A Curious Statistical Anomaly

There are days when it seems that no matter how fast I run around or do things that the number of things that still need to be done just keeps growing faster than I can take care of them. It’s like being in one of those nightmare hallways where you need to get to the other end and as you move the hallways just keeps getting longer and longer.

Today, we did our weekly shopping that we didn’t get to yesterday. We checked out a few places for kerosene heaters, only to find there weren’t any for indoor use — our old one won’t light. Even though the temps are now in the high 60’s, it has been down in the 30’s this month so we wanted to be ready for the next dip. Guess we’ll have to work on getting the wood piles rotated and move the ready wood to the holder near the deck.

We also picked up a few Christmas gifts for mothers and did some other “secret”-type getting of stuff.

Back home, I entered all the books that had come in and didn’t get entered into the database because I was preping for the Capclave meeting. Finally got those entered and cleared out lots of emails that were just short notes and didn’t take much work to get rid of.

Now, it’s write up the TODOs for tomorrow and try to get a bit of reading done before bed. At last the day is ending.

Did I mention that someone posted that the convention we were at in California actually had people with the flu and at least one with H1N1 type flu. Hyperion has been ill most of the past week and is only now feeling better and so will be going in to work. I never was as sick as he was, just a bit of stomach problems and a runny nose. Now I hope when we’re over this it means we’re immune to the flu for a while.

It’s a good thought anyway. Well, the coming week will be very busy and morning comes way too early — I mean who invented this morning thing anyway. I prefer days to start when I feel like getting up rather than the day making me get up.

Just today the last fiddlybits on the new Capclave 2010 website got finished up and the site is live. We even have a registration link so you can sign up for the convention on line.

The Guests of Honor for Capclave, which will be held October 22-24th, 2010 at the Rockville Hilton (1750 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852), will be

Connie Willis
Ann VanderMeer
Jeff VanderMeer

All these guests are standouts and the convention should be great.

Capclave is the Washington, DC areas literary science fiction convention and in the past the convention has had kaffeklatches; readings by authors; a dealers’ room (lots and lots of books); space science presentations from NASA scientists; workshops on writing, reviewing, contracts & negotiating basics for writers, publicity for writers, and getting an agent; a hospitality suite, room parties, filking, and board gaming. The WSFA Small Press Award Ceremony is traditionally presented during a Saturday night event.

The membership will be capped at 500 this year. So, check out the website — bookmark it and check back often because we’ll be adding details as we delve into planning the programming schedule and invite participants. The website also has a link to the Capclave blog which will have the most recent news about what’s going on. And since I’m the chair of Capclave 2010, you’ll probably hearing a lot about Capclave here in my blog too.

Right now membership rates are the lowest they are going to be — $35 per person. Membership prices will go up on January 1st to $45 and raise again on July 1st and October 1st. Capclave does offer special rates for active military and students with proof of their status.

So, if you enjoy science fiction, fantasy, and related writings or you are an aspiring writer, or you’re a professional (author, editor, publisher, reviewer, etc.) in the genre — join us in October 2010 for a great convention.

My browser is set to refdesk.com as my home page and today’s quote of the day was by President Theodore Roosevelt:

“A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled to, and less than that no man shall have.”

I got to think back over my lifetime and I remember that veterans used to get some really good deals for their service to our country. They got to go to college or take other training classes at government expense so that they could compete for jobs when they completed their service. They could got to veteran’s hospitals and get medical care whether they had regular health insurance or not because they had risked their lives for us. Today, most of the men and women who have given of themselves to protect us do not receive much of anything for their service, other than a pat on the back and a thank you — if they’re lucky.

Of course, I’m getting this impression from news reports and other sources such as returning veterans. From listening to the talk from those who deal with vets and from listening to vets on health issue lists discuss their problems in getting the health care they need. I saw the reduction of educational benefits shrink as the cost of a college education went up, from when I worked for educational institutions in IT.

When did this country stop caring about the people who risk their lives to keep us safe? They deserve not only our respect for the jobs they do and the risks they take, but some compensation for the time they they give in service to their country. They need a square deal. As citizens we should be advocating that their benefits be restored to them.

Am I against the war in Iraq — yes. Do I want our soldiers to come home? Darn tootin’ I do. That doesn’t mean that I don’t care for our troops, I just feel if they’re going to risk their lives, it should be for values that this country actually stands for (or used to stand for) and not for pettiness and to protect the interests of corporations.

