That is all. Happy Saturday!
Jean Marie's little corner of Blogspot
It
was raining from a blue sky when I drove up to Baltimore last Thursday. The
Japanese call a sunshower “Yokai Wedding.” It seemed a really appropriate way
to arrive at Balticon. The con lived up to the name in more ways than one.
It
was a great party. I got to hang and panel with so many of my con friends.
I
ran into Laurie Toby Edison, John L. French, and Sally Kobee, who were setting
up in the Dealers Room. Shortly thereafter, I connected with Amy Kaplan and
Jennifer Povey. We immediately made plans to attend the Wine Village at the
Inner Harbor the following night. There was music. There was wine. There was
bacon—and a lot of giggling to be heard. :D I’d hoped we could add J.D.
Blackrose to the party. This was her first Balticon, but we didn’t connect
until later. Next year, J.D. Next year!
Next
year, I may finally get to the Death Metal festival down the street or the arts
festival near the museum. But I keep getting distracted by the food. This year’s
discovery was Costiera in Little Italy. Between there and Mo’s, I ate very well
indeed. One word of warning, though. Do NOT eat the broccoli. It’s the worst
crime against vegetable-com since my mom last opened a can—and she was the
unquestioned, unchallenged Worst Cook East of the Mississippi. Stick to the seafood,
pasta, and salads—with or without seafood. You can’t go wrong.
The
panels were great. Carl Cipra should win a prize for the best intros ever. He
also did a great job of guiding Randee Dawn, David Boop, and me through “Is it
Horror or Dark Fantasy?” We didn’t come to any conclusion, but it was fun not
getting there.
Randee
also hosted a launch party for her new book, The Only Song Worth Singing,
from Shahid Mahmud’s Arc Manor Press, in the Con Suite Saturday evening. I was
all set to celebrate with her in the con suite and help demolish a thoroughly
amazing cake on my way to moderating “Humorous Fantasy Is a Serious Business.”
But I got distracted in the best possible way.
I
stumbled onto the handfasting ceremony of Suzanne A. Buck and Charlotte, whose
full name I unfortunately never caught. (I told you that sunshower was the
perfect omen.) It turned out I’d met Suzanne years ago, when she was a
teenager. Now she’s a zoologist, a writer, and as if that isn’t enough, a
consultant on Star Trek. How cool is that?
I
did manage to make it to the door of the con suite, where I finally ran into J.D.
We were soon joined by others, including Elektra Hammond and Diana Peterfreund,
who had some fabulous NFP news to share. (Big congrats, Diana!) We were all so
giddy, I completely forgot that I was supposed to connect with Morgan Hazelwood
about everything I was looking forward to about the con. (Many apologies,
Morgan. I’ll try to make it up to you next year.)
When
I could finally tear myself away, I was already about to be late. Then I
discovered I didn’t know where to find the room. Fortunately, Programming Chair
Extraordinaire Yakira Heistand pointed me in the right direction. Yeah, I was
late. To “Humorous Fantasy is a Serious Business,” the panel I was moderating.
The shame! Really. I hate being late, but Alex Shvartsman and Doc Coleman kept
things going until I arrived. The fourth participant, Martin Berman-Gorvine,
wasn’t able to make it. But he did join us for “The Eye of Argon”
reading/performance Sunday night.
I
planned to head directly to the Masquerade. But one of the pleasures of a con
is you never move in a straight line. I had a wonderful hall chat with Carolyn
Ives Gilman that only broke up when she had to dash to a panel of her own.
Sunday
was my busy day, starting off with “Juggling POV.” Alan Smale did an amazing
job of wrangling Catherine Asaro, Ken Altabef, and me. It turned into one of
the best craft panels ever.
Next
up was one of my personal highlights—sharing an hour’s reading time with 2025
Heinlein Award winner and living SFF legend Sharon Lee. Her reading was
wonderful—a story within a story. But the audience seemed to enjoy my snippets,
especially “Burning Down the House” and the opening of “Brigid and the Snakes,”
one of the stories in Intergalactic Rejects, coming from Calendar of
Fools June 20. (Another good omen, don’t you think, Zach Be?)
High
as that was, my next panel, “Orpheus, Again?” chaired by Rosemary Claire Smith,
featuring Tom Doyle, Sherri Woolsey, and me. It was a satisfyingly deep dive
into the Orpheus mythos, old and new.
Then,
the fitting cap to my con, “The Eye of Argon.” Ian Randal Strock was the
unenviable task of herding cats—I mean leading Amy Kaplan, Mary G. Thompson,
and me through our paces as readers and performers of the beloved “Worst SF
Story of All Time.” (Honestly, it really isn’t that bad.) I don’t think he was
expecting the enthusiasm with which Amy, Mary, and I—ably assisted by Sarah
Avery and the rest of our studio audience—approached our roles. And it is
ABSOLUTELY UNTRUE that the undulating tavern wenches and belly-fluttering
prince had anything to do with Ian calling time and personally reading the last
three paragraphs of Chapter three-and-a-half. Untrue, I say!
