The domestic and laboratory goddess, in her answer to our question about science fiction and science bloggers, talked a little about the female role models available to a young budding scientist. This prompted me to realize that I have readers, too new to have heard me waxing enthusiastic about WisCon, who would love this convention.

WisCon is the first and foremost feminist science fiction convention in the world. WisCon encourages discussion, debate and extrapolation of ideas relating to feminism, gender, race and class. WisCon honors writers, editors and artists whose work explores these themes and whose voices have opened new dimensions and territory in these issues. And, oh yes, we also like to have fun while we’re at it.

WisCon is my “home” convention, the one I attend every year, even though it’s a four- to five-hour drive to Madison to get there. It’s a convention of grown-ups but isn’t too grown-up. It has the highest ratio of published authors to fans of any convention I know, but the media programming is great too. It has an academic track, child care, a civilized con suite and commitments to access for people with disabilities and dignity for people with unconventional gender and sexual identities. Oh, and a hot tub.

The James Tiptree, Jr. Award (named after Alice B. Sheldon and supported by a bake sale and auction), is given “for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender” at the convention. This year’s guests of honor are Ellen Klages, who made a room full of people go from laughter to tears in less than five minutes two years ago, and Geoff Ryman, a former Tiptree winner and reportedly most graceful wearer of the tiara in Tiptree history.

As you can probably tell, there’s no good way to explain this convention. It’s utterly unlike the stereotype of a science fiction convention, except in the ways it isn’t. The only way to find out whether it’s for you is to check it out. It doesn’t happen until May, but don’t wait. Registration is capped at 1,000 people, and right about now is the time it fills up.

Go see, and maybe I’ll see you there.

A big thanks to Simon Haynes for being the first person to jump up and throw in his opinions on the relationship between science and science fiction. Simon is the author of the Hal Spacejock series, which is currently available only as imports in the U.S. (grrr). However, you can download his first book to get a taste before diving in.

As you can probably guess from the name, Hal Spacejock is a hoot, but how about the science?

Humanoid robots and self-aware computers please!

I’m writing novels based in the far-future, where humans are the same cantakerous self-centered beasts they’ve always been, but robots and computers are intelligent, wise and caring. I’ve seen reviews declaring that my human characters are bastards one and all, while my robots represent the ideal I’d like humans to aim for. Not far wrong, that.

Simon’s a long-time computer programmer, so he presumably has a better grip on how to manage to integrate self-awareness and selflessness than I do. Read the rest of Simon’s answers and find out more about him at Spacejock News.

I’ll get more links and highlights up soon, but thanks again, Simon, for being first.

ScienceOnline09 is an annual science communication conference that brings together scientists, bloggers, educators, and students to discuss promoting public understanding of science. Peggy Kolm and I will be moderating a session on science fiction as a tool for science communication. We’re looking for input on the topic and to start an online conversation between science fiction writers and science bloggers.

Participation is easy:

Questions about science and its relationship to science fiction are posted below and at Biology in Science Fiction. Send us a link to your answers on your own blog or post the link the comments at either site. If you’re a writer without a blog, you can post your answers directly at either site.

We will then collect links to the posts on the ScienceOnline09 conference wiki, as well as our own blogs, and facilitate a discussion on the different ways science and science fiction are used.

Questions for Science Fiction Writers

• Why are you writing science fiction in particular? What does the science add?
• What is your relationship to science? Have you studied or worked in it, or do you just find it cool? Do you have a favorite field?
• How important is it to you that the science be right? What kind of resources do you use for accuracy?
• Are there any specific science or science fiction blogs you would recommend to interested readers or writers?

Questions for Science Bloggers

• What is your relationship to science fiction? Do you read it? Watch it? What/who do you like and why?
• What do you see as science fiction’s role in promoting science, if any? Can it do more than make people excited about science? Can it harm the cause of science?
• Have you used science fiction as a starting point to talk about science? Is it easier to talk about people doing it right or getting it wrong?
• Are there any specific science or science fiction blogs you would recommend to interested readers or writers?

Thanks for taking part, and we look forward to your answers!

Of course, after having a late night the day before, I woke up bright and early on Sunday–just not early enough to attend the 8:30 panel on cliche that my friend Sean was moderating. Coffee was once again necessary, and after having breakfast, a few of us grabbed caffeine and wandered down State Street. Apparently I wasn’t in a pretty, shiny, shopping mood, because we made it all the way to the campus. I’ve never noticed how short a street it is before.

Coming back, more hat shopping ensued. Waiting outside, we ran into one of the Glitter Glam Rainbow Bunny Death Pixies . She was looking for chicken broth on the street of “ethnic” food. It was the first news of the plague. When we got back to the hotel, signs were everywhere, “Stomach flu at WisCon. Wash your hands.” Wheee. The cool part is that someone had already organized an epidemiological survey to find the source(s). I love hanging out with other geeks.

