Sep
05
2010
So yesterday morning was my first ever Worldcon panel – it was scary, but I’d put some thought into it and felt prepared. Interestingly, the moderator didn’t see the topic the same way I did and so very little of my notes were used, but feeling prepared helped a lot. It was an interesting discussion – Fiona McIntosh said a couple of times that she felt she was a ring-in, not writing romance at all but she had some fabulous things to say. She started holding up ‘help’ signs when Tracey O’Hara and I started waxing lyrical about Felicity Dowker’s lesbian zombie romance in Scary Kisses. ‘I shouldn’t be here!’ Fiona cried. Yes, Fiona, you should.
I tried to get to panels today – I had time to do so, but there wasn’t a lot that was interesting me. The one I did get to was Feminism and Fantasy at 5pm and I loved it. Fascinating to discuss things from an accepted understanding that women have been treated badly in fantasy fiction rather than have to try to argue that. Although having said that, Cat Valente mentioned that it’s sad we’re still doing Feminism 101 when we’d love to be up to 501 but that’s where we are.
Otherwise, I got a copy of Gail Carriger’s book Soulless and fan-girled over her. I had lunch with Donna, Kylie and Russell – first time we’ve managed to sit down and have a chat.
At 3 I had a meeting with my editor on Rogue Gadda, book three of Dream of Asarlai. I was really happy that it’s really just tweaks that are required – overall the book is working. That’s a real weight off. I met the dynamic Kylie Chan – powerhouse seems the appropriate word.
Dinner was the Voyager purplezone dinner, which I managed to get an invite to thanks to being lovely :) It was hard to go – hubby’s arthritis was really bad last night and I felt awful leaving him in the room in pain and going out to party. But he said from the beginning that this is my time, my convention and I need to go and enjoy it. A few glasses of alcohol later, I was :)
Parties were the George RR Martin fan party in the casino, which looked fun and interesting but was too packed and noisy for my liking. We then went over to the London bid party and that was better, particularly being able to go outside and get some fresh air.
Seem to be holding up quite well this morning. The big thing today is that my brother is coming and I get to introduce him to the joy of conventions – hope he has fun. And tonight – the Hugos!