My buddy Matt is coming out with a new album (Safe or Free), and it's stellar. I'm pretty psyched for his CD release tomorrow, and therefore I must inflict his new music video upon you all. He likes to introduce it as a "love song" and then go straight into it in his shows, so I'll leave you with that intro.

(I promise, he's not nearly that creepy in real life.)

Alright, here we go.

Apparently there were two flights we could take into Toronto. One arrived at 9am. The other arrived at 9pm. Needless to say, we got into TO with plenty of time to spare. I was worried we'd be left for hours with nothing to do and nowhere to go, since check-in time isn't technically until 3, but the hotel was on the ball and getting all the rooms ready as quickly as possible, so when we got there at 10 we were able to check in. (Or when we got here, I should say, since I'm writing from a borrowed laptop in our hotel room.) We got settled in, had some lunch, and took a nap. Hey, the flight arriving at 9 meant it took off at 6, so it seemed like the thing to do.

( That's lovely. Uh, can we hear about the interesting parts now? Y'know, the actual con? )

I'm flying out to Toronto very early Friday morning. This song and the story behind it? Not so comforting. (Good thing I never did learn to play that guitar?)

You know you listen to too much Great Big Sea when your two-year-old and six-year-old are able to sing along with "End of the World." It's equal parts entertaining and terrifying, considering how fast that song goes and how many words in there.

It's Canada Day, everyone! I really can't top last year's Canadian tribute, so here's a video about the awesomeness of our country. (In all honesty, the canoes are optional, but you might want to invest in a snowsuit. Just sayin'.)

Alright, what will probably maybe be my final schedule for Polaris, for those interested in dropping in to harrass visit me:

Friday, 9 pm, Print Book vs E-book, Aurora
Saturday, 12 pm, Writing for Children, Oakridges
Saturday, 8 pm, It Might Be Too Dark For You, King City
Sunday, 12 am, Romance vs Erotica vs Porn, Oakridges
Sunday, 4 pm, Writers and Reviews, Aurora

So if anyone sees a short redheaded dork roaming around Richmond Hill (Toronto) that weekend, flag me down and say hi. I don't bite. Well, ok, I do, but not until I get to know you better. Flagging me down just the one time should be safe.

No promises, though.

A couple of weeks ago, I got annoyed at some interview or another where a writer was speaking about the strong female character they'd created when really, she didn't do much more than provide a romantic interest for the male protagonist. Oh, she was competent enough in her fireld, but she could never outshine the men she was saddled with, and she never did anything noteworthy. But she didn't cower in the corner or anything, so that's progress, right? Right?

Guh. It's something that happens a lot, so I took my annoyance and wrote up a rather sarcastic rant about the issue, after which I figured I could leave well enough alone and move on to something that hopefully provided female characters who actually get to be people.

I intended just to forget about it after that, but it seems my rant has struck a chord with a surprising number of people. I don't think I've ever gotten so many responses to a blog post, and between the messages left directly to the blog and the e-mails from people who wanted to reply with something a bit longer and more personal, it kept me busy for several days.

Yesterday damned_colonial wrote to let me know my rant has been linked to the Geek Feminist Wiki, which is just about the coolest thing ever. I'm quoted and everything! (My husband laughed that they even quoted the word "wusstastic.")

Apparently, I should put my ranting hat on more often.

I'm headed out to Polaris in Toronto in July, which is exciting. They have a long list of authors (18 at last count), so there should be plenty of action for literary geeks, which means I will be happily mired in bookworld from the 10th to the 12th. I even get to do a few panels, in which I will hopefully sound savvy and witty instead of like a total dork. I'm tentatively scheduled for the following:

-Print book vs E-book (which means I should probably look up some stats or something before I go)
-Writing for Children (YA is so huge right now, they have I think 4 or 5 panels devoted just to that)
-It Might Be Too Dark For You, but Your Kids Love It (about the current dark fantasy and horror trends in YA)
-Romance vs Erotica vs Porn (come on, you can't hear that title and not think it sounds interesting)
-Writers and Reviews (clearly I am not the writer perspective on this one)

Since there are writers coming out of the woodwork, most of these panels are stuffed full of panelists. I have horrible visions of myself sitting quietly through one of the ones that has five people on the panel and not saying a word. Then I realize I'm a freaking loudmouth and realize it likely won't be a problem.

Anyone else coming out to play?

Well, that was unexpected.

Amazon just sent me a notice that Tanya Huff's The Enchantment Emporium (which is a June release) has already shipped. I get ridiculously excited when they send my books ahead of schedule. Ok, this is probably because I only pre-order books I'm already excited about, but reasoning doesn't stop my happy dance. Which looks remarkably like the Snoopy dance.

