Michael Swanwick's Blog, page 218
July 22, 2011
Cat Pack Fever
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It will astonish everyone who reads this blog regularly to learn that I'm on the road again. Or, rather, I will be tonight. First I have a reading at Moonstone Art Center, on 13th Street near the corner of Sansom at 7:30 p.m. Then I hope in a car and drive into the wilds of Pennsylvania for Confluence, which I'll be attending Saturday and Sunday. So I'm busily packing my bags.
If you're going to be at either event, why not ask for a very collectible chapbook? They're running low. I think this weekend will be the last time I make this offer.
And if you're in the market . . .
Want to buy a drab semi-detached house in Shepperton? J. G. Ballard's home is for sale!
You can read about it here.
Above: Ms Helen Hope Mrrrlees suspects that something is up and is doing her bit to prevent it.
*
It will astonish everyone who reads this blog regularly to learn that I'm on the road again. Or, rather, I will be tonight. First I have a reading at Moonstone Art Center, on 13th Street near the corner of Sansom at 7:30 p.m. Then I hope in a car and drive into the wilds of Pennsylvania for Confluence, which I'll be attending Saturday and Sunday. So I'm busily packing my bags.
If you're going to be at either event, why not ask for a very collectible chapbook? They're running low. I think this weekend will be the last time I make this offer.
And if you're in the market . . .
Want to buy a drab semi-detached house in Shepperton? J. G. Ballard's home is for sale!
You can read about it here.
Above: Ms Helen Hope Mrrrlees suspects that something is up and is doing her bit to prevent it.
*
Scribbledehobbledehoyden: The Magpie's Eye: Page 142
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WHO'S GOT A KISS FOR THE WICKED WITCH?
Who's got a smoke for the reluctant virgin?
I like that a lot. There are any number of stories to be gotten by expressing sympathy for the characters we've all been set up to despise.
Great round jowly smile from the laughing
I was trying to work up something, probably about the moon, but gave it up after only a few words. Probably I'd've gotten further if the sketch had been better.
*
WHO'S GOT A KISS FOR THE WICKED WITCH?
Who's got a smoke for the reluctant virgin?
I like that a lot. There are any number of stories to be gotten by expressing sympathy for the characters we've all been set up to despise.
Great round jowly smile from the laughing
I was trying to work up something, probably about the moon, but gave it up after only a few words. Probably I'd've gotten further if the sketch had been better.
*
July 21, 2011
Recursiving
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A few weeks ago, I went to a Janis Ian concert and, while there, lay my VIP pass down on my notebook and took a snapshot of it. I may have posted that photo here.
Then I printed the photo and taped it to the front of that same notebook.
A while later, I ran into Henry Wessells and showed him the notebook. He, being fascinated by examples of recursion, took the above snapshot, which he then emailed to me.
I printed out the photo and taped it to the inside back cover of the notebook.
Last weekend, I ran into Henry again, and showed him the inside back cover. Immediately, he whipped out his camera and took a photo.
This may never end.
And if you're going to be in Philadelphia tomorrow . . .
I'll be doing a reading for Philadelphia Fantastic at Moonstone Art Center, this Friday, July 22, starting at 7:30 p.m.
Moonstone is conveniently located in Center City Philadelphia at the corner of 13th and Sansom Streets. (That's 110 S. 13th Street, for those of you reliant on GPS.) Copies of Dancing With Bears will be available for sale, and I'll be handing out signed-and-numbered limited edition chapbooks of the Darger & Surplus flash fiction The Nature of Mirrors to anyone who'd like one. Both the chapbooks and the event are free.
But if you're going to be at Confluence this weekend . . .
I'll be in attendance Saturday and Sunday, and I should still have a few of the chapbooks to give away. All you need do is ask.
Above: Photo by Henry Wessells.
*
A few weeks ago, I went to a Janis Ian concert and, while there, lay my VIP pass down on my notebook and took a snapshot of it. I may have posted that photo here.
Then I printed the photo and taped it to the front of that same notebook.
A while later, I ran into Henry Wessells and showed him the notebook. He, being fascinated by examples of recursion, took the above snapshot, which he then emailed to me.
I printed out the photo and taped it to the inside back cover of the notebook.
Last weekend, I ran into Henry again, and showed him the inside back cover. Immediately, he whipped out his camera and took a photo.
This may never end.
And if you're going to be in Philadelphia tomorrow . . .
I'll be doing a reading for Philadelphia Fantastic at Moonstone Art Center, this Friday, July 22, starting at 7:30 p.m.
