Welcome to my LiveJournal. I'm a science fiction writer with a growing collection of published short stories, and my collection Unwelcome Bodies is currently available from Apex Publications. It includes, among other stories, "Captive Girl," which was a 2007 Nebula finalist and which made the 2007 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards short list. I started this journal to have a place to talk about writing and the writing life, although you'll probably notice various digressions into belly dance and politics.

Please note that anonymous comments that aren't signed will be deleted.

I'm heading out for night one of Readercon -- http://www.readercon.org -- where I'll be reading "Ghosts of New York" at 8:30.

I just got my Readercon schedule. My only item is my reading. Which is at 8:30 on Thursday night. Yes, Thursday, when there's a whopping two hours of programming. Hell, I've never even bothered going to con on Thursday night before. But I guess my continued inability to make a big sale makes it make sense to stuff me in such an unappealing time slot.

So, is anyone going to be there on Thursday night? I want to know if there's any point in me even showing up for my reading.

*sigh* Hopefully, Broad Universe will let me read with them on Sunday, even though I technically have a reading slot of my own.

ETA: Actually, it turns out Readercon does have me scheduled to read with Broad Universe. When I searched the program grid for my name, all I saw was the solo reading, but the schedule email they sent me had that listed *below* the .sig line. In my defense, I'm not used to emails having information below the .sig so I stopped reading when I got to that part and didn't notice that I could keep scrolling.

...I'm not on it. You know, I'm not terribly broken up about it, because I really wasn't that excited by the panel descriptions. With any luck, I'll get a solo reading, but if not, at least I'll be reading with Broad Universe.

You wanna know the best part? I still get in for free :)

ETA: Ooh, I just read the fine print: "(Note that if you signed up for panels and didn’t get one, you definitely got your reading.)" Excellent! I do believe I shall read "Ghosts of New York."

My flight from Milwaukee to Boston was delayed by 90 minutes, but I did eventually make it home intact. More later. Sleep now.

The belly dance party was a success, but I must fall down and go thud now. With any luck, my feet will be a hell of a lot less sore in the morning.

Or, I finally got some.

It's day 3 of WisCon, and I've been wandering around exhausted right from the start thanks to that midnight showing of Terminator the night/morning before I flew out here. That's handy, because the belly dance party is tonight.

So, the short version of the con so far...

Thursday: Hanging around, talking with friends, not actually heading out to the movies because we were all too tired. But a fruitful trip to a hot tub filled with tattooed folks brought me face to face with an artist who said he would love to take a crack at the tattoo I've been having no luck finding a designer for.

Friday: Busy, busy, busy. The writing workshop was in the morning, and I had three great folks in it with me. Ideas were enjoyed, discussions were had, stories were saved, then lunch was eaten. Then it was off to The Gathering to sling books, which is always tiring. As soon as that was over, I had to moderate "Writing in the Recession," which I was afraid would go poorly because I'm not good at moderating thinking panels, but thankfully, once I ran out of questions, the audience had all sorts of good questions and comments. So the panel was saved! At this point, my scheduled activities for the day were over, so there was dinner, and there was lying around and talking, and there was a little partying on the sixth floor, and then there was fitful hotel room sleep.

Saturday: I was the token clueless white girl on the Bellydance and Colonialism panel at 8:30 in the morning. I was humbled, and I learned a lot, and thankfully, by that point, I was too damned tired to be defensive, so I believe I passed the "Getting It Wrong Gracefully" test just out of sheer exhaustion. I then hit the portion of my day where I couldn't walk through the halls without falling into conversations. Then was the Journeyman Writer's Meeting over lunch, then some time at the Broad Universe table, then I hit a panel that wasn't as interesting as I wanted it to be, so I came up with several short story ideas, then it was off to my group reading, where only three people left the room when I gave the warning that I would be reading a 9/11 ghost story about the jumpers, and if that was a trigger for anyone, they might want to go. I have to say, you come to understand the power of words when you can get people to leave the room before you even start talking.

