Bull City Robotic Rodeo Schedule

I'm delighted to be a guest at the first Bull City Robotic Rodeo in Durham, NC this weekend! This first-year con is run by the same excellent folks who produce the annual Festival of Legends, so I know we're in good hands. Plus it's in my old stomping grounds from Trinoc-CoN days at the Durham Marriott & Convention Center!

So come join the fun and find me sharing a table with Emily Leverett, when I'm not on one of these panels:

Friday, February 1st

6:00 pm ~ Steampunk 101

What *is* steampunk, anyway? Panelists explain what Steampunk means to them in storytelling, costuming, and making.

Saturday, February 2nd

11:00 am ~ “Based on a True Story”

The weird-but-true wild West: The American Wild West had plenty of “weird” stories of real people, and they will be shared here!

12:30 pm ~ Diversity of Culture and Gender in the Wild West

Representation matters. Women, people of color, and many marginalized people have great steampunk stories to tell, whether they are the authors or characters. This could touch on balancing “writing the other” and the #OwnVoice movement.

3:00 pm ~ Folklore Panel

The influence and importance of folklore and tales through the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.

4:00 pm ~ Making the Old New Again

When a storyteller breathes new life into an old tale, it is excitingly familiar and different! Let’s share some of the best examples of steampunk that pull from classic themes in books and movies.

Sunday, February 3rd

11:00 am ~ Firefly: The Story, and the Story-behind-the-Story

Firefly is a classic (and nearly perfect) example of “steampunk in space. Let’s talk about that world, as well as the amazing tales of the making of Firefly, Serenity, and more.

12:00 pm ~ The Best Weird West Books and Movies

Get ready to pile on to your reading and watching lists! Panelists will share their favorite examples of genre storytelling in books, TV, and film. A recommended companion experience to our Weird West Film Festival on Saturday.

Illogicon Schedule

Illogicon is a great way to start the New year -- and the con season!
Come join the fun in Cary, NC this weekend!
Here's where you'll find me:

Friday, 3pm

Geeky Gateway Drugs – Smith
Have a friend who “doesn’t like sci-fi”? We can help ease them in!
Panelists: Joey Starnes (M), Margaret McGraw, Gray Rinehart, Carol Cowles, John Lapoint

Friday, 7pm

Open Your Own Book: Personal Interests and Storytelling – Smith
They say to “write what you know” or “write what you like,” but it can be hard to weave in your personal interests in your storytelling. Let’s get into it!
Panelists: Margaret McGraw (M), Holly Walrath, Stuart Jaffe, Darin Kennedy, Emily Leverett

Saturday, 12pm

Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading – Crescent

Don’t miss the women of the Broad Universe Association in this whirlwind sampler of work!
Hosted by Broad Universe

Saturday, 2pm

MFAs, Workshops, and Writers’ Groups: Which One is For You? – Reynolds
Do you need them and are they right for you?
Panelists: Julie Steinbacher (M), Holly Walrath, John G. Hartness, Ian Muneshwar, Margaret McGraw

Saturday, 6pm

Geeky Rants – Smith
It’s a like a real-life TWEETSTORM full of only the ANGRIEST NERDS. What petty hill would you like to die on today?
Panelists: Chris Shrewsbury (M), Janet S. Planets, Jason Gilbert, Michael G. Williams, Carol Cowles, Darin Kennedy, Margaret S. McGraw

Sunday, 10am

How What We Read for Fun Sculpts Us – Reynolds
“But it’s just a story!” Well, yes and no. How what we consume can shape our ideas–for better or worse
Panelists: Jim McDonald (M), Tera Fulbright , Margaret McGraw, LeAnn Rettell, Stacey Lantagne

Sunday 12pm

Steampunk’d! – Reynolds
Panelists “steampunk” and movies based on audience suggestions!
Panelists: Margaret McGraw (M), Tera Fulbright, Jason Gilbert, Natania Barron, Andrew Greeson

 

Sunday, 1pm

Crowdfunding: Is It Right for Your Project? – Smith
Kickstarter and other crowd funding sites can be huge, but is it right for your project?
Panelists: Alex Matsuo (M), John Hartness, Margaret McGraw, Stacey Lantagne, Suzanne Adair

Sunday, 2pm

Greatness Past 50 – Reynolds
Characters “of a certain age” still have a lot of offer–a discussion of ageism, aging characters, and older characters
Panelists: Samantha Bryant (M), Chris Shrewsbury, Margaret McGraw, Dave Ellis, Gail Martin

#

And so, with a loving heart, I offer you

Namaste

I’ve heard many translations. Here’s my favorite:

The light of the universe that shines within me recognizes

the light of the universe that shines within you.

