My schedule for WorldCon in Reno!

So here it is, officially! I've received my schedule for Reno Worldcon. I'd love to see you if you're attending. I've got some great panels, as well as a reading and an autographing session (with some very awesome people). These are the most reliable places to catch me:

Thu 15:00 - 16:00, KaffeeKlatsch: Thu 15:00, KK1 (RSCC)
Juliette Wade, Carol Berg, Lee Harris, Larry Correia

Fri 14:00 - 15:00, Anticipatory Anthropology: Study of Future Humans, A16 (RSCC)
Margaret Mead said "Anthropology has to date made very
meager contributions to man's developing concern with the
future" ("Contribution" 3). Two decades later, the American
Anthropological Association began awarding an annual prize
for "Anticipatory Anthropology" in order to ameliorate this
shortcoming, what Robert Textor (who sponsored the award
and for whom it is named) called the discipline's
"tempocentrism"- i.e., its concern only "with the past, the
ethnographic present, and the actual present"
Irene Radford, Juliette Wade, Margaret McGaffey Fisk, Patricia MacEwen

Fri 16:00 - 17:00, Neologism and Linguicide: How the Dominant Language Mutates and Assimilates Other Languages, D04 (RSCC)
We've all heard of species becoming endangered, but the
famous anthropologist Wade Davis warns of a similar problem
happening to the languages which endangers the richness of
the world's cultures. How we preserve or destroy these
languages and how we cultivate linguistic habits, will
determine what we are able to think in the world of the
near future.
Lawrence M. Schoen, Juliette Wade, Sheila Finch, David J. Peterson

Sat 12:00 - 13:00, Designing Believable Languages, A10 (RSCC)
How do biology, population density, and other features help
determine the development of languages on an alien world?
Peadar Ó Guilín, Juliette Wade, S.M. Stirling, David J. Peterson

Sat 15:00 - 16:00, Analog Doesn't Publish Women?, A10 (RSCC)
The Analog Mafia, not just for men...
Stanley Schmidt (M), Juliette Wade, Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, Mary A. Turzillo

Sat 16:30 - 17:00, Reading: Juliette Wade, A15 (RSCC)

Sun 11:00 - 12:00, Autographing: Sun 11:00, Hall 2 (RSCC)
(Juliette Wade, Nancy Kress, Grania Davis, Jack Skillingstead, Robert G. Pielke, Gail Carriger, Joe Haldeman)

My schedule for Westercon 64 in San Jose!

Here we go! I just received my schedule for Westercon 64. This should be really fun, so come and see me!

On Saturday, July 2 from 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM I'll be discussing Alien Language with Tom Digby, Daryl Frazetti, Pat MacEwen, and Dave Trowbridge. Room: Gold
This is a favorite topic of mine, as you know! Here's the description:
When we do hear from ETs, how will we interpret what they are saying? What assumptions can we safely make about common elements of language and communications? Do we want to let them know we received their message? How different could an alien language be, given that it still must communicate warnings and enable communication as human languages do?

Then from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM I'll be alongisde Kyle Aisteach and Cliff Winnig, Reading from my own science fiction! Expect aliens... if you have any requests for works that I might read from, give them to me here on my TTYU blog. I'm listening... Room: Imperial Ballroom Reading Area

On Sunday, July 3 from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM I'll be talking about Problems with First Contact with Tom Digby, Margaret Fisk, G. David Nordley, and Mike Sheffield. Here's the description:
Sometimes advanced aliens contact humanity, and sometimes spacefaring humans are doing the contacting. But once contact has happened, what is the moral dimension? Is it immoral to leave individuals in primitive poverty in the hope that they might one day develop their own culture? Can advanced peoples colonize a planet inhabited by primitives and live in peace with them? Room: Regency Ballroom 2

Then from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM will be Delusions of Gender with Dany Atkins, Patricia MacEwen, and Jean Marie Stine. Sounds interesting:
From alien races with one sex or many to human androgynes, hermaphrodites, and beyond, SF has used gender and sexuality as lenses to examine human minds and cultures. Consider the single sex of Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness versus the five sexes of Melissa Scott's Shadow Man. The James Tiptree, Jr. Award anthologies also explore these possibilities. Room: Gold

On the final day, Monday, Jul 04 from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM I'll be appearing with Paul Carlson, Gabrielle Harbowy, Robert Hole, and Mike Shepherd to discuss Getting the Details Right:
How hard is it to learn basic science and tech if you're a writer who skated through that part of his or her education? How can that be overcome? Does it matter? How does credible science in a story bolster the believability of the parts that are obviously fabricated? Room: Crystal

Then from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM in room it will be Art Forms for Other Senses. With me for the discussion will be Jaym Gates, Chelsea Kalenda, and Kate Morganstern:
What sort of art would be made by species whose senses differ from our own? Imagine scent-paintings, sonic tapestries, symphonies of electromagnetic radiation, and sculptures of pressure and convection currents in a fluid medium... Room: California

Be aware that things (particularly room assignments) could change, so even I will be triple-checking on the day.

