Fandom Fest 2012

Three of us were able to attend and people a table at Fandom Fest 2012.

The Galt House, where the Fest was held this year, provided us with a wonderful surprise: a chronosynclastic infundibulum. In case you don’t know, this is a term invented by Kurt Vonnegut, Junior, and means a place where more than one mutually exclusive thing can be equally true at the same time.

Impossible? Well, parking in the Galt House garages cost nothing, five dollars, seven dollars, twelve dollars, fourteen dollars, and eighteen dollars. They had parking vouchers, had never heard of parking vouchers, had given out all the parking vouchers, had sent the parking vouchers up to Festival Registration, and didn’t own the garages at all. We totally needed trading cards or scavenger hunt check-off sheets to collect all the truths and see who could get the most.

Stephen Zimmer, again Head Honcho of the Literary Track, did his usual fabulous best at making the track run smoothly and happily. We’ll definitely apply to be on the track again next year!

MA

Posted in Road Trip | Tagged | 2 Comments

Chautauqua Is Not The Sound A Chicken Makes

Last month, we had a booth at the Chautauqua at the Howard Steamboat Museum. In case you don’t know what a Chautauqua is, here’s some history on the movement.

So we set up on Authors’ Row, under a big ol’ shade tree, right near the fountain, within easy listening distance of the music. We brought our own food and water and spent a fine two days visiting with our fellow authors, attendees, and other vendors. We shopped, schmoozed, and sold books hand over fist.

The weather was perfect this year. Maybe a little warmish, but basically perfect.

Jamey Aebersold’s group playing jazz for hours? For free? OH, yes!

Also some first-class chorus groups and concert bands, and all for free, once you paid your entrance fee or paid for your vendor space. And did I mention the entertainment was free?

The first year we did this, we divided the time for the two days, so nobody had to stay more than a couple of hours, but most of us didn’t want to leave when our time was up. The year it rained like a big dog, we wrapped plastic around the tent and invited other vendors to join us. It was like the stateroom scene from A Night At The Opera.

We’re already looking forward to 2013.

Posted in What We're Up To | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Arts Council of Southern Indiana Appearance

The Southern Indiana Writers were out in force at the Arts Council of Southern Indiana‘s The Animals In Us exhibit.

The Usual Suspects

Reading from left to right, we are:

Dirk Griffin, Ardis Moonlight, Ginny Fleming, Joanna Foreman, Samantha Lopez, Joy Kirchgessner, Marian Allen and T. Lee Harris. There are more of us, but these are the only ones they could cuff who were able to attend.

We had BEASTLY TALES on display and for sale. Excerpts were projected onto a screen, and Dirk, a professional actor, read selected stories and poems aloud.

Joy Kirchgessner also had a piece of three-dimensional art on display, a fabulous mask:

We told them all about ourselves, but they still invited us to come back. So we will.

Those are paw prints, not bullet holes.

MA

Posted in What We're Up To | Tagged | Leave a comment

We’re Such Animals

They’re letting us into an art gallery! Get up off the floor and stop laughing. Our anthology BEASTLY TALES is part of the Arts Council of Southern Indiana‘s current exhibit, The Animals In Us.

Here’s the poster:

We’ll be at the opening reception AND at the invitational. If you’re in the area, pop in and introduce yourself.

SIW

Posted in Stranger Than Fiction, What We're Up To | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Going Down Island Tybee-Way

Well… ♥  The weather’s here. Wish you were beautiful.  ♥

Silly me. *YOU’RE* as beautiful as the sun I *know* to be on the other side of the curtains.  "Tybee Pier"But I dilly, dally & digress (a southern law firm). It was laundry-morning, here. The sun must wait a few more minutes until the farmin’-chores’re done with. I’m told after we milk the chickens, and check for eggs under the cows, then we’re gonna see if the Atlantic’s still there where we left it yesterday, then mebby on to the Lighthouse? It’s a plan.

When we “come back cottage way”, MA & T Lee will tie me down and force me to pound this keyboard again. I’m fixin’ to take this Devil’s Plaything surfin’, myself. Keyboard’s VERY twitchy down here. Wicked muscle spasm between the “E” and the “L” keys. Makes me sound simple. You didn’t notice? How very nice of you to say.

