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Boskone Squee
Three days of con + one day of detox = one happy Del. Sadly, I suffered a setback last night that could only be assuaged with lots of tea, chocolate, and figure skating. This morning I felt a bit better, and this evening all was well as I got to see Pink Martini live. It was my Hanukkah present from The Boy. We ended the evening with yummy Tibetan curry.
So, without further ado, I will talk at length about Boskone.
My experience did not begin on the most auspicious note as I was delayed by the 4PM Friday Meeting of Doom that went over two and a half hours and made me want to strangle people. I practically ran out and zoomed to the Prudential Center, where I was momentarily lost. Do I head to the Magic Place of Tea for calming soothing things, or straight to the con? The magic tea place was out of sample cups, so I went to the con and registered.
I snuck into the end of the Heroine's Journey panel. 'Twas very amusing, as only a panel can be with Tamora Pierce on it. Sadly, I didn't take notes on this one, as I was tired and brain dead. I learned better the next day.
I skipped the 8 o'clock hour in desperate need of food, and ran to the food court with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mrsix. The food court obliged, and I returned fortified for the Grim's Fairy Cabaret (which I keep trying to spell "Grimm's Faerie" in the need to be pretentious). 'Twas wonderful! I met matociquala, who wound up sitting behind us, and a host of other local types prior to the start of the show and managed to scrounge together the $3 to get the program book which features such hits as "Are We Elvish?" (To the tune of "Do You Love Me?"), "Cinderella's Way," and "Red Moondance" (which featured the absolutely heavenly vocals of David G. Grubbs). Not to mention the first two songs were to the tune of "Guys and Dolls" and "Adelaide's Lament" which had me rolling on the floor, as I'd done Guys & Dolls way back in middle school.
Then I caught the end of Cecilia Tan's reading, and the whole ofellen_kushner and Delia Sherman's. Ellen read from her forthcoming and divine The Privilege of the Sword, and Delia read from her forthcoming and incredibly intimidating Changeling (intimidating because it's so good I don't see anyone reading anything I've written when she's writing YA). After the readings I hung out at the art show and was further intimidated by people who have more talent than I do, then caught a ride home with D&E, who also gave me a ride to the con on Saturday morning.
Can I just say how awesome a panel this was? Delia Sherman, Beth Meacham, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Sarah Monette, and James D. Macdonald (who was moderating) debating such questions as "What would have happened had Jane Austen written Starship Troopers?" Yeah, it rocked.
Highlights include the agreement that Austen is a writer's writer - her prose is beautiful, simple and compact. Her brilliance lies in her ability to dissect her own Mannered Society, and that is why many immitators fail. A lot of focus was on how Austen wrote in a code of manners, and if you could decode her prose, you got a lot more out of it and learned something about a good work of literature along the way. The best part is that once you learn to decode Austen, you can probably learn to code your own characters.
To answer the Starship Troopers question - the violence would happen off stage and people would discuss it in hushed tones. Most likely, Austen would have focused on the people left behind rather than the soldiers. Convalescence and grief would take longer. Austen, the panel determined through much discussion of the fact, thinks in terms of individuals within a set structure, whereas Heinlein focused on the groups.
A major point the panel agreed on was that Austen isn't writing a romantic novel. Very economic, focused on securing the future, but not uber-swooning romantic. Consequently, Firefly also functions as a mannered society.
Partway through this panel I gave up on taking notes. Not because it was bad, just I became so engrosed in the subject I totally failed at writing things down. Our panelists were: Delia Sherman, Faye Ringel (moderator), Greer Gilman, and Rosemary Kirstein.
Faye quickly pointed out that while Delia is quick to steal the plots of ballads, Greer is fond of stealing the tropes. The whole panel was very insistent on the fact that ballads have a brilliant skeleton for a novel or story - kind of like storytelling abridged.
A feature of ballads (at least the English ones) is that women tend to be much more proactive than the princess in the tower of the typical fantasy. It may lead to a nastier end, but they do try. Also, ballads take place long ago and far away, but there is no statement of how long ago and how far away so you can insert your own culture, psychology, and why.
Also, absolutely must find Charles Vess's Book of Ballads.
From those two, I snuck a quick lunch break and went on to see Genius Loci with Elizabeth Bear, Ellen Kushner, Sarah Monette, Joshua Palmatier, and Elaine Isaak.
Sarah Monette informed one and all that her favorite setting is the Mines of Moria for an abundance of reasons including that the Fellowship is passing through the epilogue of another story, they evoke tragedy and a sense of history, and it is also the ultimate descent into the underworld. It is the most archeological setting in LotR because Moria is dead dead dead. Elizabeth Bear said Neil Gaiman evoked the most realistic setting for her in American Gods when he spoke of the Minnesotta cold. For Ellen, it was James Burke with his sense of place, Ursula Le Guin, and Tolkien.
One thing everyone brought up was that you must, as an author, provide that sense of place not just in what things look like, but also with temperature, smell, the lighting. You have to hit all five senses to make a full story. Elizabeth Bear informs us that one dead rat floating in the gutter is worth 7500 street urchins and that we are not storytellers - we transmit the experience.
What do you do if you grew up in suburban America and have no idea what Europe looks or feels like? Well, there's nothing for it but primary source material. Museums, libraries, and your own bona fide immagination.
It is also important to remember that a narrator doesn't need to tell everything - just the important details, nor does a 3rd person narrator have to be neutral.
