GenCon XV, 1983 from Alexander1968's Flickr stream

Yesterday I braved Odyssey Con in the badlands outside of Heathrow.  A strange landscape to traverse– part of it appears/disappears in The Desperate Ones. My partner who was good enough to accompany me said, “Don’t you want to change all the H’s to D’s so it reads Deathrow?” Yeah, kinda.

The venue was small, labyrinthine and much too hot.  (What was with all the under-filled “water-interest” decor about the place?  Those glass fish beached at the bar?)  One is forced to realize, yet again, that some of fandom remain pretty divorced from their bodies and simple care thereof.  But I digress.   I was impressed with the cheerfulness of the volunteers and the packed dealers hall was full of book vendors. But what was most striking was how underrepresented women are in the selection, and women of colour in particular.  There wasn’t s single copy of Octavia Butler or Nalo Hopkinson that I could see in the entire dealer hall.  It was wonderful to browse old mass markets– their covers made me nostalgic for days when I curled up with Madeleine L’Engle or Piers Anthony and what respite reading gave me as a kid, particularly fantasy novels.

This was not my first con, though it felt as if it were. My first con was 26 years ago– GenCon 1983.  At the time I was an avid D&D player (Elven Thief, Chaotic Good– not much has changed!)  but found myself overwhelmed at GenCon and totally out of place as an overdeveloped little girl in a (suddenly!) woman’s body in a sea full of boys.

Not much has changed.  Yesterday I was right back there– was it looking at all those loved books from the 80s?  Was it that particular stale boy-scent that brought me back?  Except this time I was going back as a writer, something my child self never would have imagined.

I probably should have gone to the Con today, as Saturday is costume day.  I really go in for that carnavalesque aspect of fandom– admiring it from afar anyway.  But one day was enough.  As I knew no one there, I wandered, in Jeff Vandermeer’s words, “lonely as a cloud.”  Highlights of the day included seeing two drag kings dressed as Captain Jack and Dr. Who (Tennant manifestation) and the robot baby dinosaur being raffled off.  It purred & blinked when you scratched its chin.

Andrew Chase's Robotic Cheetah

I confess my fetish.  All authors must have them, these objects the subconscious courts, and these furtive meetings fuel the writing.

My last fling was with Tippoo’s Tiger, an automata at the V&A:

Tippoo's Tiger

The automaton has a bellows inside which simulates growling and human cries– this informed the imagining of the locusts in the novel, though of course this has only revealed itself to me in hindsight.

More wind-up life can be found here: automataonline

For 12 years Patrick Farley, cover artist of The Desperate Ones, has been producing amazing comics and putting them on the web during his spare time.  He’s stepping things up with Kickstarter.

There are so many ways to get involved and support indie publishing, it’s really an exciting time to get on board with this movement.

Frame from Patrick Farley's "Don't Look Back"

Patrick Farley, cover artist of The Desperate Ones, has a new comic up at Dicebox, Jenn Manley Lee’s gorgeous web comic site.  Patrick’s comic is funny and packed with philosophical verisimilitude, all packaged in his sublimely subversive VR aesthetic.

Mermaid Surgery, one of my earlier sestinas, has been reprinted in the lush, tactile and fascinating Abraxas.  To be among the pages with Aleister Crowley is quite thrilling.

Pig State Recon recounts many versions of The Desperate Ones, the song that inspired the novel.

Click here to listen to The Desperate Ones, Podcast Excerpt 2. (sound file will open in a new page)

And while you are at it, check out this rollicking sci fi anthology, Thought Crime Experiments, with new art from Patrick Farley (the artist behind the cover of The Desperate Ones).  The anthology wears its DIY cred on its sleeve and even has a how-to appendix and all the source code for the website is gank-able.  It’s available as a free download or POD book.   Keep Circulating the Tapes!

image by Matt Biddulph on flickr

To listen to an excerpt of The Desperate Ones, read by the author, click here: DesperateOnes_podcast1.m4a (link will open as an embedded stream.)

First in a series of podcast excerpts.

(If you like what you hear, support indie publishing & writing and buy a copy here.)