Arrant Nonsense

Got back from the Easter Jeep Safari in Moab to find that the internet blew up in my absence. Since I knew the Hugo nominations would be announced on Easter Saturday, this was inevitable. And I thought long and hard about whether I was going to make a public post or just lock it to the folks I trust, but I've decided I'm not going to let fear rule me. I'm going to do my best to be a Voice of Reason. Considering the fact that in other circles I'm considered The Mean One, this may be difficult, but I'll try.

Disclaimer: Larry Correia and Brad Torgerson are friends of mine. I do not know Vox Day, and have never had a conversation with him, though I have on occasion visited his blog, and I've read (and enjoyed) some of his fiction.

First of all, congrats to all the nominees. Special shout-outs to Kevin J. Anderson, Jim Butcher, John C. Wright, Tom Kratman, Gray Rhinehart, Annie Bellet, Kary English, Carter Reid, and Bryan Thomas Schmidt. I look forward to reading the Hugo voter packet once it's ready.

I am somewhat gobsmacked by the reaction, though I suppose I shouldn't be. I've been trying to unpack my own reaction to the reaction, and it boils down to a few points:

1. The Hugos are a fan award, and the "fans" in this instance are the ones who buy at least a Supporting Membership to Worldcon. The fact that more fans found out they could do this, and blew at least forty bucks of their hard-earned money in order to make their voices heard, thus putting more money into Worldcon coffers? Is a good thing. The fact that those fans might not be the Sorts Of People that "fandom" is used to having vote on "their" award? Is also a good thing. Because, you know what? The award belongs to them too. Everything should be turned upside down on occasion; it lets in air and light.

2. I keep seeing people saying that they're going to vote "No Award" for anything and anyone who appeared on the Sad Puppies/Rabid Puppies slate. I am gobsmacked by this reaction as well. Are you seriously going to punish Jim Butcher, Kary English, John C. Wright, and all the others because of how you think they got on the ballot? Because of who supported them? Do you honestly think they don't belong there?

This strikes me as petty, and beneath us. I thought we were better than that. But apparently there are Cool Kids, and there are the Cooler Kids, and then there are the Great Unwashed. If giving everyone a fair shake--by actually reading the works and voting accordingly--makes me one of the Great Unwashed, well, I'll stand proudly with them. And if your conscience is clear when you vote No Award over the godfather of an entire freaking genre without even reading him, well. I guess it's your conscience.

3. The idea that the nominees aren't "real" and should have an asterisk or something on their win. I'll be succinct here: Bull fucking shit. Jim Butcher is, as said earlier, the godfather of an entire genre and helps writers out wherever he can. Kevin J. Anderson has written more books than God and also helps out new writers. John C. Wright is generally the smartest guy in any room and has books published by Tor, which is not precisely easy. Kary English won Writers of the Future, which is also not precisely easy, and she is lovely. Toni Weisskopf manages--very well!--a publishing house that gives no shits about the politics of their writers. Are you seriously telling me that these luminaries don't belong on the ballot? Please.

4. On "fixing" this "problem": The thing is, no one did anything against the rules. Anyone and everyone is free to suggest their own slate based on their own agenda. Others probably will, next year. As far as I'm concerned, the more the merrier. The way to combat speech you disagree with is not to ban that speech, it's more speech. So. You don't like how this panned out? Start your own campaign. Come up with your own slate next year. Get your friends who read SFF involved. Let them know that they can be involved, for crying out loud. I keep seeing, again and again and freaking again "Oh, wow, I did not realize I could actually have a voice in this, how cool."

We don't need to shut it down. We need to pump it up.

Couple other things while I'm thinking about them and have time to breathe before the next panel starts...

They did dramatizations of two of Neil Gaiman's short stories, "Troll Bridge" and "Snow, Glass, Apples" for us, which were dark and gritty and highly entertaining. Nothing wrong with Snow White as a vampire, right?

I bought a calendar. Understand that my "normal" calendar behavior is to buy one in February when they're half price, and usually there's no way in hell I'll fork out twenty bucks for a damn calendar. This one, however, is glorious. It's called "Incandescent Art Unicorns," by Donna Waltz, and you can see some of the art here, which I strongly strongly strongly advise you to do because they are gorgeous.

