51 Flavors of Boskone, part two
And now for part two of my Boskone recap. Before I continue, two notes:
1) I was sad to discover that Scott Lynch was ill and unable to attend :( So if you hear me mention panels he should have been on, and he's not there, that's why.
2) I had a delightful surprise Saturday when I met up with Leah, who I went to college with. I swear I haven't seen her since... uh, well, since she graduated, a year before me >.< We had a conversation that was kind of like, "yeah, that guy I was dating in college? I've been married to him for nearly ten years, and we live in central MA now..."
Anyway! When we left our intrepid heroine, it was 4pm on Saturday, and she was about to attend...
Fandom and Genre Literature in Academia. With Jack M. Haringa, F. Brett Cox, and Theodora Goss. This panel was okay, but I little dry--though I do I think it's interesting to know that genre literature is becoming more accepted in academic programs. When I took composition classes at Vassar, we were pretty much forbidden from writing any speculative fiction. (One of the myriad reasons I decided not to major in English).
I will say Theodora Goss looks like a Victorian heroine, and I want to know more about the scholarship she suggested she's done on Dracula. (I think she had a quote like, "When colleges are hiring for professors to teach Victorian literature, they don't care about all the scholarship you've done on Dracula, they want to know you can teach Middlemarch").
Next I followed a bunch of VPeeps to The Long Series: How We Did It with Ginjer Buchanan, Charlaine Harris, Melinda Snodgrass, and Steve Miller.
I went to this panel under the impression that Buchanan was Steve Brust's editor, and thought it might be interesting from an editor's perspective of a long series. Buuuuuut it turns out I am mistaken. (I think she was his editor when he was with Ace/Roc, but I also think I am getting her confused with agent Ginger Clark). As it happened, Ginjer mostly did the moderating, and less so the opining, so it was mostly the others talking about their series (Southern Vampire, Wild Cards, Liadan).
What I took away from this: man, these folks are rabidly against fan creations (mostly Harris and Miller). Harris didn't even want to allow a heavily curated group of authors write in her world. (Although she did, eventually, for an anthology that's coming along on Audible). That, more than anything, soured me on the whole panel. I'm of the.... modern-ish(?) opinion that no writer can claim that they entirely own their work; ideas resist the sort of fencing these folks seem to want. You can't control how your characters live in my brain. Sorry.
There was someone in the audience with awesome metallic silver shoes, which Beth texted me about from the row behind me. That was the highlight of the panel for me.
Afterward, we had scheduled dinner with the other VPeeps in the hotel restaurant. I spent a good deal of time talking with Mike W and Latasha, both of whom had lived in Seattle, how they would compare it to living on the East Coast. I've often wondered how I would handle the nine months of no sunshine--better or worse than these harsh Bostonian winters? Also neither of them had positive things to say about the ease of making new friends in the Pacific Northwest.
At 8pm I went to Reinventing the Quest -- for the 21st Century Reader. With Stephen P. Kelner, Anna Davis, Tom Shippey, and Brendan DuBois. (Holycarp, Anna Davis is young for an author. Sophomore in college young). This panel really did nothing for me. Kelner tried to lead the discussion towards their take on Joseph Campbell's Monomyth, which sent Tom Shippey off into a long digression, not all of which was entirely germane. (Although I do like what he had to say about how the term "adventure," originally was used to mean "knights going out and stirring shit up").
I was beginning to get tetchy and paneled-out again, so I excused myself, realizing that in a short time a bunch of folks would be coming back to our room to hang out. So I spent the next hour or so hiding under the covers in my room. It was a much needed rejuvenation period.
After that, a group of us gathered in our room and discussed VP memories, books, authors, conventions, etc. The usual things! Uncle Jim stopped by and hung out with us for a while, and we finally sent everyone to bed at around 1:30am.
Sunday:
Because John is a great guy, I dragged myself out of bed for the 9:30am Flash Fiction Slam, in which he was competing. His piece, "At 130," sadly did not win, but I thought he did a beautiful job with the presentation. The piece that did win, "The Sea Witch," was compelling, but less well-presented, I thought--the author was kind of rushing to fit it in the allotted three minutes.
(I also think primacy/recency effects provide a significant advantage in these competitions).
