jenwrites

So I let myself get behind on LJ again, and gave up at the 130 mark. Ugh. Sorry if I missed anything major. I'd keep going, but I waste enough time online as it is, and I really need to get in some dance practice, damn it. I've been pretty lax at it of late, and I have to remember that there's no way to get good without putting in the hours. It can't all be costumes and performances. Not unless I want to become one of those stagnant dancers who everyone shakes their head at when they're not looking.

I'm not writing much, either, but that's an entirely different issue. I'm going to try to spend some time on that this evening. I've got a story in the works for an invitational anthology, and I just let all of the steam out of it in the last few hundred words I added to the piece. I need to spend some time tonight reminding myself of rising consequences and all that shit that used to come so easily. Writing is about many things, but being kind to your characters is not one of them. I'd get that as a tattoo, but I think it would confuse people who watched me dance. Plus, I'd have to put it on my body upside down if I wanted it to be easy for me to read.

(Cross-posted from Facebook.)

In general, I'm very comfortable with my atheism, but the one place where I find it lacking in comparison to large-scale religions is when it comes to grief. And I don't mean the whole "I wish I could believe in an afterlife" thing -- I mean their established rituals of grief. When a Catholic relative dies, I know there'll be a service and a burial within a few days. I may find myself getting angry as the priest talks about eternal life and how I'll meet my loved one again, but I still draw great comfort from the ability to grieve with friends and family in a structured environment while the loss is still raw and fresh. I even draw a strange comfort from driving in the funeral procession, watching as traffic stops to acknowledge a life cut short.

But when an atheist dies, or someone from a smaller, less-codified religion dies, it's all up in the air. Will there be a service? What kind? How will I need to dress for it? How long after the death will it take place? Will I be able to cry publicly and get some desperately-needed catharsis, and then will there be a place to go afterwards to be social and remember that life goes on? Will the body be there so we can say goodbye? Will I even be invited?

I understand that one of the perks of atheism is being able to make your own path, but I can't help but feel that we and the folks in eclectic religions should take a lesson from large-scale organized religions and have a remembrance template. It should be something simple, like, "Within a week of a loved one's death, we will gather in a somber place to grieve for them for exactly one hour. And then we will go somewhere afterwards to have pie and whiskey and tell happy stories and let ourselves smile again. And we will be sure to open it to anyone who knew the deceased, because they probably touched more lives than we realized." I'd really like to have that guarantee when a loved one dies. And I suspect I'm not alone in that.

Are there any other atheists or heathens who want to sign on to this template idea?

(This is something that's been bubbling in my head since my father's death, but Julie Waters' death made it crystalize.)

Firstly, my crazy "belly dance to Irish music in a bookstore" event is this Saturday:

http://socialweb.net/Events/138260.lasso

Machine's been getting more and more buzz of late, partly due to me writing a few guest essays:

http://suvudu.com/2012/03/guest-essay-machine-author-jennifer-pelland-on-mechanical-immortality.html

http://blog.outeralliance.org/archives/917

(There's at least two more of those coming.)

Also? I made io9:

http://io9.com/5892369/in-machine-a-woman-deals-with-loss-in-a-world-of-biomechanical-immortality

That doesn't suck at all :)

So, this St. Patrick's Day, I'm going to bellydance to Irish music in a green costume at Annie's Book Stop in Worcester to promote Machine. Why? Because I can.

http://socialweb.net/Events/138260.lasso

See you there?

Boskone starts tomorrow. As a reminder, my schedule is here:

http://jenwrites.livejournal.com/880294.html

I've been a little under the weather, so there's a small chance I'll be skipping Friday, since I'm not on programming. You'll know I'm there once you see copies of Machine at the Broad Universe table. Saturday is my major programming day. I'll be reading in the morning and the evening, and will be on panels throughout the day in between.

I've put together a handy list of places where you can buy Machine here:

http://www.jenniferpelland.com/machine.html

I'll also have it at Boskone, WisCon, and Readercon.

Also, I kid you not, I'll be selling it at a St. Patrick's Day event at Annie's Book Stop in Worcester where I'll be belly dancing in a green costume to Irish music :)

Additionally, I'll be at the Broad Universe table on and off all weekend to sell Machine, which is now finally, really, truly, and officially out.

Saturday 10:00 - 10:30, Reading: Jennifer Pelland, Independence (Westin)

Saturday 13:00 - 14:00 Science Fiction and Fantasy Pictionary (Galleria-Art Demos)

Two teams of four celebrities vie for bragging rights,
drawing pictures so their team works out titles of
science fiction and fantasy books/films/TV shows
suggested by the audience.

