Yesterday’s trip into San Francisco went very well. Kevin and I picked up a lot of good books and some good food, and had a lovely evening with friends.
Mary Robinette Kowal managed to turn up for the pre-reading dinner event before having to rush off into the Mission for Writers with Drinks. We went to a very nice Chinese restaurant called Henry’s Hunan just off 2nd where we ate very well for $14 each. The very low price was in part due to us ordering fewer entrees than we had diners and sharing, but even so we all had plenty to eat. Mary demonstrated her awesome organizational abilities by handling the ordering and payment with an ease I have rarely seen at a big group meal.
This SF in SF was special because yesterday was Rina Weisman’s birthday. The reading series is very much her creation and I’m in awe of how hard she works to make it happen. I was delighted to see that we had a full house for the event.
The first reader was S.G. (Scott) Browne who I had seen briefly on the zombie panel at World Fantasy but otherwise didn’t know. His novel, Breathers, is very funny. It also does something very interesting with zombies. By writing the book from the point of view of a zombie, and making his zombies sentient, Browne has found a good way of writing about social discrimination issues without having to negotiate the minefield of talking about actual minority groups. I was impressed, and bought the book on the strength of the reading.
Jeff VanderMeer read from Finch rather than Booklife, though we did talk about the latter during the Q&A. Jeff made a point of assuring us that the grey caps are not intelligent fungi, they just use fungal technology. I would tell you more, but that might be a spoiler for Finch, which you should read.
I got to talk to Jeff quite a bit and I’m pleased to discover that he has a very interesting project lined up that I can’t talk to you about yet. It will be awesome, I promise. He also mentioned the possibility that there might be another Ambergris book after all. I hope so, because the idea he floated is just the book I thought needed to be written after I had finished Finch.
I also got to chat with Andrew Wheeler, who is in San Francisco on business, and Jeff Prucher, the creator of the awesome (and Hugo-winning) Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction.
Fellow hamtrax survivor, Kevin Roche, was also at the reading. He and his husband, Andy Trembley, had taken a room in the Marriott for the night, and after the reading all trooped off to the View Bar with Jeff in tow. I know it is an expensive bar, but the views of the city really are awesome and that makes it a great place to take visitors to The City.
Just finished FINCH. Awesome novel – but there´s no way Jeff can convince me the grey caps are not intelligent fungi! (I´m not telling spoilers as well. 😉
Mary demonstrated her awesome organizational abilities by handling the ordering and payment with an ease I have rarely seen at a big group meal.
We trained her well at the post-KGB dinners. And oh, how I miss Henry’s Hunan! I used to work just a few blocks from there. Many happy dinner memories.
Browne has found a good way of writing about social discrimination issues without having to negotiate the minefield of talking about actual minority groups.
I’m intrigued that you see this as a positive thing. I’m personally kind of tired of being talked about mostly in metaphor.
He and his husband
I still grin whenever I see or write a phrase like that.
Rose:
When you are used to the trans community, where no matter what you say someone is going to be massively offended and claim that you have horribly misrepresented everything, metaphor is a goddesssend.
“The very low price was in part due to us ordering fewer entrees than we had diners and sharing, but even so we all had plenty to eat. Mary demonstrated her awesome organizational abilities by handling the ordering and payment”
What a wonderful dining compatriot you had. Someone after my own heart.
It is a tremendous life-and-death as well as an environmental tragedy that we waste so much food in the west. We all know that over-ordering is so easy at Chinese. Two dishes per person absolute maximum plus one rice and everyone share. For groups of 3 or more this works.