Some WisCon Connections

This is the post when I mention the fellow writers that I got to schmooze with. (I know, the conference is more than a week in the past, but I've been on the road and/or moving house since then. I'm behind. Here's an attempt to be a little less so.) I don’t mind admitting that this is a pretty big part/benefit to going to cons – making connections. I can't possibly manage to recall and mention everyone I spoke to at WisCon. As ever with these things, one does meet a lot of people. So, with no desire to slight anyone, I'll just mention a few folks that I had some in depth time with, especially those to whom I can point you in the direction of their work.

Let me begin with the Bearded One... Yes, once again I got spend time with Patrick Rothfuss! We’ve hung out of several occasions. Always a pleasure. I’d said in a previous post that I’d try to get Pat to pay for a drink. Considering that he’s a NY Times bestselling author now, one assumes he can afford it. But, yet again, he seemed completely oblivious to the process of paying the bill. I – perhaps being too aware of such things – jumped on it and, once again, the credit card flashed and swooped and that was that. Next time, though. Next time I’m gonna hold out…

On that note, I owe one to Ekaterina Sedia. I haven’t forgotten that, Kathy, and I’ll make it up next time.

Knowing that I was going to be on a panel recommending writers of color, I got my butt in gear (mostly) and read a few of the titles I’d had on my shelves. One of them that I really liked was The Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor-mbachu. I’ve mentioned Nnedi before, but I hadn’t dove in completely until recently. She’s really good. What she does, in some ways, is simple. She wrote a futuristic coming of age story in a world where national boundaries have collapsed, where many technologies have been lost and others developed, where environmental degradations and years of global war have reshaped nation states… Sound familiar? Okay, but The Shadow Speaker is set in West Africa. It’s about Africans! Amazingly, Africans are a part of the future too! And I don’t mean as computer geeks or medical officers in a future still predominantly white. In this case the novel is just about Africans, in Africa, infused with African folklore and religion and customs. It’s a novel of a brown segment of the earth’s future. Oh, and it’s well written, smart, fast paced and thoughtful on a variety of levels. Nnedi rocks, and I was happy to be able to tell her so in person. I also understand she has an adult themed novel completed. Perhaps we’ll see that before too long.

Meeting Tobias Buckell was a great treat, too. It was especially cool because just hours before meeting him I'd been ripping through his first novel, Crystal Rain, loving it. What do I like about it? Well, it's fast, smart, slick and well-written. You're dropped into the action straight away, and he manages to develop a rather complicated world while still keeping his foot on the gas. And... it's about a future on a planet settled by descendants of Caribbean and Aztec cultures. Cool. He followed it with Ragamuffin and a third, Sly Mongoose, is coming out soon. Check him out if you haven't already. I knew he had good taste - since he liked Acacia - but now I also know he's a skilled writer himself. Tells a good yarn, too. I mean a sitting over coffee type of yarn.

Mary Robinette Kowal is very cool also. She’s in the running for a Campbell Award – so we’re competitors of sorts – but I ended up feeling that was a point of camaraderie instead of competition. Wish we’d talked longer, and I plan to at Denvention! Not only is she a first rate writer, she's a puppeteer...



It was great talking with Alaya Dawn Johnson again. It was a treat when Elizabeth Bear made a point of introducing herself, and it was good catching up with Debbie Smith also (yeah Stonecoast!). Ah… it was fun in lots of ways. If you were there or have heard other folks write about it, you probably know there was a major stomach flu going around. It was ugly. I didn't want to mention it before because I was fully focussed on beating it back so that it wouldn't spoil my BEA trip. I'm glad to finally say that I managed that. Phew.

Soon I'll write up something about BEA. For the moment, though, I'm off to shift books and boxes and various other things... And then jump in the pool...