Archive for August, 2009

I received payment from Analog for my story “Teaching the Pig to Sing.” The story will probably appear in Spring or Summer of 2010. Also, a Hungarian Blogger said some nice things about “Titanium Mike.” Google Translate renders the last two sentences of this review as “Literary feat: just write a few, and only the best can really cause pleasure released. The story’s end as if to seize the smile in our faces, and this is no small achievement.” Indeed.

Home from Canada

Just a brief note to let everyone know that we are back home after touristing around the province of Quebec for a week after the Worldcon. We had a great time, saw lots of historical stuff, and ate many fabulous meals. Last night we enjoyed the fine hospitality of Jo Walton, to whom many thanks. The weather here is even hotter than it was there but the humidity’s far more tolerable. And now to bed, because my brain’s still on the East Coast.

Oh, almost forgot: my email box filled up yesterday, so if you tried to email me something yesterday or today and it bounced, please re-send it.

Cue the overhead fan

Word count: 1463 | Since last entry: 2425

Quebec. I’m still in Quebec.

We have arrived in Quebec City after nine days in the province, all without affordable or dependable Internet. Now that we finally have good free connectivity I find that the amount of stuff I would like to blog far exceeds both my time and my brain capacity. I will sum up briefly…

Had an excellent Worldcon. All the programming I was involved in went well, especially the Doctor Who panel and my reading. Much difficulty getting to convention parties on Thursday and Friday, due to problems with hotels and elevators, but hung out in the bar instead with lots of cool people. Spent most of my time not in programming or hanging out in the bar hanging out in the halls instead. At Worldcons I have a real tendency to stand in one place (often the hall outside the dealers’ room) for two and three hours at a time, talking with a varying knot of people, and this Worldcon was no exception. Food was awesome… even the worst meal I had (noodles from NooBox in the convention center) was pretty good and with good company.

After the con we rented a car, hit the road, and hung out in the countryside, staying at a B&B in a former school near the town of Saint-Armand. We sampled ice cider, picked blueberries, visited the J. A. Bombardier museum (he invented the Ski-Doo snowmobile), and drove past lots of horses and cows. Frustratingly, most of the restaurants Kate had researched were closed (I blame the zombie apocalypse), including one stretch of two hours and over a hundred kiometers seemingly without one restaurant that was both still in business and actually serving food. But once we did find something to eat it was generally fabulous.

The food problem here in Quebec City is quite the opposite: way too many amazing restaurants to choose from. Also there are book and record stores, plus plenty of touristy things to do. We won’t be bored.

We’re here in Quebec for four nights and will be heading home (with a stop in Montreal) on Wednesday. No promises about blogging or tweeting during that time.

Headless Chicken Mode: ON

Word count: 4639 | Since last entry: 4639

Rather frazzled at the moment because we just found out third-hand that the Pink Martini concert on September 5 (“Oregon! Oregon!”, written by Stan Freberg no less) has been moved from the Coliseum to the Zoo, necessitating purchase of new tickets. Glad this happened while we were in town.

This all came down while I was in the middle of grilling up dinner: chicken mango sausages from Trader Joe’s, marinated grilled beets, and corn on the cob. The beets got overdone but I’d try that recipe again.

Yesterday we were privileged to attend a workshop performance of Mike Daisey’s new monolog “The Last Cargo Cult”: a comedy, a travelogue, and a meditation on the meaning of money. It made me laugh; it made me think. It’s in Seattle later this month, then goes on tour; I’d encourage you to check it out if it comes to your town.

We got a new issue of Bento finished at the last minute, as is traditional, but thanks to the fine people at DocuMart it’s already all printed and bound. We’ll have copies to hand out at the Worldcon, of course. If you are not going to be at the Worldcon, would like a copy, and think we might not have your current address, please email your address to us.

We leave for Montreal bright and early Tuesday. On Wednesday night Ellen Klages and I will be “celebrity guest hosts” at the Reno in 2011 party. After that I’ll be on a lot of programming. I particularly invite you to sign up for my kaffeeklatsch (2pm Sunday) and come to my reading (3:30pm Sunday). I’ll be reading an excerpt from my Wild Cards story.

Much and much to do before then…