hrj

As a long-time sff fan, one of the pleasures I've always looked forward to is the chance to attend conventions as a published novelist. So far I've had that chance at Fog Con, a small local Bay Area sf con that was a good first step for getting taken seriously. My second one is going to be on the flip side of my complex genre intersections: the premier annual lesbian publishing conference put on by the Golden Crown Literary Society. At Fog Con I got on a couple of panels by dint of having some familiarity in the community, but being pretty much an unknown factor at GCLS my only programming item is a 5-minute reading slot as part of a group reading panel. But there will be plenty of schmoozing opportunities, bookroom sales, signing opportunities, and I even get the vicarious thrill of being designated proxy for a Twitter-friend whose book is on one of the award short-lists.

As usual at a conference, there's a freebie-bag for attendees, and I decided to take the "go big or go home" approach and provided a chapbook of my unpublished Alpennian short story "Three Nights at the Opera". (It's the story of how Barbara and Jeanne hooked up.) It's also the story I'll be reading from, since I couldn't find any 5-minute snippets of Daughter of Mystery that seemed likely to capture the story's essence well enough to convince folks to buy it.

I'm very excited (and terrified) to take on an entirely new social context while having to be "on" the entire time, but I'll have at least a few pre-existing fans there, and Lauri is continuing the tradition of joining me for conventions, so there's that to look forward to as well! I'll report back as I can on how it goes.