A Curious Statistical Anomaly

Friday night was the 3rd Friday meeting of WSFA. It was a very long business meeting and the upshot is that there is going to be some exciting news about Capclave 2009 very soon now. Updates and news about what’s happening at Capclave can be found on the new Capclave blog.

Then this afternoon there was a Capclave meeting to discuss programming for this year’s convention. Lots of ideas were tossed around and refined and this tentative list of program items will soon be available on the Capclave site so you can see what we might potentially have at the convention.

After the meeting, Hyperion and I stopped to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.. I loved it. Of course I always wish that they could have everything that the book had but then the movie would last all day. But the adaptation that they did for the movie kept the spirit and the heart of the story and that’s what counts. Now, we have to wait another year (Nov 2010) for the next installment. I think at some point I’ll have to read the books from beginning to end again. (Can you tell I enjoy the books?)

It’s after midnight, I’m off to sleep I hope.

Capclave is the annual convention put on by WSFA (Washington Science Fiction Association) in October. In 2009, the Capclave Chair is Bill Lawhorn. The convention will be held 16-18 October 2009 with Guests of Honor Harry Turtledove and Sheila Williams. The convention will be held in the Hilton Washington DC/Rockville, Executive Meeting Center, 1750 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852. Check the convention webpage for complete information.

Yesterday was a meeting of the Capclave committee. What was discussed was how to spread the word about the convention and brainstorming ideas for publicity, programming, and some of the other tasks that need to be done. As you know the economy hasn’t been too good over the last couple of years and trying to come up with the right mix of guests and programming to encourage people to come and have fun, learn about writing, and meeting a lot of people who enjoy reading science fiction and fantasy is not easy.

Registration numbers are okay and so far on target, but we certainly would be happy to have more people sign up and come to the convention. Check the website — we’ve got some awesome guests.

One of the benefits of coming to Capclave for people who want to learn about writing is that Capclave offers several workshops. The workshops are free to Capclave members but do require that people sign up ahead of time so the workshop leaders know how many to expect and so we don’t overbook the rooms. There’s no extra charge for the workshops and many are an hour or half-day so you don’t miss the rest of the convention either.

So, please, check out our webpage. And let me know what you think? Would you come to such a convention if it was near you and you enjoyed science fiction and fantasy books and short stories? What would make you want to attend a convention of this type?

I’m the Capclave Chair for 2010.  That means that starting now we’re gearing up for the convention that is to be held in October of 2010 somewhere in the DC area.  This year’s Capclave 2009 will be in the Hilton Washington DC/Rockville, Executive Meeting Center, 1750 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland.  The convention guests will be Harry Turtledove as Author Guest of Honor and Sheila Williams as Editor Guest of Honor. If you’re in the area please make and effort to come to the convention.

As for my convention, I’m in the early planning stages. In order to get guests of honor, you need a hotel and a date to hold the convention. The hotel liaison for the past several years has unfortunately burnt out and the previous liaison is still recuperating from her multi-year stint, so this year two wonderful, energetic, and stalwart volunteers have stepped up to work in that position. This means that the job duties can be shared and that, hopefully, the stress will be lighter. It also means two more people in the club (WSFA) will have experience in working with hotels on events. The more the knowledge gets shared the less likely such knowledge will be lost to the club. The past hotel liaisons have been unstinting of their time and knowledge and have been helpful in answering questions from all of us who are new to event planning (and that includes myself).

Today, we met and went over the requirements we have for function space (how many rooms, what sizes, what has to fit where), the events to include during the weekend of the convention, and other items that are necessary in order that we can properly negotiate a contract with a hotel. Now that we’ve pretty much hammered out what we need/want/wish for/desire, it’s time to put that in the context of what we need to know from the hotel (can we, is it possible, cost, and other factors). Hopefully, we’re now just about ready to actually talk to the hotel and find out if we still are a good fit.

No matter what, there will be a convention in 2010 and it will be in October. Hopefully, I’ll be posting updates on the planning process as we go along. There’s a lot more involved in putting on a convention than what you might think. I’ve volunteered to work at many local and national and international conventions and I’m finding out a lot that I didn’t know. All I can say is that the people who put on science fiction and fantasy conventions are a great group of people who are dedicated to seeing that the convention goer has a great time. They do not hesitate to share their knowledge and their experience and have, at least in dealing with my questions, the patience of Job.