Well, you all know the dance. You may as well join me.

By Sunday, the con reached a lazy feel. Everyone was tired (or hungover) from the night before, and the morning panels were more subdued than Saturday's. I was still enough of a freak to show up to the 10am session with Katherine and Viola about Food in Fantasy. Biggest pet peeve for pretty much everyone there? Unnecessarily creative names for food. When the characters wear silk and linen, they walk past birch and pine trees, they have horses and dogs and cats, why do they eat snooberries? Unless these berries are somehow significant to the plot, providing some kind of magical power or something isn't "berries" sufficient?

( Sunday, lazy Sunday. )Laid back lazy Sunday is a good way to end the con, I think. We went and picked up the kids, and pretty well everyone went to bed early. A good time was had by all. Now I have two months to recover before heading to Toronto for Polaris.

My much belated continuation of this year's con report is finally here. And the peasants rejoiced.

I dreamed that I slept in until after noon, and was in this incredible panic. I had panels before that, and was supposed to be taking care of Kelley, whose first panel was at 10. It was one of those incredibly detailed dreams, so I'm putting on clothes in a rush, and worrying about getting all the little things together, and I was so mad at my husband for letting me sleep in, especially because he was so nonchalant about the whole thing. Since he still had to drop the kids off at his sister's (who was taking care of them for the weekend), I was in a desperate rush to run to the convention hotel on foot. At which point I woke up and realized it wasn't even 8 o'clock yet, and perhaps I should stop panicking and get over being mad at the husband who hadn't even done anything.

( Lucky for me, the day got better. )

Quick recap of yesterday's Keycon events before I head off for the Saturday programming:

The afternoon was Kelley's book signing in Polo Park's giant McNally Robinson. Slow but steady stream of people (mostly teenage girls enthusiastic about the Darkest Powers trilogy), and incredibly friendly and helpful staff. A good time was had by all.

Then time for a quick bite to eat before Keycon's opening ceremonies, followed by cake and ice cream. Only... no cake. It was sad. They promised us cake! The kids were pretty excited to have the ice cream, though, and even more excited to have an excuse to dress up as Batman and Batgirl.

After everyone had filled themselves with ice cream, it was time for my first panel, about the legitimacy of genre fiction and how it relates to the real world with Katherine Kurtz. When we got there, however, we'd been locked out of the room. So there was about half a dozen of us standing there, looking at each other blankly, trying to figure out what to do next. We ended up hunting down the incomparable LeAmber, programming goddess and the woman you want if you need something done. She came right down with the key, and we settled ourselves in to get started.

Next was a panel about writing sex and death, with Katherine, Kelley (Armstrong), Tamara Sheehan, and erotica author Viola. Very fun panel, lots of giggling. And invisible hand puppets.

After that, I went home. Hey, today's schedule is extremely full, so I figured a bit of sleep might be in my best interest (and in the best interest of anyone who has to deal with me). More report later!

The NYT came up with 10 Rules For Blogging the other day. What do they have to say?

-What should be avoided in all of them is any hint of racist, sexist or religious bias, or any suggestion of nasty, snide, sarcastic, or condescending tone — “snark.”
-If something could easily fit in a satirical Web site for young adults, it probably shouldn’t go into the news pages of nytimes.com.
-Contractions, colloquialisms and even slang are, generally speaking, more allowable in blogs than in print.
-Obscenity and vulgarity are not.
-Unverified assertions of fact, blind pejorative quotes, and other lapses in journalistic standards don’t ever belong in blogs.
-Writers and editors of blogs must also distinguish between personal tone and voice and unqualified personal opinion.
-A blog or news column has to give readers the arguments and factual information that led to the writer’s conclusion — enough argument and fact on both or all sides of the issue to enable the reader to decide whether to agree or disagree
-That does not apply to editorials or Op-Ed columns, which “are not intended to give a balanced look at both sides of a debate,” as the Readers’ Guide says.
-Headlines on analysis should try to capture the debate rather than taking sides in it.
-If the comments contain vulgarity, obscenity, offensive personal attacks, say that somebody “sucks,” or are incoherent, moderators are advised just to chuck them out.

So apparently I fail at blogging. Yup. Or the NYT doesn't really understand blogging. One of the two. I'm going with the second one, not for my own sake, but because the most popular blogs I know are highly opinionated, snarktastic, and very fond of all things obscene and vulgar. Which, let's face it, is kind of the point of blogging, isn't it? That everyone can have their own voice and we don't have to pretend to be all professional and unbiased like the newspeople?

Stolen from andpuff.

