by Gary Farber
If you happen to be in the environs of the San Francisco Bay Area from March 11th through 13th, I'll be here:
FOGcon: March 11-13, 2011, at the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway Hotel
Fogcon is this (links mine):
The Friends of Genre Convention (FOGcon) is a literary-themed San Francisco SF/F con in the tradition of Wiscon and Readercon. Each year we’ll focus on a new theme in speculative fiction and invite Honored Guests ranging from writers to scientists to artists. We will build community, exchange ideas, and share our love for the literature of imagination.
Theme for 2011: The City in SF/F
Honored Guests: Pat Murphy and Jeff VanderMeer; Honored Editorial Guest, Ann VanderMeer; Honored Guest (Posthumous) Fritz Leiber
“There is more than one road to the City.”—Ursula K. Le Guin
The theme of this, the first FOGCon is:
Whether a glass-edged utopia or a steampunk hell, the city plays a central role in many works of speculative fiction. It can be an arena for conflicts between cultures, a center of learning or vice, a court of power and corruption. In its gutters and government buildings, the city reveals the values a society claims and those it actually honors. Because the city is open to everyone, it’s a place where new things can happen. No wonder it is such a rich topic for so many writers.
Lots of other kewl people will be there. There will be programming!
I'm particularly, given the time-change, and our ability as science fiction people to slipstream, looking forward to these bits of programming:
Sunday Programming
Sunday, 2:00-3:00 A.M. (Interstitial Programming)
A Guided Tour of Veniss Underground
Boiler Room In The Basement
Honoured Guest Jeff VanderMeer leads interested parties down a specially dug tunnel beneath the Holiday Inn to explore the real-life location in which his fictional Veniss Underground was set. Warning: The con does not provide safety gear, weapons, or retrieval services for anyone lost on this expedition.
The Six Magic Words Of Guaranteed Publication
Gold Rush C
Ann VanderMeer will reveal the true secret of getting published: six words that will ensure that, if you include them in your story correctly, you will see print!
Fritz Leiber Reading/Q&A
Room 607, Rhodes Hotel
Fritz Leiber will be reading from his recently completed work, as well as answering audience questions.
Pat Murphy Teaches Wognax Zarbling and Alter-Ego Development
California Room, alter-ego overflow to Washington.
While she admitted in her program signup that she is not a professional Wognax zarbler, she aspires to be, and who doesn’t? She’ll provide her very skilled amateur guidance for those of us who have always wished to zarble Wognaxes (some Wognaxes provided, but feel free to bring your own). Once the Wognaxes are suitably zarbled, Pat will also advice people on how to develop their own alter-egos. Warning: Any alter-egos developed will not be allowed to attend Sunday programming unless they buy a day pass.
I'm particularly looking forward to Fritz Leiber's reading.
Leiber was one of the greats.
Some thoughts from Conjure, Wife:
- What was life worth, anyway, if you had to sit around remembering not to mention this, that, and the other thing because someone else might be upset?
- Chapter 11 (p. 116)
- Things are different from what I thought. They’re much worse.
- Chapter 20 (p. 209)
Other wisdom to keep in mind:
I abominate any organization that denies cats are people!
It was always worth everything to get away by himself, climb a bit, and study the heavens.
What do you care? You always liked loneliness better than you liked people. No offence - liking yourself’s the beginning of all love.
And one I should always keep more in mind:
For that matter, where did I get off being critical of anyone?
But it's not just the dead who will be speaking, although you can also take a tour with Don Herron of Fritz Leiber's San Francisco. Don Herron's tours are legendary, and worth taking any time.
Pat Murphy is a great writer and fascinating person.
Pat Murphy has won awards for her science fiction and fantasy novels, as well her nonfiction science books. Her brilliant The City, Not Long After portrays a post-apocalyptic San Francisco populated by ghosts and artists.
Her second novel, The Falling Woman (1986), won the Nebula Award, and she also won a Nebula Award in the same year for her novelette, “Rachel in Love.” Her short story collection, Points of Departure (1990) won the Philip K. Dick Award, and her 1991 novella, “Bones,” won the World Fantasy Award.
