I’ve seen this popping up at every puppetmaker’s website because it’s all so right. I’m also curious if any of these things sound familiar to my non-puppet making readers.
The reason it’s one of my pet peeves isn’t so much that people don’t bother reading the info available here before contacting me; it’s that when they do contact me, they do so with annoyingly ambigiousity. So with these past experiences in mind, I’d like to “submit for your approval” some basic etiquette guidelines for when you contact a puppet maker about a commission.
I think it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: when approaching a puppet maker, do at least try to read the info on their site/publicity materials first.
| May 1, 2009 | to | May 3, 2009 |
I think I forgot to mention that I was going to Penguicon this weekend, because, you know, I’m not doing enough traveling. A lot of good friends are going to be there so it should be good fun. Let me know if I’ll see you there.
May 2, 2009
10:00 am — Ballroom 7
Making Fiction Work In Audio
What to avoid when writing a story to podcast, and what to change to adapt one. Concise language, appropriate pacing, holding attention, choosing a performer to read, and more tips from two of the leaders in podcast fiction: Steve Eley of Escape Pod and Rick Stringer of Variant Frequencies.
Steve Eley, Mary Robinette Kowal, Rick Jackson, Rick Stringer
11:00 am — Ballroom 7
Can I Be Your Friend? Bringing Authors and Readers Together
Facebook, LiveJournal, WordPress, MySpace, Twitter, website, etc. — SF/F/H authors are encouraged to engage in self-promotion on the web. Some, like John Scalzi and Wil Wheaton, make it look easy. But where’s the line on privacy and personal details for the authors? And what about fans bent on making the transition to troll or stalker? No one said this was going to be easy.
John Scalzi, Jim C. Hines, Wil Wheaton, Mary Robinette Kowal, Daniel Hogan, Dr. Philip Kaldon
1:00 pm — Poolside 1
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Character Development. Bringing your imaginary friends to life. Discussion of what makes a character live on the page. Heroes, villains, supporters. Different methods and ways of making your characters real to your audience.
Elizabeth Bear, David Crampton, Mary Robinette Kowal, Sarah Hoyt, Dan Hoyt, Cherie Priest, Jeff DeLuzio, Sarah Monette
3:00 pm — Poolside 3
Johnny Can’t Read and Nobody Thinks It’s a Problem
Illiteracy is a major problem in our society, or perhaps it’s not, given the lack of attention it gets. Can children read? Are they reading? Should they read more? How can we get them to read? How can we read more as adults? Our panel of mostly experts will discuss the issue.
David Crampton, Richard Herrell, Mary Robinette Kowal
7:00 pm — Poolside 1
Lie to Me!
Authors telling lies….what will happen next?! (PS – the audience gets to lie too!)
Elizabeth Bear, John Scalzi, Mary Robinette Kowal, Sarah Hoyt
8:00 pm — Poolside 1
Schmoozing 101!
Conventions offer a chance to meet some of the top names in the field. How can you take advantage of that without coming off like a weasel? Learn about the etiquette of talking to editors and how to effectively “work a room.”
John Scalzi, Mary Robinette Kowal
May 3, 2009
8:00 am — Poolside 1
National Novel Writing Month
Every November hordes of would-be writers as well as established pros unite to attempt to produce 50,000 words in one month. Good idea or waste of time? Does it help or hurt writing? What about the pressures of deadlines in general? Does slow and steady win the race, or does the pressure cooker of trying to produce so many words in the last hour really work?
David Crampton, Jim C. Hines, Mary Robinette Kowal, Daniel Hogan
9:00 am — Poolside 1
How to Give an Effective Reading
Learn to make your words sound as great out loud as they do on the page. Using both demonstration and audience participation, we will explore voicing, narration, and pacing.
Mary Robinette Kowal
11:00 am — Poolside 1
Finding Your Voice
1st Person vs 3rd Person writing. Discussion of pros and cons of different voices in writing. Benefits of the “God” point of view for an author and a reader. Benefits of the main character as narrator for the author and reader. Limitations of both.
