Scarlet Letters

First order of business on Friday was business: set up the booth. I was moderately pleased with the new displays, but I can already see where some refinement needs to be made. I also need better signage and more clipboards. After setting up the booth, I left to have lunch with Andy. As always, it was chicken salad at La Baguette, two hours of catching up and laughing over old times. Then he had to go to work, and I picked up a boxful of almond croissants to share with my roommates. It's a good thing I don't live in Memphis anymore – I'd weigh 300 pounds. La Baguette. Party City. Buster's Liquor*. Office Max. Walgreens. All of the above, then back just in time to open the booth with the rest of the dealer's room. Sara Harvey joined us soon enough with her books, and the real work of the weekend began: Shameless Huckstering. I blessed the Lucky Magical Unicorn of Commerce and bid it to suck in our prey. We took turns manning the booth around the panels, until it was n...

Of course, we got a late start. Is there any other kind? We rolled into Memphis about 5 p.m., which pretty much negated my intent in taking Thursday off work. First there was a snafu at the printer, which required reprinting half my order. Then we had to get gas, and stop at the storage place to pick up the party decorations, and we went to the Halloween store to stock up, but alas, they were closed. At that, we were lucky to get there by 5 p.m. After sending my son off with his father, I turbo-changed and tore back out of the hotel for dinner with friends. Memphis and Nashville are the two cities to which my college buddies have gravitated, so visiting either city is like old home week. My compatriot Angelia Sparrow joined me with her husband, as did my mother and stepfather. And three old pals from school. The pictures are on Flickr , though it took me forever to remove the red-eye laser beams from David's eyes . I can say "old pals" because it's officially been 15 ...

I firmly believe in the Heisenberg Compensator School of Science Fiction. I have probably told this story before, and it's likely apocryphal, but screw it. The transporter in STAR TREK was notoriously based on bad science. Apparently some theorem by physicist Werner Heisenberg proved that the matter-energy transporter could not exist. Don't ask me how or why, I am no scientist. At any rate, at one point in one of the serieses or movies, someone refers to the Heisenberg Compensator as a device integral to the transporter. In one fell swoop, they established credibility and dismissed real science. Because to me, science fiction is about people, ideas and stories. It isn't about How the Starship Works. Save that shit for the obsessive fans in the dorky ears. (What? Do I have a pair of Vulcan ears? I refuse to answer on the grounds that... hey, I was sixteen. Shut up.) In 1994, Time Magazine asked famous Trek technogeek Michael Okuda, "How does the Heisenberg Compensator w...

Robin Hobb has an interesting piece out, referenced by damn near every writer on the 'net. In it, she says in quite amusing prose that blogging is the death of fiction, a blog will eat your fiction for lunch and emit a small burp, you can be a blogger or an author but not both... etc. Funny enough that most of the blogging authors disagree. The authors who don't blog, well, they're quiet. I guess. If an author doesn't blog, does anyone hear her? I'm being silly, but it's an important point. No less an author than George R.R. Martin, a fine gentleman who whupped my ex-husband's ass at chess twice, wondered if he should post less often. And was greeted with 132 replies shouting Noooooo! Meanwhile, Patrick Nielsen Hayden of Tor Books has this amusing bit to say: I dunno, call me crazy, but it seems to me possible that for some writers, blogging is a time sink and a creative drain, while for others it's a source of connection, energy, and inspiration. It mig...

I'm happy to report ABADDON is a finalist for the Darrell Award! This is my fourth nomination for the Darrell Award, with two wins. NOCTURNAL URGES was nominated and won for 2004. A MORE PERFECT UNION was a finalist for 2005. "Wonderland," a short story in SETTING SUNS, was nominated and won for 2006. Now ABADDON. I am simply floored by the enthusiastic support of the Memphis fiction community for my work. It encourages me to keep inflicting vampires and evil computers on them. :) I'll find out at the banquet at the end of the month if ABADDON wins. If you're in the area, please join us at Midsouthcon! ekd P.S. What? You haven't bought ABADDON yet? Good thing it's still available .