A Curious Statistical Anomaly

As those of you who read this blog regularly know, I’m the chairperson of Capclave 2010. Capclave is the Washington Science Fiction Association’s annual convention, held this year in Rockville, Maryland. Our guests of honor this year are Connie Willis, Ann VanderMeer, and Jeff VanderMeer. There will also be many other guests — writers, editors, publishers, and of course fans of speculative fiction in all its various designations.

One of the things that we’re very proud of this year is the number and quality of the workshops we’ll be offering to participants. If you are registered to attend Capclave, there is no extra charge for being in a workshop, but space is limited and some have requirements (homework that’s due at the time of the workshop or before you arrive in the case of the VanderMeer workshop).

If you are already a member of Capclave and wish to sign up for one or more of these workshops, send email to workshops at capclave dot org (you know how to parse that email address I’m sure). If you haven’t signed up for the convention yet, check out the website and sign up then send your email asking listing the workshop you wish to be in.

Here’s the full list of workshops:

Workshops at Capclave:
Capclave 2010 is pleased to once again host a number of interesting workshops. Space is still available. If you are interested, send an e-mail to our workshop coordinator.

Online Content Workshop
Putting your comics, music, video, and fiction online is easy. Making it pay is harder, but it can be done. Join webcomic creator and comedy musician Rob Balder as he talks about making a living with the free content model. Get practical advice (feel free to bring a laptop/tablet and samples of your stuff) and work out a specific strategy for growing and monetizing an audience around your work. Two hour workshop.

Plotting Workshop
What makes a story a story? How do you construct a viable plot from a bare (naked) idea? We’ll start at the beginning, and by the end, you should have everything you need to know to plot your story. Allen Wold will lead this 2 hour session.

Reviewer’s workshop
A good reviewer does more then read free books and say “I like that”. Peter Heck, a regular reviewer for Asimov’s Science Fiction will demonstrate the hallmarks of a good review and how to create one. Bring a at least 10 copies of a review you’ve written and are proud of.

Wordsmith’s Workshop
Danny Birt will guide you through looking at writing from the perspective of the single word, and then work up from there, making sure that every word counts. This 1.5 hour workshop is good for beginners to professionals and is limited to 16 participants.

Writer’s Workshop
Allen Wold will lead a panel of authors in a hands on workshop. Learn many skills as you work on a short story. Session will be for 2 hours on Sat. and for those interested, a 1 hour follow-up on Sunday. Number of Participants is limited to 12.

Writer’s Workshop
Jeff and Ann VanderMeer will critique short stories of 12 participants. Each participant must write and submit a story of no more than 7500 words at least 2 months before Capclave (by August 22nd) to the workshop email address (workshops at capclave dot org). The story will be shared with the VanderMeers and the other participants. This will be a 2 hour workshop.

Hope your as excited about these opportunities to learn as we are to be able to offer them to our convention attendees.

The Washington Science Fiction Association is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2010 WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction (published in 2009)

“each thing i show you is a piece of my death” by Gemma Files and Stephen J. Barringer, published in Clockwork Phoenix 2, edited by Mike Allen, Norilana Books (July 2009).

“Images of Anna” by Nancy Kress, published in Fantasy Magazine, edited by Cat Rambo (September 2009).

“James and the Dark Grimoire” by Kevin Lauderdale, published in Cthulhu Unbound, edited by Thomas Brannan and John Sunseri, Permuted Press, (March 2009).

“Race to the Moon” by Kyell Gold, published in New Fables, Summer 2009,  edited by Tim Susman, Sofawolf Press  (July 2009).

“Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” by Eugie Foster, published in Interzone (January 2009) / Apex Magazine (August  2009), edited by Andy Cox (Interzone) / Catherynne M. Valente (Apex).

“Siren Beat” by Tansy Rayner Roberts, published in Twelfth Planet, edited by Alisa Krasnostein (October 2009).

