Eagles Over the Kennebec

We're back!

Despite a rocky start, Boskone was grand, though it would have been something much other than grand if a lot of people hadn't pitched in to bail us out when things went pear-shaped. Heroes of the revolution include: Victor Stevko, Lara (whose last name I never get right because it is long and exotic and I am a writer of little brain), Seanan McGuire, Kate (another last name gone), and her friend whose name I never got at all, Bob Devney, Barbara Karpel, the Kushner brothers, Sally Kobee, Judith Klein-Dial, Lis Carey, Ben Yallow, Myles O'Reilly, and Max Poddubny. Without them, there would have been a very sparse party indeed, and no Lee and Miller books at the convention.

I especially enjoyed the chance to catch up with pbray and jenniferdunne, and was deeply gratified by the audience reaction to my reading from Carousel Tides. The 20th Anniversary Party was nicely attended, as was the retrospective panel. A Good Con, yes indeed.


Progress on Longeye:

39647 / 100000 words.
40% done!

A tree exploded in the back lot a couple minutes ago, waking Mozart and sending me out of my chair with a flashback to January 1998. The lights are dancing a tango as I type this, egged on by tweeps from the UPS units.

I am packed for Boskone, since we're leaving for the train directly I get off work tomorrow. If it ain't in there, it ain't going, and a good thing, too; if my bag was any fuller, it would bust a seam.

Wherever you are, I hope it's where you want to be; that you're safe and warm and dry and content in the people you love.

See you on the flipside.

Progress on Longeye:

38474 / 100000 words.
38% done!

The ...penultimate Boskone schedule, which I have looked upon and found pleasing. An (M) by a person's name means that person is modertating that particular panel. Suite number for the Friday night SRM Publisher party and Saturday night anniversary bash TBA.

Boskone information, including a complete list of guests is right over here

Friday 6pm How to Improve Conventions: A Pre-Gripe Session
Vince Docherty, Mary Kay Kare, Steve Miller, Priscilla Olson(M)
We can't promise to fix it before this con begins (if you haven't noticed). But our experienced conrunners are eager to receive and exchange ideas on what to do better next time, at this or any other con. More tropical locations? Powered exoskeletal walkers? All Neil Gaiman all the time? Large cash payments to panelists and conrunners? Libertarian-free zones? Footrubs for everbody? Chocolate delivery 24/7?

Friday 8pm Tracking History
Patricia Bray, Rosemary Kirstein (M), Sharon Lee, Timothy Liebe, David Weber
Any large multi-volume work (like the Honorverse) gradually builds up an internal history of its own which the writer will probably want to keep consistent. How is this done? Is it worth doing? Is it worth agonizing over? Does consistency with previous stories impede the writing of new ones? Compare and contrast the Honorverse with other complex future histories such as H. Beam Piper's or Poul Anderson's.

Friday Night: SRM Publisher Open House!

Saturday 11am Kaffeeklatsch Steve Miller

Saturday 12noon The Storyteller's Bowl: Making Money Off the Web
Eve Ackerman(M), MaryAnn Johanson, Sharon Lee, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Trish Wilson
Old idea, new technology: some writers are cutting out the middleman and publishing straight to the web via the "storyteller's bowl" model. In this arrangement, a chapter is posted once subscriptions reach a pre-set $um. Is this model good for the long term? Is it always successful? Should you try it for your next project?

Saturday1:30pm Reading (0.5 hrs)
Steve Miller (tba)

Saturday 3pm Spear Carriers Are People, Too
Patricia Bray, Bruce Coville, Don D'Ammassa(M), Sharon Lee, Paul Park
How do you make a walk-on character rounded and memorable? Can a supporting player ever be so striking that he, she, or it draws too much attention from the main cast members? What minor portaits from SF, fantasy, or horror books or movies do we still recall with fondness (or other strong emotion)?

Saturday 4pm Reading (0.5 hrs)
Sharon Lee reads from Carousel Tides

Saturday Night: Friends of Liad/Val Con and Miri's 20th Anniversary Party!

Sunday 11am Twenty Years of the Liaden Universe®
Sharon Lee, Steve Miller
This month marks the 20th anniversary of Agent of Change, the first Liaden Universe® book. Eleven books, numerous stories, and a couple million words later, the series' authors, two leading lights of New England science fiction, host a retrospective of where the time went -- plus where the series has been and is likely to go. They may also touch on topics such as writing with your life partner, how to mix strong elements of romance with bleak themes of savage warfare and the death of universes, and the promise and problems of electronic publication. No pronunciation of the full name of any Clutch Turtle will be attempted.

