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More Wiscon, Less Retrospection–Friday

This has been one crazy week. Every time I turn around, there is some life or work task that is keeping me from doing about anything. I’ve been asked to submit a story to an anthology (nothing definite, just an invite), the deadline is the 15th, and I really need to find some time to sit down and write it, so I can get some critiques before I send it out. I’m full of ideas and beans. I just need to see which idea works itself out on paper.

***

Last Friday, my good friends Dan and Lisa and I went to Wiscon. Even though I am now a writer seeking fame and fortune, that certainly hasn’t always been the case. I used to be a frustrated wanna-be writer, and/or an SF/F fan and academic, and the three of us have made this annual pilgrimage for a long time. Friendship is one of the most important reasons to undertake this experience. Now I have the added bonus of meeting up with other writers as well.

We three got in around 12 pm. We ran into Lisa Cohen for lunch. Lisa was crazy, deciding that she was going to be at Wiscon Friday, drive home Saturday for a couple of Shape Note concerts, and drive back Sunday night. She did follow through with her crazy plan. I met Lisa through Dan and my Lisa last year, and have gotten to know her better on LiveJournal, and was very happy to enjoy her special (and occasionally spicy) sense of humor. Because we were destined to see each other about 22,000 more times that day, we said goodbye after goodbye after goodbye.

I spent a good chunk of my afternoon lunch time visiting A Room of One’s Own, a Madison book store. It’s a great indy place full of wonderful titles. They were kind enough to sell my book in the dealer’s room. Sonya Shannon, Cats Curious Editor, was kind enough to set that up.

Then, I hung posters for our Saturday reading, and socialized around the gathering. Dan and Lisa introduced me to their friend Sumana. I ran into one of my favorite people, Caroline Stevermer, who impresses me more every time I talk to her. Oh yeah, she’s also one of the finest writers I know. Kater Cheek and I caught up through a brief hello and confirmed our reading stuff, and I met Keyan Bowes, our fourth reader, and her friend Julie Andrews, one of their Clarion classmates. No, I did *not* make any of the obvious jokes.

Other features of interest at the Gathering: Margaret Ronald and Suzy Charnas reading tarot. I indulged last year, but it felt good seeing them in action.

Caroline introduced me to David Levine. We talked a little writing. Lisa Cohen was talking to Pamela Dean, and as a result, I had a nice conversation with her as well. I ran into local writer fledgling Shannon Ryan. It was his first Wiscon, so we kept checking in to make sure he was doing okay. Saw Evelyn with whom I went to grad school, another linguist turned writer. Had a nice conversation with Mary Ann Mohanraj about teaching community college. That’s the highlights from the Gathering.

I’ll cut here because we’re getting unwieldy. More Friday hijinx and name dropping below.

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Serious Wiscon

There will be two Wiscon posts this year, and rather than doing them chronologically, I’m going to do them thematically. This year, I felt very much like two people at Wiscon. First-time author Cath, who flitted around socially and went to readings gets the frivolous Wiscon post. Deep-thinking Cath who went to readings that she couldn’t fit a square peg in, well, she’s writing today.

One of the things that this Wiscon had going for it was that there were some fairly serious guests. Both Mary Anne Mohanraj and Nnedi Okorafor write books that no one else can write, given who they are and where they sit culturally.

I was particularly affected by Nnedi’s readings from Who Fears Death. Nnedi told us the book is about what’s happening in the Sudan right now. It also pulls in biographical experience, and is in part about the death of her father. It will be a book that matters. My innate professor sense tells me that it could be a book that transcends genre. It was a book that was emotionally wrenching to write, and she did not back away from that.

There were other authors that stepped right up to the plate, and wrote books that perhaps only they could have written–that spoke uniquely to who they were in space and time.

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RELEASE!

Card Captor Sakura fans may recognize the magical command in the subject line.

I should have written this yesterday, because yesterday was the official release day of Hulk Hercules!

But my day job had other ideas, so it’s the post-official release day of Hulk Hercules.

You could celebrate by…either cleaning out the royal stables, or buying the book. Both, if you have that kind of fancy.

Catherine

Viable Paradise

Hello cats and kitties. I’ll do the Wiscon thing I usually do as soon as I can, but I need to make an important public service announcement.

The deadline for Viable Paradise aps is fast approaching. It’s June 30th.

VP changed my writing life. It can change yours. You too can have a group of well-informed writing buddies who look over your work and provide encouragement during those writer-alone moments.

Do you need testimonials? Or more information about the workshop? We’ve got you covered.

Think about it. Especially if you don’t have six weeks to devote to Clarion.

