Jamie Todd Rubin's Blog, page 382

Writers' daydreams

Most people get an enjoyable thrill out of imagining what it would be like to win the lottery.  How would they tell their friends and family?  They go on a mental shopping spree, spending huge sums of money on all kinds of things.  I've done this kind of day-dreaming before and it does give you a thrill to engage in this kind of wish fulfillment.  But the daydreams that give me the biggest thrill, more even than those that involve winning the lottery (which I believe would be far more...

Emotionally investing in other worlds

Regarding his new film, Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio was quoted by the London Daily Star as saying:

This is my first science fiction film.  I have a hard time with science fiction.  I have a little aversion to it, because it's hard to emotionally invest in worlds that are too detached from what we know.

I can only assume that DiCaprio was referring to science fiction films, and not written science fiction.  I, too, find difficulty emotionally investing in much of the science fiction films that ...

Readercon 21: Friday

Today was the first full day of Readercon, and I did my best to get in a full day.  One of the things they are doing this year is a series of Theodore Sturgeon readings.  The first one today was at 11 am and Sturgeon's story "It's Nothing Really" was read by Scott Edelman.  I got to meet Sturgeon's daughter, Noel Sturgeon, who was delightful and Scott did a great reading of a story that I'd never read before.  Here is Scott reading from the story:

Scott Edelman reads Sturgeon's "It's Nothing...

Readercon 21: Thursday

I arrived at the Readercon hotel in Burlington, MA around 3 pm, after flying into Boston from Baltimore.  Hertz gave me a Chrystler Sebring convertible but–of course–it was too hot to take the top down.

The first person I ran into at the hotel was Mary Robinette Kowal, the new Vice President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).  Mary was previously the Secretary of SFWA and I had worked with her online in my capacity as a volunteer for the organization, but I'd never m...

Three years ago today…

It was three years ago today that I headed off for my whirlwind tour of Europe.  What a trip that was!