Fins Up! —> Ginny Fleming

Well… if you & I are lucky, there will be a purty pitcher in this post:

Posted in Miscellaneous | Leave a comment

Postcard From Tybee Island

Here are three of us, hard at work. We’re … doing research. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Seriously, the Southern Indiana Writers were among the writers granted a free week in one of the Mermaid Cottages on Tybee Island, Georgia. In return, we’re each to submit a story featuring the island and, if possible, the cottage where we’re staying.

We’ve been walking on the beach, meeting people, like the lovely lady who made these messages and her friend. She said she comes to the beach just about every day and makes messages in the sand. 🙂

That’s all for now. We need to get back to eating drinking socializing working.

SIW

Posted in Miscellaneous | Leave a comment

Spec The Halls with SIW

SPEC THE HALLS, an electronic anthology of winter holiday stories, is out for a limited time from Alliteration Ink Publishing. Two of the stories are by members of Southern Indiana Writers: T. Lee Harris and Marian Allen.

All proceeds from the anthology, including authors’ payments, go to Heifer International, which improves people’s lives by providing them with livestock (from water buffalo to bees).

Please support this cause, whether by buying the anthology or by direct donation.

Posted in What We're Up To | Leave a comment

Hotel Total WIN After All

Holiday Inn Express in Muncie, after a rocky start that wasn’t actually their fault, completely made up for it with superior service and a steep discount on the room to make up for the inconvenience and aggravation. When it’s time to reserve rooms for Magna in 2011, Holiday Inn Express will be the first place we call.

Magna was magnificent as always. Looking forward to next year already. 🙂

 

Posted in Road Trip | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Saturday WIN!

Breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express in Muncie, Indiana was a total win. Eggs, yogurt, Canadian bacon (or similar) made breakfast edible for the gluten-intolerant and an automated pancake machine made breakfast fabulous for the easily amused.

T and Marian had a panel on e-publishing that was fully attended and very well received. Books were sold.

The authors’ roundtable veered from raw meat to electronic rights to firearms to bar jokes.

Dr. Bob Brier (Mr. Mummy) spoke on The Murder of Tutankhamen. Most interesting.

And so back to the hotel to rest up for our final day tomorrow.

 

Posted in Road Trip | Tagged | Leave a comment

Motel FAIL

We’re staying at the Holiday Inn Express. Yes, names are being named. That’s Holiday Inn Express in Muncie, Indiana, USA, Northern Hemisphere, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy, Universe, Multiverse, Whatever.

We’re very happy to be in our room, since we’ve been trying to get into it half the day.

2:30 – Arrived. Walked into the lobby. Desk clerk says, “Please tell me you don’t want to check in.” Me: “Okay. I just stopped in to say hello.” Turns out their server was down. Couldn’t have room because they … didn’t know what rooms were cleaned and empty? They sent one check-in to his room and it was still occupied by people who had booked for two nights?

He was now waiting for the shuttle. Yes, The Shuttle That Would Not Be. We scooped him up and went to the convention center to check into the convention, did a panel, had some coffee.

4:30 – Arrived again. Lobby was packed with teenage track teams. No air conditioning. Couldn’t check in. Servers still down.

Went back to the convention. A fine time was had by all.

8:30 – Arrived again. Checked in. “You’re just staying for the one night, right?” “Two nights.” “–Two nights, yes.” Clerk walked us to our room, knocked, called out, “Hotel services! Anybody there?”, knocked again. “Just to make sure.”

No internet access. Yes internet access. Oh, only internet access for one of us. Two of us? Two out of three, then? Oooookay.

Tomorrow we will see if there is enough on the breakfast bar for the three of us and the Jamaican Bobsled team. I mean the high school cross-country teams. Oh, wait, one of us is gluten-intolerant, and everything on the breakfast bar is made from wheat. That leaves more for the rest of us!

Motel WIN!

Posted in Road Trip | Tagged | 1 Comment