This year the Nebulas were a local event (see last week's post) and so I ended up with "cons" on back-to-back weekends. I went to Balticon on Friday and stayed though half of Sunday. It's only about 60 miles from my house and should take less than an hour a half to get there in good traffic but Saturday was NOT a good traffic day, so I was glad we had booked a hotel room for Friday and Saturday nights. I was also glad they opened a Wegman's right near the con; we ate several meals there because for a grocery store they had an excellent selection of prepared food.

Balticon is not a huge con, but they do run several programming tracks at once.  There's an active gaming contingent, and this year hall costumes were very popular. I didn't get that many pictures but I loved this little bitty pirate (right). There were a numbers of kids running around in costume. Grownups, too. One time I stepped on the elevator only to be confronted by an alien! He seemed quite peaceable, even though he's gesturing wildly in this photo (below). 



Readings are run in triplicate, three authors in one 50-minute time slot, which improves an authors chances of having listeners. I went to one triple reading (which included most of a story byscottedelman), and some interesting panels: e-publishing, self-publishing (they overlapped a lot but not completely), book covers, and The Walking Dead (mostly the TV show but a little bit about the comics). The room was cold enough to have kept zombies, but fortunately, I had a sweater. I'm not really into zombies but a friend was on the panel, so I went. The panel was almost all male but ranged in age from teenagers to gray-hairs,  The knowledge of the show demonstrated by both the panel members and the audience was an testament to its appeal.  I snapped one last photo of the panel to show I had not merely wandered the halls of Balticon. 

And of course, we hit the Wegman's on the way out of town! 

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) hold an annual event known as Nebula Weekend or even just "The Nebs" (as in, "Will I see you at the Nebs?"). It moves every two years and last year was the first year I went to one. You don't have to be a member of SFWA to go (I'm not, actually); the only members-only activity is their business meeting.

The event consists of tours of local interest, workshops and panels, the aforementioned business meeting, and the banquet where the Nebulas are awarded. The banquet costs extra, of course. It's a bit like a small convention except that almost everyone there is either a writer, an editor, or an agent. 

This year, in addition to the regular Nebulas, Connie Willis was inducted as a Grand Master. It was great to be there for that!  Who does not love Connie Willis? I wish I had thought to bring my camera instead of just my phone, so my photos aren't great, but I had a wonderful time, especially at the banquet.  The MC was Walter Jon Williams (think overgrown imp) and the speaker was NASA astronaut Mike Fincke (imagine if Bob Newhart had become an astronaut).  Also, Neil Gaiman was there because he was nominated for (and won) the Ray bradbury Award for best dramatic presentation for his Dr. Who script of "The Doctor's Wife."  SFWA President John Scalzi has a list of the other winners here.

Next year the Nebs are in San Jose. If you're anywhere near there, I recommend it as a fun activity, whether you're in SFWA or not. And if you want to save money, you can attend the awards after the banquet at no extra charge. 

Here's a photo I snapped while they were waiting to take the official photos; the rest of mine are here.
  

There are times that reality catches up with science fiction, sometimes in a bad way (think atomic bombs), but other times in a really good way, as in this video on the Washington Post site where a quadriplegic is able to manipulate certain objects using her thoughts. I think this is a fantastic development and a wonderful use of technology. Truly amazing and heartwarming to watch! 

(The video embed doesn't seem to work so go here to watch).

It might seem strange for someone who writes science fiction, but I enjoy reading historical fiction quite a lot. I have a special fondness for novels written against the backdrop of English history because it illustrates so well that personality, talent, and circumstance had as much to do with who was in power as birth. Not to say that you could be born a peasant and become king, but even if you were born a prince, your place in life was never guaranteed. The War of the Roses between Lancaster and York that ended with the Tudors taking over the throne of England (with no real claim to it) was an excellent illustration of this. I have read several novels set in this era, so when The Stolen Crown, by Susan Higginbotham was free for a day in the Kindle store, I snapped it up. It's written in alternating first person accounts by Katherine (Kate) Woodville, sister of Queen Elizabeth, Edward IV's queen, and Harry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham. They are both kids when it starts, and Higginbotham does a good job of showing how different was the view of children in that era of very young arranged marriages.

