I will be at Geek.Kon.09 next weekend (October 23-25). I'm doing three panels:

Know What? • Fri. 23 • 5 PM • Reflection E

Recent research in neuropsychology suggests that we're aware of far less than the tip of the iceberg about what's going on in our brains. Apparently decisions are made by subterranean processes milliseconds before they're handed to our conscious minds, which then conceitedly think that they've come up with them using free will. Should be some good story ideas in here. Suggested reading: How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer, Why We Believe What We Believe by Andrew Newberg, and The Science of Fear by Daniel Gardner.

One God or Many — or None? • Sat. 24 • 2 PM • Reflection E

The 21st Century has seen the rise of militant Islam, which insists that there's only 1 god, and they know him by name. At the same time, a couple of billion-plus countries have become major players on the international economic stage: India, whose dominant Hinduism posits millions of gods; and China, officially atheist but riddled with folk superstitions. Recent novels have explored future space colonization dominated by one or more of these players. What theology will we export to the stars?

Let's Build a World • Sat. 24 • 3 PM • Reflection D

Whether it’s for movies, TV, literature, or games of all kinds, creative people in SF&F have to build their worlds up from scratch. Let’s see how they do it. We'll start with some categories (tech level, economic system, climate, races, etc.), get ideas about each of them from the audience, select the best ideas in each category, then watch the panelists writhe as they try to figure out how to make them work together.

---

I probably won't be around a great deal other than those panels, although I hope to check out the dealer's room. Obviously the minuscule chunk of time between the Saturday 2 PM panel and the Saturday 3 PM panel is not going to be a good time to chat, but otherwise, please feel free to come up, say hi, get things signed, etc. (Bonus points if you stay for a panel, but that's by no means required.) I'm very near-sighted and shy, but that doesn't mean I don't want to talk to you! Also, yes, I will sign as many of my books as you feel like bringing.

back from mpls
with many books and a terrible
head cold

thank goodness for air conditioning

Fourth Street is June 19-21. There are still memberships available.

I am on:

Reasons Things Go Wrong 7:30pm - 8:30pm Friday
Embracing Exposition 3:00pm - 4:15pm Saturday
Food Fashion and Fornication 7:30pm - 8:30pm Saturday
The Stuff of Fantasy 2:45pm - 4:30pm Sunday

I am shy and near-sighted, but that doesn't mean I don't want to talk to you; I don't snub people deliberately. So if you're at Fourth Street and you want to say hello, please do.

Phantom Maids and Ghostly Ladies
Description: Women have been writing, selling and starring in ghost stories for centuries. Authors from Sarah Orne Jewett to Shirley Jackson to Dorothy Allison have written women into a prominent place in the ghost story tradition. By turns tragic, terrifying and comic, ghost stories provide timeless entertainment. Let's talk about why they endure and what they have to offer. Are there lessons to be learned from the ghost stories of the past? What lies in the future for a good spectral read?
Location: Conference 4
Schedule: Fri 9:00 - 10:15PM
Panelists: M: Catherine Lundoff, Valerie L Guyant, Sarah Monette, Kristine Smith

The Politics of Posterity
Description: A panel/roundtable discussion with authors, librarians, archivists, and scholars about how the SF/F canon is established, with focus on how the archiving of literary papers affects canon formation. Is archiving feminist authors, authors of color, or authors that typically write in feminized genres (e.g. fantasy, women's fiction, fanfic) a political act? When so many modern archives are mostly electronic, how can we ensure that a broad variety of works survives?
Location: Conference 5
Schedule: Sun 2:30 - 3:45PM
Panelists: M: Lynne M. Thomas, Brad Lyau, Sarah Monette

The SignOut
Location: Capitol/Wisconsin
Schedule: Mon 11:30AM - 12:45PM

---

Also, if you're going to be at WisCon, and you'd like to meet for drinks, food, bookstore trawling, etc., please let me know! (coffeeandink, are we still on for dinner?)

Normal service will resume tomorrow.

For tonight, the plan is to collapse in a corner and twitch quietly.

It is, in no particular order:

1. Shakespeare's birthday (observed).
2. International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Wretch Day
3. The day before Odyssey Con.