And I also did a Ghost Tour, which will get its own post once I've done some research and have links for you all, because Chicago has been home to more than one disaster with amazing body counts, not to mention the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Well. Been awhile since I updated this thing, hasn't it. (That's... not a question.) Anyway, I have not been idle, at least as far as doing anything but writing goes. I've spent the last month busily preparing for Worldcon, and now here I sit in the Hyatt with my very fine view (no, that is not sarcasm, seriously, this view!). I'm doing a kaffeeklatsche with the lovely and effulgent Carrie Vaughn in a couple of hours, I had a very large drink in the bar last night and spied George RR Martin there, and I even got some writing done on the plane with a screaming baby behind me. The new thing is inspired by the Salt City Steamfest, which had a very successful first convention a few weeks ago, and I decided that rather than Victorian London, I'd set the thing in the Old West. And, yes, it stars a werewolf as its protag. Shut up. They say to write your passion, and that's what's pinging me now. I learned a long time ago not to argue with Antubis; it just ends in tears.

I'm having a little trouble with the protag's voice right now; I'm vacillating between making him sound like a Firefly extra or having him be just a little more educated than that. Maybe I should read some Max Brand. Or Smokey the Cowhorse, that's an old favorite. Well. Write now. Edit later. His voice will come out in thing the farther along I go.

Anyone else on my flist here? I've spotted, in addition to GRRM, Robert Silverberg, Charlie Stross, Kathy Mar, and Howard Tayler so far. I know that I'll see other friends of mine--Paul Genesse is coming, for one. Anyone live in Chicago? If you don't want to pay for the whole weekend, they've got day passes for around $40, which gets you into panels, the dealer's room, the art show, and everything else.

I'm rooming with my RP partner and her Hubby, who... should be getting here anytime now. And yes, we're still RPing; we've created yet another universe that we're playing around in. It is badwrong in its badwrongness. If anyone wants a link to the damn logs, well, I'll drop one, but you can hit werewolf_hacker's LJ for the deets. Look for the Volchok 'verse; it's the third entry down.

ANYHOW. CHICAGO. WORLDCON. It's going to be fantastic!

So LJRP ate my brain and a good portion of my life for a really long time. And I met some terrific people and I've had a blast, but it wasn't good for me on a professional level, because all my creative juice was going into that instead of writing I could, you know, get paid for.

But. After a discussion with my main RP partner about how out-of-control this had gotten, I've cut back on the RP and am back on the writing horse again; I've completed another short story starring Ben that is not filled with angst and death, and I'm 10K words into a novelette that should come in around 15K if all goes as planned (HAH).

During the time I was RPing, I continued subbing my stuff, and there's nothing new on the acceptance front, although I seem to be getting a better class of rejections these days, even on my older stuff, so IDEK.

Also, I'm going to WorldCon in Chicago this year; I have my membership bought and the hotel room reserved, and roomies. So that'll be cool.

Anyone still here? Or has everybody migrated over to DW because of LJ's asshattery?

We are home.

I have over 6000 words of not!KKBB/IM crossover.

And I realized today that I have a frakking werewolf in my story. So why the hell am I worried about how long it will take not!Tony and not!Harry to heal from their various injuries when I can use whatever the hell nanotech healing crap I want? *thumps own head* Of course...Argh. I also just realized that I didn't use anything very advanced, medically, in the "original" not!Iron Man fic...so I may have trapped myself there. Crap. Ah well. I can work around it. We're going to see my sister-in-law the inner-city ER surgeon this weekend; I'm going to pick her brain.

However, I may end up killing off not!Harmony. There's always a price for something like this. First I need to figure out what my actual plot is--right now I've got a whole lotta banter and a teeny bit of plot, and I need to beef up the plot and figure out where I'm going with it and why I need a werewolf in the first place. Right now she's just fighting it back on a regular basis, but obviously she's going to have to go fangs and fur in this thing because that's what werewolves do, right?

