New Post at Nerdiquette 101

Today's post can be found over at the Nerdiquette 101 blog.

http://nerdiquette101.blogspot.com/

Nerdiquette 101 is a movement started by three women who all had "that guy" encounters at a science fiction convention in 2012.

Today's post is called Dos and Don'ts for taking pictures of costumers and is short list of recommendations for interacting with costumers during conventions.

I hope you enjoy.

Books that changed my life

Inspired by this post:

Geek Mom: Books that changed my Life

Geek Mom Sarah Pinault describes it as “not books that changed my life through ‘because it’s great’, but books that you can use to pinpoint a change in your life, a change in your way of thinking, your growth be it emotional or otherwise.” 

I thought it was an interesting idea, and since I am in the process of de-cluttering (which results in the removal of some books), I thought I’d take a look at the books I choose to keep.

The first book/series that comes to mind is the Narnia Chronicles.  I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in the fourth grade as part of a class reading.  I remember finishing the book and immediately heading to the library to find out if there was more.  There was!  I devoured the rest of the series by the end of the year.  It opened my eyes to the world outside of Judy Blume and Mary Ingalls Wilder.  By the end of fourth grade, I’d been introduced to the Chronicles of Prydian as well.  (Yeah fantasy!)

Fifth Grade for me was a defining year.  A lot happened in my personal life. My Dad spent the year stationed in Korea and my Mom hurt her back and spent several months unable to do much.  I learned a lot about responsibility that year, as I learned to cook, clean and take care of my little brother.   Thank goodness for my godparents, who helped with things like yardwork and errands. 

That same year, I had the most amazing teacher who introduced me to a whole world of books.  Mr. Nesbit introduced me to Mystery novels (first Trixie Belden, and then Nancy Drew), Shakespeare (we put on A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Madeleine L'Engle. 

He had this corner in his room that was wrapped in books.  I remember reading book after book. 

That same year, my mom was reading Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.  When she finished the book, she handed it to me.  By the end of the year, I’d finished all three books in the series… and thrown my first book across a room.  

In terms of changing my life, I think being introduced to Shakespeare so young gave me a love of English and Literature that has carried all the way through my adult life.   Mr. Nesbit kept the essence of the story while shortening the lines to make it easier for 10 year olds to memorize.  It gave me my first performance on stage and I remember reading more of the plays (in their original form) that same year.  Though a lot of the jokes went over my head, as I learned when reading it later in college, I remember reading it with a dictionary beside me and learning a whole new vocabulary.

Trixie and Nancy were female detectives.  I think more than anything, they started me down the path of belief that a woman can be anything, even something that was bit dangerous.   Growing up, I wanted to be a pilot.  Unfortunately, my eyesight was too bad to fly in the military. (Ah, well.)  I still love the fearlessness of both characters and while I am not anything like either, I like to think I have tried to bring some of that fearlessness into my life.

Then came Dragonlance.  Dragonlance (DL) opened my world to “adult” books.  That is, books written for adults not kids or even young adults.  Once I started reading DL, I never went back to young adult books.  I remember going to the bookstore and starting in the fantasy/science fiction section.  From DL, I learned about Anne McCaffrey, Piers Anthony, Terry Brooks, and of course, Tolkien.    Once introduced to Fantasy novels, I eventually made it to Science Fiction, devouring Robert Heinlein and Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451 OMG!), though I never could get into Asimov for some reason. 

Shortly thereafter, my mom brought home Mercedes Lackey’s Arrows and Last Herald Mage trilogies.  Mercedes was the first person who wrote about “shay’a’chern” or gay relationships.  I think having been introduced to it in novels so young, is why I’ve never really been bothered by the concept of gay relationships or marriage.  In fact, it’s very likely that the stories made it so not only does it not bother me, but I feel strongly enough to have voted for and continue to support same-sex equality in marriage and in other laws.

There are probably tons more books that influenced my life. From the Star Wars novels of Aaron Allston, Mike Stackpole and Timothy Zahn, to the Forgotten Realms stories of Elaine Cunningham & RA Salvatore, there are tons of books that inspired me to become an author in my own right.

I knew he was different, in his sexuality/ 
I went to his parties, as the straight minority/ 
It never seemed a threat to my masculinity/ 
He only introduced me to a wider reality.

~Rush, Nobody's Hero

The Gamers Codex: Geek Girls Gaming: Crossplaying Characters

My newest post is up at The Gamers Codex.

Geek Girls Gaming: Crossplaying Characters 

The Gamers Codex is the place FOR table top gamers BY table top gamers.

Thoughts of Stellarcon

UNCG’s SF³ announced yesterday that there will be no Stellarcon in 2014. The club plans to spend the year restructuring.

As someone who served as both president of the SF³ and a Con Manager, I must admit this news makes me sad.    I cut my teeth on convention running at Stellarcon.  In fact, I’d be willing to go as far as saying that without Stellarcon and SF³, there would be no ConGregate.

I met amazing people, who became dear friends, in the course of the years of running Stellarcon.  From authors and artists, to actors and fans, the people I’ve met at Stellarcon have almost always been incredibly kind and generous with their time.  The list goes on and on of authors who encouraged me to write, who gave me the confidence to write and without having met them at Stellacon, I don’t know that I would now be a published author.

