Other OryCon Oddities

The programming at science-fiction conventions always seems to offer a few delights beyond the expected panels and presentations focused on writing, publishing, and things fanish, and the two OryCons I've attended have been rich with these. At last year's convention, for example, I attended memorable presentations on archery, the dynamics of violence, caring for horses, living off the land, and of course selected science topics. These are all subjects of potential interest to writers of SF and fantasy (readers hate it when writers get basic stuff about horses or physics wrong). This year's programming also contained a bunch of sessions on this sort of "background information," but I only had time for a few. Here, listed randomly, are some highlights gleaned from various panels:

>I heard the discrepancies between the Voyager probes' predicted and actual course described as possible "rounding error in the floating point processor that's simulating the universe."

> Someone said that, according to all the current models of plate tectonics, the Rocky Mountains shouldn't exist.

> Much talk about the inadequacies of the Drake Equation, which purportedly calculates the potential number of extraterrestrial civilizations in our Milky Way galaxy, for example:

• It only considers the possibility of carbon-based life forms. What about other forms?
• Galactic centers are now known to be inhospitable to carbon-based life like us; so that rules out a bunch of stars.
• What about Europa-type planets and other possible abodes of life like planetary crusts that may exist outside the so-called Goldilocks zone?
• Just what is intelligence, anyway?

> At a very interesting panel on metallurgy, the discussion turned to the possibility of refining metals without using heat. Someone mentioned that Brazil nut trees draw radium from the soil and concentrate it in the nuts, making them register significantly higher than the background level on detectors.

I love these little nuggets. I go home and look them up. Ah, sure enough, that's true about Brazil nuts! The Rocky Mountains -- you can check it out if you want.

POD Publishing

At OryCon, I attended several panels and presentations on publishing. My interest in this topic has a couple of sources. First, I want to sell stories and novels to existing publishers. Second, I want to publish a few things myself, i.e., be a publisher.

Print-on-demand (POD) technology and internet marketing now make it easier than ever for anyone to be a publisher, but that's not news. What was news to me was the extent to which many commercially viable small presses (as opposed to home-based, hobby-style entities) and even large publishers are relying on POD. The quality of the physical product is now practically indistinguishable from books printed by the traditional offset method, and for small print runs of trade paperbacks, POD makes economic sense. Of course the quality of the editing and the layout is another matter. I saw some beautiful POD books, and a saw some sloppy ones.

I attended a presentation by Robert Plamondon, who runs a one-man publishing company called Norton Creek Press. Most of his titles are nonfiction on the topic of caring for chickens. Some are authored by him and some are old titles now in the public domain. He's also published his own science fiction novel and a formerly out-of-print role-playing-game book that he'd authored, which was originally published by a traditional press. His chicken books sell best. I think he said he'd sold four copies of his novel to people other than relatives and friends (they were readers who liked his chicken books). Nonfiction is always easier to sell.

I found Plamondon's presentation especially interesting because his publishing business is similar to what I've envisioned for myself -- not hugely ambitious, but not amateurish either. He also uses Lightning Source (LSI) as his printer. My aviation biography of my dad is just now ready to publish, and I'd already decided to use LSI. So I was gratified to learn from Plamondon and other small and mid-size press people at OryCon that I'm on the right track with LSI.

More on OryCon>>>

Flash Fiction

At OryCon 31, I attended a panel on "flash fiction." The panelists were writers and publishers of flash fiction. I didn't know what to expect. I supposed flash fiction might be fiction that's produced rapidly -- in a flash. But it turns out flash fiction refers to stories of extreme brevity -- typically under 1,000 words, although there is no widely accepted length limit. There are lots of markets for flash fiction now -- some paying, most not. A few are print publications, but most are on the internet. Some actually offer their readers a daily e-mail containing a complete flash story.

Of course short-short fiction has been around as since Aesop's Fables, but it seems the form has taken on new life (fits right in with our busy lifestyles and short attention spans). People are even doing Twitter fiction now, which is limited to 140 characters (that's characters, not words!). Someone commented that short fiction in general (not just flash) is currently undergoing a sort of resurgence. I heard a lot about flash and short fiction in general at the convention. Lou Anders (editor guest of honor) said that the cutting edge belongs to the short form. He foresees something like the iTunes model for short fiction.

Anyway I found the idea of flash fiction exciting, as I've been doing my own form of it for some time. Every day I try to turn out a complete piece -- usually fiction -- usually not presentable, trash-ready. My form of flash fiction is indeed produced in a flash. It's a practice, just something to keep my juices flowing, but once in a while I turn out something that, after some polishing, might be acceptable for a flash-fiction market. So I was rapt; I wrote down a dozen or more markets mentioned during the panel. I haven't checked them all out yet.