The “war on terror” is a failure. It’s increased the number of terrorists groups and it risks the lives of our service men and women for no gain in safety. In point of fact, America and Americans are less safe now than before The Shrub started this little war. I could go on a long rant about security theater but you’ve heard that one before. For now, I want to say that we’ve lost our focus and that’s hurting this country in many ways that are not immediately apparent. We’ve lost the high ground we once had when trying to get other countries to see reason and to negotiate to make this a better world to live in.

Along with losing our focus on what’s important, we’ve lost our willingness to play fair, and to honor our commitments. A glaring example is how we treat our veterans when they return home. They should get the square deal that Roosevelt talked about — the deal they used to get and no longer receive. A deal that didn’t have qualifiers such as “we know you’re ill but you can’t prove you got this illness from the chemicals used in battle so it’s not covered by your veteran’s benefits. Sorry.” No, vet should have to worry about health care. No vet who passes the entrance tests should have college denied to him/her because the government no longer covers the costs they used to.

America was made strong on the backs of its veterans and the education and continued service they provided as ordinary citizens when they returned home, went to school, got jobs, and continued to keep America strong with the sweat of their brow rather than the their life’s blood.

If you really want to support our troops, make sure that they’re risking their lives for those goals that American once stood for. And when they return home or finish their tour of duty, see to it that they have benefits to make the risk worth their potential price — we owe it to them since, because of their willingness to serve, we get to stay home and live our lives in peace.

A while back I stumbled across the fact that Jen Yates was on a book tour for her book, Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong. Then I noticed that one of the stops on the tour was in Bethesda, Maryland. I marked my calendar.

I’ve enjoyed the Cake Wrecks blog since I stumbled across it a year or so ago. I check back every so often for another hit of Jen’s humor and a look at how some things can just go so wrong. So, hearing of this event, I knew I wanted to go. The blog said there was a slide show and cake would be served. How could anyone pass this up.

Google Maps said that the trip should take us about an hour and 10 minutes. So, we left in time to get there about a half hour early. Good thing we did because the trip took over two hours (traffic was just really heavy) and we got there just in time for the Q&A and the cake. However, there was a large crowd.

Not only was there a fairly large crowd of people but it completely filled the seating area and was standing room and filling up all the aisles and walkways between shelving units. If you look closely you’ll note that Hyperion and I weren’t the only WSFAns there.
Of course there was cake:

It was a great cake and obviously Leslie has a wonderful sense of humor. It was chocolate cake and I believe a mocha frosting. It really tasted great. Everyone there got a piece of the cake. (For you people who play Portal, the cake was not a lie.)

Of course there’s a Wreckplica contest. People bring a cupcake that is based on a cake wreck. The three winners were The Lenin Cake (Grand Prize), the bloodshot eyes cake, and the foot (which included the nails).

I seem to have lost the photo of the third prize winning cupcake. Sorry.

Jen and John then signed books.

Though we missed the slide show, we did hear the Q&A and it was quite interesting. They’ve only had 7 requests to take down a cake and they get about 50-60 photos of cake wrecks a day. They actually check to make sure the wrecks aren’t intentional. Leslie said she was appalled when one of her cakes made it on Cake Wrecks but then saw the humor of it and got over it. It just happens sometimes that what you think is a great cake just doesn’t work for others.

It was a fun evening and I’m glad we took the time to go, even though we missed the slide show. Jen and John are good people and try to keep the blog light, funny and not mean. Check if out.

By the way, I also really love the Sweet Sunday posts where they post pictures of beautiful cakes — not a wreck among them. Works of art that it’s a shame to think someone is going to cut into it and serve it to people.

The flight home from San Jose was much nicer than the one going to San Jose. For one things the flight home didn’t have two screaming babies. I really wish there was some no-fail method of seeing that babies didn’t have to suffer from blocked ears. I understand the crying and feel so sorry for them, but when you’re crammed into too small seats in a full plane it’s hard to maintain perspective and serenity. But coming home we only had to deal with a completely full plane and no empty seats at all.

We got in and crashed. We slept almost twelve hours. Then went out bought a few supplies, emptied the fridge of a few things that didn’t make it. The big surprise was at the Post Office. We stopped the mail from Thursday to Monday. So, Tuesday when we picked it up, getting two filled US Postal bins was a bit overwhelming especially when added to the FedEx and UPS deliveries that had come to the house while we were gone. (We have two trash can just for deliveries — to protect the books from wet weather.).

Needless to say, I spent today entering books into the database and clearing out regular mail and spam as well as the electronic kind. I ran some system checks on my PC too. Mid-morning (I got up at 6:30AM), I found I could barely keep my eyes open and ended up taking a nap.

