Tag Archives: Octavia Butler

Catchin’ Up

Mrs Widdershins and I, closely monitored by the Widdershins Cat, are moving!

It’s something we’ve talked about off and on for quite a while. The how’s and where’s and when’s of it have contributed to the ‘off and on’ part of our process.

During our courtship era, we discovered that, although born and growing up on opposite sides of the planet, our lives had followed many common threads. One of which is that we’re country gals at heart.

We have found great solace and joy in our little third-floor tree-house apartment in the city. For three years the magnificent Chestnut trees outside our windows have allowed us to breathe when our lives would wind us up so tight, we thought we might break.

Now we are leaving.

We are going to live on an island in the middle of a lake!

Which is not quite as romantic as it sounds, unfortunately. There are others living there in houses of all sorts of shapes and sizes. We will gain an extra bedroom, a yard of our own, and access to the private lake-front beach only 50 meters (yards) away.

We will lose the immediacy of urban living, and our Chestnut trees, and the birds the size of flying meeces who drink from their leaves when it rains.

Did I mention it’s an island, in the middle of a lake?

Packing has commenced and the removalists are booked. (I swore, the last time we moved that we were NOT going to do it ourselves again … slinging furniture, and lots, and lots, and lots of boxes into trucks is a young person’s game)

We are entering a time of transition. I have lived here in Vancouver for nearly eight years and Mrs. Widdershins, for over twenty. Transitions are always troublesome. There’s often a vaccumm between what has gone before and what has not yet arrived. We will be loving and understanding of each other’s stress points, and we will laugh at the absurdities that will inevitably try to trip us up.

It’s time to go.

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“Writing is one of the few professions in which you can psychoanalyse yourself, get rid of hostilities and frustrations in public, and get paid for it” – Octavia Butler (1947-2006)

Meet Me at the Con


Just about every person and their animal-companion-of-choice who attended the MuseCon last week has written a blog post about by now. So rather than clog up the interwebz even more with my piece of the pie, I had planned to mention it one more time in passing and then move on … however, the best laid plans of meeces and lesbians …

In the comments of my last post,  S.P Bowers asked:

“I’ve been hearing about online conferences lately. Do you think they are as useful as regular conferences for networking and socializing purposes? How do they work? Are you all in a chat room together? Is it at specific times or can you work it around your schedule a little? Sorry if that’s a lot of questions. I’ve wanted to do some but am not sure what to expect.”

I’ve attended 3 online conferences. Last year’s Muse Online Writers Conference, and the one just finished, and last year’s CoyoteCon. (which is now, unfortunately, defunct as far as I know. The website has been taken over by spammers and other primordial pond scum, and no-one answers my emails to the organisers) Both conferences were US based.

 I’ll just give a brief overview of the two and hopefully incorporate my answers to S.P.’s questions at the same time.

CoyoteCon ran on consecutive weekends throughout August 2010, and was chat based. A moderator would introduce the guest speaker who would either do a brief presentation and open the floor to questions or go straight to the questions. All the chats were listed on the website with a brief description. For those who didn’t make the chat for various reasons, a transcript was posted on the site. Some of the presenters also made handouts of their workshops available to attendees, which the presenters then talked to during the chat.

This enabled a much faster exchange of ideas, and communication between the presenters and attendees.

The down-side of this type of conference is that you are tied in to the times set for the chats. 5pm EST (US time) might be great but if you’re anywhere else in the world it could be troublesome. The transcripts may have the information, but it’s not the same as being there.

The Muse (for short) is primarily forum based, with some scheduled chats by presenters and chats for pitches. (I believe there was also a casual chat ‘lounge’ but I didn’t know it was there until after the ball was over!)

The forums were as short as one day workshops or ran all week long. The presenter created several threads depending on what format they chose, and also made handouts and/or workbooks available to download. The attendees could read, comment, and participate in the workshops as their time permitted without feeling that they had missed out on anything.

There were also forums available for the attendees to exchange information between themselves.

The down side? Unless the presenter had scheduled a chat, there was no way for the attendees to a particular workshop to get together in real-time and discuss stuff, or socialize. (unless they organised something themselves)

Both types of conferences also allowed private messages to be sent between attendees.

As with just about any kind of conference on just about anything, you get out what you put in.

My first time at Muse I wanted to do every workshop that held even the vaguest interest for me … and spread myself too thin, didn’t really get into anything and felt exhausted at the end anyway. This year I focused on a few workshops and got a great deal out of them plus a couple of new friendships.

At Coyote I realized that the free-flowing nature of the chat format meant that although there was a set subject, the instant communication aspect enabled all sorts of other information to be introduced. (the moderators kept the discussions on track, but sometimes it was like herding cats! – not necessarily a bad thing) … So, because I had the time I decided to at least listen in on all the chats, and even the ones that I had really no interest in, and I always learned something useful. It didn’t hurt that ‘Widdershins’ thereby kept a very high profile all conference long!

Apart from the obvious, one of the big differences between online and geographical conferences in terms of one-to-one interactions, is you’re not going to just bump into someone and introduce yourself as you hand them a paper towel to wipe off the drink you just spilled.

In an online conference you will have to actively reach out and engage with others, to network, to socialise. Send them a personal message, invite comments to whatever you might’ve posted, deliberately participate in the workshops. ‘Lurkers’ are welcome but unless you speak out, no-one will ‘see’ or know you are there.

Muse provides workshops and information events throughout the year, so keep it in mind as a way to see how the whole concept works.

The Muse conference is free, and I firmly believe in a fair exchange of energy so, foolishly or not, it remains to be seen, I volunteered to be a moderator next year. I’ll let you know how the view from the other side of the interface looks, throughout the coming year.

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“ … a workshop is where you do actually get feedback on your work, not just something where you go and sit for a day” – Octavia Butler