More on ConText
On Saturday I posted on the first evening of ConText, but then events took over and I was so busy that I couldn’t find time to post—at least not in a lucid and coherent way π — about all the fun of Saturday and Sunday.
In terms of today’s post, well first of all I apologise for the poor quality of the photos, but the weekend was beset with technical difficulties in the camera department …
So what did happen? Of my own panels on the Saturday, the highlight was probably the noon session with Catherine Asaro and Russell Kirkpatrick where we talked about “Keeping It Real in SFF”, particularly in terms of believable characters and societies in the midst of fantastic settings and events. The thing that made it most fun was when Catherine and I had a quite different point of view from Russell on the relationship between individuals and societies, particularly when it came to influencing events—so we got to have lively discussion rather than simply sitting there politely agreeing with each other.Β I suspect this made the session more fun for the audience and I know we three panelists had a pretty good time. π
My favourite Saturday panel in terms of attending was Donald Wolcott’s workshop on musical improvisation. Donald is Catherine Asaro’s musical collaborator and in this session he took us through the process of how he improvises around both musical themes generally and also in relation to Catherine’s speculative works. I found the session fascinating and was pleased to be able to pick up on some of the aspects it raised when Donald and I joined Frank Victoria for the “Word & Image” panel on Sunday 5.
The focus of the session was to discuss the creative relationship between writer and artist in speculative fiction and how the different art forms spark off each other to generate new creations. Once again, I found this a fascinating session, not least because of the insights into both Frank and Donald’s creative process and the way in which the discussion illuminated both strong similarities but also differences between the art forms. And although it can be difficult to be 100% sure when one is on the panel, I received the impression that the audience enjoyed the session as well.
Immediately following on from the Word & Image panel was a Reading, where I read from both my own works and Mary Victoria’s Chronicles of the Tree novels: Tymon’s Flight and Samiha’s Song. I also had Frank, Mary’s husband, on hand to help me out as required during the Q&A that followed the reading. I should say straight off that we recorded the reading and hope to bring you this to you here in the next day or so. But just to give you an idea of how it went, I interspersed the readings so the audience got a better flavour of the distinction between my and Mary’s “voices” as authors. Both Frank and I felt this approach “worked” in terms of how the reading went, with the order being: Tymon’s Flight, Thornspell, Samiha’s Song, The Heir of Night—and yes, ta-da-da-dah-dum, in a world first exclusive for ConText (;-)) an excerpt from the prologue to The Gathering of the Lost, Book Two of The Wall of Night series.
The final highlights of my Saturday and SundayΒ at ConText—other than the Sir Julius Vogel Award ceremony which I have already reported on here—included thatΒ I got to do The Grand Symbiosis: History & Fantasy panel with my partner, Andrew (our fellow panelist was Steve Litton.) Doing a panel with Andrew was a lot of fun, especially as we were talking history & SFF, two of our favourite subjects. Another highlight was that I got to meet Bu, the Caber, for the very first time, in company with his friend Kirstin Wright … I thought
Bu was quite, quite charming, if a little shy …:)
And Bu’s friend Kirstin was one of the many fellow SpecFicNZ members that I got to meet over the course of the weekend, both at panels and ‘around the traps’, as well as at the formal get-together on the Saturday night. I think all of us enjoy the buzz of feeling that we are a community of speculative writers and artists—and I would like to thank Ripley Patton in particular for
doing so much to make that happen.
It sounds like a wonderful time! Bu is too cute π
Wen, I had a great time—and Bu is adorable!
Sounds like it was fun.
Donna, it definitely was.:)
Sounds like a fantastic time! π
Good panels, in a good place with good people & an award for the book to top it all off—what could be better!
Lively discussions are much more fun! And a workshop on musical improvisation! Interesting. *_*
(I have to add the Chronicles of the Tree novels to my wishlist.)
History and Fantasy are two of my favourite subjects, too. In fact my favorite genre is historical fantasy. It must have been awesome!
Giada, you will not be disappointed with the Chronicles of the Tree. I enjoyed Tymon’s Flight, which is a classic coming-of-age story, but thought Samiha’s Song was quite “special” and so am really looking forward to the third-in-series, Oracle’s Fire, which is due out around August, I “think.” There are indepth reviews of both books on FantasyLit, here.
Maybe I should do an historical fantasy post or series on the blog sometime, what do you think?
And the musical improvisation workshop was fantastic–I was very impressed with Donald, both his talent and ability to communicate about his ‘process.’
Both an historical fantasy post or series would be awesome! Great idea!
I’m going to read the reviews now. Thank you! π
This all makes me grin from ear to ear. Can’t wait to see the recording, Helen… π
The recording is a work in progress but it is definitely progressing in the right direction at present—I am thinking that Monday should see it on the blog (fingers crossed) …
Helen, thanks for all the wonderful work you did in putting together the panels. I wish we had had more time to hang out together; I thoroughly enjoyed listening to your thoughts and ideas. It sounds like we have a lot in common in regards to how we write and approach our craft. Many thanks for the panels.
