Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

This was my second year at Philcon, my first year as a guest, although I was only on one panel.

The Gryphon and I had to get going early and drop my dog, Una, at the pet sitter's. Last year, we discovered that even though the convention is in Philadelphia, it's difficult to meet my dog's needs.

I had to run back during the middle of the day to let her out, and then got stuck in traffic. Plus, we had to leave earlier in the evening than we might have otherwise.

We arranged, instead, to leave Una with the pet sitter overnight. Una was very excited to see the pet sitter and her three friendly dogs.

After we'd dropped off Una, we headed into Center City for the event. The Gryphon had a panel at 11 called "The ABC's of Anime." He was on a lot of panels that had to do either with Japanese animation (anime) or with gaming.

When I looked at the schedule, I didn't see anything else that was terribly of interest to me at that point, so I attended "The ABC's of Anime." There were a lot of people on the panel, some of whom showed up late. One of them, Stephanie Burke, showed up in a revealing costume, carrying a basket containing some sort of goodies wrapped in black netting.

The funniest thing about the panel was that for the longest time, everyone on the panel was wearing black. That is, until our friends the Dormouse and the White Rabbit showed up. The Dormouse was wearing a black and white shirt, and the White Rabbit was wearing green. I told the White Rabbit he could be the color commentator.

The panel was a lot of energetic and a lot of fun to watch. I learned a little interesting information, as well, such as the blue-haired female character in any anime is generally trouble.

From there, I went to an 11 a.m. panel on how to get started as a science fiction author. Four published authors were on that panel, including Pamela Sargent, who was one of the keynote speakers.

It just so happens that, by accident, her schedule had been stuck in with The Gryphon's materials, so I returned it to her. Then, after the panel, I told her that I was the editor of Wild Violet and asked if she'd have time that weekend for an interview.

She said that now would be the best time, since she had a couple hours free. So we found a relatively quiet place in the lobby downstairs and stalked for about half an hour. She was very friendly. I really appreciate the time.

And then I explained to her that, since they were last minute adds to replace Bruce Aldiss, who'd had to cancel, I had no idea when her partner, George Zebrowski, would be appearing that day. She pointed out one panel to me that he'd be speaking at, in addition to the keynote speech. She suggested I try to catch him at the end of that panel. I told her I would.

Because I had been interviewing Pamela Sargent, I had missed the panel that film director Greg Pak was on, which I'd planned to attend, then ask him about an interview afterwards.

When I showed up outside the door, one of the convention organizers, Tony, who happens to have been interested in me interviewing Greg Pak, came outside and saw me. He told me that Greg was in there if I wanted to meet him and set up a time for an interview. I told him that's why I was there.

So after the panel finished, Tony took me in and introduced me. Greg greeted me with a big smile. We arranged to get together right after the only panel I was going to be on, while he was screening his feature film, Robot Stories.

By that point, it was about 1 p.m. and I had an hour to kill before The Gryphon had his lunch break, during which a group of us were going to walk to the Reading Terminal Market to get something to eat.

Most of the panels taking place at that time weren't terribly interesting to me, so I was just sort of wondering the halls when I saw Stephanie Burke. I told her that I liked her costume and asked her what was in the basket.

"Candy. Take some."

She mentioned that she was on her way downstairs to give a reading, and she didn't know if anybody was going to be there to listen. I told her I'd come down and listen, and I followed her downstairs.

As we walked, we were talking. I told her that I'm a poet, with a self-published book, Picturebook of the Martyrs. I said that my first poem ever published had, in fact, been published by a science fiction magazine, The Leading Edge.

She said, "You ought to read some of your poetry." She invited me to do so during her meeting.

After I remembered that I had some of my books with me, I agreed.

While we were waiting for more people to show up, she told me about how she grew up in an area of Maryland that had few African-Americans. In addition to being different in that respect, her interest in anime also made her an outsider.

She also told me she's been researching her genealogical background and found out its really diverse: including Asian and American Indian.

Eventually, about three other people showed, and she got started. She read a really funny chapter from a story about a woman who gets sucked into a science fiction world. The other audience members seemed to enjoy it, as well.

As she was scrolling through her PDA to find something else to read, she invited me to come up and read some poetry. Her piece had been light, and Picturebook doesn't have a lot of poems in that vein. I started by reciting "The Spectra of Galaxies (A Zen Joke)," which had been the poem published in an SF mag.

Then I read a few from my collection which seemed to fit: "Chalk And Violet (Advice to a Werwolf)" and "Dr. Faustus Decides to Sell His Soul."

I could tell the audience really wasn't interested in hearing my work, so I left it at that. But as I was sitting down, Stephanie told me she thought it was really good and I ought to get more of it published.

As she was giving us the back story of the chapter she was still trying to find on her PDA, some more of her writer friends entered. One she invited up front to read with her the introduction to a book they'd written together. That was also fun.

Then I had to dash to meet The Gryphon and my friends for lunch.

More from Philcon 2004:

December 16, 2004 - Your Planet Rocks!

December 17, 2004 - Philcon Stories

Copyright 2004 by Alyce Wilson

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