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I have my official schedule for World Con now.

Launch Pad: Astronomy for Writers
Wednesday, 11:30 a.m.
Launch Pad is a week-long crash course in modern astronomy for writers founded by Mike Brotherton and held each summer at the University of Wyoming. NASA foots the bill with the goald of increasing the quality and quantity of astronomy reaching the public. Come hear instructors and participants discuss the experience.

Schmoozing 101
Wednesday, 1:00 p.m.
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.’

Survival Tips for the Beginning Writer
Wednesday, 4:00 p.m.
Once the story is written, what happens next? Panelists talk about cover letters, manuscript tracking, rejectomancy and other blunders that they learned about the hard way.

Signing
Thursday, 1:00 pm

Reading
Thursday, 4:00 pm
A sampler-platter of short stories from me and John Scalzi

How to Give an Effective Reading - Workshop
Friday, 10:00 a.m.
You may be a good writer, but reading aloud is a separate skill. 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.

Strolling with the Stars
Sunday, 9:00 a.m.
To encourage a healthier, more active environment at Denvention 3 we are scheduling a 9AM walk every morning. We’ll leave from under the Big Blue Bear at the Colorado Convention Center, and we’ll stroll for a leisurely mile through downtown Denver. Each day’s walk will be led by a Famous AuthorTM, Artist, Editor or Scientist who will not only lead the walk but will interact with the participants. Join luminaries like Frank Wu, David Brin, Jay Lake, Ellen Datlow, John Picacio, Lou Anders, Paul Cornell, Scott Edelman, Mary Robinette Kowal and Stephen H. Segal for a gentle, friendly stroll to get the day started on an upbeat note.

The planners of Denvention are really on their game. I’m not sure when I’ve known about my programming so far in advance. Granted, these are preliminary schedules, but here’s the list.

Schmoozing 101 - Wed 13:00

Survival Tips for the Beginning Writer - Wed 16:00

How to Give an Effective Reading - Workshop - Fri 10:00

I’ll also be doing the Strolling with the Stars one morning, but I don’t know which one yet.

I’ll be going to my first WisCon and am extremely excited by the programming they offer. Here are just the panels that I’ll be on.

Title: Beyond Illustration: The Process of Creating ‘Vision’
Saturday, 9:00-10:15 P.M.
Caucus

Much of SF/F art is illustrative, growing directly out of the writer’s vision. But some artists are doing exactly what writers do–using a myth or folkloric theme or story as a starting point and interpreting it in a new and personal way, developing a story with a vision of their own. These image/object driven visions are sometimes then the inspiration for a writer’s new story. How is the process of creating a vision the same in writing and art? How is it different? How do they cross-pollinate?

M: Mary Robinette Kowal, Deb Taber, Connie Toebe, Catherine Crowe

Title: What If You Don’t Want to Have Children? Redux
Saturday, 10:30-11:45 P.M.
Assembly

Modern birth control and feminism have made the option of not having children much more socially acceptable, yet women (and sometimes men) are often made to feel that by making this choice they are abandoning an essential part of the human experience. Given the increasing numbers of people who are choosing to be child-free, what will society look like in another 20 years? 50? 100? There are currently some countries that pay generous benefits to parents, especially in countries with decreasing populations. How will this continue? How will the population reduction affect workplace policies? How will the results of choosing to be child-free actually benefit parents (increased tax incentives, workplace benefits, etc.)? Last year, this panel focused on the personal, emotional, and medical struggles faced by those of us who have chosen to be childfree. It was a relief to see that there were others like ourselves, going through the very same struggles. This year, let’s take a deep
per look and examine how societal structures, workplace policies, and government taxes and subsidies discourage or encourage our decision.

M: Carrie Ferguson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Gerri Balter, Maddie Greene, Isabel Schechter

Title: The Future Of The Book
Sunday, 1:00-2:15 P.M.
Senate B

With Amazon’s Kindle being the latest entry in the ongoing attempts to scale the Everest of e-book technology, it’s time to look at the technology of the book, and where we think it might be going in the next 10-20 years. Topics might include what’s wrong with the current set of e-books, what people would need to move to an e-book solution, and new technologies/approaches in the paper-book world, such as the increased use of POD books.

M: Mary Robinette Kowal, Steven Schwartz, Jeannie Bergmann, Cabell Gathman

Title: How To Be A Good Ally — And A Bad One
Monday, 10:00-11:15 A.M.
Wisconsin

As privileged allies in tee struggles against various oppressions such as racism and sexism, sometimes we make mistakes, and some of our strategies are more successful than others. And some of us are frightened by the idea of tackling the learning curve and making fools of ourselves along the way. Others of us aren’t even sure where to begin. This panel will discuss starting points, common pitfalls, embarrassing stories of mistakes made and overcome, and how to do it right.

M: Lori Selke, Debbie Notkin, Mary Robinette Kowal

Surprise! We were comfortable with the things we were going to have to leave behind because of space. What we did not anticipate was the weight of what we did manage to get into the truck.

We have bottomed out the suspension. Totally. The truck is so overweight that after A LOT of thought, we are going to switch to a larger truck. It’s that or risk breaking an axle in the Rockies. I’d much rather swap trucks here on a shady street.

This won’t throw off our arrival date, because we had some slop built into our schedule, but it will change the rest of the trip since we probably won’t leave until tomorrow.

