| 1:52p |
Conestoga 2007 report...
Conestoga was wonderful this year. It's always a very fine science fiction convention, but it was especially fine this year. Counting those who attended, and those who were in charge of running it, and the volunteers, there were at least 700 people there. Plus a wolf, and a desert fox, and an albino raccoon, and an alligator, and two boa constrictors -- one of them an albino and one of them beautifully patterned, and a lemur that loved to climb people (and was observed to be bidding at some of the auctions), and various beautiful birds. It was like a giant family reunion, with exotic animals laid on, and a splendid time was had by all.
The animals -- all beautifully behaved, and not bothered a bit by all the strangers and all the racket -- were courtesy of Safari's Sanctuary, this year's Conestoga charity. It's a non-profit wildlife refuge that gives a permanent home to exotic wildlife of all kinds and does educational programs explaining why it's not a good idea to try to make pets of exotic wildlife. [We Conestogans are all pleased to be able to tell you that the Conestoga charity auction raised more than two thousand dollars for Safari. The lemur's bids helped.]
I was on three panels this year. The one on "Real Scientists -- Real Questions" was my favorite, because once we scientist-panelists had introduced ourselves the event was turned over to the audience, and they proceeded to distinguish themselves by asking fantastically good questions. When you get good questions from the audience, the panel just does itself, and this one went by in what seemed like about five minutes. Five minutes of genuine pleasure. The one on "What happens when you give it away?" was about the controversy over whether it's good or bad for the publisher's and/or the writer's bottom line to put literary content on the Net for free. That one might have been a lot of hard work. However -- because there were two heavies there from Baen Publishing -- I didn't have to do anything but introduce myself and then think beautiful thoughts while they did all the work. The third panel, about academia and sf, turned out to be about the changing perception of science fiction in academia today. I was there to provide the historical context, with my report that when I was a university prof I wasn't allowed to count any of my sf as "publications"; a paragraph on "Milk Jugs Through the Ages" for a Kiwanis newsletter would have been counted, but not my science fiction. The rest of the panelists were there to report that their universities are happy to accept their sf works as publications -- meaning that those writings will count toward tenure and promotion -- and that they were teaching a variety of science fiction courses and were not required to teach only the sf "classics." Very encouraging.
I didn't get to go to the "book release event for authors with new books" after all, since I had no copies of my new book whatsoever. And I apologize to all of you who went to George's table in the dealer's room to buy a copy and were turned away empty-handed. I thank you for trying. Sam's Dot Publishing was certain that if I got the manuscript in by May 1st -- which I did -- we'd have books for Conestoga, but it didn't turn out that way, and the books still haven't arrived. Lost in space, perhaps. Or Providence is trying to tell us all something.
I enjoyed the "Breakfast With Suzette Haden Elgin" event, and I enjoyed my reading from the unlaunched book. The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense Workshop group was small, but they were a topnotch audience -- asking good questions, making good comments. And then there was the podcast [for which I'll provide a link when it's online], and an hour at the book-signing table, and various breakfasts/lunches/dinners with good friends. George was in the dealer's room all day, of course, and by dinnertime each day we were both so exhausted that dinner was the only act we were capable of performing. No parties, therefore, or masquerade balls, or other fandangos; just dinner, followed by collapse. I was so busy this year that (for the first time ever) I never managed to tour the dealer's room or the art show or the con suite, I missed the spectacular Yard Dog Press events, and I didn't get to have any of my customary conversations in the bar with friends I see only at Conestoga. I apologize to all of those friends, and want to assure them that I haven't turned into the Ugly-Prototype-Pro who can't remember who her friends are.
[Full disclosure: I did not have to be that busy; it was my own fault. I am always free to say "No thank you, I don't think I'd care to do that," and the con committee members are careful to remind me of that every single year.]
There were no raccoons at our bird feeder this morning; four days with no bird seed apparently convinced them that there was no point in showing up. Whether that will last or not I don't know, now that we're back and there's birdseed daily. We'll see what happens. |