Convolution 2013 report

CONVOLUTION 2013

 

 

I’ve only attended science fiction shows as a fan. Let’s just get that out of the way. But I figured I should try and change that since I’m actually writing the stuff now. And by ‘the stuff’ I’m using an entirely humorous way to refer to my work. At least I didn’t call it content, right?

So after Westercon this year, I did a little research into upcoming shows that were mostly local and got in touch with the folks at Convolution, and they were kind enough to offer me a guest membership and slot me on a couple of panels. Including one that I was probably even qualified to speak on. I just had to get there, right? Not too hard. Emeryville isn’t all that far away.

No problem. Only the car that I was supposed to drive down with on Saturday morning decided to start running hot and eating oil so I got to drive back home then switch cars then get on the road about half an hour late.

Guess how late I was to the first panel of my sci-fi writing career. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Yeah, on a panel with Richard Kadrey and a few other folks and I’m the guy walking in a half-hour late, talking to myself and generally being a nuisance. And if you ask me what the panel was about, I couldn’t even tell you. Sure, the name of the panel was “Nightmare Landscapes” or something like that, but it ended up being on writing. Which is fine, I’m happy to talk about writing, though I’m not exactly sure how useful it’ll be.

Though I did get to point out the example of ROLLING THUNDER as a kind of film to pay attention to, even though on paper it’s a piece of Roger Corman-produced junk, right? Yeah. Quality is where it is, to coin a new tautology. Read the classics, learn from them, but you can pick up useful lessons from junk too. Particularly quality junk.

Aside from that, I honestly can’t remember much of the content. Brain on fire sort of moment. Not meaning to gush, but Kadrey’s piece in STORMING THE REALITY STUDIO was something that struck me back in the day and I really dug the Sandman Slim stuff of his that I’ve read, which I’m way behind on. By he by, the aforementioned STORMING THE REALITY STUDIO is a collection of cyberpunk-era science fiction/speculation/commentary put together by Larry McCaffery, who I actually audited classes from after I’d gotten out of college. (Yes I’m a weirdo I know, auditing classes that I didn’t need to take.) So yeah, being on the same panel as him was one of those cool/weird things that you get to do sometimes.

So a little bit about the venue, since I didn’t really cover that, mostly because I was in a hurry to even make it on time which didn’t happen. The hotel was a fully-enclosed Ballardian paradise: grand atrium festooned with colorful and broad-leafed tropical plants, all-too-accommodating mezzanine with coffee consumption zones, meeting rooms and a calculatedly-comfortable sports pub. You have to understand, my relationship with the modern world is a pretty uneasy one, particularly when it comes to big establishments making themselves seem like, well, something they’re not. It’s a big hotel, yet it’s dressed up like one of the spaceships in SILENT RUNNING, a little island of green foliage enmeshed in steel and glass in the open expanse of…Millbrae. Or Emeryville, which is right on the border.

But yes, comfortable, clean, well-kept. Which is what folks seem to want in a convention. I wouldn’t mind a little more scruff around the edges. But then I was the guy who couldn’t get there on time, either.

Took a little time to get the lay of the place and then headed up to the Koffee Klatsch with Richard Kadrey. At least I think it’s spelled like that. I guess these are a more common thing at shows now; remember seeing them set up at WorldCon in Reno, which I attended maybe two years ago. These are nice, informal sit down sessions with folks who you might not ordinarily get a chance to, ask all kinds of questions, and just hang out. Which is the best parts of shows like this, and honestly, I don’t usually make it to the bar scene at night because I’m old and have been running pretty hard on a draft that’s due too soon and staring down the barrels of Christmas. For those of you who haven’t figured it out, I’m Mr. Mom, so I take care of the kids when I’m not writing and I’m the guy who makes holidays happen. That and I’m a relative lightweight, so two drinks and I’m looking for a comfy space under the table for a nap.

Of course, hanging out and talking old computers and process and the mysteries of the next Sandman Slim book went and made me late for my second panel, that being designing magic systems for fiction. Short form: serve the story. That’s my view anyways. There are other folks who will go into great detail and put a great deal of thought into this sort of thing. There’s advantages to both schools. Students of the former (like me) will often find themselves painted into a corner when it comes time to deliver, so you gotta pay attention to that.

There’s no one correct way to do things. Which is an important lesson to take away. Different authors have different concerns, all of which come through in their work. So find what works for you and use that, okay? I will say, however, that I got a chance to rep for both the ROLEMASTER magic system as a fairly involved and flexible ruleset for looking at magic (only one of thousands), and the IDIOT’S GUIDE TO ALCHEMY as a more practical examination of the esoteric sciences. Of course, with that, I had my Amateur Magican’s card taken away from me and ripped into tiny little pieces. I’m okay with that.

Then off to the dealer’s room, where I made off with the following:

You can get a pretty good idea of my age and my tastes out of that. And there’s plenty I could have taken with me, but ended up leaving behind.

