Jay Lake: Writer

[conventions|personal] The SFWA Portland Reading Series, other miscellany

the_child and I attended the SFWA Portland Reading Series last night. Mary Robinette Kowal introduced, John Pitts hosted and read, while Ken Scholes and David D. Levine rounded out the bill. It was a lot of fun, and we heard some great fiction.

I also had a lot of fun watching the_child work the room, both at the pre-dinner and during the pre-show and intermission breaks at the reading. She was cruising around being friendly and articulate both to old friends and to new folks she’d never met before. Whatever life has in store for her, this girl’s ease with people will be a big part of it.

Due to the various time commitments yesterday, I barely squeaked in an hour of Sunspin revision. Still, I am drawing close to being done with these — perhaps another week of effort, I’m not certain. I’m beating the bushes for another few first readers, because I’d like one more reality check before submitting this to la agente for send-out.

Today I’ll be fairly busy, and most of the weekend will be taken up with supervising the_child‘s labors on her eighth grade project, about which more anon when the time is right.

Tags: Books, Child, Conventions, friends, Personal, Sunspin, Writing

Posted: 6:31 am Wed February 01 2012 | Comments(1) |

[conventions] Announcing JayCon XII

In celebration of my natal anniversary, JayCon XII, my 12th annual 37th birthday party, is Saturday, June 9th, 2012 from 2 to 5 pm at the Flying Pie in SE Portland. We’re partying because I was born, and because I have beat cancer again and again.

If you can read this, you’re invited. Prior JayCon experience not required.

Note that I am announcing this early because people always tell me, “You should have told me sooner!” Except for the people who tell me, “It’s too soon, remind me later.” (Sometimes these are the same people.)

Flying Pie Pizzeria
7804 SE Stark Street
Portland, 97215
(503) 254-2016

http://www.flying-pie.com/

[ Google Maps ]

As is traditional for JayCon, Paul M. Carpentier is specifically not invited.

Tags: Cancer, Conventions, health, JayCon, Personal, Portland

Posted: 6:30 am Thu January 26 2012 | Comments(0) |

[conventions] I will be reading at SF in SF, February 11th, 2012

Ok, not really a convention, but I don’t have a tag for ‘events’ or ‘readings’. I probably should, huh?

At any rate, I’ll be reading at SF in SF on Saturday, February 11th, 2012, along with K.W. Jeter, hosted by Terry Bisson — two of the more interesting people I know. My appearance there is being sponsored by my publisher, Tor Books, as part of a tour for the recent release of my second Green novel, Endurance [ Powells | BN ].

We’ll be appearing at The Variety Preview Room at 582 Market St. @ Montgomery, 1st floor of The Hobart Bldg. [ Google Maps ] Doors open at 6:00 pm and the event starts at 7:00 pm. I believe I’ll be reading something connected to Sunspin. If you’re in the Bay Area, come on down for an evening of live science fiction reading and discussion.

Hope to see you there!

Tags: Books, California, Conventions, Endurance, Green, Sunspin

Posted: 6:44 am Wed January 25 2012 | Comments(1) |

[conventions|travel] Epic ConFusion Day Three, going home

Day three of Epic Confusion was very abbreviated for me, as I had to leave the hotel at 10:30 am in order to make my flight home. Still, I managed to attend a very nice breakfast, courtesy of cathshaffer and various concom folks, and say good-bye to a bunch of people by virtue of loitering in the lobby while my airport transportation ran 40 minutes late.

Which, yes, gave me a bad case of the “oh crap”s.

Nonetheless, I made it into DTW in a timely fashion. The flight down to DFW was uneventful, and I got the first part of what would eventually be 2.75 hours of editing on Sunspin done. I spent the rest of my time divided between Charlie Stross’ Laundry books and Saladin Ahmed’s Throne of the Crescent Moon, both of which I’m enjoying immensely. I don’t normally split my attention between two books, but I have Stross in eBook and Ahmed in dead tree, and the exigencies of air travel caused me to have to switch modes periodically.

