giantsloth

Last weekend I attended the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA) in sunny Orlando, Florida, aka The Happiest Place on Earth. Ten years ago, I met

barbmg,

bondgwendabond, and

colonelrowe at ICFA. So it was a good anniversary and a great time. Academics, writers, critics, and fellow travelers from all over the world get together to read, talk, argue, drink, and relax. I ended up in a reading slot with Connie Willis (who was a guest of honor as was Terry Bisson) and Jeff Ford. Connie read the first chapter of a new novel, Jeff read a story about the doppelgangers of doppelgangers, and I read the beginning of "Holderhaven," my American country house story that's in the most recent issue of CRIMEWAVE. Doing that reading was great fun, as was attending a few other readings, especially ones by Paul Park and Terry Bisson and Kit Reed. I went to a couple panels too, including one mostly cool one about fantastic elements in Shakespeare--lots of discussion of witches, ghosts, fairies, and wizards, not so much of satyrs. Terry Bisson and Andy Duncan did a spot-on version of Terry's "They're Made Out Of Meat" one night. And Andy brought a raccoon that played "Yakety Sax" on the harmonica. And....

How does this make sense to anyone who wasn't there? What is the least bit academic about a raccoon playing "Yakety Sax"? Well, the theme of the conference was "The Fantastic Ridiculous," so there you go. Looks like I've got yet another event I really need to try and get to every year.

Or not. We're back. Too many great people, not enough time. As usual, I saw old friends and met a couple of really cool new ones. And it didn't help that norovirus, or whatever it was, was selectively felling people I wanted to chat with. I have managed to avoid the plague so far, although I had a brief scare on Monday probably more related to spicy Thai food and to my ability to psych myself out. For the record, dinner each night was: tapas, tapas, Thai, sushi. Also for the record,

sarah_prineas has some really cool shoes of Spanish leather.

In inside-joke news, Niobium is a real element, o ye of little faith.

Instead of talking about any of the bad craziness, I will instead direct your attention to this baby sloth video (via Christopher).

Did I mention that there were too many great people, and not enough time?

From my good friend codename Sumi, this bit of science news: sloths are not as lazy as previously assumed. Huh. I suppose I should consider this inspiring, or something.

Speaking of doing stuff, here's my Wiscon schedule:

156 Delicate Flowers

Reading ♦ Sunday, 2:30-3:45 P.M. ♦ Conference 2

Christopher Rowe, Richard Butner, Ted Chiang, Karen Meisner

Yep, that's it. Actually, taking a quick gander at the schedule, I am far from alone in doing the reading-but-no-panels thing.