Rachel Neumeier's Blog, page 409

Best paranormals of the decade –

What do you think belongs on this list?

I’m far from an expert on paranormals. Seriously. I get confused by the INFINITE NUMBER of fantasy novels with covers that depict A Woman With Weapon And Animal and the whole subgenre blurs together, so I only ever have read the ones recommended by particular bloggers whose taste I mostly share. Which has worked for me, but it means I’m only familiar with a small subset of paranormal auhors.

But Barnes and Noble recently did such a list: best 20 paranormals. Well, it IS B & N, maybe their list compiler (Paul Allen) was influenced by popularity more than by quality. Or not. But I have to say, not loving his top picks.

Kim Harrison’s series . . . sorry to point this out, but this is the one where Harrison refers to an animal as a “mink” all the way through her first book (and for all I know, all the way through her series), when the animal she is describing is actually a least weasel. Such a turnoff. I know, that’s just me. But I also didn’t like her excessively impulsive, idiotically emotional main character. Well, yes, I know, that’s just me, too, but give me a woman like Martha Well’s Tremaine ANY DAY OF THE WEEK.

I haven’t read many of the B & N picks — five out of the twenty — but the ones I have read certainly would not make MY list of top paranormals. For example, any Laurell Hamilton after the first three or four is definitely not going to be on my list — too much sex for me, at the expense of not nearly enough plot.

Much, much closer to my own taste is this top ten list from Angieville. Angie certainly isn’t going by popularity! Check out some of her selections:

Sunshine by McKinley — I never thought of it as a paranormal romance, but of course it is! And it is a wonderful book! I loved everything about it — the way it starts off looking like our normal world and then takes a sudden hard left turn into weirdness, the characters — all of them, really, including quite minor secondary characters — the creepy, creepy vampires. Even Con is creepy, though on him it looks good. I only wish McKinley would write a sequel.

And A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb — that is one of my favorite books EVER, any genre, though again I hadn’t thought of this ghost story as a paranormal.

Angie also calls out Charlaine Harris, whose books I do enjoy though I don’t necessary grab each one the moment it comes out; and Patricia Briggs — you all know how much I love Patricia Briggs — and Ilona Andrews, who is my second-favorite paranormal author after Briggs.

Angie’s other five picks include books by Rachel Caine, Jeri Smith-Ready, Kat Richardson, Rachel Vincent, and Cassie Alexander — click through if you’re interested in the exact titles Angie chose for her list. Only the last of those authors was already on my radar. So . . . given that I am right there with Angie for five of her picks, I’m inclined to add all of her other picks to my wishlist, too.

If *I* were trying to pick three, just three, paranormal novels that totally establish how great this genre can be . . . perhaps for someone who had never read anything but Twilight, or who thinks the whole subgenre is nothing but Twilight — For me it would be Moon Called, the first Mercy Thompson book by Briggs; Sunshine by McKinley; and then either Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews (I don’t think that series took off till that book) or A Certain Slant of Light by Whitcomb. That last choice depends on whether I think my hypothetical introducee would prefer adventure or a quiet, literary romance.

What would be on your top-three list for paranormals?

Ambushed by a new writing project

So you know I decided to take off April and not write, because April is supposed to be a mad gardening month. And it will be, too, as soon as it QUITS SNOWING. I tell you, you’d think this was MN and not MO. Honestly.

Though all the plants I ordered from nurseries will arrive in the middle of the month, so at that point mad gardening will of necessity ensue, even if it is still chilly.

And besides that, there’s a major Cavalier specialty April 18, 19, 20, and 21st. I would LIKE to put novice rally titles on my teenagers, so might be good to get some training done, right? Especially since I have already paid the entry fees. And then I am showing them in the breed ring for the first time, and Pippa in Veterans, and I’m judging Children’s Handling, so busy busy and hence not the best time to get into serious writing, obviously; plus there’s the new baby puppy distracting me.

So all this is true, but almost the moment I decided on a holiday, I suddenly had this inspiration about how to re-tool the very first fantasy trilogy I ever wrote and make it work as a single stand-alone novel. It’ll work, it’ll be coherent and self-contained and actually pretty good. I think. And since I’m just playing anyway, if it doesn’t wind up going anywhere, so what? Any extra pages that turn up in April are just icing on the cake, right?

