This summer: appearances

I’m pretty busy this summer. So busy, in fact, that I bought new luggage. The piece of luggage I usually travel with has only two wheels and only one functional zipper. It’s gone with me a bunch of places, but during the 12-hour Greyhound trip between San Francisco and Los Angeles after my wallet was stolen last year, I decided that if I ever made it out of this jam I would invest in something more user-friendly.

Speaking of San Francisco, I’ll be there again next week, for The Coming Age of Networked Matter, a conference put on by The Institute for the Future. I wrote a story for their anthology related to the conference, and I’ll be on a panel with the other authors to discuss it. The other authors include Cory Doctorow, Warren Ellis, Bruce Sterling, Ramez Naam, and Rudy Rucker, so I’m feeling the simultaneous desire to squee with pride and to hide under the covers because I’m so intimidated. (Actually, I’m really excited about meeting Rudy. He’s published a bunch of my stories at FLURB, and now I get to thank him in person.)

After that, I’ll be off to New Orleans for The Bram Stoker Awards® Weekend 2013 incorporating World Horror Convention. Yes, that’s a Registered mark you saw, next to the Bram Stoker Awards. I’m typing it exactly as it appears on the website. Personally, I think they should have taken things even further, and tried to register a trademark on the Bram Stoker Awards Weekend experience itself, from having issues with your nametag to shoveling homefries down your gullet in an effort to stave off your skull-crushing hangover. (Except that’s the experience of every convention ever, so they’d have to distinguish it somehow.) My Stoker weekend experience will distinguish itself by watching Dave launch The ‘Geisters, a novel about an angry young woman dissatisfied with her “safe” marriage, who may just be in love with someone else. Also, there are poltergeists.

In between, there is a launch party for iD on July 6. Given the themes of the novel, sandwiching the party between Independence Day and Bastille Day is completely appropriate.

At the end of June is the Locus Awards weekend in Seattle. I’m debating a trip there, since Seattle is where my parents and many of my friends live, and it’s also the city I destroyed in vN which is a finalist for the Locus Award in the First Novel category. It would be nice to be standing with them when the award inevitably goes to someone else. On the other hand, a ticket out there costs just slightly less than a month’s rent.

Either way, we’re headed off to Lone Star Con 3, AKA WorldCon 71, where with any luck I’ll be able to read to you from iD, and sign copies should you choose to pick up any. I haven’t been to Texas in a while, and never to San Antonio, so that should be fun. My plan for beating the heat is to unfurl a tarp, sprinkle it with baby powder, and roll across it like a jelly doughnut dusting itself in icing sugar. So if you say hello and I’m covered in streaks of white powder, you’ll know why. It’s not my rampaging coke problem. I’d have written more books by now, if I had one of those.

When I return to Toronto, I’ll be attending the Kingston Writers Fest, where I’ll be on a panel with Margaret Atwood and Corey Redekop. I’ll be doing some homework to prepare for that one.

All in all, it’s pretty daunting. Vainly, I wish I looked better for all these cool appearances. It’s a bit sad to have photos of yourself taken with really talented, amazing people and to not enjoy any of them. Then again, I’ve felt that way since childhood, so it’s nothing new. What is new is having a legitimate career doing what I do. I mean, the majority of these conventions are occasions I was actually invited to, which is a little weird. Like, someone actually thought I would be a worthwhile addition to the mix. It’s a little strange to think of someone thinking about me in that way. That’s half of what’s so intimidating; I worry I won’t live up to the version of me that other people have in their heads. Not that I begrudge it, at all. I’m really lucky to be in this position, and I know there are plenty of other people out there who would sell their teeth to get here. I just worry about being worthy of it.