Know-vember: Debi

The lovely Debi, gardener supreme, patient woman, Albacon wrangler -- romance fan! Here she is brunching with me at Café Madison. I miss meals together! Come to Ireland, all right?

What's the first thing you do upon waking in the morning?

When I wake up first thing, I might pick up the book at my bedside to read. or if something more interesting is in my bed I might enjoy that too, or I might stroll into the shower and pretend I'm in a outdoor shower in the tropics.

Where in the world do you live?

I live in a very nice house, big enough to be a castle.

What's a great night out for you?

A great night out would be dinner, company of good friends mixed company.

What book do you wish everyone would read so you could talk about it?

Stephanie Laurens, Devil's Bride.

What makes you cry?

Sadness, hunger, poverty, injustice, it also makes me angry.

What makes you laugh?

A good funny story.

Are there fairies at the bottom of your garden?

I do believe there are faieries in the garden, also elves and pixies and if you aren't careful you might catch a 4 legged creature, or it might catch you. and don't forget the so called 2 legged. Next time you're in the garden, look very carefully, behind the tree the shadows that linger, under the burning bushes there are extra little mushrooms growing. by the rosebush there are extra little foot marks.

Thanks, Debi! Miss you.

Albacon 2010, Oct 8-10

Hey kids! Especially you locals -- we're only weeks away from Albacon, the capitol region's only spec fic con which runs from Friday October 8th until Sunday the 10th, with oodles of fun stuff for you to do and see.

Writer GoH: Allen Steele
Artist GoH: Ron Miller
Fan GoH: Lisa Ashton

Plus we just got news that fan fave Jackie Kessler will be able to attend (which means Jackie Morse Kessler will be there, too!). Check out my interview with Jackie where she reads from Hunger.

Check out our program! Highlights include the ALL DAY writers conference on Friday. Call in sick to attend if you need to do so, but we have pros from many different genres offering practical advice on how to get your writing into its best form and out there and published.

There's a fantasy ball Friday night and a masquerade on Saturday. All day long there are panels on books, comics (including manga),  films (including anime), television shows, science and fandom. Writers include a lot of pals of mine like Stella Price, C. Margery Kempe, Susan Hanniford Crowley, Inanna Arthen and Morven Westfield. Yeah, I will be there, too, and so will Kit Marlowe.

Three days of non-stop fun! Best of all, the discount rate of $50 for the whole shebang has been extended a little bit longer, so get your registration in as soon as possible by Oct 1st.

SMBTV #4

I rolled myself out of bed early for the fourth Social Media Breakfast for Tech Valley. This meeting focused on blogging and coordinator Amy Mengel had as guests Lara Kulpa, Christina Gleason, Amanda Magee, and as moderator, All Over Albany's Greg Dahlmann.

My college's Communications Department sponsored the event (and they're hoping to host the next breakfast in their new media center in January) so a bunch of my colleagues were there. So was my pal Kim, who's becoming quite the media matrix herself and was indulgent of my less-than-wakeful state.

I'm not going to give you a summary: you can see the tweet stream here and get a good picture of it. The by-words for blogging remain the same: passion, responsiveness, content and the big one, community. The rules apply whether you're talking about a personal blog or a business one, something a lot of businesses still don't understand.

Ahead of time, I had put a question on the Facebook group asking whether blogging was needed anymore given the popularity of social media sources like Twitter and Facebook; of course, it was a bit of a leading question. Fortunately, the panelists all said the same thing I think, which is that the ephemeral nature of the more instantaneous lacks the stability of blog posts, which you can go back and find. Sure, there are Twitter aggregators, but the swift chunks of tweets don't add up to the same kind of experience.

But I've been thinking about the structure/planning issues. By default, Thursdays end up being BitchBuzz day; should I have themed days? Monday is movie day or Tuesday is beer day? What kind of topics should I cover regularly? How about a day for complaints? Everybody needs to complain. What if you had one day a week to just get a pet peeve off your chest? What do you think?

UPDATE: Local TV coverage of the event, as well as Humberto Martinez's article for the Times Union.

