World Fantasy Schedule

[pbray]

Here's my schedule for World Fantasy:

Thursday 8:00 PM
The Bathroom: Necessities of World-Building

Friday 11:00 AM
Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading. I'll be one of the ten authors doing a five minute reading.

Friday 8:00 PM - 10:30 PM
Mass Autographing. I'll have lizards, postcards of the new bookcover, and will cheerfully autograph anything that isn't nailed down.

Saturday 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
LJ party @ Lobby Bar

Saturday 8:00 PM
A Maze Demands a Minotaur


Thursday 8:00 PM - 9:00 PM
The Bathroom: Necessities of World-Building
Just as a livable house needs space for the mundanities of daily life, a good fantasy world needs to provide a workable society. How do you create a world with a reasonable economy, food supply, toothbrushes, and plumbing? After you've done your research, how much of it do you show your reader?

Elizabeth Bear, Patricia Bray, Charles Coleman Finlay, Sarah Monette, Kristine Smith (M)


Friday 11:00 AM - Noon
Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading. I'll be one of the ten authors doing a five minute reading. It's a great chance to sample different authors in a short period of time, plus this will be my first public reading from THE FIRST BETRAYAL.

Friday 8:00 PM - 10:30 PM
Mass Autographing. Stop by to say "Hi" and admire the lizards. I should have postcards of the new bookcover available.

Saturday 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
LJ party @ Lobby Bar

Saturday 8:00 PM - 9:00 PM
A Maze Demands a Minotaur
The surrounding architecture shapes our expectations of the creatures we'll find within. A minotaur is expected at the heart of a stone maze, but the Empire State Building requires a very different monster. The panelists will explore a variety of fictional and real places, and the monsters and stories that belong in them. How does architecture shape reader expectations of the creatures (and stories) that inhabit a world? How can writers use these expectations to add depth to a story, or play with them to surprise the reader?

Carol Berg, Patricia Bray (M), David D. Levine, Michael Shea, Walter Jon Williams

Comments

[dancingwriter.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wish I were going to be there! I love that first panel, both the title and the topic.

In my social-history-for-kids books, I always include something about bathroom and bathing facilities, because when I was a kid reading history, I always wondered where people went to the bathroom and took a bath. I still like to know that kind of thing (though not necessarily in as much detail as some authors supply), both in fiction and nonfiction--it makes the people and their lives so much more real.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Good for you. You're right in that it's the little details that make history come alive.

I remember hearing about a scroll from Hadrian's great wall, and it was from one Roman noblewoman to another inviting her to her birthday celebration. I don't recall the precise wording but I do know how much it resonated with me. It was something that could have been written today-- please come to my birthday party, I'm surrounded by these men and it will be so dull without you.

That detail made the Roman occupation of Britain come alive for me. Suddenly these were real people, with real lives.

[dancingwriter.livejournal.com]

I know that letter well:

"Claudia Severa to her Lepidina Greetings.
On the 3rd day before the Ides of September, sister, for the day of the celebration of my birthday, I give you a warm invitation to make sure that you come to us, to make the day more enjoyable for me by your arrival, if you come. Give my greeting to your Cerialis. My Aelius and my little son send you their greetings." [Women in the Classical World, by Elaine Fantham et al.]

This note is even more precious because it's one of the very few surviving writings by a Roman woman. It's the kind of primary source/historical tidbit that I absolutely adore!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'm impressed that you were able to put your finger on it so quickly, from my incoherent description.

It's one of those ironies of history that what people thought worth saving were the works of great literature, but it is the domestic details that they considered too trivial to be saved that make the era come alive for us.