A Curious Statistical Anomaly

Today started early with setting up the Capclave table at about 9:30 am.  We were a bit late getting there at 9.45 a.m.  Once set up it was greeting people as the walked bay, explaining about our convention (Capclave), who the guest of honor were (Connie Willis, Ann VanderMeer, and Jeff VanderMeer) and what type of programming we will have. Of course we stressed our writers’ workshops, review workshop, and the WSFA Small Press Award Ceremony.

Hyperion used our Dodo puppet to good effect. He quipped with passers-by and kept up patter with those who talked to the Dodo. If this keeps up, he may even learn to do the dodo voice without moving his lips.

1:00 p.m. Ice Age. Panelists: Anthony Stevens (moderator), James Prego, Paul Melko, Peter Prellwitz, Gayle Surrette, and Paolo Bacigalupi.
Description: How would we handle it if the predictions of extreme cold conditions in our world, recently made by some scientists, were to come true? Would our technology be able to protect us from extreme cold? How would our bodies adjust? What would we eat? Would fat people have an advantage?
The panel and the audience had a bit of fun with this one. The concept was that something catastrophic happened and we found ourselves in a full-blown ice age within 10 years with the ice down to about the 45th parallel worldwide. How would we cope?
Since I was on the panel it’s a bit hard to be objective in reporting but basically we covered the issues of migration, political instability, social upheaval, transportation problems, food and food delivery/growing/availability, sanitation, energy, and die off of species, climate changes, ocean salinity, and so on. The premise allowed the panel to dismiss the chance of long range planning of solutions — but that didn’t stop us from a minor discussion of whether having time to plan would actually mean that we did plan.

Then it was back to the table and schilling for Capclave. Sitting at the Capclave table means that I’m missing chances to go to some great panels and science talks. Balticon, for me, is great for great for science programming and being able to listen to scientists from local centers talk about their areas of specialty. Q&A’s allow for clarifying the what ifs or to clarify concepts as they may apply to writing projects or ones own research.

I did take time today to walk through the art show. There were some outstanding pieces with prices way out of my range but at least by being in the art show, I got to view some really nice work from some very good artists.

Some of the art was humorous. Alan Beck does a series of masterpieces of art re-imagines with mice as the models. These are amazing reproductions of this iconic works and always make me smile.

Another artist had a piece called “Vincent’s Surprise” which from a short distance appeared to be Van Gogh’s Starry Night but if you stepped closer you’d see in the sky’s swirls alien attack vessels. (Unfortunately, I mislaid my note on whose work this was — if you know or are the artist let me know.)

The artist guest of honor is Howard Tayler of the online Space Opera, Schlock Mercenary. There were several panels of his art work. There was also a table in artist alley selling his books. Check out the link to his web comic if you’re not already familiar with it — you may find this comic just what you need for comic relief.

We also wandered through the Dealer’s Room. This area is where you can check for the latest books in the genre from independent booksellers or from the publishers. There are also clothing, games, and period specific sellers. I couldn’t resist purchasing a mechanical wind-up pocket watch from a dealer specializing in Steampunk accessories. While I admired the goggles, gas masks, top hats, and other items — I managed to step away.

The major problem with the dealer’s room is that there are always many difficult to find items available and one needs to prioritize what to purchase and hope that what you pass on this time isn’t sold out by the time you find the same dealer at another venue. Many of the items you find here are just not readily available especially if the specialty dealer doesn’t have a web presence.

9 p.m. Book Pushers. What’s mine should be yours. Party sponsored by: Laura Anne Gilman, Jeri Smith-Ready, Bejamin Tate, David J. Williams. These authors books were available for sale at the party and the authors were signing the purchased copies. There was checking of ids (if you wanted liquor) and soft drinks for those not of age. There was also an abundance of chocolate and interesting and varied conversations.

