Day: May 3, 2007

Apparently science fiction writers are a rarely appearing sort of writer here in Iowa City and at Prairie Lights bookstore, and that seems a shame, as the folks at Prairie Lights were lovely and the audience was delightful too. And I was recorded for local public radio (I’ll post a link when it goes up on the station’s Web site), and you can’t beat that. Nice people, appreciative crowds: IIt’s all here in Iowa, baby. And then afterward I hung out with writer Rachel Swirsky and members of her writing class, talking about the craft and business of writing. Smart folks, with an amusing variety of hair colors. Because why not. If I still had hair, I might dye it an amusing color, too.

Onward — tomorrow I’m in Milwaukee, at the Harry Schwartz Bookstore, at 7pm. My first time in Milwaukee, actually, which doesn’t seem right, after all that time spent in Chicago. It’s just a 90 minute drive or so. Well, my Milwaukee n00berness will soon be corrected. Hope to see some of you there.

The spammination from fake GMail accounts seems to have ceased, so I’ve taken it off the moderation filter for now. Those of you who enter (or have entered) Gmail accounts into the “e-mail” line on the comment form should now see your comments posting rather than being bumped into a moderation queue. I’ve also gone and released a bunch of comments that were stuck in moderation. If you don’t see a comment you’ve posted, I may have accidentally deleted it (sorry). Please post it again.

However, some of you with hotmail accounts may still find yourselves being moderated because I’m still getting a bunch of crap from fake hotmail accounts. The solution to this problem is a combination of one of the two following:

1. Join the 21st century and get an e-mail account other than Hotmail;
2. Put something else in the “e-mail” line of the comment form other than a hotmail account.

Note that you don’t actually have to put anything into the e-mail line of the form, since I don’t require it. So don’t feel, you know, obliged.

Also, since at least a couple of people have sent me dreadfully apologetic letters because they feel I’ve moderated them due to content (which I’m certainly not doing at the moment, I don’t have the time), allow me to link to this entry on comment moderation as it exists on this site. If you’ve not read this policy statement, I suggest you do so now, to save yourself the psychic terror of thinking you’ve offended me in some way.

I should note that in this crowd there’s a Campbell winner and a Hugo winner (although the Hugo winner’s face is being obscured by the Campbell winner’s hand), and the woman who read over half of “The Sagan Diary” for me. So this is a talented audience. And a fun one to read to, I have to say. I had a blast here.

I would write more but at the moment I have to pack — turns out I have a 5am wake-up. Suffice to say my first trip to Oregon makes me want to come back again soon. I’ll write more about this stop later, I’m sure.