In other news, "Tropic Thunder" is playing with "Hancock" at the drive-in tonight. Guess where we're going? *does the Dance of Joy*

I'll have the rest of my Con Report up later today or tomorrow. I need to do another Con like that like burning.

I missed my Con report yesterday.

Had I gotten into my room before, oh, two AM, I might have got round to it. As it was, I caught up with my flist and my email and fell into bed, since I only got three hours of sleep the previous night. Six hours was much better.

I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD, DAMMIT.

Today was the last day, and I'll do a more detailed writeup of the weekend later. Suffice to say that the previously-mentioned "Writer at work, please disturb before I beat my Muse to death" sign has broken the ice several times. People will actually walk up to you and engage you in conversation when you have such a sign hanging on the back of your laptop. Since I'm almost painfully shy and have a hard time walking up to people myownself, this was wonderful for me because it forced me to interact with strangers. This was a good thing. I think they'll remember me.

Now, whether they'll remember me as "that funny person with the weird RDJ fixation" or "the annoying lady that babbled a lot" is an open question.

It was a wonderful Con. I want to do it again. Next year it's in Montreal, and the year after that it's in Melbourne, Australia. I...probably won't make either of them. However, in 2010 it'll be in either Seattle or Reno, both of which are completely doable. Yay.

On the writing front, one of the wonderful people I met *waves at Rex, who knows who he is* gave me a suggestion for the KKBB/IM crossover, which tied nicely into the panel on pharmaceuticals where industrial espionage was mentioned. This means that rather than KKBB/IM, I have a new adventure for not!Tony and not!Pepper which will give us some much-needed backstory. I'll obviously have to tweak it quite a bit, which I've already begun, but it's going to be one hell of a ride. It shall henceforth be referred to as not!KKBB/IM. And I already have over three thousand words in it. HAH.

And since I don't have any fake science now, I'm going to have to find out just how long it would take for a person to recover from being shot in the back from a roof, where the bullet enters the right side just above the shoulder blade and exits through the bottom front rib on the same side. I may email my sister-in-law the ER surgeon...

So. Not as pissed at Antubis as I was before. He's giving me good stuff (seriously, the banter in this thing is to die for), and now I can actually do something with it.

But I really need to crash. Yeah.

Hotel wireless: Still sucks.

Celeb watch: SM Stirling, Mike Resnick, Larry Niven.

Kaffeeklatches with Patrick Rothfuss, who is just as nice as he seems on his blog, and Mike Resnick, who let us in on a little inside stuff when it comes to the slush pile at Baen's. Apparently they have eleven slush readers, and your manuscript has to make it by at least three of them before it ends up on his desk. I've now had that happen three times. This makes me squeeful.

Hung out with Howard and Sandra Tayler a bit again today. Got some books signed by Larry Niven. Also hung out with Chris Cook for a bit and we talked writing. Yay! I may have a continuation of not!Iron Man...

Panels:
How science fiction authors get published: Basic stuff. I'm not sure I learned anything.

Torture: This one, I actually did learn something, sparked by something someone said. Basically, you torture your character to get him to do something that he would never in a billion years do under ordinary circumstances.

This made me realize that, while I was torturing not!Tony in the not!Iron Man story, I was also torturing not!Pepper even though the head guy doesn't really physically touch her--because in the end, she exposes this huge secret she's been keeping to all and sundry (at least, all and sundry who are onstage and conscious at that moment) and tears every terrorist in the compound into bitty shreds. Yay for insight.

Wandered up to the Tor party after the torture panel (which was late--on schedule, but, you know, just late), but I didn't know anyone in the room and I'm shy. So I headed down to the Con Suite, set up the laptop with my little sign, and sat down to scribble.

The sign, for those of you who are curious, is on a sheet of notebook paper, and the hole in the paper hooks over my little hooky thing that closes the laptop. It says: WRITER AT WORK. PLEASE DISTURB BEFORE I BEAT MY MUSE TO DEATH. SERIOUSLY. With a (bad) drawing of Antubis in the corner.

