Category: loscon

With an hour to kill at LAX on my way home from LOSCon, I thought I’d take a few minutes to reflect on the experience. It was generally good: my travel arrangements went well (at least so far) and the accommodations were satisfactory. And in spite of a family member coming down with a cold before I left, I did not become symptomatic during the convention. We’ll have to wait to see whether I managed to dodge the bullet again after I get home.

I had a light schedule this time, with three panels in total, one for each day of the convention.

I was a participant for the first: Biology in Science Fiction and Real Space moderated by Jane Shevtsov. She did a presentation just before the panel which gave me an opportunity to learn more about her. She hadn’t contacted us beforehand, so we didn’t have any sense for how the panel would be organized. But it went reasonably well and I was able to think fast enough on my feet to feel like I made reasonable contributions.

I was the moderator for my second panel: Poetry and Songs in Speculative Fiction. This was a panel I had proposed. I had noticed the one of the participants was on my previous panel, so I made a point of introducing myself. The other two were on another a poetry panel the previous day, so I attended that one to hear them speak and, again, to introduce myself.

There were a couple of disappointing outcomes. The venue was half of a room separated with a divider and the session on the other side was extremely noisy. The con staff made some attempt to ameliorate the noise, but it was still pretty bad. The attendance was also quite poor. The poetry panel on the previous day had also been poorly attended, so I wasn’t surprised. But it was still disappointing.

I had forwarded to them a set of questions the previous week:

Please introduce yourself and, since we mentioned Tolkien in the panel description, was there a poem (among the ~60 or so) in the Hobbit or Trilogy (or elsewhere) that particularly resonated with you and why?

Poetry and meter were probably memory aids for stories in an oral tradition that carried over to the earliest written stories, cough, Gilgamesh. What other reasons do authors use poetry?

Songs present unique difficulties to represent on the printed page. What are some of the challenges to using poetry and songs in fiction? What are some ways it can fail or miss the mark?

Do you write poetry and songs yourself to include in your fiction? would you like to share some?

Movies provide a more natural medium for including music and song. How do their uses differ from printed fiction.

If we haven’t mentioned KPop Demon Hunters yet, what were particularly effective — even revolutionary — uses of song in that movie?

What are other authors and stories that use poetry and song particularly effectively?

They each brought interesting and unique perspectives on the questions. I was surprised that one of the participants had never read The Hobbit or Trilogy. And two of them had not seen KPop Demon Hunters. I was really surprised by that. But we had a good discussion about the topic and I learned a lot.

The last panel I served on was Developing a Creative Habit. This was a great panel. By this point, I had seen all of the participants and so I had a pretty good sense for how the panel would go. My main objective was to present myself as the anti-habit. Although I’m pretty settled in terms of my daily schedule, I’ve learned from long experience that my productivity is extremely variable. I used to stress about it and wanted to encourage others to not worry about it. I described my approach which is to have multiple projects and just write whatever I want whenever I feel like it — or not. This earned the comment, “You, sir, are a weirdo” by M. Todd Gallowglas, which I warmly accepted in the spirit in which it was intended. I also managed to mention Structured Procrastination and Philip’s essay about being routinely creative. And a lot more.

I balanced the rest of my time between other panels and working at my publisher’s table in the Dealer Room. Sales were rather poor — and not just with us. All of the other dealers seemed pretty disappointed by sales.

I was excited to finally get to put my hands on some copies of my long-delayed book A Familiar Problem. It didn’t arrive until Saturday evening, so I could only try to sell them on Sunday. By the time the Dealer Room closed, I hadn’t sold one. That’s how it goes sometimes.

I had several hours between when we finished load out and time for my flight. I decided to leave the hotel and spend most of the time in the airport. I’m kind of glad I did because the traffic to get the one mile to the airport from the hotel was miserable and it took almost an hour. Then, going through security, they had to call over some specialist to check the personal oxygen concentrator I need to fly. That took another half hour. But I got through fine and had more than an hour to spare.

And I’ve finished this post at 10pm with just a few minutes before boarding. Ojalá, I will be back home tomorrow before noon.

hotel plan showing pool and three gardens: California, Japanese, and Spanish.

When I checked into the hotel for LOSCon, I noticed that there were four courtyard gardens on the floor where my room was. In fact, the room had a sliding-glass door that opened into the one where the pool was located. But the others looked interesting — in particular the Japanese garden. Japanese gardens are a particular passion of mine. The first night, I was exhausted from 14 hours of travel, so I only visited the pool (well, actually the hot tub), but when I went to peek into the “California” garden, I noticed the sign in the hallway now called it the Malibu Garden.

I wondered what that might bode…

This morning, I finally around to visiting the other two. They have been similarly renamed. What used to be the Spanish Garden is now the Pasadena Garden. And the Japanese Garden is now the Hollywood Garden.

plaza and planters
Plaza and planters in Pasadena Garden
planters with cycads and flowering shrub.
Planter with cycads and flowering shrub in Pasadena Garden
Astroturf for dogs
Area for dogs to relieve themselves in Hollywood Garden.

Discouragingly, they were all generically similar. They had large open areas with planters and tables with ashtrays. And trashcans with ashtrays. They seemed to be intended mostly to be a place for smokers. They’re not unattractive, but I was disappointed to not have any defining characteristics to distinguish them.

My disappointment was mostly just due to seeing the original names and imaging that they might once have been differentiated thematically. Well, with one exception.

What used to be the Japanese garden is now the place where they’ve sited an area for dogs to relieve themselves. When I first spotted it, I wondered if maybe it was a putting green or something. But then I saw the post with the bags for dog poop. And, if that wasn’t enough of a giveaway, there was actually some dog poop that a dog owner had not picked up.

