I was at the tail-end of my illness at Boskone, and spent a lot of time napping and blowing my nose. However. By Saturday I felt so much better than I had in a fortnight, and by Sunday (today) really well!
I loved singing songs from my three Brimstone Rhine recordings with Faye Ringel and Carlos Hernandez. I perforce made Carlos a bit tardy for his Danes are Delicious playtest on the Gaming Track, having failed to inform ops initially that he’d be playing with me. I hope people forgive him his 15 minute tardiness and place all blame squarely on my head!
Anyone who came to the Brimstone Rhine concert who is interested in listening to MORE music and reading along with the lyrics can find everything I did here: BRIMSTONE RHINE ON BANDCAMP!
I adored reading with E. C. Ambrose, Ken Schneyer, Cerece Rennie Murphy, Clarence Young, and Carlos Hernandez in our Unlikely Imaginarium group reading. Here are some places you can find our work:
Zig Zag Claybourne, AKA Clarence Young, read from the sequel to his The Brothers Jetstream: Leviathan.
Cerece Renee Murphy read from her book The Wolf Queen.
E. C. Ambrose read from an unpublished piece, but check out her Dark Apostle series!
Carlos read from Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, out from Disney Hyperion on March 5th. Preorder now!
And I read from my novella Desdemona and the Deep, forthcoming from Tor.com. Preorder now!
… Pardon my imperatives. I just get excited
I was on a panel about music in fantasy, and one on the future of audiobooks. The panelists and moderators on both pretty much blew my mind with the range and depth and force of their knowledge.
Carlos’s last panel today on Exploring Interactive Fiction 101 likewise. High point of my con! My brain was like SCUSE ME CANNOT KEEP SPLODING HOLP PLEEZ! And, honestly, I don’t know if I’ve ever listened to five smarter panelists talk about ANYTHING than Carlos Hernandez, Max Gladstone, Erin Roberts, M. C. DeMarco–Moderator–and Andrea Corbin talking about coding, games, narrative, awareness, audience, text, visual arts, and the interactive fiction market. It was ELECTRIFYING!
Perhaps most special (and close to my heart) was the workshop that Carlos and I co-taught (I sort of wrangled him into teaching with me last minute, and I am so so so so GRATEFUL for his graciousness and generosity in doing so!) this morning. I’ve taught it with Caitlyn Paxson twice (and Amal El-Mohtar once), and once by myself at different Readercons, and this summer I’ll teach a variation of it with Martin Cahill at Readercon. I call it “From Page to Stage: Reading Aloud for Writers.”
I see such a need for so many writers who did not have the benefit of any theatre training or even drama class growing up, but who find themselves having to read in public without any tools. If I–and other performance-minded writers–can convey even a few tips and tricks to make this very difficult thing a LEEETLE easier for our fellow artists, I COUNT MY HOUR WELL-SPENT. Five people came, and I think we all benefited from a small, informal, friendly workshop size. So happy. Teaching is not me at my most comfortable–but that just makes me more empathetic towards my students!
Anyway, a concert, a reading, a workshop, two panels! Any time I do more “other stuff” than “panels,” I’m a pretty happy camper. Especially if “other stuff” means reading aloud and singing. Which, in this case, it did.
Thank you, Erin Underwood, Brenda Noiseux, and all the Boskone ops people for all the hard, intricate work you do.
C.S.E. Cooney 