Tag: ConFusion

Weekly Round-up, May 17, 2025

John Winkelman

A Robin fledgling perched on an unused tomato cage in the middle of a patch of weeds next to the foundation of a small garage.

[A Robin fledgling perched on an unused tomato cage in the middle of a patch of weeds next to the foundation of a small garage.]

Spring has definitely sprung here in West Michigan. After a week off from work I am re-acclimating myself to the daily grind. Work was busy, as was life, and everything was made busier by the schedule disruptions of a new crown on one of my teeth, a meeting of the Grand River Poetry Collective, a meeting of the Ann Arbor Science Fiction Convention, and a severe thunderstorm which blew through Thursday evening, which brought almost four inches of rain in an hour as well as several tornadoes.

But other than that, everything was business as usual.

Reading

I read Frank O’Hara’s Lunch Poems, and am now going through Jack Hirschman’s Front Lines, which I am quite enjoying. This is me making up for not having the mental capacity to enjoy poetry during National Poetry Month.

I just started reading Kraken Rider Z by David Estes and Dyrk Ashton. I know Dyrk from ConFusion, and have previously read his excellent Paternus Trilogy, so I have high hopes for this one. A hundred pages in, and it is pretty good!

Writing

Along with a return to reading poetry, I am writing a little more than usual, which is not difficult because anything more than “none” is more than usual.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Spiritual Beings, Kaiju
Setting: Small Town
Genre: Technothriller

Listening

Simple Minds, “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”, from the soundtrack to The Breakfast Club. This was the #1 song in the USA this week in 1985.

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, February 1, 2025

John Winkelman

I am back home and in blissed-put recovery mode after four days of Monumental ConFusion. I will post a write-up in the near future.

Reading

I finished Speculative Whiteness, and am in the final stretch of Doctor Zhivago. Zhivago has been a very long project, due in large part to chaos in my day job and also chaos in the world at large. Concentration and focus have been in very short supply this year.

Writing

My brain is recovering from the past three months of *gestures at everything*, so not much writing this week.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Undead, Genius Loci
Setting: Library
Genre: Solarpunk

Listening

Marianne Faithfull and The Chieftains, “Love is Teasin'”, from the magnificent album The Long Black Veil.

Faithfull died this past Thursday, after a long, difficult, and beautiful life.

Interesting Links

Weekly Round-up, January 25, 2025

John Winkelman

The view from the hotel window at ConFusion 2025. A parking lot, a frozen pond, and several roads are visible, as well as various evergreen and deciduous trees.

[The view from the hotel window at ConFusion 2025.]

This will be a brief update, as I am at Monumental ConFusion for the weekend.

Reading

With the crazy project finally mostly wrapped up, I finally have time and – more importantly – mental energy to dive back into reading. I am bouncing back and forth between Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago, where I am well past the halfway point, and Jordan S. Carroll’s Speculative Whiteness, which is a short but infuriating read, though now that I am well past the halfway point it is becoming amusing. The alt-right, in all their various facets, are a bunch of pathetic losers.

Writing

Not much writing happening right now, thanks to the afore-mentioned Crazy Project.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Empire, Genius Loci
Setting: Wilderness
Genre: Dystopian

Listening

“Father & Son” by Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens. My partner and I have been watching Ted Lasso, with is remarkable and joyous, and the final scene of the final episode featured this song.

Interesting Links

January 2024 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

After almost two months, I finally finished Demons, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Wow, was that a slog. A good slog, but a slog nonetheless. Now on to fifteen or twenty shorter, easier reads before attempting something arduous.

Almost all of the books I acquired in January were purchased at, or in anticipation of, ConFusion 2024.