She lives in San Francisco and, for more than 20 years, when she was not writing science fiction, she worked at the Exploratorium, San Francisco’s museum of science, art, and human perception. There, she published non-fiction as part of the museum staff. She is now an editor at Klutz Press in Palo Alto, where she is responsible for such wildly science-fictional publications as Invasion of the Bristlebots.
Together with Karen Joy Fowler, Murphy co-founded the James Tiptree, Jr. Award in 1991.
Ann VanderMeer is Very Busy.
Ann VanderMeer is the founder of the award-winning Buzzcity Press and currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief for Weird Tales, for which she has received a Hugo award. Ann has partnered with her husband, author Jeff VanderMeer, on such editing projects as the World Fantasy Award–winning Leviathan series, The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases, The New Weird, Steampunk, Steampunk Reloaded and Fast Ships, Black Sails. She is also known for teaching writing workshops, including Clarion, Odyssey and Shared Worlds as well conducting creativity seminars for such varied audiences as the state of Arizona and Blizzard Entertainment.
Jeff VanderMeer is meanwhile here, there, and everywhere.
Award-winning writer Jeff VanderMeer’s final novel in his Ambergris Cycle, Finch, has just been published in the US, and will appear in the UK from Atlantic’s Corvus imprint. His writer guide Booklife and associated Booklifenow website focus on sustainable creativity.
With his wife Ann, he recently edited the charity anthology Last Drink Bird Head. His short fiction has appeared in Conjunctions, Library of America’s American Fantastic Tales, and several year’s best anthologies. He has won two World Fantasy Awards and been nominated for many other awards.
He writes nonfiction for The Washington Post Book World, Omnivoracious, The New York Times Book Review, the B&N Review, and many others.
Since I blog here, though I'm just a tiny participant in this con, I'll mention that you can probably also find me hither and yon, at least:
Friday, 4:30-5:45 P.M.
No-Blah Blog
In 2011, many authors are not just writing stories, novels and articles. They’re blogging. How do you create a blog readers will want to return to again and again without sacrificing your other writing projects?
M: Amy Sundberg, Erin Hoffman, Gary Farber, Carolyn E. Cooper
Also:
Sunday, 9:00-10:15 A.M.
Power Structures in F/SF Cities
Who holds the power in the cities of alternate worlds? Are cities ruled by individuals, single organizations, or coalitions? How is power exercised: through religious, economic, legal, or other means? Can people move freely among classes? Does the nature of power held in a city influence the nature of the underclass? Take examples from modern and classic spec fic works and examine how these questions have been addressed over time.
M: Michele Cox, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Debbie Notkin, Gary Farber
And I'll be disappointed in myself if I don't show up at Saturday, 10:30-11:45 A.M. to kibitz at:
The Lightning Wrath of the Internet
From Cooks Source to RaceFail, the Internet “hivemind” gets angry very, very quickly. The speed of discussion in fandom is much faster than it ever has been before. How is this changing the conversations we have? Is it a good thing, a bad thing, or simply the way it is?
M: Lori Selke, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Nick Mamatas, Rachel Silber
Lots of other stuff will be going on, including a writer's workshop, and you kids interested in that would be well advised to play the home game with the:
Turkey City Lexicon – A Primer for SF Workshops
Edited by Lewis Shiner
Second Edition by Bruce Sterling
Elsewhere in skiffy news, there are always more Phil Dick movies coming:
Philip K. Dick, the sci-fi writer who fires Hollywood's imagination in film after film.
Yes, here comes The Adjustment Bureau.
Michael Chabon has a project on HBO, Hobgoblin:
Scribe Michael Chabon and his wife, author Ayelet Waldman, have set up an offbeat drama project at HBO that revolves around a motley group of conmen and magicians who use their skills at deception to battle Hitler and his forces during WWII.
No, you can never go wrong with Hitler!
Want some science fiction news? Try SF Signal and Locus Online. You could even try File770.com, and watch folks take shots at me! Or I've been known to blog about science fiction myself. Hey, read about me and Robert Heinlein. That's a bit of a story. Yikes.
But you need something to argue over! How about the perennial "what is science fiction?"
It's this!