We had a great time and stayed later than we’d expected to. We took the Dodo and managed to get a number of people to have their photo taken with our Capclave Dodo. (They’ll be up in an online gallery soon — really, real soon now…). The authors, editors, agents, and fans were very gracious to hold a Dodo and pose for photos — some even had real fun with staging their photos.

Finished out the day at the Capclave table followed by a meal that was wonderful since breakfast had been a long, long time ago — or it seemed that way.

Tomorrow is another full day of Balticon goodness and Capclave table sitting with short interruptions to be on two panels.

Managed to get the car packed and on the road at a decent time.  Then drove back to pick up the box we forgot.  Had to stop at the post office and then Kinkos to get copies made of the Capclave Registration Flyer.  Finally, made it to the metro to pick up a friend also going to Balticon.

Everything went fine once we got here.  Found the Capclave table and set up.  We actually managed to get one person to sign up for the Capclave.  Sold one of the books left from last year’s convention, and pre-sold a book we’re publishing this year.  Yeah.  Talked to quite a few people and had some really nice conversations about books.

4:00 p.m. Getting Published 1010: (R to L) Joshua Bilmes, Ally E. Peltier, Gayle Surrette (me as moderator),  and Jonathan Maberry.

I think the panel went okay.  I asked some question of the panel to get things going to cover some of the topics that I thought people who were aspiring writers would want to know.  Then opened it to questions early and we got some interesting questions.  The panelists were very good at fielding on such topics as whether you can send a manuscript to an agent and a publisher at the same time (yes), whether you need to do short stories before you do a novel (no), the importance of having a presence on the web (mixed), and the importance of understanding the need to not only know how to tell a good story but the importance of language, grammar, spelling, and following the submission guidelines, as well as treating your writing as a business (all extremely important).

After the panel, I returned to the Capclave table and later we went out to dinner with friends.

8:00 p.m. Opening Ceremony. This went very quickly.  The Guests of Honor were introduced (Writer Guest of Honor: Tanya Huff, Artist Guest of Honor: Howard Tayler, Science Guest of Honor: Dr. Thomas Holtz Jr., Fan  Ghost of Honor: Hal Haag.  Then the 2009 Compton Crook Award Winner: Paul Melko announced the 2010 Compton Crook Award Winner — Paolo Bacigalupi for his novel Windup Girl.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about the book and it’s on my to be read pile. Windup Girl is also a nominee for the Hugo Award this year.

9:00 p.m. Hot fusion (Inertial Electrostatic); Tom Ligon. He did a presentation and showed us the model that he’d brought. The talk was very interesting and informative and it seems that this model’s a move in the right direction. He’ll have the talk on his website soon (tomligon.com) along with several links to more information and scientific papers on this and related subjects.

We then stopped in on a party and had some interesting conversations. Now it’s very late and we have an early day tomorrow.

Not that anyone but me cares, but I checked the online program for my schedule and this is where you can definitely find me at Balticon this weekend.  The descriptions of the panels will be in your program book.

Friday, May 28:

4PM. Getting Published 101 (Belmont Room) All your publishing questions answered; including how to find an agent, what you need to do before you submit.  (I’m moderating and so far the only one listed.  Hopefully the panel will be full of knowledgeable people by the time I get there.)

Saturday, May 29:

1 PM Ice Age (Salon B)  Basically, how would we cope if we had another ice age — global freezing instead of global warming.  I’m a panelist for this one and I’m really looking forward to hearing what the other panelist have to say.

Sunday, May 30:

11 AM Humor in paranormal romance? (Belmont Room) Does the lead chick really need to wise-crack? (I’m moderating)

7 PM Young Adult Fantasy: How to get adults to read it? (Salon B) Or, should it be kept a secret just for the young adults? Could it be that sharing these books can lead to the opening of all sorts of dialogues with your children (or your parents)?  (I’m moderating this one too.)

Otherwise, I’ll be spending a lot of time at the Capclave table.  We’ll be taking registrations and having some drawing for prizes if registrations reach some key levels for new memberships.  We’ll also have a duck pond (you pay your money, pick a duck and win a prize).