Acquisitions

new Books and Reading Material in the Month of January, 2024

  1. David Estes and Dyrk Ashton, Kraken Rider Z (Wraithmarked Creative) [2024.01.03] – I have been a fan of Dyrk Ashton’s work for several years. We are Convention friends, and he is a Righteous Dude.
  2. Jean Davis, Frayed (self-published) [2024.01.19] – purchased from Davis at ConFusion 2024.
  3. Michael J. DeLuca, Night Roll (Stelliform Press) [2024.01.20] – Purchased from Reckoning Press at ConFusion 2024.
  4. Reckoning: Creativity and Coronavirus (Reckoning Press) [2024.01.20] – Purchased from Reckoning Press at ConFusion 2024.
  5. Reckoning #6 [2024.01.20] – Purchased from Reckoning Press at ConFusion 2024.
  6. Reckoning #7 [2024.01.20] – Purchased from Reckoning Press at ConFusion 2024.
  7. Zack Be (editor), Inner Workings: A Calendar of Fools Anthology (Calendar of Fools, LLC) [2024.01.20] – Purchased from Storm Humbert during a group signing at ConFusion 2024.
  8. Tamsyn Muir, Nona the Ninth [2024.01.21] – Purchased at ConFusion 2024.
  9. Lesley Connor and Jason Sizemore (editors), Robotic Ambitions (Apex Book Company) [2024.01.21] – Reward for a Kickstarter campaign run by Apex.

Reading List

Books I read in January 2024

Books

  1. Fyodor Dostoevsky (Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear, translators), Demons [2024.01.26]
  2. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2023.01.29]
  3. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2023.01.30]

Short Prose

  1. Jim C. Hines, “The Girls From the Hood” (Patreon post) [2024.01.15]
  2. Rosamund Lannin, “The Lake House”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.26]
  3. Jim C. Hines, “Coyote Cave” (Patreon post) [2024.01.28]
  4. Eliza Langhans, “A Giants’ Heart”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  5. D. A. Xiaolin Spires, “Fresh and Imminent Taste of Cucumbers”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  6. Anthony Ha, “Late Train”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  7. Chloe N. Clark, “Jumpers”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  8. Nicole Kimberling, “Sugar-Salt Time: A Love Story”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  9. Felix Kent, “Dynastic Arrangements of the Habsburgs, Washakie Branch”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  10. Eric Darby, “The Parking Witch”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.29]
  11. Gavin J. Grant, “Possum, Not Playing”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.29]
  12. Jordan Taylor, “Strange Engines”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.29]
  13. Audrey R. Hollis, “How to Be Afraid”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.29]
  14. Frances Rowat, “Ink, and Breath, and Spring”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.29]
  15. Fred Nadis, “The Giant Jew”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.29]
  16. Amber Burke, “In Pictures”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.29]
  17. T.S. McAdams, “Duck Circles”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.29]
  18. Margo Lanagan, “More Information to Help You Get to Rookwood”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
  19. Mary Cool, “The Fruit That Bears the Flowers”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
  20. Lisa Martin, “Seat Belt On, Falling”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
  21. Jeff Benz, “The Stone People”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
  22. Nicole Kimberling, “We Should See Less of Each Other”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
  23. Michael Byers, “Sibling Rivalry”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]

Weekly Round-up, January 13, 2024

John Winkelman

Constant pain is a great tool for focusing one’s attention. If only that attention could be focused anywhere other than the constant pain.

I spent most of the past two weeks in thrall to a tooth which first appeared to be tender, then cracked, then infected, and finally diagnosed as both split in half and infected. My dentist removed the tooth three days ago, and my life was thereby much improved.

The pain was more manageable than the previous impacted molar back in 2008, but there was nothing about the experience which was at all pleasant.

So 2024 is starting out kind of…unpredictably.

In order to distract myself from the chronic pain of life, I have several things in the works for 2024:

First, Master Lee’s School of Tai Chi Praying Mantis Kung Fu and Tai Chi Jeung.

Second, after several years of volunteering, I am now part of the Convention Committee for the ConFusion Science Fiction Convention. For the 2024 iteration, “Labyrinth of ConFusion”, I will be the Head of Operations, assisted by past Ops people as I settle into the role.

Third, I am part of the newly-formed Grand River Poetry Collective, which is dedicated to publishing Grand Rapids poets. As we get up and running I will be posting many and frequent updates.

Reading

Still working my way through Dostoevsky’s Demons.

Writing

I got nuthin’.

The writing prompt for the next week is:

Subject: Empire, Economics
Setting: Labyrinth
Genre: Procedural

Interesting Links

Thoughts on ConFusion 2023

John Winkelman

My badge and ribbons from ConFusion 2023

Last weekend I attended ConFusion 2023 with my partner Zyra, from Thursday morning through Sunday afternoon. This was my ninth ConFusion, and Zyra’s second. Her first experience was last year, still in the middle of the pandemic. 2022 was not, through no fault of their own, the best year in ConFusion’s history by a long shot. Fortunately 2023 was much improved, and though still small by the standards of many of the previous years, it was a lot of fun and felt like the ConFusions of old.