Sunday's theme, for me, was aimlessness. I kept wandering into panels and wandering back out. I signed up for a kaffeelatsch with Bear, but ultimately decided not to go, thinking it would be better for someone else to get the spot who didn't get to spend a week drinking bourbon with her on the Vineyard. Instead I visited the dealer's room (where I lusted after a $250 book of Lovecraft scholarship), got coffee, chatted with Coral and Beth, and eventually wandered into the Ezines, Fanzines and Blogs panel. (Steve Davidson, E. C. Ambrose, Steve Miller, Joe Siclari, and Mallory O'Meara)
... which was also disappointing, in that it was mostly reminiscences about the good ol' days of fanzines. That's fine and good--but these are not of interest to me. The one young woman on the panel, Mallory O'Meara, ran a horror blog? I think? but she didn't speak up much.
I left, and went to The Dark Universe panel (Mark L. Olson, Bill Higgins, Elizabeth Bear, Guy Consolmagno), where I understood only every one word in three. But at least I felt like I was getting an education out of it.
After that, I decided to go to the Cyber Futures panel, because I was sure Charlie Stross would be entertaining again, and I wanted to meet Myke Cole. Paul diFilippo and Edie Stern were also on the panel, but did not get to contribute much. I think both Cole and Stross just have very... dominant conversational types. It bothered me, but they were entertaining and not bombastic, so not too much. Once again the perils of writing near-future SF were discussed. There was an interesting discussion of disruptive technologies that weren't flashy or sexy, too, like the material science of coatings (today) or forklifts and wooden pallets (in WWII). I was also intrigued to hear that Stross was holding off on writing a particular novel because he was waiting to see the outcome of Scotland's upcoming vote for independence.
Wicked Good Villains! was in the same room, and also featured Myke Cole, once again dominating the discussion. (Daniel P. Dern and Darlene Marshall were also on the panel). That said, he really had brilliant things to say. I liked him talking about how villains are most interesting when they represent, writ large or small, moral conflicts we've been thrown into ourselves.
Somehow he ended up talking about anti-heroes, and I was gratified that I had read enough of Joe Abercrombie to get his references to that. (I'm listening to The Blade Itself right now. Man, everyone loves Glokta. With good reason). He also mentioned Mark Lawrence and Brett Weeks (I think? Or Peter V. Brett. Whichever one is his close friend. I am always getting these two guys confused), and their hardened protagonists.
(Also entertained that he named Abercrombie as "one of the top ten most attractive guys in fantasy, up there with China Mieville." Sir, I think you discredit yourself. And Mr. Scott Lynch, the original fantasy elf).
(Now I kind of want there to be a "sexy guys of fantasy" wall calendar. Someone get on that).
Speaking of which.... Writers on Writing: Sex vs. Romance was up next in the same room, and I decided to attend, as I'd skipped out on the Bear kaffeeklatsch, and had generally enjoyed this series of panels. Also: sex and romance :) The panelists were Darlene Marshall, Nancy Holder, Carrie Cuinn, and Anna Davis. Aaaaand Myke Cole, who, as far as I could tell invited himself to this panel. I was... kind of annoyed by that, but one might argue such a panel probably could do with a male presence. (Then again, one could also counter-argue that men are over-represented on most panels at this con already, too...)
I think the most fascinating stuff, though, came from Carrie Cuinn, who has edited a number of anthologies on odd topics, like Lovecraft erotica, or steam-powered automata erotica. She said she was asked a lot if these are things she actually finds erotic, and she explained that not usually--but part of the game of writing these sorts of pieces is how to make the reader question what they find arousing; to say, "Huh, I've never thought about it like that, but that's kind of hot." That is a sentiment I found myself nodding along with.
I also found it interesting to hear Nancy Holder and Darlene Marshall to talk about the evolution of tropes in the romance genre, which has (blessedly) moved away from this "forced seduction" trope. Holder, I think, also talked about how frowned upon "insta-love" is in romance these days, which sort of meshes with my own hatred of that trope.
I ended up leaving about halfway through the panel because a bunch of VPeeps were having lunch, but not before I heard Myke Cole assert that he (and by implication most men) didn't find text erotica stimulating. Um. To quote some guys I talked to about this afterward, "I can provide counterexamples."
After that was a late, leisurely lunch in the hotel restaurant with Beth, John, Coral and her husband, and later Mike W., who joined us after the Sex and Romance panel. We recapped our weekend, and I had my first view of the con's guest of honor, Seanan McGuire, when she stopped by our table to say hi to Beth. You'd think I'd been around enough authors by now to get over this reaction, but I was surprised how... much like my friends she looked. She would not look out of place at a larp or in a costume at an anime convention.
I guess what I'm saying is I'm relieved to know I won't sprout horns when I become a published author ;) Or maybe disappointed?
After that, home! And a relaxing Presidents' Day holiday to recover from the weekend...