Bob Kuhn (m), Alan F. Beck, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Benjamin Tate, Joshua B. Palmatier, Suzanne Palmer, Ruth Sanderson, Jennifer Pelland

Saturday 16:00 - 17:00, Optimism vs. Darkness in SF, Griffin (Westin)

Some says it's historical. So early SF stories were all,
"We're going to the stars and will live forever yay," while
more recent SF tends to moan, "If the ecocatastrophe
doesn't get us the zombie plagues will." Or geographical:
do Brits do it more in the dark? Or ageist: is YA usually
light-hearted? Or stylistic: does realism bloom better in
the shade?

Peter V. Brett (M), Leonid Korogodski, Jennifer Pelland, Phoebe Wray

Saturday 20:00 - 21:00, Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading

Sunday 11:00 - 12:00, LGBT Issues, Carlton (Westin)
So human sexuality is a continuum and normal is a null
concept. The term LGBT has been around for nearly 30
years, pointing to some areas on that continuum. How has
SF/F/H literature featured these aspects of the continuum?
Let's name some outstanding examples. How have lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender fans fared within fandom?

Charles Stross, Jennifer Pelland, Gillian Daniels

Sunday 12:00 - 13:00, How Not to Lose the Plot, Harbor II (Westin)
James Patrick Kelly (M), Jennifer Pelland, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Bud Sparhawk

Arisia takes place in downtown Boston next weekend: http://www.arisia.org

Gender Limitations in SF/F
Adams
Fri 5:30 PM
Duration: 01:15
Often, strong female characters are portrayed in such a way that seem to be a rejection not just of traditional gender roles but of all things feminine. Similarly, male characters that take on what are regarded as traditional female roles are viewed as emasculated figures incapable of pro-active action. Where are the strong warrior women that can also be compassionate or the house-husbands that have a role beyond being the punchline of a joke?

When Authors Critique the Critic
Adams
Fri 7:00 PM
Duration: 01:15
Your book got a bad review and you feel it's unfair. It's your baby, after all! What do you do? Correct the review, ask friends to counter-post good reviews to boost sales, or grumble and move on? We'll talk about some classic examples of authors gone wild over bad reviews, and what they should have done.

Reading: Eldredge, Longyear, & Pelland
Quincy
Sat 10:00 AM
Duration: 01:15


Don't Quit Your Day Job
Adams
Sat 1:00 PM
Duration: 01:15
Hal Clement, Alice Sheldon (aka James Tiptree Jr), and so many other authors kept working their mundane jobs while writing. What can a day job bring to your art? Should going full time be the goal?

How Not To Suppress Women's Writing
Douglas
Sat 7:00 PM
Duration: 01:15
Almost 30 years after Joanna Russ's famous essay "How to Suppress Women's Writing", a Guardian survey of reader's favorite SF turns up 4% women writers. A recent anthology of Masters of Science Fiction includes no women. And Nicola Griffith suggests something to do about it: The single most important thing we can do is talk about women writers whenever we talk about men. What else can we do to redress gender imbalances in SF?

SF vs. the Body
Douglas
Sat 8:30 PM
Duration: 01:15
SF's depictions of physical pleasures are rare. People seem to prefer their characters to pop nutrition pills rather than delight in a gourmet meal and dwell 24/7 in sterile environments rather than wander through a wood. SF still subscribes to Cartesian dualism: the mind is pure, adamantine, and noble, the body bestial, soft, and squicky. Even a hint of sex can be enough to "demote" a novel to soft SF.

Belly Dance Show
Grand Ballroom AB (1W)
Sun 3:00 PM
Duration: 02:00
From Star Trek to Firefly, science fiction has long been entranced by the shimmying undulations of belly dance. Join us as belly dancers explore brave new worlds of geeky belly dance fusion, featuring inventive performances from some of the Milky Way's finest dancers! (Shown live on Arisia-TV.)

Belly Dance Class
Commonwealth Ballroom ABC
Sun 5:30 PM
Duration: 01:00
Come learn some basic bellydance moves from the white and nerdy women of Tassellations. All you need are comfortable clothes and a willingness to move. Everyone in the room will be expected to dance -- no spectators allowed! Don't worry about your creaky knees or bum hip. So long as you have one or two working body parts, we can teach you how to move them. And if there's time, you'll also learn a little Improvisational Tribal Style bellydance.

...I actually did some damned writing yesterday.

And this morning, I changed my LJ style and cleaned up my links. Maybe that'll make me want to visit more often.

I'm trying that "start the new year how you want the rest of the year to go" thing, and have already exercised and had a belly dance rehearsal with my dance partner. Now, in preparation for getting back to writing, I've pushed all the novel chapters I've written so far into a folder called "2011 files." Now I can rewrite to my heart's content without being afraid of losing anything.

And on an unrelated note, Machine finally has an official release date of January 10. Huzzah! It's still available for pre-order at Apex, and I'll have copies for sale at Arisia.