babarnett | Entries tagged with cons

Even though I'm dreadfully bogged down with work and school and other stuff, I decided that Philcon was close enough that I could afford a touch more over-commitment. That was, of course, before Hurricane Sandy knocked out my power last week and put me even further behind on things. Nonetheless, here's my schedule, and I'm sticking to it:

WOMEN IN FANTASY
Sat 5:00 PM in Crystal Ballroom Three (1 hour)
[Panelists: Oz Drummond (mod), Barbara Barnett, D.L. Carter, KT Pinto, A.C. Wise]

Regardless of the historical period that they are borrowing from, female protagonists in fantasy are typically strong and feminist and having mindsets that would be at home from the 1970s on. Is this required for modern readers, and is this becoming a cliche?

THE PHILCON FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION MUSIC PANEL: MP3'S WELCOME
Sat 11:00 PM in Crystal Ballroom Two (1 hour)
[Panelists: Rock Robertson (mod), Timothy Binder, Tony Finan, Jonah Knight, Patricia Wake, Barbara Barnett]

You Bring It, We discuss and play it. And we play our own stuff too. A DJ will be present at all times for your convenience.

If anyone has any song suggestions for the fantasy and SF music panel, suggest away. I have my own selections in mind, of course, but I like learning about ones I might not be familiar with or just hadn't thought of.

And since I know women in fantasy is a topic of interest to many of my flisters (and myself, obviously), feel free to suggest any good/bad examples of strong (or supposedly strong) women in fantasy fiction that you think are worth bringing up on the panel.

Current Mood: rushed

I know I keep threatening to return to a regular blogging routine, but life seems intent on not letting that happen, which is frustrating since not posting regularly tends to lead to hardly anyone paying attention when you actually do post. So even though I may be blogging into a void, here's the state of me:

* School is keeping me busy, but I'm enjoying it a lot more than I ever did grant writing. This whole getting my MLIS thing? Good damn decision, I think.

* Speaking of life keeping me busy, there will be a distinct lack of con attendance on my part for the rest of the year. I had been hoping to attend Sirens and Capclave this month, but there's just too much else going on for me to swing either one. And I'd normally do Philcon in November since it's practically right in my backyard, but I'll be off in Austin that weekend.

* Writing progress! Well, at least there was progress until a damn cold sidelined me yesterday (it's hard to focus or stare at a computer screen for too long when it feels like you have a head full of gauze-wrapped bricks). But before then, I got my short story "The Girl Who Welcomed Death to Svalgearyen" revised and sent out the door, and now I'm working on revisions for "Demon Dreams." And when that's done, I think I'll dive back into the never-ending My Big Fat Epic Fantasy Novel revisions.

* And last but certainly not least: I can haz zombie art? The awesome-looking title spread (with art by Dave Senecal) for my story in issue 25 of Black Static, which should be coming out this month:

Current Mood: sick

I haven't had much time for spilling my thoughts into the blogosphere lately. Busy, busy, busy. So my apologies if I've missed anything exciting in LJ land.

One of the many things keeping me busy was attending Philcon this past weekend. It was only my second time going, and this year was a bit of a mixed bag for me.

( The pros and cons of the con... )

And with that, I will end my two cents worth, wish you all a happy Thanksgiving, and go have some pancakes and sausage for dinner.

Current Mood: exhausted

I'll be at Philcon this weekend, doing a whole mess o' panels:

Fri 8:00 PM in Plaza III (Three) (1 hour)
THE FUTURE OF LIBRARIES AND BOOKSTORES
[Panelists: Tom Purdom (mod), Philippa Ballantine, Dina Leacock, Neal Levin, Barbara Barnett]
Will the future visitor to the library or bookstore be someone carrying his or her e-reader into a nook or cranny?

Fri 10:00 PM in Plaza II (Two) (1 hour)
FRACTURED FAIRY TALES
[Panelists: Diane Weinstein (mod), Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Barbara Barnett, David Sklar, Roberta Rogow]
There have been so many subversions, modernizations, updatings and post modern retellings of fairy tales (think of all those Datlow/Windling anthologies or books like Gregory Maguire's WICKED and THE LAST UNICORN) which play on the fairy tales of our childhood. Is this a vein that has been exhausted? Is it still possible to do this idea straight?

Sat 1:00 PM in Plaza III (Three) (1 hour)
BUT THAT'S NOT SCIENCE FICTION
[Panelists: Michael J. Walsh (mod), Diane Weinstein, Carl Fink, Glenn Hauman, Barbara Barnett]
Certain types of non-Science Fiction works such as the Sherlock Holmes series, the Regency Romances of Georgette Heyer, much of Kipling and the Hornblower series are widely read by many science fiction fans and writers. Is there something these works have in common with science fiction? If so, what is it?

