Tucson Festival of Books
Mar. 15th, 2010 10:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pameladlloydThis weekend I spent at the Tucson Festival of Books (TFoB), on the University of Arizona Mall. I can't stress enough what a wonderful, well-organized, and amazing celebration of reading and writing this is. Even more amazing is that it is entirely free, yes FREE!, to the public. Check out the list of authors who attended. If you're local, I hope you were there (and if you weren't, why not?); if you're not local, consider visiting Tucson for next year's festival, to be held March 12-13, 2011.
The TFoB is both like and unlike a science fiction convention. There were many, many fans and authors, panels, discussions, and workshops. In that respect, it was very like a con. But, there were no (or I missed them) fans in costumes, although there were a few costumed characters, such as the Easter bunny and Little Critter (whom both I and another writer misidentified as Little Monster), who were willing to pose with kids while their parents took pictures. *sigh* It's just been too many years since I read Mercer Mayer's books with any regularity. There was also spectacle, in the form of a "literary circus." There were multiple activities for kids, musical performances, food booths run by local restaurants, and booths for just about any organization or group with a literary connection that you can imagine, plus several with no obvious literary connection; as I commented to a friend Sunday afternoon, readers and authors all generally live in houses and drive cars.
I arrived late Saturday, thereby missing a couple of panels I would have loved to attend. (Note to self, make sure laundry gets done before the TFoB weekend.) (Yes, I had to get the laundry done before I left the house; our dryer's broken and it takes far too long for clothes to dry when they're hanging in the shower.) After visiting the TusCon booth (next year's GOHs with be Jim Butcher and his wife, romance author, Shannon K. Butcher; I'm told that attendees should buy their memberships before the end of this month, when the price goes up), I poked my head into the panel where fellow Tucsonan authors John Vornholt and Dennis McKiernan were holding forth with Timothy Zahn about "Star Wars, Star Trek, and Writing in Someone Else's Universe," before heading for the "Shadow Unit: Reimagining Fiction Online" panel, with Emma Bull (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
coffeeem), Will Shetterly (willshetterly), Elizabeth Bear (matociquala), Sarah Monette (truepenny), Amanda Downum (stillsostrange), and Leah Bobet (cristalia). It was a fabulous, fascinating panel, as they discussed the ways in which they have collaborated on Shadow Unit. Emma Bull commented at one point that they have collectively written one million words for this experimental, and highly successful from a reader's point of view, "virtual television show." For this alone, the entire weekend would have been worth the price of admission to any regular convention. Each panel was an hour long, with a half-hour intermission before the next panel, during which the authors from the previous panel sat in one of the many signing booths, signing books (or pre-printed cards with room for each author, in the case of the Shadow Unit team, thanks to coffeeem's foresight), and greeting the lines of fans that followed them from the panel rooms. For some mysterious reason, no science fiction/fantasy panels were scheduled for the 4 p.m. slot on either day, so after the signing, I followed the authors back to the Mysterious Galaxy and LepreCon booths, just across the way from the TusCon booth. Then, since I share our car with the rest of my family and my stepsons were using the car to visit their mom, I bummed a ride from one of the TusCon concom members, Daniel Arthur, who graciously went out of his way (in the direct opposite direction, actually) to give me a lift home.
This post has gotten way too long-winded, so I'll just finish up with the panel highlights from Sunday:
asakiyume will be interested to note that Seth Muller spoke of writing about ravens who are always plotting, as one aspect of his young reader series, Keepers of the Windclaw Chronicles.
ETA One Sunday panel I missed mentioning has now been included.
The TFoB is both like and unlike a science fiction convention. There were many, many fans and authors, panels, discussions, and workshops. In that respect, it was very like a con. But, there were no (or I missed them) fans in costumes, although there were a few costumed characters, such as the Easter bunny and Little Critter (whom both I and another writer misidentified as Little Monster), who were willing to pose with kids while their parents took pictures. *sigh* It's just been too many years since I read Mercer Mayer's books with any regularity. There was also spectacle, in the form of a "literary circus." There were multiple activities for kids, musical performances, food booths run by local restaurants, and booths for just about any organization or group with a literary connection that you can imagine, plus several with no obvious literary connection; as I commented to a friend Sunday afternoon, readers and authors all generally live in houses and drive cars.
I arrived late Saturday, thereby missing a couple of panels I would have loved to attend. (Note to self, make sure laundry gets done before the TFoB weekend.) (Yes, I had to get the laundry done before I left the house; our dryer's broken and it takes far too long for clothes to dry when they're hanging in the shower.) After visiting the TusCon booth (next year's GOHs with be Jim Butcher and his wife, romance author, Shannon K. Butcher; I'm told that attendees should buy their memberships before the end of this month, when the price goes up), I poked my head into the panel where fellow Tucsonan authors John Vornholt and Dennis McKiernan were holding forth with Timothy Zahn about "Star Wars, Star Trek, and Writing in Someone Else's Universe," before heading for the "Shadow Unit: Reimagining Fiction Online" panel, with Emma Bull (
coffeeem), Will Shetterly (willshetterly), Elizabeth Bear (matociquala), Sarah Monette (truepenny), Amanda Downum (stillsostrange), and Leah Bobet (cristalia). It was a fabulous, fascinating panel, as they discussed the ways in which they have collaborated on Shadow Unit. Emma Bull commented at one point that they have collectively written one million words for this experimental, and highly successful from a reader's point of view, "virtual television show." For this alone, the entire weekend would have been worth the price of admission to any regular convention. Each panel was an hour long, with a half-hour intermission before the next panel, during which the authors from the previous panel sat in one of the many signing booths, signing books (or pre-printed cards with room for each author, in the case of the Shadow Unit team, thanks to coffeeem's foresight), and greeting the lines of fans that followed them from the panel rooms. For some mysterious reason, no science fiction/fantasy panels were scheduled for the 4 p.m. slot on either day, so after the signing, I followed the authors back to the Mysterious Galaxy and LepreCon booths, just across the way from the TusCon booth. Then, since I share our car with the rest of my family and my stepsons were using the car to visit their mom, I bummed a ride from one of the TusCon concom members, Daniel Arthur, who graciously went out of his way (in the direct opposite direction, actually) to give me a lift home.This post has gotten way too long-winded, so I'll just finish up with the panel highlights from Sunday:
- "Social Networking Before and After Publishing," with Cheyenne McCray (cheymccray) and Jennifer Ashley
- "Contemporary and Urban Fantasy" with Charles de Lint, Seth Muller, Will Shetterly (willshetterly), and Nina Kiriki Hoffman
- "Culture and Mythology in Fantasy" with Janni Lee Simner (janni), Jane Lindskold, and Dennis McKiernan
asakiyume will be interested to note that Seth Muller spoke of writing about ravens who are always plotting, as one aspect of his young reader series, Keepers of the Windclaw Chronicles.ETA One Sunday panel I missed mentioning has now been included.