On to the next OryCon post>>>

Science Fiction Fading, Urban Fantasy Twinkling

Science fiction's star is fading. Not in the movies or on TV or in the gaming universe, but the books are selling less and less. Of course this has been evident for some time, but it's more obvious with each passing year. Fewer titles are being published, and print runs are smaller than ever. Lou Anders, editorial director of Prometheus Books' science fiction imprint Pyr, was editor guest of honor at this year's OryCon, and I saw and heard a lot from him. He's smart, articulate, and very frank.

He says he's not attending the World Science Fiction Convention next year. His convention-attending budget is limited, and WorldCon just isn't worth it any more -- it's gotten too small. World Fantasy Convention attendance has also dwindled to the size of a regional convention. He says both conventions should try having a YA guest of honor (sounds good to me!). On the other hand, DragonCon and Comic-Con International are much more worthwhile, and Anders said he was delighted to find how receptive the attendees of these conventions are to books.

Anders is very enthusiastic about books and literature. At the Sunday morning "Coffee with the Editor" gathering, someone asked him what he's looking for. Anders replied that he's looking for the person who can translate urban fantasy to a historical setting. Well, it made sense when he said it, but now I'm thinking: Isn't that already being done? I guess I missed something there.

By the way, if you're wondering what urban fantasy is, the below-average urban-fantasy setup generally runs something like this: I'm a vampiress with a tattoo and an attitude, and my boyfriend is a werewolf, and the CIA needs our help to combat some unspeakable evil, but a bunch of personal issues are in the way. Come to think of it, that sounds a lot like real life for a lot of people -- if you leave out the part about the CIA and the evil threat.
The readers of UF are mostly women; guys are reading less of everything than they used to. This in part explains the sorry state of written SF, which historically has had a high percentage of male readers.

More on OryCon.

OryCon 31 -- General Observations & Steampunk Stuff

Over the Thanksgiving weekend (Friday--Sunday), Leela and I attended OryCon in Portland. The event is billed as "Oregon's premier science fiction convention." I had attended last year, but this was Leela's first year as an official attendee. The convention was held at the large Portland Doubletree Hotel, and featured a variety of programming, generally focused on science fiction, fantasy fiction, and spin-offs thereof. In addition to the fans, many authors, editors, publishers, and producers attended. Total attendance was about 1,400.

General Observations

Before moving to Oregon, I had been a regular attendee of Austin's ArmadilloCon, which I considered Texas's premier science fiction convention. For me ArmadilloCon is special in that its focus is more literary than most other SF conventions, which tend to have a heavy emphasis on movies, TV, comics, gaming, costuming, etc. So I was a bit leery of OryCon at first, but after this year, I've found that OryCon suits me quite nicely. OryCon's programming seems more diverse than ArmadilloCon; so you see a lot of costumes and much programming that (to me) seems extraneous. But all this does not come at the expense of the literary programming; there were more panels on writing, publishing, and related topics than I could possibly attend. In addition, OryCon provides quite a bit of what I call "background" programming that may be of interest to writers -- panels in which scientists, historians, sociologists, etc. discuss issues in their fields as they relate to science fiction and fantasy.

I noticed a lot of young people at OryCon. From grade-schoolers to teenagers, they were more in evidence than I remember at ArmadilloCon. Over the years, I've heard a lot of moaning at ArmadilloCon about the need for new blood in SF, that the old guard is aging, and so on. Well, I didn't get that feeling so much at OryCon. Of course it's the gaming, the costuming, and media SF that draws the young folks, but that's okay with me. The whole scene just seems more vibrant with them around.

And I really enjoy seeing all those costumes. Even if you're not into dressing up, it's fun being around it. And the costuming is what most attracts Leela; she attended several panels on costuming. Who knows -- maybe I'll do a costume next year! Which brings me to…

Steampunk

Steampunk is huge this year! Steampunk is a literary sub-genre of fantasy and SF that typically features a pseudo-Victorian setting and includes elements of SF or fantasy. In these altered Victorian realities, one might find a dirigible fitted with sails; a steam-powered, clockwork robot; or a vampire having tea with the queen. Steampunk also revels in anachronism and often posits alternate futures in which electricity and the internal-combustion engine have not superseded Victorian-era technology. Although steampunk is retro in its costumes, props, and sets, it's always created by contemporary writers and artists, and often informed by edgy modern sensibilities. So stories by Jules Verne and Arthur Conan Doyle are not steampunk, even though they are science fiction and fantasy of the Victorian era (in other words, the real thing is not the real thing). On the other hand, modern stories featuring Sherlock Holmes or Captain Nemo's Nautilus may be steampunk. Remember The Wild Wild West TV series and movie? That was steampunk. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang might be proto-steampunk. Get the idea?

