Lucy's Livejournal

Ohioana Library Book Festival report

Mon, 12 May 2008 19:22:17 GMT

I'd like to be able to go to a convention (or other gathering) and not come home with a cold :-\

*coff*

The Ohioana Book Festival was nice. Not as many people attended as I'd expected ... seriously, Harvey Pekar was there! And Mary Doria Russell! The festival also featured live music, author readings, discussion panels, and book signings.

Gary and I both did short interviews for the OSU CSTW podcast; I'm not sure when they will be posted, though.

Gary and I signed a fair number of books and met new readers, and got to chat with Christopher Barzak and Catherynne M. Valente more than we had in the past. yukon_jack dropped by for a bit, and I also saw Jane D., a librarian I knew from my days at OCLC, and it was fun to see her again.

Most of our table visitors were fun to talk with. But of course there were also the usual annoyances. One woman announced disdainfully that Sparks and Shadows "looks like a children's book". Uh ... okay. And another picked the book up, read the back, and dropped it like a hot rock, announcing "I don't like short stories." Good to know!

sarajlarson and her husband Bill came to the festival in the afternoon; they'd come to Columbus to attend a gem show, which sadly turned out to be a bust. We had a fun time catching up with them.

That evening, we went to a reception at the governor's mansion in Bexley, and it was really cool (and not paid for at taxpayer expense!) It was a mix of authors, their guests, and festival workers. Governor Strickland wasn't there, but we met his first lady Frances and she was very gracious and pleasant. We also went on a tour of the mansion, which is filled with art and crafts from Ohioans and has been nicely restored. The gardens there are pretty and filled with fish ponds, and in short I'm glad we had the chance to attend.

The next book festival is set for May next year; I hope we get invited back, and I hope more people can make it. :)

I have a 3-book deal with Del Rey

Fri, 09 May 2008 19:10:00 GMT

Okay, so my agent tells me they announced the deal on Publisher's Marketplace today, so:

Del Rey has purchased my first novel Spellbent and two of its sequels. I believe their tentative plan is to release Spellbent in early-to-mid 2009 and the other books in the trilogy will of course come later.

I'm entirely geeked about this. I got into science fiction and fantasy partly as a result of reading Del Rey authors such as Anne McCaffrey and Marion Zimmer Bradley, so I'm pretty darn happy to have become a Del Rey author myself.

Iron Man

Sat, 03 May 2008 16:11:14 GMT

Partly in celebration of Things Yet To Be Announced, I and haceldama, bzarcher, dklegman, opalexian, flaggerx and his friend Nancy went out for Mexican food and a couple of pitchers of margaritas, then went to see Iron Man, and then went out for milkshakes.

Iron Man was a lot of fun. I've never really read the comic, but those in our group who had felt it was a good modernization/adaptation of the original storyline and that the character was in desperate need of resetting anyhow due to some unfortunate later comics.

Ultimately, you get all the cool battling robot effects I was hoping to see in Transformers, but instead of being surrounded by dumb the action sequences are surrounded by good acting, interesting characters and a decent story. There are a couple of questionable comic book logic plot points that they couldn't simply get rid of and that I think they tried to make as believable as possible.

I could fully buy the in-the-cave electromagnet implant for Stark, since the guy he was with was apparently an engineer and not a heart surgeon. And that he needed to create the mini-reactor to power his suit etc. But after he got back to the U.S.? Stark's surely got enough cash to hire a good doctor and get the shrapnel taken out. I'm willing to bet most major metro hospitals have someone on staff who could do that. And in the scene where he needs Pepper to reach into his chest-can and fish out a troublesome wire -- dude, how did he get that thing into his chest in the first place if his fingers are too big and he doesn't have anyone else he feels he can call for help? Cuz that shiny, perfect housing surely wasn't the same hardware they put in his chest in the cave, and ... oh, foo.

*drinks another margarita and enjoys the splosions*

Holy shit, I just realized Tony Stark actually does have a mutant superpower: his immune system! He sleeps with hundreds of women, and NO CLAP! NO HERPES! Open-chest surgery in a filthy cave and NO GANGRENE! Dude.

Anyhow, it's a fast-moving, thoroughly entertaining movie. And you also get a little tidbit after the credits that's worth waiting for.

Ohioana Library Book Festival

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:07:17 GMT

Gary and I will be participating authors at the Ohioana Library Book Festival in Columbus, OH on May 10th. Mary Doria Russell, Harvey Pekar, Christopher Barzak, Rosemary Laurey, and Catherynne M. Valente will also be at the festival.