The story is engrossing but very complex. All the major players and many of the minor ones are related to each other by birth or by marriage, and many of them have the same names (too many Henrys and Edwards!). And then I noticed this book has something not all Kindle books have: the X-Ray feature. When you press the menu key, on the lower right corner of the screen is an option labeled X-Ray, that only appears if the publisher has provided the right kind of files to Amazon. While you're reading you can go to the X-Ray screen and see for the characters and places that occur on that page a sort of DNA-mapping that shows you how often that specific character or place occurs on the page, in the chapter, and in the whole book. You can also tap their name and see a brief explanation of who they are and some snippets where they are mentioned in the text. For this kind of book, this is a fantastic feature. The author included a cast of characters but referring to it, in print or in ebook, is not nearly as easy to do as using the X-Ray feature.

This is the first time I've used X-Ray, and I have to say it's one place where the ebook is superior to the print. I wish I had had this kind of thing when I was taking history classes in college. It's also something that for some kinds of books could justify a higher priced ebook, because it requires extra work on the publisher's part.

I'm going to keep an eye out for this in other books!

I live in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. I work in Virginia, and every day I drive home through a small corner of our nation's capital, but I rarely go into the District otherwise. Unlike my friend mindyklasky I don't take enough advantage of the many museums and cultural attractions DC has to offer, but today I spent the afternoon in DC in the DAR Constitution Hall, watching the filming of the game show Jeopardy!

I've always been a Jeopardy! fan, and when a friend of my daughter's couldn't use the two tickets she had (my heart bleeds for her), I snapped them up. It was quite a trek to get there. This being DC,we had to check for protests before driving into the city, and sure enough, there were some road closings because of World Bank meetings, so we decided to take Metro,  Then, of course, we had to check for track maintenance; this time we got luckier; they were working on the other end of the red line, so we were OK.

We lucked out in a couple of other ways. The tickets said the doors opened at 2:30 pm, so we got there at 1:30, and the doors were already open! When we went to wait in the line in the lobby, we were shuttled off to the handicapped entrance, even though neither of us is handicapped. I figured it out once we got our truly wonderful seats. They let a bunch of us old folks cut in line so we wouldn't keel over or anything like that. Our row was full of gray-haired and no-haired geezers, the hearing aid and cane set. I recently decided to stop covering the gray in my hair, and now I'm wondering whether I should go back to coloring my hair or just enjoy the benefits of age (a young man offered me a seat on the Metro! That hasn't happened since I was nine months pregnant!).

Once the filing started it was fun to watch. They do a complete practice game for each set of celebrity contestants (I wonder if regular contestants get that?) so in a way, we watched four games. I noticed some of the contestants did  noticeably better in the rehearsal game; I don't know whether to attribute that to nerves or luck (in terms of knowing the categories). All the contestants were playing for great charities so it made it difficult to root for anyone in particular. 

I also managed to take the picture at the right before they announced were weren't supposed to take any photos (yes, mtlawson, I DO know I am the reason they made that announcement!). If you watch Jeopardy the week of May 14, watch for me in the audience. I am there for the game with Katty Kay, Chris Wallace, and Dr.Oz, and the one with Anderson Cooper, Kelly O'Donnell, and Joseph Friedman. I won't spoil things by telling you who won, but one game was a runaway and one was not.

There was one science fiction question. In the category "A.C." (meaning the answer was two words that started with A and C) the clue was about a science fiction master winning an award, and the answer was (naturally) Arthur C. Clarke. The panelists didn't get it! But it was fun doing something I had always wanted to do. 

My goodness! Things are hopping these days, in the world of digital publishing/reading! Rumors were flying that the Department of Justice lawsuit against the Big 5 publishers (minus Random House) and Apple was going to break any minute now, and it did, sort of, except if was Apple and the Big 2 because three of the publishers settled with the DoJ. 












This seems to indicate that agency pricing for ebooks, as practiced so far, is, if not dead, hobbled. At the same time, Apple can afford damn good lawyers, so we will see what happens.  Of course, there is always the EU investigation. And now 16 states have also brought suit against some of the same folks for price fixing.

Oh, well, at least Barnes & Noble has a new Nook, and it's got a built-in light!  Not a light case, mind you, or a back-lit screen. In fact, it's got a front-lighted screen where the light is built into the bezel.  It looks totally cool! 

