Fire! Trains! Steampunk! Chattacon 2013

This weekend I went to Chattacon, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Chattanooga's only two hours from my house, which is the perfect distance: not so far that I'm over-tired when I get there, but far enough that I feel like I've actually gone somewhere. And I really like Chattanooga. So I went to Chattacon although I knew I wouldn't know a single soul there (I didn't) and I wasn't sure I would get much from the panels (I kind of did). I did enjoy myself a lot, though. Here are some pix and some excerpts from my travel journal. Warning: it's long.

Jan. 25, 2013
4:30pm

Despite freezing rain, I made it to Chattacon and checked in at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel. The room is quite nice, with a little balcony that overlooks the pool. Outdoor pool. Freezing rain. Not a good combination. I put my bottled water on the balcony to chill.

The program...hmm. Well, this is a very small convention. I didn't expect it to have a huge program of panels. Fortunately I really like downtown Chattanooga, and if I can't find anything to do at the con there's lots to do in town--ice and rain or not.

left, view from my hotel balcony

6:15pm

I bought a con T-shirt ($25, but I like the design) and took a walk before it got dark. I just walked down Market Street for around 20-30 minutes, crossed the street, and came back. That took me through a chunk of downtown, with lots of banks and nice restaurants with candlelit tables, and a TVA building that looks just like the one in Knoxville, and a big Krystal's office building, and more banks, and parking garages, and bike rentals. I passed a clothing boutique with actual gas lamps flickering on either side of its front door.

So far I've been surprised and pleased by the friendly feel of the con. Maybe it's because it's so small, I dunno, but everyone is very welcoming. I've had more conversations already than I had the entire weekend at Worldcon last year. One of the conversations was with an elevator repairman who happened to be on the elevator with me and thus was able to repair it when it didn't move. He seemed like a nice man, and was fortunately competent, although his outlook on life--at least as far as elevators are concerned--was a bit negative.

Not to self: find out where the stairs are.

Jan. 25
about 7pm

Wow, it's getting cold out! I walked over to the opening ceremonies and about froze in my light wool jacket. I brought my heavier coat but it's in the car.


10:10 pm

Bath taken. Shower also achieved so I could wash my hair. A few dozen pages edited. Many tweets tweeted. I'm in bed now, about to turn out the light.

They've fallen silent now--probably driven inside by the cold--but there are a few noisy groups on the balconies or maybe spilling outside from overflowing parties. From time to time they start singing or chanting and, once, howling. It's fun to listen to. If I was a more outgoing person--and boy am I not outgoing--I'd stop by one of the advertized parties just so I could howl too.

left, the Chattanooga Choo-Choo hotel sign

Jan. 26, 2013
9:43 am

The howling went on until past 2am. I kept waking up, but it always made me smile. There's some hungover folks waking up about now.
This coffee shop, Chattz, is like a Starbucks but with slightly less bad-for-you food. I have a hot chocolate and a cranberry scone. Both are good. It's still very cold out but the sun is trying to come out. It's supposed to warm up to over 50 today.

I saw a hand-lettered sign on the elevator advertizing a steampunk panel at 11am. It was either a last-minute addition or was accidentally left out of the program. I'll head back soon so I can go to that one since there's nothing much else I want to see at eleven. Then at noon there's another steampunk panel I'll attend. From the con garb I've seen, there's a big steampunk presence at this con. Not surprising, really, since we're surrounded by old trains.

10:04
I have close to half an hour to kill before I head back. I'm almost out of hot chocolate and I'm getting bored. I am the most easily bored person I know. But if I leave now, I'll get back way too early and then I'll still be bored, just in my hotel room instead of here. I suppose I can scope out a place to have lunch. There's a cafe at the hotel that does pizza. Maybe I'll have pizza for lunch. It'll probably be awful. Hotel pizza.

Oh hell, I can't leave here until someone else does. I don't know if this is a place where you bus your own tables or leave your dishes for the servers to clean up. I don't want to leave my mess and have them think I'm a dick but I don't see anywhere to put my dishes. But apparently everyone else here is killing time too. No one has left since I got here.

Maybe we are all waiting for someone else to leave.

left, the front of the hotel

Jan. 26
about 10:55am

The steampunk panel I'm at is actually the making of an indie steampunk movie called "Engines of Destiny."

noon
That was an interesting panel and the movie looks really good. I need to remember to look for their kickstarter next month. The director reminded me so much of my brother, enthusiastic without being overstated, and super articulate. He even looked a little like Richard.

Now I'm at the next steampunk panel, although the previous panel was just finishing up when I got here so now I know a little bit about brewing mead.

1pm
That was a good panel too, relaxed and fun, although kind of unfocused. I'm tempted to make this a steampunk morning and go to the costuming panel down the hall, but I'm not really into that so I'm going to stay in this room for the History of SF panel. Although I suppose I could go get lunch instead.

[After some debate, the sunshine and warming weather drew me outdoors and I walked to the riverfront at this point.]