Elizabeth Bear, Mary Robinette Kowal, Sarah Hoyt, Dan Hoyt, Sarah Monette
Those of you following me on Twitter already know some of this but I’m about to go into a whole heck of a lot more detail about Maggie. She’s been terribly unwell and while I was away, Rob sent me a warning that he thought all we could do at this point was make her comfortable.
I got home and she was basically a skeleton with fur and just hiding in the closet. I called the vet, explaining that she wasn’t eating or drinking. We discussed humane euthanasia, but decided that as long as she was still happy sitting in someone’s lap that we’d let nature take its course.
I was struck by the fact that she kept trying to go to the litter box with no success.
Now, this serves as a warning to everyone that I’m going to be talking about the tail end of a cat’s digestive system.
Seriously, read no further if you don’t want to know about a kitty enema. I’ll let you know right now that she’s much better, but it does involve an enema and a cat.
I mean it.
You’ve been warned.
Don’t say I didn’t tell you.
I took a red-eye back to NYC, which was late. Then in Cleveland, they had jetway problems so I deplaned about ten minutes before my connecting flight was due to depart.
Yes, as you might guess, the gates were at opposite ends of the airport. I sprinted through and made it safely on the plane.
Back in NYC I hopped on the bus home and overheard a college boy ask someone where the bus went. I told him that it stopped at 106th and Broadway and we talked about the connections he’d need to make to get to where he was going. When the bus finally arrives, I stand up and say, “This is it. The last stop.”
Besides us, the only other person on the bus was this young college girl with ginormous bags. She looked panicky. “The last stop?”
I nodded. “Where are you trying to go?”
“LaGuardia Airport.”
Wincing, I explained that she’d gotten on the bus heading the wrong way. The driver pointed across the street and told her to run because the next bus to LaGuardia was pulling up.
By the time I got the college boy pointed in the right direction and headed across the street, it was clear that the girl had missed the bus. It was also clear that she was doing her best not to cry in public. I stopped to explain which of the two buses she needed to get and that it would take about 45 minutes to get out there.
Her tears got a little closer to the surface.
“What time is your flight?”
“11:30. There’s no way.” She shook her head. “I was supposed to leave yesterday but they canceled it.”
“Do you have enough money for a cab?”
“How much?”
“$40 – $60.”
“There’s no way.”
“Okay.” I stepped out into the street and hailed a cab. “We’re going to put you in a cab and send you.”
“You can’t–”
By this point, there was already a cab pulled up in front of us. I leaned down and said, “She needs to go to LaGuardia and doesn’t have enough money, so I need to pre-pay you. How much?”
He squinted, thinking. “With tolls? $35.”
I gave him the cash, plus a tip. She hugged me, asked my name and I sent her speeding off.
When people ask what “paying it forward” means, it’s this. Someone was this nice to me when I was her age. I’ve just paid it forward and someday, she will too.
I had a lovely and relaxing post-Nebula weekend with my friend Doselle. I’m at the LAX airport waiting for my flight back to New York. The plane is half an hour late already so my connection should be fun.
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At AMC this week I talk about environmental disasters and fantasy film. Think there’s no connection? Ha! I say, ha! Strip-mining, invasive species and famine, oh my.
Weather often plays an important role in setting the mood of a movie. I mean, how many times have our heroes battled through wind and rain until they finally triumph and the sun comes out? In fantasy, the connection between the environment and the health of the country is even more direct, near blatant. To celebrate Earth Day, I thought we’d take a tour of the environmental woes that plague our fantasy heroes.
Swing by and tell me about your favorite fantastic disasters..
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I had dinner with Doselle Young and Shana Cohen tonight at a very nice restaurant. It’s so nice to go out with other foodies. I’m now ensconced in a truly gorgeous hotel room and about to collapse in bed. After I finish two or three more things…
My short story “Evil Robot Monkey,” read by Stephen Eley, appears on Escape Pod today as part of their yearly podcast of Hugo nominees. It first appeared in the Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, vol. 2 edited by George Mann.
Sliding his hands over the clay, Sly relished the moisture oozing around his fingers. The clay matted down the hair on the back of his hands making them look almost human. He turned the potter’s wheel with his prehensile feet as he shaped the vase. Pinching the clay between his fingers he lifted the wall of the vase, spinning it higher.