The
only thing that could cap that was a debrief in the hotel bar with Amy and her
husband Bruce. My French 75 was surprisingly great. The other folks’
cocktails…Hey, it was the company that mattered.
My
only regret is I should have taken more pictures, especially of the Masquerade.
The costumes were spectacular. But so was the con. Big thanks are due to
everyone involved, directors, staff, volunteers, participants, and attendees.
And apologies to anyone whose name I forgot, because you know you always forget
someone.
Can’t
wait to do it all over again next year! Without the forgetting part, that is. 😉
Like it says on the box, I’m back on the web. JeanMarieWard.com was down for the better part of a year thanks after a someone hacked my former webmaster’s server. But a brilliant friend not only recovered most of the data from the Wayback Machine, she taught me how to navigate process of rebuilding the site. Who knew building blocks could be SO HARD?
I’m also back at Balticon–or will be momentarily. I’ll be leaving spouse and cat tomorrow to return to Baltimore’s best Memorial Day Weekend party. I have a wonderful schedule of panels too:
Friday, May 23, 7 PM, Mount Washington Room
Is it Horror or Dark Fantasy?
New sub-genres pop up all the time. Dark Fantasy is being used a lot these
days. Is it horror light or something altogether different? Panelists: Carl
Cipra (Moderator), David Boop, Randee Dawn, Jean Marie Ward
Saturday, May 24, 7 PM, Pride of Baltimore II Room
Humorous Fantasy Is a Serious Business
Is humorous fantasy underrated? In an era of serious narratives and grimdark
stories, have humorous approaches to fantasy become less popular? Readers may
not take humorous fantasy because of its…non-seriousness. Humor, absurdity, and
satire are not only a reason to laugh, but can also be a vehicle for biting
observations. Sir Terry Pratchett was a past master of the form. Who leads the
field now? Panelists: Jean Marie Ward (Moderator), Doc Coleman, Alex
Shvartsman, Martin Berman-Gorvine
Sunday, May 25, 1 PM, Mount Washington Room
Juggling POV
It’s a hallmark of SFF to provide different points of view. How many POV
characters are too many? How do jump from one character to another without
losing your readers? Learn from pros who have kept their readers along for the
ride. Panelists: Alan Smale (Moderator), Ken Altabef, Catherine Asaro, Jean
Marie Ward
Sunday, May 25, 4 PM, St. George Room
Readings
Readers: Sharon Lee and Jean Marie Ward (Editorial note: SQUEEEE!!!)
Sunday, May 25, 5:30 PM, Gibson Room
Orpheus Again?
Orpheus and Eurydice mythos have seeded the imaginations of numerous creators.
From the Netflix show Kaos to Broadway’s Hadestown to
the novelette “L’Esprit de L’Escalier” by Catherine Valente, why does the myth
have such a resonance in modern times? What is it telling us about how we see
life and love? Or is there something deeper? Panelists: Rosemary Claire Smith
(Moderator), Sherri Cook, Tom Doyle, Jean Marie Ward
Sunday, May 25, 8:30 PM, Mount Washington Room
Eye of Argon Reading
Yes, we’re doing it again. We just can’t stop enjoying the absurdity of this
absurdly written piece of absurd fiction. While the reading starts with our
panelists, the pain often spills over into the audience. Gird your loins.
Panelists: Ian Randal Strock (Moderator), A.L. Kaplan, Mary G. Thompson, Jean
Marie Ward
See you there!
Things are about to get
hot—in my fiction, that is. “Burning Down the House,” the first installment in
my Sorcerer vs. Sorcerer series from Ginger Blue Publishing, hits the virtual
shelves in less than two weeks. Think Dumb
and Dumber or Spy vs. Spy, only with magic.
Eddie Woodhouse and Ducky
“Duc d’ Or” Orr are opposites in every way. Eddie is a low-rent sorcerer from the wrong side of the tracks with a
record of screw-ups a mile long. Ducky is magus with a doctorate in thaumaturgy
from a line sorcerers stretching all the way back to the Middle Ages. Every
time they meet, something goes boom. And now, Eddie has swallowed a djinni.
Did I mention Eddie is a
screw up?
The book will be available
from all the usual suspects:
And I’ve got some online
readings planned to celebrate. More about that soon. Meanwhile, revel in that
gorgeous cover. My loopy sorcerers never had it so good.
#fantasy #sorcerers #comedy
#sff #90minuteread #novella #gingerbluepublishing
Friday is the first Economic Blackout date. The goal here
is to show the power of people acting together. The bro-ligarchs have forgotten that
their wealth and power depends on the power of our purses. It’s time to remind
them where true power lies.
This is about acting together, because we can. We must.