So I’m removing two out of three protagonists and nearly all their associated secondary characters and plot elements.* Poof. Gone. No ghosts! I am sorry to lose the ghosts, especially the ghost dog.** I think I am keeping the Gods, though I’m not completely sure about that yet. The place-bound Powers, like a sort of not-very-comfortable genii loci, are still a very important plot element. The basic geography of the world, yes, no need to change that. Nice to have all the towns named already! And all the characters, for that matter.

So far, I’ve written about ten pages . . . but I already have about 12,000 words, because I’ve hooked in that many pages from the original manuscript. So far. Lots more will be brought in soon. Rewritten, certainly, but some of it not all that much. I can see stuff coming up: I need to assign a minor role to a different character, because the role is still there but the character who used to fill it is gone. And there are a couple scenes I may keep, but switch the pov to the remaining protagonist. And so forth and so on. You know how it is with continuity and consistency and all that; standard housekeeping.

Skimming through the original ms, I see I had no idea about pacing. And it is so cluttered! Nice to feel like I have learned something in the past five years.

Anyway! Still planning to read the rest of Martha Wells’ books in April, sure, but it may take longer to get through them than I thought, now that I’ve picked up this little project. Looks like a snazzy month ahead!

* For those few of you who are familiar with the trilogy in question: I’m cutting Meridy and her whole plotline, and Herrol and his whole plotline (including Pereith Norrir and Diollin and everything to do with them). I’m keeping Carad Mereth as a plot driver. The main protagonist is Kehera and the secondary protagonist is the Wolf Duke. Not sure how the endgame is going to play out now.

** I can see myself picking up Meridy and the ghosts and figuring out how to fit them into a different book. If I keep the ghosts as a minor element in Kehera’s story, I could in theory bring Meridy back in for a different story in the same world, so I might do it that way.

Hugo Nominees for 2013

If you’re interested in the full lineup, it’s here. Meanwhile, here are the novel-novella-novelette-short story categories:

Best Novel (1113 nominating ballots cast)

2312, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)

Blackout, Mira Grant (Orbit)

Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)

Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas, John Scalzi (Tor)

Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed (DAW)

I’m actually not very happy with this list. Frankly, I think Redshirts was emminently readable, actually loads of fun, but hardly groundbreaking or important or whatever the term is I’m looking for that means Hugo-worthy. Clever, though, granted. What did any of you think, if you’ve read it?

I haven’t actually read Blackout, but it’s hard for me to see how Grant pulled that one into coherence given the magical stuff that happened at the end of the second book — magical in the sense of extremely unbelievable in an SF novel — but as I say, I haven’t read it so I honestly don’t know. I will have to reserve judgement until I actually read it, which I guess I better get it ordered. Maybe it is brilliant and flawless! I have to say that the writing in both the prior books was very, very strong. Especially in the first book, imo. Anybody else read this series? Have you read the third book yet?

And, Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance? While I loved it, I mean, Bujold, right? But I don’t know that I would put it at the top of her work. Though, not surprised to see it on this ballot, either, since popularity certainly counts for the Hugo.

I definitely expected Railsea because, hello, Mieville? I haven’t read that one either, I admit, but I sure expected to have to read it before voting. Very surprised to see it didn’t make the list. And I also definitely expected The Killing Moon by Jemisin, which I loved. I’m thoroughly disappointed that one isn’t on there.

I’m going to have to read both the one by Kim Stanley Robinson and Throne of the Crescent Moon. I did admire Robinson’s Mars epic, but . . . not like I’ve ever wanted to read it again. I have a hard time thinking I’m going to fall in love with 2312, but you never know. I’ve kind of had Crescent Moon on my radar for a while, though, so I do look forward to reading that one. I may read 2312 first, save Crescent Moon for dessert, as it were.

First I really want to read the rest of Martha Wells’ books, though, while I’m on a roll. I believe she has fourteen out, but not sure that counts EMILIE, which isn’t quite out yet. So, if it’s fourteen, then eight down — six to go! I am plainly missing a couple, since I only have three more on my Kindle, I see. Must sleuth around, find out what I’m missing.

