Arisia 2002
Boston Ma, Jan. 18-20. 2002
Pictures, Pictures, Pictures! Page One Page Two
What can I say? It was great! Had a wonderful time, got to put some faces to names from the chat room and newsgroup and got to meet Katherine Kurtz! What more could you ask for in a weekend? (Ok, dinner on Saturday night was really good, too.) The daily run down follows:
Friday: Arrived in Boston, got thru registration and sat down to look over the program book. Melissa Houle's biography of Katherine was very nicely done- Great job, Melissa! Although, on the contents page, she is listed as "Mellissa Hoyle." It's correct on the page with the article. The also reprinted Venture in Vain (Katherine's latest Deryni short story) in the program book.
I ran into The Bee (Beverly Allen) almost right away on Friday nite and we chatted for a bit and then I wandered into the Dealer's Room- and only bought one thing- a gold metal circlet with a single green stone.
The Deryni Ball was Friday
evening, as well. They had quite a large group of musicians, who were not at all
bad. The first few dances were rather simple and easy to follow, but as
the evening went on, the steps got more complex (they added skips, hops, jumps,
changing places and other fun embellishments!) and were way too much for my poor
brain to remember! I'm afraid I would not do well at all at a real Deryni Ball!
By the time I left to catch my train home, Katherine had not gotten to teach her
dance, and as others who were there later than I reported, she did not get to do
it at all.
Saturday: My
oldest daughter, Jill (21), came with me on Saturday. We got her registered and
decided to go through the Art Show before Katherine's first panel. We were
barely in the room when there was a voice calling out her name- she had dropped
her con badge! Not 10 minutes in the door and she was causing trouble already-
that's my daughter!
We went to Katherine's first panel, which was on Online Communities and was
rather interesting. She mentioned the chat room several times during the course
of the discussion. She also referred to the whole internet experience as
"The Great Time Vampire." Don't we all know that! I found
Susan Werner (Mistress of Complications), Tamara Cohen and Martine Lynch there.
And it was only appropriate, as one of the panelists had commented on how often
you have someone you talk with online come up to you at a con and say: "I
recognize you from your online picture!" That is exactly how I found
Susan! Tamara has the cutest Morgan Bear that a friend of hers made- he is
wearing a leather outfit with griffin arms and his "chain mail"
peeking out underneath, a green cape, gold circlet, and both his griffin signet
and King's Champion rings! After the panel, we went to Martine's room and
chatted and took pictures until it was time for the interview with Katherine.
The interview was an interesting experience- we were all there (our group in the front row!), Katherine came in and chatted with us for a bit, the stage was all set up with two chairs and microphones, but no interviewer! Katherine thinks that, somehow, the con committee (bless their confused little souls!) thought Melissa was going to be there to do the interview, perhaps because she wrote the bio in the program? How they connected those, I have no idea. Well, of course, Melissa was not, so Katherine set up Morgan Bear in the second chair to be the interviewer, but he was too quiet (after all, they sewed his mouth shut!). So she got Susan to come up and do the interview. The Mistress of Complications did very well- she asked all the burning questions and the ones she missed, someone from audience asked! I took notes and the report on that will be added later.
Katherine's second panel was later Saturday afternoon, on The Mechanics of Writing Alternative History. Again, it was interesting, but many of us found ourselves a bit sleepy- it was getting late, had been a long day and the hotel was just so hot! After the panel, several people went off to their rooms to change and we met in the lobby and went to dinner at Marche Boston in the Pru Center. We had myself, Jill, Martine and her husband, Pat (Wrengl), Kathi, Ann (ghostgames), Jen (whytcrow), Tamara and Susan. We had a nice dinner and talk. Our waitress was very patient and took pictures with everyone's camera!
Went back to the hotel after and watched Jen run the Deryni RPG. It seems like it would be fun- at least, it didn't seem as complex as some I've watched. I'm not a gamer and I was pretty much able to follow what was going on.
Sunday: I did not make it into Boston on Sunday for the Michaeline Mass. I'm sorry I missed it, but I was just plain tired and decided to take a later train in. I got there early for Katherine's reading, so I sat in (with Susan) on the panel before. We then moved to the front of the room for the reading. Katherine brought some Euros out- both coins and bills- and passed them around the room. She also had pictures of Holybrooke- and the kitchen-that-took-forever! It turned out really beautifully- I want her kitchen! Heck, I want her whole house! Also, pics of the 2 new bathrooms- one of which has this neat arched ceiling and they painted it in wide blue and white stripes- it looks really cool!
