mariness

Well, as I feared, most of my pictures did not come out. On the bright side, since my camera is an excessively cheap one, it's easy for me to blame the camera, not the photographer. (I also had my iTouch around, but I keep forgetting that can take pictures.)

( Cut for large and in this case not very good pictures. )

The initial, picture-free report! (I haven't actually had the chance to look through my pictures yet, not that I took many since my cheap camera kept objecting to the light, even when my camera and I were in nice cheery sunlight.)

( Cut for length and continued suppression of the pajama incident. )

I have just spent some quality time inside a steampunk submarine and killing some bunnies.

Not surprisingly, this has greatly improved my mood and left me woozy and ready for bed. Later all.

S, C and I are off for Gen Con tomorrow, which means my access to and time on the internet will be greatly limited for a week or so. So, some small things before I go, in case I don't get around to it tomorrow:

1. The usual Tor.com post should be up on Thursday, as I continue to read my way through the works of Edith Nesbit.

2. This got kinda lost in all of the LJ troubles of last week, but, Bull Spec #6, which features a little poem of mine, "Petals," is available for sale in print or pdf format. It's got lots of good stuff in it.

3. Bull Spec also has some good buzz about the upcoming issue of Fantastique Unfettered #3. (Link is to the Bull Spec review; for some reason Blogger is telling me that I am not allowed to access Fantastique Unfettered at the moment. The internet. It is such fun.) This issue features poems by lots of people, as well as short fiction from me and

skogkatt AND an interview with Mike Allen (

time_shark. I believe it's coming out at the end of the month, and I'll have more information about it then.

4. If you have any pity to spare, and I realize this week you might not, send it to a very sad little black and white cat, who saw me packing up the suitcase today. He put two of his toy mice in it, in a hopeful sort of way, and I had to break the bad news to him that the Indianapolis Convention Center is most unreasonable on the subject of cats, even over friendly ones. I'm just grateful that I found the mice before I left (although I'm sure he'll try to sneak one in again) and that I've mostly kept him out of the suitcase, but this is a very sad little cat right now, hiding under the bed, with even his companion in naps ignoring him. On a related note the Grey One is highly irritated that I dared – dared – enter the closet when she was using it for napping periods, which is just Not Ok, even though I have informed her that everyone in this house is out of the closet, including her, and in any case this house is filled with several excellent napping areas. This argument went nowhere.

The Little One is rarely this upset when I pack (then again, I rarely pack in advance, so I suspect he thought I was leaving today), but the last time I packed up this suitcase was World Fantasy Con, which was also the same time we moved, and he came into a new house without me.

Right! Appearances! Where I will be in 2011:

1) Driving arrangements permitting, I should be stopping by the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts. I have absolutely no schedule for this, so if you are planning on being there, and want to meet up, let me know and I'll try to work something out.

2) MegaCon 2011, Orlando, on Saturday, March 26th, probably someplace by the Legos and the robots. Or just wandering around. There is a small chance I may also be there on Sunday, but that's entirely dependent on the schedules of other people who are planning to make up their minds about this in March, probably that Friday :) So this is not exactly a set planned thing.

3) GenCon 2011, Indianapolis, August 4-7, 2001. We will actually be arriving Wednesday night and leaving at some point on Sunday. This is where I turn from writer to gamer, so I will not be part of the Writers Symposium. Despite some rather sarcastic suggestions that I, you know, try to actually see the entire con instead of just the board gaming part of it, I expect you will probably be able to find me at the board gaming part of it. Or in line for coffee. It's a gaming con.

4) World Fantasy Con, San Diego, October 27-30, 2011. Once again, fluid schedule.

Still up in the air: Readercon, World Con and, yes, DragonCon. Unfortunately, that nasty bugbear finances, which, honestly, we, as a nation, or at least we, as artists, should have evolved past by now, is making Readercon and World Con not seem all that likely. DragonCon...ah, yes. Well. We'll see.

