Readercon Recap
Back from Readercon (July 10-13 in Burlington, MA), trailing swag and books from my suitcase, my brain bubbling with story ideas, as usual (this post is a bit late - it should have gone up Monday).
The Readercon name badges were super fancy this year (usually they're just plain white).
I spent most of the con hanging out at the Broad Universe table. I got to spend some time with Marilyn Tighe, author of "Judgement on Tartarus," (which has been on my reading list forever), who is one of my favorite people.
Marilyn writes hard SF and has been doing so for decades - which means she has great stories of "the good old days" when women had to beat against the doors of an all male establishment in the hard SF world (which, in some respects, is not all that different than the world today, alas). Marilyn is smart, funny, and super nice - I love hanging with her and I only ever get to see her at Readercon.
I did go to a few readings, including the group reading for the launch of Lightspeed Magazine's Women Destroy Science Fiction.
This.Was.Awesome!!!! The stories were fantastic and the essays emotional, and best of all, the room was packed - with both men and women. It's great to see women SF writers getting so much love and recognition.
Alas (for me), they got so much love and recognition that Women Destroy Science Fiction sold out at the con, so I was unable to buy a copy there. So my copy is on order.
This year, I went into the Dealer's Room with a mission. I wanted to buy Women Destroy Science Fiction, something from Crossed Genres (I picked up their "Fat Girl in a Strange Land" anthology at Arisia in January and loved it), something from Clarkesworld, and something from Pink Narcissus Press (I've had a bunch of their books on my TBR list for ages).
Mission accomplished (check out the cool button I also got from Crossed Genres - it has swear words from five different shows - Smeg, Frak, Frell, Gorram, and Shazbot. Bonus points if you can name all five shows/fandoms (without Google assist))!
(top to bottom - Winter Well from Crossed Genres, an anthology of stories featuring older women, Realms: Year One of Clarkesworld Magazine, and Daughters of Icarus (feminist science fiction and fantasy stories) from Pink Narcissus).
I keep telling the Clarkeworld people they need to make a poster with all their magazine covers on it - their covers are so gorgeous!
I was very good - I managed to avoid adding any other purchases to my list, even though there were many, many, many awesome books that begged me to take them home. Here's a picture of some of the swag I picked up/books I've added to my TBR list:
(The Other Side of Dark by Sarah Smith, Muse SF Magazine, Wyrding Studios (jewelry), Dying is My Business by Nicholas Kaufman (swag is for Die and Stay Dead, which is the third book in the series), An Alphabet of Embers by Rose Lemberg (kickstarter project - more info here), Blades of the Old Empire by Anna Kashina, Upgraded by Neil Clarke, Locus SF Foundation (non-profit association), The Bible Repairman and Other Stories by Tim Powers, Homefront by Scott James Magner, Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories by Julia Rios, and Crowflight by Sunny Moraine).
And, finally, I also picked up this excerpt booklet for The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman. I read this last night on the treadmill and the story pulled me in, so now I've gone and added this series (The Magician's Land is the third book in the series) to my TBR list (poor TBR list - so very, very long!).
And that's it. Readercon felt kind of quiet this year. I didn't go to many panels, but I did leave fired up with story ideas and excited about writing, which is always the sign of a successful con.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some reading to do. :-)