Leave requests for science fiction readings in my comments below. I'd love to see you there!

World Fantasy Convention is coming!

I'm not sure if this precisely counts as an appearance, since I'm not going to be on any panels, but I'm headed for World Fantasy Convention this coming Halloween weekend. There will be lots of interesting panels and interesting people there. I'm hoping to hear two of my favorite authors read, Kij Johnson and Patricia McKillip. I'm really lucky that it's in San Jose this year - right around the corner!

If any of you are also going, let me know and we can try to cross paths there.

A late amendment...

For any of you who may be going to look for me tomorrow at Westercon, the time of the alien languages panel is 11:00am (not 10) in the Capistrano room. My reading is still at 2, in the Boardroom.

I'll try to post a report as soon as I get back...

It's all about appearances...

Tonight we went out to a restaurant for dinner. Carmine's, in Chicago - highly recommended for Italian food, and boy, do my kids like seafood!

While I was there, I happened to watch a party of ten young women arrive at their table. The first thing they did after they sat was arrange their clothing, and the second thing they did was arrange their hair.

It was the hair I noticed most. Every girl at that table did a little touch-check before considering herself settled. The ones with long hair generally made sure all of it was behind their shoulders, and then some of them left it there, while others selected portions of it on either side to bring forward in front of their shoulders. With ten of them all doing this at once, it was quite striking.

I know I have a habit of pushing my hair back from my forehead, but if I ever did the shoulder front-or-back check I wasn't aware of it. Maybe these girls weren't either; or perhaps they were. But appearances are very, very important in human social groups.

At the Field Museum they have a little display, which consists of two statues of African women and a TV screen. One of the statues has her hair up in a big tall arrangement at the crest of her head, while the other has elaborate metal neck-rings that elongate her neck. The TV screen shows people - I'd say at least eight or ten from different Earth cultures - preparing their appearance as though getting ready to go out. Plucking eyebrows, shaving chins - or shaving heads, putting on makeup or skin decorations, brushing and arranging hair, adjusting clothing, etc., etc. It shows just a few seconds at a time from each person, scrolls through the group and then returns to them a little later in their toilette until they're all ready to go.

Much like the girls at the table, it's when you put it all together and juxtapose one against the other that it becomes striking.

Boy do we go to a lot of trouble.

I've seen a lot of appearance-related stuff in science fiction and fantasy. Often it's just a description of someone's appearance, or of how they prepare themselves in some way. Sometimes it's a description of how odd humans look.

I've done this myself.

But what I've noticed is that for me it's not entirely satisfying just to say "humans look funny with all those clothes." When you're working on appearance details for an unfamiliar group, first, remember to include key details - to say "she pulled her hair back with bone combs" rather than "she pulled her hair back." Second, try to remember why we put so much effort into our appearance. Yes, it's about attractiveness in general, but each part of what we do has a special meaning, and attractive to one group isn't the same as attractive for the other.

Try to get past the general value assignment, and closer to the principles behind those values. The goth goes for his or her look for a reason. Tattoos mean more to people than you might think. When my daughter wears her hair up I don't just think she looks pretty, but I also find somehow she looks a little older when I can see her whole face clearly - less like a toddler and more like a young girl.

Get into your character's head as he or she prepares for a day - or as he or she evaluates another character's appearance. There are rich opportunities there. Take advantage of them.

BayCon 2009: May 22-25

I just got my panel assignments so I now know where I'm going to be next weekend.

I'm going to be appearing on a couple of panels at BayCon 2009, which will be at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara, California. Look for me at:

Meet the Guests, Friday, 8pm

World-Building: More Than Just Filing Off The Serial Numbers, Sunday, 10am

Metaphysics: Supernatural & Spirituality in Science Fiction, Sunday, 11:30am

If you live near the San Francisco Bay Area, it would be fun to see you there!