Notes: We began encountering major, but major, disability access problems right after our arrival, most of which I may be covering in a separate post. Assume that many of the time gaps are filled by my irritated realizations that I can't actually get where I am trying to get, thanks to stairs, holes, lack of elevators, or other issues. (The others are filled with resting at the hotel or lounge or gaming.)

Also, certain incidents have been removed to protect the guilty. For instance, it's entirely possible that a pillow fight occurred at some point during the con, but I can neither confirm nor deny whether or not said incident actually took place.

Also, I took far more pictures than this, but as it turns out, my camera hates, but hates, indoor shots - as the following pictures will amply demonstrate.

( Cut for large images, including steampunk wheelchairs, three dimensional chess, and my Stitch backpack commandeering stuff. )

Part one of the catching up on blogging begins, as I finally work out how to get my trip notes off the iTouch and more or less into the temporary and overworked netbook computer. Grr.

5:00 pm Effort to start journey with a bite to eat at Burger King severely derailed by refusal of Burger King to serve us food.

5:05 The McDonald's across the street tries the astounding business tactics of taking customer's orders and money and serving them food. This works well.

5:06 S corrupts nearby small children by blowing straw wrappers at me.

6:10 Light, happy rain becomes massive, heavy, unhappy rain.

6:12 Rain ends.

6:19 Torrential rain returns. Welcome to Florida.

6:20 S confesses that the rain is maybe just possibly, because of his earlier rain dance, done to save Florida from a drought. We are not impressed with the timing of his selflessness.

7:30 I begin to sing along to Police songs with varying voices. This is not as appreciated as it ought to be.

7:50 Stephen Lynch CD inserted into car player. Everyone cheers up.

9:00 Rain in Georgia.

9:15 Rain, flooding, construction, construction flooding in Georgia.

9:16 Clearly, Georgia hates us.

9:17 We are honestly not sure what we ever did to Georgia.

9:55 Angst at Georgia causes us all to butcher Billy Joel songs.

11:35 Assure everyone that since traffic is finally moving and since my feet are propped up in the back seat I should be able to push just a little further.

11:45 Traffic stops dead.

12:45 am, Wednesday: Still stuck in same traffic jam, barely moving. "Atlanta's exciting," C says, in entirely unconvincing tone. "My favorite part of the trip so far."

12:46 am Move directly under underpass during great comedy bit on Sirius radio, completely missing the punchline.

12:47 am S and I are no longer as fond of Atlanta.

1:05 am We finally collapse at a hotel, having accidentally missed the exits to cheaper hotels. I cannot find myself caring much.

8:19 am I explain in calm and reasonable tones that if I am not given coffee, death will occur.

9:06 am I refrain from buying a Singing Hat at Cracker Barrel. For the safety of my companions, of course, even companions claim this is for my own safety.

10:34 am Another traffic nightmare alleviated by sarcastic Oz buffet songs!

10:35 No one else in car thinks this actually alleviates the traffic at all. "BUT IT'S OZ!" I protest.

10:36 I am alone in my Oz love. Not, alas, alone on the highway, where apparently the entire state has decided to congregate, just for fun.

11:20 Tennessee! We love Tennessee! Nobody will be driving as much in Tennessee!

11:21 I am as always overly optimistic.

1:50 pm Pass a guy in an all white Chrysler PT Cruiser, optimized with all white tinted windows and a gleaming white bicycle. C delighted that he can pass someone and make fun of their dorkiness while he is on his way to a gaming convention.

2:30 S asks what one movie character we would want to hang out with.

"Aragorn! Though that's more seeing than hanging out with..."

"Character or actor?" asks S suspiciously.

"Oh."

C picks Tony Stark.

2:35 Since I am unable to answer the hanging out question, I am instead asked who I would want as an evil overlord. This is a problem. I have several issues with Darth Vader's efficiency – after all, the dude lost not one, but TWO expensive Death Stars under his watch, not to mention losing those valuable prisoners Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia (twice), Han Solo (ok, this is slightly arguable but let us at least say, let Han Solo be taken to a not at all secure area where he was easily revived and rescued) but on the other hand, if you have to have an evil overlord at all, your chances of living might be better under an inefficient one, but on the other other hand, that death toll on the Death Stars was pretty high, so...

