Tag: WisCon 33

Merry Month of May

By:  TempestConventions

At WisCon I was able to quietly sneak away with a copy of the latest Electric Velocipede (issue 17/18!). I was super excited to see it because my story Enmity is contained within. There are also stories by many friends of mine, including two other Altered Fluidians: Mercurio D. Rivera and Matthew Kressel.

I saw John Klima during his brief appearance and got to hug him a lot. Then on Sunday I wore The Shirt. You know, this shirt:

I have it on good authority that The Shirt moved many copies of the zine. (Also, if you are a fan of EV or of shirts or of me, you can get The Shirt on Zazzle and support the zine in the process.)

This May has been especially awesome for me because I had stories in a book and two zines come out this month. Federations, Sybil’s Garage 6, and Electric Velocipede 17/18 — and all of them were available in the dealer’s room. There were also many copies of the Interfictions anthology and all three WisCon Chronicles! I’m in each, and the newest one is especially spiffy with a fantastic cover. Liz Herny is a goddess.

I was feeling very fancy having so many things in the room with my stories and essays in, so I took pictures:

WisCon 33 Dealer's Room of Me - Federations WisCon 33 Dealer's Room of Me - Sybil's Garage

WisCon 33 Dealer's Room of Me - Electric Velocipede

WisCon 33 Dealer's Room of Me - The WisCon Chronicles WisCon 33 Dealer's Room of Me - Interfictions

So I encourage you to order your copy of Sybil’s Garage if I didn’t force it ony ou at WisCon, to buy Federations and WisCon Chronicles vol. 3, to check the Electric Velocipede blog to see when the latest issue will be available for ordering (the copies at WisCon were special advance ones — contributors and subscribers should get theirs soon), and to read, read, read, not just my stories, but all the fabulous stuff in these offerings. May 2009 is a month of awesomeness.

(More) WisCon POC Events

By:  TempestConventions
(More) WisCon POC Events

First one is something a lot of people asked for since it was pretty awesome last year.  Second one is something I’ve been wanting to do for months and months, especially since I didn’t follow up with the great ideas from last year. Third most of you know about already.

WisCon POC Meet & Greet

Come hang out with POC WisCon attendees Friday evening — at 5:30 (the dinner break) we’ll gather in the lobby of the Concourse and at 6:05 we’ll depart for a place to hang and talk or a place to eat and hang and talk. All POC are welcome to attend, whether this is your first WisCon (especially if so!) or your 30th or anywhere in-between.

Strategies for Talking Amongst Ourselves Both Online and Off

An informal POC discussion group. It’s no surprise to any person of color paying attention that there are plenty of us who love SF/F/H despite the problematic elements in both the community and the media. But not all of us are connected, even tangentially, to the larger/mainstream community or the satellite POC-specific groups that have formed online and off. How do we better facilitate the dialogue between SF-loving POC who aren’t on LiveJournal (or its clones) or Ning, or Facebook or online at all?

During this gathering I’d like to brainstorm ways to better connect with each other (jumping off of the excellent ideas put forward during last year’s discussion) and put the ideas into action before we quit the room. All POC attending WisCon are invited to attend. Bring your lunch and your laptop (if you’ve got one).

Time: Saturday, 11:30AM – 1PM
Place: Room 634

Meet (and Eat with) the Angry Black Women

All three contributors to TheAngryBlackWoman.com will be at WisCon 33. Together for the first time!: K. Tempest Bradford, Nojojojo, and Karnythia. If you’ve ever wanted to meet one or all of us, talk about angry blackness, blogging, or anything else, then come have lunch with us.

When: Sunday, 11:30AM – 1PM

Where: Noodles & Company (short walk from the Concourse) — very top level. Lots of options for vegetarians and meat-eaters

Who: We’d like to keep this part of the unofficial POC-only gig at WisCon. If you identify as POC, bring yourself on over.

What: We’ll just be talkin’ about angry black stuff. Also about guest blogging opportunities in the future and our own personal projects which include new books, new publishing ventures, and new shoes.

Please pass this along to any POC WisCon-goers who may be interested. You can also post to various interested communities or your own blog. There will be flyers at the con.

