the list of all the nominees here and the winners here (along with pictures of the award). Everyone listed is well-deserving and awesome.
I have a bunch of things I need to post about but very little time today. I wanted to alert my NYC peeps and those in nearby areas that I’m going to have a Doctor Who marathon this Saturday at my place. We’re going to watch the best episodes of the new series — as many as we can get through before we pass out. The following Saturday I think a Jem & the Holograms marathon is in order.
If you live in NYC and want in, click over to my website and let me know via the contact form if you want directions.
I used to go to WorldCon every year without fail, kind of like the way I go to WisCon now. But long ago WorldCon chafed on me, and I realized that it was far more expensive than other cons and more of a trip to see my friends than an enjoyable con experience. Beyond that, though, it got to be more than a little annoying to deal with the cluelessness around race. WorldCon is big — not Comicon big, but big. Therefore you cannot predict from what quarter the crazy might come at you and thus avoid it.
So when I read posts like Karnythia’s about her first WorldCon experience, it just reinforces my conviction that being there would not be healthy for me. That’s a big ball of fail right there.
I know that I will go back to WorldCon someday. When I have a book out I’ll need to promote it. And when I’m nominated for a Hugo I want to be on the scene in case I win. And I acknowledge that the entire con is not some huge, writhing mass of fail. Like anywhere there are good parts and bad parts and neutral parts and there’s usually a squid, too. But for the amount of money it costs, plus the energy it drains, I’m better off making WisCon and World Fantasy my must-go conventions with a happy dash of ReaderCon on the side.
Though I am not fond of WorldCon, I do wish I could be there tonight to party with the Hugo winners. Many people I know and love to pieces won tonight:
I seriously don’t think I’ve ever seen a Hugo winner list made of more win. Special congrats to Weird Tales for breaking the million-year Locus winning streak and to my main man, John Klima, for his fanzine win. I am dancing in my living room and singing at the top of my lungs in praise of all y’all.
Our reading tonight was listed in this week’s Time Out New York, both in print and online. Nora and I are “and others”, ha! I’m just glad they listed it. And in the print version we are right next to the review of Bayou, so I think the layout person may have been paying some actual attention. Awesome.
Looks like there will be a sizable crowd there tonight. Hooray! I’m sure there are some people we won’t see who actually need to be there the most. Ah well.
