(no subject)

[mrissa]

Con report is up on my real journal. No pictures yet.

My brain has clicked over to it being September and desperately wants to wear jeans and sweaters and jackets. It is too warm for those things. It is almost always too warm for those things in early September in Minnesota. Silly brain.

I am feeling much better than I was last night -- DayQuil is our friend -- but it's not without drawbacks. I have the attention span of a gnat now. A very young gnat. A gnat toddler. Yes. I'm going to get a bit of everything done, I think, and not much of anything, and I suppose that had better be fine, because it's what I've got at the moment.

The thing about WorldCon is that it made me think about marketing for a bit, and it's very, very hard to keep momentum or optimism when you have to think about marketing. Or when I have to. Now I'm thinking about stories again, which is much better, and have a short-list of marketing-related tasks I will accomplish in the next week, and that's all right too because I can just do it and not think about it too much. Right? Okay then.

Comments

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I don't remember saying "Just because Bear talks about it doesn't mean it's a good idea. I thought this would be self-evident!" though quite clearly it's the sort of thing that I say. Sometimes I say it a lot even.

And while I remember making the boys around us laugh at Cory's panel, I don't remember what they were laughing at. (I do remember making Hannah hurt herself laughing during the panel--gosh that girl's easily amused.)

But then again, I seem to have forgotten large chunks of the con, except when I think specifically about them. It may be a defense mechanism or else my head would explode.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The Bear bit was when we were talking about Laura Bush's boobs and you overheard and were appalled that it had come up. I tried to blame Bear, but you were not letting me off any of the blame.

The boys around us were laughing at the Charlie Stross vs. China Mieville discussion. I specifically remember them laughing in their sleeves when I said, "Geekboys with beards. God, I love cons. It's like a smorgasbord." And Hannah was amused at something else entirely, but I forget what, but I was amused at her amusement.

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

oh, that's right. Especially since most of the boys around us were geekboys with beards. :)

Hannah was laughing over the trailer in topeka comment, as we looked at each other and said "Jer!" at the same exact moment. :)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's right: Hannah is meanmeanmean. And fun. And mean.

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

Hannah can't be the mean one, cause she's not the one who called Jer over the cat/trailer horoscope.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

There is more than one mean one.

Really. I spent the long weekend with you people. There's more than one.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

I had no idea this wasn't your "real" journal.

[markgritter.livejournal.com]

Well, I was of the impression that the one Marissa does in pen-and-ink is her "real" journal, since the others are progressively more virtual.

"So... what's a sampo?"

[roane.livejournal.com]

"Y'know! For kids!" cracked me up. And also, I have a terrible confession to make. My only exposure to the Kalevala in any form is from MST3K, specifically, The Day the Earth Froze, in which sampo (is that actually a proper noun?) is an object of great derision and hysterical laughter (well, the latter on my part, anyway). I know, I know. I need better mythology sources.

Re: "So... what's a sampo?"

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The Sampo is a magical object, specifics uncertain. It was made as a courting gift/bride price, and it ground (?) out a third of things to eat and a third of things to use and a third of things to sell. But Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen and that stupid Lemminkainen tried to steal it back from Louhi, the witch of North Farm, who had received it as her daughter's bride price, and they fought over it, and it broke and fell into the sea. More loosely, it's a worker of miracles, a great and grand magic.

In 1950, Edward Holliwell, formerly of Bletchley Park and now employed by MI-6, is using vacuum-tubes to make a new one up in northern Finland, and that is where Thermionic Night and Sampo go.

Re: "So... what's a sampo?"

[roane.livejournal.com]

Hee. The question was actually a quote from said MST3K episode, but surprisingly, The Day the Earth Froze seems to have gotten it at least somewhat right. Their Sampo made salt and gold, and if I remember correctly, bread.

And now I'm thoroughly intrigued by what you're working on.

Re: "So... what's a sampo?"

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Good! It's my easiest book to talk about in general and my hardest book to talk about in specific. It's got the tag-lines all set up, but then the specifics get complicated very quickly.

I'm still thinking of it as one book, even though it is now clearly two. Or three, depending on where you're counting from. Sigh.

Re: "So... what's a sampo?"

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

"The Day the Earth Froze".

OHhh, I rememeber that day, yaaah! You gotta dress for it! Why it was so ding-dang cold I hadda start up the block heater on da car, yaaah!

Re: "So... what's a sampo?"

[roane.livejournal.com]

*mutters, goes to dig out 10 year old VHS tapes of the show* ;)

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Gosh. Maybe there is something good about working in an office. At least it lets me indulge in fall clothing - I'm in jeans and a (lightweight but longsleeved) sweater this minute.

GLad that you're feeling better. Incidentally, if you don't want to blame the con, you could always blame the plane ride back from it.

[msagara.livejournal.com]

The thing about WorldCon is that it made me think about marketing for a bit, and it's very, very hard to keep momentum or optimism when you have to think about marketing. Or when I have to. Now I'm thinking about stories again, which is much better, and have a short-list of marketing-related tasks I will accomplish in the next week, and that's all right too because I can just do it and not think about it too much. Right? Okay then.

I just read your Worldcon report -- and you're right; I talk like machine-gun fire if I'm hyper :/. If, umm, you were there for the whole reading and you hit the Loud Rant About Morons which wasted about 5-7 minutes of the reading, then, umm. Well. I was a little hyper.

I try to remember to talk slowly.

As for marketing: It's so much better not to think about it when writing. You'll eventually develop the odd periscope which exists for writers, by which you can scope out marketing-like things and then come back down quickly.

But it always takes me about 3 days to recover from a Worldcon. Usually, I have the excuse of being sick; sometimes I just have the big mental crash. Glad to hear you're feeling better!