Wiscon, and Not Doing the Homework

I’m on a kick of reading a lot of fanfiction.

This is perhaps ill-timed of me. It’s a week until Wiscon, and I always feel that I ought to be reading Wiscon-y books before the convention. You know — works by the hot new writers, works of serious importance, feminist classics I haven’t yet gotten around to reading. Yet, every single year, the thing I am reading in May is about as far removed from Serious Works of SF/F as it is possible to get. This year it’s fanfic. In previous years I’ve been reading the Phryne Fisher mysteries, or Agatha Christie novels, or the history of the Boxer Rebellion, or ANYTHING IN THE WORLD that is not Serious Works of SF/F.

I’m actually beginning to think that my brain is smarter than I am. There’s a piece of writing advice that is very common, which is that to write you must be well-read. A better and more complex version of that is that to write you must be widely read. If you want to write YA paranormal romance, you must read things besides YA paranormal romance — else you work won’t have anything new or different to the genre. You would, in essence, be writing fanfic of a genre. To write, the idea is, you have to read lots of different sorts of things. That those things sit in your brain and percolate, dissolving and recombining in new and interesting ways. And then the things you’ve learned show up, transformed, in your work.

I think this is rather what my brain does before Wiscon.

I always feel, going in, that I don’t know and haven’t read ANY of the things other people are talking about. I listen, and I learn. And, being me, I talk about the things that I have engaged with recently. I bring something to the conversation that other people have not heard or read, in the same way they do for me.

Do I still feel a sense of shame, of Not Having Done The Homework, every year? Yes. Yes, I do. But no matter my intentions, I don’t think I’ve completed my self-assigned Wiscon Reading List in any year, ever.

What about you, my fellow Wiscon attendees? What are you reading prior to the con? Do you feel you have homework? Do you do it? How does this work for you?

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How do I cast a Hugo Award vote?

So, the Hugo Award nominations have been announced! Fantastic! Look at all those great nominees! I like some of those works, and I know you do, too — so, who votes for them? How? How are the Hugo winners picked?

Hugo Awards are voted on by members of the current year’s Worldcon. This year, Worldcon is LoneStarCon 3.

Attending and supporting members of LoneStarCon 3 can vote for the Hugos.

You do not have to ATTEND Worldcon to vote. You merely have to buy a membership.

Attending membership is $200.00 Supporting membership — which gives you Hugo voting rights — is $60.00

If you buy a membership, you receive the Hugo Voter Packet. The voter packet contains digital copies of the written works nominated. Thus you may read the nominations and cast informed votes.

For your $60.00 supporting membership, then, you get five novels, a bunch of shorter works, the related works, voting rights for this year and nominating rights for next year. It’s not a terrible arrangement.

If you can buy a supporting membership, I urge you to do so. The present we create today becomes history, it becomes precedent for tomorrow’s futures. The votes you cast this year and the works you nominate for 2014 make the world just a little bit bigger, the door a little bit wider, for everyone who comes after you.

Buy a supporting membership. Vote for the works you believe to be genuinely the best in their category. Speak, let your voice be heard. Tell the future what it is that we as fans love. Tell the future that you can see it coming, and are glad.

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The 2013 Hugo Award Nominees

This Saturday the 2013 Hugo Award nominees were announced.

Tor.com has the full list.

Here is the list.

Best Novel.

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)
Blackout by Mira Grant (Orbit)
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas by John Scalzi (Tor)
Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed (DAW)

Best Novella.

After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress (Tachyon Publications)
The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon Publications)
On a Red Station, Drifting by Aliette de Bodard (Immersion Press)
San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats by Mira Grant (Orbit)
The Stars Do Not Lie by Jay Lake (Asimov’s, Oct-Nov 2012)

Best Novelette.