And people actually did come up and talk to me. Which is nice, because I have a hard time just walking up to people I don't know and starting a conversation. But if someone starts a conversation with me, I'll talk their frakkin' ears off. And did. This made a change from yesterday, and may have had something to do with the fact that I made the words much easier to read from a distance. Apparently yesterday people thought it said "Do NOT disturb." And so they didn't. The sign also got quite a few giggles from across the room.

I may have been very slightly drunkfaced as well. Understand that I drink, like, once a year, and that's a year when I'm drinking heavily. I had two rum and cokes tonight. They were tasty.

I got words scribbled in the Cow and the Beanstalk fic today--over 300. YAY. I have moved my plot forward microscopically. Yay again.

5/2/1 rule...got bent slightly. 4 1/2 hours of sleep, but three meals and one shower. So, I'm all right. However, it's nearly 4am, and I have to get up early to get in line for the kaffeklatches tomorrow, so it's going to get bent again tomorrow. Yayness.

I'm skimming the flist. Sowwy. :(

Hotel wireless does not suck as much as before. Or at least, I'm not noticing it sucking (as much), although it still drops me occasionally. Just not...every five minutes. Yay.

Celeb Watch: Joe Haldeman, Stan Schmidt, Brandon Sanderson, Elizabeth Moon, Patrick Rothfuss, and Carrie Vaughn.

Panels:
Bleeding Heart Liberals and Miltary SF: Just basically talking about how it's not just conservatives who like military SF, but there's also things for liberals to like about it: the integrity of the characters, consequences, etc. There was discussion of the many flavors of military SF, and the fact that blowing shit up is great. Discussion of "cooties."

Going to the Dogs: Dogs in SF. Not enough of them! Can you imagine a city without dogs? We take our pets everywhere with us, and space will be no exception. There are jobs that dogs do exceptionally well, and we may expand on that in the future.

Other stuff:
Got stuff signed today. Kaffeeklatches with Stan Schmidt and Carrie Vaughn, which were very very cool. Basically, it's eight-on-one time with famous people. I was signed up for one with Connie Willis as well, but I skipped it (don't hurt me!) in favor of going back to the dealer's room, which was closing in a half hour. Ran into Howard and Sandra Tayler, who introduced me to their friends Peter Steve Jackson (not the director one, the gaming guy--Gurps? I don't know, I don't game) and his SO Monica Stephens. Then we all went out to dinner at this yummy yummy out-of-the-way place (whose name escapes me), which was quiet enough that we could hold an actual conversation. I had venison, which I'd never had before, and it was delish. Spent some time after that wandering about the room parties, which were actually kind of meh (too hot, too loud), then headed down to the Con Suite and had some terrific conversation with some Utah peeps--Eric Swedin and Chris Cook. Alas, I'd left my purse with my wallet in Howard and Sandra's room, so I was unable to indulge in an adult beverage, but this was rectified when we headed back up there so Howard could go to bed. Rum and coke for me! Just one.

I also noticed that the not!Iron Man fic had some rather glaring (to me) typos in the formatted edition, so I managed to go through it today and yesterday and fix them. Yayness. I've scribbled another whole paragraph in the KKBB/IM fic. F-bombs dropped: Three. This equals the number of f-bombs I've dropped in all my fiction ever. *sigh* Premise: Still thin.

I have a piece of paper I hang on my puter when working which says: Writer at Work. Please disturb before I beat my Muse to death. Seriously." And a bad drawing of an anteater with fangs. So far, no one's taken me up on it. Woe.

Succeeded in carrying out the 5/2/1 rule. Five hours of sleep (barely), two meals, and one shower. Go, me.

Hotel wireless is made of Lose and Fail. It keeps kicking me out randomly and then putting me back on. Blargh.

Celeb Watch: Robert Silverberg, Connie Willis, John Scalzi, Robert Sawyer, Harry Turtledove, Charles Stross, Jim Van Pelt, Howard Tayler. The only one of these luminaries I actually spoke with was Jim Van Pelt, and that's because I've met him before. Well, and Howard, of course, because, you know...Utah. I was on the periphery of a conversation with Charlie Stross, whose badge states that he's from "Edinburgh, United Kingdom." Er.