Somehow, I associate napping with being either very young — I hated them as a child — or very old. Well, I’m not that old but with the two conventions separated by a week and a cross country trip for one of them, I guess I’m getting into napping territory. It did help. When I got up — I really felt refreshed and the minor headache I’d had was gone. Of course, that was hours ago and now I’m dragging again, and the headache — not to mention other aches and pains — are back.

Hopefully, tomorrow I’ll be back on schedule and can get my reviews up and finish off the odds and ends of the November issues of the zines.

Just got back from the banquet and World Fantasy Award Ceremony.

Winners in BOLD:

Best Novel: This category had a tie.

The House of the Stag, Kage Baker (Tor)
The Shadow Year, Jeffrey Ford (Morrow)
The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HaperCollins; Bloomsbury)
Pandemonium, Daryl Gregory (Del Rey)
Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin; Knopf)

Best Novella:

“Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel,” Peter S. Beagle (Strange Roads, DreamHaven Books)
“If Angels Fight,” Richard Bowes (F&SF 2/08)
“The Overseer,” Albert Cowdrey (F&SF 3/08)
“Odd the Frost Giants,” Neil Gaiman (Bloomsbury; Harper Collins)
“Good Boy,” Nisi Shawl (Filter House, Aqueduct Press)

Best Short Story:

“Caverns of Mystery,” Kage Baker (Tales of Dark Fantasy, Subterranean)
“26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss,” Kij Johnson (Asimov’s 7/08)
“Pride and Prometheus,” John Kessel (F&SF 1/08)
“Our Man in the Sudan,” Sarah Pinborough (The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories, Humdrumming)
“A Buyer’s Guide to Maps of Antarctica,” Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesworld 5/08)

Best Anthology:

The Living Dead, John Joseph Adams, ed. (Night Shade Books)
The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Del Rey)
The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2008: Twenty-First Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link, & Gavin J. Grant, eds. (St. Martin’s)
Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy, Ekaterina Sedia, ed. (Del Rey)
Steampunk, Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, eds. (Tachyon Publications)

Best Collection:

Strange Roads, Peter S. Beagle (DreamHaven Books)
The Drowned Life, Jeffrey Ford (HarperPerennial)
Pretty Monsters, Kelly Link (Viking)
Filter House, Nisi Shawl (Aqueduct Press)
Tales from Outer Suburbia, Shaun Tan (Allen & Unwin; Scholastic)

Best Artist:

Kinuko Y. Craft
Janet Chui
Stephan Martiniere
John Picacio
Shaun Tan

Special Award, Professional:

Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant (for Small Beer Press and Big Mouth House)
Farah Mendelsohn (For The Rhetorics of Fantasy)
Stephen H. Segal & Ann VanderMeer (for Weird Tales)
Jerad Walters (for A Lovecraft Retrospective: Artists Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft)
Jacob Weisman (for Tachyon Publications)

Special Award, Non-Professional:

Edith L. Crowe (for her work with The Mythopoeic Society)
John Klima (for Electric Velocipede)
Elise Matthesen (for setting out to inspire and for serving as inspiration for works of poetry, fantasy, and SF over the last decade through her jewelry-making and her “artist’s challenges.”)
Sean Wallace, Neil Clarke, & Nick Mamatas (for Clarkesworld)
Michael Walsh (for Howard Waldrop collections from Old Earth Books)

Lifetime Achievement Awards went to Ellen Asher and Jane Yolen.

Jay Lake did a wonderful job of setting up the ceremony and the award presenters did a great job of keeping things moving. Every category was strong and there were no losers in any of these categories as all people, books, and stories were more than worthy of the nominations.

Congratulations to all the winners.

Finally got some sleep last night. Got up in time to get to the 10 am panel.

10 AM: Who, What or Why Done It.
Panelists: J. Kathleen Cheney, Laura Anne Gilman, Thomas S. Roche, Danel Paul Olson (Moderator), Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.
Panelists talked about mystery in the sense of the original Greek — that which makes us silent and blind. The difference between grue and frission and how enigma or doubt can be carried throughout a story and woven into the structure without either telling too much or not enough. Panelists agreed that the hooks need to be set in the first fifth of the book. Much discussion was taken up with the unknown and the unknowable and that Gothic Romances are great at keeping the differences of these two. Once of the concepts that I found interesting was that “Horror is fear of the unknown and terror is fear of the known”. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch who the quote was from.

Some phrases that came up and were interesting:
The writer controls the first impressions a reader gets of the character and after that the character is on his or her own.
The Why and How Done it are often more satisfying mysteries but they are much harder to write
Panther as pet.
Not so much Who Done it or What Happened but just how screwed are we?

