OutlantaCon 2012, Yoga, and Balancing the Writing Life

Had a great weekend at OutlantaCon. Got to be on panels with fabu folks like Kayelle Allen, Kiernan Kelly, Dennis Upkins, Kage Alan, Paul Bright, and Shae Connor—some of whom I’ve known for years and some I met for the first time. I’m bummed I wasn’t able to catch up with Lee Martindale, though. Somehow, the stars never aligned.

Did have something of a hectic, panicky morning on Saturday, though. Lying in bed at 9:20AM, idly scrolling through the OutlantaCon schedule app on my phone, I realized I’d somehow missed being added to a panel: “Social Networking.” That day. At 10AM.

I woke Matthew with a yelp and chaotic scrambling ensued. I did make it to my panel on time—with five minutes to spare, even—but, of course, had absolutely nothing prepared.

Then again, I actually did some prep for my “Job By Day, Writer By Night” panel on Sunday but promptly forgot to bring up one of my talking points, which is ironic as it was on the importance of making time to do the little things like eat and sleep and exercise while juggling the myriad hamsters of writing and the day job so as to be able to maintain focus and productivity. So, yeah, unfocused. But my fellow panelists, Shae and Dennis, had it covered.

Sorta been feeling blah for weeks now. All year, really. Between having the worst lupus flare-up I’ve had in ten years and the rigors of the legislative session, I’ve been utterly wiped, which has not done great things for my emotional equilibrium. But the session is well over, I started doing yoga again, and have a search party out hunting for my absconded motivation. Here’s hoping the rest of 2012 is better than its beginning.

OutlantaCon 2012 This Weekend – My Panel Schedule

OutlantaCon 2012 is this weekend at the Holiday Inn Select-Perimeter, as in it starts today! OutlantaCon is always a fabulous time, full of great panels that are both entertaining and enlightening, and sometimes even bawdy. Hope to see folks there!

I’m slated to be on these panels:

  • “Teen Fiction” – A discussion about the major players in the field; attendees are encouraged to bring up their favorite teen series as well. With Kiernan Kelly and Dennis Upkins. Sat. (5/5) 6PM, Board Room.
  • “Job By Day, Writer By Night” – How do our author and filmmaker guests juggle creating fantasy worlds and gay romances at night with computer support, database design, and other mundane careers during the day? There’s got to be some funny stories there. With Shae Connor, Paul Bright, and Dennis Upkins. Sun. (5/6) Noon, Board Room.

Droid 4 First Impressions: Speedalicious and Shiny

At long last, I have relinquished my beloved OG Droid and upgraded to a shiny, new Droid 4.
Droid 4
This wasn’t undertaken without some trepidation. My OG Droid was rooted, overclocked, and running a custom ROM with a lot of snazzy features, and I knew that I wouldn’t be rooting a new device for at least a year (not until after the warranty expires) so would have to deal with bloatware and a manufacturer’s skin—Blur (Motorola), TouchWiz (Samsung), or Sense (HTC)—running atop stock Android in addition to not having all the customization and control over my device that I’ve grown accustomed to.

But as souped up and modded as it was, my poor old Droid suffered from something I couldn’t fix: a shortage of RAM. At only 256 MB, even running a streamlined Gingerbread ROM to maximize memory and CPU balancing, I was having to strip off apps to conserve space and was still seeing an inevitable slowdown—despite overclocking the processor to 1 GHz. Every time one of my apps got an update, I had to weigh the increased size of it (upgrades to apps inevitably include size creep) and potential increase in CPU demands against the amount of internal storage/RAM I had, which usually meant I didn’t install the update. But even with painstaking space hoarding, websites were taking forever to load, apps likewise took forever to launch and frequently force closed or froze after they did finally open, and it often took half my train commute simply waiting for a status update to update already.

The thing is, I’m impatient. I just plain hate waiting for anything (not an advantageous personality trait for a writer to have, btw). And I’m also usually crunched for time, which exacerbates my normal hurry-up-already mindset to a perpetual state of “Rrarghh!” *gnash teeth, foam at mouth*. Of all the bells and whistles I enjoy ringing and tooting on my tech, what I really want is speed. I crave blazing fast, snappy responsiveness, lickety-split data downloads, and instantaneous content.

So when the Droid 4 came out touting 4G, a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor, and 1 GB of RAM, I had lust. Continue reading →

JordanCon 4: Steampunk Bedtime Story, Schmoozing 101, and Puppets

Had a fabulous time at JordanCon 4! And I continue to be impressed by how well organized and devoted the volunteers are at this convention.

Got to meet Emilie P. Bush, the author of Her Majesty’s Explorer: a Steampunk bedtime story (which is indeed a children’s steampunk tale; how cool is that?) and Paul Stevens, an editor for Tor, both of whom are awesome. Also got to catch up with Mary Robinette Kowal and Michael Livingston.

I met Mike at the first Launch Pad workshop in Laramie, WY, in 2007. Can’t believe it’s been so long since we last gabbed. I’m so pleased JordanCon had him as a guest this year, and I greatly enjoyed doing panels with him.

