Sirens, Day 5

First day of programming!

I woke up bright and early to get some coffee and go to the book discussion room and discuss faerie books. There were tables for War for the Oaks and Tam Lin and Thomas the Rhymer and Wildwood Dancing... and The Bones of Faerie, which is the one I sat at. We had a lively discussion of the fantastic apocalypse and its aftermath, the way that things first appear one way and then are revealed to be another (in this case, oddly enough, the mistaken impression is given not by the faeries but by the most militantly human of the humans), and of pragmatism in the magical world. (Also a brief digression onto the topic of janni's Dead Cat Theory: if the book is soul-crushingly depressing, the cat must live to counterbalance it lest your readers all fall into bitter despair; if the book is reasonably hopeful, you can kill the cat, because the counterbalance isn't necessary.) It was a wonderful discussion, and about right for a book discussion with the writer present: Janni was there for the first half, which gave us a chance to ask questions and hear interesting anecdotes, and then she excused herself for the second half, which gave us a chance to speak more freely as readers. (Not that Janni is a scary author type, but you know what I mean.)

From there, into the main panels of the day.

In the morning, I went first to "Faeries Come To Our Town," which was about the origins of urban fantasy and the way it's changed in the past 30 years. Then to Are There Faeries Outside Western Europe?, and then to Go On, Judge A Book By Its Cover.

Lunch gave us the second keynote: Marie Brennan's talk on why faerie is ruled by queens, about the association between women and faerie, the resonances with the mythology surrounding Elizabeth I, the association with the Other, and the continuing fascination with the pairing of faerie woman and mortal man. But you don't have to rely on my kludgy summary, because she's posted her talk: Why Is Faerie Ruled By Queens?

After lunch I attended Holy Barking Spiders!: Biology, Education and Feminism in YA Fantasy. I took a break to do some writing and then went to the Sirens Bootcamp presentation—something I'm definitely planning to do.

A group of us went to a lovely dinner (sushi!) at which we discussed everything from anime to embarrassing family stories, and then back to the hotel for Bedtime Stories, a set of readings by the Guests of Honor. Terri Windling did a wonderful piece on the meaning of home.

Unfortunately, by then I was beginning to be socialed out, so I retired to the hotel lobby bar, where I had a long talk with samhenderson, that lead to an idea for a project that we're thinking of working on!

And then to bed.

Tomorrow: the faerie ball, for which I have pictures (omg).

Sirens Panel Notes: Female Friendship in Fantasy

Last one! (Yes, the spam will end soon, I promise.) This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart—partly because for all my life, but particularly as a teenager, my strongest social bonds were nearly always with other women. So it struck me odd how few strong female friendships we see in fiction (other than women's lit and chicklit).

Moderator: Mette Harrison (metteharrison)
Participants: Holly Black (blackholly), Rachel Manija Brown (rachelmanija), Janni Lee Simner (janni), Sherwood Smith (sartorias)

For privacy reasons, I'm only including LJs/blogs of people on the panels if their LJs or blogs include their names in some kind of clear fashion, on the principle that the connection is therefore already public. That said, if I have miscalculated and you want me to remove either your real name or your blog link, or if you want me to use a different link, please let me know and I'll do so immediately.

Notes behind the cut. People are attributed by initials; Q/C indicates an audience comment or question. As always, transcribed fast and edited only glancingly, misattributions and errors are my own, assume everything outside of quote marks is a paraphrase. ??? indicates something (usually a name) that I missed.

( Panel Notes )