Here’s my schedule for Orycon. Come see me!

Fri Nov 17
2:00:pm Constructive Critiquing
4:00:pm Other Worlds or the Same Ol’, Same Ol’?

Sat Nov 18
10:00:am We Don’t Need Another Hero
11:00:am Remember to Breathe- The Secrets Behind Great Public Readings (Workshop on reading aloud)
1:00:pm Turkey Readings
4:00:pm Juggling Jobs: Survival Tips for the Beginning Writer
7:00 pm Shimmer Magazine Party

Sun Nov 19
12:00:pm The Great Writers Blog
1:30:pm Reading: Mary Robinette Kowal - Salt of the Earth
2:00:pm Love, Romance, Dark Passion and Crossing the Genre Lines
3:00:pm How to Write About Something You Know Nothing About

I just received my schedule for Orycon. Holy cow. At least I won’t have to make decisions about which panels to attend.

Well. Extremely well. In fact, I think I just impressed my mother who is a fund-raising goddess. I tallied what has come in so far and shared the numbers with Jason. As of this posting, the raffle has made $1828.00. Jason did not get the 200 subscriptions he was looking for, but your raffle ticket purchases made up the difference.

The raffle is scheduled to run through Friday, and I’ll keep it open until then, as promised.

Jason and I have talked about what will happen to any money that comes in from here on. Two things. He’ll be able to raise the writer’s rates. Any remaining funds will provide a safety net for Apex; running a magazine is always a risky business, and Jason has high goals for Apex.

Thanks for making sure the Apex Digest sticks around.

Rob’s parents arrived in Reykjavík today. They were scheduled to come in this evening, but caught an earlier flight. This is wonderful because I’m going to London today and thought I was going to miss them. So we’re off to have lunch, then they’ll drive me to the airport and go play with Rob. I’ll be back on Sunday and we can have more adventures then.

I’m going to London because Steve Savile and Alethea Kontis will be there with their anthology, Elemental.

Things on set have been very busy and while Dean was here I didn’t want to update my journal in the evenings. We are between company right now, although I just heard that our friend Wayne will be coming to visit us soon and that Rob’s folks will follow after that. I’m looking forward to seeing all of them. At this rate we’ll have out-of-town guests about every two to three weeks but, after Rob’s parents’ vist, we don’t have anyone else scheduled. C’mon people, it’s time to start booking those plane tickets.

In theory, I’ll be able to let you know where we are each night by postdating my blog entries. This is our first scheduled overnight stop on our trip. Miðjanes in Breiðafjörður.

Steve and Alethea had spent the night at our house. We all spent a liesurely morning and opted not to return to Chattacon. I know that is shocking, especially since there was a puppet show on the schedule, but somehow the muffins that Mom made seemed more enticing.

After Chattacon ended, Jason and Justin, of Apex Digest, came over to the house. We had lunch and then went off to explore the world of used books. I picked up some cookbooks, including The Unplugged Kitchen, which Fab Girl had recommended ages ago.

All told, it was a delightful day.

Rob came home last night, unexpectedly, which was delightful. I say it was unexpected, but he did give me an hour of notice so I had a chance to make sure there weren’t any dishes in the sink. Harvest is definitely in full swing, although the rains are giving them trouble. We’re hoping I’ll be able to come down later in the week or next week, depending on my schedule.

I can’t believe it. Strange Horizons just wrote to say they want to buy Portrait of Ari at pro-rates! I’m beside myself with excitement–really, it takes two of me to express my joy fully.

Here’s the letter.

Dear Mary Robinette Kowal,

We’re pleased to accept your story “Portrait of Ari” for publication in Strange Horizons, at a rate of 5 cents/word.

Our current schedule has this running early in 2006, but that could change.

At some point between now and then, we’ll do a detailed editing pass and send you the results for your approval. But that probably won’t happen for another few weeks.

In the meantime, below please find a copy of our informational questionnaire. Once we receive your response to it, we will send you a check and contract. Please allow two months after sending the questionnaire for processing; if you haven’t received a check and contract within two months, please let us know. And please don’t hesitate to contact our editor-in-chief, Susan Marie Groppi, at editor@strangehorizons.com, if you have any questions about your contract.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask. And thank you for sending us this story!

Sincerely,

–jed

For those of you following along, Susan Marie Groppi is my editor at All-Star Stories. I don’t know how much that had an impact on my story’s acceptance, but I’m counting my blessings in whatever form they take.

Now I just have to hope that tomorrow’s audition will go as well.

Sorry, the last couple of days I worked on the boat, read and wrote.

Rob came home from IPNC, which is wonderful, but due to our schedules, we still didn’t see much of each other yesterday. Tonight we went out to dinner. A date night is always a good thing.

The design work is going well although Emily and I are both exhausted from the long hours. She had her wisdom teeth pulled a couple of days before I got here and it was a major job. (I, of course, will not go into the gory details here.) She went into the surgeon today and he said, “This isn’t healing as fast as it should. What’s going on in your life?” She told him our schedule and he told her that she had to get more sleep.

We’re at this strange point where we feel like we’re making really good progress but also keenly aware that we don’t have enough time. Fortunately Chris is really understanding and helped us revise our schedule so that Emily and I can get some rest. Yay.