Wiscon and a LJ Fan Page

http://tagmeth.livejournal.com/

That's my LJ address, only up to now I've only used it to keep track of friends.  But it allows me to answer individuals, which this website doesn't (I think).  I'll try to remember to keep checking it and here for messages.

Wiscon is indeed a wonderful con.  Lots of good writers show up for it, female and male, and the panels are nearly always thought-provoking.  I put together the plot for "A Ballad of the White Plague" over dinner there, years ago (this is my Sherlock Holmes ghost story) with the suggestions of my fellow diners.  Faye Ringel added the historic connection between TB victims and vampirism (see her The New England Vampire Belief, or Michael Bell's Food for the Dead) and Ruth Berman told me about "The Mistletoe Bough" (a folk ballad I'd never heard of before). Later, I recorded the whole process of the creation of that story including my editor's letters in a small, hardcover book called A Ballad of the White Plague:  The Casebook.  Hypatia printed up maybe a dozen copies.  The whole story took me about a year to get right.  In some ways, novels are easier.

Anyway, this year I met Tammy Pierce at Wiscon and saw many old friends.  This is going to sound stupid, but it feels strange to be accepted as a peer by such wonderful folk.  Fellow writers and fans tell me one thing about my work; the world tells me something else.  The cats say meow and the horse says neigh and the fish say gloop, gloop, gloop.

Speaking of the horse, this is Pip, a.k.a. Peregrine Stargazer, son of Lillie Hayfield. I traded her to pay for his training, not being able to support both of them.  Her new owners love her.  Looking back, I think she was rougher on me than on any other rider, largely because I didn't have the heart to be tough with her.  She was always very good with children, though.  Estara, thanks for the link to Judith Tarr's site.  I'm putting together a panel on "The Horse in Fantasy" for worldcon, and need all the help I can get.

By the way, re:  "Horsewoman," my mother died about a year and a half ago.  On Thanksgiving. Just three hours short of her birthday.  I think that death was a relief to her.  To me, the tragedy was the wasted final decade of her life. 

 

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