In Dallas, we took a long time landing due to the 50 mph cross-winds on the runway slowing air traffic down severely. That also slowed down the arriving flight that would become the equipment for my Portland connection, to the degree of being almost two hours late. So much for my plan of flying through Dallas to avoid winter weather delays in Chicago or Denver. So much for a good night’s sleep, as well.

Anent Sunspin, I got through the first revision pass of the first half of Calamity of So Long a Life, and began embedding the comments for an initial pass through the second half. Right now, I’m actually a bit ahead of schedule for what I expected on this book. I think that’s a good thing, but it might also mean I have been skimming work when I should be digging deeper. We shall see…

Also, I forgot to mention that at Epic Confusion adelheid-p gave me a very nice gift. I need to thank her, and will post photos and a description some time in the net few days as time permits.

This afternoon is another girls’ basketball game, though the_child has been down with a respiratory infection the last few days, so it’s not clear if she’ll be able to play. She gets sick so rarely, this is unusual.

And of course, now that I’m home, Day Jobbery.

Tags: Books, Calamity, Child, Conventions, Sunspin, Travel, work, Writing

Posted: 6:42 am Mon January 23 2012 | Comments(0) |

[conventions] Epic ConFusion Day One

Yesterday was another fun day. I got up, worked out, blogged, but didn’t have time to write before my 10 am reading with Howard Andrew Jones. We were very lightly attended, but still had fun. Then I was loose for a while until a lunch date with Elizabeth Bear and Scott Lynch, which we took offsite and spent a bunch of time catching up. The afternoon brought the panel on the trilogy as a base unit of fantasy, with Joe Abercrombie, Saladin Ahmed, Bradley Beaulieu, Michelle Sagara West. (That’s a heck of a panel crew, by the way.)

After that it was barcon, hanging out with all kinds of folks including the delightful Amy Sundberg, except for a break for the mass signing, which I spent most of chatting with Cat Rambo and, well, signing things. Dinner in the bar, and later I hit Saladin Ahmed’s book launch party before packing it in. I also managed to score a copy of his new book, Throne of the Crescent Moon [ Powells | BN ], which I am excited about reading.

Photo credit to theferrett. Shot on my iPhone.

This morning I am packing and leaving too early to really have any Con time to speak of. To my chagrin, I found that I left the 9VDC adapter clip of my MacBook Air’s airline/car charger in the socket of the plane I flew out on. I sure hope Apple will sell me that as a replacement part, otherwise I’m going to have to spring for a whole new one. My shuttle for the airport leaves in a couple of hours. I’m sorry to miss the last day of Epic Confusion, as I’ve had a great deal of fun here.

Tags: Books, Conventions, Tech, Travel, Writing

Posted: 6:24 am Sun January 22 2012 | Comments(0) |

[conventions] Epic ConFusion Day One

Yesterday was a lot of a fun, and a bit blurry. I slept fairly late, but still managed to work out and get some writing in before descending into the maw of the convention. Hung about with a number of folks in the bar, splitting a light lunch with Cat Rambo, then went off to the authors’ AD&D game (a/k/a NerdFest 2012) where I sat in for Scott Lynch for a couple of hours until he and Elizabeth Bear made it in. (My personal high point was casting a Hypnotize spell on a rampaging ogre and ordering him to vomit, which disrupted his attack.)

That was followed by dinner in the bar, where someone, and I have no idea who, picked up my bill from afar. Thank you, unknown benefactor. I then went off to my panel on Gender, Race and Class, which I wound up moderating. It went unusually well for such difficult topics. The rest of the evening I spent in the bar floating amongst Doselle Young, Saladin Ahmed, John Scalzi and various others. As a result, I may be writing a short story called “The Transubstantiation of Chocolate” featuring a conquistador named Juan de Scalzo and an Aztec demon name Chocolatl. Such are the perils of conventiongoing.

I have a reading this morning, a panel this afternoon on trilogies, and a signing this evening. Otherwise I shall be in the bar today, which is very congenial here. My schedule being what it is, I suspect I’m going to have to take a bye on writing for the day, but I’ll make up for it tomorrow whilst traveling home.

Have fun, be well, and see some, all or none of you here at Epic Confusion.

