Michael Swanwick's Blog, page 209

APPEARANCES -- Sunday Update

.
 

I've added the newly-arranged weekend events at David Hartwell's Dragon Press Bookstore, as detailed above, to the listing.  Also two conventions I'll be attending in the coming months.  I'm really getting about these days.  That's atypical for me.
I'm only going to Capclave on Saturday and Sunday, but it's a full three-day con.  Thought I should mention that.

October 8-9:  Dragon Press Bookstore (appearance & reading, etc.)                      Westport, NY
October 15-16:  Capclave                          Gaithersburg, MD
November 10    Wold Newton Reading Extravaganza (reading)                                 The Way Station                                 Brooklyn
November 18-20:   SFContario 2                                   Toronto
And in 2012 . . .
Aug. 31- Sept. 2   Chicon 7                         Chicago
Above:  Handbill brilliantly rendered by the immortal Jason Van Hollander.
*

A River Runs Through It

.
 

Normally I don't blog on Saturdays.  But I thought I'd put in a plug for the Baltimore Book Festival.  If you're local and were thinking of going but were put off by the torrential rains, you should give it another thought.
Yeah, there weren't a lot of festival-goers, which (forgive me) put a damper on things.  But there were some great deals on books.  I picked up Volume 1 of Alan Ginsburg's collected poems, a book for a friend, and a glossy art hardback on the Wyeths for three bucks apiece.  Then I went over to the Daedalus tent and bought a book on the Great Wall of China for five bucks and the three-DVD documentary on Monty Python for ten.  And I only put twenty minutes or so into browsing!
The Baltimore Science Fiction Society had a tent full of used SF.  There were musicians and poets on the stages.  And everyone I talked to was as friendly as can be.
Mostly I spent my time at the SFWA tent.  We had panels and readings and raffles for free books.  (Your chances for free books go WAY up when the crowd is so small.)  Writers gave advice on how to get published and how to build a career.  And everybody was knowledgable, helpful, and astonishingly upbeat considering how soaked-through we all were.
It was one of those times when I felt proud of my tribe.
Catherine Asaro ran the tent and was smiling and cheerful throughout.  Even though a stream ran right through the tent and over her shoes.  That's her -- half of her anyway -- up above, in serious danger of being electrocuted by the (unseen) microphone.
*

Scribbledehobbledehoyden: The Magpie's Eye: Page 187

.

I had to cover over the return address on the remarkably of-its-time envelope from a young, second-generation friend.  I particularly like her annotations:   Not a Hello Kitty This one has a mouth and This is what a Hello Kitty skull looks like!

The Corona thingie was a promotional temporary tattoo.

And the Jurihayasaka card was a public handout from an artist whose work I thought striking.

*

I Just Can't Stay at Home!

.
Today I get up early and drive down to Baltimore not because it'll promote Dancing With Bears -- the window for promoting a hardcover is either three or four months; which is to say it's closed.  Not because it'll support SFWA -- it's a non-profit dues-fueled professsional organization and doesn't need the support.  Not  to support Catherine Asaro -- she's running herself ragged organizing this thing, and so far as I can tell there's nothing in it for her.  (But if there were something in it for her, I'd be there.  She's one of the good guys.)  And not even to support Baltimore -- which is one of the great underrated cities in this nation. 

No.  I'm doing it to support literature.  Which includes all the books you read for pleasure, whether the nobs like 'em or not.

Third only to human beings and nature, there is no better cause.


And speaking of the photo above . . .

You know you've got a problem if these things look like a good idea to you.


Above:  I saw these gas mask bongs hanging in the doorway of a head shop in the Village.  Bad judgment is timeless.

*

I Just Can't Stay Off the Road . . .

.


As predicted, the event at the KGB Bar was a big success.  Andy Duncan (above) knocked everybody dead with his reading of "Close Encounters," an original novelette which will appear in his new collection (forthcoming from PS Publishing next year),  The Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories .  It was a killer story made even better by that beautiful Southern accent of Andy's.  Seriously, somebody's got to issue a spken-word collection of his best stories -- all read by Andy.  The man's good.

Which is what I said when I got up to read:  "Andy is a tough act to follow -- but I can do it!"  Then I ripped into "The Woman Who Shook the World-Tree," (not officially sold yet, but I've got a handshake agreement with Tor.com).  It's a great reading-story because it's short, it's emotional, and it's a love story.  Hard to go wrong with that.

Best of all, the two stories were so very different they weren't in competition with each other.  It was apples and taxicabs.  Mathematics and orange juice.  Summer wine and Martian nights.  If you enjoy readings at all, you're sorry you weren't there.

Also I got to see Andy and several old friends, so I had a great time.


And today is atypical because . . .

I plan to spend most of today just writing.  Working on the Novel, having fun.