I debated whether it was more offensive to turn a Japanese garden into a dog park. Or to use the Hollywood garden for that purpose.

Still, it is nice to have a place for the doggies to do their business, rather than to make them go all the way down to the street.

name tag and lanyard

Back in July, I pitched a panel for LOSCon. It turns out that my panel was accepted! On Saturday, I will moderate a group of panelists to discuss Poetry and Songs in Speculative Fiction. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve got some idea for questions. I reached out to the panelists, but haven’t gotten much back yet. I think it will be easy to talk almost endlessly about the theme. It’s a fascinating topic.

On Friday, I will be a panelist discussing Biology in Science Fiction and Real Space. I was nicely prepped for this one by the recent presentation on Worldbuilding 101 by James Cambias. And, of course, if you stick a microphone in front of me to talk about biology, I can babble endlessly.

On Sunday, Developing a Creative Habit. This is kind of a funny topic for me, since my pitch is really the anti-habit. I wanted to talk about how, while many authors love to develop a habit to be productive, I would rather just let my creativity happen randomly. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t.

My publisher is going to have a table in the dealer room. My new book, A Familiar Problem, is scheduled to come out Dec 9, 2025 — too late for the convention. But there’s a chance a few copies will arrive in time. I’ve got my fingers crossed.

I usually suck at meeting people at conventions. But I’m going to make a particular effort to meet people involved with organizing the coming Worldcon in Los Angeles. Or, rather, Anaheim. Wish me luck!

a small wooden box

Etymologically, November was originally the ninth month of the year before the Romans messed everything up by adding January and February. But nov- is also the root for “new” in Esperanto, so let’s go with that. Because I’ve got some new stuff coming up.

Although I still don’t have a new release date, A Familiar Problem is moving forward again. I’ve approved the illustration for the cover and, behind the scenes, the wheels and gears are (hopefully) grinding forward.

Once again, I’m planning to do WritingMonth during November. I did this also last year and wrote 23,100 words toward The Ground Never Lies. This year, I’m planning to work on the sequel to A Familiar Problem. I’ve got some notes and a rough outline, so its a project I think I can make some good progress towards. I do have a lot of other obligations, so I don’t know how work I’ll be able to get done, but it’s nice to have a goal.

On November 2nd, I’m scheduled to attend the SFWA Winter Worlds of Giving Kickoff Event. And afterwards, I will probably attend the SFWA Writing Date, which I haven’t been doing as much as I should.

On November 8, I am scheduled to sell books at the Mill District Holiday Arts Market. And the next day, November 9, I am hosting James Cambias for Worldbuilding 101, a face-to-face Straw Dog Writers Guild event at the North Amherst Library Community Room.

On November 15-16, I am attending SFWA Quasar where I will be on a panel on Sunday “Science Fact in Science Fiction: Getting It Right in SFF”. This is the first year that Quasar has been offered, so it’s new for everyone.

Finally, over the weekend of Nov 29-Dec 1, I will attending LOSCon 51 in Los Angeles. I am listed as a participant, but I haven’t yet seen the final schedule. I haven’t attending LOSCon before, so it will totally new for me.

pine cone

For several years, I’ve considered attending LOSCON in Los Angeles. This year, I’m going to go!

A few years ago, I was accepted as a participant, but due to my health circumstances at the time, I declined. I was still recovering from being hospitalized and was only attending conventions where masks were required. Now, almost no conventions still require masks. (Readercon, next weekend, is a welcome exception!) And I have recovered from my hospitalization. Well… As much as I am going to recover. So I’ve decided to apply to LOSCON again.

I’m particularly interested in attending this year because next year’s Worldcon is also going to be in Los Angeles. Many of the relevant people will undoubtedly be at Worldcon this year too (which I’m also attending). But it will be a chance to meet the LA folks specifically.

They asked for proposals for panels, so I drafted one that I haven’t seen at conventions before.

Poetry and Songs in Speculative Fiction

One of the enduring traits of Tolkien was his use of poetry, rhyme, and song as essential characteristics of his world building and the lore of the world he created. This panel will explore innovative uses of the lyrical arts to enhance speculative fiction and some of the challenges of adding this dimension to your works.

I hope the panel is accepted. Many of my own stories have had examples of music and/or poetry (e.g. Better Angels: Tour de Force, Something Else to Do in Modern Magic, and others). I think it would be fun to put a panel together to get authors to talk about the topic.

LOSCON takes place over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. I’m looking forward to going!

This morning at 2:10am I got an email from the organizers of LOSCon indicating that I was going to be offered an opportunity to be a participant. Unfortunately, LOSCon appears to be “mask optional.” Their COVID Policy page is actually totally unhelpful and doesn’t actually tell you what the policy is. But here is how I replied:

Thank you very much for the opportunity to identify additional panels of interest at LOSCon.

In July, when I proposed myself as a participant, I was anticipating that my pulmonologist would clear me to attend an event with unmasked participants. And, briefly, in August she did. But then, a week later, she personally called me from the ICU to say that, due to the rise in COVID cases, I should withdraw from events where participants are unmasked.

When I last checked, it appeared that LOSCon was planning to be “mask optional.” If that’s true, then — on the recommendation of my pulmonologist — I will have to withdraw as a participant.

I very much regret not  being able to attend. And if the policy has changed, please let me know so that I can make prompt arrangements to attend.

Best wishes for a successful con!

I’m particularly sad in that I have the new Better Angels book coming out and was really looking forward to being able to promote it at the convention. But my health really needs to come first.

I notice that, at “mask optional” events not even Neil Gaiman can get people to mask up. This is definitely not the best of all possible worlds.