WisCon 33

By:  TempestEvents
WisCon 33

Later with this than anyone else, but there were some changes to my panel lineups and I was waiting to make sure everything else was settled. As I emailed everyone on the panel I’m moderating on Sunday, I figure I can be public about it all now.

NOT ANOTHER F*CKING RACE PANEL — Fri 9:00 – 10:15PM — Senate A
Nora Jemisin (M), K. Tempest Bradford, Moondancer Drake, Nnedi Nkemdili Okorafor, Naamen Gobert Tilahun

Writers of color working in F/SF face unique challenges, it’s true. But, at the end of the day, being a ‘person of color’ is only one aspect of what makes up our identities as writers and, while it’s very flattering to asked to be on panels, most of these panels never crack the ceiling of Race 101. With that in mind, wouldn’t it be nice for multiple writers of color to sit on a panel that isn’t about race at all? Here’s our chance to do just that. So, what are we gonna talk about, instead? Practically anything! Presented in game show format, NOT ANOTHER F*CKING RACE PANEL brings together writers of color to get their geek on about any number of pop culture topics (perhaps chosen from a spinning wheel of fortune)—none of them race related.

Was It Good for You? — Sat 10:30 – 11:45PM — Conference 4
Nora Jemisin (M) , K. Tempest Bradford, Sumana Harihareswara, Rachel Kronick, Betsy Lundsten

A common response to requests for increased representation of women/PoC in science fiction seems to be—we are just looking for good stories. Writers are concerned that, even absent overt discrimination, the themes they want to write about and the stories they want to tell will be dismissed as irrelevant to the white male audience. This doesn’t really have anything to do with quality. What stories do readers wish they could see more of and what stories do they wish they never had to read again? How many technically proficient stories about nothing, and stories that are metaphorical for male orgasm, do we have to read, anyway? Why is it so hard to find stories about my experience?

Judging the Tiptree — Sun 8:30 – 9:45AM — Senate B
K. Tempest Bradford, Gavin J. Grant, Catherynne M. Valente

I think maybe Gavin might not be there after all, so it coudl end up being the Tempest and Cat show. At 8:30am on Sunday we may have to promise people major shenanigans to get a crowd.

Authorial Intent vs. Reader Response — Sun 4:00 – 5:15PM — Capitol A
Vito Excalibur (M), K. Tempest Bradford, Ellen Kushner, Debbie Notkin, Delia Sherman

Umberto Eco said once that a novel was “a machine for generating interpretations….” Once a book has been released into the cruel world, does it matter what the author intended for people to get out of the book? If it does, does it matter more than what the readers see in the book?

Netbook Show and Tell — Sun 10:00 – 11:15PM — Conference 5
K. Tempest Bradford (M), Shaun Kelly, Rowan, Genevieve Valentine

Asus EEE, Acer Aspire One, HP Mininote … do those names sound familiar? What are those wee laptops around the size of a hardback book? Bring your netbook and show it off! Discuss the pros and cons. Q&A for those looking to purchase their very own netbook.

Additionally I will be participating in the following POC-only events:

POC Meet & Greet — Fri 5:30 – 7:30PM — Madison Concourse Lobby

We’ll head somewhere to eat or chat at 6:00PM.

Meet the Angry Black Women — Sun Lunch — Noodles & Company
K. Tempest Bradford, Nojojojo, Karnythia

Have lunch with the three contributors to the Angry Black Woman blog.

I think I am most excited about the netbook panel! Not just because I am mod, but because after 3 days of RACE GENDER LITERARY THEORY and TIPTREE I feel I will enjoy being able to just geek out about computers for an hour. The Not A Race Panel panel should be a good time, too. Also, I am on a panel with Ellen and Delia and Debbie and Vito?  *swoon*

There will be other additions to this schedule once the final, full-length one comes out.

WisCon Readings

By:  TempestEvents
WisCon Readings

So since I have several stories coming out this year, I think I should get to do a reading at WisCon.  Hopefully others will agree.  Who wants to do a reading with me?  We’d have to come up with a theme of some sort.

Let’s see, I have a mythic story coming up based on Orpheus and Eurydice, an SF story about dead mothers, an SF story about aliens… yeah, that’s it for non-reprints.  Any theme suggestions, interested co-readers?