I am so excited that Ellen Klages is going to be the Toastmaster for this year\u2019s Nebula Award weekend!<\/p>\n
The announcement went up<\/a> on SFWA\u2019s website a bit ago, but I just wanted to repeat it for people who missed it. And also because it\u2019s so awesome.<\/p>\n I\u2019m a big fan of Ellen Klages\u2019s writing. One of my favorites young adult fantasy story \u201cThe House of the Seven Librarians\u201d which first appeared in Firebirds Rising<\/a> and which I got to narrate for PodCastle<\/a>, and which you can get a kindle single version of<\/a>, too. But by no means is this the only wonderful thing Ellen has written: you\u2019ve got to check out her collection, Portable Childhoods<\/a>. I mean that. Check it out. It\u2019s got a number of really smart stories, including her first ever published story, \u201cTime Gypsy,\u201d which I love for its description of a particular moment in lesbian history (and its invocation of early women scientists). I also really like the titular story, \u201cPortable Childhoods,\u201d which isn\u2019t genre at all, but instead an interesting set of vignettes which together create an emotionally affecting arc about mother and daughter. <\/p>\n There are also fantastic stories by Ellen that don\u2019t appear in her collection. Probably my favorite of those is \u201cThe Education of a Witch\u201d which first appeared in Under My Hat<\/a>, edited by Jonathan Strahan. It\u2019s about a young girl who identifies with the evil queen character in Snow White instead of the princess.<\/p>\n I say \u201cprobably my favorite\u201d because it\u2019s hard to decide between that and \u201cWakulla Springs<\/a>\u201d, which you can find on Tor.com. She cowrote this novella with Andy Duncan who is also brilliant, and it\u2019s on this year\u2019s Nebula ballot. <\/p>\n Ellen is a keen observer of setting and dialogue, but particularly skilled at creating realistic, non-sentimental writing about children and the experience of childhood. More than almost any other writer, she captures the details and disjunctions of childhood in a way that is both strongly tied to time and place (she often writes about the fifties) but also emotionally recognizable to me as a child of the eighties. She doesn\u2019t get bogged down in adult ideas of what \u201cchildhood is like,\u201d but looks at it with a sharp, clear eye.<\/p>\n Ellen is also very funny. She\u2019s been working the Tiptree auction at Wiscon for many years where she stirs the audience with improvisation. She\u2019s an animated delight in conversation. Annually at FogCon, she appears on the Liar\u2019s Panel, which as you might imagine involves lying wildly. She told me that last year, she accidentally told a bunch of true stories, and no one noticed because they were so funny and strange. Just talking to her is like that: she has a well of funny, true anecdotes and observations. I\u2019m excited to see that energy and storytelling ability translate to the Nebula podium.<\/p>\n There aren\u2019t very many women toastmasters on the convention circuit. Connie Willis does her amusing duty from time to time, which is awesome, but I\u2019d love to see more ladies taking the stage. In addition to Ellen Klages, I hope conventions will consider Charlie Jane Anders, Mary Robinette Kowal, and other talented women performers for future ceremonies. <\/p>\n This is going to be a great Nebulas. With Ellen Klages there as toastmaster, and Samuel Delany coming in as our new Grandmaster (squee!)\u2026 I\u2019m really excited to get to be there and to hear such talented people speak.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s Nebula Awards Weekend is May 15th to 18th, 2014, at the Marriott in San Jose. There are more details on the SFWA website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am so excited that Ellen Klages is going to be the Toastmaster for this year\u2019s Nebula Award weekend! The announcement went up on SFWA\u2019s website a bit ago, but I just wanted to repeat it for people who missed … Continue reading