Pamela D. Lloyd (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pameladlloyd) wrote2009-03-14 08:36 pm
pameladlloyd) wrote2009-03-14 08:36 pm
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Saturday at the Tucson Festival of Books
This morning I worked on some bookmarks advertising TusCon *. I had created the original bookmark file several weeks ago, using some artwork that one of the members (or someone on the concomm? I've never seen a list of who's who), but had a very spacey moment and put the date as 2006, instead of 2009. When my error was pointed out to me, I went back and fixed the error, but ran into technical difficulties having to do with the sizing of the file (important, because the bookmarks were designed to be 2-sided). Eventually there were interruptions, excitements, work on other projects, and more spaciness on my part, and I never got the files finalized and uploaded to the work area. So, before heading for the TFoB, I sat down and threw myself at the files, got the files appropriately sized, fixed some printer alignment issues (Why doesn't the user guide for my printer include any information about forced margins, not even in the troubleshooting section?) and printed out pages that might conceivably be copied onto heavier stock, should the concomm wish to distribute the bookmarks to passersby.
All that, only to discover when I got to the festival that someone had printed a large stack of bookmarks using the uncorrected artwork. So, three or four of us picked up pens or markers and started making corrections by hand.
While I was sitting there, a number of passersby stopped and spoke to us, picked up fliers or bookmarks, and were surprised to learn that Tucson not only has a science fiction convention, but it's been in existence for many years: our upcoming convention will be the 36th annual TusCon. Many of them also picked up fliers for Phoenix conventions, as someone from Phoenix (probably with CASFS, but I don't know for sure) had dropped a bunch with us. In addition to encouraging people to join us for TusCon, we were also making sure that people know about North American Discworld, as Terry Pratchett will be flying in the be the GoH and, given his health concerns, this may be his last appearance in the United States. I hope that at least a few of the people who came by will come to TusCon, which I sometimes think is the best kept secret in science fiction fandom.
Signing books in the booth next door, btw, was![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
janni, author of Bones of Faerie, who was accompanied by lnhammer. Bones of Faerie, which I absolutely love, has been receiving rave reviews and I highly recommend that you check it out, if you haven't already.
After my stint at the booth, I took off to listen to a few panels. My son, Ian, was with me, as he'd given me a lift so my husband could have the car. I wound up tagging along with him andlnhammer to a panel on book illustration. I know Ian had been hoping for something a bit more technical, but we still enjoyed getting a peek at the illustration process for a couple of children's books by Gail Carson Levine, author of Ella Enchanted (Trophy Newbery)
. The books under discussion were a trilogy, the first two of which are already out; the published books are Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg
and Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand
, which were published by Disney Press. Both Levine and the illustrator, David Christiana, were there, so we got to hear both speak about the process. As with most illustrated children's books, David Cristiana was the illustrator chosen by the publisher and neither had met before he did the work on Levine's books.
It was really interesting hearing about how Cristiana looks for the scenes in the story that both capture his imagination and leave him room to add a bit of something to the story. For instance, one of the early pictures is for a scene in which a baby is laughing. The text doesn't mention why the baby laughs, but Cristiana's illustration includes a very silly cat perched on the crib rail and peering upside down through the bars at the baby.
The most fun part of their talk for me was when they encouraged the audience (which included many kids who were clearly very familiar with the earlier books) to participate in helping Cristiana to envision a scene taken from Levine's upcoming, as yet unnamed, sequel. I even got into the act, albeit quietly, by sketching my idea in my notepad.
After that session, Ian and I discussed going to another panel on illustration, but Ian wasn't feeling well and I was tired, so we decided to call it a day. My original plan had been to log on and participate inflycon2009 for a bit, but what really happened is I lay down to take a nap. All I've managed to do since waking was to get a bit to eat, feed the cats, and write this post. Now, I'm off to bed.
* This is the original website that will, eventually, when I complete the work, be replaced by a new, organized website. Someday. Because I haven't been doing so well at getting the new website finished and my available time is about to take a sudden dip. Just in case it's not obvious, I will state that I feel extremely bad about my, as yet, unkept commitments.
All that, only to discover when I got to the festival that someone had printed a large stack of bookmarks using the uncorrected artwork. So, three or four of us picked up pens or markers and started making corrections by hand.
While I was sitting there, a number of passersby stopped and spoke to us, picked up fliers or bookmarks, and were surprised to learn that Tucson not only has a science fiction convention, but it's been in existence for many years: our upcoming convention will be the 36th annual TusCon. Many of them also picked up fliers for Phoenix conventions, as someone from Phoenix (probably with CASFS, but I don't know for sure) had dropped a bunch with us. In addition to encouraging people to join us for TusCon, we were also making sure that people know about North American Discworld, as Terry Pratchett will be flying in the be the GoH and, given his health concerns, this may be his last appearance in the United States. I hope that at least a few of the people who came by will come to TusCon, which I sometimes think is the best kept secret in science fiction fandom.
Signing books in the booth next door, btw, was
janni, author of Bones of Faerie, who was accompanied by lnhammer. Bones of Faerie, which I absolutely love, has been receiving rave reviews and I highly recommend that you check it out, if you haven't already.After my stint at the booth, I took off to listen to a few panels. My son, Ian, was with me, as he'd given me a lift so my husband could have the car. I wound up tagging along with him and
lnhammer to a panel on book illustration. I know Ian had been hoping for something a bit more technical, but we still enjoyed getting a peek at the illustration process for a couple of children's books by Gail Carson Levine, author of Ella Enchanted (Trophy Newbery). The books under discussion were a trilogy, the first two of which are already out; the published books are Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg and Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand, which were published by Disney Press. Both Levine and the illustrator, David Christiana, were there, so we got to hear both speak about the process. As with most illustrated children's books, David Cristiana was the illustrator chosen by the publisher and neither had met before he did the work on Levine's books. It was really interesting hearing about how Cristiana looks for the scenes in the story that both capture his imagination and leave him room to add a bit of something to the story. For instance, one of the early pictures is for a scene in which a baby is laughing. The text doesn't mention why the baby laughs, but Cristiana's illustration includes a very silly cat perched on the crib rail and peering upside down through the bars at the baby.
The most fun part of their talk for me was when they encouraged the audience (which included many kids who were clearly very familiar with the earlier books) to participate in helping Cristiana to envision a scene taken from Levine's upcoming, as yet unnamed, sequel. I even got into the act, albeit quietly, by sketching my idea in my notepad.
After that session, Ian and I discussed going to another panel on illustration, but Ian wasn't feeling well and I was tired, so we decided to call it a day. My original plan had been to log on and participate in
flycon2009 for a bit, but what really happened is I lay down to take a nap. All I've managed to do since waking was to get a bit to eat, feed the cats, and write this post. Now, I'm off to bed.* This is the original website that will, eventually, when I complete the work, be replaced by a new, organized website. Someday. Because I haven't been doing so well at getting the new website finished and my available time is about to take a sudden dip. Just in case it's not obvious, I will state that I feel extremely bad about my, as yet, unkept commitments.