#

Open Submission for New Anthology: Lawless Lands

Are you ready to venture back into the #WeirdWildWest?

I am! My editing posse, Emily Leverett and Misty Massey, are rounding up stories for another anthology: Lawless Lands: Tales from the Weird Frontier, to be published by Falstaff Press. We have an incredible lineup of anchor authors, including:

• Jake Bible
• David B Coe
• Laura Anne Gilman
• Barb Hendee
• Faith Hunter
• Nicole Givens Kurtz
• Margaret S. McGraw
• Seanan McGuire
• Devon Monk
• Edmund Schubert

Yes, my "Rainmaker" story that started this whole crazy venture will have stellar company in this anthology.

And one of the things my posse loves best about these anthologies is the opportunity to bring new stars to the rodeo! Submissions are open now through September 30th, and we would love to see a story from you! Lawless Lands will be funded with a Kickstarter, which will run in December, and we want to have our stories in hand in order to guarantee an amazing campaign. We’re looking for stories that embody the frontier spirit of the American West, but with a weird twist. Gunslingers with laser pistols, cattle drives through the galaxy, cursed nuggets of gold, talking jack rabbits that grant wishes – fantasy, SF, steampunk, or horror... if it’s weird, we want to see it.

We will pay each author a minimum of 4 cents a word, with the possibility of more if the Kickstarter makes stretch goals, and two print copies. Word count – 3000 to 7000 words. Submission deadline – September 30, 2016. Submission attachments should be in 12 point New Times Roman, in Microsoft Word format (preferably .docx). We’re happy to see a brief cover email explaining your previous publications, but try to keep it short and sweet. And don’t stress if you have no prior publication experience – we love discovering stars!

For more information, or to submit your story, lawlesslandstales@gmail.com

Con Report: 2016 AnachroCon: Guns, Gadgets, Gizmos, and Trains: TheTechnology of the Weird Wild West

This was one of my favorite panels at AnachroCon, because after we introduced ourselves and talked for a few minutes about steampunk "gadgetry", our moderator threw out the program and suggested we have some fun…creating a group character! Here are my roughly-edited notes from the thick of it:

Panelists:

• Geoff Mandragora
• Lev Butts
• Margaret McGraw
• Misty Massey
• Nicole Givens Kurtz
• Jannaea Adams
• Moderator: Arthur Hinds

So how do you describe or introduce the"Weird Wild West" to those who do not know it?

General consensus, flawed as it is, Will Smith's 1999 Wild Wild West has "the look" - costumes, gadgets, and crazy machinery in a (sort of) Victorian-era American West -- it's instantly identifiable!

The original Wild Wild West series (1965-69) sparked the love and fascination for many of us

Jannaea

• it's modern science in an earlier time period, using materials that would have been available then
• Like a helicopter in the Renaissance -- da Vinci was working on it!
• One of her introductions was Harry Turtledove's Guns of the South - going back in time and giving AK47s to Robert E Lee
• Sparked her interest as a builder and maker

Nicole

• I write weird west and publish steampunk. I watch a lot of anime like Cowboy Bebop, Firefly, Jonah Hex, and Cowboy Bebop ("Jesse James w/ a space freighter")
• Wild Wild West was a flop, but the gadgets were fantastic
• One of the most memorable scenes -- the fight on the train with all the gadgets!

Misty

• smart is sexy
• Artemus Gordon was *smart* - he was always saving Jim West - he was the maker, the inventor

Arthur

• every gadget is a part of the maker's persona

Other favorites:

• Brisco County Jr
• Secret Adventures of Jules Verne

And here's where our panel went off the rails in a wonderfully unexpected way. Arthur asked if we, the panel and the audience, would like to continue talking about the general topic, or if we'd maybe be interested to engage in a group exercise: to create a steampunk character? Oh, we're in!

So we started throwing out ideas…what would define a "weird Wild West" character?

