I had a great time at Capclave, as usual.

I met many neat folks, including Carol Frank of WSFA, Katie Hartlove of Cold Moon Press, writer Alan Smale, GOH Nick Mamatas, Alexander Harris and his fellow Baltimore SF buddy whose name escapes me, fellow VP alums L. Blankenship, Peter Sursi, and also Stephanie Sursi.

And I renewed acquaintances with many others, including editors Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace, BCS authors Dave Millstien and Ann Chatham, Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Larry, and Jen, Melissa, Renee, and Day, and the always brilliant and engrossing James Morrow.

I really enjoyed reading from my satirical fantasy “The Sadly Only Mildly Dramatic Tale of Sijo Uthwen,” which is forthcoming from Space and Time. That was great practice for when I read it at World Fantasy next month.

I enjoyed all my panels, especially the one on rejection, where we got to talking about personalized rejections like I write for BCS and how to approach comments on your work, and the one on online publishing, talking about magazines and publishing formats and models and who in the field influenced us and impresses us.

Well met, all!  I hope to return next year. I’m a little concerned about crowd control re: next year’s GOH. (Hint–he’s gone from huge within the genre to huge within the mainstream, thanks to his TV show on HBO.) But he is a brilliant and engrossing guy, with a neat history at DC-area cons, so I’ll brave the sea of fans to hear what he has to say.

Cheers, Capclave.

Capclave

I will be at Capclave, my local DC-area SF/F con, this weekend, where reading, unlike the beanie-capped fellow at right, is not extinct!  With a stack of shiny new BCS flyers and anthology postcards.

I’m on several panels and will have a reading. Here’s my schedule:

Friday 6:00 pm: Reading
I will be reading from “The Sadly Only Mildly Dramatic Tale of Sijo Uthewn,” my Clark Ashton Smith pastiche that was recently accepted by Space and Time magazine.

Friday 7:00 pm: Small Press an Ebook Perspective
Small press editors discuss ebooks. How are ebooks affecting the small press industry? How do you compete with the big boys?  (This one includes editor Neil Clarke.)

Saturday 11:00 am: Rejection
Thank you for submitting your story, unfortunately… Nobody sells everything. How do authors cope with rejection? What do editors do to help?  (This one includes editor Sean Wallace.)

Sunday 2:00 pm: Online publishing, from blogs to e-magazines
What are the advantages and disadvantages of publishing online? Who are some of the best online publishers and what do they do? What can be learned from some pioneers? And how can new would-be publishers get started? (This one includes both Neil and Sean!)

Feel free to drop by these if you’d like to hear my insight on any of the above. Also drop by my reading if you like Clark Ashton Smith and/or dry wit.

And if you see me after panels or in the halls or the bar, feel free to say hello.

A writer buddy of mine recently noted how his escapist pleasures as far as books were diametrically opposite from the person he was chatting with about it.

I’ve thought a lot about what for me makes good escapism, in pondering what types of stories work for me as an editor and what types don’t.  I get most all my escapism from the world.  Stuff in the setting that’s cool or neat or odd; quirky, awe-inspiring, or amazing to think about.

But when I’m reading or watching TV/movies even just for escapism, I still need some complexity to the character for it to hold my interest.  I need a character in an acute situation facing some struggle in a way that will move me, or a puzzle or mystery to that situation that will intrigue me.  Without that, I’m not entertained.

So is that truly “escapist”?  I don’t know.  If say “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption,” novella and movie, moves me by saying something profound about the human condition, is that “escapist”?  I think most people would say no. :)  For me it’s not whether the story is dark or the ending to that struggle is happy or not (in “Shawshank Redeption,” the ending is ambiguous, and I love hard-fought happy endings as much as I love ambiguous ones).  It’s a level of engagement that such complexity or mystery provides for me, without which I’m not entertained enough to escape.

Which may explain why Hollywood movies rarely ever work for me. :)

This weekend I will be at Capclave, the local D.C.-area SF/F con.

The co-Guest of Honor this year is bestselling writer Carrie Vaughn, a fellow Odyssey grad.  I’ve heard her writing lectures in podcasts (they’re very insightful), but I’ve never met her in person.

The con again this year has lots of cool literary SF/F programming.  I will be on several panels, again this year:

Friday 8:00 pm:
Short Fiction: Where is the new good short fiction found now?

Saturday 11:00 am:
Small Press Publishing: Running a publishing company, publishing a magazine or semi-prozine.

Saturday 1:00 pm:
When Characters Threaten to Take Over

Alas, no reading this year, for some reason–I did ask for one.

I will probably swing by the hotel bar Friday after my panel, at 9PM.  I’m not sure how long I’ll be around Saturday, and I probably won’t be there Sunday.  If you see me, feel free to grab a snazzy BCS flyer and say hello.