Andy's bright ideas.

...wrote the Hugo nominated novel Feed under the nom de plume word-processor Mira Grant. It was included in the download available for people eligible to vote for the Hugo awards, which are science fictions premier awards. Obviously all the novels, novellas, and so on are in one or another e-book format, so it was convenient to read them on my e-reader rather than on the computer.

As best I can describe it, Feed mugged me and didn't let me put down the e-reader for long until I had finished. By then I had the second in the trilogy from Amazon. The third won't be out for about 10 months <sigh>. I voted for it as my first choice in the Hugo ballot, although perhaps it is not a big surprise that Blackout/All Clear actually won. The works nominated were all very good, so an excellent novel won, and other excellent ones didn't, but all are worth reading.

Because I had so much enjoyed the novels written under a pseudonym, I went to the dealers room and bought the first of a series written under her own name, Rosemary and Rue. After reading a couple of chapters, I was confident that I was enjoying this different series so I bought the others in the series. Soon after that Seanan McGuire was on a panel I went to, and after it finished she signed the two that were not already signed when I bought them.

Today I went to a reading (typically half hour sessions in which an author reads from a work in progress or not yet actually released), which was from the latest in the series. After the session I asked when it was to be published. The answer was September in the USA, then, seeing my membership badge showing I am from the UK, she gave me the copy she had been reading from, because it won't be published so soon there (soon to be here).

Hibernia said that is the way to gain a fan, but I pointed out she already did that by writing stories I enjoy reading. I do like the attitude that Seanan McGuire demonstrated, though, and I'd certainly offer her a drink if I noticed her in a bar.

The journey home for Denvention was tedious but we arrived on time. Immigration was over in about 2% as long as in the USA - but I think that most countries allow their own citizens to return home with much less delay and officialdom than they allow tourists in.

Science fiction conventions (and events such as Oxonmoot) are the longest sustained periods when, it seems to me, I am among people with whom it is possible to have a relaxed conversation without, for example, having to figure out what part of what I think of as a common cultural background they won't have any referent for. It is part of the relatively small proportion of the year I don't feel that I am living among aliens, sometimes of questionable rationality.

Since I am techie all through just like the lettering in Blackpool rock, it also helps that I don't get the impression from those who are not themselves involved in science or technology that is is somehow beneath them. That cannot be said, on average, of RL.

We made a couple of new friends, one of whom is on LJ (hi wouldyoueva {fx: waves}). I got books signed by Charlie Stross and Tanya Huff, and have enough to read that I now need a reading holiday. I first started reading Charlie Stross' fiction because he spoke interestingly on panels at Eastercon. With Tanya Huff I started by reading the first two Confederation novels in a single volume, then found the Vicki Nelson/Henry Fitzroy series, and found that she is interesting on panels, and manages both to be insightful and make me laugh.