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Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Because I know my audience
Posted by Lis Riba at 9:45 PM
 Sometimes I see a post elsewhere and simply must share it with y'all. Like this one by Justin du Coeur, who regularly writes about new additions to Project Gutenberg:
Enjoy! 
Another day, another buncha books...
Posted by Lis Riba at 7:10 PM
On our way home from work, Ian and I stopped in a bookstore. Because, clearly, Boskone didn't give me enough ideas. How did I not know that Louis Sachar has written a sequel to Holes? Small steps Also, Megan Whalen Turner's series (The Thief, The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia) looks like an interesting read. The latest book (which first caught my eye on the shelves) sounds like a more serious variant of Sean Stewart's Nobody's son I've also started work on an Elizabethan fantasy (or possibly Elizabethan SFF) list, but as I'm developing criteria, I think I may need more help from y'all regarding books I haven't read, for which ones do and don't belong.
Monday, February 20, 2006
Two other tidbits from the con
Posted by Lis Riba at 11:10 PM
I sometimes found it odd the number of people who would catch the name on my badge and nod or smile knowingly. Particularly when it happened from pros. A couple people asked if I was with this blog. It feels somewhat weird to be recognized for this blog, but I guess that means I'm doing something right... Second, something I forgot to mention in the end-of-con gripe session. There are certain flavors I associate with the Boskone con suite. They're like comfort foods, but specific in context to this con. One of these foods is Squirt soda, which I never buy for myself, but always consume at Boskone. I was pleased to see they had plenty on-hand. Boskone without Squirt soda just ain't right. But oddly enough, there was no popcorn this year and very little chocolate. I'm used to big bowls of raisinettes and peanut m&ms, which I internally rationalize as close enough to trail mix to be healthy. While I was pleased by some of the newer foods provided this year (the grape leaves were a nifty touch), please bring back the popcorn with artificial yellow flavoring and more chocolates... We're fen -- we need our Vitamin M!
Boskone: Books
Posted by Lis Riba at 10:45 PM
As it turned out, I only bought four books this Boskone (plus garnering another two from the freebie tables). Budget just won't permit me to spend as much on books as I'd like. That's not to say that I didn't see or hear about books I desperately wanted -- some mentioned in panels, some from book covers used as party decorations (great suggestive sales method, btw!), some inspired after meeting the authors in person, and many from the dealer room -- it's just that I expect to get most of these from my local libraries. Anyway, I apologize to the authors of these works for not contributing to their royalties directly, but hope that posting this list here may indirectly inspire others to buy their own copies. Listing them alphabetically by author, current and older books which caught my eye:
Also, overheard, somebody suggested that Heinlein's Double star and Vonnegut's Mother night were the same book from opposite points of view. Might be worth checking out... YASID: ID requests At a previous convention, I remember hearing Delia Sherman talk about a work-in-progress involving the fantasy imagery surrounding absinthe. Has this been published? During the panel on food in SF/F, several panelists mentioned Mike Resnick published two books set in the Medici kitchens, but no titles were given. Audience members were urged to nag Resnick to write more in this series (was it an incomplete trilogy?), and there was some rumor that he gained ten pounds writing the first book, just in research. Sounds delicious. During the animation panel, Esther Friesner mentioned a book (nonfiction) that explained the cultural indicators in manga. Not only how to read the foreign conventions for conveying various emotions, but how they developed. Anybody have a clue what this might've been referring to? Naomi Novik The last several weeks I've been hearing trickles of praise for Naomi Novik's latest novel. I'm not talking faint praise, but heavy gushing from a few small (but trusted) sources. Several people on LiveJournal have been so enthusiastic they couldn't wait until next month's American release, so instead buying the (already in print) British hardcover. The publisher very wisely seeded the freebie table with a first chapter excerpt and after reading it, Ian and I may join the exodus. Napoleonic war fantasy with dragons. Definite Patrick O'Brien resemblance. Here's the series:
BTW, this did reveal to me one of the lacks in this year's Boskone dealer room. Usually there's at least one dealer specializing in British imports, carrying the Tom Holts and Terry Pratchetts not yet available in America. No such luck this year, and I missed it. [No slur intended against anyone involved in Boskone; I just missed it.] Future forthcoming fiction I also saw or heard mention of several forthcoming books that sound incredibly promising. Coming this May, Esther Friesner's Temping Fate. It's YA fiction, but if anyone thinks that classification detracts, let me know and I'll straighten you out. Ellen Kushner has a new book due out in July: The Privilege of the Sword, with a quite enticing cover illustration of a swordswoman. This October, Michael F. Flynn will have Eifelheim -- hard SF set in medieval Europe. How do you manage that? I suppose we'll have to read the book to find out. [Oh, look, the November 1986 Analog features a novella of the same title...] Tim Eldred's Grease Monkey looks like a warped cross between David Brin's Uplift series and Teenagers from Outer Space Books bought On the last day, one dealer was cleaning out his shop for fifty-cents apiece, so I picked up the following four for two bucks: Dragon's plunder, What happened to Emily Goode after the great exhibition, Suzette Hagen Elgin's Furthest, and 17 x Infinity (an anthology I used to borrow from my father's bookshelf when I was growing up; Theodore Sturgeon's contribution still sends shivers down my spine). Finally, what sort of geek am I? The book I grabbed off the freebie table was a 1935 printing of Macbeth, copyright 1908. PS: One late addition from a promotional card found buried in my bag: Elaine Isaak's The Singer's crown, a fantasy novel about a usurped prince who survives as castrati singer.
