• I just turned in a bid on making a wounded dog including “optional brain spatter.” I love my job. #
• I’m heading out of town until Monday. No computer access. Cellphone coverage spotty but I’ll let you know if anything interesting happens. #
• Trying to fit everything on the motorcycle is, shall we say, challenging. #
• Crap. Everything fit, but not with room for me. I’ll be staying here. #

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Friday 12:00 Noon
Vinyard: Kaffeeklatsch
Mary Robinette Kowal and Barry B. Longyear
This is my first kaffeeklatsch. Here’s your chance to ask me questions about writing, puppets, SFWA, Iceland… Come chat with me!

Friday 1:00 PM
VT: Tabula Rasa Group Reading
Readings by members of the New York-based Tabula Rasa writer’s group, including Saladin Ahmed, Christopher M. Cevasco, Barbara Krasnoff, and me. I’ll be reading “The Deacon of Dark River” a retelling of an Icelandic ghost story.

Friday 5:00 PM
ME/ CT: Steampunk and Beyond: What Would a “Gibson Chair” Look Like?
Holly Black, Paul Di Filippo, Liz Gorinsky, Mary Robinette Kowal (L) , Sarah Micklem

Steampunk, originally just an sf subgenre, is now also a burgeoning underground design movement. There’s precedent for this: modernism was not only a literary movement, but had artistic, musical, architectural, and design wings as well. Is the steampunk design movement an essentially fluky outgrowth of our fascination with all things retro? Or could other f&sf subgenres sprout their own design branches as well? Could the creation of actual, useful, physical objects lead to better-imagined literary art? How close is the relationship between the visually striking artifacts of steampunk and the literature that spawned them, anyway?

Sunday 12:00 Noon
RI: Podcasts of Mars.
Jim Freund (L), Liz Gorinsky, James Patrick Kelly, Mary Robinette Kowal, Cat Rambo

Podcasts like Escape Pod and Free Reads from James Patrick Kelly are presenting audio discussions, short stories, and even entire books in a free portable format. We’ll take a critical survey of what’s out there and discuss the future of this new medium. Is it possible to model the podcast on the science fiction convention, which also includes discussions and readings? Could new technological approaches allow the podcast to go places that earthbound discussions can’t?

Alas. We could not fit all of the gear on the bike and leave room for me. I will be in town this weekend after all. Rob headed off safely.

Rob and I are embarking on a four-hour motorcycle trip. I’ve got my cellphone, but coverage is spotty.
I will be without internet access until Monday. So, while I’m gone, here’s a question for you.

If you could have your ideal retreat, what would it include?

Me? Clean, cool, quiet. Wi-fi, plenty of outlets, good food and a massage therapist.

I’m only home for fifteen days this month. Yesterday was the only full day that Rob and I will have together until August 11th. He’s leaving to go to Canaan for a film shoot today and returns the 17th, the day that I leave for Readercon. We might overlap that day, but likely not.

I return from Readercon on the 20th, which is the day Rob leaves to go to the IPNC. We won’t overlap that day.

He returns from IPNC on the 30th, which is the day I leave for Launchpad. We might be able to see each other at the airport. I’m not kidding.

Launchpad and Worldcon are back to back and I return on August 11th.

All of which is leading me to think that I should go up to Canaan with Rob today and spend the night. BUT, I have twelve days left this month in which to build a realistic wounded dog puppet¹ On the other hand, I haven’t received the petty cash to purchase supplies yet and if I don’t do that today, then it will be Monday before I can work. Ten days to build a dog. Doable, but only just.

1. This is a side effect of having a dead dog in one’s portfolio [↩]