BayCon!

[hrj]

It occurs to me to mention that I'll be on some panels at BayCon this weekend in San Jose. (Well, technically in Santa Clara, but if we can use "San Francisco" to stand in for the whole Bay Area, we can use "San Jose" to stand for the South Bay.)

I was not, alas, able to get a reading slot. And most likely if you want to buy any of my books you'll have to buttonhole me personally rather than being able to find them in the dealers' room. (I'm still working on the puzzle of how to identify which booksellers will be at which conventions so I can contact them about whether they'll have my books in stock.) But if you're attending, please say "hi", and consider checking out these panels:

Saturday: 4pm - Write what you Care About or Write to the Market?

Is there a place for writers who aren't entirely market driven. Can one survive zombie, space war, vampire, and other trends? How does one find niche markets? What do you have to do to ride trend waves. Do changes in the publishing world mean more or less access to audiences for nonconforming writers?

Sunday: 11:30 am - Book Discovery: Biotech Fiction and Non-Fiction (moderator)

Are you curious about what inventive people are imagining in the field of biotechnology? Our panelists give you their recommendations for stories to read, as well as non-fiction material that may spark your imagination by showing you what's going on at the cutting edge of biotech.

Sunday: 1pm - Book Discovery: Histories and Memoirs

How important was the salt trade throughout history? What did it feel like to ride the Space Shuttle? Whether you're an omnivorous reader or a writer looking for inspiration, histories and memoirs can bring to life ideas, worlds, and experiences that were previously unknown to you. Our panelists recommend some thought-provoking books in these categories.

Comments

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

I'm coming in on Saturday for some amount of time (I have a thing on Friday and a thing on Sunday). I hope to see you!

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Maybe we could plan on dinner?

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Excellent plan. That way it won't matter that my morning start time is a mystery.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I'll look for you after my Saturday panel. Feel free to invite others.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I didn't get a reading slot either. I ... may be marginally miffed about that.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to remember whether they asked about it on the programming survey. I also have a vague recollection of seeing something about an at-con sign-up for readings (in addition to the scheduled ones?). But if so it must have been on their fb feed or something and so is impossible to find again.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Unoffical ad hoc readings after dinner! or even at dinner.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

have a good con!

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It's a bit of a socially weird con, though. For all that I've been attending BayCon regularly (if not consistently) for decades, I find that I know very few people here. (And many of the ones I do know slightly always seem so surrounded by groups of people I _don't_ know that I feel very weird about trying to join in.)

There's also this very strange phenomenon whereby men are more open to random socializing than women are. (I still remember the very first time I got up the nerve to read some of my lesbian fantasy at a convention and I ended up with an all-male audience.) I keep getting hints and suggestions that there is now (as opposed to when I first started in fandom) a very large and active community of queer women in fandom, but I feel utterly excluded from it. Despite writing queer SFF. And I don't have any idea what I can do to change that. Which makes a matching bookend to feeling like a complete outsider in the lesbian fiction community as well because my roots are in mainstream SFF.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

That does sound odd. I hope that your books will bring some of the community to you.
(I find US cons terrifying -- they are so huge and I usually know almost no-one.)