One thing about knitting is that it keeps you humble.  I cast on the stitches and knit the first 5 rows and discovered that I should have used the smaller sized needles.  So, I pulled it all off the needles and unraveled.  By then it was after midnight last night.

Today I finally found the size 5 needles right where they were supposed to be after searching there, missing them and searching the rest of the house. I find that if I can’t find something it will show up in plain sight once I give up after a couple of hours. Once again this held true.  So, with needles in hand I cast on again and knit the first 5 rows.  Then I had to change to the size 6 needles.  This took a while because I wanted to move the size 6 to a new length cord and found that they wouldn’t go on that one but they did go back on the shorter cord no problem.  I’m flexible.  So, the shorter cord it was  and the sweater still fit.

The body of the sweater is knit all in one piece up to the armholes.  So the first row is the set up row where you place the markers for the front edge, front panel, underarm panel, back, other underarm panel, front panel, and front edge.  That part went really well.

Next is the first pattern row.  Front panel — no problem.  Get to the back panel and I ended up knitting in and pulling it out four time.  The problem was that somehow I forgot to check the chart for the size I was knitting and make sure I stayed within the right colors.  Evidently, I have a very short attention span, can’t distinguish colors, and/or can’t remember the size I’m knitting.  Finally on try number 4 — I managed to get the right section of the chart done the correct number of time to fit the stitches available.  Then I breezed through the other sections.

Now that the first row of the charts are done it should be much easier to keep track as  I can read the knitting to make sure I find the right place on the charts.  Yeah, I know I’ve probably set myself up for a zap from the knitting hubris goddess but a girl’s gotta dream.

It seems that the old saying, “the faster I go, the behinder I get” is getting a workout in my life.  The zines go live on June 1st.  But then you probably knew that.  But, I’m going to be at Balticon from May 28th to 31st — I think you begin to see the problem. Now add to the mix that I’m going to be on a couple of panels and will need to prepare for that. Then add that I’ll be helping a bit with the WSFA/Capclave table at the convention. My time is being eaten away and I still have things to do, reviews to edit, books to finish, my own reviews to finish writing. I love it when those deadlines come upon me like a tsunami of ginormous proportions — well I should learn to love them it happens so often in my life.

Meanwhile, the cat has been vaccinated, dewormed, chipped, and treated for ear mites. He needs to go back to the vet again next week to get his ears checked out again. I’m not sure how we’ll get him in the cat carrier this time. We had to pick him up and push him in last time getting all four paws into the opening. I understand that they had just as much of a fight getting him out at the vets. They turned the cage so the door was at the bottom and he still didn’t come out. The assistant held the carrier while Hyperion reached in to disengage paws.  After treatment though he couldn’t get in the carrier fast enough. It’s been a few days and he doesn’t take off when we both come out of the house at the same time anymore. It takes two of us to get him in the carrier so he’s very cautious of the two of us together.

I got the yarn for a sweater from the new Interweave Knits; the Jali Cardigan. I had to order the yarn from Lion Brand since none of the stores near me had it. I’m making the sweater in Hyacinth — which is a sort of light many times washed denim shade and no where near as dark as the swatch on the website. Now I just have to find my circular No. 6 needle long enough for the sweater. Heck I even did a swatch and washed and dried it. Love the feel of the yarn — soft and nicely drappy.

I’m really hoping I can finish this sweater in time for Readercon. It’s nice to have deadlines they make such a nice breeze as the pass you by. Who knows maybe I will figure out a way to knit in my sleep and I will finish it. I’ll try to post updates as I move along on this project.

I’ve been thinking of getting back into the habit of using the Wii Fit again.  We updated to the Wii Fit Plus at the beginning of the year.  I hoped that the Wii Fit Plus would have a bit less attitude — but no such luck.