Mary was the guest of honor so was, unsurprisingly, booked up pretty solid. She also had a story deadline this weekend—which she made—and is getting ready to move to Chicago. Yet she still managed to find time to chat and party and conduct informative and entertaining panels. I am slack-jawed with awe and admiration. I particularly enjoyed her “Schmoozing 101” and “At The Intersection of Puppetry and Science Fiction” panels where she shared some fascinating tidbits of her writing process with puppets as both correlate and metaphor. She also regaled us with a tale of a Puppet Show Gone Terribly Wrong, which had the audience howling. I laughed so hard I had to wipe away tears, and I will never think of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale in quite the same way ever again.

JordanCon 4 Schedule

JordanCon 4 is this weekend (April 20-22) in the Doubletree Hotel in Roswell, GA. I was way impressed by how well run this convention was run last year, and I’m thrilled to have been invited back.

Here’s what I’m scheduled for:

  • Book signing (with Emilie P. Bush). Fri 2:30-3:30PM, Barrington.
  • “Young Adult Literature” Harry Potter, Alcatraz, The Hunger Games, Twilight… why are full-grown adults reading this stuff? With Tiffany Franklin and Rachel Little. Fri 5:30-6:30PM, Goulding C.
  • “Keeping it Short” A discussion on the differences in writing short fiction and novels. With Michael Livingston. Sat 1-2PM, Goulding A.
  • “The Business” Our industry professionals talk about what goes on in the publishing world. With Emilie P. Bush, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Paul Stevens. Sun 10-11AM, Goulding A.
  • “Folklore and Fairytales” Incorporating myth and tradition into fiction. With Michael Livingston. Sun 1-2PM, Goulding A.

Hope to see folks there!

Story Sale: Oranges, Lemons, and Thou Beside Me to Anthology WHEN THE VILLAIN COMES HOME

Got word from the editors that the table of contents has been revealed, so I can announce I’ve sold “Oranges, Lemons, and Thou Beside Me” to the anthology When the Villain Comes Home, edited by Gabrielle Harbowy and Ed Greenwood (Dragon Moon Press). Sequel to the critically acclaimed When the Hero Comes Home, Villain is slated for publication this August.

I’m stoked to be in such excellent company. Check out the awesome lineup: Continue reading →

Free this Weekend: InterGalactic Awards Anthology Ebook

This weekend (March 24-26), the Kindle version of the InterGalactic Awards Anthology: Volume 1 will be free at Amazon.com. In addition to my story, “Beautiful Winter,” it includes work by such luminaries as Peter S. Beagle, Aliette deBodard, Marie Brennan, Alethea Kontis, James Maxey, Jason Sanford, and Eric James Stone. Don’t miss out on getting it for free! Continue reading →

Crossing the Streams Book Giveaway Winners!

Congratulations to Alan Stewart and Christina Vasilevski, the winners of my portion of the Crossing the Streams contest!

They will each receive a signed copy of Returning My Sister’s Face.

Thanks to everyone who entered! I read every entry, and y’all sent me some truly fabulous and interesting answers. I hope this contest helped folks discover some great new authors to read.

Shared Worlds SF/F Teen Writing Camp 2012 Registration and Fund Drive

The Shared Worlds SF/F Teen Writing Camp is a summer camp at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where up to 50 teen writers come from around the world, including Japan, Indonesia, and Germany, to learn, practice, and hone their writing skills and creativity, guided and instructed by top professional writers. The camp’s assistant director is the fabulous Jeff VanderMeer, and guest writers for this year’s camp include New York Times bestsellers Julianna Baggott, Naomi Novik, and Tobias Buckell, as well as Prix Award Winner Karin Lowachee and Hugo Award winner Ann VanderMeer.

Shared Worlds 2012 Critter Map

At Shared Worlds, students form teams in classrooms to build entire fantasy or science fictional worlds in the first week and then write stories in those worlds the second week. They also get to attend author readings, take field-trips to bookstores, and create videos about their imaginary worlds.

The camp is supported by Amazon.com but is funded in large part by donations which help to ensure that attending the Shared Worlds Teen Writing Camp can be a possibility for all registered students, no matter what their financial need—which brings us to the “Critter Map.”

With website created by filmmaker and writer Gregory Norman Bossert, artwork by Jeremy Zerfoss, and compiled and edited by Therese Goulding, it includes story contributions from writers including Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock, Scott Westerfeld, Gene Wolfe, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and even yours truly. So head on over to check out the Critter Map. Click on a critter and read its story. And please donate what you can to this great cause!

Groundhog Day Free Fiction x2: The King of Rabbits and Moon Lake Podcast and Ginormous Multi-author Book Giveaway

Happy Groundhog Day! What better way to celebrate the beginning of February than with free fiction?

Free fiction the first: The podcast of “The King of Rabbits and Moon Lake” is now up at Journey Into…, read fabulously by the talented Rajan Khanna. Listen, enjoy!

Free fiction the second: A bunch of us writers have come together to coordinate a massive book giveaway contest, “Crossing the Streams.” Check out my Book Giveaway page for details.