PUGGY'S HILL

Back from Wiscon, heading into Audies...!

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:31:13 GMT

In the "All Pleasures Must be Paid For" Dept.: Got the WisCon Cold. And so, while I will still be very well-dressed, I will not be hugging & shaking hands with my esteemed colleagues at the Audie Awards tomorrow night (assuming they'll still let me in! A room full of the audiobook world's finest voice talent . . . maybe they'll just make me carry a bell & clapper?) But on the No Good Deed Goes Unappreciated side: at our long-awaited lunch today, Amie Cousins presented me with my long-requested bottle of Australian Horseradish/Garlic+C cold pills! How's that for synchronicity?

At WisCon, had the very great pleasure of meeting Amy Butler Greenfield, and am now devouring her YA historical fantasy CHANTRESS. Also got to hang out a lot with Ysabeau Wilce, and talk about Flora & Hardhands & Tiny Doom . . . I will let her tell you about the results - for now, my lips are sealed! There were many more merry meetings, but I think I need to go lie down now (as opposed to basking in memories until they reveal all names & faces. Debbie, Caroline, Brit, noodles, momocha, Karen, ah, English muffins . . . Oh, dear. And cake.)

Last night we had Janis Ian to dinner here at Chateau Riverside. We've met often at cons, but this was the first time we'd really had a chance to sit and talk. (To my delight, she'd written some weeks back to say that she'd be in town for the Audies & BEA & the Lambda Awards [!!!], and did we have a little time?) We cooked a simple home dinner, figuring someone who's on the road that much would appreciate it. With her was the remarkable Ellen Myrick - shared the Theory of Ellens with her (which exploded like the Big Bang when Ellen Klages & I first met), and sure enough, she too is capable & bossy (well, that's what they call us!).

Tomorrow night we find out whether we won any Audie Awards - between us, Delia & I are up for FOUR!!!
Me for SWORDSPOINT: Best Audio Drama
Me for THE PRIVILEGE OF THE SWORD: Best Multi-Narrator (eeeeeee!!! That would be Barbara Rosenblat & me!!!!)
Us for WELCOME TO BORDERTOWN: Best Anthology
Delia for THE FREEDOM MAZE: Best Children's Title
This will never happen again. So off we go.

Sorry I don't update here often enough - I tend to just blurt on Twitter or Facebook, and you're more than welcome to join me there. Oh, and Tumblr, too - it's here, but it is, of course, mostly pictures. Good ones, though!

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IAF TOWN MEETING AT READERCON: Friday, 4pm

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 21:47:53 GMT

Coming to Readercon this weekend?

You are warmly invited to the annual Town Meeting of the Interstitial Arts Foundation:

FRIDAY 4:00 p.m. Concierge Lounge, 8th floor
(listed in your program as the "Mike Allen /Ellen Kushner Kaffeeklatsch!").

Our Town Meetings there are always a highlight for the IAF, giving new friends a chance to get to know us, and existing ones a chance to give their input on where you think the IAF should be going.... Hope to see you there!

* * *

The rest of my Readercon schedule is here (LJ) and here (Dreamwidth).

I am particularly excited about the opportunity to present my latest research in the field of audiobooks - which is to say, a lecture/demo of Swordspoint and the forthcoming The Privilege of the Sword (TPOTS), with behind-the-scenes gossip on what it was like to narrate and co-produce my own work. That's also on Friday (5:00 pm).

If you've never been to Readercon, I can't recommend it highly enough! It takes place in Burlington, MA, just north of Boston.
Thursday night is free and open to the public.

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My Readercon Schedule

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 03:02:15 GMT

Looking forward to seeing friends old & new at Readercon in Burlington, MA (just outside Boston) in 2 weeks! Weekend & day pass memberships are available at the door - and the Thursday evening program is just plain free and open to the public! I should be there then. I have no formal autographing session, so feel free to simply grab me in the hallway or after a panel. If it's not convenient, I'll tell you, so don't be shy!

Friday July 13

1:00 PM VT Reading. Ellen Kushner. Ellen Kushner reads from a work to be determined.

Any requests?

4:00 PM CL Kaffeeklatsch. Mike Allen, Ellen Kushner.

NB: This is actually the annual Interstitial Arts Foundation Town Meeting! Please come with your ideas for ways to make the IAF a better medium for all artists - and lovers of their work - who create art that falls in the interstices between recognized genre categories, whatever they may be.

Bring your suggestions, questions, and enthusiasm!

5:00 PM ME How I Narrated and Produced the 'Illuminated' Swordspoint Series Audiobooks. Ellen Kushner. Ellen Kushner discusses the making of her latest audiobook, The Privilege of the Sword (released this month, deliberately scheduled to coincide with Readercon!), and its predecessor, Swordspoint, both written and narrated (and co-produced) by Kushner for ACX/Neil Gaiman Presents. A year ago, she'd never even listened to an audiobook; now, using extra voice actors, sound effects and commissioned soundtrack music, she and producer/director Sue Zizza have created a new style called the "Illuminated" audiobook. She will play excerpts and answer questions about the process, including her experiences with ACX, Audible's new initiative for empowering authors to create their own audiobooks.

Yes, there will be pre-release excerpts of TPOTS!

Saturday July 14

2:00 PM G The City and the Strange. Leah Bobet, Amanda Downum, Lila Garrott (leader), Stacy Hill, Ellen Kushner, Howard Waldrop. In The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs writes, "By its nature, the metropolis provides what otherwise could be given only by traveling; namely, the strange." N.K. Jemisin's Inheritance trilogy demonstrates that epic-feeling fantasy can still take place entirely within the confines of a single city. Fictional metropolises such as Jeff Vandermeer's Ambergris, China Miéville's New Crobuzon, and Catherynne M. Valente's Palimpsest are entire worlds in themselves, and the fantasy cities of Lankmar and Ankh-Morkpork shine as centers of intrigue and adventure. In what other works, and other ways, can cities be stand-ins for the lengthy traveling quest of Tolkienesque fantasy?

Sunday July 15

11:00 AM F Performing Books to Ourselves. Ellen Brody, Andy Duncan, James Patrick Kelly, Rosemary Kirstein, Ellen Kushner (leader). In a 2011 blog post, Daniel Abraham wrote, "Reading a book is a performance by an artist (the writer) for an audience (the reader)." But readers also perform works to themselves, imagining characters and settings and events, and perform works to others when reading aloud. In those cases, is the writer taking more of a directorial role, or is there a more complex synergy afoot, especially when we get into audiobooks, fiction podcasts, and other carefully produced performances? How does awareness of these layers of performance shape the ways that writers write and readers read?

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