My friends list is going to fill up with this in about five minutes, but I have to say something anyway. Author Iain Banks has just announced he has terminal cancer. God damn it. I *like* Iain Banks. I was very much looking forward to seeing him again at WorldCon in London. Dammit, dammit, dammit. I met Iain at MeCon in Belfast not long after moving to Ireland, but long enough that I was a guest at the convention. Dinner with Iain, his partner Adele, and several others was the…
We’re back from EasterCon, which was an excellent mix of meeting up with old friends and making new ones. My most excellent writer friends Kari Sperring and Juliet E. McKenna were instrumental in this year’s EasterCon, so I’m particularly happy that it was this year I finally got to *go*. All the other committee members I met were also wonderful people, and they did an absolutely fantastic job putting together a magnificently diverse and interesting program. The past few years EasterCon’s had a commitment to gender parity on the panels,…
Judith Tarr is doing another Kickstarter! This one’s space opera. I cannot wait to read it. I am full of joy and happiness that she’s running another Kickstarter, and just *glows* We live in such a cool time right now, for writers (for artists!). The ability to connect directly with our readers, to offer projects like this, to try things we might not otherwise get a chance to…it’s just such an amazing thing, something that ten years ago would have been just about impossible to comprehend, and I’m so delighted…
Judith Tarr is running a sale on her mentoring package (which she is extending through next week, so I’ll update this link later with the new information, but I wanted to get it down so I didn’t forget!). Judy is one of the most brilliant writers I’ve ever read, so she’s well worth hiring if you’re in the market for a writing mentor! Tim Pratt’s Kickstarter ends in just a few hours! I like the Marla books because Marla is such an in-your-face protagonist–not the nicest person in the world,…
We had a very busy and lovely weekend in these parts. Friday was my sister’s work-in-progress performance of the musical she’s writing. It was *splendid*, with four songs, the first of which was so awesome that the audience just sat there gaping at the end of it. The others were equally good, and the audience (of 60-70, which is a quite remarkably full house for the venue and for a work-in-progress) was utterly rapt. I filmed it, and when she puts together her promotional video I’ll link to it here.…