Okay, onward –

Best Novella (587 nominating ballots cast)

“After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall”, Nancy Kress (Tachyon Publications)

“The Emperor’s Soul”, Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon Publications)

“On a Red Station, Drifting”, Aliette de Bodard (Immersion Press)

“San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats”, Mira Grant (Orbit)

“The Stars Do Not Lie”, Jay Lake (Asimov’s, Oct-Nov 2012)

Haven’t read any of these, but the novella category was excellent last year, I’ve heard great things about several of these and I’m actually pretty excited about them.

Best Novelette (616 nominating ballots cast)

“The Boy Who Cast No Shadow”, Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Postscripts: Unfit For Eden, PS Publications)

“Fade To White”, Catherynne M. Valente ( Clarkesworld, August 2012)

“The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi”, Pat Cadigan (Edge of Infinity, Solaris)

“In Sea-Salt Tears”, Seanan McGuire (Self-published)

“Rat-Catcher”, Seanan McGuire ( A Fantasy Medley 2, Subterranean)

Check out that self-published novelette! Glad to see that on there. I do hope it’s excellent. Seanan McGuire is of course also Myra Grant, and I do think she can be an excellent writer even though I personally did not get into her paranormal series and had issues with the plotting in the zombie trilogy. Amazing how many nominations she picked up this year. Maybe I should read the third book of her paranormal series, even though I wasn’t crazy about the first two? Any familiar with this series — I mean the October Daye series of course — does it improve sharply after the first couple?

Best Short Story (662 nominating ballots cast) — yes, only three nominees:

“Immersion”, Aliette de Bodard ( Clarkesworld, June 2012)

“Mantis Wives”, Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld, August 2012)

“Mono no Aware”, Ken Liu (The Future is Japanese, VIZ Media LLC)

Oh. My. God. “Mantis Wives”? A) It’s not a story, it’s a series of scenes. B) They are horrible torture scenes. I am honestly not very happy to see that on the ballot — even though I loved Kij Johnson’s novella from last year, “The Man Who Bridged the Mist.”

I liked “Immersion” fine, I can vote for that without flinching, but I have to say, I’m definitely going to vote for No Award before “Mantis Wives.” You can read that one here if you want to weigh in on it.

Anyway, there you go! Anybody read 2312 or Crescent Moon or any of the novellas? What did you think of them?

Puppy cuteness overload

She spots a potential victim

The attack!

Pressing her advantage

It always amazes me how fast puppies develop. Last week this puppy was barely on her feet — now she can bounce around like anything. Same with playtime: a week ago, five minutes out in the living room wore her out and then she crashed for five hours or so. Now it takes half an hour to wear her out, and she’s up again in two hours or so. In just one week!

She mostly wants to play with her mother, which is only barely satisfactory, as Kenya is not very playful. Single puppies are at such a disadvantage! Of course, I play with her. She thinks of me as “hands” and “feet”. She is so surprised when I put my face down to her level — she growls and backs away from this enormous strange not-dog person. Then she edges forward and bumps me with her nose. Next week she will not just be climbing into my lap, but licking my nose.

Soon she will be able to keep up with the teenagers a bit better and she will switch her focus to them. I do hope Folly and Giedre make room in their duo for a little sister. Maybe I’ll send one of my teens to stay with friends for a few weeks to help the other bond to the baby.

I’m pretty sure I’m going to name this baby Anara Honeysuckle Rose, btw. And, yes, I will probably call her Honey.

So, The Death of the Necromancer –

Is kinda like if Javert joined forces with Jean Valjean to go after Thenardier — if Thenardier were a servant of the Devil.

And also, admittedly, if Valjean were a master criminal, and Javert not quite so rigid.

Plus: necromancy! Desperate flights into the sewers! Ladies with all the acting chops! In summary: this book was all kinds of fun, even though I continue to love The Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy better.

Also! I actually read this in paper, because I had a used hardcover on hand. And you know what? I actually prefer the reading experience on the Kindle, because it is lighter, and also easier to prop up so I can read during meals. Plus, since I have all of Wells’ books on Kindle except the Raksura trilogy and this one . . . well, anyway, I’m giving the hardcover away and picking up this one on Kindle.