• Maybe carrying a sawed off shotgun, a "boomstick"
• Would it be a rifle reloader? Lever action? Have a magazine? Gears?
• Maybe a focused crystal device - not a laser, but helps to focus - peep sight - purple!
• Should we choose a gender? What about a construct? A golem? An alien?
• A cyborg - human brain
• Dr Who episode - clockwork robotic man - ancient race - replaced w/human parts
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_in_the_Fireplace
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Breath_(Doctor_Who)
• What gender? Indeterminate  - lost our sex over the years
• Ash - name - no last name
• No significant memories of being human, but knows s/he was
• Vengeful? Doesn't know purpose
• Could be multi-individual cyborg - hasn't decided who's in charge
• Some overriding consciousness - multiple agendas, gender roles - there's the internal conflict
• External conflict - everyone's afraid of Ash on sight
• We're telling the Frankenstein monster story
• Power source - can Ash wind self up, or need something to "live"
• Not a shiny metal automaton - Boomstick, period - calamity Jane persona? Clumsy, burned down a saloon
• True history: after the Civil War, lots of disfigured people, common to wear masks - wouldn't necessarily inspire fear
• Mechanical face supposed to look human, from a distance, then up close know something is wrong
• Human body - so many parts replaced it's now cyborg
• Needs some kind of food, and some kind of power source -- alcohol
• Ash lives out of town and has a still - only goes to town to get supplies
• Doctor has medicinal alcohol - human contact in town
• Could he survive on wood ethanol?
• A Town Called Ash
• Part desperately wants human contact - male is gregarious former gambler/thief- female is quiet angry former soldier - Scarlett Ohara and Rhett Butler

Everything we're describing is what happens in a writer's mind as they develop character and backstory

• Cyborg legs do better than a horse would
• Hand car, doesn't need rails - Ashmobile - wheels, crank thingy (jack handle)
• Still on the hand cart
• Ash doesn't refer to self gender - but others use he and that pisses female off
• During the Civil War - women pretended to be men and served in both sides - continued after

"Anthology of Ash - coming soon from Mocha Memoirs Press"

• Ash in long duster, holster for lever action, giant clip, sawed off shotgun
• Built-in weapon - flamethrower to burn alcohol?
• Metal hands - mean left hook
• Her kryptonite - needs fuel - if he goes too long, dead - burrito could feed brain, friend could provide fuel
• Ash would kill creator
• Dr discovered Ash and they have saved each other - traditional male doctor? Early female doctor?  Civil War Army Doctor - knew the female soldier - hasn't told Ash they have a past connection
• Ash gets Arthur's hat with goggles
• Time traveler from future - saved two people by putting them together - Or put them together as a funny joke - psychopath brain surgeon, alien joke
• Full mask could be a mask, or goggles
• Uncanny valley - disturbing to people -

Riese - web series picked up by ScyFy - she covers her face in a way Ash would

• Need more gadgets
• Purple shotgun
• Goggles - telescoping vision
• Miniature still -
• Could spit alcohol and flame it, but would be sacrificing own fuel
• Lives by the bar, as a bouncer - could have done that for awhile, until someone discovered what he really was
• Series of jobs, is discovered and move on
• Biological part is injured and needs patching - has dr friend
• A lot of blacksmiths were also veterinarian - adding to Ash's gadgets
• Blacksmith Frank, Dr Stan
• Jannaea proposes - post confederate - her town was burned to the ground  - Native American -  dr built her back up

Exquisite corpse, graphic novel by Pénélope Bagieu

What's your Passion?

• Geoff - how people make connections, loves technology
• Lev - combining myths with other genres
• Me - how cultures are different, expressions of religion
• Misty - MagicalWords.net - passion is magic
• Nicole - publishing marginalized people's works - don't have a voice - get it out there - publishing her story - silenced (main character) Sybil Lewis - loves her!
• Jannaea (blog) - writing, building (taking apart putting together), imagine stories behind them
• Arthur Hines - Emerald Rose

#

And so, with a loving heart, I offer you

Namaste

I’ve heard many translations. Here’s my favorite:

The light of the universe that shines within me recognizes

the light of the universe that shines within you.

# 

Appearance: AnachroCon: Atlanta, GA

I'll be a guest at AnachroCon in Atlanta this weekend! 

My panel schedule:

SATURDAY, FEB 27

12:00—The Weird in the West: Contemporary Treatments
1:00—Once Upon a Time in the Weird West: Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales Reimagined
6:00—Guns, Gadgets, Gizmos, and Trains: The Technology of the Weird Wild West
7:00—Beyond Schoolmarms and Saloon Girls: Women of Steampunk and the Weird West 

SUNDAY, FEB 28

10:00—Small Presses and Independent Publishing: What They Offer to Readers and WritersI will post my notes from these and other panels I attend as soon as I'm able to clean them up for you!

More chatter on Facebook and Twitter, if you friend me there :-)

Namaste,

Margaret S. McGraw

Con Report: IllogiCon 4, Saturday, Part 2

I'm not trying to drag these con reports out, but dayum! This panel on cyberpunk and steampunk was chock-full of recommendations, and I tried to provide links for just about every one I could. Hope you enjoy!

Steampunk to Cyberpunk: A History

GOH Chris Garcia & Garth Graham

Can you give us some basic definitions?

