More speedy updates!

How busy have I been? I’ve been so busy that I have two checks sitting here that I haven’t gotten to the bank yet to deposit! Yes, that’s “checks,” plural. That’s too busy! 🙁

The Readercon 21 Souvenir Book went to the printer yesterday afternoon. Tomorrow morning I’m getting up early to drive into Somerville to check the proof, and I hope, approve it. There would have to be something really egregiously wrong with it for me not to approve it, though! After that, I can finally relax about the Souvenir Book–but I can’t relax too much because I’m going straight to Logan Airport from the printer to pick up my sister, niece and nephew who are flying in from Chicago to spend the holiday with Dad. I don’t know how much I’ll see of them because I have tons of backlogged BLUM work to clear up and tons of Readercon prep to do (see below). But they’re certainly going to have spectacular weather for a vacation week on the lake, wow.

The postcard for Blood Justice arrived from Vistaprint and looks great! I made a new promotional color flyer for BLUM’s 2010 titles so far and I just mailed a packet off by priority mail to David Burton, who will be promoting Blood Justice at the San Diego Comic-Con. I saved a few postcards and flyers to put out at Readercon, and I’ll be doing more promo materials to send to other cons.

UPS left the postcards on the side stoop, probably because the newspaper box was stuffed with two Boston Globes that I hadn’t even gotten down to retrieve yet. They have now joined the stack of a week’s worth (and counting…) of Globes waiting to be read! 🙁

I’ve gotten the lawn mower back from the repair shop but I have no idea when I’ll actually get out to mow the lawn! The black raspberries are ripening and I’m picking about a half-cup per day. The blackberries will be coming in a little later and I’m going to be buried in those. I might have to make jelly or wine or something else that requires huge amounts of fruit!

Dad’s concert went fine tonight–the weather was a little chilly, but there was no rain or even the slightest threat thereof, which was…a novelty, to say the least. *wry look* In fact, some of the grass on the Common was downright brown. The fund raising group doing the “lawn party,” as they call it, was the Townsend Rod and Gun Club, which had an assortment of lifesize and life-like fiberglass animals scattered around the Common, some of them, I swear, with bullet holes in them. There was also more weaponry being carried around (granted, mostly of the bow and knife variety) than you usually see in a public venue these days, although both the Minutemen and the veterans’ groups have done rifle volleys at concerts for special occasions. Someone had a rather impressive crossbow. I also was chatting with a guy who was spinning angora rabbit hair with a spinning wheel, right there on the Common! That was fascinating! I learned to spin with a drop spindle but it’s not something I have time for these days–I still have a half-finished pair of socks languishing here. 🙁

I have a schedule for Readercon, although there may be some last-minute changes. The Program committee is still getting feedback from the pros and making adjustments where necessary. But, if you’re coming to Readercon, here’s some of what I’ll be doing:

Friday:

12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Midsummer Night’s Dream Reading. I’m sure this will be an absolute hoot. I have no idea exactly what and when I’ll be reading yet, and I hope I get to read more than two lines as Second Fairy or something (that’s pretty much what I did in high school, *sigh*).

8:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. By Light Unseen Media Kaffeeklatsch. Open to aspiring authors and anyone seriously interested in the business side of writing for small press publishing. I’ll be blunt and honest about what I look for in a manuscript and what will make me buy one story and reject ten others. Here’s your opportunity to ask a publisher for honest advice, and to tell me your thoughts and ideas about the process! There will be chocolate. (I believe there is a sign-up for Kaffeeklatsches at the Registration tables.)

10:15 p.m. on Meet the Pros(e) Party. I’ll be there, collecting stickers. 🙂

Saturday

11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Reading. My first solo reading at a Readercon! I’ll be reading from my just-released novel, The Longer the Fall.

12:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m. My relay in the Theodore Sturgeon Readings Marathon. I’m reading “Like Yesterday.” I intend to do it full justice. You’ll enjoy it. 🙂

Sunday

1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Racial Diversity and Cover Art. “Nearly thirty years ago the racially mixed title character of Heinlein’s Friday was portrayed in the cover artwork as pure white, and little apparent progress has been made since: as Bloomsbury Publishing demonstrated last year with its handling of Justine Larbalestier’s Liar and Jaclyn Dolamore’s Magic Under Glass, characters of color are still being whitewashed or simply not allowed on the cover at all. If Will Smith can be a sci-fi action hero, why can’t we see his look-alike on the cover of a book?”
I’m participating with Liz Gorinsky (Leader), Nalo Hopkinson (GoH), N.K. Jemisin and Alaya Dawn Johnson.
This is my only panel, and I’m very pleased to be on it. I’ve published a book by an African-American author, Krymsin Nocturnes, and it was that book’s main Character of Color, Montgomery Quinn, who galvanized me to completely change how I do cover designs–because Quinn had to be on that cover. There were no ifs, ands or buts about it–there was no way he could not be on the cover. So, when all the #racefail controversies about “whitewashing” covers and publishers’ supposed rationales for not putting Characters of Color on the covers of books came up, I was interested on a very personal level, because I had the opposite experience. This should be quite a fascinating panel!

And that’s all the time I can spend on tonight’s post!