“The Boy Who Cast No Shadow” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Postscripts: Unfit For Eden, PS Publications)
“Fade To White” by Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesworld, August 2012)
“The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi” by Pat Cadigan (Edge of Infinity, Solaris)
“In Sea-Salt Tears” by Seanan McGuire (Self-published)
“Rat-Catcher” by Seanan McGuire (A Fantasy Medley 2, Subterranean)

Best Short Story.

“Immersion” by Aliette de Bodard (Clarkesworld, June 2012)
“Mantis Wives” by Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld, August 2012)
“Mono no Aware” by Ken Liu (The Future is Japanese, VIZ Media LLC)

Note: category has 3 nominees due to a 5% requirement under Section 3.8.5 of the WSFS constitution.

Best Related Work.

The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature Edited by Edward James & Farah Mendlesohn (Cambridge UP)
Chicks Dig Comics: A Celebration of Comic Books by the Women Who Love Them Edited by Lynne M. Thomas & Sigrid Ellis (Mad Norwegian Press)
Chicks Unravel Time: Women Journey Through Every Season of Doctor Who Edited by Deborah Stanish & L.M. Myles (Mad Norwegian Press)
I Have an Idea for a Book… The Bibliography of Martin H. Greenberg Compiled by Martin H. Greenberg, edited by John Helfers (The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box)
Writing Excuses Season Seven by Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler and Jordan Sanderson

Best Graphic Story.

Grandville Bête Noire written and illustrated by Bryan Talbot (Dark Horse Comics, Jonathan Cape)
Locke & Key Volume 5: Clockworks written by Joe Hill, illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW)
Saga, Volume One written by Brian K. Vaughn, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
Schlock Mercenary: Random Access Memorabilia by Howard Tayler, colors by Travis Walton (Hypernode Media)
Saucer Country, Volume 1: Run written by Paul Cornell, illustrated by Ryan Kelly, Jimmy Broxton and Goran Sudžuka (Vertigo)

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form).

The Avengers
The Cabin in the Woods
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The Hunger Games
Looper

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form).

Doctor Who: “The Angels Take Manhattan”
Doctor Who: “Asylum of the Daleks”
Doctor Who: “The Snowmen”
Fringe: “Letters of Transit”
Game of Thrones:“Blackwater”

Best Editor (Short Form).

John Joseph Adams
Neil Clarke
Stanley Schmidt
Jonathan Strahan
Sheila Williams

Best Editor (Long Form).

Lou Anders
Sheila Gilbert
Liz Gorinsky
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Toni Weisskopf

Best Professional Artist.

Vincent Chong
Julie Dillon
Dan Dos Santos
Chris McGrath
John Picacio

Best Semiprozine.

Apex Magazine edited by Lynne M. Thomas, Jason Sizemore and Michael Damian Thomas
Beneath Ceaseless Skies edited by Scott H. Andrews
Clarkesworld edited by Neil Clarke, Jason Heller, Sean Wallace and Kate Baker
Lightspeed edited by John Joseph Adams and Stefan Rudnicki
Strange Horizons edited by Niall Harrison, Jed Hartman, Brit Mandelo, An Owomoyela, Julia Rios, Abigail Nussbaum, Sonya Taaffe, Dave Nagdeman and Rebecca Cross

Best Fanzine.

Banana Wings edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer
The Drink Tank edited by Chris Garcia and James Bacon
Elitist Book Reviews edited by Steven Diamond
Journey Planet edited by James Bacon, Chris Garcia, Emma J. King, Helen J. Montgomery and Pete Young
SF Signal edited by John DeNardo, JP Frantz, and Patrick Hester

Best Fancast.

The Coode Street Podcast, Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe
Galactic Suburbia Podcast, Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Presenters) and Andrew Finch (Producer)
SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester, John DeNardo, and JP Frantz
SF Squeecast, Elizabeth Bear, Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, Lynne M. Thomas, Catherynne M. Valente (Presenters) and David McHone-Chase (Technical Producer)
StarShipSofa, Tony C. Smith

Best Fan Writer.