Catherine

Things I Have

1. My copy of Magic Bleeds. Yes!!!

2. A new pink swath in my hair, thanks to Margot, who now disappears for maternity leave for three months.

3. 1001 errands to run before I get home tonight.

4. One car, instead of two, because the other car needs a new engine cooling fan. Which is why you should note number 3.

5. A stack of papers to check at or on the way to Wiscon. :/

6. My books to take to A Room of One’s Own to sell at the convention.

7. An easy Wii workout tonight (it’s balance night).

And now, I have to go. See you out there, soon.

Catherine

Intuitive Eating: Rejecting the Diet Mentality

Last week during my day off, in addition to writing, I sucked it up and went to a dietitian. Our local grocery store chain now has dietitians on staff, so it was a matter of a modest fee for a consultation.

My regret, perhaps a mistake that has cost me any chance at metabolism I might have had, is that I didn’t do this younger and sooner. Perhaps some readers could benefit from my example.

And mind, I’m not talking about any sort of diet that needs to be controlled by you and a physician, for example, if you have dangerously high cholesterol, or diabetes, or heart disease. My goal now is to go as healthfully into my retirement as possible.

I know, I know, I have 10-20 years before I retire. BUT I haven’t mastered the habits of health, exercise, and diet yet, so I figured I’d need a little lead time.

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Variety

Not too sure about the new schedule yet. It’s only a day old, but the rhythm doesn’t seem good. Only wrote for 45 minutes yesterday.

Okay, sure, I had to do some author business with my writer time, but I’m not wild about it yet.

This morning was also author business. You may remember that Kirkwood paid for my release time to write Hulk Hercules, so there were visits to the library and the faculty center, and books sent to the president’s office. I almost have all the in-house credits in order. Next up–I have to track down some wrestler’s addresses for thank you books. Then, we can start the critiques and school library things in earnest.

I bought some lovely gel pens for autographs too. I enjoy that. I also sent out the first of the Morty Moose game tokens, to Michael Jasper’s kids.

***

It has gone from being about 40 at night to about 70 at night. The humidity outside is like August. Unpleasant dog day August. I’d love a change before the weekend. I bought spring clothes, shopping gods! Not summer! Spring!

***

It does not make me happy that Iowa writer Sarah Prineas is suffering under the same heat wave. Rather, today is the release day of The Magic Thief: Found. Looking forward to that one!

***

All right, so my tai chi instructor is drawing the time to my attention, and then there’s some teaching and you know, work, so I’d better close this down. Stay cool. Drink a lot.

Catherine

Link to Interview about Me; A VP’er Short Story, First Day

I have been interviewed about Hulk Hercules, and it’s posted at Broad Universe. Thanks to Jane Hunter for the spotlight!

Also, Ferret Steinmetz has another story for you to check out: Dead Prophecies appearing in The Three-Lobe Burning Eye, which is totally a name I wish I’d thought of.

Not much else to give you guys. First day of summer school looms like a heavy-handed dream-sequence end to a popular series. Soon, though, my plan for taking over the world.

Catherine

Thanks

You have all been very generous with your suggestions about book promotion. I begin to formulate a variety of plans, and I’ll keep you posted as we experiment.

I appreciate the support. It’s good to learn from the collective best.

Catherine

VP Profile #1: Sean Craven

Happy to finally get the first of these finished! Presenting my fellow VP XIII’er and the maker of the famed chili dog casserole:

Sean Craven

“I’m a compulsively creative person. I make music and pictures, I’m the kind of cook that friends and family casually refer to as the best in the world (there are untold millions of us…), I’ve even dabbled in sculpture and film when I was a kid. And whenever I’ve seen or heard or tasted anything that I’ve loved or admired I’ve wished that I’d created it myself.”

Sean Craven has a case of the jitters. Sometimes when you watch him, he jitters out of focus. Because he oscillates, there are moments when he is sharp against the background, so sharp you almost forget about the background. I met Sean at a week-long writer’s workshop where I watched him weave around and through reality. I wish I could do that.

This excerpt is from an essay that Sean wrote in 2007. When I talk to Sean, I can see the truth of this in him. Many of us creators have been saved by our art.

“Art has given me strength and comfort and refuge. It has challenged me and angered me and changed the way that I looked at myself and at the world around me. It has shown me the crystalline beauty of purely rational thought and the deeply knotted torment of madness and it has allowed me to accept and value these things in myself.”

Sean’s story Tourists introduced me to Sean’s writing. It is a unique blend of horror and humor, a little bit of an emotional roller coaster. What makes “Tourists” work for me isn’t only that juxtaposition, but it’s also the realism of the story. Sean is a master of inserting the odd into the common.

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