This is the 3rd year of the WSFA Small Press Award.

“The award is open to works of imaginative literature (science fiction, fantasy, horror, etc.) published in English for the first time in the previous calendar year. Furthermore, the Small Press Award is limited to works under 17,501 words in length that were published by a small press. The nominees are narrowed down by a panel elected by the membership of WSFA, and these finalists are then judged by the entire membership of WSFA in order to select a winner. Throughout the process, the author and publisher of each story are kept anonymous, and the winning story and its author are announced at Capclave, the WSFA convention held in the D.C. area each October.”

This year, I’m the award administrator. The nomination period is over and the stories have now been stripped of author and publisher information and have been entered into our database. Passwords are being generated for the committee members who will read the stories and select the list of finalists. Once the finalists are chosen, members of WSFA (Washington Science Fiction Association) will be given passwords and allowed to read the finalists and vote for the winner.

The winner will be announced at this year’s Capclave, the club’s annual convention. This year we have 59 valid nominations. We hope that with each year the number of nominations will increase as we manage to inform more of the small presses who are eligible about the contest.

Now, until the finalists are chosen my job is in wait and see mode. But, there are some great stories in this group of nominee and I’m anxious to see which of these 59 stories make the list of finalists.

Today was work, work, work — getting books entered, reading for reviews, taking notes and getting set for a WSFA (Washington Science Fiction Association) Meeting in DC. For the next six month or so the club is meeting in DC … usually we meet in Virginia for the first Friday of the month, and Maryland for the third Friday.

If you live in the DC, northern VA, Maryland area and love science fiction and fantasy you should check out WSFA. You can view their website at www.wsfa.org. There’s some great people, lots of nice geeky (SF, fantasy, science, technology, and social) discussions after the short business meeting.

WSFA puts on a yearly convention called Capclave. Capclave is usually held in October. This year it will 16-18 October 2009.
Guests of Honor will be Harry Turtledove as Author Guest of Honor and Sheila Williams as Editor Guest of Honor. The convention will be held at the Hilton Washington DC/Rockville, Executive Meeting Center, 1750 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.

WSFA also presents the WSFA Small Press Award at a short ceremony during the convention. This is the club’s third year giving out this award and the number of nominations are growing each year. The award honors the work of small presses and the short story (under 17,500 words).

Check out the websites to learn more about WSFA and their activities. I enjoy the people, the discussions, and the chance to get involved in the community of fans.

[Besides I needed to do a post tonight and thought I’d talk about a group that I give a lot of my time to. I’m Capclave chairperson for 2010, one of the two webmasters, and the current WSFA Small Press Award Administrator.]
So if you live in the area, come to a meeting and check us out.

I thought readers might just be interested in this. Besides, this year I’m working as the award administrator — meaning I’m the clerk for the committee. It’s blind judging of the stories so someone has to take all the identifying information off the stories and this year that’s me. I’ve been working on this all day to get ready to send out the announcements tomorrow so thought I’d kick it off by posting it here.

WSFA Small Press Award Committee now accepting nominations for works published in 2008:

The Washington Science Fiction Association (http://www.wsfa.org) has established a literary award to honor the work done by small presses in promoting and preserving science fiction. The WSFA Small Press Award will be given yearly for original short fiction works (17,500 words or fewer) of imaginative literature (e.g., science fiction, fantasy, horror, speculative fiction or like literature) published by a small press.

For the purposes of the award, a small press is defined as a hard copy print or web publication house releasing from 3 to 25 titles per year. Eligible periodicals are those with a paid circulation of fewer than 10,000 in the year that the story is published. Periodicals must have an editorial staff and must pay all authors at least one cent ($0.01) per word. Any story published in a periodical owned by a major publishing house or media producer is not eligible for this award.

For complete rules check our website: http://wsfasmallpressaward.org.

For this our 3^rd Annual WSFA Award, eligible works are those published for the first time in English in 2008. To help us identify worthy pieces, we are asking for small press publishers and authors to nominate stories. (The story does not have to be published by you, although we generally expect you to nominate works from your publications.) You may nominate up to three (3) stories as a publisher, one (1) story as an author.

FOR THIS YEAR THE DEADLINE FOR NOMINATIONS IS MARCH 1.

