Writing Excuses Transcripts

For sabotabby who is probably still on vacation and anyone else who might be interested, here's a link to our American Flagg episode of Mona Lisa Overpod: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4yFxNh4m8xcnHhLC3MB38Z  

Speaking of podcasts, I had a very odd interaction with a potential panelist on a panel I proposed for Diversicon. I've been, as you know, gentle reader, fairly obsessed with doing programming committee work for a completely DIFFERENT covention, and so I haven't much talked about the fact that I will be one of the Guests of Honor at Diversicon 32, along with Naomi Kritzer. Diversicon is a local to me (Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN) convention and is coming up soon!  September 5-7!  

So, what happened was this: I got an email from someone in programming connecting me with a potential panelist. The initial email was very straight-forward. This person has been writing radio plays for a podcast down in Florida called the Radio Theatre Project. Sounds like a decent fit, right? But, this person added this to their communication with me, "I'd be happy to talk to Lyda and come up with a presentation" (emphasis mine). I wrote back and said, "Sure! I'm happy to try to figure out a way to combine our similar expertise into a panel of some sort.  My podcast isn't fiction and I do none of the technical aspects of recording, editing, or producing it, but I'm sure there are some commonalities."

Immediately the other panelist seemed to want to back off, however. They talked about how "my audience" might not be interested in the things they were doing and that the two types of writing were fundamentally different. I acknowledged that, but tried to encourage this person, anyway, by saying that, yes, that's true, but podcasts are a thing in general and I'm happy to spend some time on the panel talking about the things they do and the things I do. This seemd to mollify this person, briefly.

BUT then they proposed getting together for a coffee to hammer out our "presentation" or to at least come up with talking points.

I have to admit, y'all? I was very confused by the continued use of the world presentation.

I had to write back and say, "It's a panel discussion, right? Something informal and off-the-cuff?"  I told them I am always happy to pre-consider questions that might highlight this or that, but, like, this is one of those situations, I thought, where "this meeting could be an email." I did, however, try to say this kindly and suggest that while I was not against getting together for a coffee, per se, a panel discussion (if that's what we were having) wasn't probably worthy of something so intense. 

I guess I pissed his person off somehow? I didn't mean to!

But, surprise, surprise, this person has now declined the offer to be on the panel with me.  Which would be FINE, except for the fact that they felt the need to leave with this parting shot: "I listened to your MLOP 27: American Flagg podcast about cyberpunk. It is very focused and detailed. It offered a wealth of information for fans of serious science fiction. I'm not a serious sci-fi fan. I don't have the background and experience to speak about this kind of podcast. I've also found the easiest way to kill the humor in almost anything is to analyze it." 

Like, is that directed at me?  Or is this person saying that they don't want to analyze their own humor for fear of destroying the fun in it? (Their radio plays are humorous, apparently.) I decided to go with the latter, because it does no good to make enemies in a convention pool as small as Diversicon's. So, I told them how sorry I was that they have chosen to opt out and hoped that we could at least meet and chat at the con. 

But the entire exchange was so baffling, you all. I know this person at least a little. Their name is familiar to me. They are NOT a stranger to the local science fiction and fantasy scene. They know what SFF convention panels are. The fact that they kept calling it a presentation has actually made me a little terrified that I'm actually going to be the ONLY person on this panel. SHOULD I BE PREPARING A LECTURE/PRESENTATION?????  I am now a little fearful that maybe I should be!

I wouldn't be paranoid about this, but this has happened to me in the past. 

I once proposed a panel for (I think) MarsCON about manga and manhwa and, when I arrived at the convention and got my hands on the program booklet, I discovered that I was, in fact, the only person talking about this subject FOR AN HOUR. Luckily, in that case, it wasn't until the next day and someone (Anton, probably,) had asked me if I needed any technical support for my panel/presentation and I said, "Okay, yes? Gimme some way to run a powerpoint presentation," and I went home that night and MADE ONE UP. I think I had exactly 5 people in the audience, but they were happy to see the covers of some titles I recommended, etc. 

JFC.

If it is just me... what am I going to talk about for an hour by myself about podcasts? I mostly listen to fiction podcasts, but if people are there, as this proposed panelist suggested for my particular podcast, I don't know that there's enough to actually say about what it is that we do. I mean, Ka!lban does most of the hard work and I just show up and talk about whatever it is we've chosen as a topic. That's it. That's my entire experience. I don't know how this could possibly fill an hour!

I guess I'll find out!

 Once again, I have not been keeping up.

Sadly, I am still slogging my way through Cultish. As a dyslexic reader, I get into these weirdly stubborn things. I am SO freaking close to being done with this book that, even though I'm no longer enjoying it, I refuse to give up. Admittedly, this is incredibly stupid. Life it too short for books you aren't enjoying!  But, here I am, anyway. To be fair to me, I did take a break to read the first several issues of a 1980s American comic book called American Flagg. I talked my co-host into reading this for our podcast and, I'm going to be honest. I kind of regret that. I had a VERY DIFFERENT memory of these comic books than what is apparently the reality. Oof, they do not stand the test of time! I have literally never seen the n-word (spelled out!) so many times in a mere 12 issues, holy shit. 

It should be an interesting podcast, though!

Also, when I was volunteering out at Pride, Jason Tucker who is a comic book affectionado turned to me when I told him what I'd been reading, "Huh. Is American Flagg cyberpunk, though?" Not to spoil the upcoming episode because this is a question we regularly ask of whatever we're reviewing or discussing, but I do think I now know why I thought so having re-read them, at least. I mean, this is hardly a spoiler to the episode or the comics since it is revealed in the literal first panel, but Rueben Flagg did lose his acting job to AI, actually, so I mean, that's kind of prescient, in a way, cyberpunkly-speaking. 

But, wow, also a hard read, albeit in a completely different way than Cultish.

Part of my absence here is due, in part, to the fact that we've gotten some really bad news from my brother-in-law, Keven. Keven's test results have come back and the cancer has spread to his bones. The doctors informed him that its incurable and have given him about a year, year and a half to live. I don't even know how to cope with this? I was telling Shawn that you always hear people asking the hypothetical, "What would you do if you found out you only had a year left to live?" But, like that's supposed to be a fun thought-experiment, not Real Life. And, as I have reported previously, Keven is the sibling of Shawn's that my family interacts with the most. He lives within striking distance of our house--just on the other side of the Mississippi in Minneapolis. So, we see him often. Mason has been Keven's odd job man for hire now and most of his in-between college summers. And, like, our relationship with Keven is, like with a lot of family, somewhat fraught? We've had some terrible fights in the past. However, for better or for worse, Keven has been a constant in our lives.

Yesterday, when we found out, Shawn was already at work. She decided that she was just not functional after talking to Keven and so I picked her up and brought her home. We spent much of the day yesterday just trying to wrap our heads arounds this--alternating between crying/staring into the middle distance and doing distracting things like, for her working on her quilt and watching mindless British detective shows, and me randomly coming up with panel ideas for Gaylaxicon (I wrote about ten yesterday! It was kind of soothing in a weird way?)  

So, yeah, that's kind of been us.

I hope things are better wherever you are!