James Bacon
Christopher J Garcia
Mark Oshiro
Tansy Rayner Roberts
Steven H Silver

Best Fan Artist.

Galen Dara
Brad W. Foster
Spring Schoenhuth
Maurine Starkey
Steve Stiles

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

Award for the best new professional science fiction or fantasy writer of 2011 or 2012, sponsored by Dell Magazines (not a Hugo Award).

Zen Cho
Max Gladstone
Mur Lafferty
Stina Leicht
Chuck Wendig

***

You will note that this is a fantastic slate of people and works. You may, like me, note that you will be hard-pressed to choose within certain categories.

You may also note that my name is buried somewhere in there.

Chicks Dig Comics has been nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Related Work.

I am torn, incredibly torn, between a gracious, professional response and a wildly enthusiastic profane response. Those of you who have talked to me in person may recall that my first response to excitingly good news is blank affectlessness. I have spent a great deal of time pondering the nomination with blank affect.

The nomination is a wonderful acknowledgment of the stories of the contributors to Chicks Dig Comics. Those of you who nominated the book, I thank you for noticing how fucking amazing those essays are. (I did mention enthusiastic profanity, did I not?)

The nomination is also part of a broader pattern in the Hugo nominees this year. Women. People of color. Queers. I am pleased and proud to be a part of a Hugo slate that represents in some small way the diversity of SF/F that has always been here — but is not always seen.

Fuck Yeah Hugo Nominees. My congratulations to each of you, heartfelt and sincere. Congratufuckinglations.

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Fandom of Thrones

I rewatched Game of Thrones season 2 this past week in anticipation of season 3. One of the things that struck me, again, is how personal everything in the show is. These people remember and resent things that happened over twenty years ago. When I was younger I used to think these sorts of things were silly. That they were exceptions. That actual adults did not behave this way.

Then I think about my experiences in fandom.

In the fannish communities in which I have lived and participated, it’s not that people go out of the way to hold grudges. It’s merely that we all remember things. In a normal sort of way. I remember which panelists made me furious ten years ago with their wrong-headed views. And I remember it when they are making jokes at a room party now. I remember who it was that did me a solid favor in Parties fifteen years ago, and I think well of them for it still.

I know I’m not the only person who does this. I know it because there’s nothing special about me. I’m an average, run-of-the-mill human. And if I remember that you were a power-mad jackass when we were both twenty, I’m not likely to vote for you now.

A while back, local fandom had a pretty substantive schism. I was watching Theon Greyjoy talking to Bran Stark and found myself pondering how some people seem to cling to their slights and others let them go. But regardless, we all tend to remember. I am pleased that fannish arguments tend to not end in beheadings, of course. But the principles seem to be similar.

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January 23 2013

1. I’m registered for Wiscon! And have a hotel room! This makes me excited for the con.

2. I’m planning on CONvergence this year. I won’t be at Heroes Con or C2E2, due to scheduling conflicts. I’m pondering trying to get to Geek Girl Con.

3. Comics today include Stumptown #5, and Young Avengers #1. I have already bought them on Comixology.

4. A lot of work-related projects are sitting in my email inbox today. Not quite sure when I will get to read these new comics.

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January 15 2013

1. Because I attended Worldcon last year, I can nominate things for the Hugo Awards this year. I perused my blog and Goodreads and Kindle purchases, and concluded that I read:

* Cookbooks
* fitness books
* mysteries and crime novels
* historical novels
* history books

I also read some books and short stories by People I’ve Met Whose Work I Like. This is fine, and I enjoyed the reading I did, but now I feel UNPREPARED for the responsibility of Hugo Nominations.

/o\

2. I finally got around to listening to the BBC’s Sound of 2013, an annual music post looking ahead at up-and-coming artists. My conclusion is, I really want CHVRCHES to come out with an album that I can buy. Legally. Pay them.