This year I volunteered as part of the Operations team and as a general dogsbody, taking care of those things which needed taking care of and lifting heavy things, as well as sitting at the Ops table in the early morning hours of Saturday and Sunday. I am used to waking up at 5:00 to feed the cats, work out, and write, so waking up at 5:00 to sit at a table in a mostly-empty hallway was not difficult, except when it came to staying awake.

I participated on two panels this year, “What do Trends in Artificial Intelligence Generated Art and Writing Mean for Artists and Authors?” on  Saturday with Jason Sanford, Rick Lieder, and Bill Higgins, and “Creativity in the Age of AI” on Sunday with Jason Sanford, Rick Lieder, and John Scalzi. I moderated the first, and Jason moderated the second. I had a great time on these panels, and will be posting about the content therein over the next couple of weeks.

The best part of conferences, of course, is the people. I spent most of my non-panel, non-Ops time hanging out in the bar area, talking to many wonderful people, and this experience filled my heart to near-bursting! Over the course of the long weekend, I spent time talking to, among others, Dave Palmer, Kathe Koja, Jason Sanford, Patrick Tomlinson, Maurice Broaddus, Rick Lieder, Jordan Kurella, ZigZag Claybourne, Saladin Ahmad, Catherine Stein, Rami Ungar, and Storm Michael Humbert. Many of these people I already knew, and the rest I met for the first time this past weekend. In both cases, my life was enriched by their presence.

I also spent a lot of time hanging out with the members of the ConFusion ConCom, talking about the history of ConFusion, the day-to-day tasks, the unexpected issues when working with hotels and bars, and the scores of other details which must be dealt with as they arise. These were fascinating discussions and only increased my respect for the volunteers who run fan conventions of all sorts.

So what’s next? At the moment I plan to be more involved with the next ConFusion in January 2024. That means that, after a few weeks off for rest and recovery, I will be sitting in on meetings with the ConCom and figuring out where I may be of the most assistance. And I am very much looking forward to this experience. ConFusion is one of my favorite events of the year, and I am happy – nay, eager – to contribute to its continued success in any way I can.

And before I forget, I treated myself to a new fountain pen, courtesy of Brad, the Pen Guy. It is beautiful to see, and a joy to write with.

The Books of ConFusion 2023

John Winkelman

Books signed at ConFusion 2023

The above is the collection of books which I was fortunate enough to have signed by their respective authors at ConFusion 2023.

First up are Zoe’s Tale, The End of All Things, and The Last Colony by John Scalzi. I picked these books up over the past several years, and finally brought them with me to ConFusion to be signed.

I picked up The Pure World Comes by Rami Ungar when a dapper gentleman in a top hat asked me “Do you like horror?” as I was browsing the tables in Artist’s Alley during some down time. Rami and I talked for a hot minute about self publishing and horror, and I walked away with a new book.

Dark Factory and Velocities by Kathe Koja, I picked up back in December, expressly to get them signed during the convention.

On Saturday afternoon, and I stopped in to Catherine Stein‘s “Author Meet and Greet” event, and ended up purchasing Eden’s Voice and The Courtesan and Mr. Hyde, which are period romances in the steampunk and gas-lamp fantasy genres. I generally don’t read romance novels, but I love the myriad *punk subgenres so this might be an inroad into a genre in which I am woefully uninformed. And we discovered that we have a friend in common, in West Michigan author Jean Davis, who Catherine knows through the self-publishing and local/regional book event scenes.

On the bottom right is The Librarian, an anthology published by Air and Nothingness Press, which was funded through a 2022 Kickstarter campaign. One of the authors, Storm Michael Humbert, was in one of the author meet-and-greets, with a table of anthologies in which he has stories.

All in all, ConFusion 2023 was an excellent venue for picking up new books, and I am proud that I kept it to only four books purchased throughout the long weekend, as I have a shelf full of books which have been signed at ConFusions past, which I have not yet read. New books shall be my reward for reading old books.

One of these years it will be me sitting at a table behind a pile of books on which are printed the words “By John Winkelman.”

Kinda Cold Out

John Winkelman

Pepper and the books which arrived in the week of October 1, 2022

Woke up one morning, and there was frost on the porch roof and the windshields of nearby cars. That hasn’t happened in a while.

This was an excellent week for the acquisition of books, and Pepper would like to share with you this list.