11 AM: VanderMeer on VanderMeer

Panelists: Ann and Jeff VanderMeer interviewing each other.
This was great panel as the VanderMeers asked each other questions or told stories about each other that maybe people didn’t know about them. Examples: Ann originally wanted to be a homicide detective. Jeff is an avid birder and tide pool explorer. Jeff is renouncing squid but he tends to use totem animals in his stories. Ann used to be in a rock punk band (back in the day). The audience enjoyed getting to know these two people better and the hour just rushed by.

Noon: Shelf Lives: The Art and Design of Book Covers

John Picacio, slide show
Picacio, through the use of a slide show of his work, led us through the thought process and stages that go into making a book cover. Picacio prefers to have read the book or at least read part of the book to get a feel for what the author is trying to accomplish. We saw beginning sketches that got more and more refined as the project proceeded. Using drawings, abstract color paintings, digital layering, and other techniques leading to a finished cover. This was a great look behind the scenes at how book covers go from concept to final cover.

We decided to break for lunch and then meet with some friends. We’d made arrangements to have coffee with Ann VanderMeer, who will be one of the Capclave 2010 Guests of Honor. While I was acquainted with Ann’s work at Weird Tales and the anthologies that she’s edited, I hadn’t really had a chance to talk with her. She was gracious enough to take time out of her schedule to meet with my Vice-Chair, one of my Programming people, Hyperion, and me.

Next up was meeting with some other people who were at the convention to discuss various projects and ideas for improving our local convention and hopefully reaching out to more readers of science fiction and fantasy in the DC area for Capclave. This is another way of saying we missed the afternoon panels.

8 PM: Group Autographing.

World Fantasy, rather than having a few authors sign during each time period, has one massive signing event. The Regency Ballroom was set up with tables and all the authors, editors, artists show up along with convention members who have books to be signed. A good time was had by all as there was also a cash bar and some nice munchies served at the same time.

[Hyperion: A couple more pictures of the Group Signing Event]

We later stopped by the Hospitality Suite for even more conversation. World Fantasy offers many opportunities for people in the field to just sit and talk about books, publishing, stories read, stories coming out, trends, and to meet new friends and connect with old friends. It’s a convention where it’s easy to get comfortable and talk about writing and stories with other people who are also passionate about fantasy in its many guises.

At first we didn’t think we’d make it to this year’s World Fantasy Convention. Hyperion and I are near championship procrastinators, but we manage to buy memberships from two people who couldn’t make it at the last minute. Then plane reservations and a hotel room– we managed to get all our ducks in a row and get here (of course I had insomnia on Tuesday and we haven’t slept since Tuesday night and it’s now Thursday. We’re holding out until west coast evening to try to sleep to get adjusted to the time difference between here and the east coast). [Hyperion: That’s over 32 hours of up and at-em without a wink of sleep.  Just in case you’re interested.]

World Fantasy celebrates the fantastic in literature. Each convention usually has a theme or idea around which the panels and program items play. This year celebrates the 200th birthday of Edgar Allan Poe. Poe did much to codify and promote the short story and to create an American Literature. Earlier we sat in on a panel called: Poe’s Influence (4:00 PM). Panelists were Jon DeCles (moderator), John Paul Langan, John Levitt, and Kat Richardson.

Poe essential discovered Hawthorne. He also was an influence on Dickens, Lovecraft, many of the authors that wrote in a similar vein, and the early writers of Weird Tales. He also did much to influence the noir mystery genre. The panelists brought up many examples and kept saying how until they started putting their thoughts out there in the open they hadn’t fully grasped just how influential Poe really was.

Known for his horror, poetry, and mysteries, Poe is still read today. His works are taught in schools or at least assigned in most high schools — somehow Poe is under the radar that seems to keep most genre writers off the curriculum.

There was also some discussion of alcoholism and the link there seems to be with writers and alcohol and musicians and other drugs. Much wondering was done about if he could write so much while smashed, what could have been done sober. Worth a ponder or more, I guess. Did the drinking keep him from being even more popular or not? Would he have been even better without his drinking — he’d for sure have been more popular during his lifetime.

Next was opening ceremonies where we were introduced to the Guests of Honor and each had a chance to speak. This year’s guests are: Garth Nix, Lisa Snellings, Michael Swanwick, Ann VanderMeer, Jeff VanderMeer, Zoran Živkovi?, Donald Sidney-Fryer, and Richard A. Lupoff. The Toastmaster is Jay Lake who did a masterful job of keeping things moving with no dull moments.

We’re pretty much in need of a good nights sleep in order to get our brains rebooted. As you can tell — I completely forgot and left my camera in our hotel room. Tomorrow I’ll try to do photos — really.