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There are stories to tell, but right now I haven’t the strength.

Tomorrow we do a bunch of Oslo museums.

I’m alive. I hope you’re all doing well.

Catherine

Being in Helsinki puts me in close proximity to many Kung Fu Panda 2 posters, and that reminds me that I should write you all a review. Now is as good a time as any to do that.

Let’s put this under a cut, shall we? Because there are spoilers in them thar hills.

Continue reading “Kung Fu Panda 2”

Catrina finally made it last night, late. Today we went to the Ateneum Art Museum in Helsinki so she could get her Gallen-Kallela fix without going all the way to Espoo. After that, we explored the city, shopped, and had a little cafe conversation about a variety of life things.

Right now she’s in the sauna, which I did yesterday. I have stayed back in the room to work on a little writing stuff and relax. The jet lag is catching up with me!

Here are some other things I’m noticing about Helsinki.

–Food is really salty here. Like, everyone seems to want me to buy a beer or something.

— Except the cupcakes which have jam in them. Which are excellent, by the way.

–People really like dogs. We’ve seen a lot of dogs out walking with their owners, enjoying the weather.

–i said it in Edinburgh and I’ll say it again in Helsinki. Cobblestones lose their charms when YOU’RE the tourist.

***

Anyway, tomorrow, we’re off to Castle Town Turku for a couple of days there before a mad dash back to Helsinki to fly to Oslo.

I haven’t seen any trolls yet. I didn’t expect to, so that’s fair. And I’ve been keeping my eyes open for witch shot.

This part of the trip, I’m on vacation, while Catrina does her research. Which isn’t exactly working out for her, because she is still stuck in Iceland. This means she’ll essentially have missed two days of Helsinki when she gets here. If she gets here. This is pretty bad luck. I feel sorry for her. Needless to say, tomorrow will be kind of all about what she wants to do.

So, what have I been doing while I’ve been here? Atmosphere, mostly. I figured I’d spend the day waiting around for Catrina with a couple of small trips. I checked out the train station, some of the street areas, visited the tourism office to make plans to go to Suomenlinna (if that’s what she wants to do now) and go to Turku. I’ve also been collecting a few mental snapshots, as well as snapping up some street scenes.

So far–

Went down to the marketplace to see the boats and the food stalls. Will probably head that way for dinner tonight.

Sleeping and not sleeping. I just woke up from an hour and a half nap, which was great, and I expect another pocket of no sleep tonight.

Discovered the 30-centimeter sub at Subway, which seems familiar somehow. Did not eat it, but found it amusing.

Found out that sunscreen in Finland can be pricetastic, so don’t forget yours when you come.

Am not seeing a lot of little cars. Usually, when I come abroad, I get to see tiny cars that are as cute as a button. Helsinki seems to be a city of right-sided drivers who like medium-sized cars. Take that, my American stereotypes.

Found the public toilet in Finland interesting. VERY clean, and has hand washing designed in, but not the easiest to use. Also, since I have traveled in Japan, I always have tissue with me. Which turns out to be a good thing.

Like free European breakfast. They do that very well.

Could tire of rye bread while I’m here. It could happen.

It’s pretty warm here. I may have packed the wrong clothes. My summer dresses may get a lot of play.

***

Tonight I will use the hotel’s sauna. I’m off to grab a little something to eat and drink. I will spend some time writing tonight because hey, it’s here, I’m here, and tomorrow will be all about the tourism.

I hope you are all well.

Catherine

I made it.

Catrina is still making it. She’s in Iceland, but will be here tomorrow.

Isn’t jet lag wonderful?

Catherine

I’m leaving for my big Scandinavian adventure tomorrow. I wanted to leave a marker here for myself. I hope to be writing about the experience as I go, but I wanted to remind myself that I owed you two movie reviews ( Kung Fu Panda 2 and X-Men: First Class) at some point.

I also want to thank all the nice people out the reading the Exploding Watermelon story. Today I’ll get that in the best shape I can, based on the feed back that comes in, and ship it out tomorrow morning before I go.

***

When I get back, I’ll have about two days to sleep, and it’ll be all about The Clarion Write-a-thon. Remember: to see the Klarion/Clarion log, you need to donate $10. To be entered into the critique drawing, you need to donate $25. More money is acceptable. It’s for a good cause.

***

And no, I haven’t forgotten about that make-up post either.

I will wave at you all from exotic ports of call, if I can.

Catherine

There isn’t too much left to tell. Sunday I had lunch with Shveta Tharkar . We know each other on line, and long ago discovered that we both had some weird variant of the outcast Midwest childhood. Shveta writes mystical fairies of South Asia, and it’s pretty interesting stuff. When I read her work, I get a sense of being in two places at once.

After lunch, and an afternoon of panels and readings, I met up with Dan, Lisa, and Lisa for the dessert salon. Yes, we did eat dessert. Nisi Shawl gave her guest of honor speech, there was a heart-rending tribute to Joanna Russ, and the Tiptree was given out to a Baba Yaga book, which suited me fine.

Then, parties. Seanan McGuire (or if you prefer) pulled another night of bartending at the Whedonistas release. Later, we returned there for the Buffy Sing-a-long, and Dan spat alcoholic Shirley Temple on the sleeve of my posh dress. Good news? I’m funny. Bad news? Now I have dry cleaning.