Sunday 12noon Working in the Shadows: Influences
Bruce Coville, Steve Miller(M), Dean Morrissey, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, David Weber
It's said that only a few thousand people bought the Velvet Underground's first album -- but every one of them started a band. What creative people in our genres have had similar influence on our panelists? On the field as a whole? Do influences from outside the genre count? How about bad influences? Can one be influenced without imitating? As leaders in their fields, how do our panelists try to influence others?

Sunday 12noon Kaffeeklatsch Sharon Lee

We have achieved a Boskone Preliminary Schedule! This will be followed in good time by a Final Schedule, including such things as kaffeklatsches, readings, autographings and the ever-popular etcetera. Presented as a public service for those who like to start planning their panel attendance early.

Friday 6pm How to Improve Conventions: A Pre-Gripe Session
Vince Docherty, Mary Kay Kare, Steve Miller, Priscilla Olson

Friday 8pm Tracking History
Patricia Bray, Rosemary Kirstein, Sharon Lee, Timothy Liebe, David Weber
Any large multi-volume work (like the Honorverse) gradually builds
up an internal history of its own which the writer will probably
want to keep consistent. How is this done? Is it worth doing? Is it
worth agonizing over? Does consistency with previous stories impede
the writing of new ones? Compare and contrast the Honorverse with
other complex future histories such as H. Beam Piper's or Poul
Anderson's.

Saturday noon The Storyteller's Bowl: Making Money Off the Web
Eve Ackerman, MaryAnn Johanson, Sharon Lee, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Trish Wilson
Old idea, new technology: some writers are cutting out the middleman
and publishing straight to the web via the "storyteller's bowl"
model. In this arrangement, a chapter is posted once subscriptions
reach a pre-set $um. Is this model good for the long term? Is it
always successful? Should you try it for your next project?

Saturday 3pm Spear Carriers Are People, Too
Patricia Bray, Bruce Coville, Don D'Ammassa, Sharon Lee, Paul Park
How do you make a walk-on character rounded and memorable? Can a
supporting player ever be so striking that he, she, or it draws too
much attention from the main cast members? What minor portaits from
SF, fantasy, or horror books or movies do we still recall with
fondness (or other strong emotion)?


Sunday 11am Twenty Years of the Liaden Universe
Sharon Lee, Steve Miller
This month marks the 20th anniversary of Agent of Change, the first
Liaden Universe book. Eleven books, numerous stories, and a couple
million words later, the series' authors, two leading lights of New
England science fiction, host a retrospective of where the time went
-- plus where the series has been and is likely to go. They may also
touch on topics such as writing with your life partner, how to mix
strong elements of romance with bleak themes of savage warfare and
the death of universes, and the promise and problems of electronic
publication. No pronunciation of the full name of any Clutch Turtle
will be attempted.


Sunday noon Working in the Shadows: Influences
Bruce Coville, Steve Miller, Dean Morrissey, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, David Weber
It's said that only a few thousand people bought the Velvet
Underground's first album -- but every one of them started a
band. What creative people in our genres have had similar influence on
our panelists? On the field as a whole? Do influences from outside
the genre count? How about bad influences? Can one be influenced
without imitating? As leaders in their fields, how do our panelists try
to influence others?

February 2008 marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of a quirky little space opera titled Agent of Change written by a pair of quirky authors named Steve Miller kinzel and Sharon Lee rolanni.

To celebrate this event, there will be a Liaden Universe® suite at Boskone and we look forward to seeing you -- yes, you! -- there to raise a cookie and toast the Clan.

Note: We're also looking for help running the suite, so if you're going to be going to Boskone and would like to help, please drop a note to Steve at srmATkorval.com.

We'd like to take the opportunity of this Auspicious Event to thank all of our readers and Friends of Liad for their interest, support, encouragement and friendship over the years and across the galaxy.

You guys rock.

Sharon and Steve

Background:
I have received an invitation to be a panelist at Boskone, which is something I'm always pleased to see. Since 1998 I think we've only missed two Boskones -- both times because we were Guests of Honor/Special Guests at another con on the same weekend. February is a Good Time for a New England convention, the good folks at NESFA throw a great party, and it's wonderful to catch up with the traveling tribe.

Just to be clear, I adore Boskone and always have a great time, once I've arrived.

However, being the Shy, Retiring Gentlewoman(tm) that I am, the pre-con is sometimes -- OK, often -- a bit difficult.

For instance, when a convention invites you to be a panelist, they often send along a list of topics and ask you to tell them which you are expert enough to discuss with four-to-six other panelists for 50-55 minutes in front of a room full of people, many of whom probably know more about the topic than you do. They will ask you to suggest topics for discussion, and to share with them which subjects you would, for whatever reason, Really Rather Not talk about.