To use the Wii Fit you have to have a Wii. Then the Fit part is a platform you put on the floor and use when you do the exercises. You have a choice of a male or female trainer. The trainers just tell you how to do the exercise. The Wii Fit guy is a small icon of the floor platform that talks to you when you start up the program. It gets a bit snarky. You wouldn’t think an inanimate object would have an attitude.

Maybe it’s my conscience and it’s not being snarky, but the way it says things like, “Glad you could finally find the time to exercise.” that just puts my back up.

Anyway, today I loaded the thing up and decided to do at least 10 minutes. It’s been a while since I’ve felt up to it. 67 days since I last used the thing. I know because it told me in that snarky manner it has. But then surprise, surprise, I managed to lose the first goal weight ahead of schedule without even doing the Wii (it keeps track of your goals and every time you get on it — it reminds you of the goals).

So, I set another goal and I promised myself I’d actually do the exercises — at least 10 minutes a day. I figure I can do 10 minutes a day. The Wii Fit Plus has more games and adds to the fun. Actually the Wii Fit for me is a good way to exercise. I can do it when I want. It keeps track of your progress and compares you to you, not to some mythical superhuman exercise goddess. And each exercise is short and you can pick and chose what you do for an exercise or only play the games which also get you to move and burn calories.

It may be snarky but I know the little guy is just trying to help me stay healthy.

We’ve been dealing with car transmission problems for the past two week. The first weekend in May, we lost all the gears except 1st on our way home from Virginia. Monday, we took the car in to the garage. They checked it out and an hour later determined it was indeed the transmission and they needed to order a new one for a replacement as the current one was 13 years old and not likely to last if they rebuilt it. Okay, we rented a car and left it there. We picked it up that Saturday and found that the gears were hard to move into, it popped like a new driver shifting a manual (this is an automatic). We got home and had to go to a meeting and on the way the caution light lit up. Next day we called the garage and they said not to drive it and to bring it back in but they’d order another one. So, on Monday we rented another car for a week. Tonight we picked up the car again with its second new transmission. This time it seems to work. A bit hard to shift from Park to Drive but otherwise pretty smooth. We need to take it back in 10 days for a check.

On the way back we returned the rental car and decided to get all the grocery shopping done because we were there and then tomorrow just do the recycling center. Then yard work and house cleaning. But…

After the first stop it started to rain as we got into the car and then about 3 minutes later we had this…these were all taken from a moving car with the window down.

At first it just seemed like a really heavy rain storm with lightening and thunder. It was coming down in buckets. Then it started to hail. At first I didn’t think much about it then it got bigger and heavier and I remembered my camera.

This photo is only a few feet further down the road and you can see the entrance to Denny’s is now in deep water.

The road was covered with standing water and spraying up from all the cars but the worst was the hail. This next photo is barely 3 feet along from the last one.  It’s a bit fuzzier than the others partly because now it was scary. The hail was banging on the roof and the windows and we were really afraid that the windshield would crack or break. You can see the white hail stones on the grass check against the picture above and you’ll see less hail — that’s how hard and fast it was falling.

I should mention this was during rush hour traffic on this route. Cars were pretty much bumper to bumper. We’re all being pounded by these fairly big hail stone — when it stopped at the shopping center, we check and they seemed to vary from 1 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Solid ice hitting cars. We got a couple of small dents in the roof but the windows are fine.

Cars were trying to get off the road and find a place to get under cover. There’s no place to do that. What trees there are were in the meridians and this is an area of strip malls with big open parking lots.

Later we heard people on their cells to family talking and remembering the big LaPlata tornado a couple of years back and the damage it did. People remember. I’ve been through hail storms before but nothing like this one — all the others were the ones were the hail was about the size of a pea or smaller.

I guess it’s not nice to take Mother Nature for granted — ever.

[Hyperion here:]  I also took a few short bursts of video with my cell phone, but the format isn’t compatible with any viewers except the one on my phone.  I’ll see if I can’t find some conversion software and add them to the post in a day or two.

