So far at the World Fantasy Convention, I:
– caught a part of the Amazon, Goodreads, NetGalley, and Edelweiss, Oh My! panel
– saw Sheree Renée Thomas, Ellen Datlow, Ann VanderMeer, Rich Horton, and Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald in “A Gathering of Voices: The Importance of Anthologies.”
(OH, AND I JUST GOT THE WORDPLAY IN THE TITLE–HA!)
The energy, rapidity, experimentation, and range of the short story being celebrated by powerful editors still excited by the work was pretty great!
– downloaded a bunch of books in my virtual book bag, including:
- Maurice Broaddus’s Pimp My Airship
- S. Quiouyi Lu’s Inhalations
- an anthology called The Devil’s Ways
- an issue of Uncanny Magazine
- Small Gods
- Beautiful Venom
- a poetry sample of Mary Soon Lee’s Sign of the Dragon
…oh, you know. Stuff.
– chatted away with Sharon Shinn in Facebook private messages JUST LIKE CATCHING HER IN THE HALLWAY AND DRAGGING HER AWAY FOR TEA (not easy to find people at this con) (apparently they’re trying to get a Discord up by tomorrow)
– went and bought the Dominion anthology because I liked what Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald had to say on the anthologies panel
– And then I watched the Queering Fantasy panel with Cheryl Morgan, Corry L. Lee, S. Qiouyi Lu, and Jerome Stueart. Love the subtlety of queer representation in a work of art vs queer ideology in a work of art.
– opening ceremonies now
Gonna hop off to watch Kenesha Williams ROCK her Author Guest of Honor slot at J9 Vaughn’s NO SHUSH SALON, which I adore. Carlos and I have been guests there before.
And then I’ll try to catch Matt Kressel’s reading, and the latter part of Black Women in Fantasy.
ETA: THE MATT KRESSEL READING WAS AMAZING! I NEED THAT NOVELLA! It’s something like Trash Junker Jess or Space Junk Jess or something–no, it’s SPACE TRUCKER JESS–but it’s a working title, so whatever, and anyway, it MUST BE MINE!
Also, I caught the last half of Black Women in Fantasy, with Sheree Renée Thomas (thunder and lightning and ancient futures!), Eugen Bacon (so deeply in love with words and playfulness), Christine Taylor-Butler (I always like to hear her speak; so smart!!!), and Nkenna Onwuzuruoha (wonderful moderator, deeply listening to everything everyone was saying).
C.S.E. Cooney 