The thing I like least about the Kindle? That I cannot give away books. I already knew I gave away a lot of books, some to the local (tiny) library and some to people who like SFF who I know can’t afford to buy a lot of books.

What I didn’t realize is that it actually kind of bothers me — not fingernails-on-the-chalkboard bothers, but it does bother me — if I can’t get rid of books I don’t really like. I mean, of course I can take them off “the device” and put them just in the archives. But . . . usually I give those books away. And now I can’t. I am forced to look at them listed in alphabetical order every time I scan through the books in the archives. And the people I might have given them to, who might have enjoyed them, don’t get a chance to find out.

And I don’t like it. Even if as a writer, I’m all for encouraging different individual readers to buy their own copies, thankyouverymuch. This isn’t necessarily a conflict, anyway, since whomever I give my hardcover of DEATH OF THE NECROMANCER to may fall in love with Martha Wells and buy her other books. So, listen, Amazon, get on that, okay?

How about you? Would you (do you?) get rid of a lot of the books you buy by giving them away? Would it (does it?) bother you to be stuck with those books forever?

Why a border collie is not the best choice for you –

If what you want is really a dog to lie quietly at your feet and lend doggy ambiance to your peaceful, serene home.

In the voice of the border collie.

Hah!

This is why I have adorable quiet peaceful — well, relatively — Cavaliers.

There are people who hate bacon? Really?

And / or puppies, chocolate, and WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE?

A great post that puts negative reviews in perspective, plus this post is the funniest one you’ll read today.

Well, at least, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy it if you click through, okay?

Recent Reading: The Fall of Ile-Rien

Isn’t it something to find a new favorite author? With the added plus that she has a dozen books or more out already, so I can just immerse myself in her writing. How fun is that, right?

After reading The Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy, I have declared that March is Martha Wells Month and I’m going to read through her entire backlist. I may of course have to cheat and extend Martha Wells Month into April, but hey! It is my month and I can do that if I want.

The Fall of Ile-Rien:

Okay the first thing to know is: If you’re starting THE WIZARD HUNTERS and you’re not sure you like it? Read at least three or four chapters before you decide.

The Characters:

We have a third-person divided pov structure, Tremaine in a world with the flavor of, say, mid-1800s England; and Ilias in a very different world that doesn’t map terribly well onto any real historical era I can think of but is much less technologically advanced. It’s important that you wait for the two plotlines to converge before you decide whether you like the characters or the story, because I just about guarantee you will once the plotlines come together. Which they do very early on, so there’s actually not much patience required. And after that, the books really take off!

Tremaine is my favorite character EVER! She is right up there with my other favorite-ever characters, like Miles Vorkosigan and Vlad Taltos and Eugenides. She is prickly, sarcastic, ruthlessly practical, sometimes insecure, occasionally suicidal, and doesn’t have a romantic bone in her body. You know that discussion a week or two ago about books with female protagonists but without a lot of romance? This is that book. I mean, there is romance — but it starts late in the series and it is never, but never, a gushy obsessive romance.

I mean, Tremaine used to write plays? And at one point, she thinks to herself that when she used to write in a romantic relationship, the audience wouldn’t be sure if the two characters were supposed to be in love or not. And by then you can just imagine the way Tremaine would write romance, and it makes you laugh.

There’re lots of secondary characters from Tremaine’s world — of the ones we see from the start, Gerard is possibly my favorite of them because I have a thing for dedicated do-the-job types. I love Florian, too, though. I kept rather hoping Ander would get shot or fall off a cliff or at least see the error of his ways and start taking Tremaine seriously, but, sigh, I guess there really are jackasses like that in the world and he does provide a certain something. Like, a contrast to Ilias, for one thing.

Because Ilias! Tremaine is my fave, but Ilias is also great. He’s like the Muscle-Bound Barbarian Warrior, only for grownups: complex and believable, fascinating backstory, highly competent but plausibly so. I love his relationship with his friend and foster-brother, Giliead. And I love the way their society is so different from Tremaine’s and how those differences echo through the whole story.

