A quick follow-up to my abbreviated MadCon report just past. Harlan Ellison arrived at the hotel Thursday evening, around eight o’clock. Only a few of us were in the lobby. Allen Steele, Peter David, Donna, and myself. Peter David’s wife Kathleen and their daughter (who Harlan “terrorized” to our surprise and her later delight). From that point on it became a really good experience. All the rumors that had been floating around about Harlan’s imminent demise proved exaggerated. Though he didn’t look his best—clearly he has been ailing—and he arrived wearing a sweatshirt and pajama bottoms (Pierre Cardin, as he repeatedly joked, since he wore them all weekend), as the weekend progressed he came more and more alive.…
Home Again
We are returned from the wilds of Wisconsin.
In the last post I mentioned we were attending MadCon 2010 in Madison, touted as the last convention Harlan Ellison will ever do. Much speculation runs rampant over the internet about this and his own presentations at the convention will doubtless throw gasoline on the inferno. Having spent more than a small amount of time in his company this past weekend, I will report only that the rumors are pretty much exactly that. Those who know him, know what’s more or less going on, and those who don’t, unless they were present at MadCon and heard what he had to say, do not know what is going on, and after a few conversations with the man I will not post about it here.…
On The Road
Tomorrow morning, probably before the sun is up, we will be on the road to Madison, Wisconsin. We’re going to attend a little convention called MadCon 2010. When you click on the link you will see a note explaining that the guest of honor, Harlan Ellison, will not, due to illness, make it. Well, that’s changed, apparently. Harlan says he is feeling up to it and will be getting on a plane tomorrow and will appear.
Last time we saw Harlan was in 1999, at a convention called Readercon (which is a genuinely spiffy excellent convention because it is ALL ABOUT BOOKS—no movies, no anime, no costumes, none of that, just BOOKS) and he was in great form and we had a marvelous time.…
Didn’t They Throw The Tea In The Harbor…?
Christine O’Donnell is one of those public figures that emerge from time to time that make any writer of fiction envious of reality. Only a truly gifted writer could make someone like this up and then sell her as a plausible character.
At the heart of it, she is the problem with the Tea Party.
Here’s the thing I’ve never understood about the far right: fiscal responsibility is well and good and certainly we could do with a lot more—we could have used some for the last thirty years, certainly, a period during which Republicans (and by inference conservatives) have been largely in control of Congress—but how come is it we can’t seem to get candidates who are just about that without dragging all the social issue crap along with them? …
Robert A. Heinlein: Grand Master
I finished reading William H. Patterson’s large new biography of Robert A. Heinlein yesterday. I knew I wanted to write something about it, but I gave it a day to simmer. Frankly, I’m still not sure what to say other than I was positively impressed.
Basically, Patterson achieved the remarkable goal of demythologizing the man without gutting him.
I’ve read any number of biographies of famous (and infamous) personalities which tended either to be hagiographic (and therefore virtually useless as any kind of honest reference) or a brutal airing of personal failings in some sort of attempt to drag the subject down to “our level” and resulting in a catalogue of reasons to think ill of the person under study. …
Ideas and Execution
A few weeks ago I read a really terrific story by Adam-Troy Castro, called Arvies. Check it out, it is, as they say, killer.
Last weekend I went to ConText, as I reported. Usually when I come home from a convention I’m energized, can’t wait to get to the computer and write something. Not this time. I was unusually enervated. Maybe I have too much on my mind.
Maybe.
Last night, though, a story idea popped into my head from something Donna said and I have written the first few paragraphs. I look at it and see that it is inspired in part by Adam’s story. …
ConText
Returned home yesterday, around two P.M. Scads of emails in the hopper, mail in the box, laundry to do, a dog to pet.
I had a good time at ConText. The Doubletree where it was held was in a a kind of commercial court with several good restaurants and a multiplex movie theater (which I did not go to). It was a smallish con with some good guests (Toby Buckell, Lucy Snyder, Paul Melko) and a decent program track. More about the books than many cons with which I’ve become familiar, which is refreshing.
Diana Dru Botsford, who serves on the Missouri Center for the Book with me, was able to premier her first novel at the convention. …
Conventioning
In a couple of days I’ll be heading for Columbus, to attend ConText. My first time at this convention and it’s long overdue. I should have gone years ago. I attended another convention in Columbus once, at the suggestion of my then-publisher who had been invited as a publisher GoH. When we got there we realized that it was the wrong con for a book release party, which was what he had in mind. It was almost entirely a media con.
Leafing through the program book I came across an ad for ConText, with the tagline:
“The convention for those of us who actually read the stuff.”…
More Playing With Pictures
I had to call a friend to help me set up to scan slides. It was literally a matter of not having something plugged it. No, I don’t mind admitting “Doh!” moments. Learning is filled with them, embarrassment shouldn’t prevent sharing of knowledge.
Anyway, the scanner works for color transparencies now and I have a mother butt load of them in the closet. Thousands upon thousands. At least half of them are Kodachrome.
So I began with a couple on hand and started playing. One I did this morning I have worked up into two versions. Here’s the first.
Yes, I said and you read correctly that this is from a COLOR transparency. …
Hitch
As I mentioned in my previous post, Christopher Hitchens has esophageal cancer. He is undergoing chemotherapy. His prognosis is not good, as this is a particularly nasty form of cancer with a low survival rate.
It turns out that many people are praying for his recovery, which I find ironic but wonderful. This is, I’ve been told, what true christianity is supposed to be like—extending the benevolence of your faith to those who might qualify as an enemy. If only all christians were like that. If only those who are like that were the loudest voices.
Unfortunately, the screaming meme misanthropic anti-intellectual pre-Enlightenment ignoramus branch of the movement tends to dominate a lot of the discourse, from the supporters of Proposition 8 to those who are not only praying for Hitch to die, but are sending notice of such prayers to public fora and putting megaphone to mouth so as many people as they can blast with their message will hear.…