JanerBlog

SPX 09 Con Report

Home from SPX and soooo tired... but if I don't do the con report tonight, I'll never get to it, so here goes:

Had an absolutely fantastic time, as always. SPX has always been my hands-down favorite show, and this year was no exception. I got the chance to hang out with old friends and new, sell a metric butt-ton of steampunk jewelry (and even a few books, too!) and talk shop with a bunch of creators. I'm ashamed to say that I didn't vote in this year's Ignatz awards because I hadn't read enough of the participants (bad artist!), so I'm hoping to do better next year. This was also one of the best shows I can remember for sheer quality of available books -- I was blown away by the offerings, of both traditionally-published graphic novels and gorgeous, innovative, risk-taking minicomics, and I bought more stuff this year than I can ever remember buying before.

There was one other fun thing that happened -- Paul and I marked our 5th anniversary on Saturday. What better way to celebrate than by selling comics and surrounding ourselves with fans and friends alike? Thanks to everyone who stopped by to wish us well.

I didn't take a lot of photos, but here're a baker's dozen to look through. The captions will have to suffice for the remainder of my con report, as I am mighty tired.

Tick... tick... ticktickticktick

Just to be on the safe side, I brought my geiger counter home from work, where it was part of my cube curiosity collection (What? Your office wouldn't let you keep a geiger counter in your cube? Have I mentioned I have the awesomest job ever?) and scanned the batch of steampunk jewelry that I'm taking to SPX.

One of the hair barrettes will not be attending the show, it seems. It's probably okay -- it was giving off less radiation than even one of the smallest radium watch-hands -- but it was still making the needle jump more than I was comfortable with. I'm 99% sure it's the watch face, so I'll have to wait until I can find a suitable replacement for it.

Bummer; it was my favorite piece. Oh well.

Hairs Cut!

First time in two years. Not quite enough to give to Locks of Love this time. Man, my hair grows slowly.

Maiden Voyage!

Took the kayak out for her first spin this evening. Sadly, it was too overcast to enjoy the sunset properly, but we still got a nice hour-and-a-half paddle around Long Lake before the rain settled in.

Still don't have a name for it yet, but she sure is fun to paddle.

Kayakery.

I bought a kayak today.

Last night Paul and I borrowed a pair of demo boats from the local kayak store, and took them out for a sunset paddle with another couple who are already into kayaking. I got to try the Tsunami 140, which I didn't think I fit into last time, but decided I liked better than the 145 after all.

So this morning we returned two boats and returned home with one. It's a nice red boat, and I can't wait to take it out tomorrow for its maiden voyage. Paul's going to wait and take a paddling class in the spring before he buys his own boat, but he was looking at the 140 as well, so he'll get to take mine out in the meantime to get used to it.

If he can wrest it away from me, that is.

Kayak!

With freaky-eyed dog for scale.

Steampunk Jewelry

Here's the steampunk jewelry I'll be bringing to SPX this coming Saturday. I don't have any new books to sell, so I need to have a little something extra on the table.

I've run out of matching gears, matching dials, and pretty much everything else good-looking, so this is probably the very last batch of this type of jewelry I'm going to make for a long time to come. Each piece is unique, and is pretty much impossible to re-create. They also tend to sell out really fast at shows, so if you're thinking of buying one, I encourage you to stop by the table early in the show.

Naughty tomatoes

A few years ago, Neil Gaiman found a Satanic Tomato in his garden.

This year, I got him beat. I had two Satanic Tomatoes.

Well, they're satanic until you turn them upside down. Then, they're naughty tomatoes.

I wish I'd been able to capture the 180-degree twist in the longer one's... er... protuberance. Unfortunately, it wasn't a very cosmetic tomato. Almost all of my plants got hit by fusarium wilt, and a lot of the fruits got spotted as well.

Once I shaved off its spotty hide, though, it sure was tasty. Dunno about the evil, though.

SPX

I will be at SPX again this year, on the weekend of September 26-27. This is my fifth SPX, and it remains my absolute favorite show of the year, bar none. Hell, it was my favorite show of the year even before Karon brought in the Annual Ignatz Chocolate Fountain.

This year, I won't have a new book or minicomic to sell, so instead I made a huge new batch of clockwork/steampunk jewelry to bring along. I'll have photos soon, but if you're interested in any of the pieces, I'd suggest you either email me to hold one for you, or get to me right away. This stuff tends to sell out rather quickly, and every piece is one of a kind. I'm also almost entirely out of good-looking watch parts, so this may well be the last batch I make for a very long time.

Hope to see you there!

RaceFail Meta

For those of you who skipped RaceFail 09 (and all its subsequent iterations, including MammothFail and EllisonFail, amongst others), Transformative Works and Cultures has an online symposium featuring a number of RaceFail participants. It's a meta discussion (a discussion about the discussion), but unlike previous meta, this one is less about the what and who and more about the why and how -- it outlines a lot of the types of reactions and arguments, and explains why they're either successful or stupid and irritating. Or both. As such, it's still a very good read even if you don't know any of the writers or have anything invested in SF or media fandom.

So go. Read. I met (or heard speak) all of the contributors at WisCon this year, and was very impressed by each of them.

Karen Healy, on making the effort to Write The Other correctly

Karen Healy has written a really wonderful essay about how she's working hard to Write The Other well. She gives concrete examples, and makes no claims to having done it right -- she leaves that up to her (future) readers. It's a very good read, and closely mirrors a lot of what I'm (still) going through with Clockwork Game. Kudos, Karen. I hope the book does very well for you.

Kayaking

About three weeks ago, we had our company summer party out at a local lake. One of the activities they featured was canoeing and kayaking. I've been stuck inside for most of the summer, and so I was really eager to get out on the lake. I convinced a few coworkers to canoe for a few minutes, but most of them got bored and headed back for more beer. That's when I noticed the kayaks.

I got one in the water, and even armed only with a canoe paddle, I immediately fell in love. It was a wonderful feeling of freedom and grace and self-propulsion. If I hadn't been worried about looking totally antisocial in front of my bosses, I'd probably have paddled to the other side of the lake and back.

So lately I've been looking at new and used kayaks and thinking pretty seriously about getting one of my own. Today, encouraged by a couple of friends who are pretty serious kayakers, I took a lesson from one of the local sporting-goods stores. I got basic paddling 101 for 2 hours, and afterwards there was a demo period where you could take out any of the available boats, and this time I really did go all the way across the lake and back. I fell in love with this boat. It goes really fast, and fits me like a pair of pants.

On a side note, the night before the class, I went down to the store (again, on a tip from my kayaking friends) to make sure I *fit* in the kayak I was going to use during the class, and it's a darn good thing I did. I was scheduled to use a Tsunami 135, and if I'd been stuck in that boat, I'd have been miserable, and looked like a Shriner, minus the fez. The 140 was still a smidge too small -- my big butt and beefy thighs required the 145's larger cockpit.

So yeah. I really liked the boat, and I'm also really glad I learned the correct way to paddle before I went out and taught myself a bunch of bad habits. I am going to start saving my pennies, and hopefully soon I'll have a kayak. Next spring, if anybody around here wants to go for a paddle, let me know.