The festival is free. For more info, visit:
http://www.ohioanabookfestival.org/

Penguicon report Part II

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:30:27 GMT

In my earlier report I forgot to mention the coolest thing that happened at the convention!

Angie Fox arranged for me to have a complimentary table to display books and do signing etc. (thanks again, Angie!) I spent a lot of the convention at the table because people kept coming up to chat.

On Saturday, a man in an Ox costume came up to the table with a box in one hoof and a clipboard in the other. He silently handed me the clipboard; on it were names of various nifty guests and places for them to sign. Not having the faintest idea what was going, I put my initials by my name. The Ox Man then handed me the box, which had my name on the top.

"What's in the box?" Gary asked.

At this point I was flashing on the movie Se7en. The silent Ox Man made a "continue" motion with his hooves.

"I think you're supposed to open it," Gary prompted.

So, with terror in my heart, I opened the mystery box.

Inside was a stuffed toy badger with little Xs for eyes and a handmade toe tag.

(image above courtesy vakkotaur)

Best. Guest gift. Evar! I laughed long and hard.

Another cool gift we got was a souvenir wooden blank bullet from Romania, courtesy of Michael Z. Williamson. He told us that his supplier says these wooden bullets are used to minimize target shooters' lead exposure, but of course that's a fabrication: clearly wooden Romanian bullets are ammunition against vampires!

The next day the Ox Man came by out of costume and I gave him a copy of Installing Linux on a Dead Badger.

I must have signed at least 30 copies of the book during the course of the convention. While I was in a panel, some guy came by the table and lectured Gary that we'd made "a terrible mistake" having ILDB "traditionally published" and that if I'd had any sense I should have self-published the book.

Riiiiight.

Pete at CGP gave me all the control I wanted over the project, and since project control is cited as the main advantage of self-publishing, we can scratch that off the list.

What other advantage would I have had if I'd self-published? Oh, right. I'd have had to pay for printing and artwork and copy-editing and everything else that Pete and co. have taken care of. And I would have had to beg and plead reviewers to accept the book, and have most of them shut the door in my face. That'd be all kinds of advantageous, wouldn't it?

The guy who lectured Gary on the evils of traditional publishing clearly thought we'd wasted time on a lengthy editorial process. Yep, guilty as charged: the book took me a couple of years to put together because I wanted most of the stories to go through the magazine editing process and to get some reader feedback before I wrote follow-up stories. Me and my silly desire for quality control!

The parties Saturday night were a lot of fun, although Gary and I were too tired to stay up terribly late (and also the architecture of the 3rd floor of the hotel was strange and gave us vertigo). We ran into author Anne Harris on her way to the roving Pirate Party, had a pleasant-but-brief chat with her, and we saw Tobias Buckell at a distance.

On a final note, here's a video montage that timeshredder made of the convention; you can see me and Gary for about 1.5 seconds ;-)

Penguicon report

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:49:50 GMT

Overall, Penguicon was a lot of fun. It was a much bigger convention than I was expecting; the online FAQ had implied about 800 people, and I think when all was said and done they had 1500 people or more.

I've been enough involved with Context that I fully understand the stresses that conrunners are under and that despite everyone's best intentions, unfortunate things happen. The main unfortunate thing was that there seemed to be a bit of non- and miscommunication amongst the people running Penguicon. Registration was loopy. I was a Nifty guest this year, which meant that while I wasn't a top GoH, my bio/picture was on the website and had been for months. Early on, I'd inquired about Gary getting on programming etc. and didn't hear anything back for a while, long enough that when I was finally told he wasn't going to be on programming and had to pay for a full registration, online registration had closed and we were stuck paying for him at the door. Not a huge deal, but a teensy bit annoying going in. And so when I went to the registration area to sign in, I was told to go get my badge at a different table, where I was told "Oh, I didn't know you were coming." WTF? But despite this they did have a badge ready for me, which apparently they did not have for some of the other 2nd-tier nifty guests.

They didn't have anything else for me; other cons thoughtfully print out a mini-schedule for panelists (often on a label stuck to the back of their badges) so they don't have to spend 20-30 minutes going through the program book hunting down everything they've been scheduled for. So, if anyone from Penguicon is reading this, mini-schedule labels = awesome. It's possible the concom planned to do this, but a last-minute disaster happened that prevented it. Understood and sympathized. But if it wasn't part of the plan, it'd be great to see guest schedules next year.

The other thing I never saw were the table tents with authors' names for panels. Not a big deal, but kind of an odd omission. I expected to find schedules/table tents in the green room, but none were to be found.