Albacon Wrap-up

It was a crazy and fun-filled Albacon this year. Of course one of the most fun parts was having a chance to catch up with the wonderful Liz Hand. Fortunately, I'll see her the end of the month, too, at the Poe conference at UMass Amherst (no, I don't have many details to give -- one of the things we both hoped the other knew more about. Well, surprises can be nice, too). She read from her forthcoming story "The Maiden Voyage of Macauley's Bellerephon" which held the audience enraptured. I can't wait to read the whole thing.

Things kicked off Thursday night with a new event. Jackie Kessler (whom I'll be featuring on Prose at the Rose next week) hosted an editors and agent panel. It was informative and well-attended despite not being part of the "traditional" con. New and experienced writers found a lot of information and had questions a-plenty. Afterward, Debi Chowdhury and I hosted a tarot card reader party (thanks so much, Donna, for coming to read!). It was a lot of fun and we met lots of people.

Friday was also a new event: the writers conference. Brainstormed by Debi and coordinated and scheduled by the indefatigable Susan Hanniford Crowley, it featured all kinds of panels and workshops like Toni Andrews' "Five Fixes" for your manuscript, the fabulous Stella Price's "Promotion for the Author on a Budget" and Jackie Kessler's "How to Write a Query Letter" -- all of which went over very well with the eager writers and writers-to-be. I was on panels about Urban Fantasy and Using Mythology. There was a big signing at 3 o'clock, but that's when I had to run off to give my paper across town on Beowulf: Prince of Geats at the 24th International Conference on Medievalism over at Siena College.

I got back in time for dinner and then the ice cream social. Stayed up way too late yakking and having fun, meeting for the first time fellow writer Debra Hyde, whom I'd only known on-line. Saturday was a jam-packed day of panels and readings. Fortunately I was only on one panel, so I didn't have to be too bubbly after the craziness of the day before. It was perhaps not the thing to do for con com members to do, but some of us skipped the banquet and went to Plum Blossom for dinner and it was worth it. Debra and Debi and Susan and I hosted a reading in Debi's room that night which went on 'til quite late and everyone seemed to have a terrific time.

Sunday everyone was dragging a little bit, but there was a good showing for the panel appreciating Charles Brown. Liz, David Hartwell, Brett Cox and Ron Drummond reminisced about their own memories of Brown while explaining his importance to the field of speculative fiction as a whole, not just as editor of Locus, but as a cheerleader for the genres. Even after all the panels were done, we couldn't all drag ourselves away, so Ruth and Debi and I went out for sushi at Sushi Tei. Yum!

BitchBuzz: Indy Horror

Hey kids, new BitchBuzz column -- and it's seasonal! Check out some indy horror including the wonderfully creepy House of Black Wings, created by friend o' the blog David Schmidt and the folks at Sword & Cloak Productions:

You know it's October when Maureen Dowd quotes Hannibal Lecter and the National Review has a Bush speech writer (fill in your own joke) waxing rhapsodic about anti-prejudice campaigner Rod Serling and his Twilight Zone [children please note, it has nothing to do with Bella and Edward].

The market forces are poised to get your cash, whether it's for ginchy Halloween decorations, naughty costumes or the latest over-hyped horror extravaganza, which would of course be Zombieland. But it's a good time to share the love with some of the hard working indy film makers who find it hard to get a foot into that lucrative Hollywood pipeline.

As always, read the rest over at BB. Don't forget to retweet it and link to the piece. Every bit helps!

Just a reminder I'll be at Albacon most of the weekend, so follow my tweets or just be patient until I have a chance to draw breath again.

Girls' Night Out

Friday night I went out with pals Jenise and Angela. Our first stop was the oh so sophisticated Wine Bar on Lark, but then Angela thought we should go play pool at the Hollywood down the street. Much larking on Lark -- for a long time we had the room upstairs to ourselves. The youthful patrons were afraid to face us at the pool table and waited until we went out to the patio.

Angela poses...

Frank glows...

...Jenise drinks!