Someone banged on the window of his pen. Sly jumped and then screamed as the vase collapsed under its own weight. He spun and hurled it at the picture window like feces. The clay spattered against the Plexiglas, sliding down the window.
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This is the last interview of the 2009 nominees for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. I encourage you to find fiction by all of these authors and read them.
Felix Gilman was born in London in 1974. He holds two degrees in history from Oxford, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, a doctorate in Ludology from the Waldzell School of the Order of Castalia, and certain advanced but curiously non-specific qualifications in modern American poetry from the National University of Zembla.
Also he went to Hogwarts. Why not?
He now lives with his wife Sarah in New York, where he works as a writer and lawyer.
Please don’t ask him for legal advice. He’s not that sort of lawyer, and it doesn’t really work that way.
So what did you do when you were notified about the nomination?
I was on the phone when the email appeared. I wasn’t expecting to be nominated at all, and I hadn’t been paying particularly close attention to the process, so I was completely caught off-guard. I had to hang up and spend some time online trying to work out what being nominated meant in this context. Did it mean shortlisted or just voted for by one or more people? It took me about an hour to cautiously decide this was probably good news, and not in any apparent way a trap.
How long have you been writing?
The current sustained push has lasted since about late 2006.
Where did you get the idea for the great city of Ararat?
I don’t know exactly. I knew I wanted a city, and I knew I wanted it to be very big, and to feel (a) very strange and resistant to explanation and (b) suggestive of hidden depths, and so everything else followed from the premises. Details were stolen from every city I’ve ever been in or read about or seen on TV, and inserted as necessary as I went along.
In 2007, you did an interview with Jeff VanderMeer in which he asked you why you wrote. Among other things, you said, “Ask me again in a year.” Two years later…why do you write?
Bloody-mindedness.
Two years, God. Really?
Is there a definable point when you realized that writing had
changed from a hobby to an avocation?
“Hobby” will do just fine.
What projects are you working on now?
I’m due to get back edits from my editor at Tor on a third book, A History of The Half-Made World, any day now. Clearing the decks for that. It’s not related to the first two books.
What are you currently reading?
Norman Mailer’s Miami and the Siege of Chicago, about the 1968 Democratic and Republican conventions. I don’t know much about most of the figures involved, and 1968’s party politics are so remote and in so many ways inverted from today’s that I really don’t know what he’s talking about half the time, but I enjoy it on the level of a series of portraits of nightmarish grotesques. You could imagine Mervyn Peake illustrating it.
What is it about speculative fiction, in general, that most appeals to you?
The strange, the grotesque, the absurd; the capacity of really strange fantastic fiction to reflect back how odd the actual world is. Also, monsters.
I’m sorry you’re getting a lot of twitter summaries this week. I’m slammed trying to get two shows up before I leave town for the Nebulas on Thursday. And yet, I dropped everything to take Maggie to the vet today.
The vet gave Maggie an appetite stimulant and pumped her full of fluids. The suspicion is that it’s kidney trouble which isn’t uncommon in older cats.
About an hour after I got home, she nibbled on some tuna which was an enormous relief.
An enormous and short-lived relief. When I got home tonight, Rob told me that Maggie has developed diarrhea in addition to vomiting. The poor thing is curled up on a heating pad and looks just miserable.
Well look! My story “Scenting the Dark” from Apex Digest made the long list for StorySouth’s Million Writers Award Notable Stories 2008.
The purpose of the storySouth Million Writers Award is to honor and promote the best fiction published in online literary journals and magazines during 2008.
I’m very pleased to be on the list. If you’re looking for reading material, this is a list full of great online fiction.
For those that have been wondering about my passing references to 1000 toothbrushes, this is what I’ve been making with them. It’s for a dance piece the Chase Brock Experience is performing.
That photo has about 600 toothbrushes in it. The final version has about 800. They are glued and wired together in mass. Moving them to the theater today should be interesting.
I’m also making a drawer spilling lingerie, a purse spilling keys and a moving box spilling mail.
I did not order nearly enough keys, so that’s going to get built on Tuesday.
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