Worldcon—Autographs and Kaffeeklatsch

One of the nice features of Worldcon is the opportunity for autographs and Kaffeeklatsches. It took a while to figure out where the autographs were being done—way in the far corner of the main floor, beyond all the booths selling books, necklaces, samurai swords, etc.

Carrie Vaughn was there. She autographed my copy of her young adult Martians Abroad, being careful to ask if my name ended with a c or a k.

I thanked her for a brief conversation some years ago that she probably doesn’t remember, when I asked her if there were many urban fantasies where the female protagonist starts out already married. She couldn’t think of any off the top of her head, but she encouraged me to try. I was already working on my vampire parody with the current working title Dust after Slaying, so that was encouraging.

Mary Robinnette Kowal was also there. She had given me a lot of advice several years before, and had made a point of talking to me at a Worldcon some years ago. I said I didn’t know if she still recognized me, and she said, “Of course!” What was embarrassing was that I had brought The Calculating Stars, and while waiting in line I discovered that she already autographed it.

I told her I have a Victorian fantasy manuscript, and the female protagonist is a fairy who only learned to read as an adult. I use that as a way of explaining some of the Victorianisms she sees around her for the benefit of the reader. I asked if that would be a problem for readers, to have the female protagonist being somewhat ignorant, though observant. Mary Robinnette Kowal said no, so long as her emotions on encountering some new thing are included. Ah. That was a key insight.

The Kaffeeklatsches are small meetings of up to ten people. Attendees are encouraged to bring coffee, tea, soda, etc. Signups are ahead of time, and one must inquire redundantly about where the signup sheets will be, and how far ahead of time one can sign up.

I attended one with Cass Morris, author of From Unseen Fire, an alternate history version of ancient Rome. She told us how laborious the process was for getting it published.

She also specializes in rhetoric, and she was throwing around terms like antanaclasis and anadiplosis quite easily. Her novel has multiple viewpoint characters—a scene in a chapter might be told from one character’s point of view, then after a brief line break the scene shifts to another character’s point of view. She said her publisher did not have a problem with that. That was a relief to me, since my recent science fiction manuscript Alpha Shift has multiple viewpoint characters.

There are good panel discussions at conventions like this, but try to find a way to get personal advice.

Worldcon—Embassies and Jefferson Memorial

I had some time in Washington, D.C. during Worldcon. Instead of taking a guided tour, I decided to go off the beaten path. I discovered this statue of Winston Churchill outside the British Embassy.

The rest of the embassy is so fenced off, any pictures of it would mainly be of black iron fences, so it wouldn’t have been worth it.  

Here is the very modern Embassy of Brazil, with the more traditional Embassy of Bolivia next to it.

To enter, one must walk underneath a great mass of the building.

D.C. was unseasonably warm when I was there. Surprisingly, no one else was there on this side of the Jefferson Memorial.

The flash wasn’t on for Jefferson’s statue, so this is what I call Dark Jefferson.

Here are the initial words of the Declaration of Independence, carved in large letters. 

click to enlarge

This is the front of the Jefferson Memorial, across the Tidal Basin. A couple of pedestrians are on the steps, which gives some idea of the scale of the Memorial.

Next time, I will give a few details of the convention.

Worldcon—Arrival

Worldcon—a large science fiction and fantasy convention that a lot of writers go to—was held in Washington, DC This year. I had never been there before. As we flew in for arrival, I realized we were passing what was obviously the Pentagon. I was astonished we could fly so close to it. Continuing on, I could see the Capitol, then the Washington Monument. It was all coming true.

I arrived in time to see the art show by Maurizio Manzieri, who is from Italy. One of his pieces, of a spaceship, was chosen for this year’s badges:

Please see his art at https://www.artstation.com/manzieri He does marvelous work with faces. 

The big treat for the evening was the showing of the restored 1927 movie Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang. There have been several iterations of this combination of science fiction and social commentary. The 2010 version restored several minutes that were found in a copy in Latin America. More recently, some computer work has helped fill in the gaps, since some scenes were filmed as slowly as 12 frames per second.

This evening’s presentation featured new music by Ryako. She composed and performed all the music herself. She was there to take questions.

In my next post, I may show pics from my sightseeing.

Hey, Hey, We Miss Mike Nesmith

Mike Nesmith passed away yesterday. He was the de facto leader of the pop group The Monkees. Before anyone says anything else, yes, that really was them singing. Because of the group’s origin, and some bad lip-synching in “Daydream Believer,” for instance, the rumor goes around that the four of them weren’t real singers. But yes, Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz, and Davy Jones really were singing.

public domain

They burst onto the scene in 1966 with their TV show The Monkees. It was a show about a fictional musical group. But yes, that was them singing, see above. They went on tour after that first season. Massive crowds of screaming fans showed up. A phenomenon of that magnitude hadn’t been seen since the heyday of The Beatles. After that, they worked hard and became a real band.

Although Micky Dolenz had the voice that was most characteristic of The Monkees’ sound, my favorite singer was Mike Nesmith. My favorite song of theirs is “You Just May Be The One,” written by Nesmith with him as the lead singer. For copyright reasons I won’t put in a link to it, but try to find a version that just shows the band playing, and not goofy scenes with Peter Tork.

Now for a science fiction connection: Walter Koenig was hired to play Chekov in the old Star Trek because the producers wanted to get some of the female audience that liked Davy Jones. Koenig was mistaken for Jones once in a restaurant and asked to sing.

Omicron—Pronunciation

About half the newscasters I have heard pronounce omicron with a long o sound at the front, about half with a short o. Who is right?

Depending on which version of the alphabet is used, Omicron is the fifteenth letter of the ancient Greek alphabet. English speakers will be happy to know it looks like this:

O

But that doesn’t help much, does it? The inside information I can give you is that Greek has two letters that correspond to our o. The other is omega, the last letter of that alphabet.

Ω

 That should look familiar. I’m not talking about watches. A lot of science fiction novels and shows use that as a symbol, sometimes symbolizing an ultimate program or device.

Omicron corresponds to our short o. Omega corresponds to our long o. So omicron should be pronounced with a short o at the front. Otherwise, that just negates their having the two different letters.

But I’m not done. What about the letter i in the middle? That corresponds to the Greek letter iota, which looks a lot like our letter i. Sometimes it’s pronounced like short i, sometimes like a long e. (For that second one, think of someone singing Do Re Mi.)

I prefer that second pronunciation. That makes it om-ee-cron. I have only heard two female newscasters pronounce it that way—or perhaps it was the same one. Anyway, I’m pushing for people to pronounce it that way, and you can show off your new-found prowess in Greek by doing so.

(Those who really know the ancient Greek will point out that lower case omicron looks like our o, while lower case omega looks like a curly w, like this: ω. But that is a little complicated.)