What they did have in the green room were a couple of sports medicine volunteers who were giving free chair massages. Holy shit those were awesome, and erased all my crabbiness from the drive and registration. The green room and the consuite both were very well stocked with snacks and good-quality sandwich makings and a variety of drinks, and I give the convention high marks for that.

The other really nice touch was that Penguicon had a volunteer named Jake who regularly took a huge cart of drinks and food through the dealers' area so that the people who were chained to tables could get something to eat. Other cons have done lunch runs for dealers, but Penguicon did this more often and had better stuff than I'd seen before.

Anyhow, Jake, if you're reading this: you rock.

Also on the food front: the Brazilian barbecue Saturday was delicious. I hadn't had the chance to get a ticket for it online, and it seemed like too much trouble at registration, but luckily they opened the 'cue to everyone interested after a while, and for $6 Gary came back to our table with a huge mounded plate of perfectly-cooked steak cubes. So yummy I didn't even feel that little twinge of guilt I usually get when consuming mammal.

I didn't get the chance to try the liquid nitrogen ice cream but I heard it was pretty darn tasty.

I got to (briefly) meet a bunch of people from my friendslist: ckd, marykaykare, cmpriest and her jungle guide earthgoat (who I owe 25 cents!), and several other folks. We didn't get to the con in time to hit the LJ party on Friday, else I expect I would have met many others.

The one recurring downside to the convention was that, because of the open-source nature of many of the offerings, some fans evidently assumed that anything not tied down was free for the taking. And so some people took books from the dealer's room without paying, and someone took several of Catherynne M. Valente's books that had been left boxed on a table near Gary before Gary had time to say, "I don't think those are for you." We rescued the remaining book; Gary later found Cat and she said she'd wondered what had happened to the box and told him to keep it.

Programming

I was on a bunch of panels Saturday; here's my report for each.

A Surplus of Talent: This was my reading slot with Jeff deLuzio (timeshredder) and John Scalzi. I hadn't had a chance to talk IRL much with Jeff before (we've known each other for a while on E2) and was chatting with him when Scalzi came up and introduced himself. I honestly wouldn't have recognized him otherwise -- he's one of those men who looks utterly different once he grows a goatee and grows his hair out. Scalzi was very pleasant and read a fun story; I met his wife later and she seems like a lovely person. Jeff read an excerpt from a new novel he's working on and I'm looking forward to seeing the rest someday. I read "Your Corporate Network and the Forces of Darkness"; I was a bit nervous and read too quickly, but people laughed and evidently several of them bought Installing Linux on a Dead Badger right after the session was over.
Excellence in an Economy of Words--Why Write Short Fiction? This was a lively panel that also featured Elizabeth Bear (matociquala), Jim Hines (jimhines), M. Keaton and Sarah Monette. The consensus of course was that short fiction is good because you can experiment with different kinds of writing and storytelling and also because it helps build your writing chops. We also answered questions from the audience about plotting short vs. long and also about co-writing techniques.
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) I shared this panel with Jim Hines (jimhines), M. Keaton, and Daniel J. Hogan (danieljhogan). Another good panel. I was the only person there who hadn't formally participated in NaNoWriMo, but like the others I feel it's a worthwhile endeavor. I shared Gary's situation of having had to write 40,000 words of one of his recently-published novels in 8 days. Yep, he had to write and edit half a novel in just over a week, and, as I told the audience, if you rise to the level of working pro novelist, this could easily happen to you, too. And if you haven't had to crank out that kind of word count before, you could easily waste precious time freaking out about the crushing deadline instead of getting the work done. We all agreed that NaNoWriMo is excellent for learning how to get writing done and work through blocks -- both extremely valuable skills -- but we cautioned that new writers shouldn't assume that the resulting novel will be publishable and also warned against the vanity presses that prey on the hopes of NaNoWriMo participants.
Johnny Can't Read and Nobody Thinks it's a Problem This panel was scheduled for 7pm Saturday, and I made the mistake of lying down in my room for a short nap that became a much longer nap due to a mis-set alarm. So I didn't make this one. When I awoke, bleary, I thought, "Heck, probably everyone was at dinner anyhow. No biggie"

How wrong I was. This turned out to be the One True Panel. timeshredder was on it, and he told me that it was standing-room only, and that they had to open the doors so that people in the hall could listen in. Some members of the audience started a loud fight over homeschooling. Evidently "lively" didn't begin to cover this panel.