This is all Good. I've been to a few conventions where I discovered the panels and topics thereof when I arrived at the convention, an approach that produces interesting, if variable, results.

My particular problem is that I inevitably look at the list of suggested topics -- and wilt. There are droves of fascinating and erudite people in the SF/Fantasy community. Me? Not so much. So, I tend to say that I'll be pleased to participate in panels discussing writing, the business of, and those discussing characterization. I used to say that I'd be pleased to participate in discussions of worldbuilding, but that found me on hard science panels where the panelists were, yanno, building a world, which is not what I mean when I say worldbuilding, but I'm apparently in the minority, there.

So, finally, the question:
What would you like to hear me discuss on a panel with four-to-six other panelist? Take as much room as you need.

Special bonus question:
What topics/events are you missing in your convention diet?

There was a convention. It was fun.

The new hotel needs some work ([whine] I miss Prudential Center! [endwhine]). For instance, they did not immediately take into account that a hotel in the middle of a Metropolitan Wasteland, with construction to the right of it, construction to the left of it, and Boston Harbor afore it, might possibly need to feed a Goodly Number of Convention Attendees. To their credit, once realizing what they were faced with, they Took Steps, and I didn't hear that anybody starved. The space itself is quite nice -- open, airy, and easy to navigate

Workwise, my weekend was a coast. I moderated all three of my scheduled panels, and honestly, my co-panelists were so well-informed, charming, witty, and forthcoming they left me nothing to do except, regretfully, call time so that we could clear the room for the next event. The Business of Writing and the Vividness panels, in particular, could have easily gone another 30 minutes without running short of information or panelist enthusiasm.

People kindly came to our literary beer, and also to hear us read from Fledgling, so we felt loved.

The con was a little short of company this year, due in part to nasty weather in places other than Boston, but I saw a bunch of friends, some of whom I didn't get to talk to nearly enough, but that's the nature of cons...

I partied a little on Friday night, stopping by the BWOP open house hosted by klingonguy, and visited the Philcon party before going down to the artshow reception. After, we stopped by the filking at the invitation of Filk GOHs Lee and Barry Gold, who were kind enough to perform Lee's song, "Agent of Change," for us. That was just...awesome.

Saturday evening, after a build-your-own-pasta dinner taken on the mezzanine overlooking the ultra-busy lobby bar, and some good talk with old friends, I turned into a pumpkin. kinzel made a modest round of the parties, but was back in the room before midnight.

I got my timing tangled on Sunday, unfortunately, and by the time my last panel was done, I was too late to find the guy with the painted fans and the gorgeous magnetic jewelry. Sigh. Maybe next year.

Anyway, we're home now and slowly re-energizing. I did get some writing done at the con, but not as much as I had hoped. Also the nature of cons...

Hope y'all had a good and pleasant weekend, wherever you were.

The preliminary Boskone schedule arrived on the overnight; reproduced below for your listening pleasure:

Sat 12:00 noon
The Business Side of Writing
Our experienced panel is all business as they discuss topics such as
how to get, grok, and get along with agents and publishers; why
keeping good records prevents bad karma; whether you can deduct
Boskone from your taxes; and what to do after submitting your latest
story. (Hint: start your next one.)
Jeffrey A. Carver
Gay Haldeman
(M) Sharon Lee
Darlene Marshall


Sat 2:00pm 0.5 hours
Reading
Sharon Lee
Steve Miller


Sun 11:00am
Making Writing More Vivid and Memorable
How can a writer make the story particularly vivid or more memorable?
Omit needless words? Show, don't tell? (And never say "very"?) Does
the use of specific place names or particular word choices help? How
else do writers bring those marks on the pages to life? Why do some
passages or details stay with us after the book is done, but others
are gone a month later. Perfectly prepared panelists may even bring
favorite passages.
Tobias Buckell
Greer Gilman
(M) Sharon Lee


Sun 2:00pm
The Devil Is in the Details
Sometimes, a writer can get some details wrong and a story can still
be a great one. At other times, getting the details wrong is a killer.
What details does a writer have to focus on? Where can you get away
with missing something? How does this vary, depending upon your
audience? What kinds of things will an audience ignore, even if they
know that they are wrong?

Michael F. Flynn
Rosemary Kirstein
(M) Sharon Lee


In other news, it has snowed/is snowing and the day's outlook is for More of the Same. Currently a balmy 27F(-3C).

Mozart wants his wake-up cookies, and I want a cup of coffee...

The weekend was a lot of fun in spots and not so much fun in others. Sort of like life.

Details ( behind the cut )