Brenda Cooper's Blog, page 42

Montreal Day Three: The Beginning

Anticipation badges are everywhere. I have mine now, although there was no pro material available so I still have to hunt down my name card and whatever else.

We spent the day bicycling to give my ankle a rest - and did in my thighs with 26 kilometers. Very sf looking buildings On the way we rode by these buildings that we had seen from the revolving restaurant the previous night. There are more pictures of these in the picture set from ride and the rest of the day.

Highlights - the biosphere which we rode by but did

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Published on August 06, 2009 03:38

Montreal, a day closer to Anticipation

Basilica at Notre Dame in Montreal

First, some observations:

The people in Montreal have been VERY friendly. That said, I wouldn't want to cross any of them. Montreal seems to be full of capable,independent, strong people. I would like them at my back, but never angry with me.Going through Old Town feels a bit like a miniature version of Paris, all the way through the language. There are creperies and water and beautiful old churches called the Basilca de Notre Dame. There are museums litter

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Published on August 04, 2009 19:02

Montreal, Pre-Anticipation

I'll try to post some every day. My friend Gisele Peterson from Florida met me here yesterday afternoon. We have a roughly thirty-year-old habit of indulging ourselves by meeting in various places neither of us live. We decided to renew that lovely habit with this year's Montreal Worldcon.

Here we are at the botannical gardens. Maybe not the place most people would go on day 1, but the weather was lovely and hey, I had one day in London a few yeasr ago and chose Hyde Park. I don't regret eithe

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Published on August 03, 2009 20:27

Montreal Bound! #Worldcon

My schedule…..

Friday from 10:00 AM to 11:30 – Author readings (ME, Julie Czernada, Melinda Snodgrass, Douglas Smith) - I will bring a book to give away

Friday from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM - Friends without benefits

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Published on August 01, 2009 20:54

Nanotechnology - Column Posted at Futurismic

First, my newest column is up at Futurismic. This month I took a look at nanotechnology. These columns are intended to be a broad brush look at current events in major fields of science, and a short commentary on a few ways those fields have been discussed in science fiction (this time I mention Greg Bear and Nancy Kress). Nanotech was particularly hard to to capture in the roughly 1,000 words I spend on the columns - it's a broad topic with tons of implications.

Please drop by an take a loo

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Published on August 01, 2009 19:34

Two things that make SF stories well-loved….

SF Signal runs a mind meld periodically where they gather a bunch of us sf writers and ask us a question (which I usually find on Twitter. This week, they included me a two-part post about favorite short stories. I thought I'd talk about two of them a little bit more here.

One is the most commonly listed story, "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," by Ursula LeGuin. I think part of the allure of this story is that it did such a good job of illustrating one of SF's strengths - poking fun at h

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Published on July 22, 2009 07:32

Musings on the Lunar Landing Anniversary

I hope that people all over the world will stop and reflect - for at least for a moment - on the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing. It was history. For context, I'm forty-eight this year. I was an eight-year-old girl whose dad worked in aerospace in 1969 (for McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Corporation). I'll admit my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I recall watching it on a smallish black and white TV. I think we watched it at home, and also at school. It felt like a big deal to me, a feat

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Published on July 19, 2009 22:46

Getting ready for a week away

I get to go be a writer for a week. When you're balancing hats like I am (CIO/writer/futurist), getting a bit of a break to be any one of them alone for a week is a fine and rare treat. I will be on the coast in Lincoln City, Oregon, with the dog, a pile of writer friends and teachers, and a few too many tourists. I'll alternately work-shop and hide out.

Also of note for anyone around the Portland area, next Monday night (July 13th), I'll be at Powell's at Cedar Hills Crossing at a book launch

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Published on July 08, 2009 21:44

The Images of Creativity

This is a very bizarre little image that makes me want to burst out in fantasy story. The border collie, Sasha, and the household child, Katie, are framed in the window while I'm outside taking a picture, the flash reflecting back like a star. It looks like there is greenery inside and outside the window, and our dining room light appears like a UFO in the sky behind me. The setting appears much more forest-like than it really is.

I'm not pretending this is a great shot - it's not. I'm no ph

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Published on July 05, 2009 15:36

In which I become a publisher

People ask me regularly if I have books available on the Kindle. It's possible that happens more to me than to other authors, since I live and work in Amazon's home town and my friends are tech geeks. I'm pretty sure that my novels will find their way there eventually through my publisher, Tor Books, but I decided to put a few short stories on the Kindle myself after hearing that other writer's are having success.

So I enlisted my trusty and helpful web expert, Jeremy Tolbert, in the project,

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Published on July 03, 2009 08:21