Nominated stories _must_ be submitted in electronic form, in any of the common formats (e.g. doc, rtf, pdf). Judging will be blind, that is the name of the author will be stripped from the story. Therefore, we ask that you either send the story in a format that allows us to edit the file to remove the author’s name, or strip the name yourself but be sure to include the name of the author in the accompanying email message. Nominations should be sent to admin@wsfasmallpressaward.org . The accompanying email should indicate the name of the person or entity that holds the copyright to the story and permission from that person or entity to circulate the story within WSFA for the purposes of judging. The story WILL NOT be circulated beyond WSFA and will be housed on a secure, password-protected website.

The award will be presented at the annual WSFA convention, Capclave, held each year in October in the Washington, DC, area. The award winner and the publisher will be notified prior to the convention.

Additional information about the award can be found at our website– http://www.wsfasmallpressaward.org.

Finally, I’m getting the Sunday Capclave details up. As you know, we were so busy on Sunday that we didn’t get to post.

We got up late. Packed up and got our bags and baggage out to the car. Double checked that we hadn’t missed anything in the room, and checked out. By this time, we’d missed the 10 a.m. panels and it was after the 11 a.m. ones had started, so we visited the ConSuite, talked to some friends and waited for the noon panels to start.

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Is Genre Good panel

Noon: Is Genre Good? There’s lots of talk about genres and breaking genre restrictions. Authors find themselves having to use different names in different parts of the bookstore. So why do we have genre? What do these lines do for good or for ill? What happens when writers ignore these lines or try to cross them?
Panelists: Jim Freund (moderator), Michael Dirda, Ted White, Dr. Charles Gannon.

Ted White gave an excellent overview of how genre distinctions came to be used. He started where publishers would just have stories and a magazine would have a mix of science fiction, horror, westerns, literary, poems, and so forth. Ending with the divisions that we have today in publishing and bookstores.

The panel talked about how genre is really a marketing tool. It tells bookstores where to put books and then readers can look for the books that they like in the categories they read. If you like romance you look in the romance section ….

While things have changed over the years and there are now classes in the university on science fiction and fantasy, it’s still not fully accepted as a field of study. If you are in academia and up for tenure you need to have a list of publications. If you’ve published in periodicals, even prestigious ones in Science Fiction Literary Study or Review — it has less weight then publications in the standard academic publications.

One benefit of genre is that there is an identified group of readers, you don’t have to explain things like FTL (faster than light) because the readers are already familiar with the tropes and accepted mechanics of the field.

Keeping Control of Your Characters panel

1 p.m. Keeping Control of Your Characters. How do you make sure your characters follow the plot you want without making the author’s hand too visible or your characters seem out of character? Do you follow your characters or your plot? Or do you not outline at all, just create characters and see where thy go?
Panelists: Resa Nelson, Dina Leacock, Brenda Clough. (The moderator didn’t show for this panel).

The panelists agreed that characters are plot. Everything that makes a fully-formed character — their backgrounds, education, profession, social interactions — effect their decisions and their decisions are what get them moving and reacting and that’s plot.

What is bad is characters as sock-puppets for the author. You should concentrate on story not getting your political or social agenda over to the reader. When you’re more interested in getting your world view across you should be writing non-fiction. That’s not to say that you can’t have your story convey your opinions and beliefs but if it doesn’t come out of the characters it’s not a good story.

The trick is to realize that when you’re having problems in a story and it won’t go the way you want it to — it may be that the characters you have developed wouldn’t do what you want. If you write for the characters that you’ve developed the story should flow smoothly. So, if you’re stuck, try to imagine what your characters would do or say in that situation (one at a time), you’ll probably find one of them just doesn’t fit that scene. You are the ruler of your story but if you develop characters that are fully developed you can’t cause them to act counter to their core — they must move according to how they are created and their background you gave them.

Sometimes the problem will arise from how you decided to tell the story (point of view). Maybe it needs to be changed. Maybe one character wants to narrate and since you’re not telling it that way it keeps stalling. The panelists all believed that authors have to learn to listen to their cast because characters are plot.

2 p.m. Who should we be reading? Who are the great writers of our day? Who is unfairly neglected? Panelists recommend books, stories, films and authors.
Panelists: Doug Fratz, Kathryn Cramer (moderator), Hildy Silverman, Lenny Bailes.

