READERCON 19
July 17-20, 2008

This was my first Readercon. I had hoped to do some programming at the convention, but I was late getting my proposals in--late for Readercon, at any event. Their schedule was filling up when I spoke to Program Chair Eric Van at Boskone 45 in February, and I didn't get my shit together and send in my proposals until nearly the end of May. I was placed on contingency status but no spaces opened up that needed me to fill them in.

I can understand why, now! Nobody blows off Readercon. That's the calibre of event that it is.

Readercon 19 was at the Boston Marriott Burlington, which is only a forty minute drive from my house, so I elected to economize and commute to the convention. Another factor in that decision was the Full Moon on Thursday night--I haven't missed a New Moon or Full Moon ritual for years now, and I'd hate to do so for anything less than a dire emergency. This meant I didn't have to worry about much packing and planning. But I felt very unprepared--psychologically and otherwise--by Thursday, the first night of the convention. I didn't get any additional promo materials made up for the freebie and Broad Universe tables.

I'll confess: I was a bit disappointed not to be doing any programming. I was participating in the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading, but I was little foggy on the amount of time I would have. We had eight scheduled readers and a ninth BU person joined after the flyer was done. I didn't choose and begin rehearsing a reading selection until Thursday afternoon. I practiced over and over and timed it to the second. The trouble is, when I have an audience to "play to," my reading style shifts, and I tend to slow down and take longer.

I had no trouble finding the hotel for the first time on Thursday evening. Since I wasn't staying at the Marriott, I wasn't in a position to critique its services, but there were a few things that gave me pause. The lack of free wi-fi makes the Marriott Burlington unusually stingy as far as hotels go these days--this was the first convention I'd been to since the 1990s where I couldn't get a free wireless connection at least somewhere (at Boskone, it was available in the lobby). I heard that some Readercon attendees were going to places like Borders or Starbucks to get wi-fi. One of the three elevators was out of order, giving me extra incentive to use the stairs to get up to the Hospitality Suite and parties, which I did several times. Many people, however, are not physically capable of tripping blithely up and down three flights of stairs like I can. The prices in the hotel's restaurant and "pub" were very high. There was also a noise problem in some of the function rooms, and not just the ones that were separated by a movable divider. More than once, I had trouble hearing speakers because of noise out in the hall or in the room next door. I heard other people complain about the inconsistent air conditioning, but I didn't notice this until a refrigerated panel on Saturday afternoon. At least parking was free! (I paid $58 to park for two nights at Boskone.)

I attended the "Opening Ceremonies" at 7:30 p.m., which were informal, friendly, and introduced Guests of Honor James Patrick Kelly and Jonathan Lethem. After that I stayed for the following panel on "Rival Revolutionary Movements in the Arts." At 9:00 p.m., I went to Jim Freund's "Reading Aloud for Writers," which was billed as a "workshop" but ended up being more of a discussion. Nevertheless, I found it incredibly interesting and helpful, especially since I'm getting ready to record podcast and audiobook versions of my own books and other material. In 1974, Jim Freund took over the Hour of the Wolf radio show from Margot Adler, who I've known for years through the Pagan community. I ended up "stalking" Jim all weekend because I was going to all of his panels! Jim announced at this one that he was looking for people to record sections of the Articles of Impeachment to be broadcast on the radio show, and I instantly volunteered. Alas, that project didn't materialize, after all.

The "Bookshop," as Readercon calls its Dealers' Room, didn't open until 3:00 p.m. on Friday, and there was no registration on Thursday night. The convention was open to any member of the public who wanted to stop in and see what was going on. This meant that no one had badges, and it was a little harder to mingle and schmooze if you didn't already know a lot of the people there. I'm always plagued by awkward shyness my first night at a new convention, anyway.