Hope to see you in 2020!
Best — Catherine
Catherine, the panels were an absolute pleasure and I would have loved to hang out more, too—but I only had to look at the programme to see how very busy you were! But I hope to see you before 2020 because I am saving my pennies for a Con in North America some time, or maybe London in 2014—that would be very cool! And even cooler if you were there as well.:)
Almost forgot! Donald and I have never actually collaborated on a song. However, he’s done arrangements of covers for me, specifically the songs written by Point Valid, the rock band that cut the Diamond Star CD. The guys in Point Valid wrote the songs for a male singer, so Donald arranged them for me to sing. I especially like what he did with the title track, Diamond Star. On No Answers, we did the arrangement together, going back several as we each rewrote what the other had done. I really liked with what we ended up with. He has also done excellent arrangements of classic rock and jazz songs that I sing.
For the current CD, I’m working with a fellow named David Dalrymple as an artistic collaborator, and possible another guitarist.
Best — Catherine
Catherine, thank you so much for clarifying that—I tried looking for the precise details of your and Donald’s collaboration on the mighty interweb (once I realised my jotted notes from the weekend were hopelessly inadequate!) but I mainly got to listen to some great musical clips without quite finding the wonderful clarification that you have just provided. The whole process/project sounds very exciting, as does the new one with David Dalrymple.
Btw, I hope you had a good journey home—because no matter how smooth the flight you just can’t smooth out that tyranny of time and distance!
I actually think history and fantasy have a lot in common – both involve ‘world building’ and the ‘trio’ – character, plot and setting. In historical fiction, you are attempting to recreate the world of the past for your readers and make it come alive – just as a good fantasy writer must make their world come to life. Of course historical fiction is much more constrained, but I think the creative process has much in common and many good fantasy novels have a distinct historical feel. I would have loved to have been to hear the History and Fantasy panel!
I agree, Charlotte—and doing the panel with Andrew was a lot of fun. I think my main ‘reservation’ around Fantasy and historical influence is that I don’t believe Fantasy should be unduly constrained by history, even where the history is an important source for a story (i.e. it has to remain Fantasy)—and the historical detail infodump can definitely be as much a danger as that on how the magic works etc. But I must admit that I am feeling like a Fantasy & History blog series may be coming on … π
Cool, I went to my first Con ever last weekend. It was a SFF one. It was a blast! I didn’t get to a lot of the talks, but I did sit in on one about zombies. I met so many new authors and some of my favorites. Everyone was so nice. I would have liked to have listened in on your Keeping It Real in SFF. I am putting up a post today about my Con experience with pictures on my blog today. Check it out. My daughter won 3rd place in the costume contest with her zombie prom date get up. http://ismellsheep.blogspot.com/
oh, and she made me an ad for the site as a birthday present π it is on there too.
Sharon, I had a peek and it looks like you had a fabulous Con: I’m so glad! And I love your daughter’s zombie costume and the trailer—you must be very proud of her creativity. But I think you and the team at ismellsheep may need to check out the NZ horror film Black Sheep …
Okay, that is covered in awesomesauce . I will go share this wonderful cinematic gem…
It just seemed to fit with ismellsheep & your daughter’s trailer so well … π
Helen, bless your heart. Definitely we have to get together again.
The journey home was gratifyingly boring. π We had a 16 hour layover in Los Angeles, so Donald got us tickets to be in the tv studio audience of the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson show on CBS. It was fun.
The other artist I may be working with on the CD is Aaron Geller. He’s an awesome guitarist. Here’s a link to an original piece he wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5ikb9wCH9c
Best — Catherine
Thanks for the link! And I’m so glad you had a safe journey, although–16-hour layover: grrgh-aargh! And yes to that getting together again: even if only ‘somewhen’ at this stage, I definitely hope it happens.:)
I attended Context and enjoyed myself. All the events I attended were good value.
I can confirm the readings done by Helen and Lyn McConchie gave a good feel for the work as a whole. Very glad I got an early preview of the next book The Gathering of the Lost.
Helen – thank you for doing Kaffeeklatch at Context as well.
Thank you, June–I like the kaffeklatsch format, I must admit and I’ve also been pleased to get some positive feedback on my panel participation & moderation from both Worldcon & now ConText. I do prepare for such events, in much the same way that I prepare for interviews on the radio: I may be old fashioned in this regard, but I feel that if people are either tuning in to hear an interview or attending a panel in person, it’s cavalier, perhaps even disrespectful, not to do your best to make it entertaining and/or informative (depending on the topic.)
The reading videos are a work in progress–I very much hope to get them to the blog soon!