• Cyberpunk is dark, "You're screwed dude"
• Steampunk is optimistic, "You're awesome! And, adventures w/science!"

What are some of the genre-defining works?

• K.W. Jeter: InfernalDevices, Morlock Knight
• Tim Powers: Anubis Gates
• H.G. Wells: Time Machine (Free on Kindle)
• Jules Verne: 20,000 LeaguesUnder the Sea
• William Gibson and Bruce Sterling: The Difference Engine
• Gibson & Sterling “deigned” to write a steampunk novel – of course it defines the genre!
• James Blaylock: The Digging Leviathan
• Gail Carriger: Soulless
• Her publisher didn't know how to market her book(s)!
• Paul di Filippo: SteampunkTrilogy
• Stephen Baxter: Anti-ice

Steampunk was very underground till about 2008, when three series of events conspired:

1. Jay Lake, Cherie Priest, Gail Carriger all published steampunk stories
2. Steampunk fandom reached critical mass and energy to produce cons in LA, San Francisco, and Seattle
3. Wired Magazine – mainstream visibility reporting on the San Fran con, and a weekly dance thing called "the Victorian future" at LA’s Edison dance club

In 2009

• Phil Foglio won the first “Graphic Story” Hugo for his comic Girl Genius
• They created a new category to give him this award!
• 1st Steamcon in Seattle
• Huge local and national coverage - Slate picked it up! - Online media coverage

2009-10 – popular enough for exploitation

• Katie MacAlister: Steamed
• Terrible novel, but hugely sold in grocery stores as steampunk romance novel - bestselling steampunk novel ever
• And then the purists came out in force - part of the subculture – “This isn’t steampunk!”

How did so many goths come to steampunk?

• Goth & steampunk - there was historical merger/tension
• The Manray club in Boston - goth movement powerhouse - book launch for William Gibson’s Neuromancer held there - cyberpunk became part of goth culture
• The club closed, and a new opened - western dive - goth, cyber kids still hung out there, culture mashup
• Romantic-Goth movement was begging for steampunk
• Started in London, crossed to Manray

What about Steampunk tech?

• They had two Babbage engines at a museum where Chris used to work
• Chris wanted to network the original and new engines with a long cam shaft and see what they could do together!
• After The Difference Engine, you get Neil Stevenson’s Diamond Age
• Were you trying to say that the complexity of a network depends on the complexity of the culture where it lives? Only the complexity of Victorian England could support it!

Fave cyberpunk author?

• Garth likes Phillip K Dick
• BladeRunner was better than Do AndroidsDream Of Electric Sheep - rare time movie is better than the book
• Chris told a great story about a 3-pg letter that Dick wrote ranting about….*sigh* My note-taking has failed me. Perhaps I’ll get that story from Chris again someday!
• Rudy Rucker: Wetware, Software
• Best of Dick & less-philosophical Gibson

Fave steampunk author?

• Gail Carriger
• Tim Powers (primarily Anubis Gates)
• Cherie Priest: Boneshaker, Dreadnought, Ganymede
• Catherynne Valente
• Jay Lake: Escapement, Trial ofFlowers (not quite steampunk)
• Phil & Kaja Foglio: Girl Genius

Weird Wild West is an offshoot of Steampunk….origins?

• Steampunk has become a retroactive catchup genre
• WildWild West - original show
• Alan Moore’s comic series League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (not the unfortunate movie)
• Bruce Campbell’s fun, campy AdventuresOf Brisco County Jr, Jack Of All Trades

Some other media “bests”?

• BioShock game is considered Steampunk (diesel punk)
• Bladerunner, Matrix
• 13th Floor, Gattaca,
• TheMysterious Geographical Explorations of Jasper Morello - animated short
• Steamboy
• TreasurePlanet
• Alan Moore’s Batman comic: TheKilling Joke
• Brian Augustyn’s Gotham by Gaslight (Jack the Ripper comes to Gotham)
• Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson’s comic series TransMetropolitan
• British comics 2000 AD, Judge Dredd
• Boom! Studio’s Do AndroidsDream comic adaptation

Cyberpunk often depicts a dark future, or questions what is it to be human ("the net", AI)

American storytelling tends to be the antiestablishment former

Japanese tends to be latter

Akira, Ghost In The Shell, Chobits

There’s still more to come! Next up, continuing Saturday panel notes, and the Weird Wild West party!

#

And so, with a loving heart, I offer you

Namaste

I’ve heard many translations. Here’s my favorite:

The light of the universe that shines within me recognizes

the light of the universe that shines within you.

#