After the "Reading Aloud" panel, I left for home. When I got there, I was greeted by a cold, stiff, dead chipmunk on the kitchen floor (the cats catch them in the crawl space). This was not an omen, however, because I was also had an e-mail letting me know that an academic at Harvard would be contacting me to talk about the vampiric community for a book he's researching. I did my Full Moon ritual. I made some cuts to my RFR reading and practiced it some more, while applying some of the tips I'd just learned from Jim Freund.

On Friday, I was up early and off to Burlington, with lunch and dinner food in a cooler. I began my day being "barked at" by the volunteer at the Registration Desk, who seemed to have a hearing impairment. I practically had to bellow at her before she understood what I was saying, and then I got my head bitten off when I misunderstood her. She wasn't just picking on me, I learned when I met my sister Broads Elaine Isaak and Justine Graykin a few minutes later. Tension at the Registration Desk on the first day appears to be endemic at conventions!

The rest of the day on Friday went by in a blur. The Bookshop opened at 3:00 p.m., and I dropped off the books I was bringing for sister Broad Sherry Thompson, who couldn't attend this year, as well as mine. I spent some time helping to cover the Broad Universe table, but with all the Broads at Readercon, our dedicated BU table organizer Phoebe Wray didn't need a lot of help. I found the Hospitality Suite, which was quite small, and therefore not conducive to hanging out and talking for any length of time--it only had two tables and a few additional chairs. The food was slanted to the healthy side and included fruit and veggies, so there were some things I could eat. I went out to my car and ate the food I brought from home at some point, just perched in my car's tailgate in the parking lot because I didn't want to carry the food containers back and forth. My knapsack was heavy because I had my laptop computer with me. I hadn't yet found out that there was no wi-fi.

I hung out a lot with Trisha Wooldridge, who was also commuting to Readercon, and got to talk more with Badger, who I met at Boskone. I tended to sneak into panels late, for some reason! The best panels I attended on Friday were "Writers' Groups and Writers," and "Interstitial Arts." The first one almost had more panelists than audience--due to the size of the panel, not a lack of audience. The participants had diverse perspectives on the value of writers' groups and workshops, and the discussion was lively. I had picked up flyers on the Interstitial Arts Foundation at Boskone. I was intrigued by them because my own series tends to fall into that "interstitial" category: not romance, not mainstream, not horror, not fantasy, not magical realism and yet containing elements common to all of them. This caused me some problems with a couple of potential reviewers, one of whom made a snarky crack to me about "writers who don't know what genre their book is." This panel was also very lively. Leader Ellen Kushner, who is also the Vice-President of the IAF, is a fireball with no tolerance for the "somebody should..." attitude. If anyone talked about something they'd like to see done, Ellen cheerfully said, "great, would you like to do that?"

I also attended panels on "Generation Dark" (do young readers read more "dark" fantasy and horror?), "If Free E-Texts are Good Promotion, What's Piracy?" and "Under the Rainbow: Multiculturalism in Young Adult Fiction." I was hoping that the last would include more discussion of "cultural" diversity such as religion and sexual identity, but it focused tightly on ethnic and national "cultures."

The convention kind of spluttered out for me on Friday. Readercon is somewhat unusual among conventions in that it rolls up the carpets quite early at night. Evening programming is sparse and there are very few room parties. I'm not a wild partier, but I am a night owl, and some of my most fruitful conversations and connections at World Fantasy Convention 2007 happened at the room parties. Friday night at Readercon was devoted wholly to the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award (given each year to a gone-and-undeservedly-forgotten writer), followed by the traditional "Meet the Pros[e] Party." This year's CSR Award was given to Stanley G. Weinbaum, and no, I hadn't heard of him either--that's why he was eligible for the award! At the Meet the Pros[e] Party, authors who are on the program have sheets of stickers with a quote from their writings, and everyone circulates collecting stickers from the authors. It's sort of an autograph-party-cum-scavenger-hunt event.

