At Wiscon!
So here I am at Wiscon, the feminist science fiction convention, having a blast, as usual.
I will admit that in the years before I started coming to Wiscon, I was leery that feminism could be much fun. Most of my firsthand experience with feminists, of course, was with dour and/or victim-mentalitied proponents of the anti-sex movement back when I was in college. Brown had a women's studies building called the Sarah Doyle Center that I NEVER DARED SET FOOT IN until long after I had graduated and was invited back to speak as an alum.
But Wiscon is, happily, much more a Bastion of Fandom in all its Glory than it is representative of any branch of feminism.
And it is fun. And brainy. And brainily fun. And my brain is funny.
Arrived yesterday by puddlejumper and helped out stuffing the registration packets. Who knew that the summer job I had in a birdfeeder factory would come in so handy? I helped arrange the small assembly line and my line completed 200 packets in under one hour. Then went off with my two roomies for half-price margaritas and Mexican food at "Frida," the pretty good mexican place about 2 blocks from the hotel.
Madison is a college town, so within 4 blocks walk of the hiotel there is every kind of ethnic food to be had for cheap (including "Iowan," according to the con info, which is popcorn. There are three different gourmet popcorn shops. But the cupcake craze doesn't seem to have got here yet.)
Then went into A Room of One's Own, the terrific local bookstore with a feminist slant. Enjoyed looking at books in there. There was a reading by the con guests of honor going on in the back room but me and friends were too tipsy to sit through a reading, plus there were no seats left.
Had lunch today with Karen Healey, of Girl-Wonder.org: Because capes aren't just for boys, and her agent Barry. She's from New Zealand, has traveled all over, and had some very insightful views on the whole presidential election thing we have going on here.
She raved about something I had only learned about maybe an hour before: BookMooch. "Give books away. get books you want." Check it out at www.BookMooch.com. Bloody brilliant.
The main event of the afternoon is something called THE GATHERING, which was sort of like a carnival fair within the con, running all afternoon as people arrived and got caught up with friends. There was henna painting, and tarot card reading, and a knitting circle, and ballroom dance lessons and a clothign swap and a Make Your Own Curry Powder Stand run by Mary Anne Mohanraj.
At the Gathering, I got my Numerology done! According to Lettie, I am an "Architect," and I am in a building phase of my life, very much the builder of my own destiny, but when I am 56 this will change, and I might move on to traveling or something else, but probably not a quiet retirement. She said a bunch more that I can't quite recreate but it was all quite accurate for me.
At the clothing swap I acquired a very cute pair of silver slippers, sort of ballet-style slippers, suitable for wearing to con parties.
I also participated in a "show and tell" session on the stage for tattoos and I showed mine off and talked about how it is time to get a new one. Several people mentioned a good tattoo place here in Madison, Capital City Tattoos, so if I have time, maybe I'll get it done here.
Spent several hours in the dalers room looking at books, talking with writers and editors, and ended up going from there to dinner with Paula Guran, editor of Best New Paranormal Romance. Sadly, she won't be doing another edition of the book. We talked books and writing and erotica for many hours... and now I'm back in my room relaxing with a cup of tea and my blog before I go out to parties in about an hour.
Tomorrow I'll go to some actual programming. I'm missing a panel about LiveJournal right now... heh.
X-posted to my fic journal.
I will admit that in the years before I started coming to Wiscon, I was leery that feminism could be much fun. Most of my firsthand experience with feminists, of course, was with dour and/or victim-mentalitied proponents of the anti-sex movement back when I was in college. Brown had a women's studies building called the Sarah Doyle Center that I NEVER DARED SET FOOT IN until long after I had graduated and was invited back to speak as an alum.
But Wiscon is, happily, much more a Bastion of Fandom in all its Glory than it is representative of any branch of feminism.
And it is fun. And brainy. And brainily fun. And my brain is funny.
Arrived yesterday by puddlejumper and helped out stuffing the registration packets. Who knew that the summer job I had in a birdfeeder factory would come in so handy? I helped arrange the small assembly line and my line completed 200 packets in under one hour. Then went off with my two roomies for half-price margaritas and Mexican food at "Frida," the pretty good mexican place about 2 blocks from the hotel.
Madison is a college town, so within 4 blocks walk of the hiotel there is every kind of ethnic food to be had for cheap (including "Iowan," according to the con info, which is popcorn. There are three different gourmet popcorn shops. But the cupcake craze doesn't seem to have got here yet.)
Then went into A Room of One's Own, the terrific local bookstore with a feminist slant. Enjoyed looking at books in there. There was a reading by the con guests of honor going on in the back room but me and friends were too tipsy to sit through a reading, plus there were no seats left.
Had lunch today with Karen Healey, of Girl-Wonder.org: Because capes aren't just for boys, and her agent Barry. She's from New Zealand, has traveled all over, and had some very insightful views on the whole presidential election thing we have going on here.
She raved about something I had only learned about maybe an hour before: BookMooch. "Give books away. get books you want." Check it out at www.BookMooch.com. Bloody brilliant.
The main event of the afternoon is something called THE GATHERING, which was sort of like a carnival fair within the con, running all afternoon as people arrived and got caught up with friends. There was henna painting, and tarot card reading, and a knitting circle, and ballroom dance lessons and a clothign swap and a Make Your Own Curry Powder Stand run by Mary Anne Mohanraj.
At the Gathering, I got my Numerology done! According to Lettie, I am an "Architect," and I am in a building phase of my life, very much the builder of my own destiny, but when I am 56 this will change, and I might move on to traveling or something else, but probably not a quiet retirement. She said a bunch more that I can't quite recreate but it was all quite accurate for me.
At the clothing swap I acquired a very cute pair of silver slippers, sort of ballet-style slippers, suitable for wearing to con parties.
I also participated in a "show and tell" session on the stage for tattoos and I showed mine off and talked about how it is time to get a new one. Several people mentioned a good tattoo place here in Madison, Capital City Tattoos, so if I have time, maybe I'll get it done here.
Spent several hours in the dalers room looking at books, talking with writers and editors, and ended up going from there to dinner with Paula Guran, editor of Best New Paranormal Romance. Sadly, she won't be doing another edition of the book. We talked books and writing and erotica for many hours... and now I'm back in my room relaxing with a cup of tea and my blog before I go out to parties in about an hour.
Tomorrow I'll go to some actual programming. I'm missing a panel about LiveJournal right now... heh.
X-posted to my fic journal.