And the next day, I was approached by two utter strangers -- not panelists, mind you, nor con organizers, but people from the audience -- who scolded me for not making the panel. In over 10 years of congoing I'd never, ever been scolded for missing a panel before. How odd.
Basic Survival Skills for Authors This was at 10pm Saturday, and I did make it. Jim Hines and Elizabeth Bear were on this one as well. Everyone was a bit tired, and the panel meandered a bit, but I think ultimately the audience got some helpful advice. However, we ended up giving them a bit of a Catch-22: "For God's sake don't quit your day job when you sell your first novel, but on the other hand if you do well as a fiction writer you're probably going to be so tired/distracted at work that they're going to fire you eventually."

And speaking of the day job, it's time for me to hit the shower.

GIANT! SINGING! TESLA COILS!

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:53:26 GMT

Okay, so this is what I was watching Friday night at Penguicon:

Penguicon post #1

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 02:30:25 GMT

Despite our best effort, we hit Detroit at rush hour. No fun there. We got to the con hotel around 6pm. Nice room, no soap (fixed that). Registration was a bit chaotic, but free chair massages in the green room more than made up for that. Watched the Singing Tesla Coils tonight; those are really cool.

More later!

Penguicon!

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:36:02 GMT

Gary and I will be at Penguicon 6.0 this weekend in Troy, MI. I'll be one of their "nifty" guests, and Gary's pretty much a civilian for a change ;-)

All my panels are currently scheduled to be on Saturday; in addition to a reading slot with Jeff "Timeshredder" deLuzio and John Scalzi, I'll be on:

"Basic Survival Skills for Authors"
"Excellence in an Economy of Words--Why Write Short Fiction?"
"NaNoWriMo: Good idea or waste of time?"
"Johnny Can't Read and Nobody Thinks it's a Problem"

Aaand I just realized that in my frenzy to get packed, I've completely failed to pick anything out for my reading. *Puts it on the list*

I hope I'll see some of you there!

Hey, friendslist!

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:49:51 GMT

A friend of mine just landed herself a neat new job in Seattle. Huzzah! But she's got to drive herself out there and doesn't have much money for hotels. Boo!

So, do any of you know cheap-but-clean (and safe! though that should go without saying) hotels/motels to stay at when she's driving through:

Oklahoma City
Wichita
Denver
Salt Lake City
Boise

Thanks in advance!

Gary's acceptance speech

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:35:48 GMT

Here's Gary A. Braunbeck accepting his Stoker for his novella Afterward, There Will Be A Hallway, which can be found in Five Strokes To Midnight (which also won for best anthology).

Gary can't talk

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:20:11 GMT

Gary had some fairly minor mouth surgery today to deal with a broken tooth, and he isn't supposed to talk more than absolutely necessary for the next couple of days. So, if you might be inclined to call him on the phone, please email him instead :)

Gary won!

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 05:02:00 GMT

Gary won both the Stokers he was nominated for! Whee!

Off to parties now .... :)

WHC post #3

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 20:01:06 GMT

Just finished the book pitch over lunch, and it all seemed to go well. The editor liked my synopsis and wants to see the novel when it's done, so I've got a lot of writing to do over the next couple of months! I'm more and more glad that I dropped the one class I was taking this quarter.

Linda Addison's coming by our room in an hour so that Gary can record her reading his story "The Queen of Talley's Corner", which appears in Five Strokes to Midnight ... I expect he'll be putting the reading up on his site within a few weeks.

Stokers tonight! *quiver*

WHC post #2

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 14:18:26 GMT

So far, the con goes well. Dinner last night with my agent was good; I got to catch up with rdansky and meet Steve and Melanie Tem and a new client of Bob's named Carl. Bob told me where we're at with Spellbent in terms of who's seen it and who's made positive noises looking at it and I'm very hopeful that it will find a good home fairly quickly.

We had the mass signing, and that was utter chaos for a bit but once they got enough tables out it was a lot of fun. Afterward was the Leisure Books party, where I got my palm read and got to catch up with Lisa Morton.

Today is Gary's reading, my novel pitch, and the Stoker Awards.

WHC!

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:33:16 GMT

Gary and I arrived in SLC a bit later than we expected, but other than weather-delays on the ground in both Columbus and Chicago the trip was pretty uneventful. On the plane, I read a big chunk of Tom Piccirilli's Hellboy novel Emerald Hell and I'm really enjoying it. He's a fabulous writer. You don't have to be a fan of the graphic novels to understand the book, and while it's completely accessible, it's also got more actual literary meat than several of the regular mainstream SF/F novels I've read lately. I think people who enjoy southern gothic tales would particularly like this one.

