Having taken part on Eos's 2000 on-line convention, I happily agreed to join in again. Even better, it was to be a noon start, US time, meaning an early evening event here, rather than last year's last night. Then I realised that we were returning from holiday in Scotland that day, so we'd better make sure we got home by - er - when? On my briefing notes, the times were in GMT. But weren't we on BST? And the US times were in Eastern Standard Time - but according to my diary, the US had gone onto Daylight Saving.
The first thing I did was to log straight onto the general chat room - and ask what the time was in America. Having established it was 11.30 am for EosCon purposes, other folk waiting for the Con gave their time, in Sweden for example. Getting together with people over such distances is one of the real plusses of Internet events, far outweighing the inconveniences of typing and not being face to face. (Another was being able to eat garlic ribs with my Chinese takeaway at my keyboard and not worry about anti-social breath).
I logged on for the first panel with Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman as a fan. Both arrived eventually, though I suspect the moderator panicked a little, when someone from the earlier conversation suggested Terry's late arrival might be due to working on GMT, not BST… Their panel was entertaining and informative, once Terry had determined that Neil was finishing his sentences with
My own panel was on the outsider in fantasy fiction, together with Guy Gavriel Kay, Sean Russell and Theresa Edgerton. For authors like me, another advantage of being on-line is not finding yourself tongue-tied in the presence of a 'real' writer such as GGK. We discussed the outsider as a literary device to get information across, the way that the reader is an outsider in the author's fantasy world, thus giving a connection with the stranger-hero, while touching on problems such as why does the solitary hero care about these people he doesn't know and the dangers of him becoming The Man with No Friends. Moving on, we considered the writer as outsider and observer in his or her own life - while touching on the way inspiration is all very well but what a writer really needs is the discipline to knuckle down to the work!
The event was divided into two distinct tracks, one SF related and the other focusing on Fantasy. It wasn't so easy to slip between the two as it had been last year but that was the only point where Scifi.com didn't surpass last year's venue. I watched/read discussions on the role of myth in fantasy and the need to innovate, whatever your source material. Where and indeed if a line can be drawn between religion and myth prompted what would have been heated discussion in person and I saw another positive aspect to the moderated, internet environment, since a hall full of fans all wanting their say would have been deafening.
A panel on the role of history as a source for fantasy was stimulating, especially when the panel where asked what modern history did they think would become source material for future fantasy. The life and death of Diana was one intriguing answer. The discussion ranged from the speculative to the practical, covering the need for a solid understanding of history if you're to play variations on a theme and yet, to avoid bogging your readers down in detail. The panel agreed that detailed research doesn't need to be shown - but that poor and incomplete research will always betray itself.
Rounding off with a discussion by writers who tackle both SF and Fantasy, the difficulty of drawing that line was raised and while Michael Swanwick ventured the opinion that it's easier to sell good SF than good Fantasy since editors see less of the former, Lois McMaster Bujold advised any would be author to write what they love best. As she said, it'll come out better - and a better book has the advantage of simply being better! An excellent note to close on.
| Top of the page |