Some time was spent at the superlative Genderfloomp dance, sponsored by Meghan McCarron and Liz Gorinsky. Why we hadn’t thought of this before at Wiscon, I’ll never know. They couldn’t get me to wear a mustache for love nor money: I did so many years ago at a reverse gender day at the high school where I used to teach, and by God! that was uncomfortable.

Met up and spent a bit of quality time with Julia Rios, who seemed to enjoy her first Wiscon mightily.

***

And the good times continued Sunday morning after the panel I’ve already written about. At the sign-out, I had a great time catching up with Lynne Thomas and Kathy Sullivan. I had some books signed, traded witty repartee about smart books with Nnedi Okorafor, regretted that I missed my Suzy McKee Charnas window, and packed up, ready to head back to Iowa.

Overall, a very satisfying experience.

This is the point in the convention where I began to lose structural integrity, so even though I attended two other panels, my notes on them are sketchy indeed. So, this is the last panel post for the 2011 convention.

***

The cast:

David D. Levine: SF Short Story Writer and a participant in the Writing the Other Workshop.

Ada Milenkovic Brown: Writer who has taken the Writing the Other workshop.

Nisi Shawl: This year’s Wiscon guest of honor, and co-creator of the Writing the Other Workshops.

Cynthia Ward: SF Writer, and co-creator of the Writing the Other Workshops.

***

Snapshots from the panel

This was the first time in some time that Ward has attended Wiscon, so it was the first chance that many at the convention had to talk to Cynthia and Nisi both about the workshops.

Information about The Writing the Other Workshop and the Writing the Other book, available from the fine folks at Aqueduct Press.

All the panelists suggest that writing the other isn’t the problem. When writing people other than yourself, you need to do so with sensitivity and skill. Research is appropriate.

Risk taking is also appropriate. You can do a careful job with your work, but still get it wrong.

If you do get it wrong, listen with humility, and try again next time.

Levine told a story that he wrote about a son watching his father turn into a dog, which was a metaphor for transexuality. He was both praised and censored for the story.

The Writing the Other Workshops can be taught in communities, at writers groups, and at conventions. Just contact the authors.

The participants of the workshop mentioned that the workshop had really helped them both lower their anxiety when writing the other, and work at improving their writing and understanding how to better illustrate difference.

Sunday morning was a good morning. I ran outside and wandered about the block. There’s usually a marathon on the Sunday of Wiscon, and today I let the crowd wash over me. I was in search of coffee. Of course the Starbucks was super busy, but I stood in line and got my coffee.

The woman at the counter asked me if I had anyone in the race. I pulled out Gunther (my son. He’s in the Peace Corp in Fiji. He was also running a marathon. I use him like a gun when it seems that the easiest thing is to talk about the children I don’t have. By the way, Gunther is very eligible. You’d like him. In many ways he takes after his father.)

***

After the coffee, I went back to the hotel. And there, I met up with Codex people for the Codex breakfast.

Now, what is Codex? Well, if you’re an offer who’s been to one of the professional workshops (Viable Paradise, Clarion, Odyssey and the like), or you’re an offer who’s had one SFWA qualifying sale, you can get into Codex. It’s a good place to meet and be supported by other writers. Membership requirements are right here.

There was a small table of us. Rachel and Mike showed up again. Margaret Ronald was there, even though she wasn’t Codex. I met Ada and Anaea and Doug, most of whom I’d been seeing on and off throughout the convention.

But mostly, I talked to Mike and Ann Leckie. Mike was gracious through a lot of author talk. Ann and I had a lot to say. We line up a lot on author philosophy, paths to success, the composing process, all sorts of stuff. I appreciated that she was a good listener and a good conversationalist. Yup. Couldn’t ask for much more out of breakfast.

While I’m here, I want to plug Ann’s website GigaNotoSaurus, which specializes in the novella form. Ferrett’s had a story here. There’s some good reading.

And then, I moved on to some panels. Which I will do here, in virtual space, tomorrow.

Catherine

And then there was Saturday night. The first thing that I did as I made the rounds was top in at the Tor Party to compliment Jim Frenkel on his editing of L. Jagi Lamplighter’s Prospero Lost. I don’t know how much complimenting editors get for their work, but he seemed pleased that someone had taken the time to do so. I mentioned that I planned to dissect it and see how that skilled author had worked with certain tricks. He warned me against plagiarism. I told him that was terribly unlikely to happen.

Sometimes, you just get tired of being treated like you’re clueless. Or maybe he was attempting a New York style of humor.

***

There was some mighty fine singing in Cat Valente’s book party, so I hung there for a while. I called Bryon, who related an excellent visit with his mother and father. I felt I should be home supporting him, and this feeling would re-surface throughout the rest of the evening.

But, sadly, the majority of my night was spent listening to a friend tell the story of her unexpected divorce.

I won’t go into any details. It was the second story of a similar nature I’d heard in the two days I was at the convention. Both stories were about the disintegration of a couple in irreparable ways. Strange things, where one suddenly didn’t want what the other wanted, or one turned out to be a very different human being than the other thought.

So, I felt grateful and solid in my partner again. Of course, I’m certain these people felt that way too at one time, and I have no good idea what makes these things happen, or why they do. I guess that the world is still full of monsters, and if you’re very unlucky, one will slip into your bed and take the place of the person you love, and then what do you do?

***

All of the night was not in that depressing vein. Ellen, Margaret, and I had more good conversation. I drifted into and out of conversations with a variety of people. But I ended unsettled. Sleep was a good thing that night.