Norwescon – Further reading and little L’esprit de l’escalier
Norwescon was lovely, and many of the highlights come from conversations during or because of panels. Fellow speakers and audiences were pretty rawking. During my panels I mentioned further resources and references. Here are just a few resources I mentioned (or wish I had mentioned).
Fantastic Fantasy Females with Jean Johnson, Kim Ritchie, J A Pitts and Julie McGalliard
A wide ranging and robust conversation it was a terrific way to start the convention.
During the conversation I mentioned Jess Nevin’s fantastic article “A short history of the female mad scientist.” I also forgot Thomas Edison’s name and the name of his unknown opposite was Dr. Louise G. Robinovitch who experimented with electricity and anesthesia.
Can’t -Put-it-Down Pacing with G. David Nordley and Joshua Palmatier (aka Benjamin Tate)
Joshua and I discovered we both describe pacing in terms of sexual metaphors – I talked about not wrecking the foreplay and Joshua has an article up on Apex called “Premature Plot Ejaculation“.
The Fiction of Patricia K. McKillip
It was a lovely self contained thingey and didn’t draw the audience’s attention to further material. We spoke about many things and Patricia spoke admiringly of all the interesting things new writers are doing. She mentioned The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi as an example of a current writer who was doing interesting things that she could never do.
Writers Workshops from Local to national with Eileen Gunn, K.C. Ball, Keffy R. M. Kehrli, Patrick Swenson and Leslie Howle
Another broad ranging discussion about all the different kinds of workshops available to writers.
Critters has some good resources on how to give good critiques so that you can be a better workshop participant.
The Psychology of Urban Fantasy with Mark Teppo, Kat Richardson and Kurt Cagle
This was a broad ranging conversation at the end of the convention and the panel I wish I had done a better job at. I don’t think I was on top form as a panelist and felt I could have grounded things a bit better, providing more value for the audience. But there were some interesting things touched upon and some interesting conversations afterwards as well.
On the power of Urban fantasy to tell forgotten stories, stories of working people, urban environments and social change I have in my to-read pile Stina Leicht’s “Of Blood and Honey” which draws on Irish Fae traditions and makes new audiences aware of the Bloody Sunday massacre in Ireland.
In conversation after the panel, building on the ways Urban Fantasy can listen better and represent fab diversity we mentioned many many things and gushed about Nalo Hopkinson’s Caribbean mermaids and recommended Nisi Shawl’s Writing the Other. Urban Fantasy often finds different ways of playing with otherness and it is good to do so in an aware way.