Moonstone is conveniently located in Center City Philadelphia at the corner of 13th and Sansom Streets. (That's 110 S. 13th Street, for those of you reliant on GPS.) Copies of Dancing With Bears will be available for sale, and I'll be handing out signed-and-numbered limited edition chapbooks of the Darger & Surplus flash fiction The Nature of Mirrors to anyone who'd like one. Both the chapbooks and the event are free.
But if you're going to be at Confluence this weekend . . .
I'll be in attendance Saturday and Sunday, and I should still have a few of the chapbooks to give away. All you need do is ask.
Above: Photo by Henry Wessells.
*
Scribbledehobbledehoyden: The Magpie's Eye: Page 141
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Beside this doodle I wrote: Not here. But there's something in the notion.
Actually, this illustrates one of the hardest lessons to learn about writing: You have to turn off your critical faculties while you're writing and simply do as well as you can. After it's done, you turn on the critic again and respond accordingly. Here, I concluded that the doodle sucked. But there was something worth remembering about the sweeping line.
*
Beside this doodle I wrote: Not here. But there's something in the notion.
Actually, this illustrates one of the hardest lessons to learn about writing: You have to turn off your critical faculties while you're writing and simply do as well as you can. After it's done, you turn on the critic again and respond accordingly. Here, I concluded that the doodle sucked. But there was something worth remembering about the sweeping line.
*
July 20, 2011
Scribbledehobbledehoyden: The Magpie's Eye: Page 140
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I got that far and then wrote to the side: Don't bother!
Underneath the single-panel excerpt from an autobiographical R. Crumb cartoon, I wrote -- a thought alien to me. And it is.
Down at the bottom, written upside-down probably just to make the page more interesting, is another bit of light verse. No idea why I wrote it.
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Light VerseThomas Edison Took his medicine every day
I got that far and then wrote to the side: Don't bother!
Underneath the single-panel excerpt from an autobiographical R. Crumb cartoon, I wrote -- a thought alien to me. And it is.
Down at the bottom, written upside-down probably just to make the page more interesting, is another bit of light verse. No idea why I wrote it.
Drops of blood
A werewolf's kiss
The vampires steamy lust
Nameless horrors we abhor
Our slogan's
SLAY WE MUST!
-- The Helsing Corporation Slogan
*
July 19, 2011
Why I Go to Cons
.
This is why I go to so many conventions -- so Geoff Ryman can look down at me with aloof skepticism.
No, seriously. Having intense conversations with brilliant writers (some of which involve the words, "Swanwick, you are so full of it!") is one of the great rewards of the scribbling life. And Geoff is definitely brilliant. Have you read Air ? Or The Child Garden ? Or The Unconquered Country ? If not, then I strongly recommend that you do. You'll be grateful to me forever.
Photo Credit: Ellen Datlow. Used with her kind permission. Over the years, Ellen's compiled an enormous number of photographs of the doers and makers of science fiction of our times. When we're all long gone, she'll be remembered chiefly as an editor. But she'll have a secondary fame for these shots.
*
This is why I go to so many conventions -- so Geoff Ryman can look down at me with aloof skepticism.
No, seriously. Having intense conversations with brilliant writers (some of which involve the words, "Swanwick, you are so full of it!") is one of the great rewards of the scribbling life. And Geoff is definitely brilliant. Have you read Air ? Or The Child Garden ? Or The Unconquered Country ? If not, then I strongly recommend that you do. You'll be grateful to me forever.
Photo Credit: Ellen Datlow. Used with her kind permission. Over the years, Ellen's compiled an enormous number of photographs of the doers and makers of science fiction of our times. When we're all long gone, she'll be remembered chiefly as an editor. But she'll have a secondary fame for these shots.
*
Scribbledehobbledehoyden: The Magpie's Eye: Page 139
.
The World Turned Upside Down
It wasn't a very good world to begin with. Let's remember that.
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The World Turned Upside Down
It wasn't a very good world to begin with. Let's remember that.
*
July 18, 2011
Do Not Ask Questions of the Man Behind the Curtain
.
I interviewed Readercon guest of honor Gardner Dozois on Saturday and, fortunately for me, Scott Edelman was in the audience recording the whole thing on his camera. The video (above) looks like it starts in the middle of things, but the goofing around was actual just Gardner goofing around before the interview begins. The interview proper begins at 4:55 in.
It went pretty well. Interviews with Gardner always do. You just ask him a question and let him fly.
And the rest of the con was fun too . . .