Then it was off to the coffee shop again for a reading in their upper level–Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades, ghost stories from lesbian erotica writers, edited by my friend Catherine. Most of it wasn’t anything that couldn’t be read anywhere, until we got to the last story. After reading for a couple of minutes, the author looked up and told us, “I’ve never read anything erotic out loud before. But I wrote it, so I should be fine, right?”

We nodded encouragingly. She composed herself and opened her mouth. Then the door opened and in walked a mom trailing her four-year-old. There was a little laughter, but I think most of us were trying not to startle the newcomers. Once they’d headed down the stairs, the author tried again. This time, she got a few words out before the other authors facing the door cracked up. Outside was a parade of altar boys in full regalia: robes, frilly collars, gold implements. At least they didn’t come in. After we all wiped the tears from our eyes and settled back down, the author was finally able to read. It may be the influence of all the laughter, but I didn’t find the euphemisms any less silly than those in straight erotica.

We were in the con suite long enough to see all the food prep surfaces wiped down with bleach, then Sara and I headed off to a chat with Ellen Kushner, author of my favorite book. It was fun. Ellen is always enthusiastic and funny, her partner, Delia Sherman, was there to answer questions about how they’ve worked together, and the setting was intimate. It may have been too intimate for Sara. She’d been suppressing fangirl squee all weekend as I pointed out authors and editors whose work she loved. Being that close to Ellen nearly did her in. She was vibrating as we walked out of the room and twitched for the rest of the evening whenever I mentioned it.

Then it was off to dinner at the Great Dane Pub, the Governor’s Club, and parties. I’d meant to hit more than one but never made it past the book launch party for Catherine’s book and another anthology from the same press. There were more readings, one of which would definitely have been out of place in the coffee shop, altar boys or no. It felt a little off-balance to find lesbian erotica pretty hot while not remotely desiring sex with a woman.

I had a nice chat with Rebecca, whom I’ve been meaning to get to know for a while now. Should be easier these days, as she’s renting from a high school friend of mine and working two blocks from me. My world just keeps getting smaller. At some point, I realized I was blinking owlishly and not saying much, so I went to bed.

Mondays at WisCon are quiet, mostly packing, registering for next year, and saying goodbyes. There were a bunch of people who would have gotten hugs if we hadn’t all just been talking about the stomach bug. We waved and got in the car.

The ride home was uneventful. Sara and James were terribly cute, holding hands while napping in the back seat. We started looking for signs of the storm once we crossed back into Minnesota, but there was nothing. So we were completely unprepared to come home to a broken fence and banged up elm in our yard. Single car accident according to the accident report we picked up at city hall. Ah, back to real life.

While WisCon is generally an accepting place, it always raises some anger. Not surprising. We’re talking about contentious issues tied closely to our identities. It’s hard to get through a con without realizing that we’ve taken something for granted that’s hurt someone else. We get defensive because we’ve put a lot of effort into being decent, thoughtful people and we really want to rest on that sometimes.

Then there’s Rachel Moss, whose motivations for coming to the con (twice) are, well, opaque despite her explanation. Angry Black Woman has a good summary of the debacle that started when Rachel Moss decided to post pictures of WisCon on Something Awful with something masquerading as commentary. Liz Henry starts an interesting conversation on balancing awareness of our enemies as human beings with holding them 100% responsible for their behavior. Lesley at Fatshionista simply and beautifully tells everyone creeping out of the woodwork to get at it already–do their worst.

After them, and the commenters at their blogs, all I’ve got to say is that I’m proud WisCon is my con and that these are my people. And no one making nasty comments is having as much fun as my people are in those pictures.

Saturday morning at WisCon means the farmer’s market on the capitol square and squeaky cheese. By the time we were up for breakfast, Laura and Kelly had already hit the market, so I had fresh cheese curds with my fruit and pastry.

Once we’d endured the line at Michaelangelo’s and I had my monkey mocha, it was time for the market. I’ve never seen it so crowded. Somehow, everyone had collectively decided to proceed clockwise. We opted for widdershins. People would have been less surprised had we colored our hair green. Being without refrigeration for the weekend, we didn’t buy much, but it’s always good to get some exercise at a con.

We hit more programming in the afternoon. I’ve been to other panels on what one can/can’t get away with in YA before, so some information was repeated, but there was an interesting discussion of why YA books aren’t labeled for content or for “appropriate” age ranges. Namely, YA publishers do take care to educate booksellers and librarians what’s in books, and resources are available to parents who want to know what their kids might be reading. Labeling for content tends to invite censorship, and labeling for age discourages kids at or above the lower age limit from reading. That is, it may actually push the book exclusively into the hands of kids younger than its intended audience. Tamora Pierce also had lots of neat stuff to say about why things were included or excluded from her books that I haven’t properly processed yet.

