Snow and Cons

It's snowing at the moment, and six to ten inches are predicted over the next 24 hours. This is cheering. If it's going to be winter, there should be snow and temps below freezing.

I went to Marscon Saturday and stayed four hours. I've been having trouble with cons the past year or so. They don't interest me as much as they used to. I began doing panels in the 1970s, because I wanted people to know who I was, in the hopes that they would look for my stories. For a long time, I was interested in learning how to do panels. Patrick used to sit in the audience and give me a report later on my presentation. "Don't cover your mouth when you speak. Look out at the audience and make eye contact." And I had things to say.

Now, I feel I am pretty good at doing panels, and a lot of the issues that used to excite me -- gender issues, race and so on -- are being handled by others, who do a better job than I can.

Other people -- the science fiction feminists of the late 60s and early 70s -- began raising women's issues before I did, though I joined in as soon as I was in a city with a science fiction community and cons. I began talking about race and GLBT issues comparatively early and had the horrible experience of sitting on race panels that had no nonwhites, or maybe one lonely PoC. We are always told that the most important thing whites can do is listen; and I have never been a good listener. Now, there are GBLT and PoC communities in SF, and I can be quiet. Maybe I will even learn to listen.

Maybe I need a new issue that interests we. I've tried do class panels, but it is hell to talk about class in the US. And I am personally interested in aging.

A number of years ago at Wiscon I heard LeGuin talk about husbanding energy as she aged. She was trying to keep the energy for writing. Maybe that is what I'm doing.