I had an amazing time at my first Necon. And as "amazing" is not nearly enough to describe it, look for a retrospective post coming soon. If you're impatient, all my Necon pics are live. If you start with the first one and page through, it makes for a pretty nifty travelogue.


The Breakfast Club: Bob, Kelli, Mary, Joe, Princess Alethea, Dickie, and Bandleader Jack Haringa

I also came out from under my rock because I couldn't forget to tell you that I have a live interview today with Jerrod Balzer at The Metal Crypt @ 3:30 EST. I'm a cute little author in a sea of some seriously hardcore performers...I'm listening to the podcast with Shadowside's Dani Nolden right now. That is one seriously beautiful and talented Brazillian woman. And she has the best hair.

There's a new Apex Magazine out, featuring a new Beauty & Dynamite essay ("Here Lies an Era"), and me reading my flash fiction horror short "Foiled." (run time: 3:08)

It's my first time, but I hope to do a lot more readings in the future. Let me know what you think!

So I was working on some questions for my upcoming interview with ccfinlay to talk about his novel trilogy...which led me to EscapePod for a production of his short story "Pervert." Since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to catch up on my Hugo Award nominees, so I listened to "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss" by Kij Johnson, "Exhalation" by Ted Chiang, and "Article of Faith" by Mike Resnick. As a bonus palate-cleanser, I added two quickies: "A Preference for Silence" by Lucy Snyder, and a side-trip tp Podcastle for "Elf Aware" by K. Tempest Bradford (who had a birthday yesterday -- Happy birthday, ktempest !).

Despite being a final-round judge for the Audie Awards, I'm not a complete convert to audiobooks -- it's got to be pretty freaking spectacular to keep my attention for HOURS (and there have been some...perhaps I'll make a list of my favorites one of these days). My lack of patience makes me a great judge...and a big fan of podcasts of stories that run less than an hour long.

Here are my quickie reviews of this morning's fare:
"Pervert" -- Odd. I got the point of the message, but the setting didn't quite suck me in.
"26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss" -- Fun, light, and a good message.
"Exhalation" -- A little long, but very well done, and beautifully executed. I see why I should be a fan of Ted Chiang.
"Article of Faith" -- one of those classic talking head SF stories that is the exact reason some of that old-school preachy SF is not my cup of tea.
"A Preference for Silence." -- Evil, and fun. Go, Lucy!
"Elf Aware" -- I have to say, of all of the above, this tiny tidbit was my favorite. It was an emotional little piece, and the reader (Marguerite Croft) had the PERFECT voice for this. Highly, highly recommended.

Of course, I had another reason for doing some research on podcasting stories this morning...keep an eye on Apex Magazine to find out!