VCon Coming...

Getting ready for this year's VCon--VCon 38. (And to think I have been attending since VCon 11.) I am thrilled to report I will have Actual Children in tow this year for the first time in ages, since my sister's first batch grew up. These two are now self-sufficient enough, and I have pared down my commitments enough, that we should do quite nicely ranging around the hotel and all the offerings of a proper SF con.

The Pallahaxi Players are taking the year off and I am concentrating my guestly contribution on Sunday. On that morning I will participate in a three hour, four contributor Writers Workshop with Linda Demeulemeester and Rhea Rose (chaired by R. Graeme Cameron). An hour later I plunge into three more hours of (in this second case) mad activity at the Turkey Readings.

I love the Turkeys. They were Fran Skene's brainchild many years ago, a way of raising funds for the Canadian Unity Fan Fund (CUFF) as well as a he** of a lot of fun for panelists and audience alike. One year I got so carried away with the joy of it all I abandoned my post as a reader/panelist and became the Evil Queen in one of the skits.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out this earlier posting. (Coincidentally, I am wearing a dress by Krista Reich in the video. You will see why this is of note if you read below...)

Apropos of nothing, I will mention that my wardrobe has just been elegantly improved by the arrival of two handmade linen dresses--a grey 12th century style gown and a black surcote--made by Krista Reich of Foliate Face Artworks. The gown is similar to the first one I bought from her back at VCon number who-knows-what. I can only hope October deigns to be cool enough for me to wear them because they are really lovely and feel fabulous to put on.

Never did I think I would say such a girlie thing. I guess C L Moore was right. As a teenager I made a very sour face when her otherwise barbaric Jirel of Joiry got all gooey over slipping into a nice dress.

Who'd a thunk I'd slide so far?

I just looked at Krista's portfolio online and she doesn't have up photos of either the gown (a simple and graceful full-skirted dress) or the surcote right now, but I'll add a photo she does have of a Saxon overdress she made for me several years ago. I've stumbled across a photo of me wearing a shawl she made for me, as well, so I'm popping that in for your viewing pleasure.

Krista draws from many periods for her garments, and also creates original designs. She uses good fabric and does excellent sewing, making clothes that can be worn for many years. And yet her prices are not high. I have seen many flimsy and cheap looking period gowns that sell for more than her fine dresses. It has me scratching my head, but I'm glad I can afford to buy her clothes now and then.

Unfortunately, Krista didn't sell much at that VCon where I met her, so she hasn't been back, but if you are interested she is quite good to work with even at a distance. She's recently moved to Victoria, BC, where a small selection of her garments can be seen in person at Triple Spiral Metaphysical, in Fan Tan Alley between Pandora and Fisgard Streets. But definitely have a look through her portfolios online.

See you at VCon!

The Latest Lonely Crier!

I have rather belatedly joined the BC SF authors collective, the Lonely Cry, "an informal west coast association of Canadian science fiction and fantasy writers" with which I have long been acquainted.

Belated, because the Age of the Internet has made much of the Lonely Cry's role redundant. There is no longer a need for newsletters to let the world know what the authors are doing: they blog it. Tweet it. Facebook it. And in every other way blast their trumpets to the world.

When Lonely Cry originator Mike Coney was alive the Lonely Cry also banded together to do Readers Theatre at the local SF convention, VCon. Although not an LC member, I was invited to join their performance a couple of times, but mostly I sat in the audience and laughed at their brave idiocy.

Despite the demise of the newsletter, the Lonely Cry remains a respectable group of authors that I am happy and pleased to throw my lot in with. Eileen Kernaghan has put my bio and my first blog announcements onto the site. The site will link back to this blog. And so the life cycle continues.

Have a look. You will find news of Mary E. Choo, Janine Cross, Dave Duncan, Matthew Hughes, Eileen Kernaghan, Linda DeMeulemeester, Clélie Rich and Rhea Rose, all fine local (usually -- that Matt has been gadding around an awful lot) writers of speculative fiction. There is much good reading to be had in their midst.

But first, a little background, gleaned from the memory of Eileen Kernaghan:

It was Mike's idea over twenty, perhaps as much as twenty-five years ago. He had returned jetlagged from a trip and came up with the idea for the Lonely Cry--West Coast speculative fiction writers putting out a periodical newsheet to mail out to libraries, individuals, reviewers, and bookstores, usually promoting one book in particular. Mike did the putting together and publishing at first.

Two or three years later he had the brain wave of putting together a readers theatre piece entitled "Sex and Perversion in Gnomedome". This was a great hit, so he did two or three more at VCons and took it to Context in Alberta as well. Beginning as a small readers theatre, with the readers seated at a table, it developed into an elaborate array of props and costumes, but remained true to the barely rehearsed, read-from-scripts, whacky sensibility of the original. Though the majority of scripts were written by Mike, others were written by Mary Choo, Eileen Kernaghan, and Rhea Rose.