Sat 8:00 PM in Plaza IV (Four) (1 hour)
SEXY SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY STORIES
[Panelists: Oz Drummond (mod), Barbara Barnett, KT Pinto, Jennifer Williams, Genevieve Iseult Eldredge]
How to combine sexual elements in your fiction

Sun 11:00 AM in Plaza II (Two) (1 hour)
GILBERT AND SULLIVAN IN FANTASY
[Panelists: Ray Ridenour (mod), Barbara Barnett, Marilyn "Mattie" Brahen]
The fantastic elements in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas and their influences today

Sun 3:00 PM in Plaza V (Five) (1 hour)
REMEMBER WHEN VAMPIRES WERE EVIL?
[Panelists: KT Pinto (mod), Barbara Barnett, Chris Pisano, Jennifer Williams]
After 150 years of vampire literature, how did they become cuddly and romantic? When and why did this happen?

Anyone else planning to be there this weekend? I'd love to put some LJ user names to their real life faces!

Current Mood: rushed

Maybe it's just because I'm sick and cranky (sniffling and sneezing enough that my boss shooed me out the door early today), but what was originally going to be a Sirens-was-awesome post is now going to be a Sirens-was-awesome-but-I-hate-being-a-socially-awkward-mess post.

First, the Sirens-was-awesome part. There were only about 100 attendees, so Sirens was smaller and a bit more intimate than most cons (not that I've been to a heck of a lot of them). I tend to shy away from here-are-all-the-awesome-people-I-met-and-hung-out-with lists, but suffice it to say I had fun, met cool people (or rather, I mostly listened to cool people talk while I just stood there, but more on that later), listened to awesome keynote speeches by the guests of honor (Holly Black, Marie Brennan, and Terri Windling), did some dancing at the Faery Lights Ball (though frequent cups up water were needed after each song thanks to a pesky sore throat), and attended lots of interesting panels and discussions on everything from non-western fey to writing fight scenes to portrayals of female friendship in fantasy to queerness and fairy tales. And a paper by Samantha Henderson on Australian aboriginal fae reintroduced me to the bunyip, which I fondly recall reading about when I was a kid.

Oh, and because I couldn't resist the pretty, pretty display of books for sale, I picked up a copy of Zombies vs. Unicorns. If you don't understand why that is awesome, then I am sad for you.

( Photos of the fun under the cut )

I would totally go again if it becomes at all feasible for me, and I would recommend that anyone interested in women in fantasy, be you male or female or something else entirely, should check it out next year if possible.

( Now for the but-I-hate-being-a-socially-awkward-mess part. )

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: Silk Road Ensemble

Back from Sirens. Unfortunately brought a cold with me as a souvenir. Will post about the awesome when I can do so without having to blow my nose every two minutes.

Current Mood: sick

1. Thursday morning, I get up butt early to hop on a plane to Colorado with

shvetufae for Sirens. Any chance I'll be seeing any other flisters there? (aside from the lovely ladies I'm rooming with, of course)

2. Thankfully I don't get these very often, but it always makes my brain blow up a little when you get a story comment along the lines of "I don't understand how Joe got to the store. Did he walk? That seems like a long way to go, so I'm not sure if he would of made it there in time to run into Mary if he walked" and you're like, "Um, the first sentence of the previous paragraph says, 'Joe got in his car and drove to the store.'"

3. Not much to report on the writerly front. This week has been spent puzzling over how to restructure chapter 2 so that it's a little more "people do stuff" and a little less "people think about stuff." I think I'm going to move some chapter 5 bits into this earlier chapter. Then comes smoothing the seams so that the bits flow and don't seem like no more than a cut-and-paste job.

4. I generally don't post about politics and other potentially divisive topics. I'm not saying that I don't think anyone should post about those things (many of my friends do), just that I have my reasons for not doing so. But man, do I ever find myself muttering "What the !@#$ is wrong with people?" lately. That is all.

5. Back to the trivial: shoes. When a pair of shoes I love because they're both cute and comfortable finally die on me, 99% of the time I will never be able to find that particular style again. Thankfully, today was that 1% of time when I not only found the same style again, but in my size and color of preference. Oh happy shoe day!

Current Music: Branford Marsalis

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Writerly Wackiness

Because writing makes you do the wacky

Philcon Schedule

The State of the Barb

The pros and cons of Philcon

Philcon Schedule

Sirens, and Attack of the Raging Introvert

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