First up, from my soon-to-end subscription to Two Lines Press, is João Gilberto Noll‘s Hugs and Cuddles, which looks like it will be a great read.

Next is Marissa Lingen‘s chapbook of short stories, Monstrous Bonds. I met Marissa at ConFusion back in 2015, and have enjoyed her fiction, poetry and book reviews for several years.

Next is Duncan Hannah‘s memoir 20th Century Boy. As I wrote back in August, I had not heard of Hannah until reading excerpts from this book in The Paris Review, and when I searched for more info discovered that he had died this past June. How’s that for timing?

Next is Jim C. Hines‘ newest entry in the Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse series, Terminal Peace. I see Jim every year at ConFusion, so I hope to run into him again and, with a little luck, get this book signed.

Last but not least, and fresh from a successful Kickstarter campaign, is Michael J. Sullivan‘s Fairlane, the sequel to Nolyn and the second book of the Rise and Fall series.

In reading news, I have two more issues of The Paris Review left on my stack, and should be finished with them in short order.

In writing news, I have completed nothing cohesive, but am making good progress on the worldbuilding for my NaNoWriMo project. So even if I don’t write 50,000 words in November, I will have a good base to finish the book, no matter how long it takes.

A Long-ish Weekend

John Winkelman

New books for the week of May 22, 2022

Oh, what a month it has been. The days are longer, the weather is warmer, and we are not far from the halfway point of 2022. Suddenly this long year has become surprisingly short.

Three new books arrived in the past week.

First up is Kameron Hurley‘s new collection of short stories Future Artifacts, recently published by Apex Book Company. I met Kameron at the ConFusion science fiction convention some years ago, and she has graciously signed several of her books. I haven’t read any of her work in a couple of years, so I started reading it on Saturday.

Next on the stack is Issue 22 of the Boston Review Forum, titled Rethinking Law. I had let my membership to the Boston Review lapse, but they had a re-up offer which was too good to pass up. And since it’s only three issues a year, the additional weight in my house should be manageable.

And on the right is Bad Eminence by James Greer, delivered Saturday afternoon from And Other Stories.

In reading news, I am caught up to autumn of 2021 in my read-through of the pile of unread back issues of Poetry. Time and energy permitting, I may catch up to present sometime in June.

I finished Stephen Duncombe‘s Dream or Nightmare. Though unintended, it was the perfect follow-up to Benedict Anderson‘s Imagined Communities, as though the Anderson is about nationalism and the Duncombe about progressive political strategies, they both make the point that, when it comes to politics (which is to say, practically everything about society), people qua people don’t really notice or care about the minutiae of daily life outside of their immediate reach. What they notice are the stories, the narratives in which connect the individual to the people, places, ideas, and events outside of their immediate purview. This is how conservatives are able to convince their followers that fascism and freedom are synonymous, as long as the Right People are in the in-group. This is also why progressives and lefties are so much less successful at spinning inclusive narratives, as (a) progressives are much more grounded in facts and the real world than are conservatives, and (b) the 15% or so of the USA who are actually left-of-center tend to fail each others’ purity tests when it comes to the work of gathering a community.

To clear my head of modern stresses, I picked up Between Clay and Dust, a novel by Pakistani author Musharraf Ali Farooqi, which arrived at the house back in February of 2016 as part of my (now lapsed) subscription to Restless Books. I finished the book in three days, and it was beautiful. I rated it five stars, and recommend it unreservedly.

As stated above, I am now reading Kameron Hurley’s Future Artifacts.

In writing news, I haven’t done much lately. Too many other things taking up space in my head. I do plan to finish transcribing my National Poetry Month poems over the next couple of weeks.

ConFusion 2022 – Notes for If You Liked That, Read This!

John Winkelman

These are my notes from the panel “If You Like That, Read This!” which took place at 7:00 pm on Saturday, January 22, 2022 at ConFusion 2022: Rising ConFusion in Novi, Michigan.

I moderated this panel, which was a somewhat superfluous role as the panel included only myself and Anton Cancre, filling in for Sarah Hans, who was unable to attend the panel. Since there were only half a dozen attendees, we decided to keep things informal. We pulled some chairs into a circle and went around and the room, discussing books we had read recently, and books we particularly liked and recommended to the other attendees.

The first list includes recent reads and books which came up in the conversation.

This next list is the reading recommendations, subtitled “Read this now!!!”

All in all, it was a fun panel, and I have added a few of these titles to my ever-growing TBR pile.