I just couldn't get into this. It was crowded, very noisy (even without amplified music--the conversation alone was too loud to talk over), and I have problems mingling in large groups of standing adults. I'm five feet tall, all I see is elbows and chests--and backs, because generally speaking, I end up on the outside of little clusters of people who don't even know I'm there. I sat in one of the chairs ringing the ballroom for a while and finally the sound volume drove me out, and I decided to call it a night. During a break earlier, I'd booted up my computer to test out (and finally cuss out) the wi-fi options, and then designed a card to promote the free Tarot readings I was offering to anyone who bought a copy of Mortal Touch. I went home and printed out the card and rehearsed my reading selection a few more times.

Things really picked up for me on Saturday! Saturday had less formal programming than Friday. Everything stopped at about 6:00 p.m. for a two-hour dinner break (there was no break on Friday), and the only scheduled items for the rest of the night, with nothing running against them, were two one-act plays by James Patrick Kelly followed by "The 22nd Kirk Poland Memorial Bad Prose Competition." These commenced at 8:00 p.m.

The Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading was at 11:00 a.m. I thought it went very well indeed--we had the largest audience I've seen at any RFR so far and they were attentive and entertained. I was up first, and with all humility, I thought I did my best reading yet. The audience seemed completely involved and applauded heartily. But all the Broads--Roxanne Bland, Elissa Malcohn, Sarah Micklem, Elaine Isaak, Phoebe Wray, Kathryn Sullivan, Justine Gray and Trisha J. Wooldridge--did a good job, and it was a satisfying event. Many thanks to Sarah Micklem for organizing the RFR and designing a beautiful flyer, and to Jennifer Pelland for emceeing.

After that, I went to "Radio Yesterday: Today!" and heard some clips from contemporary radio dramas and and heard people from the shows talk about their techniques. Jim Freund was also on this panel. From there, I went to "Regionalism and the Fantastic," which didn't get into quite the areas that I hoped it would. Since I'm writing The Vampires of New England series, authentic regional atmosphere is important in my fiction, but the panel tended to ramble. After that, I scurried back across the hall for the repeat, by popular demand, of Jim Freund's "Reading Aloud for Writers," and picked up more intensely useful information. At 3:00 p.m. I joined a large audience in a freezing cold function room for "You Say 'Plagiarism,' I Say 'Ecstasy of Influence.'" This was one of those Readercon panels that had "homework"--it took off from an article by Jonathan Lethem in Harper's Magazine, which I had looked up and read a couple of weeks earlier. I had so many thoughts about this topic, I even raised my hand and answered somebody else's question! Panelists Ellen Asher, F. Brett Cox, Jonathan Lethem, James Morrow, Richard Parks, and Sarah Smith, who writes fanfic, had an engaging and lively discussion.

Several members of Broad Universe carpooled to neighboring Burlington Mall (which, if it gets any bigger, will be visible from the Space Station) and had dinner together in the Food Court. This was one of the two best times I had at all of Readercon--dinner was cheap, the options were diverse enough that I could actually eat something, the spacious Food Court was easy to negotiate, and the company was terrific. Pheobe Wray, Trisha Wooldridge, Elaine Isaak, Justine Graykin, Kathryn Sullivan and I shared some great conversation. The Readercon committee come in and ate a couple of tables away from us, and it thunderstormed while we were in the mall. Before we left, we stood for a while by a wall of glass on the mall's second floor, watching lightning strikes off on the eastern horizon.

I went to the one-act plays, which were well-done, but...odd. The plays were staged as readings rather than memorized performance. That was fine, but the performers, described as "professional actors from Vermont," could have been more effective if they'd slowed down their delivery--a lot.

Numerous people had assured me that the Kirk Poland Memorial Bad Prose Competition was the funniest thing on earth and I absolutely had to see it. But...having read the descriptions and heard the raves, I was just totally uninterested in the event. I don't want to waste time on "bad prose," whether to make fun of it or otherwise. I just don't find it funny! So after the plays, I went cruising to see if there was anything else to do, thinking that I might, just possibly, poke my nose into the Bad Prose Competition later on.