Dinner, then the Tiptree auction, where I reprised my trouble-making ways from a previous Tiptree auction by running to the stage, waving a dollar bill over my head, with my partner in crime xochiquetzl by my side with a bill of her own. We couldn't help ourselves. Geoff Ryman had stripped off his shirt, put on a new one, and was doing a catwalk walk. And he seemed very pleased to have us stuff the dollars in his waistband. And he seemed similarly pleased when a mob of people came up after us to do the same. And then when a lovely woman whose name I forget modeled a dress and unbuttoned it to show off her cleavage, she didn't seem to mind when I ran up to stuff a dollar in her cleavage either. I drew the line at putting money in Sharon November's shirt. I like my hand, and want to keep it. Then it was off to the bar with asim to plan the belly dance party and shoot the shit, then I dragged my ass up to six to hit a few parties so as not to be lame, then bed.

Where I got some honest to god, actual sleep.

Right, time for Sunday's activities!

I went to a midnight showing of Terminator: Salvation last night and walked out way more pleased than I did with Star Trek. And, as usual, it had nothing to do with John Connor, who is always the least interesting person in his own story. The real stand-out character here is Marcus, and I'll just leave it at that and let you see it for yourself and see why.

(I was also one of only a handful of women in the audience. It was pretty much the opposite of WisCon.)

Oh, one interesting Trek/Terminator connection -- Pavel Chekov and Kyle Reese are played by the same actor.

And with that, it's time to start final WisCon prep and then head for the airport. I have no idea how well I'll be keeping up with LJ while I'm there, so if you post something that you think I really ought to read, it couldn't help to toss me a comment.

I've already packed my big suitcase for WisCon, and am very pleased with myself for managing to cram both a stack of Unwelcome Bodies to sell *and* my 25-yard skirt for the belly dance party. The only reason I was able to pull that off, however, is because I didn't bother packing sneakers this year. I traditionally attempt to hit the gym a couple of times over the weekend, but frankly, there's no reason I can't do the exercise bike in flip-flops. And I'm also seriously considering ditching that altogether and concentrating on belly dance workouts in my room instead, in preparation for the Sunday night party.

I still need to pack my carry-on, and I still need to bundle up and pack my toiletries, so I'm definitely not done, but I'll worry about those after I get past the show tomorrow.

My schedule hasn't changed in about a week, so I suspect it's actually final:

Fri 9:00AM - 12:00PM: Writers' Workshop

I'm a short story workshop pro again this year.

Fri 1:00 - 3:45PM: Galley Ho!
"The Return of the ARC! Galley proofs and advanced readers' copies of SF & F, genre fiction, science fact, feminism, and more. A benefit for WisCon."

I feel that as the Galley Ho, I should have some sort of slutty pirate costume, but I'm not sure how well that would go over at WisCon.

Fri 4:00 - 5:15PM: Writing in the Recession
"Most publishing houses have cut back on buying manuscripts during the recession. It's very likely that several small presses (both book and magazine) will fold before things get better. As the market gets more selective and more conservative, what do writers need to do to weather this financial storm?"

I'm moderating this one, because I'd really like the other panelists to give me advice!

Sat 8:30 - 9:45AM: "Belly Dance": The Intersection of Feminism and Colonialism participant
"Belly Dance--Raqs Sharqi in the Middle East--is far more than an art form. It's a reflection of two culture's interactions with each other, for good and ill. From Victorian Racism and Sexism influences in the original culture(s), to flipping that influence into success both "over there" and here in the West, the past haunts it even unto its reinvention in the Tribal Styles. Is the Feminist strength of Belly Dance balanced by the massive Cultural Appropriation issues that it carries? Should Caucasians be "carrying" another culture's art to the degree that they do? Did Badi'a and the rest of the creators of Raqs Sharqi "cargo cult" pieces of Western Culture in its creation? How do these issues reflect upon Western culture's fascination with "The Orient?""

I'm fascinated to see how the conversation in this one goes. My interests lie mainly in the issues around appropriation in tribal style belly dance, which is the style I mostly do. I've read wildly different opinions on the decorative use of bindi, for instance, with some Indians saying it's just a fashion statement, and others vehemently insisting that it's appropriation for a non-Hindi to wear one.

