Wednesday, September 15, 2010

fish, fowl or red herring?

Please remain seated during paradigm shift.

So, I was getting organised for VCon, looking for room-mates, checking out programming, and popping off emails because I seem to have volunteered to organise the SF-Canada book table (oh, yeah, I'm a year-old member of SF-Canada, did I mention that previously? by virtue of 2 short story sales to online markets). I went to the VCon website to see what had been updated.

Oh, look, I said to myself. There's a Writing Workshop this year, yay! Because last year there wasn't, and I was sad. VCon in 2006 was my first experience with a face-to-face writing workshop, and I really enjoyed it, plus got practice for the crit sessions at Viable Paradise right afterwards.
Do I have anything to submit, I wondered, running through my very short list of short stories, and shorter list of those never workshopped. And who'll be running the sessions?

I looked at the list and felt dizzy. There's Dave Duncan, writing since the 1980s, and Eileen Kernaghan, award-winning YA author, and a half-dozen others, but--I know all the names. They're names (not surprisingly, once I thought about it) from SF-Canada.
Of which I am a member.
I'm not up there with multi-published authors who've been writing for 20 years, but still related in kind (species? phylum?). Not ready to be on the pro side of a writing workshop, but--I think--at the point of it probably being awkward to be met on the receiving side.

Rather unsettling to be neither one nor the other, and leaves me deprived of face-to-face workshopping with people who understand sf/f. I suppose the only remedy is to keep at it until I earn my place on the pro side.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Just a point of clarification, isn't a herring (red or otherwise) a fish?

batgirl said...

Yep. But as a proverbial phrase it's let sense slip in favour of rhythm. Originally something like 'neither fish, flesh nor fowl, nor good red herring', and I'll have to look it up in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable when I get home.
Which is probably online, now that I think of it, being quite out of copyright.

Terri-Lynne said...

You will be one of those aspiring writers see on the program and say, "SHE is going to be leading the workshop?? Holy crap! I might die of fangirl/boy squee!" I have no doubt.

Dave Duncan?? I'm going to swoon. I wasn't a HUGE fan of the Kings Blades, but I loved, loved, LOVED The Great Game.

Egads, snap a pic of him for me with your phone and send it to me!! ;)

batgirl said...

I'll see what I can do - should've taken one when he was at my house, shouldn't I? ;p

Terri-Lynne said...

...he was at your house? FOR REAL???

I just swooned...

batgirl said...

Twice now - and he is a charming, self-effacing man, a real gentleman.