Hunkering down before the summer gets crazy
Unexpectedly, my summer has filled itself up with back-to-back events, and I find myself about to start scrambling to keep up.
But not quite yet! In fact, I’m first entering a period of quiet, solitude and Deep Creative Thinks.  My sister is off to house-sit/cat-sit for those pals in New Hampshire I’ve mentioned before. You remember: the ones with the gorgeous house on the pond, with geese and a blue heron rookery, and starry skies all night, and reasonably friendly cat of great beauty. So, I’ve got the condo all to myself! For three solid weeks. I need not be even marginally social, which is good, because I’ll get plenty of that during the deluge.
First up after my break: Readercon.
My schedule:
Reading: Rosemary Kirstein
Fri 6:30 PM, Salon C
Kaffeeklatsches: Liz Gorinsky, Rosemary Kirstein
Fri 9:00 PM, Concierge Lounge
Autographs: Rosemary Kirstein, Sarah Pinsker
Sun 1:00 PM, Autograph Table
Found Family in SF
Sun 2:00 PM, Salon B
Anatoly Belilovsky, Rosemary Kirstein, Bart Leib, Sarah Pinsker (mod), Catherynne M. Valente
Ideas of family are sensitive to societal conditions, so science fiction—a genre that frequently concerns itself with adjusted societal conditions—is a fruitful space for exploring the concept of found family. Panelists will discuss tropes and examples of familylike groups in SF (especially in confined situations such as starships, colonies, schools, and walled compounds) and the ways that these stories relate to the reality of found families for people isolated by present-day societal conditions.
Reading: I don’t yet know what I’ll be reading. I feel that I’ve already read an awful lot of the early bits from Book 5, and the later bits that I do have would be too spoilery. I’ll see if I can winkle out some unread-sections from the start, or possibly dig up something else entirely. I’ve even read from the start of Book 6 before (although that was a while back).
Kaffeeklatsch: Kaffeeklatches are, I think, unique to SF/F conventions. If you don’t know what it is: it’s you and people like you, just sitting around a table and shooting the breeze with an author. There’s a sign-up sheet, first come first served, since space is limited. I don’t know where they keep that sign-up sheet… I’m sure you can ask at convention registration when you arrive.
Autographs: Most of my readers read my books as ebooks! How does one autograph an ebook? Well, one doesn’t, but I will bring with me a stack of postcards I’d had made as promotional items, and there’s plenty of space on them for signing. You can have one, free gratis and for nothing!
Found Family in SF: This will be interesting, and one of the things I’ll bring up is Laurie J. Marks’ family configurations in her Elemental Logic series.
Oh, and there’s also this panel, for which I am not a participant, but will definitely be in the audience:
Classic Fiction Book Club: Rosemary Kirstein’s Steerswomen Series
Saturday 12:00 PM Salon A
Elaine Isaak, Victoria Janssen, Yves Meynard, Kate Nepveu (mod), Cecilia Tan
Since the publication of Rosemary Kirstein’s first novel, The Steerswoman, in 1989, the Steerswoman series has become a quiet classic for its powerful female friendships, slowly-revealed worldbuilding, and unique approach to genre paradigms. Over the last 30 years, four novels have been published, with another two intended in the future. We’ll look at the state of the series today, and speculate about where it might be going.
So… that’s a thing.
This is the second time a convention has had a panel on my books, the previous one being at Scintillation in Montreal last year. I was actually on the panel myself that time. I did offer take part this time as well — but I also told the program people that if they felt it would be better for me to not be on stage as one of the panelists, I’d be fine with that. And that’s the way they chose to do it. But I did request that they not schedule me on some other panel at the same hour!  Because, seriously: if it’s happening, I’ve got to see it! Also, I’m so pleased that the panelists are all people I like and admire. It should be very interesting.
And speaking of Laurie J. Marks (as I did a few paragraphs ago):
The fourth and final volume of her Elemental Logic series, Air Logic is out! As a fellow member of her writing group, The Fabulous Genrettes, I was witness to multiple iterations of these books as works-in-progress. I’m thrilled to bits at how they’ve turned out, and how they are gaining Laurie the recognition she deserves.
And meanwhile, over at Tor.com, Brit Mandelo has written a series of articles exploring the ideas and issues in the books — one article each for Fire Logic, Earth Logic, Water Logic, and finally Air Logic. Now, as interesting as the articles are, you should be aware that they are analyses, and so contain reams and reams of spoilers. So, simple solution: Read the books first! And if you’ve read the first three already, they can serve to set you up for the ideas that continue in Air Logic.
After Readercon — that is, the very next weekend — I’ll be attending a multi-generational gathering and hike, on and/or near Mount Washington, in honor of the 75th birthday of one member gang (Hi Bob!) of my own “found family”.  Well, one of my found families. I seem to have more than one….
And after that — immediately after that — its off to Canada with Laurie and her wife and dog, to see what we can see in New Brunswick, a place I’ve never been. Â Must remember my passport.
When I get back I’ll have just enough time to catch my breath, and then — Cat-sitting! New Hampshire! Pond, birds.
And then, quite suddenly, It will be September.
It’s scary how fast time moves. Look at that: I’m here in the middle of June, seeing the end of the summer right in front of me.
Well. Must make good use of my pre-Readercon time.
In other news: saw a freakin’ bobcat in my back yard. If you follow my Facebook page, you already know this, as I posted it the instant it happened, out of sheer astonishment. Later, someone else in a nearby town also spotted a bobcat, possibly the same one.
I can’t help wondering: With Sleeping Giant State Park (less than a mile away) shut down for over a year now, due to those tornadoes that hit it — I wonder what the wildlife is doing in there, with no people to disturb them?