Friday, December 20, 2013

2013 Year in Review (with pictures)

Here we are, at the end of another year. Without further ado, here are some things I did.



January
February
  • CONVENTION: February 1-3, Potlatch 22/Foolscap 15 in Redmond, WA. I have a 25-minute slot to read my work. Here's a shot of my audience.

  • Start taking cooking classes through the nutritionist

March
April
  • PUBLISHED: April 15, "Before the Fireworks," third place winner in the String-of-10 FIVE Flash Fiction Chronicles contest is posted online. Plus an interview!
  • RETREAT: April 18-21st, Writers Retreat at Fort Warden in Port Townsend, WA





  • Theo Chocolates Tour with Eliza and Miriah


May
June



  • June 28-29, Locus Awards Weekend in Seattle, WA. Includes a class with Paul Park and Connie Willis.

July
  • Friends, Phil and Susan, visit for a week. We go to the EMP Horror exhibit and I scream in a booth, the aquarium, and the Airlock in Redmond to fight each other playing mechs in pods.



  • Attend readings by Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Margo Lanagan, Samuel Delany and an interview with Ellen Datlow (also go to my first Clarion West parties)

August
  • CONVENTION: August 29-September 2, LoneStarCon 3 (WorldCon) in San Antonio, TX. Highlights include a lantern tour of the Natural Bridge Caverns, seeing the Alamo for the first time, and hanging out with Cat Rambo.
 


 

September
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GD09TRQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00GD09TRQ&linkCode=as2&tag=folly-20

  • CONVENTION: September 19-22, KillerCon in Las Vegas, NV. Highlights of the trip include a day trip out to the Grand Canyon.
 

October
  • Cemetery Dance mentions my story in a review of Fresh Blood, Old Bones. My name is misspelled.

  • Book exchange party at Eliza's

 
 
  • I buy a wig.

November
  • This Mutant Life: Bad Company anthology is released. Includes a reprint of my story, "The Hero Garden."
  • RETREAT: November 21-24, Writers Retreat at Fort Warden in Port Townsend, WA

  • Have some friends over for Thanksgiving. I make too much food.

December
In closing: THANK YOU, for joining me on this crazy adventure. I sincerely appreciate it.
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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Things for sale and stuff I've done

In an effort to de-clutter and bring in a little cash, I've started selling PS3 games, books, and movies on half.com again. Here is the link to my store. I've got some great stuff up there in fantastic shape. Adding new stuff all the time.

In other news I narrated a short story for Wily Writers, an online fiction magazine. The story I read was "Modern Love" by M. Darusha Wehm. You can listen to the reading at this page. Scroll down and select the "Click for Audio" icon.

Another cool thing: Cemetery Dance magazine, issue 70, page 132, mentions my story in a positive review of the anthology Fresh Blood Old Bones. My name is misspelled in the review (Folly Blaine is missing an 'e') but that's because my name is misspelled in the book. And hey! If you're looking for something to read for Halloween, this ebook I'm talking about is filled with some majorly creepy short stories for only $2.99. The anthology includes stories from a mix of established and emerging writers--hence the title.

So, this whole post has been pretty much pitching stuff at you. Sorry about that.

I hope you're doing well. I hope you get to eat all of the candy you want to eat without any repercussions, and that you have at least one genuine fright, in the spirit of Halloween, of course.

Happy Wednesday.

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Thursday, October 17, 2013

Fall

Hi. I've been pretty quiet here because I don't have much to share. Fall is my favorite time of year--the chill in the air, the fiery leaf confetti, the pumpkin-flavored everything. I've always enjoyed Halloween, but I don't expect much this year. It's been a while since I've gotten to dress up.

I need to remember to buy candy. One year I failed to buy candy because I didn't expect any trick-or-treaters at our apartment and the only individually wrapped sweets I had on hand were Fig Newton cookies. I still feel bad about that. The looks on those poor kids' faces as I dropped the Fig Newtons in their bags...

Anyway. I hope you all are doing well. I'm still around here somewhere, chugging along.

Posted by at 5:12 PM 1 comments

Tuesday, September 03, 2013

LoneStarCon3 : Camera Phone Edition

WorldCon is a Massively Traveling Science-Fiction Convention (MTSFC for short, like an MMORPG but not at all), and is literary based. For its 71st year, WorldCon was hosted by LoneStarCon (3) in San Antonio, Texas, August 29th through September 2.

And I have all the low-resolution camera phone pictures to prove it.


