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NEW BOOKS and NASFIC
Golden Gryphon Press introduced my collection of lingster stories at the NASFIC in St Louis, Missouri, at the beginning of the month. It was very exciting – and also a bit tiring! – to sit with them in the Dealers' Room and sign the boxes of pre-orders as well as the copies sold right there. Of course it's worth it, and I have to admit I loved handling my first hardback. GG did a fantastic job; the paper they used by itself would make the book a handsome addition to anybody's library. Now I have to hope the stories live up to the beauty of this edition in pleasing the reader!
NASFIC was enjoyable, the usual traveling party that cons become for writers and fans, but I, like most participants I spoke with, was poorly scheduled. On Thursday I had seven events (I'd asked for no more than three per day), and four of them were back to back with no time for lunch or bathroom trips. They also had me down for three panels on Sunday after I'd left to return home. I've since had emails from fans about their disappointment when they showed up for the panels and I didn't; I hate to do that to people, but again I had no choice. The con had decided to make changes to the program at the convention not before – and of course, the program was printed up by then. The best panel was a big eight-panelists affair on the topic “Is There a Place for God in Science Fiction.?” Gene Wolfe was on that one, and I moderated. We had opinions that ran the gamut from “Of course!” to “No way!” (from an announced atheist). There was also a productive panel on aliens and communication, so I was satisfied to have taken part in significant discussions on two of my favorite subjects. (“Significant discussion” to me means I wrote notes on what was said – it wasn't all things I already knew or had thought about.)
Before the con actually got going, Elizabeth Moon and I braved the heat and the humidity to visit Cahokia, the largest Native American site in North America.. I'd heard about the mounds, but I had no idea they were the site of such a vast metropolis. The museum does a fine job of presenting the culture and history of the site, and there's an interesting movie you shouldn't miss if you go. What always intrigues me when I visit ancient places all across the world is the repetition of sacred symbols and practices one finds. Our distant ancestors carried more than themselves on their migrations out of Africa; they seem to have carried ideas about the transcendent, and ways to express them. In my own fiction, I often wonder whether we'll find correspondences with other cultures across the galaxy, especially spiritual ones. I don't believe we're alone in the universe, and I don't think we'll turn out to be the only ones who've speculated long and hard about a creator.
Now that I'm home, it's back to work. I've started on a new lingster novel, this one set in the very far future when the center of the Guild is no longer on Earth. I won't say any more than that for fear of jinxing my writing. I had a long period of not writing much and losing confidence in what I did write, so I'm going to keep this one to myself until it's fully hatched. But I will say that this lingster story is going to involve the roots of language and a search for God – but then, don't they all?
[And a postscript:]
My greyhound is doing better; the specialists have discontinued the meds, all except prednisone which we're tapering down. But we aren't out of the woods yet. Yesterday, the vet phoned me to say Jack's exit blood test showed his white cell count was low, so we need to monitor it for a couple of weeks. It could be a side-effect of the extreme antibiotics he was taking, but then again it might be a sign that the bug hasn't completely given up. The specialists determined it was a tick-borne disease, but which one still eludes them. It's none of the usual suspects, nor is it a couple of the exotics. Keep your fingers crossed for Jack, please.
NASFIC was enjoyable, the usual traveling party that cons become for writers and fans, but I, like most participants I spoke with, was poorly scheduled. On Thursday I had seven events (I'd asked for no more than three per day), and four of them were back to back with no time for lunch or bathroom trips. They also had me down for three panels on Sunday after I'd left to return home. I've since had emails from fans about their disappointment when they showed up for the panels and I didn't; I hate to do that to people, but again I had no choice. The con had decided to make changes to the program at the convention not before – and of course, the program was printed up by then. The best panel was a big eight-panelists affair on the topic “Is There a Place for God in Science Fiction.?” Gene Wolfe was on that one, and I moderated. We had opinions that ran the gamut from “Of course!” to “No way!” (from an announced atheist). There was also a productive panel on aliens and communication, so I was satisfied to have taken part in significant discussions on two of my favorite subjects. (“Significant discussion” to me means I wrote notes on what was said – it wasn't all things I already knew or had thought about.)
Before the con actually got going, Elizabeth Moon and I braved the heat and the humidity to visit Cahokia, the largest Native American site in North America.. I'd heard about the mounds, but I had no idea they were the site of such a vast metropolis. The museum does a fine job of presenting the culture and history of the site, and there's an interesting movie you shouldn't miss if you go. What always intrigues me when I visit ancient places all across the world is the repetition of sacred symbols and practices one finds. Our distant ancestors carried more than themselves on their migrations out of Africa; they seem to have carried ideas about the transcendent, and ways to express them. In my own fiction, I often wonder whether we'll find correspondences with other cultures across the galaxy, especially spiritual ones. I don't believe we're alone in the universe, and I don't think we'll turn out to be the only ones who've speculated long and hard about a creator.
Now that I'm home, it's back to work. I've started on a new lingster novel, this one set in the very far future when the center of the Guild is no longer on Earth. I won't say any more than that for fear of jinxing my writing. I had a long period of not writing much and losing confidence in what I did write, so I'm going to keep this one to myself until it's fully hatched. But I will say that this lingster story is going to involve the roots of language and a search for God – but then, don't they all?
[And a postscript:]
My greyhound is doing better; the specialists have discontinued the meds, all except prednisone which we're tapering down. But we aren't out of the woods yet. Yesterday, the vet phoned me to say Jack's exit blood test showed his white cell count was low, so we need to monitor it for a couple of weeks. It could be a side-effect of the extreme antibiotics he was taking, but then again it might be a sign that the bug hasn't completely given up. The specialists determined it was a tick-borne disease, but which one still eludes them. It's none of the usual suspects, nor is it a couple of the exotics. Keep your fingers crossed for Jack, please.
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