Apex Books Blog & SF Signal Mind Meld

Last week, on SF Signal’s Mind Meld on food in science fiction and fantasy, I joined authors Laura Ann Gilman, Sherwood Smith, A.M. Dellamonica, Bryan Thomas Schmidt, Bradley Beaulieu, Leah Peterson, Kat Howard, Joanne Anderton, Aliette de Bodard, Rose Fox, Linda Nagata, Michael Martinez, and Judith Tarr in answering the following question: “Food and Drink in science fiction sometimes seems limited to replicator requests for Earl Grey tea and Soylent green discs. Why doesn’t do as much food as Fantasy? Does Fantasy lend itself more to food than Science fiction? Why?” It’s great fun, everyone is brilliant, and the list of new reads is epic.

This Wednesday, I’ll join the blog crew at Apex Books. I’m very excited to be part of this project – Publisher Jason Sizemore has put together a great group of writers, and fantastic monthly themes.

The first topic? Noir. Problem: I don’t know anything about Noir. So I bribed Gregory Frost and Jonathan McGoran, both Philly writers well steeped in Noir, to help me fill in my knowledge gaps. Tune in Wednesday to see how we did.

PS: my friend A.C. Wise is also going to be making appearances at Apex Books’ Blog. Very exciting!

Trains of Thought

So I’m setting out on another adventure this morning, mostly by train. By the time this trip is finished, if all works out as planned, I’ll have cover art to talk about, I’ll have attended some excellent con panels, seen many friends, and I will have flown in a wind tunnel.

You read that last one right.

Next up: Philcon 2012

I’m headed back to Philcon next week! If you’re attending, let me know below.

A.C. Wise did a great thing when she posted her Philcon schedule here – asked for suggestions for her panels.  It’s such a great Idea, I’m going to steal borrow it.  I know where I sit re: Tesla vs. Edison – what about you?  And how about Anne McCaffrey – what’s your favorite of her stories or novels?

There are quite a few panels I’m looking forward to attending – some of those are in gray already – let me know what else I should add.

Turning the Lights Back On

Before I get to the business of November…

Our power went back on Tuesday afternoon, and we cleared the remnants of the storm from our front yard that same day. Many people aren’t so lucky. I donated to the Red Cross from my phone when the power came back. The storm is past, but the need remains. If you want to help, visit Red Cross.

Ok. November. Some things to keep your eyes open for here this month, and into December:

• Cooking the Books interviews with Steven Brust and Aliette de Bodard
• Strange Horizons will host the first Cooking the Books roundtable later this month, featuring Elizabeth Bear, Gregory Frost, Scott Lynch, and Nalo Hopkinson. You are wise to stock up on antacid before that time.
• and I’ll be at Philcon – my home con. I’ll post my schedule as soon as I can.

Meantime, I’m working on edits for the book, and several short stories. What are you working on?

Nature Magazine publishes “Without” in Sept. 20 Issue

Nature, Volume 489 Number 7416

I’m married to a Ph.D. biochemist, so Nature Magazine is popular in my house for both the Futures section and all the science.

I was at Readercon when I learned my story “Without” had been accepted for publication in Nature, and I had a fine time phoning home and announcing that I’d been published there… before my husband had. Husband was very patient, and even a little chuffed, though he pretended to be jealous.

You can now read “Without,” online, or in print at your local newsstand.

And if you’re new to this blog, coming the other direction by way of Nature, I’ve prepared some links to satisfy your curious mind.  Have a Cooking the Books interview with Joe & Gay Haldeman, about making pizza in a foxhole with plastic explosives.  Or the whole series (so far) of Cooking the Books interviews.

Hope you enjoy, wherever you are, and wherever you’re headed.

A Richness of Firsts: Chicon 7, the Retrospective

Food & Fantasy panel audience – my first panel audience. Missing: excellent co-panelists James Bryant, Petrea Mitchell, Daio, and Mary Frances Zambreno. Included in photo: Classic Kelly Lagor photobomb

(with added booklist from the food & fantasy panel, see below)

The Short Version

When I deplaned in Philly on Monday night, I had this silly grin on my face, and I was still tweeting and messaging up a storm, as I’d been doing for the past five days in Chicago for Worldcon.  My family found it amusing, and a little annoying.  ”You’re home now,” they said. “Con’s over.”

