Post-WindyCon wrap-up
Ah, back in the home environs. I have fed and watered the kitties, made a half-assed attempt at unpacking, and caught up on my blog reading. It must be time for the Con Report.
Friday afternoon I sat on my first panel and was amazed at the breadth of knowledge that Mike Resnick has. Unfortunately, this panel was in a room meant for about 15 people. There were maybe twenty-five. To say it was cozy would be too polite. Fortunately the con organizers regrouped and switched rooms around for the rest of the con. That night Ken and I crashed dinner with friends michaeldthomas, rarelylynne, Tobias Bucknell, and jimhines. I hadn't ever met Tobias before, but he was a lot of fun and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to get to know him. Michael and Lynne brought their daughter Caitlyn. So was so cute! But clearly bored with the grown-ups.
Saturday I did a few panels and got to spend some time with Elizabeth Vaughn, Marc Tassin, and members of their writer's group. One guy, Spencer. is also writing YA and so we dished about agents and rejection angst. Good times. Ken and I also spent time with Ted Kosmatka. I got to know him at WorldCon in August and was happy to get to know him better. Ken, Ted, and I ate dinner with Don Mead and Laurel Amberdine, two writers who are also on the Brink of Greatness. Very cool to be a part of the New Generation of Writers.
One of the panels I sat on Saturday turned out better than I thought it was going to. The panel was on Thrillers/Science Fiction and was supposed to have five members. Myself and one other person showed up. Luckily, the panelist was a wonderful older woman who just happened to teach science fiction writing at the college level, so she had lots of good things to say. The other panel was about the Military/civilian gap. I was on the only "civilian" on the panel, and as such, didn't get to speak much. The room was full of military, ex-military, and family members of military. I spoke a little and the very end and ended up embarrasing myself horribly by blubbering. "Kelly, cry?" You ask. "I don't believe it." Oh, but it's true. My reaction sort of surprised me, and I had to think a little bit about it to figure it out. My comment was this: My dad wanted me to do ROTC to get money for college. I didn't because I knew I wasn't a strong enough person. This is where I started blubbering and couldn't continue. if I had been able to pull myself together I would have explained further thusly: Physical strenght and endurance was a part of it, sure, but mostly I knew that I wouldn't be able to be broken and rebuilt. I wouldn't be able to follow orders without question. And I wasn't sure if I could actually kill a person if needed. I knew I didn't have the mental and emotional strength required. I have a huge amount of respect for people who do join the military, and there's no real way for me to thank them for their service. So while trying to articulate that, I cried like a little girl. It was embarrassing but I scored a few hugs and a handful of kleenex out of it, so it wasn't all bad. Afterwards, I went up to my and Ken's room, drank a bunch of water, and crashed. Trying to hold it together and failing takes a lot out of a person.
Sunday I did a writer's workshop. I was one of the pros (!!!) and it was pretty cool. A crit session is all about learning whether you are the critter or the crittee, and this session was no exception. After, Ken and I ate lunch and drove home.
One thing I noticed this weekend: the SF community skews older. It's sometimes strange to go to a panel (or be on a panel) where the panelist talk about Heinlein and Asimov and other writers in the genre that frankly I haven't heard of. I am by no means well-read in the SF genre, and I'm not saying the old-school writers are irrelevant, but ... there are a lot of new-school writers (Tobias Bucknell, kellymccullough , John Scalzi, and Cory Doctorow, to name just a few) that deserve just as much admiration. The SF community will die if the new-school writers aren't supported. Same with the Fantasy genre, or Romance, or YA. We have to support and respect the newer generation's perspective while acknowledging the older generation's contributions.