Tags: Conventions, friends, Personal, stories, Writing

Posted: 6:52 am Sat January 21 2012 | Comments(0) |

[conventions|personal] At Epic Confusion

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I got up stupid early, cabbed it to the airport, got checked in and settled and eventually on my plane. The flights were easy and uneventful, and I managed both some fairly serious napping and 2.5 hours of revision work on Sunspin, as well as some pleasure reading. I’ve got Charlie Stross’ The Atrocity Archives on the iPad, and Christopher Moore’s The Stupidest Angel in dead tree edition for those times when the iPad isn’t practical (or, on the airlines, allowed).

The lovely and talented cathshaffer was kind enough to meet me at DTW, and drive me to the con hotel. We made it just in time for the GoH dinner, where we sat with some of the entertaining and interesting folks who run Confusion.

Afterwards I hung out in the bar for several ours with Joe Abercrombie, Peter Brett, Myke Cole, Jim C. Hines, Yanni Kuznia, Patrick Rothfuss and and Brent Weeks. They were rolling up first edition AD&D characters for an author’s game today, I was kibitzing. (As it happens, I may wind up sitting in on the game this afternoon, as Elizabeth Bear and Scott Lynch may not arrive in time to take up their arms and do battle.) That was a pretty hilarious evening, and gave many high school flashbacks. Plus Doselle Young bought us all pizza around 11 pm. Here is a Peter V. Brett photo of us.

I have also taken advantage of the fact that I’m three time zones away from home to allow myself some natural time shifting. Staying up til midnight isn’t so draining when your body still thinks it’s 9 pm.

This morning I’ll be working on Sunspin some more, then down to the convention to get my reg sorted out. The author’s D&D game is at 2 pm, so I’ll be there, then I have a panel at 7 pm this evening. It’s a good day.

Tags: Books, Conventions, Personal, Sunspin, Travel, Writing

Posted: 8:46 am Fri January 20 2012 | Comments(0) |

[travel|conventions] Off to Epic Confusion

It’s early and I’m hitting the road for Michigan to attend Epic Confusion, thanks to the good offices of a number of folks who are sponsoring my trip. I’m looking forward to spending time with rarely-seen friends, and meeting many new folks from Midwestern fandom and writerdom.

As an FYI, here is a repost of my schedule there:

I will otherwise be in the bar, the dealer’s room or at parties. Find me and visit a while. Unfortunately, due to my needing to be at the airport midday Sunday, I won’t be able to make any Sunday programming. See some, all or none of you there.

Tags: Conventions, Travel

Posted: 5:49 am Thu January 19 2012 | Comments(0) |

[conventions] Epic ConFusion schedule

Once more with thanks to the generous folks who are sponsoring me to Epic ConFusion, here is my schedule.

I will otherwise be in the bar, the dealer’s room or at parties. Find me and visit a while. Unfortunately, due to my needing to be at the airport midday Sunday, I won’t be able to make any Sunday programming. See some, all or none of you there.

Tags: Conventions, Travel

Posted: 7:56 am Sat January 07 2012 | Comments(0) |

[conventions] I’m going to ConFusion

Thanks to the good offices and extreme generosity of anonymous persons with discriminating tastes, I will be a surprise (to me) guest at Epic ConFusion in January.

This will be my first post-chemotherapy convention appearance, so I’ll be running a bit low and slow. Still, I’ll be there from Thursday evening til Sunday midday, and am really looking forward to experiencing the hospitality of a whole new-to-me community. I’ll be on programming, and make myself available in the bar and at parties to the degree my post-chemo energy permits, so if you’re a Midwestern/East Coast reader or writer who wants to connect, please, seek me out. It’s what I’ll be there for. To see you.

Note that I went to ReaderCon last year in part to start meeting more fans and writers who are not West Coast based, in order to know the SF/F community better. When the generous offer to bring me to ConFusion to meet some Midwest fandom and writerdom was tendered, I could hardly say no.

And thank you to those of you for whom thanks is due.

Tags: Conventions, Personal, Travel

Posted: 6:19 am Thu December 22 2011 | Comments(2) |