catherineldf | Jun. 29th, 2015

Seeing as it's looming this week. In addition to the panels below, I can also be found at the Arcana 45/Diversicon/Tales of the Unanticipated revolving party in Kruschenko's, wherever it may be, and roaming free-range around the con. Ping me if you need to find me.
Full schedule is here.

How Are Anthologies Made?

Have you ever wondered how these collections come to be? Let our panel walk you through the process, from origination to publication. Panelists: Catherine Lundoff, Tim Lieder, Toni Weisskopf, Lynne M Thomas, Roy C. Booth

Adding Humor to Your Writing
There are many types of humor, but writing in something that is actually funny can be difficult, be it literature, television, movies, theater, or audio plays. What are some techniques to help write humor that reaches the audience successfully? Panelists: phillip low, Melissa Olson, Catherine Lundoff, Patrick Tomlinson, Wesley Chu

Build-A-World with Guests
Welcome one and all to the Build-a-World game show, with your host Monica Valentinelli! In this panel, two teams of writers will compete against one another to create a brand new world in under an hour. You, the audience, will help judge! Panelists: Monica Valentinelli (mod), Paul Cornell, Elizabeth Bear, Catherine Lundoff, Martha Wells

Because how can I not?

Starting with Friday's news. OMG, what a huge, giant relief and source of joy! I'm so happy for the folks who can now have their relationships legally recognized and can access the associated benefits. I'm glad for the folks who have decided to get married. I'm deeply grateful to all those who paved the way for this day to come in U.S. and wish we hadn't lost so many more of them along the way. Does it fix everything? Sadly, not by a longshot. It's a victory, not the end of the campaign. But for those of us who didn't have hospitalization visitation rights, access to survivor benefits, parental rights, tax benefits, healthcare benefits, etc., etc., this is a giant boon. I'm not paying nearly twice as much for my wife's healthcare, like I was when we were domestic partners. We were able to vastly improve out tax situation. And from our personal standpoint, not living in constant terror of producing a sequel to Why Can't Sharon Kowalski Come Home? every time one of us has to travel somewhere less progressive is stupendous. So, thank you, everyone who made this possible.

We sort of celebrated by going to the Twin Cities Antiquarian Book Fair, since we had already planned that with friends. Chatted with a lot of folks, picked up a couple of books and got booted out a bit too early for me; I needed another half hour for browsing. Saturday morning, we were off to Twin Cities Pride to bask in the sunshine, literally and figuratively. It was lovely and pleasant and I have new earrings and a commemorative tshirt from a friend's company, plus bonus greeting of friends all over the place.

From there, my wife went home, my friend moved on and I went to 4th Street Fantasy. 4th Street, for those unfamiliar with it, is a small local con dedicated to discussing books. Big name pros of various sorts are often thick on the ground,and there's a single track of programming, plus sundry other events. It is traditionally one of my "mixed feels" cons. On the one hand, there are friends I love to hang out with and the panels can sometimes be quite interesting. On the other, it can be quite cliquish and I have sat through some truly unsound writing advice to newby writers who hung on each word. I also find myself getting irritated by a sense of self-satisfaction about the whole affair, which I'm not sure it earns. What I interpret as a lack of interest in genre diversity--attendance tends to be a very homogenous, panelists often discuss each other's books and don't venture much outside the charmed circle of current attendees, panel topics tend to be geared toward a given cultural default, etc. --make it rather frustrating for me. Then there's the just plain weird crap, like getting told that the Con suite didn't have the recycling bin provided by the hotel because attendees just couldn't figure it out (Srsly? Blue thing, spinny arrows, often says "Recycling" on it? In a metropolitan area where nearly every event and venue has some form of recycling in it?). The mind truly boggles. So, yeah. I understand that a number of my friends absolutely love it, but I sometimes feel like I'm attending a different event from the one they're at, and it's not big enough to have that much dissonance. Sigh. I think it's time for a year off, barring some big shift in scheduling or makeup.

In other news, the new front yard retaining wall-landscaping project should be done today. Huzzah! Now, if I can just get my mother's phone hooked up again, life will be blissful. Send chocolate, please!

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Dwelling in Probabilities

Catherine Lundoff's blog

Jun. 29th, 2015

Jun. 29th, 2015

CONvergence 2015 Schedule

Have you ever wondered how these collections come to be? Let our panel walk you through the process, from origination to publication. Panelists: Catherine Lundoff, Tim Lieder, Toni Weisskopf, Lynne M Thomas, Roy C. Booth

Weekend write up...

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