Boskone: Devniad Tribute
Posted by Lis Riba at 10:43 PM
A few quotes overheard around the con:
Random Boskone Rambles
Posted by Lis Riba at 10:42 PM
Just some random notes taken during the con: Panel: Food -- Great and Terrible -- in SF and Fantasy A few interesting observations. Food is an excellent way to evoke sensory memory, which makes it that much more difficult to describe alien foods without either comparing it to common dishes or making it some kind of joke (Klingon gagh). Also notice the number of dystopias which use inferior food as a shorthand for deprivation. [Orwell's 1984, in which chocolate was normally "dull-brown crumbly stuff that tasted, as nearly as one could describe it, like the smoke of a rubbish fire."] Why so little emphasis on food in SF? Somebody suggested that food and food preparation weren't considered relevant to the target audience, to which another panelist made some quip about the eating habits of teenage boys. Naomi Novik beat me to my point, about where and how food turns up in hard SF. In the 1950s, it was largely processed food with more emphasis on form and nutritional value than taste, such as food pills. This parallels the heavily promoted marketing pitches from post-WWII industry regarding the food of the future (cf Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America by Laura Shapiro). Nowadays, with the increasing popularity of organic food, we see more space stations with hydroponic gardens used to generate both breatheable oxygen and fresh meals. Somebody else pointed out that the Golden Age of SF was the 1930s, which was also the Great Depression. Readers may not have had that much to eat. A character dining regularly upon fancy or exotic dishes would more likely be perceived as elite or effete (possibly with associations to Roman decadence), rather than a subject of user-identification. There was a brief aside to the conventions of realistic v. romantic fiction, which (I'll confess) I don't quite have the background in literature to evaluate. Mention was made of globalism, and a Bill Pronzini essay which speculated on how minor shifts in American tastes could have vast worldly influences (something about a fad for marsala wine, which benefits Sicily, changing the balance of power in Italy). This led to a discussion of how Wallace & Gromit saved the Wensleydale Creamery -- taking them from the brink of bankruptcy to availability in supermarkets across America (with Wallace & Gromit on the label!). Conversation shifted to the effect of the EU on local cheesemakers and the possibility of regional protectionism, just as France carefully guards the names of certain wines (Champagne v. sparkling wines). Which brought us right back to literature, since this (apparently) was the initial provocation in The Mouse that Roared. [Ian had a lot to contribute when I told him about all this after the panel, including mention of The Galactic Gourmet: a Sector General novel and the fact that every major race in the Babylon 5 universe have developed Swedish meatballs. He should've been in attendance, but he replied that he feared he'd find the panel too annoying because he's thought so much on the topic and has so much to say. Maybe we can talk him into blogging on the subject...] Panel: Genius Loci: How Setting Influences and Structures the Story An aside comment by Elizabeth Bear on the importance of smells in description, finally helped me comprehend why I often find Elizabethan Theatre fiction geared towards children/YA more... vivid... than stories written by adults. The kids' books focus more on the stinks. Most of the juvies feature protagonists who are new to the London theatres. One third of my initial list involved time travel -- characters who find stark contrast between familiar modern sanitation and the reek of the City. But even straight historical fictions generally start with characters just arriving in London or being welcomed into the company and introduced to its customs. Effort is made in the setup to find ways to ensure those elements the readers might find novel and remarkable, will somehow appear fresh and worth remarking upon to the characters too. The adult fiction is written in media res. Characters are old enough to be accustomed to their world. Lord Westfield's Men are already a well established company in the first Edward Marston book. The mystery may be new, but the milieu is a familiar one to the characters, so there's no need for commentary about mundane matters. [And that first book does introduce a new apprentice, to whom the characters can show the ropes. Still, he's a minor character and not our POV.] As I believe I've written elsewhere, I've been reading Edward Marston's books since college. It was a few years ago, in King of Shadows that I finally learned tiring room was a slang term for attiring. None of the adult fics I'd read in the