In celebration of 1 and 2, and to provide you all something to do while I am largely afk due to 3, I am posting the three scenes from Corambis that I most regret having to cut. None of them furthers the plot in any way. One, which you've seen before if you've been reading the Q&As, is a conversation between Felix and Mildmay about philosophers and bravery; one is possibly my favorite piece of world-building out of the entire book; the last is notable for being one of the few angst-free sex scenes I have ever written.

Also, a question came into today which will not make any sense on any other day, so I'm gonna stick it here. Call it Q&A Eighteen-and-a-Half:

Q: As a fellow Shadow Unit author, will you be providing backup vocals for Emma Bull at her Odd Con performance tomorrow night? :)

A: No, smartass. Not unless she asks me to, which I can't imagine why she would.

---

For the sake of corralling all these scenes in one place so that they can be easily found, I shall start by reposting the conversation about Chattan d'Islay (which belongs around pages 220-221, at the beginning of Chapter 10) that I put up in answer to a question in Q&A 11:

( what Felix and Mildmay are reading )

---

Next, the sheer self-indulgent world-building, this scene would start on page 270 of Corambis--you'll be able to see instantly where I stitched the draft together:

( Kay's tour of Our Lady of Mirrors, extended version )

---

And this (posted out of order to make it easier for people who don't want to read about explicit gay sex to skip this bit), which I suspect will gratify many of my readers, is the rest of the sex scene ( spoilers for Corambis, NC-17 )

---

And there you have it. Feel free to point readers of Corambis to this post. Although none of these scenes is in any way necessary to the book, they are all things that I was sad to have to axe.

1. My dreams are becoming densely narrative again. (Not necessarily coherent, mind you, but narrative.) This is a good sign.

2. Embarrassing confession #1: I really like "All I Need Is A Miracle" (Mike + the Mechanics). Although I like it better when it's about the desperate band manager finding the billionaire's beloved mopdog (as in the video) than when it's about a guy realizing he's been an asshole.

3. Embarrassing confession #2: I was being super-organized this afternoon: paying the electric bill and getting it into the mailbox just before the mail carrier reached our house, as I was getting ready to go to the dentist. Super organized. Made of win.

And then there's that terrible sinking feeling when you look at your desk and see the check to the electric company sitting there like Patience smirking on a monument.

So I grabbed the check and dashed out of the house. Mailman had already been by. Curses! Mail truck still parked at corner. Rejoice! Intercepted mailman. Retrieved envelope. Got check in, resealed envelope with tape, carried off to dental appointment (only five minutes late and made hygienist laugh with story), and mailed on the way back.

4. J. G. Ballard died last week, Stephen Hawking is in the hospital, and Electric Velocipede could really use some in-bound cash flow.

5. Oh, and WisCon needs more panelists.

elisem has very charmingly twisted my arm and convinced me to do something I wanted to do anyway: I will be attending Fourth Street Fantasy Convention again this year.

::bounces::

So Tobias Buckell was a GoH at Odd Con this year, but has had to bow out, due to impending twins. (I think this is an excellent reason to miss a GoH appearance--not only is it inarguable, it's happy!) However, Patrick Rothfuss has agreed to take his place.

The other GoHs, Emma Bull (coffeeem) and Georgie Schnobrich (as far as I know, Georgie does not maintain a web presence), are still attending as scheduled.

As I said in my earlier con-going post, I will be at Odd Con. I'm even reprising last year's last-minute improvisation of a novel writing workshop. Bring the first 500-1000 words and find out just how much they tell people about your novel! It worked surprisingly well, although we will not be repeating the FOUR AND A HALF HOUR marathon, thank you very much.

For anyone who's interested, these are the conventions I will be attending in 2009. I owe apologies to everyone and their dog for not getting back to them about invitations to be on programming. The truth is, I kept hoping that if I waited, the good money fairies would come to my christening and there would be enough money to go to exotic places like Boston and Montréal and Minneapolis. But it's clear now that even if the good money fairies do show up, that money is already earmarked for things like keeping the house and the cars and the cats from falling down around our ears.

Also, I am just unspeakably, subhumanly awful about answering email.

I apologize.

So here's the plan.

• Odyssey Con 9, April 24-26, Madison, WI
  
• Penguicon 7.0, May 1-3, Romulus, MI
  
• WisCon 33, May 22-25, Madison, WI
  

Unless I've forgotten something, that's it.