The panel decided that actually that they’d list writers who are good solid story tellers that are under-appreciated. The key is under-appreciated. Some of those listed are fairly well known but still the panel considered them under-appreciated. Here’s the list in no particular order:

Terry Bisson (light SF with heavy themes)
Robert Reed (has short stories in almost every major SF/F magazine but little known)
Howard Hendrix/Howard V. Hendrix
Elizabeth Moon
Michael Flynn (The January Dancer)
Matt Ruff (Tiptree Award Winner)
Ken Macleod
Cory Doctorow (Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town)
Neal Stephenson (The Baroque Cycle)
Grania Davis (The Rainbow Annals)
Avram Davidson
A.R. Morelan
Jim Butcher
Greg Egan
Mary Sangiovanni
Karl Schroeder
Steven Baxter
Nancy Kress
Greg Benford
Michael Swanwick
Gwyneth Jones
Gene Wolfe
James Patrick Kelly
Bruce Sterling
Robert Sheckley
Carol Emshwiller
Mary Rickert/M. Rickert
Lucius Shepard
Jeffrey Ford
Ted Chiang
L.E. Modesitt Jr.

The audience suggested: Jennifer Smith Stevens, David Marusek, Karen Joy Fowler, Howard Waldrop, Nick DiChario (Valley of Day-Glo), and Susan Palwick.

Movies mentioned were: Pan’s Labyrinth, Being John Malkovich, Momento, 13th Floor, Donny Darko, and Gattica.

After Con Review Session

3 p.m. Gripe Session. This is the session where convention attendees can come and tell the convention committee what worked and what didn’t.

We explained our problem with the smelly/perfumy room. There were a lot of suggestions to make the convention better next year (double index for the restaurant guide, find out if the hotel could have coffee/tea available in the bar after the restaurant closes for non-drinkers, more time between events to allow a trip to the bathroom or such so they don’t have to miss panels, suggested a clock on each panel table so the panelists could better check time, add in koffeeklatches if possible as well as the readings, a bit more time for some of the workshops such as the one for Reviewers, publicity, and how to get an agent, since they ran over, add a handout or something on the web for those who are attending their very first convention so they know about things old-timers take for granted, such as they can go to the parties on the party board, in the bio section list some of the books the authors have written, maybe have a break for lunch (again so attendees don’t have to miss panels.

Seems like everyone, including myself, had a great time at the convention. After the gripe session, we met some friends to sit and talk for awhile before going out to dinner in a big crowd. Finally drove into our driveway at about ten. As you know, I didn’t get Sunday written up. But now you have the full report from the convention. Check out the Capclave 2009 website for the dates for next year.  The Guests of Honor are Harry Turtledove and Sheila Williams.

Panels started at 10 a.m. this morning but I felt it was more important to search for coffee than to get to the first panel of the day. I figured snoring or nodding off during a panel doesn’t set the right tone of interest in the audience for the panel members. So, off in search of coffee we went. We checked a couple of places that had cappuccinos listed outside but either they had no menu of what drinks they had or no staff manning the counter, or both. So, what’s a person to do but to go to Starbucks — open, with menu and staff. (Why not do the coffee in the hotel? It was those individual coffee thingys with real cups and I saw a couple of those videos on YouTube — you know the ones on hotels and glasses/cups. I forgot to bring my own this time so….).

Peter Heck interviews Guest of Honor Michael Dirda

11 a.m. Guest of Honor Interview: Peter Heck interviews Michael Dirda.
I’ve enjoyed Michael Dirda’s book reviews in the Washington Post for years so I was very excited to get a chance to sit in on this interview. Dirda was an interesting speaker who, once asked a question, would just free-form answers with interesting information and insights.

(I took notes but if anything is wrong it’s my note taking) He talked about his early years as a student and being an erratic high school student. He when to Oberlin College and told them that if they gave him a scholarship he’d change his ways and really study. They did, so he did. However, he felt overwhelmed with the college atmosphere and some of the other students. His father encouraged him to work hard and finish when he thought of dropping out. He spent time in France and eventually moved to Washington, DC to be near his girlfriend (eventual wife).

He talked about how serendipity has often played a role in his landing jobs. He’s written an autobiography of sorts so, for extended detail, check it out. But he told of his first review for the Washington Post. He’d talked to them and didn’t hear anything for months then was asked if he’d review a book. He said yes, and they sent the book by courier. He knew the review should be 250 words but not when it was due so he read the book that night (Friday), then polished and honed the prose, typed it up on really nice paper (paper with the texture/feel/lushness of vellum since he wanted to make a good impression) and sent it to them express on Monday. The WP people were really impressed because they expected it to take two months. He talked to them about doing more reviews and they were so-so about it but then as the meeting was breaking up one of the editors asked about the paper and where he could get it. Dirda said if you give me some more assignments, I could get you a ream. The rest, of course, is history.