Anyhow, back to the con :) So far it's been great -- we had drive-by conversations with a bunch of people, and I found dealers willing to carry my books. But sadly I bonked midway through the evening (12-hour work shifts since Sunday and 2 hours of sleep Wednesday night took their toll) and I had to get some sleep. But I'm feeling pretty well rested today, and much looking forward to the rest of the day.

Edit: Nanci, got your message, and we'll definitely be able to pick up books for you.

WHC!

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:14:47 GMT

Gary and I will be going to the World Horror convention in Salt Lake City tomorrow; I'm not scheduled for any panels or readings but I'll be meeting with my agent on Friday and doing a novel pitch to a publisher on Saturday so it's going to be a reasonably busy convention business-wise.

Gary has been nominated for a couple of Stokers and will also be a presenter at the awards banquet Saturday night. My fingers are crossed; I hope yours are, too!

And here's an announcement regarding the Stokers, from Gary's journal:

I just wanted to remind everyone that, for the first time in its 21-year history, the Bram Stoker Award ceremony will be broadcast live on the Internet this Saturday night, March 29, starting at 11 p.m. Eastern. To make certain that your computer has the necessary audio/video programs installed, go to: http://www.iscifi.tv/live and download the Flash player for free.

Hellboy!

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:14:06 GMT

Gary A. Braunbeck's story "In Cupboards and Bookshelves" will be in the new HELLBOY anthology, Oddest Jobs (edited by Christopher Golden). The book will be released in July so it coincides with the release of the new HELLBOY movie. Mike Mignola will be doing an original illustration for each story in the book.

For those of you who've read Gary's novels, the HELLBOY story takes place behind the scenes of some of the events of In Silent Graves.

Snow pictures

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 17:10:38 GMT

No kidding, we've been under a blizzard warning the past two days.

Things don't look so bad from the front steps; however you can't tell at all that I shoveled yesterday afternoon after I couldn't make it into work because early school/work closings turned all the nearby roads into parking lots:

But the back of the house is another story due to drifting. Here's the eye-level view from the kitchen window:

And here's the view out onto our back deck:

No, kitty, you can't go out that way.

Penguicon?

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:10:38 GMT

Hey, is anybody in the Columbus area -- or who might be traveling through Columbus to get to Michigan -- going to Penguicon in April? I'm scheduled to attend as a Nifty guest, and Gary's coming with me. We'd be interested in splitting a ride with someone.

Reading Is Fundamental program to lose funding

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 17:11:09 GMT

I found out this morning that the Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) program has been cut out of the 2009 federal budget.

From their website:

"The President's proposed budget for fiscal year 2009 eliminates the Inexpensive Book Distribution Program, which is the RIF Book Distribution Program. Unless Congress reinstates funding for this program, RIF will be unable to distribute 16 million books annually to the nation's youngest and most at-risk children." (read more)

Aside from basic concerns about the need for a literate, educated population in a democracy: we writers won't find places for our books and stories if there aren't any readers. We need to do every little bit we can to battle illiteracy and aliteracy. RIF has a contact-your-congressperson page ... please take a moment to fill out the form. I'd really hate to see program go under.

Friendslist Book Bundle Special

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:44:05 GMT

Any last takers on the special?

w00t!

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:51:48 GMT

I appear to be over the virus that, for about 8 hours Friday, made me wonder what I'd done to offend God.

Last night, Gary and I discovered that we will in fact be able to attend World Horror in SLC next month. In addition to getting to see people we haven't seen in a while, I'll have the chance to have a sit-down with my agent.

So, a good finish to a not-so-good weekend :)

Sorry I haven't replied to everyone ....

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:41:57 GMT

Thanks again for everyone's input on the covers.

Gary and I should be this very minute at the Indiana Horror Writers Winter Retreat. Instead we're sick at home with the flu. Or maybe it's gastroenteritis. The CDC webpage insists we shouldn't be having stomach cramps with the flu. Feh. Whichever it is, typing hurts.

Choose my next book by its cover!

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:42:46 GMT

Okay, so a few of you know that CGP has agreed to publish my next collection, which will be mainly poetry with a few bits of prose. Two different titles/covers have been proposed, and neither I nor the publisher can decide on which fits the project best.

So, if you're the sort who might pick up a book of poetry, which of the following appeals to you most?

View Poll: Book Covers

The illustrations for both covers were done by Ursula Vernon (ursulav)

Edit: please don't base your decision in any way on the fonts -- those can be changed right up until the book goes to press. We're trying to decide which title to use and, more important, which piece of art to buy.

But of course if you have an opinion on fonts, I'll be happy to hear them and pass them along to the production person. Thanks!