Columbine (aquilegia) taken at Sissinghurst, May 2012 Here, have a flower photo.
I went to Eastercon last weekend, from Friday to Monday, and I completely forgot to talk about it here. I had volunteered to be on panels, but wasn't placed on any. However, when I saw the programme and saw a panel about history in fantasy fiction--and I saw that two of my friends/fellow writers were on the panel with only one other person--I asked to be on the panel, too. It felt weird to ask. But if you don't ask, you'll never get. And I had nothing to lose. And, in the end, the moderator said "Join us!" and I did.
It was a hella fun panel to a packed room (people were sitting on the floor!) with a lot of twitter traffic. One result: "The Tiffani Problem": when something is historically accurate but looks wrong. This came form my name, which is derived from the Greek name Theophania, but if you named a character in the ancient world Tiffani you'd get torn a new one for it *even though it's historically correct*. Writing historical fiction (fantasy or not) is difficult just for this reason; I spend a lot of time with the online etymology dictionary open to check the words I use--even simple ones like "plus" or "mad", words we use today without thinking about them--when writing about the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
Going to cons is exhausting. I mean, it's fun and all, and I get to see people I don't get to see too often. But it is a LOT of talking and visiting and eating and drinking in the same hotel with hundreds of other fans. And I mention the talking? I overdose on people rather quickly, and on the noisy hotel bars. I have another con in August, and I will be just about recovered from this one by then.
I came home Monday afternoon, fought off a slight case of the con crud on Tuesday and Wednesday, and finally got back to work on the PhD yesterday. I am on stupid serious deadlines because this draft of the dissertation is taking me way longer than I had thought (or my supervisor had expected). I mean, everything with the PhD always takes 3x as long, but I have to FINISH before July, and at this point that means pretty much no full weekends off and lots of late nights to get it done.
I went to Eastercon last weekend, from Friday to Monday, and I completely forgot to talk about it here. I had volunteered to be on panels, but wasn't placed on any. However, when I saw the programme and saw a panel about history in fantasy fiction--and I saw that two of my friends/fellow writers were on the panel with only one other person--I asked to be on the panel, too. It felt weird to ask. But if you don't ask, you'll never get. And I had nothing to lose. And, in the end, the moderator said "Join us!" and I did.
It was a hella fun panel to a packed room (people were sitting on the floor!) with a lot of twitter traffic. One result: "The Tiffani Problem": when something is historically accurate but looks wrong. This came form my name, which is derived from the Greek name Theophania, but if you named a character in the ancient world Tiffani you'd get torn a new one for it *even though it's historically correct*. Writing historical fiction (fantasy or not) is difficult just for this reason; I spend a lot of time with the online etymology dictionary open to check the words I use--even simple ones like "plus" or "mad", words we use today without thinking about them--when writing about the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
Going to cons is exhausting. I mean, it's fun and all, and I get to see people I don't get to see too often. But it is a LOT of talking and visiting and eating and drinking in the same hotel with hundreds of other fans. And I mention the talking? I overdose on people rather quickly, and on the noisy hotel bars. I have another con in August, and I will be just about recovered from this one by then.
I came home Monday afternoon, fought off a slight case of the con crud on Tuesday and Wednesday, and finally got back to work on the PhD yesterday. I am on stupid serious deadlines because this draft of the dissertation is taking me way longer than I had thought (or my supervisor had expected). I mean, everything with the PhD always takes 3x as long, but I have to FINISH before July, and at this point that means pretty much no full weekends off and lots of late nights to get it done.
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