In his time at the Washington Post, he often asked people to review books outside their areas of specialties but still related to things they enjoyed. He had an author who did reviews of literature do a review of a book on jazz, since he knew he liked and enjoyed jazz. He tried to break genres. He got into doing the science fiction and fantasy reviews when their SF/F reviewer moved on to another position.

His belief is that if a book is well-written, telling a great story that resonances with the reader, then it is a good book no matter what genre it’s in. Literature more of less transcends genre — they are books that are patterning book for people and genre is irrelevant. The point is that people shouldn’t limit themselves or their reading. Don’t go through life with blinders on. (I add to that thought that you especially shouldn’t go through life with self-imposed blinders on.)

Heck asked about what happens if you don’t like a book. Dirda basically said he doesn’t tend to read books he doesn’t enjoy. He may occasionally give a mixed review but has done very few negative reviews in his career. This topic led to discussing the prevalence of reviewing sites on the internet. One of the ways to get a reputation and readership on the internet is to do negative, snarky reviews. Usually, these are easy to write but don’t do a service to the authors or the readers of the review. Most of the negative reviews that he’s done have been when a well-known author just doesn’t seem to care anymore.

He strongly believes that once people get out of school they should be reading for pleasure. This brought up the point that as a professional reviewer, he does get pleasure from the books he reads but that he seldom gets a chance to read for pleasure. (A distinction that I feel is very important and was happy to hear him talk about as I do a lot of reviewing myself.)

Asked if he reread books, Dirda said that he did. That there are some books that are comfort books either because of the story, the characters, the language, the setting, or combination of these elements. They give comfort to the reader. Some books are reread because at the time of the first reading, you may not have gotten the subtext or full experience of reading it. He talked about a book he read in his teens and reread in his thirties and the on the second reading, he understood that there was so much more that he didn’t get as a teen.

I was so impressed with his talk, that I put in a bid in the silent auction on his books. If I don’t get one, I’ll buy them, but the auction is for the medical fund of SFWA (Science Fiction Writer’s Association). Can’t beat getting what you want while helping others.

Then we took a break and stopped to talk to people we hadn’t seen in a while. Caught up and blathered on until the paranormal romance panel. We also went back to our room to see if the hotel had managed to do the odor neutralizer thing — nope. So, we sprayed the neutralizer we’d bought again. The smell has changed to a fruity one from the floral one it was earlier — weird.

Girl Meets Monster panel

1 p.m. Girl Meets Monster, Gets Boyfiend: Paranormal Romances. What is paranormal romance? Is it absorbing urban fantasy or is it a completely separate genre? Why is it so popular? Why now? Should it be filed under romance or fantasy?
Panelists: Victoria Janssen (moderator), Traci Castleberry, Maria V. Snyder, and Mindy Klasky.

The first part of the panel they tried to come up with some key items that define the terms and seemed to agree on the following.

Romances are expected to have H.E.A. or Happily Ever After endings. Paranormal Romances also tend to have HEAs. If there is not a happily ever after ending, or no real resolution, it’s probably Urban Fantasy.

In a Paranormal Romance, romance is the key to the story and they usually have a lighter tone and the subplot is the plot that drives the romance. In Urban Fantasy, the fantasy is key and the romance is a subplot and there is usually a darker tone or noir feel. In traditional fantasy there is more emphasis on world building and the setting and language.

Paranormal romances generally have a woman as the main character. Urban fantasy can have either a male or female be the main character.

Discussed the over abundance of vampires as love interests. Some discussion of Dracula being the genesis of the desirability of the monster. Everyone thought Sunshine by Robin McKinley to be a wonderful paranormal romance though it wasn’t marketed as one. They said that they’d like to see more playing with the rules and expectations and the romance with something other than a vampire or werewolf.

We took another break to check our room and spray the odor neutralizer again — now the floral scent is back. The strength is less so I think the odor neutralizer is helping but it doesn’t seem to go away completely. We’ve now heard of at least four rooms with this problem. The hotel is willing to move us but I hate moving once we settle in. I keep hoping they’ll figure out the problem but they don’t use scented cleaners and have no idea what’s causing this. At least it’s not triggering my allergies anymore — it’s just annoying.