2:36 Accused of overthinking this.

2:46 The U.S. has a...National Corvette Museum? What I learn on drives. Do we really need this?

3:15 It becomes increasingly clear that Kentucky drivers, as a group, are not good with the concept of the passing lane.

5:39 pm WE ARRIVE!

Back home. Feeling sick, so posting my post from Saturday that didn't go up because of internet issues.

1. I have found a

dragonbane and a

bijili! Also a Jennifer Brozek and a Jason Sizemore and a lot of other people. It's a crowded con.

2. Secret message to my father: Stormtroopers. Stormtroopers in kilts!

3. Secret message to

silviamg and

thesnowleopard: tables and tables of Cthulhu and Arkham Horror games. It's working.

4. Secret message to

anaisis: jewelry. Tacky and non-tacky.

5. Secret message to everybody else: Singing pirates. The world needs more of these.

6. Contrary to popular opinion, I have not spent the entire con so far playing various versions of Settlers of Catan (specifically, the Trails to Rails game.) However it would not be correct to say that I have not graced them with my presence.

7.Not working: Disability access. This is bad, very bad; I'll be writing more about this later (and the city of Indianapolis will be hearing from me.) ON the bright side the scooter and I have only fallen into a busy street once [edit: three times] and were immediately helped by awesome congoers and a robot. But.

8. Disability access aside, the con is awesome.

Real updates about robot wars, my Stitch, the mararena, steampunk wheelchairs, and other assorted matters forthcoming in a couple days.

Internet access: surprisingly good.

Disability access: surprisingly bad.

More later, after I drown my sorrows in coffee. Gamers are calling.

1. From multiple sources on the net, this, from the good folks at the Christian Science Monitor, may just be the headline of the year: "Monkeys hate flying squirrels, report monkey-annoyance experts....The research could pave the way for advanced methods of enraging monkeys." (I am quoting. Directly.)

Had I but known, before now, that people could actually have careers in enraging monkeys and developing advanced methods to do so, my life would be very, very different. And undoubtedly haunted by raging packs of infuriated monkeys wielding Stitch toys and wearing hulu skirts shrieking that I have halted their can-can lessons. Or something.

Anyway, good to know that in this, the monkeys are On Our Side.

2. Tropical Storm Colin forms in the Atlantic.

2. You know, back in the day, preparing for travel sort of went like this;

Put things in bag.
Put books in bag.
Go.

These days, preparing for travel involves charging the scooter, the phone, the netbook, the Sony reader, the iPod - I could probably add more if needed. Charge then travel. In contrast to the medieval method of travel, then horse charge!

3. Speaking of which, a general reminder that my internet access from tonight until at least Sunday will probably be spotty/limited/not a major priority, although I'll still be trying to check email and Twitter on occasion, and may try to sneak in a blog post now and again.

I've been afraid to blog about this, convinced that once I announced this online, something would come up to stop me. Said something may still come up.

But for now, I shall brave karma and note that yes, S, C and I are heading to Gen-Con next week!

In theory, we shall have internet access at the hotel and/or at the VIP lounge at the con. In practice, I've found that hotel/con internet access is a bit fuzzy, although I'll be carting the netbook along. So, if you are going to be around, and if you are interested in meeting up, let me know now so we can exchange other contact info and good stuff. Or, just look wherever they are having board games. Chances are good that I'll appear there at least once. Ok, probably more than once.

And yes, plans are still afoot for World Fantasy Con in October.

The meandering words of Mari Ness

A few -- a very few -- pictures from Gen Con

Lessons learned from Gen Con

Steampunk improvements

Various notes about various things

Upcoming cons and stuffage

Con report, day two: the actual con

Gen Con report part one...getting there

Not real update again

Excessively summarized initial Gen Gon report

Flying squirrels, monkeys, tropical storms, charging and other whatevers

Gen Con!

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