intervening decade ever bothered to explain... BTW, if I was to make one comment to that panel, it might've been to study the description used in YA fics. These books have shorter pagecount and smaller vocabulary and are writing for a less-experienced audience. If you can learn how to effectively set the stage without the five-dollar words and pages of exposition, then imagine how much stronger writing can be when those elements aren't verboten. To one friend's shock, I missed/skipped the "Shakespearean Language in Fantasy" panel. I got the impression from someone in attendance that this may be part of a forthcoming paper. I'll have to find out more/look into this... Panel: Whither Animation? For all those American animation purists decrying the Asian influence on the artstyles: Apparently, one of the early manga artists claimed as his inspiration for the big eyes small mouth look... Betty Boop. So, what goes around comes around, I suppose. Esther Friesner very strongly recommended the show Avatar on Nickelodeon. Also, from an aside she made, are there really Harlequin romance mangas? Unrelated to this panel, Esther Friesner also mentioned a story accepted by Baen's Universe which makes heavy use of Yiddish. Since it's an online story, instead of a glossary, the Yiddish words will have translations through hover-help. Panel descriptions available in the program schedule PS: Gary Farber took on the Globe articles on Boskone in his blog, and Pete Maranci got a letter published in the Globe.
Monday Marlowe movie musings...
Posted by Lis Riba at 6:15 PM
I'm not sure how I managed to miss this article at the time, but the March 29, 2005 Advocate contained an interview with John Maybury which included this exchange:
Kit Marlowe as Elizabethan Anime Blade Runner. Any fan-artists care to take a stab at some sketches? I posted a bit about possible movies last year on Marlowe's birthday, but most of those projects appear to have fizzled out. Back in 2000, rumored casting for Maybury's project involved Jude Law as Shakespeare and Johnny Depp as Marlowe. Now I've long seen a resemblance between Johnny Depp and the Corpus Christi portrait, but let's face it, Depp is nearly 43, while Marlowe died at 29. And none of the other Hollywood young-bloods have given me quite the same frisson of recognition. I know little of John Maybury; I don't think I've seen any of his movies. But between his earlier pretty-boy casting plans and this notion of an Elizabethan anime Blade Runner... I like the way this man thinks. Which leads to my request of you, my loyal readership. Do any of you subscribe to IMDB Pro? Or have access to any other Hollywood-insider directories? IMDB has this tantalizing link to John Maybury's contact information, and I want to get in touch with him. [Hey, John Maybury! Do you egosurf? I want to talk with you, John Maybury, about Marlowe!] Whether or not this film gets made, I want to read the script. Not just for my own edification (although that certainly plays a role), but I like to think that maybe I can help in some way. After all, I've already read 31 other fictionalized portrayals of Marlowe, not just prose, but scripts. I'm no academic, but I'm familiar with the man and the period and with what has and hasn't worked in recent fictional portrayals. I've even received pre-publication manuscripts from multiple authors on the basis of these credentials. PS/Related link: While I was looking for old news clippings on the Maybury film, I ran across CrimeLibrary.com's account of Christopher Marlowe's murder. The chapter on sources concludes:
Burgess, Cowell and Garrett. The usual suspects. I'll have to find and contact the author, Russell Aiuto, and point him to my list...
Administrivia
Posted by Lis Riba at 6:05 PM
BTW, I awoke this morning to nearly 350 spam emails in my inbox. After deleting those, I found maybe ten that were actually worth keeping, whether they be notifications I signed up for (Library Elf and LJ) or from actual family and friends. I'm starting to wonder darkly whether I may not have to abandon this email address...
Needles to say, I don't think I'm going to catch up on the weekend's blog entries and LJ posts, so if there's anything you want me to read (or think I'd like to read), please drop a link in my comments...
Posted by Lis Riba at 12:21 AM
There was more I intended to post (and do) this evening, largely summing up Boskone, but after I came home from the con I fell right asleep. I only just woke up, about to go to sleep once again (no rest for the wicked, and no Monday holiday for my coworkers and me), but first I have to say very publically and embarrassingly:
PS: For those to whom I mentioned it at Boskone, the current iteration of my Children's/YA Elizabethan Theatre Fiction list. It will have its own separate linkable URL... shortly.
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