I’ve posted a few things on Facebook, mostly photos and travelogue, about San Antonio. (I’m also participating in the 7 days of B&W challenge, whose antecedents I don’t know but I’m enjoying the opportunity to expand my eye.)

But back to WFC/SA.

Last night was the “Signature Event,” a two hour autographing session for everyone.  I garnered some autographs (esp. David Mitchell, author of CLOUD ATLAS and THE BONE CLOCKS) but mostly I sat and shot the breeze with passersby.  Mary Anne Mohanraj and I talked about The Speculative Literature Foundation, and if you don’t know them, check them out.  No one was interested in my chapbooks, hardly surprising as the state of self-published work has grown in professionalism and my chapbooks are obviously home-grown.  That’s fine 🙂  While wandering I saw lots of great cover art.  Color is in!

The panels are a nice mix of theme and feminism, social liberalism and discussions to understand The Other.  The panelists are heavily weighted towards gender equality and this would be a great place to thank SPIKE in programming for the amazing job of putting all this together.  I’m impressed and relieved that panels have women on them, and POC, and varied opinion.  It’s about time.

Plenty of readings, I believe there are 2 per half hour. I organized and will moderate the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading today, with a one hour slot (at 2pm) for 10 women to read up to 4 minutes or so of story.  Several of my authors have brought giveaway books so we’ll also be raffling those off.

We have to be johnny on the spot time-wise as the Guest of Honor, Tananarive Due, has the room right after us.

Tomorrow includes the banquet (smashed turkey hotel food) and the awards (Kij Johnson! Tina Connolly!) and the general good cheer of a well-run convention.

Then I’m off to my subsequent adventures of my continuing vacation.  And maybe finishing that story.  It could happen.

(things I’ve forgotten to mention:  Tiptree Bake Sale. Clarion West party. Sitting in the green room and chatting with David Mitchell. Other stuff.)

This has not been a banner year of story sales (pretty overwhelming in the rejection department) yet I’ve had a few successes.

1. Not All Who Wander Are Lost, a romp with flying cars and talking lizards, published in Perihelion in February.

2. Far, Far From Land, harvesting edibles from the asteroid belt leads to shipwreck and rescue efforts, published in Luna Station Quarterly in June (reprint.)

Since NorWesCon I’ve had a pretty quiet summer.  I joined a local Southern California/Orange County writers group specifically to hear Joe Ide (Eeee-day) as I seriously grokked his novel IQ.  (He has a sequel out now.)   I bought the Stephen King/Owen King novel, SLEEPING BEAUTIES, but I’m having trouble getting into it.  Once I figure out why, I’ll post why it’s not sucking me in.  Joe Hill on the other hand has a collection of 4 novellas I haven’t purchased yet and that is next on my list. He’s proven a good storyteller.

Storytelling is why I’m doing this.  My friend Marta Murvosh sold a story, CRANES RETURN, to the anthology Tales of the Sunrise Lands, specifically written in a non-Western storytelling style.  Our standard Western format includes conflict points and a rise and fall of action. Other countries have (surprise!) different forms, and Guardbridge Books specifically requested

• Kishotenketsu and other Japanese styles of story structure differing from traditional Western forms. This article has a good discussion of Kishotenketsu.

I wish I’d written something for it… but I didn’t.