You are probably getting the idea that there are a lot of characters. This is true, and more as time goes on, but Wells handles them all extremely well, and gives them all time off as appropriate rather than trying to clutter up every scene with the whole bunch of ‘em, and so it’s easy to keep track of everyone. Particularly since everyone is distinctive. Mostly Wells sticks with Tremaine and Ilias as the pov protagonists; as we go on through the trilogy we do get little sections from other points of view, but this is beautifully handled and never obtrusive or annoying; there’s none of that dilution of pov you get in some modern epic fantasy until you can’t tell who the blazes the main character is supposed to be.

The world:

Oh, it’s so much fun! I’m actually not always in the mood for a gaslamp fantasy setting, so gating from Tremaine’s world into Ilias’ and back mixed the settings up and kept everything feeling exciting. Those gates! New corners to peek around just everywhere, and this is Martha Wells, right? So you know the scenery is going to be grand-scale and stunning. Ruined cities everywhere, and all of them different. But the ruined cities aren’t the only thing on a grand scale: check out the Revenna. One of my favorite lines from the first book was something like: “So, we’re going to make our secret escape on the biggest ship in the world.” (And they do.) I thought the ship was modeled on maybe the Queen E, and I was almost right — Wells has an author’s note that says she actually based the ship on the Queen Mary.

I love Tremaine’s world — like a gaslamp fantasy, right? But with fey that seriously affected things until cold iron became more common. My favorite exchange in the third book, one of the few times we actually see a fey, it says to Tremaine: “You look tasty, little girl.” And she levels a gun at it and says, “So do you.” (The fey is in fact more intimidated by Tremaine than the other way around.)

I love Ilias’ world more. We get to see a good bit of it, but Ilias’ home town is my favorite. The customs are so different and the interaction between the characters is really enhanced by this. I don’t want to be too specific. Just take it as read that every scene is beautifully set, okay?

The plot:

The overarching plot is complex, but it hangs together just fine. It’s an invasion story — as suggested by the title of the trilogy, right? — and of course the plot is concerned with taking back Ile-Rien from its conquerers. The conquerers are . . . really interesting. Almost anything I say about them would be too much, so silence seems the best policy here.

The first book is really pretty well self contained, which is handy if you want to give the trilogy a try without committing to all three books, but the second definitely feeds right into the third. The romance could not be more removed from the simplistic insta-romances we see everywhere today and that for me are such a turn-off. Wells handles her romance with subtlety and humor and lets her people be complicated and conflicted. But not in an annoying way! Not that kind of conflicted!

There was some political idiocy in the third book, which was painful to read. I mean, don’t we get enough political indiocy in the real world? Thankfully the scenes where we have to endure moronic self-serving politicians working hard to seize defeat from the jaws of victory are quite brief. And I hope you don’t mind if I just say that the worst of the lot gets what’s coming to him. Too bad we can’t deflect nasty curses onto deserving politicians in the real world!

Anyway, I would like to find out sometime whether Wells knew the basic structure of the plot from the beginning. I think it’s likely she didn’t — from comments she made during a panel at WorldCon last year — but The Fall of Ile-Rien reads like she did. It’s a nice coherent plot, all the complicated problems on three different worlds arising from one basic source. The tiny little deus ex moments here and there are actually fitting and believable.

Overall:

This is a great trilogy. It was the first really good story I’ve read on my Kindle, so now I know: yes, I like the experience of reading on a Kindle just fine. It’s comfortable to hold with one hand for long periods, and I’m glad they designed it to be held with either hand, because I didn’t realize this before, but I prefer to hold a book in my left hand.

THE DEATH OF THE NECROMANCER (which was a Nebula nominee) is set in Tremaine’s world, about thirty years before the events in the trilogy. I’m reading that one now. I’m glad I read The Fall of Ile-Rien first; I appreciate Nicolas more having met him first in the trilogy. ELEMENT OF FIRE is also set in this world, and of course that will be next.

Also, I only just noticed, but Martha Wells has various short stories, including four set in the Ile-Rien worlds, up on her website.

Enjoy!

Comic Con –

Well, that rather unseasonable snowstorm cut Comic Con short for me, at least. I didn’t go up today (Sunday), even though I hated to miss my panel. I mean, I actually looked up all this stuff people have said about writing compelling stories and thought about the topic and decided what *I* think is important and came up with examples of authors who I think do it just right and took notes on why their narratives work particularly well . . . and can you tell I am the sort of person who errs on the overpreparedness side? Anyway, I’ll suggest a similar topic to the Archon people and hopefully have a chance to use all this then.

