Boskone: Days 2 and 3

[jpskewedthrone]

Back from Boskone. This will be a quick post about the last two days of the con (Saturday and Sunday).

Saturday: Woke up after a restless night. Part of this was the hotel being dry as a bone, and the hot/cold, leg out/leg in variation of a different bed with various sheets. However, during the night I also felt a presence leaning over me as I slept. I didn't initially open my eyes . . . until I felt breathing against my neck. Eyes shot open at that point . . . to find no one standing over me. No one visible anyway. So I sighed and said, "Well, crap, I wonder who died in this hotel room." Or at least a room close by. This also began a series of static shocks every time I touched anything in the room. It didn't happen anywhere else in the hotel, and pbray (who I was rooming with) didn't get any shocks at all, so for some reason this ghost had fixated on me. I've dealt with this issue before, so I just shrugged it off.

But anyway, moving on. Got up and hit my first panel of the day, Men Writing Women. Paul Melko moderated and it was a good panel, active, with lots of insight from the panelists. It was early in the morning, so the audience wasn't packed. Best line by me: "Eventually we'll be writing about aliens as they chop the heads off of characters, while secretly crying inside." After that, trip to dealers room to make certain Larry Smith had some hardcovers to sell. Lunch. Then a kaffeeklatch with Juliet E. McKenna, which was great. I love Juliet and hope to have her here for an Author Introduction when her new book comes out at the end of March. Then a panel on Writing the Other: Gay Characters in SF and F, or something like that. A very good panel with lots of audience participation. The funnest panel of the weekend, lots of laughs. Best line: "We'll need to write evil gay characters eventually." After which someone shouted out that the title of such a book would be "The Dark Side of the Rainbow." And then my day was over. I hit Patricia's Literary Beer, where newguydave and his wife joined us for a rousing and somewhat alcoholic few hours of fun. Dave had come to my earlier panel and we spent tons of time talking shop throughout the day. It was great to meet an LJ friend in person.

After the literary beer, we decided food was necessary, so we hit the No Name Restaurant for some fish and shrimp. We intended to hit some parties and the secret Maltcon . . . but once we got back to the room the alcohol hit hard and we crashed. I made a small foray away, but that didn't last.

Sunday: After a much more restful night, with no ghostly visitations that I remember, and with the shocks fading (I think the ghost got bored and moved on), we packed and checked out. Patricia had a panel and I, being responsible prof, graded some papers, then hit my panel on Writing First Person, which I was moderating. It went well. And then the autographing, where I didn't sign any books for people, but I was visited by a few people from here on LJ. All people who had already read the books, so that's good.

Then the climb into the car and the trip home, where I finished grading all of the rest of the papers. I made it home in time to see Amazing Race. And that was it. Lots of fun. A few stories I have yet to report. A few stories I will never report. And a math joke for geeks. Stay tuned! (Plus, the winners of Barbara Campbell's books!)

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Do you know if there will be writeups available anywhere of the first two panels you mentioned?

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

I don't know of any official writeups, but if I see one I'll let you know. I may do one myself, if I have coherent notes about the panel. Catching up on school-related stuff at the moment, so that won't happen until later in the week.

[wbm.livejournal.com]

Seconded, please.

[misunderstruck.livejournal.com]

Math jokes? Huzzah!

Good to see you, however briefly.

[jaxom92.livejournal.com]

That ghost thing is really creepy.

Glad to hear your having fun and now I'm getting excited for Norwescon this year after reading about con stuff. I think I'll be attending with my sister and her boyfriend. It'll be nice to be back after a year off.

Of course, if I randomly find a job out of state than that can throw the whole con plans to the wind, but for now, looks like a go. Look forward to seeing you there and I'll be sure to stop by and say hi.

[arhyalon.livejournal.com]

>"We'll need to write evil gay characters eventually."

This made me laugh because the Japanese are a step ahead of you and the Swedes are against you!

Back in my days writing columns about anime (about ten years ago.) At one point, I came upon a paper that had analyzed how Sailor Moon had been received in different countries -- identifying five areas of censorship: violence, gay relationships, nudity, lewdness, and one other I can't recall. It was fascinating because each country treated it quite differently.

No country importing Sailor Moon was as open as Japan, but some cut violence and left the sexy stuff, while others did just the opposite. Some kept the gay villains in the first season, others did what America did and redubbed them so that one seemed to be a girl. (They were androgynous bishonen to begin with, so this was not so hard.)

But the funniest part of the paper was Sweden, who had censured the gay couple...not because they objected to gays but because "gays could not be shown as evil." ;-)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Want math joke.

*can be geeky*