Rumor has it by Jill Mansell, Sourcebooks Landmark, ISBN: 978-1402237508, pages 404, Price: List $14.00, Amazon: $10.08.

Jill Mansell’s Rumor Has It is hilariously funny as well as embarrassingly relevant. Tilly gets home from work to find her live-in boyfriend has moved out with all of his stuff. Not to worry, she’s not that broken up about it, except she can’t afford the rent without him. She comforts herself with a visit to her friend Erin in Roxborough. The visit is just what she needs, but before leaving to return to London, Tilly spies an ad for a Girl Friday and applies. With some assertiveness and a bacon sandwich, Tilly lands the job and moves in with Max Dineen and his daughter, Lou. Everything is going great until she falls hard for Jack Lucas who is rumored to be the hottest one-night-stand around.

Humor is very difficult to write. I know that’s the popular myth but think how often you tell a joke and everyone just stares at you waiting for the funny part — just after you’ve delivered the punch line. To write humor is to try to deliver that laugh to readers you can’t see and don’t really know. That said, Mansell’s Rumor Has It is funny. It’s laugh out loud funny. I’m sure most readers will recognize the situations because they’ve been there or seen it at one time or another. Maybe the situations weren’t as humorous at the time but, in hindsight, and happening in a book — perhaps you can see the humor this time.

Mansell’s characters are people you’ve met, been friends with, avoided like the plague, were forced to put up with, worked for, or heard about via rumors. All of the characters are well-developed and each has their own quirks. Erin doesn’t like to hurt people no matter what they do to her but she’s loyal and will defend a friend against all comers. Tilly wants romance and love but is afraid to get involved because she doesn’t want to get hurt. Stella thinks the world revolves around her and can’t understand why things aren’t going the way she planned for them to go.

I grew up in a very small town. In small towns, there’s very little to entertain one and gossip, a more sibilant word for rumor, and one that perhaps is more exact since it has that snake-hiss built in. Rumors can destroy people’s reputations and rumors can build a reputation. Remember a reputation is not necessarily a bad thing, it depends on what that reputation is and whether or not it’s true. Problems arise when the rumors don’t reflect reality. So, if you believe that everyone else is telling the truth and your experience doesn’t match the rumors would you admit to being different? Could you even convince people that the rumors are wrong? What if trying to set things right makes it look like you have a problem — would you talk about it then?

Tilly moves to Roxborough and needs to play catch up to learn what everyone else already knows. But what if, being new to the town, you don’t see things they same way. Do you go with what you believe or do you accept that the villagers know best?

Rumor Has It begins as Tilly’s story but there are several other plot lines involving other people, including Tilly’s best friend, Erin, scary Stella, Max Dineen’s ex-wife Kaye, and Max’s young daughter Lou — just to name a few. The point of view shifts to the character who can best tell the story.

It the book funny? You betcha it is. But it will also hit on a lot of other emotions as the various story lines play out and lives are disrupted and changed. Change doesn’t have to always be bad but sometimes it can get really depressing before it gets better. Love lost and love won can mean broken hearts and lives torn apart. Relationships in a small village with a very active rumor mill can be very iffy indeed.

First, I’m inclined to call Rumor Has It an old-fashioned romantic comedy updated to the present day. Many would call it Chick Lit. Whatever genre you put it in, it’s well written, funny, and relevant to people today and their relationships. Most of us have been the subject of rumors so we’ll know exactly how these characters feel.

I should mention that Rumor Has It is very British. If you watch British comedies and read books written by other UK authors, and have some knowledge of current British politics and social icons, you’ll get more of the jokes. The comedy is a bit off-the-wall, but totally believable. However, sometimes the humor is in a reference to a person, TV show, or political scandal. Don’t worry, the story is still very accessible and you’ll get most of the humor from context.

If you enjoy a good story with comedy, romance, and a bit of drama, give Jill Mansell’s Rumor Has It a try. She’s not an author I’d read before but her name is going on my “watch for this author” list.