But tomorrow, it's back to the promotional grind.  Tomorrow and Saturday I'll be at the Baltimore Book Festival.  Here's my personal schedule, all at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America space, E24-25:


Friday, September 23

3PM Reading: Michael Swanwick Acclaimed science fiction author Michael Swanwick will read from his works and talk about his science fiction and fantasy.
4PM Group Signing, Chat & Raffles Join authors Rosemary Edghill, Toby Devens, John Maclay, Michael Swanwick, Michael Sullivan, and Cindy Young-Turner to chat, have your books autographed, and win prizes.

6PM Publishing as a Professional Writer in Speculative Fiction Panelists Michael Swanwick, Catherine Asaro, and Toby Devens offer tips and answer questions about how to get started in genre fiction and conduct a successful career.
Saturday, September 24

 2PM 1984--Are We There Yet? Panelists Brenda Clough, Don Sakers, Alan Zendell, and Michael Swanwick discuss the social and political themes in science fiction, as in the tradition of the novel 1984. Science fiction offers a unique vehicle for examining the consequences of various political and sociolical phenomena by extrapolating them into the future. Just how provocative can you make such ideas? Is it ever too much? Come share your thoughts and ideas with our panelists.

And then I go home and lie down in a dark room with a damp cloth over my swollen head.

You can find the complete SFWA schedule for the Baltimore Book Festival here.  Or you can check out the schedule for the entire bookfest here.  Nice clean graphical design, by the way.

*

Scribbledehobbledehoyden: The Magpie's Eye: Page 186

.

Talent is okay, but denial is critical.
                     -- Charles Barsotti


Einmal ist keinmal.
                      -- German proverb


www.alexisgilliland.com


Charles Barsotti is the cartoonist who drew the late and sadly missed Sally Bananas strip.  The German proverb translates crudely as "Once is never" or "One time is no time."  The wit dissolves in translation.

And the URL is for a site where fannish cartoonist Alexis Gilliland has very generously posted hundreds and hundreds of his cartoons.  My favorite is the bureaucrat sitting at his desk upon which is a small box.  "This box of gravity-proof material contains a micro-miniature black hole," he says.  Then, smirking in rather a mean way, "Doubters open it every time."

Terrific stuff.  Click here to see 'em.

I'm quite proud of the Muppet Planet.

*

No Blog Today . . . You'll Find Me in the Bar

.

It's only a hop, skip, and a jump from Philadelphia to New York City ...  but it's a hundred mile hop, skip, and a jump.  So I'm a little busy at the moment getting ready for my reading tonight at the KGB Bar, and don't have the time to do a proper blog post.  For which, my apologies.

The bar is, as you can see from the photo above, a bit of a dive.  But it's a famous, literary dive.  When I was in Russia, the local fans made jokes about my then-forthcoming reading there.  I mentioned this reading to a friend in Britain and she waxed nostalgic about going to literary events there.

I don't need to hype this reading because the series always packs a full house.  Plus, Andy Duncan's going to be there too, and between us we're a goodly percentage of the best readers in science fiction.  ("No brag, just fact," as Old Man Sonnett used to say.)  So this ought to be a splendid evening.

But if you're in the area and you've never tried the Fantastic Fiction at KGB series, why not do yourself a favor and pop by?  Seven o'clock tonight at 85 East 4th Street (just off 2nd Ave, upstairs).  Astonishingly enough, it's free.

*

Scribbledehobbledehoyden: The Magpie's Eye: Page 185

.


Notes of things to do, a cryptic number, and a promotional flyer for Gregory Frost's  Lord Tophet , the second (and concluding) volume of his magnificent Shadowbridge .  Let's all hope Greg writes more Shadowbridge novels soon.


*

Pwnded By the Future

.Don't get me wrong.  I think the world of Corning Glass.  Those guys are really rocking the material.  Some forty years ago, I took the tour of their headquarters in Corning, New York, and was blown away by all the amazing things they can do with glass.  And, obviously, their research people have been working full-tilt boogie ever since.

But . . .

Imagine a world where you're never out of reach.  Where your boss can communicate with you while you're in the bathroom, brushing your teeth.  Where your mother-in-law can track your parenting skills in real time.  Where advertising videos show you primping like a whore.  Where television screens turn on the instant you awake and are never out of your sight for a single moment in your waking hours.  Where all the universe is trivialized and made your sedative.

Sounds like today, you say?  Not yet.

But soon.





Above: A Day Made of Glass. Coming soon to a reality near you.

*

Scribbedehobbledehoydenii: The Magpie's Eye: Page 184

.


Mostly just a list of things that needed to be done.  I censored a telephone number -- for who or what, I have no idea.

The UR at the bottom was for a game demo which for some reason I wanted to try out.  It was supposed to be posted soon.  I checked recently and it never materialized.

The URL at the top, though, for a list of predictions made in 1900 for the year 2000 is still functional, and the list is pretty interesting.  Some of the predictions were duds:  We still use the letter X, peas are not as large as beets, and motor traffic has not been banned from the streets of our major cities.  Others, though, were spot-on.  And at least one -- that the average American's life span would increase almost fifty percent to fifty years -- was far too modest.

*