Sunday, November 02, 2008

WFC 2008: Day Four -- End of Days

Today, I had my last two sessions for the WFC. Hard to believe it's over already! I've got the rest of today in Calgary and I leave tomorrow - flight departs 1:55pm local.

Panel: Genre Hopping (Barbara Hambly, Jo Beverley, Karen Dudley (no show), Jean Marie Ward (moderator))

A really fun panel about writers who use different genres - more than crossing them in the same work, though that as well. I had not been aware of Beverley before and am eager to check out her cross-genre work. The prime wisdom I took away was this: Let the book be what it wants to be, categorize it later.

Beverley said she had the following conversation with a fan once: "I don't write dark books." "Have you looked at your body count?" So it's always hard for an author to look at themselves from the inside.

Reading: Patricia McKillip

As I've said before, McKillip is a sweet lady. I ended up on the shuttle with her when coming home from my first WFC, didn't realize who she was, and started rambling about worldbuilding. Then she introduced herself and I was sitting there thinking: "Shut up Lindsey just shut up!" I don't think she has the greatest reading voice or presence, but dang, I couldn't get up and do that for an hour. The piece she read from is a brand new novel, purchased but not finished, with a really deep sense of place. I definitely want to read it when it comes out.

Because I wanted to know if I needed to mail some books home rather than pack them in my luggage, I tried to find a scale. The concierge referred me ... to the fitness room. With the help of a kind gentleman who had been exercising when I came up, I ... weighed my packed bag. I'm not sure I trust it, because it came out in the mid-thirties, but he seemed to know how to work it and he said his weight was accurate, so ...

Doing the math, I see no conceivable way my bag is going to be more than seventy lbs. There's just no way. I looked at the weight of the Erikson book, which is the biggest of the hardcovers, and that's only 1.8 lbs. My clothes + the bag itself would need to weigh about fifty lbs to break 70. Also let's note that I can lift the bag in one hand, and while I am strong from harp-caravaning ... I am not THAT strong.

I am still nervous, though.

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