The Shirley Jackson Awards + I get to show Neil Gaiman my Delirium eyes

This was the first time I was able to attend the Shirley Jackson Awards, although I've followed them closely since their inception four years ago.

2010 Shirley Jackson Awards
http://www.shirleyjacksonawards.org/sja_2010_winners.php
The opening speech was given by Victor Lavalle, author of _Big Machine_, last year's SJA for best novel [available to visually impaired readers at Bookshare.org]. Lavalle (who also possesses a wonderful voice) gave an absolutely lovely speech about the development of an artist's mastery and style by telling about Victor Van Gogh's development as an artist, pointing out that an artist becomes a master when his or her voice and style are as fine as her or his technical skills, and then he read a couple of pages from Shirley Jackson's _Life Amongst the Savages_ (not sure I got the title precisely correct) in which she describes a house as if it has an emotional and psychological life of its own.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Joyce Carol Oates [lots of her books are available to visually impaired readers at Bookshare.org]

Novel: Mr. Shivers, Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit) [available to visually impaired readers on Bookshare.org)

Novella: “Mysterium Tremendum”, Laird Barron (Occultation, Night Shade) [available in DRM-free ebook formats from Baen Books http://www.webscription.net/s-173-laird-barron.aspx
which also provides free memberships to visually impaired individuals and veterans with disabilities)

“Novelette: Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains,” Neil Gaiman (Stories: All New Tales, William Morrow) [available from Bookshare.org]

Short Story: “The Things,” Peter Watts (Clarkesworld, Issue 40) [available online from Clarke's World Magazine as eithre text http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/
or as an audio podcast http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/audio_01_10/ ]

Single Author Collection: Occultation, Laird Barron (Night Shade)

Edited Anthology: Stories: All New Tales, edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio (William Morrow)

I was very glad to see Laird Barron win some awards as I believe he is one of the best horror writers currently writing psychological horror, and I had an additional thrill by having the chance to show Neil Gaiman (who showed up rather unexpectedly) my prosthetic eyes based on the eyes of his Sandman character, Delirium. I asked Neil for a one-word quote to describe them, and he said, "Perfect." (Alexx and I were also amused that Neil kept referring to them as his eyes.)

Readercon report: ebooks panel +ebooksin the Book Room!

Panel: Book Design and Typography in the Digital Era.
Panelists:
Neil Clarke, editor of Clarkesworld Magazine http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/
and author of the highly informative essay, "This is My Life on Ebooks" http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/clarke_07_11/
Erin Kissane http://incisive.nu/about/
author of _Elements of Content Strategy_, available in both paper and ebook formats http://www.abookapart.com/products/the-elements-of-content-strategy
David G. Shaw, Alicia "Kestrell" Verlager
Edited later: Apologies for getting a panelist name wrong, the panelist was actually Ken Liu
http://kenliu.name/
who read from an article he wrote about the transition from codex to scroll
and the blog David recommended for more on ebooks and accessible Web design was Joe Clark's blog http://www.facebook.com/l/qAQD1rd19/blog.fawny.org/."

This panel is mostly a blur in my memory, although I remember David and others recommending a number of useful resources, such as A List Apart, and the book which Erin just published. David pointed out Cory Doctorow's collaborative publishing effort in his latest collection, with footnotes mentioning the names of readers who pointed out typos and other errata. We also encouraged the audience to be active consumers and producers by making complaints to publishers when the formats they need aren't available and, on the part of writers and editors trying to be part of the decisionmaking process as to in which formats the ebook versions of their books are being issued. This isn't always easy, as often authors and editors aren't kept in the loop of these decisions. An example of this surfaced when I mentioned to Ellen Datlow that I can find ebook versions of some of her anthologies at Baen Books, and she wasn't aware that the anthologies were available through that site.
Baen Books Webscriptions-New Arrivals page (includes link to Best Horror of the Year 3)
http://www.webscription.net/c-66-new-arrivals.aspx
Ellen Datlow page
http://www.webscription.net/s-196-ellen-datlow.aspx

Also, after the panel Alexx and I went to the book room and I sought out the table for the university press which published the newest edition of Samuel R. Delany's nonfiction essay collection, _The Jewel-Hinged Jaw_, with an introduction by Matthew Cheney, and the rep was glad to find out that the publisher could donate the electronic files for books to Bookshare.org, which works with many publishers to make books, including textbooks and literary criticism, accessible to visually impaired students and readers. Small Beer Press and ChiZine Press were there selling both paper books and ebooks, as they have done for a number of years now, and there was also a magazine called Crossed Genres which offered an ebook bundle for $20, which included two novels, two anthologies, and a year's subscription to Crossed Genres http://crossedgenres.com
. The works come in a variety of DRM-free formats, and the co-publishers who were there said I could contact hem if none of those formats turned out to be accessible, and they would send HTML files.

It was a pretty awesome experience to know that I would have ebooks waiting for me whenever I wanted to read them, as opposed to having a pile of books which I would have to scan by hand (not that I didn't indulge in some paper books also, mostly because Alexx found me a book about books).