WFC Part II: What the Heck Haven't I Talked About YET?
Did I mention I got to meet Richard Kadrey? I did. He of Sandman Slim fame. His newest is Aloha from Hell. Kadrey's not joking, Stark goes to Hell. Actual Hell, to collect a friend. If you haven't read the series, WHY THE HELL NOT? I mean, at least bang onto the first one. It's hysterical. And dark. And disturbing. And violent. All things good, eh? Don't you want disembodied heads talking to you, magic wars and video stores? Yes. Solid. And heck, don't take my word for it, Charlaine Harris was sitting in the Kadrey reading with me. She dug it. She totally fan girled Kadrey after the reading was over. Which made me feel less ridiculous for fan girling Patrick Rothfuss on the night of the big ol' autograph party.
Have I mentioned the Autograph Session?
I'm a greenhorn to World Fantasy. I wasn't expecting a giant auditorium full of brilliant authors to sit their asses at tables and do a signing. I mean, I knew Neil Gaiman had some signing duties, as he was a guest of honor, but everyone? Yes, everyone. It's tradition that anyone who wants to can have a signing table. The two authors to have consistent lines were Peter S. Beagle and Neil Gaiman. Everyone else only had a couple folks surrounding them, chatting them up, getting autographs.
I'm not an autograph hound. I like signed books, but I had none of my firsts with me to have signed. So I talked to people. Including Patrick Rothfuss. Ahem, this is how the "conversation" went:
-Dude walks away from Rothfuss table, smiling at signed book.
-I walk up to Rothfuss table, smiling at Rothfuss.
Me: Hello.
(I am giddy, hand to god, my head opened up and butterflies and miniature unicorns jumped from my skull, this does not include the dandelion puffs and gauzy soft light that dripped from my mouth.)
He: Hi there.
Me: I would have you sign something, but you came to Chicago and signed everything I had there.
He: Oh. Ah.
Me: I love everything you do.
(Feeling slightly awkward at this point...what should you do when you start feeling overwhelming love for a complete stranger you know only through books and blogs? KEEP RAMBLING!)
I mean, you're just great, I keep up with your blog and I put your book on my staff picks shelf at the library and I think you're rad.
He: Well thanks!
(Smiles at me because he is a wonderfully nice man who doesn't want to beat up idiot brained fan girls)
I know that at some point, I made him laugh, but I have no idea how. I just remember being all "BLAH BLAH BLAH, LOVE YOU, BLAH, SO AWESOME, BLAH BLAH TOTALLY SUPERGREAT, BLAH. STUFF. BLAH."
So I had that going for me. Then I talked to Garth Nix and saw a medieval puppet show by Mary Robinette Kowal. Who the hell thinks to do a shadow puppet show at their signing table during down time? She did. And she was nice. And if you haven't read Shades of Milk and Honey, I mean, SERIOUSLY WHY NOT? It's on my staff picks shelf folks. Just come to the library and raid my shelf. Look for the one that says Patty and has Tremors, Name of the WInd, Honey Month and Shades of Milk and Honey.
Anyways, what I'm saying is if you've never been to WFC...be ready for the motherload of all booksignings. Bring your firsts.
Then again, if you're a plane taker, christ, don't take too many because the con's gonna give you a book bag. Yes. I mean a tote bag. But I also mean a tote bag FULL OF BOOKS. That's how I ended up getting a copy of American Gods for Gaiman to sign. Thank you, WFC. But then there were twenty other books to boot and some lit journals. WFC doesn't skimp, man, they give you your membership's worth. You've
been warned.
Christ on a crooked tree, I'm all over the place. I still haven't told you that the Shimmer reading was fabulous. Caitlyn Paxson rocked it. So did Cat Rambo, Shweta Narayan and Gra Linnaea. I've also learned that any reading sponsored by John Joseph Adams is going to be good and that if you want to meet anyone, truly, really, get your party pants on and be ready to stay up until 3 in the morning standing on a trellis near the party suite.
Hell, I haven't even told you about my reading yet. It went great. I had 9 people. Which is better than me and Cooney in a large, empty room. Which is kinda what I thought might happen. 2 pm. Friday. Room 4/5. I read an orphanage scene from my novel that contained everything from a lobotomy to an almost beheading to a thistleprint waistcoat. Then I read a fifteen minute part of the infamous burlesquing bee charmer story.
I'm missing about a thousand other awesome things that happened. OH! Like Delia Sherman's book launch party for The Freedom Maze. And Cooney, Matthew Kressel, me and some other awesome folks had a reading for the Steam Powered anthologies. Yes, of course you can buy your own copy of Steam Powered II.
Click here.
My story "Fruit Jar Drinkin', Cheatin' Heart Blues" is in it. Do it up. You know you wanna read lesbian moonshine steampunk.
A few last tidbits:
Ari Goelman is goddamned brilliant. And funny and writes fantasy, usually with a YA tilt. I want him to make bank.
I know I mentioned this before, but geez, Connie Willis. LOVE.
Oh, and if you weren't at the poetry reading on Saturday night, wherein C.S.E. Cooney got her Rhysling plaque for the poem "The Sea King's Second Bride," you're loss, eh? Cause wow. She recited it from memory, all 147 minutes of it. (Here is where Cooney would nudge me and yell at me, becuase the poem is only 13 minutes long...ONLY 13 MINUTES - from memory.) Many other fabulous readers came after her, like Jessica Wick. Ms. Wick is co-editor of Goblin Fruit and scared the hell out of the audience with a poem about a changling, or a murder, or the murder of a changling, or maybe the poor child wasn't a changling. It was a poem about a disturbing family situation brought on by a death in the family and it gave me terror shakes. Fuckin' brilliant. Loved. I'm a fan of when a poet owns the GD stage, and that broad, hell she did. There was yelling involved. And glares. It was gorgeous.
So that was my first World Fantasy. Heck yes, I'm going next year. Toronto, here I come.