Sat 4:00 - 5:15PM: Taboo II: Electric Bugaloo
Reading with Vylar Kaftan, Ted A Kosmatka, Jennifer Pelland, Rachel Virginia Swirsky.

Last year, we had inter-caste fucking, necrophiliac bestiality, and scatology. With any luck, we'll top that this year. Actually, my taboo this year is genuinely sensitive, and I plan to warn folks about it before I start reading. If you're curious what it is, drop me a private message.

Sunday Night: Belly Dance Party

I'm co-hosting this with asim, and yes, I'll be in costume. If I feel emboldened enough, I may even publicly humiliate myself by dancing.

Mon 11:30AM - 12:45PM: The SignOut

I'm not quite sure why I'm doing it this year, since this will be the second WisCon for my book, but maybe one or two people will be kind and stop by for an autograph.

Please, oh great and merciful Flying Spaghetti Monster, please touch WisCon and everyone in it with your noodly appendage and spare us Swine Flu this year. We already suffered mightily from the norovirus last year, and would really like to have an enjoyable and healthy convention this year. We understand that there will be con crud of some kind, but please, oh all-powerful and wriggly one, please keep it minor and low-key enough so as to not merit the attention of the local public health department.

Ramen.

So after discovering that I'd been dropped from the panel that would have been difficult for me to attend and left on the one that was impossible for me to attend, I sent an email to programming expressing my confusion.

They very kindly put me back on the panel that would merely be difficult for me to attend, although I'm no longer moderating, which could be a problem, because it's a topic I'm qualified to ask questions about but not to answer questions on. They said they couldn't move the other one, which stinks, since I suggested it in the first place, but they did ask if I wanted to be placed on one of the other panels I'd expressed interest in. So now I'm on the bellydance panel on Saturday morning.

I believe I'm satisfied, although I'll be moreso if they change me back to the moderator of that first panel. If not, then I'm not entirely sure how useful I'll be as a panelist.

When scheduling participants in The Gathering for panels, perhaps you should realize that they'll need time to help take things down afterwards, rather than scheduling them to moderate a panel the second The Gathering is officially over.

And when someone says "Don't schedule me during the bellydance party on Friday night" and you move said party to Sunday night, maybe you shouldn't schedule that person for a panel at 10:00 on Sunday night.

*sigh* At least I can still make it to my reading. If they change that to an impossible time for me, I do believe there will be shouty emails involved.

Friday morning: The Writers' Respite

Friday noon to 5:00: The Gathering (I'm the Galley Ho again)

Friday night: I'm pretty sure that's when the bellydance party is that I'm ostensibly co-hosting. (I say "ostensibly" because I'm not sure how useful a co-host I can be.)

Saturday 8:30 AM: Why Writers Need Physical Hobbies (I'm the moderator -- this could be painful the morning after hosting a party, but since I suggested the panel, I'd rather not be removed from it.)

Saturday 4:00: Taboo II reading group. (I'll be reading from "Ghosts of New York".)

Sunday 8:30 AM: Writing in the Recession (I'm the moderator, and kind of wish I weren't, but I'll use it as an opportunity to ask a lot of questions of the panelists that I want to have answered, since I don't have any answers myself.)

Sunday 11:30: The Sign-Out (I suspect there'll be very few people who'll want anything signed, since my book was out at last year's con, and anyone who cares will have had it signed then.)

Apparently, Wiscon will be having a panel about the Helix debacle. I'm torn as to whether to sign up to be a panelist, or to sit in the back row and watch it silently.

Update: After some good discussion in the comments thread, I've decided to do neither. What I'll do instead is find one of the panelists in advance and chat with them about some of the actual facts of the case (facts which seem to be getting lost over time) to make sure that the truth is discussed instead of rumors. And then I'll keep far, far away from the panel.

I checked the Boston Convention Center's calendar, and the boat show overlaps with Boskone again this year, starting on Saturday. So if people actually want to park in the hotel garage, prepare to get to the con early on Saturday and Sunday. Me, I'll definitely be getting there early because I need to change clothes for the improv sketch, and I don't have a hotel room, and I don't feel like lugging my outfit around all day. But to be safe, I'm printing out maps to alternate parking lots in the area.