“The Pirate Captain’s Daughter” by Yoon Ha Lee, published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue #27, 10/08/2009, edited Scott H. Andrews.

“The Very Difficult Diwali of Sub-Inspector Gurushankar Rajaram” by Jeff Soesbe, published in DayBreak Magazine, edited by Jetse de Vries (October 2009).

The award honors the efforts of small press publishers in providing a critical venue for short fiction in the area of speculative fiction. The award showcases the best original short fiction published by small presses in the previous year (2009). An unusual feature of the selection process is that all voting is done with the identity of the author (and publisher) hidden so that the final choice is based solely on the quality of the story.

The winner is chosen by the members of the Washington Science Fiction Association (www.wsfa.org) and will be presented at their annual convention, Capclave (www.capclave.org), held this year on October 22-24th in Rockville, Maryland.

Conquering Mr. Darcy by Abigail Reynolds, Sourcebooks Casablanca, August 2010, ISBN: 978-1-4022-3730-0, 416 pages, Mass Market Paperback. [Note: Previously published as Impulse & Initiative: What if Mr. Darcy had set out to win Elizabeth’s heart? (Pride & Prejudice Variation)]

To Conquer Mr. Darcy, by Abigail Reynolds, is truly a “What If” novel. The critical question is what if Mr. Darcy didn’t give up on Elizabeth after his first disastrous proposal and Elizabeth’s unequivocal refusal? What if instead of meeting her again purely by chance at Pemberley, he returned with Bingley to Netherfield and made a concerted effort to win Elizabeth’s love and respect.

The book begins with Colonel Fitzwilliam stopping at Darcy’s townhouse in London. Georgiana has been worried about Darcy. Ever since the visit to Rosings, Darcy has spent his time alone, in the dark, drinking himself into a stupor and refusing to see anyone. This is totally out of character for him to be so depressed but he stubbornly resists all efforts to find out what is bothering him. Fitzwilliam luckily is a soldier and he barrels in where Georgiana and Bingley fear to tread and drags the story out of him. His advice is to go after Elizabeth if she means that much to him and win her.  For to do otherwise is evidence that he really doesn’t care. Darcy is angry but he pulls himself together and sets out determined to win Elizabeth.

At this point, we’ve diverged from the original story of Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, and Reynolds has to weave her story between the incidents of the original story with a few changes. Darcy supports Bingley in his desire to marry Jane Bennet. Thus Darcy is with Bingley when he visits Jane and can pursue Elizabeth’s good opinion.

You can imagine that things are awkward at first as she’s refused his offer of marriage and while his explanation of his dealings with Mr. Wickham have somewhat changed her opinion of him, she doesn’t care to be more than acquaintances. Darcy on the other hand, really makes an effort to be civil and courteous to Elizabeth’s family members. He makes sure that he meets Elizabeth when she goes for walks and rambles and essentially treats her as you would a wild animal — kindly, slowly taming her — getting her used to the idea of him being around.

Reynolds uses much of the original dialogue and manages to incorporate Elizabeth’s trip with the Gardiners and Lydia’s pseudo-elopement with Wickham. Of course, the changing relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy, changes the way these events play out.

And for purists, I have to mention that his book is a romance — there’s several very steamy scenes along with some that are more conventional for the time period such as holding hands, kisses. But, the real non-cannon event is Elizabeth and Darcy having sex prior to their marriage. Reynolds builds up to this slowly over the books so that when it occurs it seems a logical extension of their relationship within context of this book. By the way, this doesn’t give anything away as it’s on the blurb on the back of the book and in the Amazon description. So, purists are warned.

In summation, I felt that it was a well done. Reynolds took her “what ifs” and wove them into the plot points of the original books so seamlessly that you might have to refer back to the original to scope out the magnitude and number of changes those what ifs cause. At heart To Conquer Mr. Darcy is a romance — now it’s just a bit more racy romance than we’re used to between these two well-loved characters.

[Note: Edited 10 Aug 2010 to change book title to match the actual published title as it change since I read the review copy.]