Small Press, Big Impacts Panel

4 p.m. Small Press, Big Impact: What is the role of the small press in today’s publishing environment? What can they do that the big ones can’t? How do you start a press and is this just a hobby or can you make a living at it?
Panelists: Sean Wallace, Michael Dirda, Michael Walsh, Lawrence M. Schoen, and John Betancourt.

The upshot of the panel seems to be that you can, if you work hard enough, make a living being a small press — but it’s not easy. Print on Demand (POD) has made a big difference in a small press’ ability to compete.

Amazon.com has also been a help as it gets your books out to the public if the big chains don’t buy copies or carry them in the stores.

One of the definitions of a small press is that they make less than $6 million a year. None of the panelists said they even come close to exceeding that criteria. Most view this 6 million dollar line with a telescope. That one of the hardest things is to get the title out there and to get the word out about the book. It helps to get advance reader copies to the appropriate reviewing venues and Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus are important. Also, not accepting returns helps to limit your risk.

Ending Stories Panel

5 p.m. Ending Stories: Bang or Whimper. So many short stories start out well but end abruptly or just trail off, leaving the reader to wonder “What was the point?” Why does this happen and how can writers avoid this fate? Is a twist ending a cheat?
Panelists: Dennis Danvers, Barbara Krasnoff, Allen Wold (moderator), Brenda Clough.

There’s a saying: The first chapter sells your book and the last chapter sells your next book.

There was a lot of discussion about ‘change’ being required to have an ending. That a story is about how somebody is confronted with a problem and succeeds or fails and the resolution changes the person (or the reader).

Sometimes the ending may seem to be a bad one if you don’t recognize who the story is about. The Nancy Drew stories aren’t about Nancy Drew, she’s just the catalyst that allows the story/mystery to exist and be solved.

Star Wars has two ending. The first is when Luke rescues Princess Leia and the second is when the Death Star is destroyed. The second couldn’t happen without the first because Leia has the connections needed to make the second happen so it’s really two stories with endings.

A high level story is when you finish a story and you see the world differently. The reader is changed. A bad story is one where you wonder, “Why did I bother to read this?”

If you are writing a story where the climax is not the point, then there is no such thing as a weak ending. If a story is really great you can leave off the end because it’s inevitable from what has gone before — this concept was especially tricky and there was a lot of talk back and forth about not having an ending because it was implied….

We went out with friends to supper to Inkas Empire. The food was very good and reasonably priced. We had a great time getting to know some new people.

2nd Annual WSPA Awards

8:30 p.m. Award Ceremony & Party
Celebrated the second annual WSFA Small Press Award and learned this year’s winner. And eat cake.

WSFA Small Press Award Finalists were:

• “Bufo Rex” by Erik Amundsen, Weird Tales, Issue 347.
• “Orm the Beautiful” by Elizabeth Bear, Clarksworld Magazine, January 2007.
• “The Wizard of Macatawa” by Tom Doyle, Paradox, Issue 11.
• “Harry the Crow” by John Kratman, Aeon Speculative Fiction, Issue 12.
• “Mask of the Ferret” by Ken Picks and Alan Loewen, from the book Infinite Space, Infinite God, Twilight Times Books.
• “The Third Bear” by Jeff VanderMeer, Clarksworld Magazine, April 2007.

The Winner of the award this year is:

“The Wizard of Macatawa” by Tom Doyle, Paradox, Issue 11.

Tom Doyle and Paradox magazine, each received an engraved trophy. Tom also received a check for $250.

Gifts for the Guests of Honor

Next the Capclave Guests of Honor were given gifts. WSFA commissioned an artist (Lynn Perkins) to create a work for each guest. Michael Dirda received a painting of a Dodo in a library. Each of the books in the library is one that Dirda has written about and recommended. James Morrow received a painting of his dog (now deceased) in a field with a background of stars and a hint of the rainbow bridge (or so it appears to me). Both seemed very pleased with their paintings.

After Awards Cake and Chit Chat

Next we all had cake and plenty of opportunity to sit and talk with other Capclave attendees. We stayed way too long to talk and enjoy the company of Capclave members more than we should have, considering we had to get this blog post up tonight. So, the photos will be added in tomorrow.

[Hyperion: Pictures are finally in.]