Something I like to call "Clouds, Window Seat" -- on way to San Antonio


View from the balcony of my hotel room overlooking the river walk, to give you a sense of place. My awesome roommate was Andrew S. Williams.

If it's not clear, this recap will be based around pictures I shot around the con like some kind of fancy photo essay, only with less connective tissue and fewer megapixels.

So. First, I woke up early Thursday morning and went on a lantern tour of a cavern.


Kelly Lagor and Nicole Feldringer waiting to start our Lantern Tour of the Natural Bridge Caverns


Infamous lantern


Our guide, plus the actual Natural Bridge in background. Marks the entrance to the living cavern.


Almost the whole tour was in total darkness, except for our lanterns. At the end, our guide switched on the stage lighting so we could take pictures.


Melting rocks, or living calcite formations. You pick.


Self-portrait. I like to take these frequently, just in case one is needed for a Missing Persons Poster.


The first panel of the con I attended was on Fantastic London. Two of the panelists were Paul Cornell and Elizabeth Bear.

I signed up for a lot of Kaffeeklatsch and Literary Beer events, and consider them to have been the most useful time I spent at LoneStarCon. If you've never been to one of these before, it's just an informal hour-long conversation that consists of one person-of-interest with 9-12 attendees around a big table. To join you just had to sign up a half-day in advance, assuming there was space left. Drinks weren't provided, but they were available to purchase nearby -- either coffee or beer, depending on the type of event. Hence the "coffee" and "beer" theme.


Kaffeeklatsch with Sheila Williams, editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine


Outside the Alamo, twilight


Ghost Tour that left from the Alamo. I only lasted a half hour in the heat before giving up and heading back to the bar for A/C and libations.


Hanging out with Cat Rambo


Kaffeeklatsch with Lee Harris, senior editor at Angry Robot Books

Not pictured: Writers Workshop organized by Oz Drummond. My session was led by David D. Levine and Amy Sundberg. Extremely useful.


Literary Beer event with Kij Johnson


Sunset from the SFWA suite -- I was Cat Rambo's plus one. Thanks, Cat!

After the sunset, I hung out with a bunch of people including Chester Hoster and I tagged along with Sanford Allen and his friends to attend room parties. (mostly not pictured) One of the highlights happened at the Helsinki in 2015 bid party. I sampled a Finnish liqueur called Terva made from the wood and roots of pine, pine tar. Loved it.


Bland Lemon Denton & the Lemonaides - Description from program "Hugo and Nebula nominated Austin author Brad Denton rounds up his band of talented musicians"


Kaffeeklatsch with John Berlyne, agent at the Zeno Agency. (In the process of signing up for this event, I also met Brian C. E. Buhl, who has his own write-ups of the con at his blog.)


An Hour with Lois McMaster Bujold: Lillian Stewart Carl, Lois McMaster Bujold


Kaffeeklatsch with Neil Clarke, publisher/editor-in-chief of Clarkesworld Magazine


Drinks with Authors event at Ernie's Bar: Scott H. Andrews (Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Beneath Ceaseless Skies) and Cat Rambo


Random shot of the Drinks with Authors crowd at Ernie's Bar. How many authors can you spot?


Hanging out at the bar with Chuck Wendig. I took a less blurry picture, but he looked way too serious.


Hanging out at the bar with writers Rob Ziegler, Sandra Wickham, and Tobias Buckell


Blurry picture of the audience for the Broad Universe reading - I read my poem "Shag" that's been accepted by Kaleidotrope for 2014


Literary Beer event with editor Ellen Datlow


Kaffeeklatsch with Dave Wolverton aka David Farland


Riverwalk on the walk to dinner

Instead of attending the Hugo Awards, I met up with some very entertaining authors at the bar and we followed the results on Twitter.


Lettie Prell and Tod McCoy


Cat Rambo and Ann Leckie


Me and Django Wexler

Not pictured, but also making an appearance at the table: Wesley Chu


Literary Beer event with Paul Cornell


Waiting at the San Antonio airport with J.A. Pitts, Brenda Cooper, Nicole Feldringer, Keffy R. M. Kehrli, Cat Rambo, and Tod McCoy. (Not pictured: Mark Teppo, Kay Kenyon, and probably others I'm forgetting)

Overall I had a great time at LoneStarCon3. I know I am forgetting lots of people (like Cormac! whose last name has slipped my mind, and chatting with Rhiannon Held and Patrick S. Tomlinson and Michael R. Underwood and Mari Ness and S. Hutson Blount and Christie Yant and Brooke Bolander and Sara A. Mueller and many others) and I apologize for that. Thanks, everyone, for making it such a great con!

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