Jan. 26
2:30 pm

Finally found a place to eat, Big River Grille. It's actually the restaurant I wanted to try when I was in Chattanooga last January--not for Chattacon, just a daytrip--but I ended up next door because I went through the wrong entrance. It's a weird building.

I ordered a beer, because I felt like it. Southern Flyer Lager. It's excellent and has an airplane on the label. But I did not get carded and now I feel old.

about 5:50 pm

I missed the 4pm panel I kind of wanted to attend. I decided it would be a better use of my time to see the carousel in operation and up close. It was awesome, too. I'm totally putting a carousel in my next book [which is going to be steampunk, incidentally: thus my interest in the morning panels]. I didn't ride it because I didn't want to be sad and/or creepy. There are a lot of things I don't mind doing alone, but a middle-aged woman without kids riding a carousel by herself? No. I have limits.

The name of this panel is "Welcome to My Fantasy," whatever that's supposed to mean. The panelists have gathered and I just heard Tim Powers say plaintively, "Does anyone know what this panel is about?" No one knew. He wandered around asking if anyone had an official description of the panel, and a woman behind me told him that Chattacon isn't very focused on panels. It's mostly about the parties. Powers got very interested in where the parties are being held.

Jan. 26
9:45 pm

That last panel was low-key but interesting. After that I wandered around in the dusk and took pictures, mostly of the gaslights reflecting on the trains' sides. I saw a steampunk couple getting pix too; the guy was dressed as a conductor, so he stepped up into the doorway of a train car so the girl could take his picture. It really was amazingly cool. I should have asked to take a picture too but didn't think of it until later.

I bought some chocolates and a Coke, since I haven't had enough calories today yeah right. Then I came back to the room and took a bath to warm up, did some editing, and now I'm zonked. Even the howlers aren't out tonight [yet], so I'm not the only one who's tired. Or maybe they're all at parties in the other buildings, or running wild among the streets of Chattanooga under the full moon.

left, FIRE AND TRAINS this is the coolest picture I've ever taken

Jan. 27, 2013
8:37 am

I woke up at 4am and couldn't get back to sleep. Finally I just gave up and got out of bed. Around 5am the howlers started up, singing drunkenly for a remarkably long time--past 6am.

I wanted a bagel or something light, but the hotel's coffee shop has nasty-looking pastries. I got a tiny hot chocolate that cost $3, although I must admit it's excellent.

The con ends early today and there are no panels and very little programming. If I check out and hit the road soon, I'll be home before lunchtime.

Snow at last

The weather started getting bad this afternoon around three, with the endless rain (it's rained for a week!) mixing with slush and then turning to driving snow. Ordinarily I'd have worked until 4:30pm today, but thank goodness the college where I work decided to close at 3:30. It took me an hour to get home. Well, okay, ordinarily it takes me around 50 minutes and today I stopped on the way home to get a pizza, but still! An hour!

When I stopped for the pizza, I had a hard time stopping myself from doing donuts in the slush-filled, near-empty grocery store parking lot nearby.

I got home at last and put my car up in the garage, then grabbed my camera before the light went. Here's my little house in the cold and snow:

There's not much snow on the ground, and the falling snow turned to rain and then stopped completely, but I think it's supposed to start again in another hour or so. We might get another inch! What's less thrilling, of course, is that it's going to freeze tonight and everything is sopping wet from all that rain.

Here's the road just in front of my house.

And here's the commons, an open area just past the picture above. It's flooded from the rain. That will freeze tonight. Brrrr.

Bits of good

I didn't actually mean to stop posting after my 1,000th post. I've just been busy.

Right before the new year, I saw a tweet from someone who suggested keeping a jar throughout the year where you put slips of paper with notes about good things that happen to you. Then at the end of the year you take the papers out and read them, to remind yourself of small kindnesses and pieces of luck that came your way. I love this idea. It's so easy to forget the good stuff and only remember the bad.

I need to buy a jar, but I already have a few slips ready to put in it. And we're only ten days into the new year.

1,000 posts

This is my 1,000th post since starting this blog on September 1, 2007. I think it was 2007. Anyway, milestone post!

Writing-wise, 2012 was a disappointing year in some ways. Three different markets that had accepted my work went toes-up. On the other hand, I did have a story in Daily Science Fiction, which was pretty cool.

I wrote two full-length books in 2012, the YA Shadow Trail and the fantasy Wharf Rat. I'm in the final throes of revisions for the latter, which I hope to finish tonight so I can send it out to beta readers. I am no closer to getting an agent, but I have a kick-ass YA steampunk fantasy lined up for my next project, so maybe....

As for resolutions, I didn't make any for 2012 because it was so crazy and horrible with Mom's death on Jan. 3. The only resolution I've ever made that I've kept was from 2011, when I resolved to floss my teeth every single day. I have, too.

But I feel the need to line up all my ducks (OMG, I seriously didn't write ducks the first time) and make some resolutions for 2013. I will try to keep them simple.