I've been aware of steampunk as a literary movement for a while but was astonished to see how it had suddenly come to dominate the costuming scene. Everywhere I turned at OryCon, I was running into guys and gals decked out in alternate Victoriana. Gears and old-fashioned gauges are prominent motifs, perhaps suggesting that the character is part machine or at least in close touch with a mechanical sidekick. Headgear includes bowler hats, top hats, pith helmets, and aviator helmets. And then there are the goggles -- elaborate brass and leather creations, some festooned with jewels, extra lenses, gears, and mysterious filigree. I saw one pair that was illuminated from inside by dancing arcs of red light. Yes, brass goggles seem to be the steampunk emblem. They're seldom worn over the eyes but rather up on the hat, as if the character has just emerged from the laboratory where he has been concocting unearthly wonders visible only with the aid of special lenses. Even people who don't bother to get fully costumed in tails and lace and petticoats often don a bowler banded with weird goggles. It's just something you put on to show you're part of the party, like a cowboy-grunge hat at South-by-Southwest. Here, I took some pictures:


Begogled steampunkers. [click photo to enlarge]

One woman, whom I called the Steampunk Princess, had brilliant, red, wavy hair flowing down past her shoulders. This was topped by a tall, white, begoggled pith helmet. Stunning! Later I learned the hair was a wig. Alas, I failed to get her photo.

The winner of the group costume category at Saturday's costume ball, was titled something like "Passengers and Crew of Her Majesty's Airship Somethingorother." Some of them are in the photo collage above.

Where do you get these goggles? Well, you can make them yourself simply by painting and adding accessories to swimming goggled or motorcycle goggles, or you can purchase them from someone in the Dealers' Room at OryCon or similar conventions. A seller of steampunk gear told me he had been in the business of making custom horse tack, but when the recession hit, all that business dried up. His daughter, who was into Goth, suggested he try making some accessories for the Goth crowd, since they like leather. So he did, and he started going to conventions to sell the stuff, and since there's some overlap between the Goth and the Steampunk worlds -- well -- one thing led to another, and here he was standing behind a table arrayed with the strangest eyewear to be found anywhere. I guess Steampunk is recession-proof.


More steampunkiana and assorted fantastica. [click photo to enlarge]

But not everyone was doing steampunk. There was still to be found a sprinkling of barbarians, ghouls, medievalites, spacers, and aliens. I think I saw a couple of Klingons lurking behind a door and a Battle Star Galactica officer looking very lonely. But not a single Spock ear in sight!

Then there were the white-haired science-fiction fans like me, who enjoyed the masquerade but mainly as a diversion between panels and other presentations on literature and science. More about that in the next post...

Leipzig String Quartet

Last night Leela and I attended a concert on the campus of OSU -- three varied works masterfully performed by the Leipzig String Quartet. The first and third offerings were classic works by Mozart and Brahms, both elegantly rendered and warmly received. The second was String Quartet No. 3 "Jagdqartett" by Jorg Widmann (born 1973). It began with all four musicians vigorously swishing their bows in the air and then yelling. The piece progressed through blatantly dissonant runs, aggressive sawing at the strings, odd percussive flourishes, and more rhythmic hollering. It was a very energetic piece, and for me, the spectacle of these virtuosi executing it with such precision alone made it worthwhile. I did, however, feel sorry for the instruments; at the end, all four bows were partially shredded (thankfully this was just before the intermission). As for the piece itself, I must credit my boisterous parrot, Ava, for helping me attain, over the years, a profound appreciation for iconoclastic musical conceits of this sort. Two old men sitting next to me obviously had not benefited from any such tutelage. As the piece came to an end, the two conspicuously withheld their applause. Then one said to the other in a voce hardly sotto: "Just as sh*tty as I thought it would be! Typical contemporary German crap! I want my money back."

Recent psychological experiments have shown that people tend to appraise products more highly when the cost is higher, even in cases where two otherwise identical products are offered for evaluation. For example experts will insist that the wine poured from an expensive bottle is superior to the same stuff served in a bottle featuring a cheep sticker. Well, perhaps this doesn't apply to musical performances. By implication, the gentleman who wanted his money back paid something for the concert. We, on the other hand, got our tickets free from a friend, and I left thinking I would have gladly paid the full $25 ticket price for this experience. More data needed.

Cleaning Trance

In November of 2007, we were still in the midst of getting our Eva Street home ready to sell. We propelled ourselves through an intense period of long days spent packing possessions, getting rid of excess baggage, and sprucing up the old house. I got in the habit of cleaning stuff that I hadn't much bothered with before -- baseboards, corners of closets, window sills, etc. It seemed I always had a couple of cleaning rags going.

Around Thanksgiving we took a break and drove our first truckload of stuff up to Corvallis. We only spent a few days, then returned to Austin to continue packing and divesting ourselves of the old place. During that brief visit to our new hometown, we ate at Sunnyside Up. In the restroom while drying my hands, I noticed that the light-switch cover was very dirty. Without thinking, I started scrubbing it with the wet paper towel I'd just used. I'd cleaned half of it before I realized the absurdity of my action and stopped.

Today Leela and I dined at that restaurant again, and once again I visited the restroom. Remembering my cleaning trance of over a year ago, I noticed that half of the light switch cover was still dirty. So I thought: What the heck! And just cleaned the rest of it.