You Are An ENFP

The Inspirer You love being around people, and you are deeply committed to your friends. You are also unconventional, irreverent, and unimpressed by authority. Incredibly perceptive, you can usually sense if someone has hidden motives. You use lots of colorful language and expressions. You're quite the storyteller! In love, you are quite the charmer. And you are definitely willing to risk your heart. You often don't follow through with your flirting or professed feelings. You break a lot of hearts. At work, you are driven but not a workaholic. You just always seem to enjoy what you do. You would make an excellent entrepreneur, politician, or journalist. How you see yourself: compassionate, unselfish, and understanding When other people don't get you, they see you as: gushy, emotional, and unfocused

Hmm... I dunno, I can be as selfish as anyone else. The politician thing is cracking me up, though. Can anyone really see that? Really?

It's March. It's also -40. Someone needs to inform the Canadian weather that we're supposed to be warming up for spring now.

Saw Luke Doucet in concert last night. He plays much better when his hand isn't broken. No, really, last time he was in town, he had broken his hand and played the show anyway. That, my friends, is gumption. At any rate, good show! He plays a nice blend of folky pop-rock. Sounds confusing, but hey, it works for him. Canadian artists are awesome. Proven fact.

In completely unrelated news, how not to describe your heroine in two pages or less:

http://vandonovan.livejournal.com/1088311.html

(Seriously, two pages of contradictory similes? Who published this?!? Were heavy bribes and/or alcohol involved?)

Alright, for those of you who are dying to know (which is probably just the cat; he wants to know his food will still be served on schedule), we've done the calculations and will be making the same convention rounds as last year. For those new to the program, that means:

Keycon: May 15-17, in Winnipeg. Last I heard, they were going to put me up on a couple of panels, likely because they figured if they couldn't keep me quiet, they might as well give me something to do. Details still pending, although they got pretty excited when they heard I'm an online reviewer. Trouble? We'll see.

Polaris: July, 10-12, in Toronto. Just attending this one (I think). I'm pretty easy to find around the literary circuit, though, if one was to be looking.

Central Canada Comic Con: Oct 31-Nov 1, in Winnipeg. We'll at least be popping in, assuming we can make time somewhere between Halloween and our anniversary (a romantic way to spend the day, right?).

Anyone planning on attending any of these cons should let me know, so we can hook up. Actually, anyone just planning to be in the area on or around those dates should make some time so I can meet up with you (Toronto folk, I'm looking at you!).

Can't tell where my base of operations is at all, can you? Next year we might have to look into the cost effectiveness of getting a little further away from home. Hmm...

Alright, so with all the e-books I've been getting lately, I finally broke down and put up the cash for a dedicated e-book reader. Staring at the computer screen for too many hours at a time gives me headaches, and my progress is a lot slower, since I can't exactly take my desktop with me on the go. I do a lot of reading curled up in bed or in the bathtub, as those are some of the few times I get without having little people on top of me (and believe me, it's hard to concentrate on what you're reading when they're mugging for attention, no matter how absorbing the book is).

A lot of authors/publishers/etc like to send out the e-book version for reviewers, and I can see the logic in that. It would certainly be more cost effective on their part, saving on both the printing and shipping. So alright. The content is the same, and with a portable e-book reader, I might even enjoy reading them.

I got it in the mail the other day, and this creature is sexy. It's shiny and red, and I don't get headaches from staring at the bigger-than-I-expected screen. Does this make me a convert to e-books? Still too early to tell, really. Although it's a lot harder to stalk authors and force them to sign your entire book collections when you only have e-books, so I'm not sure I'll ever fully convert.

This does, however, bring up a complication. I have a tendancy to name my electronics, and I can't decide on what name best suits my sexy new e-reader. So feedback please! (In case anyone was wondering, my ipod's name is Steve. There's a long story behind it, one that only makes sense to me.)

Poll #1349962
This poll is closed.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 3

What should I name my sexy new e-reader?

Yeah... that's kind of like the time I asked my English teacher "since a double negative is gramatically incorrect because it technically means the opposite of what we're actually trying to say, does that mean a triple negative is ok?"

He never did answer me, the jerk.

So it seems genrereviews has been going for one full year, as of today. So... happy bloggiversary to us! For anyone who's not watching the bookeriffic blog, that means we're hosting an awesome giveaway, which I highly recommend everyone go check out.

For the record? When I started that beast up, I had no idea how much of a time vacuum it was going to be. Of course, if I had known, I think I would have done it anyway, because it's been a lot of fun.

Has Star Wars permeated our culture so thoroughly that even people who haven't seen the movies know what exactly goes on in the story? Let's find out! Joe Nicolosi gets the movie summary from a friend who hasn't seen the films, and puts it together with sympathetic visuals:


Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

I'm rather fond of Leia's gold suit and the relation between Chewy and the ewoks, myself.