I got to hang out some with Eileen Gunn and Ellen Klages and John Clute and . . . well, there were a lot of interesting people there. So many that I hardly exchanged a dozen words with my pal Greer Gilman, so maybe there should have been a couple fewer. Billee Stallings, who (along with her sister Jo-an Evans) wrote a memoir of her father, science fiction pioneer Murray Leinster, which should be published this week, did a presentation to a packed room and wowed 'em all.
So it was a good weekend. And a long weekend. And I'm exhausted. And now I'm going to lie down on the couch with a damp cloth over my eyes and wait for the swelling in my ego to go down.
Above: Thanks, Scott! I appreciate this.
*
I interviewed Readercon guest of honor Gardner Dozois on Saturday and, fortunately for me, Scott Edelman was in the audience recording the whole thing on his camera. The video (above) looks like it starts in the middle of things, but the goofing around was actual just Gardner goofing around before the interview begins. The interview proper begins at 4:55 in.
It went pretty well. Interviews with Gardner always do. You just ask him a question and let him fly.
And the rest of the con was fun too . . .
I got to hang out some with Eileen Gunn and Ellen Klages and John Clute and . . . well, there were a lot of interesting people there. So many that I hardly exchanged a dozen words with my pal Greer Gilman, so maybe there should have been a couple fewer. Billee Stallings, who (along with her sister Jo-an Evans) wrote a memoir of her father, science fiction pioneer Murray Leinster, which should be published this week, did a presentation to a packed room and wowed 'em all.
So it was a good weekend. And a long weekend. And I'm exhausted. And now I'm going to lie down on the couch with a damp cloth over my eyes and wait for the swelling in my ego to go down.
Above: Thanks, Scott! I appreciate this.
*
Scribbledehobbledehoyden: The Magpie's Eye: Page 138
.
To the left of the lamppost, it says no story here. To the right, it says one here but I can't see it.
Every word in the abandoned brief sketch of the late John M. Ford was written in admiration, incidentally. Just so you don't misunderstand me. I was thinking about doing a short sketch of him, but just jotting down those few words made me so sad, sad, sad, I didn't have the heart for it.
A very smart, very witty guy. I remember one Worldcon where they gave us all nametags reading HELLO. MY NAME IS . . . Under which he had written INIGO MONTOYEZ. YOU KILLED MY FATHER. PREPARE TO DIE.
He died too far young. We all miss him.
*
From the Book of Secular Saints
Mike Ford wrote for the most intelligent person in the room, which was usually himself. He seemed to be desperately trying to fail and never quite succeeding. He will be forgotten, I think, because he never wrote that one work whose virtues would be as clear to the masses as they were to him. Perhaps he would not care. He was a stoic who went painfully down to early death, determined not to discomfort others with it.
He was the only person ever to win a World Fantasy Award for his Christmas card, a record likely to last forever.
To the left of the lamppost, it says no story here. To the right, it says one here but I can't see it.
Every word in the abandoned brief sketch of the late John M. Ford was written in admiration, incidentally. Just so you don't misunderstand me. I was thinking about doing a short sketch of him, but just jotting down those few words made me so sad, sad, sad, I didn't have the heart for it.
A very smart, very witty guy. I remember one Worldcon where they gave us all nametags reading HELLO. MY NAME IS . . . Under which he had written INIGO MONTOYEZ. YOU KILLED MY FATHER. PREPARE TO DIE.
He died too far young. We all miss him.
*
July 17, 2011
APPEARANCES -- Sunday Update
.One more con under the belt, one more weekend closer to death. But you mustn't imagine that bothers me! I was twelve years old when I realized that I wasn't afraid of death, and nothing since then has changed my attitude.
I'll have a con reports of sorts for you tomorrow. In the meantime, please accept my abrupt comatose state as a symbol of my regard for you.
July 22 Philadelphia Fantastic (reading) Moonstone Arts, Philadelphia
July 23-24 Confluence Pittsburgh, PA
August 19-21 Renovation (Worldcon) Reno, NV
Sept. 10 The Spiral Bookcase (signing) Manayunk Philadelphia
Sept. 21 KGB Bar (reading) NYC
And in 2012 . . .
Aug. 31- Sept. 2 Chicon 7 Chicago
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I'll have a con reports of sorts for you tomorrow. In the meantime, please accept my abrupt comatose state as a symbol of my regard for you.
July 22 Philadelphia Fantastic (reading) Moonstone Arts, Philadelphia
July 23-24 Confluence Pittsburgh, PA
August 19-21 Renovation (Worldcon) Reno, NV
Sept. 10 The Spiral Bookcase (signing) Manayunk Philadelphia
Sept. 21 KGB Bar (reading) NYC
And in 2012 . . .
Aug. 31- Sept. 2 Chicon 7 Chicago
*
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