I've decided that I miss the feel, the heft, the smell of printed books too much to do without them any longer. Ergo, I'm throwing my Kindle away and changing my entire house into a library of physical books, which I will now be acquiring as fast as I can.

April Fool! If you know me at all, you know this is just not happening. But it's not as good a joke as this one (be sure to watch that video!), or this one, which is priceless! I do feel sorry for anyone who wins the lottery today. No one will believe them!

If you know any other good pranks, do me a favor and post a link to them in the comments.

p.s.This is not actually an April Fool's prank but it is a very clever book trailer with something of a prank as its premise. 

p.p.s. It's almost not April Fool anymore, but I had to add this link about a "new feature" on the Kindle, since it fit in so well with my own theme. 

It's springtime in Washington,DC! The cherry blossoms and the tourists have both arrived.  One of the first signs that spring is here is the annual rite of drinking and partying known as St. Patrick's Day. We spent the evening at a lovely party hosted by tomdoyle and his partner Beth. Among others, the party was attended bysandystewart and his wife Risa, and scottedelman and his wife Irene. As Tom is of Irish extraction and just had a short story win a place in the Writers of the Future anthology, the theme was Ireland of the Future and Scott and Irene took this theme to heart, as you can see in this pic.
  
More recently, I signed up for that harbinger of summer (at least here in DC), Balitcon!  Balticon is a regional convention held (as you might have guessed) in the Baltimore area. Since it's held Memorial Day weekend, it's sort of a season opener for both summer and the con season. 

Next thing you know, it will be fall and it will be time to think about making reservations for the World Fantasy Convention in Toronto. 

My, how time flies! 

If any of you were members (supporting or attending) of Worldon last year or if you're attending this year, you can nominate works for the 2011 Hugos using the online form on the Chicon 7 site.  You can also nominate of you've already signed up for Worldcon 2013 in San Antonio.You will need your membership info and a Chicon 7 Hugo PIN; instructions are on the form, but hurry because nominations close TOMORROW! 

I didn't go to Worldcon last year, and I probably won't go this year, but I usually buy a supporting membership even when I don't go for two reasons. The first is that you get the Hugo voting packet, with virtually all the nominated written works in ebook format. The second is that you get to nominate and vote for the Hugos. The numbers are not that big as far as who wins the Hugo—in the hundreds, not in the thousands—and they're even smaller in terms of nominations. Novels have gotten on the ballot with fewer than a hundred nominations.  If there's a book or shorter work out there you enjoyed, and you're eligible, why not nominate it? And if it makes it to the ballot, you will have helped bring it to a wider audience right there. 

I have noticed from time to time that people will post about how badly written a best-seller is. This is particularly true for the Twilight series, but also for pretty much any popular fiction. In some cases it's that the writing is weak, and in others it's merely that it's not "literary" enough for some tastes or that it's in a specific genre rather than being mainstream fiction (because everyone knows genre is a synonym for crap, right?). In the case of the Twilight books, it's worth pointing out that many folks (me included) hate aspects of the story more than they dislike the writing. 

I don't know about other writers, but I would much rather have a ton of readers than a ton of good reviews. And popular fiction does, by definition, have lots of readers. What makes a book popular? I've decided it all boils down to the writer being able to make the reader care what happens to the characters. That's story telling (as opposed to writing) in a nutshell. Of course, good writing helps, because it smooths the path to the reader engaging in the story, but if the reader doesn't care about the characters, then it just doesn't matter how well written the story is.

I think this also explains why nothing is universally liked. Personally, I never liked any of Hemingway's novels except for The Old Man and the Sea, and I think it was because I never liked his characters except for that old guy in his little boat.  I think it also explains why a series like Harry Potter could engage adults as well as young folks, and people who never read fantasy before. Rowling made everyone care what happened to the orphan boy who lived in the cupboard under the stairs. Of course, the range of her imagination as far as magical creatures and the meshing of the familiar school setting with unfamiliar magical rules didn't hurt. 

To conclude, I've embedded an amateur but clever video that summarizes the entire Harry Potter series in 60 seconds. I found it on the SF Signal site, even though I linked to the YouTube version.  Enjoy, but beware because there are spoilers!