Author Archives: Eugie Foster

First and foremost, we got a call from Patrick. He’s fine! Holed up with good people, sitting out the repair and recovery efforts safely and in good spirits. Whew. Cannot express the magnitude of my relief.

Picked up Hobkin from his godmother on Monday; he’s currently curled up happily at my side. Spent most of yesterday in a coma-like sleep except when we drove dude_the to the airport.

Dragon*Con rundown: I did my talk for Ann Crispin’s beginners writers workshop and it went well. Not fantastic, but well. I went into it cold, where last time I’d run it through out loud a couple times right before going in, and the difference showed. I stumbled several times, and my pacing and delivery were off. Nevertheless, it was well received. Ann took me out for lunch after, and we had a nice chance to catch up. We had our annual DC2K writers group meeting on Saturday and I asked Jason Sizemore, the editor of Apex, to come along. Jason very graciously paid for my meal, so I have now officially been feted by an editor. Woo! It’s always a great time hooking up with my DC2K folks. And I actually stayed for the whole meal instead of running off quick as a bunny back to the Daily Dragon office. But orig_ladycat couldn’t stick around because she was busy winning her Magic: TG tournament!

My panels went well. On Friday I was on “Censorship: Who decides what is appropriate for kids and teens to read” with Todd McCaffrey, Kathleen O’Shea, and Josepha Sherman. It was a good panel, although, as I had predicted beforehand, it was something of a one-sided discussion, which can be summed up thusly: “We’re against censorship.” The audience was comprised of librarians, teachers, and writers, so it turned into a rant-fest. Saturday I did “So You Want to Write a Kid’s Book” with Kathleen and Josepha again, as well as Donita Paul and a couple other writers who hopped on last minute. Now that panel was an absolute blast. So much to talk about it spilled over after the panel ended. I had a really lively and fun conversation with a few of the audience for about twenty minutes after. On Sunday I did “Urban Fantasy and Faeries” with Phil Brucato–who I knew from previous conventions and got a chance to gab with after–Josepha again, and err, someone whose name I can’t remember. Urk. There was a tendency to compare and contrast classic folktales with modern urban fantasy, which I found absolutely fascinating. Josepha is a folklorist (did I mention how much I adore Josepha?) and a fellow Cricket-published author, and we established a really nice rapport. We exchanged cards, and she suggested I contact her regarding work on the encyclopedia of storytelling she’s editing. Woo. bevlovesbooks ran an excellent track.

Managed to catch the Serenity panel on Saturday. Hooked up arkhamrefugee with an interview with Jewel Staite and stuck around after to make sure the transition to the interview site went well. I couldn’t help being all fangirl and took a picture of Jewel as we were waiting for the service elevator. But I was good, and once I was assured they were comfortably set up, I excused myself and went back to the DD office.

A big shout out goes to my Daily Dragon staff: dude_the, arkhamrefugee, lord_darkseid, vomikronnoxis, reddherring1955, and LJ-less folks: Nicholas Cottrell, Laura Ingram, Matt Schafer, Samantha Wallace, Tonya (whose last name currently escapes me), and Liana Thompson. They absolutely rawked, pulling through for me despite the bevy of technical difficulties that plagued us this year. We lost power several times during set-up on Thursday. The computers didn’t get delivered until Thursday (again). The copier kept jamming and the support number on it which was supposed to be 24/7 wasn’t even standard business hours, and then it ran out of toner late Sunday night. We had to print out Monday’s edition on the laser printer. Blah. Not a happy Eugie. Also, the hotel wanted to charge us a @#$*& $500/day for Internet access in the office. Suffice it to say, we went without Internet access. Instead, I paid for WiFi access in my room and ran back and forth between the office and my room with my laptop to do website updates.

Also a huge “thank you” to dire_epiphany and astralfire who, while no longer my senior directors, were on hand throughout the convention so I could go to them with my copier and Internet woes. As well as sara1221, the director of Signage, who helped keep me sane.

Went to fosteronfilm‘s Film Festival awards on Monday, which went smoothly. Good thing, considering all the prep we (Matthew, dude_the, and myself) put into it.

Other highlights: tk0667 proposing to Barrie on stage during the Masquerade (of course she said “yes”), getting a chance to gab with fingerman, squeeze hugs, seeing dean13 who flew out from California and actually stealing a couple hours to catch up with him, getting a chance to wave at and chat with glenn5, jackzodiac and pyanfar, palmerwriter, pleroma and his lovely lady, Tina, reudaly, and wicked_wish. (If I forgot anyone, sorry!)

