Friday, July 04, 2008

Fourth Street Fantasy: Not Quite Final Thoughts

Here’s a random patter of thoughts about Fourth Street. It's not my final thoughts on the Con, but I think it will be the last time I post about it.

Emma Bull is full of awesome. This cannot be disputed. I will not hear of it.

Most every panelist was interesting enough (in different ways) that I just got a much larger reading list than I anticipated. I’ve been a bit down on wanting to read Monette’s novels, but I’ll give them a shot now. Ellen Klages, Steven Brust, and Will Shetterly just got a new reader here (I was going to read Bull anyway, but now I really am). I’ll find the short fiction of Marissa Lingen, Jennifer Evans, Reesa Brown, and Kit O’Connell as available.

There are some really smart people out there who know a lot of about subjects I’ve scarcely considered.

The people at Fourth Street were great, from the fans to the writers to the organizers. Well done and well participated.

Jim Frenkel still seems like a bit of a grump, but that made for good panel.

Cory Doctorow is Guest of Honor in 2009? I’m so there!

Special thanks go to txanne, karenthology, and cloudscudding for making the non-panel part of the con such a great experience for me.

The one thing I do regret is that on Saturday I saw a young woman just kind of wandering around, in and out of consuite, and mostly by herself. She seemed a bit shy and a bit lost. I really wish that on Saturday or Sunday (I noticed it again on Sunday lunch) that I asked her to sit with the group conversing on the couch in consuite so she could be included. Hopefully she had a good time and didn’t feel isolated. I really hate that feeling and being a bit on the shy side around new people myself, I feel like I could have done something about it. I tried to speak with her before the Writer’s Lies panel, and I did see her with seabream a few times over the weekend. This is just something I’m aware of and I’m disappointed in myself for not really reaching out. Anyway, whoever you are (first name Sally), I hope you had a good time and give Fourth Street another chance next year.

And...here is a buncha links from other people about this year’s Fourth Street.

A link to a page with audio of most of the panels.

Me: Day One, Two, and Three

Thoughts From:
Mary Dell
Jennifer Evans
Abra Wiebe
Marissa Lingen
Aedifica
Michael Merriam
Clarentine
Karenthology (with some pictures midway down)
Timprov

Panel Notes
Grinding Buttons and Pushing Axes
From Cool Idea to Story (another view)
Writer's Lies


Now, I'm quite sure that I am missing more than a few links, but these are the ones I was able to find without doing an obsessive amount of searching.

3 comments:

Cloudscudding said...

Yay! Glad I helped make it more enjoyable.

Anonymous said...

Hey, I was searching around the internets, and found that I was mentioned in your blog. That's so cool. I feel kinda famous. :P

I still like reading all the posts from people who were at FourthStreet. It reminds me of the great rush that came from finally meeting all these great minds. I had so much fun there, and getting to read your posts brought it all back. So, a couple months later, thanks for writing this up!

Joe said...

No prob! I enjoyed your participation on the New Writers panel.