3. In related news, the way international media rights are parceled out is terribly inconvenient for me. When I try three different ways to pay an artist for their work, and am prevented from doing so … I find this frustrating. It sometimes leads to poor behavior.

This is, however, why I am a member of Twin Cities Public Television AND I own all of Downton Abbey and Sherlock on dvd. Because when, at last, I am allowed to pay for work I love, I do so.

4. My kids are at the stage of illness in which they are actually getting better, but they have wracking coughs that sound consumptive. This alarms other people, let me tell you.

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Hugo nomination eligibility

With the new year nomination season for the Hugos is upon us.

The Hugo nomination period is open until March 10th. If you were a member of Chicon last year, or are already a member of LoneStarCon this year (2013 Worldcon) or Loncon 3 (the 2014 Worldcon), you can nominate your favorite works or people from last year. If you have not yet bought a Worldcon membership, supporting or full, you only have until January 31 to do so and get nominating rights.

I have one work in 2012, eligible in two categories. If you are someone who plans to nominate, please feel free to consider my work, along with the other fantastic works by others.

My eligibility is:

Best Related Work:
Chicks Dig Comics (Co-editor)

Best Editor, Short Form:
My work on Chicks Dig Comics

Thanks.

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Witnessing harassment at Worldcon

I witnessed one incident of harassment at Worldcon. I report it here publicly because I think that we in fandom do not always recognize harassment when we see it. I, personally, did not correctly process what I was seeing until it was too late to intervene. The event came, and went, and then I figured out that I ought to have said something. Too late to act.

I was standing in the elevator bay, waiting for an elevator. Two other people were waiting nearby, talking.

An elevator door opened. A man I recognized stepped out, one arm carrying a box of things.

I know this man. He’s a regular attendee at conventions I go to. I have seen him on panels, I have talked to him at parties. He is not a stranger to me; neither is he a friend. He is a fixture in my understanding of what fandom is.

He stepped out, talking. A voice from inside the elevator contradicted him. The man turned to finished his thought.

I was not listening closely, however, the man was explaining to the two people in the elevator that they were wrong about their opinion of the treatment of another party not present. That Other Party Not Present had not been given enough of an explanation, enough of a chance to understand, for what happened to Other Party Not Present to be appropriate.

A woman in the elevator stepped forward and began pushing the buttons. Either close door or next floor. The doors began to close.

The man talking put his hand over the door to hold the elevator and continue telling the two people that they were wrong.

At this point my attention engaged.

Sigrid, I thought. There are two people, I believe they are both women, in that elevator. The exit is blocked by a man who is telling them how wrong their opinions are, while holding the elevator and preventing them from leaving the conversation. At least one of them is jamming on the elevator buttons, trying to force the doors closed, trying to leave.

At the moment my thinking got this far, the alarm began ringing in the elevator, indicating that the door was being held too long. A voice from inside the elevator said, flatly, you are setting off the alarm.

The man released the door and walked past me, still telling the other two people that they did not understand they way in which they were wrong.

The doors closed, the elevator disappeared. The man walked down the hall and was gone.

I stood there. I thought, “I should have said something. I should have said, ‘Hey [name redacted], they want to leave. Let go of the door.’” I should have let them know that someone saw it and agreed it wasn’t good. I should have let him know that his behavior was crossing a line.

***

I was talking to Elise Matheson over lunch, and she gave me permission to share a private conversation she had elsewhere that is germane to my point. She was discussing an educational poster campaign for another convention, one based on the CONvergence “Costumes are Not Consent,” “Don’t Be a Dink,” and “Don’t Harsh the Squee” campaign.

Elise said that one of the slogans under discussion was “We Don’t Do That Anymore.”

We don’t do that anymore. Think about that for a moment.

I like this as an educational poster slogan. “We.” It reminds us all that we have all been a part of a cultural of sexual harassment at conventions. We have been harassed and not reported it. We have crossed boundaries and not known. We have been told we crossed boundaries and not known how to make amends. We have witnessed and not intervened.