Then she read the Prologue and Chapter One from In the Service of the King: Childe Morgan Book I. All I can say is: I hope she writes very, very fast! It is going to be really good! (You can read both in the paperback edition of Saint Patrick's Gargoyle- which should be available now.) Then she signed books for those who were there (I got all my hardcovers signed except KKB- I couldn't find it when I was leaving Sunday morning!). She stayed and chatted for a bit afterwards. Then we went down to the art show so Susan and I could pick up the things we'd bid on and gotten. I got a necklace Kathi made called Mint Julep- it's gold wire and green glass beads- very pretty, and a print called "Cats Are Easier" showing a fairy surrounded by about 14 cats (and one horse)- I thought it would go very nicely in my house of Thirty Two Paws! I also picked up a copy of Legacy of Lehr and Rob Reginald's Katydid and Other Stories. Pat, Susan, Bee and I were going to have tea at the Park Plaza, but I ended up having to leave in order to make my train home.
It was, all in all, a fun weekend. It was great to meet you all- Tamara, Susan, Pat, Kathi, Jen, Ann, Martine and, of course, Katherine! She is a very nice lady- very funny, gracious and most approachable. Too bad we can't do that every weekend! (Well, no, I guess not EVERY weekend- I'm still tired and trying to catch up!) I'm glad I went and hope to be able to do it again sometime.
Interview Notes
As I said, Katherine did an interview on Saturday afternoon, and our own Mistress of Complications got to be the interviewer (after Morgan Bear couldn't think of any good questions!). I scribbled down some notes, and will try to put them coherently here.
She talked a bit about Holybrooke- the kitchen is finally finished and they love it. So are the bathrooms- one has a curved ceiling that they did in wide deep blue and white stripes- looks really neat. Katherine said being in there is like being inside a "big tent." It also appears they have a third ghost at Holybrooke. Several months ago, Scott was in the back bedroom getting something, and he turned and caught sight of a man sitting there, looking very grumpy. It is definitely not Sir George, so it seems there are now at least three ghosts at Holybrooke. The sighting matches the reports of some people who have stayed in that bedroom that they have felt a presence watching them.
On the director's cuts of the first trilogy- as has been stated, they will come out in the years between the three Childe Morgan books, so right now, it looks like the first will be 2004, I think. As far as things she is going to do to the stories- the stenrect is definitely out! So is (most likely) Morgan's sleeve stiletto. The rhyming spells in the Duel Arcane between Kelson and Charissa are out, as well. She said that as a new writer, she thought things like the rhyming spells and some sort of magical monster-creature were things you HAD to have in fantasy stories. Now that she knows better, she wants to fix those.
She says she is about halfway through In the Service of the King, but figures she is about two months behind schedule on it. Between September 11 and trying to get the Templar anthology sorted out (one of the authors who was supposed to do a story just dropped out of sight completely, so Scott is writing a story to fill that void, and she has to finish hers), things got put on hold. She hopes to get back into full swing again soon. The Prologue and Chapter 1, which she read on Sunday, will be reprinted in the paperback edition of St. Patrick's Gargoyle.
Speaking of SPG, she has a movie producer interested in the book. It is being read now, so think positive! It would make a great movie!
For the future, she is still interested in doing the Orin and Jodotha book, as well as 948. She does need to concentrate on Childe Morgan for now, though. So it will be several years before either is seen.
Some of the slowness in writing Childe Morgan stems from her having to be careful to keep things consistent. For example, she can't have a character in these early books discover or know something we know in later books they don't. So she said she sometimes has to do some "bodacious wiggling" (yes, that's a direct quote!) not to paint herself into a corner!
In answering questions from members of the audience, Katherine said that she thinks Evaine's was the best death scene she has written so far, and that it seemed to her exactly how death should be- a calm and peaceful passing over to a better life. She also said that she had to wait until everyone else was out of the house to write Javan's death, because she knew she'd be bawling all over the keyboard.
Someone asked about all the "stuff" Evaine had- Camber's ring and the scrolls, etc- and Katherine said that, yes, they must still be around "somewhere" and "someone" must have them- possibly someone we haven't met yet. And regarding the secret Inner Circle of the Camberian Council theory, she said that it is possible that there is yet another group that is still secret operating behind the scenes. Intriguing on both counts, I thought.
And that's about it for the interview. It was quite interesting and gives some more food for thought, doesn't it?