Which is to say:
Ward Shelley
Artist, Teacher at Parsons the Newschool for Design, Easton, CT
“History of Science Fiction” is a graphic chronology that maps the literary genre from its nascent roots in mythology and fantastic stories to the somewhat calcified post-Star Wars space opera epics of today. The movement of years is from left to right, tracing the figure of a tentacled beast, derived from H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds Martians. Science Fiction is seen as the offspring of the collision of the Enlightenment (providing science) and Romanticism, which birthed gothic fiction, source of not only SciFi, but crime novels, horror, westerns, and fantasy (all of which can be seen exiting through wormholes to their own diagrams, elsewhere). Science fiction progressed through a number of distinct periods, which are charted, citing hundreds of the most important works and authors. Film and television are covered as well.
The original is hand drawn and painted on Mylar. It has been exhibited at Teapot Gallery in Cologne and is part of an ongoing series. Other examples may be seen at: http://www.wardshelley.com
Wanna play science fiction bingo?
I'm with my friend, Samuel R. "Chip" Delany, myself.
Got any opinions about what the World Science Fiction Convention should be like? (I'm a footnote. In various places. Yeesh.)
Oh, yes, Fogcon?
You can be there!
Adult Membership
$75 after 2/1/10, including at the door
Child and Youth Memberships
Youth (ages 11 to age 17) $55 after 2/1/10, including at the door
Child (ages 0 to 10) under constant direct parental supervision free
Day memberships will be available at the door only.
Friday: $40 (includes the Liftoff Party)
Saturday: $35
Sunday: $30
Youth day rates
Friday only: $25
Sat only: $20
Sun only: $15
This is otherwise an Open Thread. Discuss!
(Crossposted at Amygdala.)
BONUS VIDEO: Pat Murphy and her Talking Cats Explain Entropy And Chaos Theory!
Also the Convention Anti-Harassment Project and Open Source Women Back Each Other Up Project & Gentlemen's Auxiliary.
I'll be there too-- holding down a vendor table with my tiny comic books.
Posted by: Hob | March 11, 2011 at 01:31 PM
See you there, Hob. I was going to have special Amygdala tee-shirts, but they're... arriving Monday. Oh, well. See here, but I haven't opened a Store yet. Quick improve. Only the "AmygdalaBlog" ones are mine, but folks probably should wait until I have better designs before rushing to order the vast profusion of crappy clothing, keychains, mugs, bumper stickers, baby clothing, etc, I know everyone is just dying to get!
But comments on front and back are welcome, even though, as I said, these were just something I threw together at the last minute to wear, and... will have Monday. :-)
Along with a smart phone donated by a reader. :-) So it goes.
See ya there, I gotta go.
Also, for what it's worth:
I'm not planning on worrying, myself. Also, it's bright and sunny out. Ta!Posted by: Gary Farber | March 11, 2011 at 01:38 PM
I am now at FOGCon, not being at all Foggy yet. So this is San Francisco! Looks just like I recall. Hilly! Who knew? No tsunamis yet. Sun! I demand my money back. Now to go register with con, be struck with Awe and Sense Of Wonder. Suffer no damage and no further strikes, I hope.
Posted by: Gary Farber | March 11, 2011 at 03:47 PM
Gary, sorry, it will be some time before I get to go thru all the links, so if it explained there, my apologies, but I am really baffled by the Fritz Lieber reading. Is this something usual with science fiction conferences? How does it work?
Hob, do you have a link for your comic books? Love to find out more.
Posted by: liberal japonicus | March 11, 2011 at 04:03 PM
I enjoyed People Don't Listen, Hob.
Posted by: hairshirthedonist | March 11, 2011 at 04:32 PM
LJ: note times for interstitial programming. Obscure while traveling, but consider that we switch to daylight savings time....
Now, do I take my laptop down to blogging panel and write comments during panel, or do I tweet or, ooh, right, I'm supposed to talk!
I'd video us, but only if we all gave permission....
Posted by: Gary Farber | March 11, 2011 at 07:00 PM
Thanks Gary, my eye just caught the reading and said huh?
Posted by: liberal japonicus | March 11, 2011 at 07:24 PM
And now I'm in the green room! Blogging how I may be blogging the blogging panel! It's so meta!