I went up to the Hospitality Suite, and then decided to check out a room party--I think there were two during all of Readercon, at least two that promoted themselves with public signs. (Maybe people were going around whispering private invitations into people's ears like a speakeasy during Prohibition.) This was the RISFA North party, which only had the RISFA North members when I came in, but eventually gathered a room full of people who seemingly weren't interested in Bad Prose, either. (The Bad Prose Competition also started late for reasons I never heard.)

The RISFA North party was the second best time I had at all of Readercon, thanks in part to the attendance of David P. Silverman, National Communications Director of the American Atheists. Not only is he incredibly cute, he also has personally debated just about every foaming-mouthed Nemesis I love to hate the most, including Pat Robertson and Tim LeHaye. The party therefore circulated around this huge discussion of those very topics you're never supposed to talk about, religion and politics. I have a feeling that a couple of people there were somewhat offended by David's unabashed stance. Not me--if anything, I don't think he and his group go nearly far enough, and I told him that! But I felt like I was sitting next to a celebrity, and when I left, I shook his hand, got his business card and told him I'd been honored to meet him! Don't mistake me, there was a lot more to like about the RISFA North party. But it was just the kind of thing I go to conventions for: challenging, stimulating conversation with other intelligent people who don't conform to the status quo.

I got home quite late on Saturday, and was greeted with a notification from Bitten By Books that they'd reviewed Mortal Touch. I'd only sent them a copy a month earlier. They gave it a fantastic review! The Broad Universe table sold two copies of Mortal Touch, and I gave both buyers free Tarot readings.

Sunday I wafted back to the Marriott all euphoric about my great review. I went to a panel at 10:00 a.m. called "Stop Making Sense: Next Stage Dialogue," led by Kay Kenyon and billed as a "workshop." I was disappointed by this panel. Kay Kenyon is an experienced and accomplished author and chairs an annual literary conference. But when it came to teaching people how to write dialogue, I honestly didn't think she knew what she was talking about, or at least, successfully conveyed what she does know. Writing convincing dialogue is very tricky, and to some extent it's like having musical gifts. Some people have an ear for the spoken word--they can do accents, they can learn foreign languages, and they can write dialogue. Some people just don't have that. There are ways to develop such an ear--but these methods are very rarely taught in writing workshops. Kay read us an example of purportedly "bad dialogue" that was somewhat leaden, but not that bad. She had obviously "dumbed down" the original passage that she then read to us as an example of "good dialogue." The "good" version wasn't that impressive. She offered a few fundamental rules, but the audience seemed rather lost.

After that, I went to the presentation of the first Shirley Jackson Awards, which I was grumpy about because I thought Mortal Touch qualified to at least be considered for these, and I am a huge admirer and semi-scholar of Shirley Jackson's work. The programs for the awards presentation had little stones glued to them. That's cute, but "The Lottery" is not the first Shirley Jackson fiction I ever read, and I would love her work even if she had never written that story! (We Have Always Lived in the Castle was my introduction to Shirley Jackson, and for a long time was my favorite of all her books.) You can see the award winners here.

That was the last Readercon programming I attended--after that I was hanging out with the Broads and helping Phoebe pack up the Broad Universe table in the Bookshop and load everything into her car. Trisha Wooldridge and I went to the "Debriefing" at 3:00 p.m., and I stood up to comment on how well-done the communications were for Readercon. The full schedule was posted in the lobby each day, and every function room had a schedule outside its door on an easel. Attendees had a "pocket program" with the entire schedule grid for Friday through Sunday on one sheet. It was very easy to keep track of where you wanted to be. I got to talk with Jim Freund and Eric Van, and I have semi-volunteered to help out with next year's Readercon, which will be their 20th anniversary. In fact, I'm still pondering whether I want to get much more involved with organizing future Readercons. We shall see!