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Diane and I were at the Surrey International Writer's Conference outside Vancouver last weekend. Out on Thursday, back on Tuesday, routed via Amsterdam so 9 time zones, no waiting. We're seriously tired, but oddly enough not blasted by jet-lag – I think the out-and-back was too quick for 'lag to hit properly.
It was great fun, as hard actual work as any SF/F con I've ever been to except for the '95 Worldcon in Glasgow (first and so far only time when a tux-fitting has been part of the programme!) - and as educational for me as a presenter as I hope it was for the attendees. Most if not all of my presentations and Blue Pencil Interviews, dealing with various aspects of the nuts-and-bolts of writing, required me to explain (coherently, at that) the details of why I do such-and-such, rather than just how I do it. Sort of, "why that nut/bolt, when a nail would be much quicker?" and so on. There was plenty of room to explain the use of nails, glue, staples and other quick fixes as well.
I was amazed by how much I had to actually think of what goes into constructing a story, after all this time. It was like explaining, after years of driving a manual-gear car, exactly how I developed the instinctive hand-foot-ear coordination of shifting smoothly up or down at just the right instant, to someone who's only ever driven automatic. (But I don't mention double-declutching. Along with Leg-Before-Wicket and the offside rule, that way lies madness...)
My birthday fell on the Saturday of the conference, and though we didn't get out anywhere for it, the Banquet that evening presented me with a birthday cake and 800+ people singing "Happy Birthday"... So I responded by singing a little silliness that I'd been preparing as a Closing Ceremony thank-you: it happened a bit early, but since there wasn't a closing ceremony of the SF/F con style I'm more familiar with, it was just as well. Equally just as well that I had my notebook in my pocket, and that my writing was neater than usual so as to be read through surprise and very slight stage-fright. What I'd written was the Canadian National Anthem. With, er, revised lyrics. The ones that go...
It worked, too. No tar, no feathers, no ridden out of town on a rail; just roars of laughter at the right time and a big round of applause. And there was lashings ofginger local microbrew beer in the hospitality suite, too.
Thanks, SiWC. That was quite a conference - and quite a birthday evening!
It was great fun, as hard actual work as any SF/F con I've ever been to except for the '95 Worldcon in Glasgow (first and so far only time when a tux-fitting has been part of the programme!) - and as educational for me as a presenter as I hope it was for the attendees. Most if not all of my presentations and Blue Pencil Interviews, dealing with various aspects of the nuts-and-bolts of writing, required me to explain (coherently, at that) the details of why I do such-and-such, rather than just how I do it. Sort of, "why that nut/bolt, when a nail would be much quicker?" and so on. There was plenty of room to explain the use of nails, glue, staples and other quick fixes as well.
I was amazed by how much I had to actually think of what goes into constructing a story, after all this time. It was like explaining, after years of driving a manual-gear car, exactly how I developed the instinctive hand-foot-ear coordination of shifting smoothly up or down at just the right instant, to someone who's only ever driven automatic. (But I don't mention double-declutching. Along with Leg-Before-Wicket and the offside rule, that way lies madness...)
My birthday fell on the Saturday of the conference, and though we didn't get out anywhere for it, the Banquet that evening presented me with a birthday cake and 800+ people singing "Happy Birthday"... So I responded by singing a little silliness that I'd been preparing as a Closing Ceremony thank-you: it happened a bit early, but since there wasn't a closing ceremony of the SF/F con style I'm more familiar with, it was just as well. Equally just as well that I had my notebook in my pocket, and that my writing was neater than usual so as to be read through surprise and very slight stage-fright. What I'd written was the Canadian National Anthem. With, er, revised lyrics. The ones that go...
O Canada, I'm just here for the beer.
O Canada, The beer is clear near here!
There is yeast in it, but no geese in in,
And the foam is on the top.
Its taste is good, and it goes with food,
So we tourists se-e-eldom stop.
O Canada, O Canada,
O Canada, I raise this beer to thee!
O Canada, why wasn't this one free?
Eh?
It worked, too. No tar, no feathers, no ridden out of town on a rail; just roars of laughter at the right time and a big round of applause. And there was lashings of
Thanks, SiWC. That was quite a conference - and quite a birthday evening!