I'd been planning on waiting until they emailed me my final schedule before announcing anything, but since they've posted this online, I suspect it's final enough to publicize:

Friday 9:30pm Independence:
Reading

Saturday 11am Galleria Discus:
Move Your Butt

Writers shouldn't neglect their bodies. How do you force physical activity into your otherwise sedentary working and writing life, despite the fact that it will eat up your free time?

Saturday 1pm Carlton:
The Appeal of Audio

There was a time when radio shows were one of the chief ways many got their fixes of entertainment. And then there was television. And cheaper books. However, more and more people are (re-)discovering the advantages and enjoyment of hearing the written word. How is this playing out? What enhances the fans' audio enjoyment? What directions is audio entertainment taking?

Bruce Coville, Michael McAfee, Jennifer Pelland, Joe Siclari (m), Adam Stemple

Saturday 4pm Lewis:
Books of Love

Today is Valentine's Day. Would you rather get chocolate, flowers, or (hint hint) the latest NESFA Press book? (If Loverlips doesn't "get" your favorite, is the relationship over?) More generally, what genre works should one bestow, with hope and trembling, on a new or prospective sweetheart? Must the content or themes of these stories be explicitly romantic? In fact, is there a future for romantic love.....and, if so, what is it?

Darlene Marshall (m), Nina Harper, Paul Park, Jennifer Pelland, Wen Spencer

Saturday 8:30pm Harbor 3:
Cast of Characters

Improvisational performances (and you can try out too!) by characters in search of roles in an epic fantasy.....a hilarious introduction to Saturday Night (live!) at Boskone this year.

Bruce Coville, Dan Keohane, Michael McAfee, Jennifer Pelland, Josepha Sherman, Jane Yolen

Sunday 10am Harbor 3:
Cool Britannia: Why We Love British TV SF

Dr. Who. Primeval. Torchwood. Etc. Just what is it about (modern?) British SF on TV?

Patricia Bray, Yvonne Carts-Powell (m), Vince Docherty, Jim Mann, Jennifer Pelland

Expedia was having a sale today, so I figured I'd check to see if they had any sales on flights to Madison. They didn't, but I was able to land round trip tickets on my favorite airline (Midwest) for $262 after all the fees were added, so I jumped on them. History tells me that the moment I see a flight for under $300, I should snap it up. And hey, now that I have plane tickets, I can defer jury duty if I get called for any of those days!

I went to the belly dance show at Arisia last year (albeit late, because Red Shift overlapped with it), hoping to see some great dancers who would inspire me to become better myself. And that's where I got my first in-person look at tribal and gothic dancing. It's also where I first saw Aepril Schaile, and discovered that I wasn't the only person who liked dancing to Corvus Corax music.

At this year's show, I recognized so many dancers from the shows I'd been going to over the past year. A few of them even knew me. And I even was able to entertain the possibility that I'd be good enough by next year to dance in the 2010 show. Hell, if I get into the troupe I'm auditioning for on Saturday, maybe I'll be dancing with them at Arisia. Or maybe I'll put together a little improv troupe with my fellow students and bring tribal improv to Arisia.

Back in 2008, I didn't even realize any of this was possible.

What a year it's been.

At least, how it looked on Sunday and Monday:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/spicybraids/3214921197/

This, and some bindi, were the only things I bought at Arisia. (I swapped a book for beads and hair sticks too, but no money exchanged hands.)

I came home from Arisia with more money than I brought to it. How did this happen? The one vendor that I wanted to buy a ton of things from left the convention some time between Friday night (when I found them and did my preliminary browsing pass of their wares) and Sunday morning (when I went back to actually start buying). So all I bought was some hair braiding, a pack of bindi, and some veggie chili.

On the other hand, I sold 14 paperback copies and one hardback of Unwelcome Bodies, as well as my last two copies of The Best of Apex Digest 2006 (the last copy got snapped up by someone as soon as I mentioned that my contribution was a menstrual horror story). Not too shabby.

It would have been nice to spend a pile of money at Uber Kuchi. I've bought from them online before, and I was looking forward to pawing through their wares in person to pick more lovely stuff out, but such is life. And it's really not like I need more kuchi jewelry. I just want more.