The next panel was “Captain Jack’s Big Gay Torchwood.” There were many funny moments from the panel, including the woman who kept having to fan herself when the discussion got too, uh, heated. I was less impressed with some of the analytical discussions. Someone raised the question of why slash, yaoi and Torchwood–venues largely for exciting women with gay sexuality–were okay when men viewing lesbians the same way isn’t. Someone suggested that the “current thinking” on this was that male fantasies of lesbians involve changing the relationship to center around the men while women are just making up love stories about the gay men involved. I was not the only highly skeptical (or pissed off) member of the audience. At least we could all agree that the show was poorly written.

The true highlight of the panel was the question from the young man (maybe all of 13, probably 11) in the back. He mentioned that James Marsters had caught his eye on a magazine cover at a store. Then he saw the headline, “Spike’s Gay Kiss,” and decided on the spot that he needed to see Torchwood. His question? Since the kiss didn’t happen until the first episode of the second season, and since he was finding the first season pretty slow going, which episodes could he skip to get to the part he really wanted to see?

Done with sitting still for a bit, we made our annual pilgrimage to the hat shop on State Street. Ben found one that works with bowling shirts. Our dinner luck held out, and we ended up in Peppino’s. Everything was excellent, although a wine sauce with artichoke hearts and olives was not the best choice while dealing with a massive canker sore. Great taste. Pain. Great taste. Pain. At least I got to be distracted by James chatting up our waitress without having a clue that’s what he was doing.

The Tor party was Saturday evening. I headed down about 10, expecting to talk to lots of people briefly and leave. Tracy showed up a few minutes later. I asked her what she’d been up to for the last year, and we stopped talking about quarter to two, when it really looked like the interns were ready to clean up and go to sleep. I stumbled off to bed, ready to really sleep in the next morning. I should know better by now.

I understand that live blogging when one can’t reliably type “Google” into one’s browser may not be the best idea, but hey, what’s three Sambucas between friends?

Day one of WisCon was lovely, as expected. I had a nice, if brief, chat with Liz Henry at the Gathering. I complimented her on her post on the profile of the Google VP and thanked her for posting frankly about living with a disability. She’s working for BlogHer these days, and we compared notes on discovering our unexpectedly butch (read results-oriented) sides when dealing with groups composed exclusively of women.

It was nearly dinner time when we reached Madison. We ate at the Brocach, on the opposite side of the capitol from our hotel. Wow. All the food, from the steak with blue cheese butter to the fish and chips, was stunning. And our waiter was cute enough that even Ben noticed. Top-shelf drinks were half off for happy hour, so Ben ordered the 18-year Caol Ila. Yum. Even James tipped back a few drops of Jameson–literally a few drops.

The bar was open in the hotel club by then, so we headed back. Programming is light Friday nights, with opening ceremonies taking up much of the evening, so the bar becomes the main attraction for anyone with an aversion to ceremony. For once in my life, I started a trend. First round of drinks, I was the only one with a Sambuca. Second round of drinks, there were five of us. We were all from the Twin Cities, even though we rarely see each other in town. Somewhere along the way, the flaming Sambuca story had to be told. Then the story of the folded-pinky hand gesture that always accompanies Rick’s name. Then Sean showed up with the flask of absinthe, and we all had to try it. I suspect it loses a little of the bitter when you don’t put the wormwood in it, but what was left was tasty, even without sugar and water.

Rachel and Dave stopped by and added the story of how their middle child ended up with his genitalia glued back together. I laughed until I cried over the line, “It’s a crib injury, although it wasn’t my crib.” Okay, I said it, but it was still funny.

Then it was off to the panel on grammar and punctuation. Really. You have to be the right kind of person to appreciate it, but it was pretty good. Of course, being WisCon, there was discussion of whether focusing on grammar priviledges the communications of particular groups, and of course, being grammar geeks, we said, well, yes and no. Grammar is important, you know.

We haven’t made it to the hot tub yet, but it’s been a long day, so bed is calling. There’s always tomorrow, at least when the pool isn’t reserved for the kids. More later…probably.

It’s very hard to tell someone you’re going to a science fiction convention without being asked about Star Trek. The implication, when it’s not stated outright, is that there will be a bunch of weirdos there dressed up as Klingons.

That doesn’t happen at WisCon. There are people who love Star Trek, sure, but no Klingons. No slave girls, no furries, no anime characters in three straps, a cropped tee and thigh-high boots. There’s essentially no cosplay, except at the fancy dress party. And it isn’t because anyone says not to. It isn’t because someone would be mocked for being strange. Costumes at WisCon are viewed more like a cocktail dress at a picnic. There’s nothing wrong with it, exactly, but it’s trying awfully hard–harder than the occasion calls for.

WisCon is all about being the alien living among other aliens. Nobody needs prosthetics to be set apart. We’re all weirdos, whatever we’re wearing. We might as well be comfortable.

And that’s just one of the reasons I love WisCon.