Fall camouflage

This weekend Gaylaxicon comes to town.  When did it become October? 

I'm on a panel about "Where are all the women" because Naomi Kritzer asked me to join.  I'm not sure I have any answers, but so far the panel topics aren't particularly intriguing.  I've heard there are always cute boys by the pool, but that's not really a draw for me...  I guess it's a fair question.

Should be a lot of interesting people in one place though.  I'll probably be excited once I'm there... 

There has been a lot of queer-focused SFF popping up lately, but little I've been very excited about.  I read some non-SFF YA I liked tho- Becoming Emily by local author Rachel Gold was a good basic trans teen read.  It managed to depict internal angst and family drama without falling into melodrama or cliches.  Or being pedantic.  Coming out stories are not easy to navigate these days, when it's not all new and silenced yet many teens face silencing, erasure, suppression, lack of information and community, and abuse nonetheless.

Now I'm listening to Elizabeth Hand's Radiant Days, which is technically fantasy but has more of a nostalgic feel really.  Lesbian protagonist in late 70s DC meets Rimbaud through a magical bum's lock house on the C&O canal.  She lays out decent historical DC graffiti writer background, I can say having just researched that, but the white chick protag taking credit for inspiring Disco Dan is whack, if sort of brashly Xenaesque.

I'm also reading lesbian author Carol Anshaw's latest novel, Carry the One.  It's weird and oddly grim and funny at the same time, like all her novels, which is to say I'm liking it so far...