It is NOT about boycotting any of these super-corps
indefinitely. Honestly, that’s impossible. Too many independent
creators—including writers and small press—depend on Amazon and partners like
Kickstarter. (Yes, folks, Kickstarter is in partnership with Amazon. To say
nothing of The Washington Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos.) If you buy pet
food or baby formula, you’re buying Nestle. Period. In some parts of America,
Walmart is the only store around. And heaven help the parent who tries to avoid
General Mills in the cereal aisle.
But we CAN arrange our purchases to make sure there are
carefully chosen gaps in the profit stream WITHOUT harming small businesses or
denying ourselves the products we need.
This is NOT about extremism. Even on blackout dates, if
anyone in my family gets sick, I’m going to be at the drug store buying
medicine and supplies. Nobody would question that. It’s not about harming
ourselves. It’s about sending a message. Anyone who says differently is either
misinformed or gaslighting you.
Full disclosure, I’ve got skin in the Amazon game. My primary publisher is a micro press. Ninety percent of their sales come from Amazon, and
they’ve assigned my next title a March publication date for my new release,
Burning Down the House. Another of my publishers is running a March Kickstarter I
really want to succeed. If I can’t work out a promotional strategy that
recognizes this initiative and encourages people to buy AROUND it, I’m screwed.
Doesn’t matter if I participate in the black-out (spoiler alert: I will) or
not. There will be a dip in purchases, because people will observe the blackout
dates, regardless of what I do.
To say differently is to deny what’s happening. Memes and images like the ones I post are the equivalent of traffic alerts.
When you’re listening to the radio and hear there’s an accident on the road you planned to take, do you yell at the traffic report, or do you take a
different route? If you’re at the supermarket, and the PA system announces, “Spill
on Aisle 5,” do you bullheadedly drive your shopping cart through a puddle of
tomato sauce and broken glass?
Some people claim economic blackouts don’t address the real problem.
The real problem is corruption. No kidding. Our nation is being gutted by a convicted
felon who has been described in official Russian media as a Russian asset, an
undesirable alien, a hypocritical band of toady oligarchs, and their shills in congress
and the judiciary. Together they hold all the traditional levers of political
power.
Traditional methods won’t work. There are no traditional remedies for corruption on this scale. The next election cycle will
be too late. We must act together and use whatever legal means we can to right
their wrongs. Now.
It’s an American tradition, going all the way back to the
founding of our nation. We’ve faced seemingly insurmountable odds before. There
once was a mad king surrounded by fawning, corrupt aristocrats and the equally
corrupt judges they controlled. They also exempted themselves from taxes and
increased them for everyone else to pay for their pleasures and reinforce their
position at the top of the food chain. Thomas Paine wrote about it. “These are the times that try men’s souls.”
But right now, the words that resonate with me are those of
Ben Franklin upon the signing of the Declaration of Independence: “We must all
hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
Let us hang together now.
This afternoon, I stood among a group of over a dozen Representatives, outside the Treasury Department. These Reps. included members of the Oversight, Ways and Means, & Homeland Security, all of which have oversight over the Treasury. They requested to be admitted to find out what Elon Musk and his underage syncophants--none of whom were elected or have any official standing--were doing rifling the data and money that belong to the American people. The two Secret Service agents guarding the approach to the building were clearly out of their depth. They spent roughly 40 minutes running in and out of the building trying to help. Finally they got word that the Secretary of the Treasury, who is legally and Constitutionally obligated to respond to Congress, denied them access. He said he was "too busy" to talk to them. THEY ARE HIS BOSSES. Not Elon Musk.
Afterwards, these Representatives, joined several Senators, including Minority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer and SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN Fighting for Progressive Values to condemn the hostile take over of federal payment systems and all the data associated with them by, in the words of one speaker, "a nepo man-baby" with nothing but contempt for working Americans.
That contempt extends to Republicans as well as Democrats. All our data. All our money. All the services WE PAID FOR. Everything is under attack.
This is a coup and a Constitutional crisis the likes of which we have never faced before. We must join together to ensure a “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” President Abraham Lincoln wrote that line in his Gettysburg Address. He was a Republican, but I guarantee you, he would stand with us now.
Join the fight. It starts in the Senate. Call your Senators--Republican and Democrat. Demand they Shut Down The Senate (Chuck Shumer's slogan, btw) to stop the bro-ligarch's power grab. Tell th
-Blanket opposition: Vote “NO” on every Trump nominee, starting with Russell Vought (pronounced “Vote”), the Project 2025 architect that Trump wants to run the Office of Management and Budget.
-Weaponize quorum calls: Disrupt official business by calling for a quorum check at any opportunity and walking out if Republicans don’t have 51 votes on the floor.
-Block unanimous consent: Eat up as much floor time as possible by objecting to unanimous consent requests and forcing each procedural step to take the maximum amount of time.
We have to fight back and make governing so painful for the bro-ligarchs that they can’t just steamroll their agenda. The more that we can disrupt, obstruct, and delay, the less damage they can do.
Let's get our country back!
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/04/democrats-protest-elon-musk-treasury-washington
https://www.fox5dc.com/news/protestors-gather-stop-elon-musks-billionaire-takeover