1. Get a tattoo. (I've been seriously intending to for about 15 years. This is the year! I just need to figure out what and where and then find someone to hold my hand when I go to get it done.)

2. Take up a sport, whether fencing or horseback riding (or both) or something else. Exercise daily, even if it's just for a few minutes.

3. Hike more.

4. Travel more.

5. Reach my weight loss goal, or at least get to a point where I feel better about my appearance. Respect myself and take care of myself.

6. Do more interesting things and spend less time sitting in front of the computer.

7. Keep striving to improve my writing in every way.

Taproot: A fragment

I cleaned out my big walk-in closet today, the one that I haven't actually been able to walk into since moving into this house. Well, it's clean and organized now. One of the things I found was a notebook with the beginning of a story written in it.

I have a very vague memory of writing the pages. I know the characters Will and Francis are William Shakespeare and Francis Bacon, and I think the story was going to be about how Shakespeare was inspired to write A Midsummer Night's Dream, but I have no earthly idea where I was going with it. It seems to be titled "Taproot." So since it will never see the light of day otherwise, here's the little bit of story for what it's worth.

Taproot

Midnight, or nearly midnight. A tall, thin man dressed impractically in city clothes of hose, breeches, and doublet stumbled across a field. A handful of sheep, made sinister by the moonlight, stared at him from the shadow of a hedgerow.

The man climbed a stile with caution, his slick-soled shoes making him unsteady. He jumped down from the top rather than risking more steps.

"Ouch! That's torn it. I've twisted my ankle."

A second man approached. He was shorter and rounder, and his voice when he spoke had the jocular tone of someone who relished both drinking and pulling elaborate practical jokes. "Good night, Will. Finally made it, did you?"

 Will glared. "You sent me the wrong way on purpose. Damn your eyes, Francis."

"Damn your balls," Francis said, and laughed heartily. "You should see your face. But you can't get a sense of the countryside at night if you don't spend some time here."

Will wiped sheep droppings from his shoe onto the grass. "You told me there were fairies here. All I've seen is sheep and a courting couple--who weren't very keen to greet me."

"Oh, you haven't seen any of the fair folk?" Francis' broad face went babyish with exaggerated surprise.

Will narrowed his eyes. "You know I haven't. I'm going home."

"Stop by the wood first, that way." He pointed a pudgy finger at a dark stand of trees in the distance. "I daresay all the good folk are dancing, it being such a fair night. It's not far."

"Come with me."

"I can't, Will. My niece would be terribly upset if she woke and her Uncle Francy had gone. I'll be inside if you need anything."

His face tingling with fury and shame, Will limped up a rutted lane. He was quite certain Francis had

...not finished the sentence, much less the story, apparently.

That goose is cooked

Our local Food City carries goose. I discovered this while pricing turkeys, but I didn't buy a goose until I noticed that Walmart also carries goose but they are around $60 each. The Food City geese are much more reasonable, around $20. So I bought a goose at Food City and stuck it in the freezer for Christmas baking.

I finally got around to cooking it yesterday. I won't go into too much detail, because not too many people I know would be interested in cooking goose, but I will point out that when people say, "Goose is greasy," they are NOT KIDDING. I opened the plastic wrapping and my hands were immediately covered in grease. It's that greasy, really. Ever handled raw bacon with your bare hands? It's like that, only greasier.

But that's good, actually. Goose grease is healthier and seriously tastier than bacon grease. I have a ton of it (ton here equals about three cups) in the fridge, nicely rendered and ready to use.

Anyway, the goose itself. Goose is considered a red meat, and I overcooked it despite all my care. It's easy to overcook. It wasn't bad, but kind of chewy due to being overcooked. It tastes like dark meat turkey to me, which I like. But turkeys cost about half as much and are easier to deal with. The vegetables I cooked with the goose were excellent, as was the complicated sauce I made to go with the whole thing. See the mortar and pestle in the pic above, to the left and a bit behind the goose? I've had that mortar and pestle for at least 15 years, but the sauce was the first time a recipe has ever called for a mortar and pestle. I was so pleased that I got to grate cumin seed, caraway seed, celery seed, and a lot of other spices together.

In lighter baking news, I made cookies a few days before Christmas and they turned out great as always.

 Kind of awkward to roll them out, though, since my rotten horrible hideous counters are tiled. Who the hell chose tile counters for this house? When I'm rich I will have them yanked out and something smooth and durable put in their place. Also something more attractive. As you can see, I had to use the chopping board (the one I use only for vegetables, not meat) to roll out the dough.

 The first batch of cookies ready to go into the oven. I ended up with about 4 dozen cookies total, and could have had a bit more if I hadn't snacked on the dough.

And the cookies just after I took them out of the oven. They are mostly butter. Butter and sugar and green food coloring.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and got lots of good food to eat.

Jekyll's view on the end of the world

Not a problem, really. Whatever.