Monday, October 18, 2010

sirens and strong fantasy heroines


last weekend i spent four days in vail,
colorado
for the sirens con, which focuses
on strong
heroines in fantasy. it was an
intimate conference
with about one hundred
attendees in a beautiful
setting with wonderful staff and volunteers. i couldn't
have had a better time!


there was an author tea with signing on
friday and saturday afternoons. it was one of
my favorite part of the conference as i got to
meet fellow readers, other authors, and even
had awesome gifts from Silver Phoenix fans to
show off. rachel made a clay figure of ai ling
with a giant dumpling and an entire dim sum spread
including chicken feet. too cute! (for those who
haven't read Silver Phoenix, my heroine likes
to eat. =)

and larry folded a chinese origami dragon for
me during our Fey Folklore Around the World panel.
he folded and gifted various creatures during the
entire con, spreading origami happiness!

had a lovely long rowdy dinner with
juliet
grames (soho editor), holly black
(White Cat),
sarah rees brennan
(Demon's Covenant) and
malinda lo (Ash)
at kelly liken in vail village.
it was a very
good meal!

on saturday, i went back into vail village
earlier with friends, to take in the gorgeous
views.
me, shveta and andrea were 3/4 of
the panel we held
on friday morning. i focused
on fox spirits as my main
topic of discussion:
beautiful women who are part
human and part
fox, dangerous or romanticized,
depending on
the narrator's moral for the story.


there were these meese statues throughout
vail village. this one was huge, a little scary
actually. and we figured, perhaps life size.

we decided on a cozy german restaurant
for dinner and i was in heaven! i very rarely
get to indulge in german fare. i had a wiener
and a bratwurst over saurkraut with all the
accompanying cold salads. it was delicious.
looking
at this foto makes me both wistful
and happy. =)


sunday morning was the last morning of
the con and i took the time to take a foto

with two authors whose books i really love
and who
are just delightful in person:
sherwood smith
(Crown Duel and Inda series)
and ellen kushner
(Swordspoint and Privilege
of the Sword). they've
both written more
extensively and if you love fantasy
with strong
heroines, you really should check them out!


next year's theme will be MONSTERS and the
guests of
honor are justine larbalestier (Liar),
nnedi okorafor
(Who Fears Death) and laini
taylor (Lips Touch). women in fantasy as monsters.
how
cool of a theme is that? i definitely hope to
be there!!


7 comments:

Helen Lowe said...

Sounds like you had a lot of fun, Cindy. I love the origami dragon!

Unknown said...

Sounds amazing, Cindy. And the views! And I agree, the moose do look a little scary. ~L

Tracey O'Hara said...

Wow - looks great. And love the little origami dragon too. Love anything dragony.

Sharon S. said...

now that is a cool con and a great theme. That dragon origami is beautiful. I have never been to Vail or anywhere west of the Mississippi. Would love to see it. Thanks for the pictures.

cindy said...

thanks everyone! the various origami creatures that larry made really were great to see around the con!

tracey, i wasn't going to put a dragon in Silver Phoenix but i couldn't resist. it's a chinese one tho, flying but without wings. =)

Melissa (Books and Things) said...

Looks like a lot of fun! Plus Vail at that time should be beautiful! Hope you caught the Aspens changing! My favorite fungus! :)

Anonymous said...

Wow, beautiful pictures. Sounds like you had great fun. :-)