For clarity

Because the internet lacks a sarcasm tag, and we haven't invented a punctuation mark to denote it, all the authors I listed yesterday as "not actually science fiction" was sarcasm.

I'm currently reading one of Drake's RCN novels, which are based on the same source material (a Napoleonic-era British sailor's diary) as O'Brian's Aubrey & Maturin books (Master and Commander, ff). O'Brian set his in the Age of Sail; Drake set his in a distant future where people have colonized space.

Drake's Hammer's Slammers novels are not-very-loosely based on his time serving in Vietnam, and set in a future where people have colonized space (and hire mercenaries to fight their battles for them). (If you like gritty military SF and you haven't read these, the first collection is excellent.)

Bujold's Vor of Barrayar are based on the imperial Prussians (with some influence of Czarist Russia), with purposeful similarities to Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey stories and the occasional reference to Georgette Heyer (especially A Civil Campaign).

Cherryh's Foreigner books aren't specifically based on real Earth history, as far as I know, but the parallel between clueless humans (presumably white people) stumbling into more complicated alien politics than they thought and colonialist Europeans drawing borders in Africa and central Asia that ignored the existing people's affiliations is there, even if you don't squint too hard.

Her Alliance-Union books are, like much space opera, the Age of Sail in space, with long journeys between various human establishments (be they colonies on stations or on planets), trade, pirates, a too-powerful Earth Company (a la the East India Company), politics, rabble, and the like.

LeGuin's books are generally anthropological in nature, especially the Hainish ones. The concept there is that the Hain seeded the universe with people, and they left them to develop/evolve under different conditions. Eventually, some group of them discovers space flight (or the Hain teach them? I'm not sure), and they go from planet to planet to observe the natives and eventually ask them to join their league of worlds (the Ekumen). They're quite brilliant.

And these are all science fiction, regardless of what some purist genre-snob thinks.

Bull Spec Kickstarter project

I don't know if I've mentioned Bull Spec here before, though I have on my blogspot blog. It's a (SFWA pro!) spec fic magazine based out of Durham (the Bull City; you may recognize it from the film Bull Durham) run by this guy Sam, who's a little mad, and he's backed it out of his own pocket, except for ad sales, so far.

Sam recognized the huge spec fic writers' community in the Triangle (and throughout the state) about 3 years ago, and he basically organized us into a unit, single-handedly. In every issue of Bull Spec, there's a flyer listing local goings-on, from book releases to readings and signings. He's a good guy. (He's also the reason I got to read and review Germline, which I can't stop saying good things about to anyone who'll listen.)

If you want to help support the magazine, he's running a kickstarter to get some of the pressure off his own pocket. Pledge rewards range from a t-shirt to short story critiques to a novel submission packet critique to original art. Right now, he's got $645/1000 pledged, and the project closes 9/30.

After thought and angst (because, uh, no income), I decided to pledge at the $100 level for the novel sub packet critique (at the "encouragement" level) from Gray Rinehart, chief slush-wader at Baen. Two main reasons: a) it'll get me off my ass to get the synopsis done & a query/cover letter, and b) he's a pro. I definitely don't think he'll read it and go, "revise XYZ and send it to us." (It's not a Baen book for a couple reasons.) Hiring an editor to give it a developmental edit (the overarching look at the thing) costs 2-3X that, or more, so it's still somewhat economical, and it helps out my buddy Sam. It's not exactly the same as having someone edit your entire work, but a synopsis can also show your plot holes, and the first 20-odd pages can show your style/voice.

Consider supporting Bull Spec, which helps support a vibrant writers' community here in NC.

Decisions, decisions...

(I know, weird, 3 posts in one day. I'm apparently moving out of my slug/just wanna play video games phase.)

Something skogkatt said to me in discussions after I was rejected from Viable Paradise this year got me thinking. For the tuition, hotel, food, and travel expense to Martha's Vineyard, I could go to a con and meet a lot of people. Maybe even two cons. I could to go World Con, even.

So I looked into next year's, and it's in Chicago. Cool, I've never really been to Chicago. Oh, problem: it's Labor Day weekend. I've kind of set that aside for Dragon*Con. 2013 is going to be in San Antonio (eh)...also Labor Day weekend. Bother. Honestly, I'd rather go to Chi-town than San Antonio in late August/early September.

And Ben likes going to D*C, too. If we buy next year's badges at the con, they're half price. Which is pretty awesome! But if we'll be in Chicago instead, not exactly useful.

But World Con would be a better con to go to as far as my career is concerned. D*C is huge and awesome, but not exactly the kind of place you network. (Unless you're a program participant/guest and can hang in the green room, which...yeah, not so useful for me, right?) I'm fairly well connected to the local scene, and being literary chair at the new con is going to add to that, but I don't know a whole lot of people outside the southeast. (A few Bostonites, a couple people in New York, some Californians...that's about it that I can think of.) There have also been writer's workshops at them, but there's nothing on the website about it yet.

WorldCon 2012 badges are currently $175, and the rate goes up after 9/30 (to what, it doesn't say). The D*C hotel land grab starts 10/1. I'm somewhat tired of the land grab, tbqh. We'll need to decide by then. I lean toward Chicago (4 hotel nights (would be great if we could get an additional roomie or two), 2 plane tickets, $350 for badges) over D*C (4 hotel nights (shared), $60 in gas (shared), $150 for badges), but Ben isn't convinced.

2014's going to be in London, most likely (it's the only bid), but we can't afford London, either getting there or room costs or eating (when a dinner costs 10 pounds, and it's 2 pounds to the dollar, that's a $20 dinner!), not unless a miracle happens in Ben's job and he gets a raise, or I get a lot of shifts. But 2014 is a year I don't want to get too far from home, because Crankypants will be 17 and still diabetic, and I would hate myself forever if she died while I was gallivanting.

I don't know. I guess we'll have to make a decision by the end of September. Do any of you plan to attend (or could be persuaded)?