50thousandtearz, did you make it here? I've pretty much got my phone turned off because I'm in panels all day, but if you're actually here I'll try and hook up with you. :)

Did most of my shopping today, picked up a couple of Lois's books for other people, another copy of "Name of the Wind" because I need one, and a Connie Willis for someone else. Also, a Schlock Mercenary t-shirt, along with sandratayler's "Hold on to Your Horses" children's book. Someone was selling netsukes and had a pangolin! Which, yes, I promptly bought, because...pangolin.

I poked my not!Iron Man hardcopy I printed out and found a typo on the frakking second page. I fail. I fail so hard. BAD extra period, which apparently snuck in during an edit and I didn't notice. *cries*

Three panels today:
Enjoying your first convention: About what you'd expect. You can't do everything, don't try, 5/2/1 rule, drink plenty of water, etc.

Using real science in SF: What is SF? What about space opera? What about alternate history, and how the hell did that suddenly get into the category of SF? Time travel. Psi power--science or supernatural?

There was also some discussion on How do you get your reader to willingly suspend their disbelief? My thinking is that you have to sell the hell out of your concepts. Someone said that if you explain one thing really really well, the readers will follow you anywhere after that. I think there's some truthiness there.

Survival tips for beginning writers: See if you can distill your book into one "concept" sentence. One panelist used the example of "Jane Austen with magic," which I thought was really cool. Stuff with agents and editors. Training the Muse: Supposedly, he works for me, not the other way around. Yeah, right, they haven't met Antubis...

There's a Writer's Wall similar to Runner's Wall. About 2/3 of the way through the work, it just bogs down, and you start hating it. Yeah, I've hit this. And you just have to fight through it. Pretty much. I've found that I can force it if need be, although it's not easy.

Tomorrow, there's a couple of Kaffeeklatches I'm hoping to get into, the Patrick Rothfuss signing, and a panel on dogs in SF, among other panels. I'm definitely going to try to get to the Tor/Baen's party, and the Reno Bid Party one of these nights.

And now, I shall poke...something. *beats Antubis*

And I found out tonight that, dude. I am such a lightweight when it comes to booze.

One drink. ONE. I have since become sober, but...whoo. Also, hee.

I've scribbled 1500 more words in the KKBB/IM crossover from hell. *facepalm* Harry is still unconscious. Tony's been shot. Pepper yelled at him. Perry and Harmony are both wrecks.

Yeah. Original fiction? What is this "original fiction" of which you speak?

CURSE YOU, TONY STARK. *shakes tiny fist*

We watched "The Dark Knight" today before driving up to Denver. For a movie whose tagline is "Why so serious?" that was some heavy shit, man. It was good...but I'm not sure I want to watch it again. I enjoyed Iron Man much more. Also, I wish they'd gone into the Joker's backstory a little more. I tend to think the first story he told (about his father) was the correct version, but what do I know? Also: Oh, Harvey. :(

Of course, that also got the crossover bunnies going. Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark would hate each other on sight. Bruce would think that Tony's a frivolous dilletante with responsibility issues, and Tony would think that Bruce is an uptight stick-in-the-mud with a baseball bat up his ass. However, Jarvis and Alfred would get along famously. Alfred would help Jarvis make Tony more responsible, and Jarvis would help Alfred remove the stick from Bruce's ass.

But both our beautiful boys have massive issues. *nods*

Anyway. I've skimmed the flist--not the comms or my Iron Man filters, just the journals. I want to be at the convention center no later than 9:30 tomorrow morning, and there's a full day of programming and stuff. Hubby is taking off back to Pueblo tomorrow as well, which is where Da Boy is (at Grandma's) right now. I managed to pick up the last remaining hardback copy of "The Name of the Wind" at the local B&N this evening (they had no hardback Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan books, alas--I hope to find some at either The Tattered Cover or the Con itself), and we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe, which was very very tasty. Also expensive, what with the *cough* booze. Which was damn tasty and totally worth it.

*waves* Will have more to report on later tomorrow. :)