Most of the dealer’s room was taken up with various steampunk/crafting, a lot of which was beautifully put-together, but not my sort of thing. But then I’ve always been a guy who just likes the fiction and movies and doesn’t feel to dress up for it. That’s someone else’s thing. Room for all kind of obsessions in science fiction. Mine just happen to be paper-based.

Around mid-late afternoon I figured out that I was basically falling over, gave it some thought and realized that I hadn’t eaten since seven thirty. Paid too much for a pub meal that I was grateful to get or I probably wouldn’t be alive to write this right now. Then made my way to my last panel, that being on the state of the comics market today. Interesting cross-section of folks on the panel, from print (me) to webcomics to commentary to a rep from Image comics looking at the bigger publisher’s side of things, which Image most certainly is now.

Yes, there was a fair amount of grouching about the Big Two. This is no big surprise. Honestly, I’m almost burned out talking about comics now since I’ve been doing it for about ten years now, some of those years on a pretty heavy burn. So yeah, comics. I dig comics, but the business makes me pretty sad.

Dinner in the city with a friend, Jeff Lester, he of Airport Books, pop archaeologist and the man responsible for bringing EJ Ehlers back into print with EROTIC VAMPIRE BANK HEIST, the 1974 novel which has been lost in time until now. Oh, it delivers exactly what the title implies and boy is it ever not a YA title.

Back to the hotel room to do my stare at the TV decompression act and stay awake until I give up and toss and turn because I can’t sleep anywhere but my own bed. Watched a local horror show and geez were the hosts ever not good, and you got to see entirely too much of them. Boo. Bedtime.

Next morning started with breakfast at Peter’s Cafe in Millbrae, which I’ve known for almost ten years now, mostly from staying with friends in San Bruno when attending APE in San Francisco, back long enough ago that it was being held in February, not October. Wandered around town a bit, mostly taking pictures of the old movie theatre marquee which has long since been repurposed into the marquee for a gray-painted strip-mall. But dig that typeface.

Stopped in on a panel on zombies, and sorta crashed the speaker’s podium, since the panel was sparsely-attended on both the presenter and audience side. Some good discussion on why zombies work (and why they don’t) with a bigger look at the apocalypse in fiction and horror in general. Even some stuff which I didn’t know, which when it comes to zombies in pop culture is pretty rare. Like did you know that there was a zombie smurf story? Yep. Peyo did one in 1963 (LAST MAN ON EARTH was 1964 and I AM LEGEND was written in 1958 if memory serves). Funny, huh? I’ve linked up to that on my tumblr (at http://highway62.tumblr.com if you’re so inclined). And yeah, it all comes back to Matheson, though Romero indisputably turned it from straight horror to horror/social fiction in his films.

Then it was off to my last panel for the day, this being the Independent Authors panel, which was pretty broad, covering everything from self-publishing to work-for-hire to the submissions process. When you come down to it, most authors are independent authors, responsible for the lion’s share of their own publicity, marketing, outreach and such. Even when you’re being published by another entity, you want to make sure that your book has the best chance for success, so you’re doing a lot of that lifting on your own.

And, like I said, I’m always happy to talk writing per se. The marketing thing, I’m a lot less comfortable with for the simple reason that I don’t do a particularly good job of it, and I am not a role model in that regard. Unless you want a role model for awkward and reluctant self-promotion, having to drag myself kicking and screaming over the finish line (or even off the start line). But the writing? Sure. Happy to talk about that, though I don’t know how useful it is. Writing’s one of those weird things that you do what works for you, if you’re persistent enough to stick with it and actually even *find* what works for you. Even if you do that, there’s no guarantee that anyone will end up reading it. “The worry isn’t selling out, it’s that you go to sell out and nobody cares” to paraphrase Spinrad.

But that’s another discussion, right?

Finished the panel, spoke with some folks, made another pass of the dealer’s room, traded a copy of BLUE HIGHWAY (my latest novel, doncha know?) for a stuffed nyan cat for my daughter (only because I didn’t find anything kaiju to bring back home for her). My son got some SIMPSONS comics and like I said, I ended up with an armful of popcult debris, which is some of my favorite stuff in the world.

All in all, a good show. Not a huge show, and that’s fine. I’ve had a lifetime of those with big comics/popcult shows as it is (and that doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon, if I can get THE LAND WILL KNOW/STRANGEWAYS 3 finished, that is.) Got the word out about some books, passed around some knowledge/experience, got a book signed. That’s about all I ask for.

Sometime I’ll revisit the question of science fiction/comics fandom and why the two seem so different, both in form and execution. And why I never quite feel like I mesh particularly well with either at times. This isn’t to say that there isn’t stuff to like. There’s plenty, a lot of unrestrained imagination if you know which rocks to turn over. But there are differing sets of expectation and obsession in both, which makes me wonder why, since they’re ostensibly based in the same sorts of thing.

But I’ll save that for later. I’m still trying to shake this deadline and I’ve just made this week’s quota (and next week is short due to the Veteran’s Day holiday and who the hell knows how Thanksgiving is going to shake out for the work schedule?) so I got this report dashed off.

Thanks again to the Convolution 2013 organizers for the invite and the show itself. I’ll definitely keep an eye out for next year’s show.