“Don’t Do That.” But now we know better. Now we have been educated and informed. We have strategies and plans. We have people and institutions that we can trust to help us navigate the muddy waters of harassment.

“Anymore.” We have failed in the past. We intend to fail less in the future.

I like this slogan because it captures something often missing from anti-harassment discussion. It captures the complexity and nuance of harassment. It acknowledges that sexual harassment at a convention is not always a boob grope or an offer to trade work for sex. Sometimes harassment is a flashing moment of something ambiguous. Something complicated.

Sometimes sexual harassment is an elevator door.

***

I do not know whether the two people, I think they were both women, felt sexually harassed in the incident I witnessed. I do not know whether they felt threatened. I know at leat one of them wanted to leave, urgently. Did she feel afraid? Angry? Did she really really have to pee?

I don’t know.

I am confident that the man was certain that he was not harassing or threatening anyone. I’ve talked to him at conventions. It is my observation that he habitually does not listen to what people say. I am confident that he was merely finishing his sentence, gently correcting people who do not know as much as he does.

This makes him a poor conversational partner. Does it make him a sexual harasser?

One man forced two women to stand and listen to him berate their views. He did this by physically preventing them from leaving. It this harassment? Is it threatening behavior?

I know what I think. I think it was threatening behavior. I wish, I wish, that I had processed what I was seeing faster, that I had spoken up. I wish I had intervened.

These are the incidents that create the seedy underbelly of conventions. These are the incidents we all don’t see, or let pass by, that enable the more extreme incidents of harassment to occur. When a person thinks they are entitled to trap and berate people — while I am certain he would call it “finishing the conversation” — that person is highly unlikely to see or comprehend other instances where a party is trying to get away.

These are the incidents that we must all begin to see. And on seeing them, find appropriate action to take. Violence would not be appropriate. Shouting would not be appropriate. Telling the guy that I see him, and I think he is behaving poorly, that is what I wished I had done. “Let go of the door, [name redacted], they want to leave.”

I wish I’d said it.

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The 70th Worldcon, aka Chicon 7

I have learned a great deal from attending my first Worldcon:

What diseases are most likely to cause the next human pandemic, and what diseases Seanan McGuire wishes the next pandemic will be.

How to not apply a tourniquet for a human bleeding out anally.

What “harrowing” means in a panel description.

That John Scalzi really is actually as charming and funny as everyone said — it wasn’t merely internet hype.

Myke Cole is a delightful panelist, and his book Shadow Ops: Control Point is, so far, entertaining. (I bought it after meeting him, and haven’t finished the book yet.)

How a SFWA buisness meeting goes, and what sorts of things are decided.

That I approve of the current SFWA board — I like their energy and drive.

That the Hugo Awards this year were full of so many fantastic nominees that, no matter who won, I was elated and disappointed in nearly every single category.

I still am not keen on parties.

Conversation with incredibly smart, articulate people on topics of mutual interest is always my favorite thing at conventions.

I can’t go anywhere without my kids, but that I buy them presents.

It’s been a good con, folks. Good con.

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The adventure begins!

We drove down to Chicago yesterday. All was well!

1. All of us enjoyed the hitherto-unknown-to-us podcast, Caustic Soda. Though I did warn my mother that if the children start lecturing her on chlamydia, it’s because of the podcast, nothing more.

2. No matter how much extra time I allow for getting to my mother’s house from the 90-294 interchange, it always takes thirty minutes longer. No matter what I plan, it’s thirty minutes more.

3. I cleverly outwitted myself with hotel reservations! But in a pleasant way! So I will actually be at the Hyatt, not at the Sheraton.

4. What happens at Grandma’s stays at Grandma’s. I have briefed my children on their manners, and briefed my mother on the one disciplinary item I really want her to uphold, and the rest is out of my hands. Everyone is happy.

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