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Sunday was all walkable
May. 25th, 2025 11:00 pmI went to the 11:30 panel on AI, and while it was all men, it was still really good. I was there because I’d missed Nate Hoffelder on Friday, and this was his only other panel. We chatted very briefly. He’s pretty much exactly as I’d expected. The panel had a number of really great people on it, and the conversation was nuanced and excellent. Moderation quality was really high, too, which became important during the Q&A, where people wanted to bring in all of How We Educate and also Capitalism.
Bryant Keith O’hara had some really interesting ideas to share about using AI in the creation process. He experimented with using weather data and a complex set of other steps to generate poetry using AI. I mostly got hung up on the weather idea, because the potential for using a week or month or whatever of data to define mood in a story just sounds amazing to me. It could create constraints that might really be fertile. Aaron M. Roth has a version of caution without wanting to try to shove AI back in a box that I applaud. Shahid Mahmud was a delightful addition, with a background in finance but now a small publisher. Great group, unexpectedly excellent discussion in a topic area that tends towards posturing and the pointless end of rhetorical screechiness.
I went to the The Stakes are High and They’re Well Done, because it had Sharon Lee. It was a good conversation for the most part, altho Charles Gannon had a tendency to go on at some length. I finally understand where people are getting the idea of “hitting the beats” (this is all Save the Cat stuff, apparently), and it helps contextualize progression fiction. We’re hitting the end of the era in which novels tried to be screenplays, and moving into a world in which novels are trying to be video games. I mean, it makes sense and also?
I got A. up and showered.
I went to Space Westerns, because Jack Campbell was on that panel. It was interesting. A lot of discussion of frontier, negative presentation of Civilization. Hemry made the observation that tumbleweed was non-native, so I rabbit-holed on that, and boy, that’s a completely unappreciated contributor to the whole Wild West story.
We had dinner at Kona Grille, which was a short walk. I have no idea what was going on there. The food was fine, altho arguably overpriced especially for this city. But my sister’s second wine was never delivered and we were charged for it. Our plates were not cleared until the dessert plates were landing. Sushi came out without chopsticks or soy sauce (they did arrive relatively quickly, but I just proceeded with my own chopsticks because I’m That Person). The desserts were freakishly enormous and all tasty (carrot cake, brownie and chocolate cake). They didn’t have any sweet vermouth. I said they could make my manhattan with dry vermouth (I’ve done it plenty of times) but they declined, and I didn’t really want the old fashioned described on the menu (with two different creme de liqueurs listed). Bartender came over and I ultimately got her to make me a rye, club soda with a little lime on the rocks and that was great but wow, what was going on there.
The environment of the restaurant is pleasant: good lighting, not too echoey, pleasant decor. It’s probably fine when it isn’t a Sunday of a holiday weekend?
After dinner, my sister and I went to the Sex, Sexuality and Worldbuilding, which was awesome. Zach Be was there, but Sydney Olivia was the star, and Jennifer Povey was great as panelist and moderator. Great crowd, fantastic questions, lots of recommendations.
Bryant Keith O’hara had some really interesting ideas to share about using AI in the creation process. He experimented with using weather data and a complex set of other steps to generate poetry using AI. I mostly got hung up on the weather idea, because the potential for using a week or month or whatever of data to define mood in a story just sounds amazing to me. It could create constraints that might really be fertile. Aaron M. Roth has a version of caution without wanting to try to shove AI back in a box that I applaud. Shahid Mahmud was a delightful addition, with a background in finance but now a small publisher. Great group, unexpectedly excellent discussion in a topic area that tends towards posturing and the pointless end of rhetorical screechiness.
I went to the The Stakes are High and They’re Well Done, because it had Sharon Lee. It was a good conversation for the most part, altho Charles Gannon had a tendency to go on at some length. I finally understand where people are getting the idea of “hitting the beats” (this is all Save the Cat stuff, apparently), and it helps contextualize progression fiction. We’re hitting the end of the era in which novels tried to be screenplays, and moving into a world in which novels are trying to be video games. I mean, it makes sense and also?
I got A. up and showered.
I went to Space Westerns, because Jack Campbell was on that panel. It was interesting. A lot of discussion of frontier, negative presentation of Civilization. Hemry made the observation that tumbleweed was non-native, so I rabbit-holed on that, and boy, that’s a completely unappreciated contributor to the whole Wild West story.
We had dinner at Kona Grille, which was a short walk. I have no idea what was going on there. The food was fine, altho arguably overpriced especially for this city. But my sister’s second wine was never delivered and we were charged for it. Our plates were not cleared until the dessert plates were landing. Sushi came out without chopsticks or soy sauce (they did arrive relatively quickly, but I just proceeded with my own chopsticks because I’m That Person). The desserts were freakishly enormous and all tasty (carrot cake, brownie and chocolate cake). They didn’t have any sweet vermouth. I said they could make my manhattan with dry vermouth (I’ve done it plenty of times) but they declined, and I didn’t really want the old fashioned described on the menu (with two different creme de liqueurs listed). Bartender came over and I ultimately got her to make me a rye, club soda with a little lime on the rocks and that was great but wow, what was going on there.
The environment of the restaurant is pleasant: good lighting, not too echoey, pleasant decor. It’s probably fine when it isn’t a Sunday of a holiday weekend?
After dinner, my sister and I went to the Sex, Sexuality and Worldbuilding, which was awesome. Zach Be was there, but Sydney Olivia was the star, and Jennifer Povey was great as panelist and moderator. Great crowd, fantastic questions, lots of recommendations.