Except it’s not, not really.

This was my first Worldcon, and I had a few things on my schedule that I’d never done before – namely reading the opening of my new novel aloud to people who weren’t related to me, and talking on convention panels. Those went great.  Especially because my friends, old and new, were there, cheering me on – by photobombing my pics of my first panel audience, among other things (I see what you did, there, Kelly Lagor).

Cooking the Books Loves Wired Magazine Today

We here at Cooking the Books would like to take a moment to doff our collective hats toward Wired Magazine‘s Geek Mom column, for “Fourteen Fictional Foods You Can’t Have (and recipes for them)” — Fruity Oaty Bars, Lembas, and Ice-Nine — Go and feast your eyes!

There will be cake…

Not familiar with Cooking the Books? We post interviews with speculative fiction writers – including Elizabeth Bear, Gregory Frost, Steven Gould, and Michael Swanwick - about the intersections between writing and cooking.  Joe and Gay Haldeman’s interview (how to cook pizza in a foxhole!) is on the way.  And the first Cooking the Books Roundtable will appear in Strange Horizons soon, featuring Nalo Hopkinson, Elizabeth Bear, Scott Lynch, and Gregory Frost.

My Chicon Schedule

>> updated, 11:30 am 8/7

I have a con schedule! That’s kind of cool terrifying cool.

Mostly I’m excited about attending other people’s panels and readings and kaffeklatches and writers-under-glass events, but I’m looking forward to these events too :

All is of course subject to change until events actually happen.

• Thursday, Aug. 30, 1:30 – 3pm, (Wright) – Panel: Food and Fantasy in SF
• Friday, Aug. 31, 3-4:30 pm (Picasso) – Panel: Travel as Research (new)
• Saturday, Sept. 1, 9 – 10:30 am – Codex Breakfast
• Sunday, Sept. 2, 10 am – 12 pm, (Sandburg) – Writers’ Workshop
• Sunday, Sept. 2, 7pm – 7:30pm (Dusable) Reading*

* I am really glad about the scheduling of this reading. While I know most people will be getting ready for, or finding seats at, the Hugos while I’m in Dusable, and I hope someone will save me a seat, this is great scheduling for my first con reading. It’s low-profile and (as someone mentioned elsewhere very wisely) it’s almost as if I’m the warm-up act for the Hugos. How cool is that?

PS – there will be cookies.

If you’re going to Chicon, see you there! If not, stay tuned and I’ll let you know how it was.

Slouching toward Boston

10 am Thursday – we hit the road.

For the record, should you have a chance to roadtrip with either Kelly Lagor or A.C. Wise, do it. Great fun.

We have discovered that Boston is magically 6 hours from everything. Except if you take the GW bridge. Then it’s 8.

(the sign says Readercon or Bust, but this is what happens when you ask strangers to take photos.)

Found our VP people fast and totally took over the restaurant lounge. Awesome.

8 am Friday: Going for coffee when you are wearing your Firefly “also I can kill you with my brain” tshirt is amusing.

If you haven’t tried out the Guidebook App on iTunes, it’s insanely good for organizing a con. If you’re at Readercon and don’t have this yet – highly recommended.

So many readings and panels I want to go to today. And a lot of hanging out I want to do. Decisions decisions…

Tweetercon:

The Care and Feeding of Your Assassin-Self

While so stealthy as to avoid a listing in Wikipedia, the assassin-self nevertheless runs wild when creatives are present.  The ratio is sometimes as great as 1:1.

For those who have had an assassin-self appear by their desk, or, worse, in public, with sour looks of pity and greasy sussurations of “not good enough,” and “shouldn’t even try,” a friend of mine* proposed the following regimen of care and feeding.

Care: 

• Swift curb kicks and regular repetition of “this doth not suck.”
• Earplugs (for you)
• Continuing to write.

Feeding

• Don’t.

What are your methods for dealing with the assassin-self?

 

*with many thanks, as always