I think this entry is ridiculously long, so I shall save the George R. R. Martin stuff and the panel on getting your work out of the slush pile for later.
So, without further ado, I will talk at length about Boskone.
My experience did not begin on the most auspicious note as I was delayed by the 4PM Friday Meeting of Doom that went over two and a half hours and made me want to strangle people. I practically ran out and zoomed to the Prudential Center, where I was momentarily lost. Do I head to the Magic Place of Tea for calming soothing things, or straight to the con? The magic tea place was out of sample cups, so I went to the con and registered.
I snuck into the end of the Heroine's Journey panel. 'Twas very amusing, as only a panel can be with Tamora Pierce on it. Sadly, I didn't take notes on this one, as I was tired and brain dead. I learned better the next day.
I skipped the 8 o'clock hour in desperate need of food, and ran to the food court with
mrsix. The food court obliged, and I returned fortified for the Grim's Fairy Cabaret (which I keep trying to spell "Grimm's Faerie" in the need to be pretentious). 'Twas wonderful! I met matociquala, who wound up sitting behind us, and a host of other local types prior to the start of the show and managed to scrounge together the $3 to get the program book which features such hits as "Are We Elvish?" (To the tune of "Do You Love Me?"), "Cinderella's Way," and "Red Moondance" (which featured the absolutely heavenly vocals of David G. Grubbs). Not to mention the first two songs were to the tune of "Guys and Dolls" and "Adelaide's Lament" which had me rolling on the floor, as I'd done Guys & Dolls way back in middle school.Then I caught the end of Cecilia Tan's reading, and the whole of
ellen_kushner and Delia Sherman's. Ellen read from her forthcoming and divine The Privilege of the Sword, and Delia read from her forthcoming and incredibly intimidating Changeling (intimidating because it's so good I don't see anyone reading anything I've written when she's writing YA). After the readings I hung out at the art show and was further intimidated by people who have more talent than I do, then caught a ride home with D&E, who also gave me a ride to the con on Saturday morning.Can I just say how awesome a panel this was? Delia Sherman, Beth Meacham, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Sarah Monette, and James D. Macdonald (who was moderating) debating such questions as "What would have happened had Jane Austen written Starship Troopers?" Yeah, it rocked.
Highlights include the agreement that Austen is a writer's writer - her prose is beautiful, simple and compact. Her brilliance lies in her ability to dissect her own Mannered Society, and that is why many immitators fail. A lot of focus was on how Austen wrote in a code of manners, and if you could decode her prose, you got a lot more out of it and learned something about a good work of literature along the way. The best part is that once you learn to decode Austen, you can probably learn to code your own characters.
To answer the Starship Troopers question - the violence would happen off stage and people would discuss it in hushed tones. Most likely, Austen would have focused on the people left behind rather than the soldiers. Convalescence and grief would take longer. Austen, the panel determined through much discussion of the fact, thinks in terms of individuals within a set structure, whereas Heinlein focused on the groups.
A major point the panel agreed on was that Austen isn't writing a romantic novel. Very economic, focused on securing the future, but not uber-swooning romantic. Consequently, Firefly also functions as a mannered society.
Partway through this panel I gave up on taking notes. Not because it was bad, just I became so engrosed in the subject I totally failed at writing things down. Our panelists were: Delia Sherman, Faye Ringel (moderator), Greer Gilman, and Rosemary Kirstein.
Faye quickly pointed out that while Delia is quick to steal the plots of ballads, Greer is fond of stealing the tropes. The whole panel was very insistent on the fact that ballads have a brilliant skeleton for a novel or story - kind of like storytelling abridged.
A feature of ballads (at least the English ones) is that women tend to be much more proactive than the princess in the tower of the typical fantasy. It may lead to a nastier end, but they do try. Also, ballads take place long ago and far away, but there is no statement of how long ago and how far away so you can insert your own culture, psychology, and why.
Also, absolutely must find Charles Vess's Book of Ballads.
From those two, I snuck a quick lunch break and went on to see Genius Loci with Elizabeth Bear, Ellen Kushner, Sarah Monette, Joshua Palmatier, and Elaine Isaak.
Sarah Monette informed one and all that her favorite setting is the Mines of Moria for an abundance of reasons including that the Fellowship is passing through the epilogue of another story, they evoke tragedy and a sense of history, and it is also the ultimate descent into the underworld. It is the most archeological setting in LotR because Moria is dead dead dead. Elizabeth Bear said Neil Gaiman evoked the most realistic setting for her in American Gods when he spoke of the Minnesotta cold. For Ellen, it was James Burke with his sense of place, Ursula Le Guin, and Tolkien.
One thing everyone brought up was that you must, as an author, provide that sense of place not just in what things look like, but also with temperature, smell, the lighting. You have to hit all five senses to make a full story. Elizabeth Bear informs us that one dead rat floating in the gutter is worth 7500 street urchins and that we are not storytellers - we transmit the experience.
What do you do if you grew up in suburban America and have no idea what Europe looks or feels like? Well, there's nothing for it but primary source material. Museums, libraries, and your own bona fide immagination.
It is also important to remember that a narrator doesn't need to tell everything - just the important details, nor does a 3rd person narrator have to be neutral.
I think this entry is ridiculously long, so I shall save the George R. R. Martin stuff and the panel on getting your work out of the slush pile for later.