My throat is still raw from all the talking I did.

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Dragon*Con is great. Having a fantastic time. Too much sugar and caffeine; not enough sleep. Technical and unforeseen difficulties abound–no Internet access in the Daily Dragon room, the 24-hour service for the copier not being 24-hour and running out of toner and having the @#$!^$ device perpetually jamming itself, one of my staff being stranded in Athens until Saturday due to the gas panic, voice torn to shreds from overuse, the hotel being obnoxious and wanting us to check out at noon sharp–but we managed. How? It’s a mystery. Had a wonderful time with Ann Crispin and my DC2K writers group, hanging out with Jason Sizemore, editor of Apex (and he bought me dinner!), meeting and greeting a slew of folks, and doing my panels. Saw a Serenity panel and got to meet Jewel Staite. Had a late night giddy-fest fueled by Pixie Stix and not much else. It’s all a blur, but wanted to get the highlights and lowlights down. Details and pictures to follow.

Still no word from Patrick. He was supposed to come here for both the convention and as one of fosteronfilm‘s staff, but he never showed up. I keep trying to push it to the back of my mind, because there’s nothing I can do about anything. But the worry is there, and periodically, I become incredibly anxious and terrified for him.

So tired. Just a few more hours, then it’s the Dead Dog party. Sleep will follow. Much sleep.

Still no word from Patrick, although there’s much relief that Katrina turned east and was downgraded to a category 4 before it smashed into New Orleans.

I may be losing up to two Daily Dragon staff due to the hurricane. I’ll deal if that’s the case, but the second one was also all “well, if I can make D*C, I can’t work here and here and here where I’m scheduled.” I’ve sent a slew of emails to my staff trying to get them to tell me hours they can’t work so I can schedule desk hours to accomodate them, and this is the FIRST I’ve heard from this person, despite my flurry of emails. Not happy!

Writing Stuff

Published a round robin review of F&SF‘s Oct/Nov 2005 issue to Tangent, notable because I was one of the reviewers. Barely had time to finish my commentary what with all the D*C insanity. But it’s up.

Katrina. Oh. My. God. My good friend Patrick lives in New Orleans. I hope he’s gotten out of dodge by now. Sent him an email and tried to call him to check on him, but his phone lines are down, clogged, or otherwise out of service, and I haven’t received a reply to my email. He’s supposed to come up for Dragon*Con later this week; he’s on fosteronfilm‘s staff. I asked him to come up a few days earlier so he could avoid getting in the way of Katrina’s rage, but it’s probably too late for him to evacuate now if he hasn’t already. God, I hope he’s out of harm’s way. I’m so worried about him.

In an effort to put such fretting from my mind, I’ve been working on laying out Thursday’s Daily Dragon hardcopy, also because the schedule changes are already rolling in. Already. I’ve filled up over half a page on the hardcopy, and it’s only Monday.

So yeah, the Magic 8-Ball sez it’s going to be a chock-full o’schedule updates year.

Writing Stuff

dude_the is here. Hurray! His plane actually made it into the Atlanta airport a half hour early–good jet stream or something. fosteronfilm has immediately set him to work doing graphic art stuff for the DCI Film Festival.

Writing Stuff

I looked me up in the D*C Pocket Program, and I’ve been added to another panel: “Writing for Online Markets.” Except, err, I don’t. I mean, I’ve sold stories to online publications, but for the most part, my preference for print publication over e-publication means that the majority of my sales have been to hardcopy venues. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the online kind; I’d spork strange men in the kneecap to sell a story to SCI FICTION, but I don’t think I’m a particularly good authority on Online Markets. It’s also at a really terrible time for me–5:30PM on Saturday. I need to oversee and be available for a big Daily Dragon project at that time, and I wasn’t counting on having to do a panel then. Grr. Argh. I may need to contact the Writing Track director and bow out. But it still leaves me scratching my head as to how I got put on it in the first place. I could understand being put on the “Short Stuff: Writing short stories for fun and profit” panel, but I wasn’t. Err, then again, I’m already doing a panel for the YA LIT track then, so maybe I was and got bounced because the Powers That Be know I can’t be in two places at the same time. Wise PTB.

Dreams dreams dreams last night, and not the fun, flying-naked-while-late-for-a-test-in-high-school type, but the crappy I’m-in-front-of-a-crowd-of-strangers-giving-a-talk-and-I-can’t-read-my-notes variety.

Stupid brain.