Posted by: Gary Farber | March 11, 2011 at 07:50 PM
That comment was delayed! Now we're on the panel! :-)
Posted by: Gary Farber | March 11, 2011 at 08:48 PM
LJ: my website is in transition, so you can see some things here and other things here.
HSH: Thanks!
Posted by: Hob | March 12, 2011 at 02:38 AM
I was following tweets in livetime during the panel and asked the person who had just tweeted her comment on the panel to raise her hand.
Then I tweeted her a response.
Posted by: Gary Farber | March 12, 2011 at 05:03 AM
Ignatius Donnelly's "Caeser's Column", "Dr. Huguet", and "The Golden Bottle" all belong on the History of Science Fiction chart, in the general area of H G Wells and Edward Bellamy. "Atlantis", "Ragnorak" and "The Great Cryptogram" were presented as nonfiction, but can easily be read as science fiction or something like it.
Posted by: John Emerson | March 12, 2011 at 02:23 PM
And here I was just chatting with Hob in the Dealer's room, and Took His Picture, so I had to run up to my room to comment, in hopes he'll see it, and now I must run downstairs to tell him, unless I should use my phone to send a tweet to the blog to activate some software to get someone to use a housephone to call someone to talk over and tell him.
We should probably have a panel discussion of this.
And I can blog it.
And Hob can do a comic version of it, because it all seems a bit dream-like.
Don't mind me. I need more coffee.
Or less.
Posted by: Gary Farber | March 12, 2011 at 07:35 PM
But I still say that the internet is real, Hob! So there!
I think I need a nap.
Posted by: Gary Farber | March 12, 2011 at 07:36 PM
So!
Interwebs, don't fail me now! I'm supposed to say something that fakes intelligence in a bit over 4 hours on this: "Power Structures in F/SF Cities
Redwood Room
Who holds the power in the cities of alternate worlds? Are cities ruled by individuals, single organizations, or coalitions? How is power exercised: through religious, economic, legal, or other means? Can people move freely among classes? Does the nature of power held in a city influence the nature of the underclass? Take examples from modern and classic spec fic works and examine how these questions have been addressed over time.
M: Michele Cox, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Debbie Notkin, Gary Farber "
Context! Speak to me! Give me questions, ideas. references, notions, digressions! If necessary, I'll fake a seizure, point to alien abduction!
I'm counting on you, ObWi!
Posted by: Gary Farber | March 13, 2011 at 06:28 AM
You. Have. Not. Helped. Oh, group,
OBWI Group Mind!
Oh noes, I must go think for myself! Harrumph.
Posted by: Gary Farber | March 13, 2011 at 11:33 AM
Harrumph. I would have gone to this had I been a bit more on the ball. Like, knowing about it would have been a good start! Y'see, cities + SF (and SF!) = interested me.
And I could have thanked the esteemed Ms. Mohanraj for her cookbook (among other endeavors, of course). Well, perhaps there will be another one, and I ain't moving again.
Posted by: Rose/yarnivore | April 17, 2011 at 08:01 AM
There most assuredly will be a FOGcon 2 next year. The precise location in the Bay Area remained a bit uncertain, last I heard, but the committee will definitely be putting on the second, with Vylar Kaftan chairing it, and most of the same people working on it, though someone else taking over programming from Vito Excalibur, since she's an expectant mother.
As I recall, the theme announced at the closing critique session of the con for next year's FOGCon would be "The Body." (Or possibly I picked that up after the con, conceivably at lunch with Vylar; my memory is a bit foggy at present, since I spent yesterday at the ER, and sent home with penicillin pills, shots, and Vicodin, not that I need an excuse to forget details.)
The only major question seemed to be whether to stick to San Francisco or possibly go East Bay.
Posted by: Gary Farber | April 17, 2011 at 05:18 PM
I haven't gotten around to posting any of my pictures from the con, I'm reminded, nor the videotape of most of the "Lightning Wrath of The Internet" pane, where Mary Anne dared risk some, herself. Plus I have some video (all with permission, of course) of some other select bits of other panels.
Sometime in my Copious Spare Time.
Posted by: Gary Farber | April 17, 2011 at 05:32 PM