My memories of Stellarcon are, of course, clouded now by the years.  I have incredibly fond memories of sitting at the Hams on Friendly, which is now closed, drinking Rum & Cokes (and White Russians) while planning out the convention.  Through SF³, I met my husband.  And certainly, we drew closer working together on the con. There were a lot of late nights putting the program together, laying out the convention or dealing with last minute changes.  A lot of blood (hey! paper cuts bleed!), sweat and tears went in to each year to make it a success.  And yes, I know there are negative memories as well, but I don’t think they overshadow the good ones. 

Memories like:

• Having Fire Alarms often enough at the old Holiday Inn that we scheduled a random Fire Drill in the program (Fire Sale!), only to have the alarm not go off the one time we really had a fire!
• The Vampire LARPs taking over all 6 floors!
• Robert O’Reilly singing “The King of the Forest”
• Star Wars Trivial Pursuit w/ Aaron Allston, Mike Stackpole and Tim Zahn
• Cabaret at the End of the Universe!
• Inside the Stellarcon Studio
• Wearing the original Cubic Zirconia costume at DragonCon and having someone in a line jump out and shout “Stellarcon!”
• Iron Seamstresses
• The last page of the program…

My daughter’s first convention, at 3 months of age, was Stellarcon and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.    

Even as Stellarcon changed, moving to more student-run, and away from alumni involvement, I still went every year.  Being named Fan GOH by them was an incredibly meaningful moment for me.

Laura Haywood-Cory perhaps says it best: “End of an Era.”  Stellarcon may come back in 2015 or the club may decide to let it rest forever.  But for the first time in 21 years, there will not be a Stellarcon in March and that makes me sad.

More things than are dreamed about/Unseen and unexplained

We suspend our disbelief/And we are entertained

~Rush, Mystic Rhythms

Announcing...ConGregate!

Some things are in your blood, in your soul, in your heart and you can’t not do them (Yes, that’s a double negative!).  Your passions.

In my case, I apparently have two of them…writing and conventions.

The Writing is going well.  I have 4 short stories published (the most recent coming out at the end of May!), the first chapter of the first draft of my novel being copy-edited, several more short story ideas are in draft form and an entire new series is being plotted.  So I feel like I’m making progress in that passion.

And then there are cons… After I had the Geeklet, I decided to get out of running conventions.  But it’s been 5 years and I miss it like an addict misses cigarettes or coffee. 

So when a small group of us started talking about running a convention…I was onboard.  Particularly if I got to do programming again!  Programming is my true love of conventions.  I love figuring out what topics to discuss, how to draw in the fans…and ConGregate is giving me that opportunity.  Plus we’re really focused on organizing a convention that fans want to attend.  So when it comes to topics and programming ideas, I want to hear from the fans as well as the guests.  We’re even going to put up a link for people to email me their ideas and if I can make it work, it’ll happen.

Congregate is a group of experienced conrunners from all over the South…we have staff from across NC, SC and VA helping out.  We have some of the best talent you can name from RavenCon, Trinoc-coN, MACE, StellarCon, ConCarolinas, Mysticon, and DragonCon. It’s an amazing staff already and I can’t wait to see what we can do. 

I hope you check us out, and share your thoughts and passions with us.   The tagline for ConGregate is “Where strangers are just friends you haven’t met yet.”  We really hope that by the end of our first con, we’ll have made a lot of new friends!

 You may be right/It's all a waste of time
I guess that's just a chance I'm prepared to take
A danger I'm prepared to face/Cut to the chase

~Rush, Cut to the Chase

Today's blog post up at Nerdiquette 101

Today's post can be found over at the Nerdiquette 101 blog.

http://nerdiquette101.blogspot.com/

Nerdiquette 101 is a movement started by three women who all had "that guy" encounters at a science fiction convention in 2012.

Today's post is called We will not fail and is about what women in fandom could do if we weren't afraid to fail.

I hope you enjoy.

Too much writing??

So how much is too much writing?

That’s the current question of the week.  I’ve been invited to be part of a new website/blog, The Gamers Codex, run by Ron McClung and Jeff Smith of JustUs Productions.   I’ll be doing a semi-regular featured column on “Geek Girls Gaming” for them.  Look for our first few posts in the next few weeks.

In addition, Nerdiquette 101 has a blog that I’ve been meaning to write a post for, so I need to work on that and of course, I needed to do a post for my own blog (that would be this one).  Oy.  It’s been a busy week.  I am beginning to think I need to start scheduling writing time for blog posts in addition to my fiction.

In upcoming news, I will be a guest at Ravencon this weekend in Richmond, Va.   Come say hi at the following panels:

Saturday

·         10am     Shared Worlds

·         12N        Steampunk Costuming

Sunday

·         12N        Balancing Writing w/ the Rest of your Life

·         3pm       Short Story Techniques

Oh, speaking of news…my fourth short story is due to be published in May 2013!   “Knight’s Gambit”, a story wherein a new knight learns that some things really are black and white, will be included in the next volume of Tales of Fortannis: A Bard in the Hand.

I know this is a short blog…but I’m going close now so I can finish writing something for the other blogs! 

Wilderness of mirrors/World of polished steel
Gears and iron chains/Turn the grinding wheel
I run between the shadows
Some are phantoms, some are real

~Rush, Double Agent