So, snow aside — and let me just say, it’s very pretty even down here, where we’re supposed to get less than half as much as they get in St L, but WHOA is the snow blowing around madly out there. Even the girls don’t want to spend much time outside, though they generally love snow.

ANYWAY, as I was saying, today’s snow aside, I really did have a great time at the Con yesterday! Even though I am not really all that interested in Superman t-shirts or whatever. Did you know there is a company that makes bathrobes like the TARDIS? Really. Check it out:

I didn’t think to take a picture while at the con, so I got this picture here. But it is exactly the same robe, and hey, if you would like to buy it, or no doubt many many other really snazzy robes, you can click through from here and get one, so I trust they won’t mind I borrowed their picture.

I did take a couple pictures, though. These modern phones really are amazing, GPS for getting there and home again, cameras while you’re there, text messaging to keep track of people you’re hanging out when it’s much too loud for phone calls, and you can even look up the programming for the Con on your phone if you’re too lazy to find out where to get a program.

Anyway, here’s my second favorite costume of the many I saw:

I had to ask someone what this was. I gather it is a Predator. Love the costume, that’s for sure! I hear the movie Predator vs Alien is better than one might expect — I ought to rent it sometime.

And check out this one:

This guy, I recognized. I’m sure you’ve seen “Pirates of the Caribbean”? Well, let me tell you, this guy here? He had ALL the mannarisms and the voice and everything. I could have SWORN he was the actual actor from the movie! He was just amazing. I bet you can imagine how long it took this guy to get through the entrance hall? Like, an hour, because just about everyone wanted their picture taken with him, and no wonder.

It was worth going to the Con just to see the costumes, honestly, though even when I was eighteen I hope I would have had better sense than to wear, well, never mind, I’m sure you can imagine.

Also, I did get to hang out with Sharon Shinn and that certainly made the trip worthwhile. We talked books and authors and contracts and all that good stuff. She used to work downtown, it turns out, so I met her at her house and admired her giraffe collection and then drove from there to the convention, with her to make sure I took the right exits and found a good parking location. And the Left Bank Books staff arranged a very attractive display for us all. Theirs was the only table with actual books, so I expect they would very likely have sold out except, you know, snow. I doubt attendence was great today except for people staying at the hotels.

So, next year, if there’s a Comic Con in March, I’m in! We only get snow in March about 1 year in 4, so hopefully next year at this time it will actually be spring at this point, or at least not the dead of winter.

So is a ComicCon like a normal SF Con?

Or is “normal” an iffy word for these things anyway?

I know Comic Cons are supposed to draw really huge numbers, but the one this weekend in St Louis will be the first I’ve ever attended. Stan Lee is supposed to be there, I expect he’ll be a huge, huge draw. I think there are supposed to be upwards of 40,000 people registered to attend?

I’m going because an Indie bookstore, Left Bank Books, is setting up a booth and arranging for local authors to be there for signings and panels. I normally hate signings, but Left Bank seems to think there will be enough interest from Comic Con attendees to make it worthwhile. I’ll be there on both Saturday and Sunday for signings. And I will definitely enjoy the panel — I’m on one at 11:00 AM Sunday, on compelling writing.

I’m also sure it’ll be fun because I know some of the other people who will be there. Sharon Shinn and I plan to meet and drive to the convention center together, that’ll be fun, it’s been a long time since I really got to talk to her. I love her books — you might have noticed — and I’m sure it’d be okay with her if I just mention that there will be a sequel to TROUBLED WATERS coming out this fall. I’m really pleased about that because TROUBLED WATERS became an instant comfort-read for me when it came out.

And I’m acquainted with Mark Tiedemann and Angie Fox, because they both frequently attend Archon, the St Louis SF convention. Laurell Hamilton will also be there; I’m sure she’ll be the most popular author attending — at least via a Left Bank Books invite — I’ve never met her, though. I used to like her Anita Blake series, but I admit I quit reading that series about twelve books ago.

Anyway — looks a fun, busy, and extremely crowded weekend. 40,000 attendees! I am definitely nervous about the parking situation.