Report From Santa Fe Video Interview with Connie

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WEBSITE UPDATE–12-27-16–THE ROCKETTES AND TRUMP

WEBSITE UPDATE–12-27-16–THE ROCKETTES AND TRUMP

The Rockettes made the news this week. Several times. First, Trump’s campaign announced that they were going to perform at the Inauguration, which didn’t totally surprise me, even though Trump has had a hard time getting performers to commit to the event. After all, the Rockettes performed at both of George W. Bush’s inaugurations.

But then several Rockettes announced that they didn’t want to perform but had been told they’d be fired if they didn’t, and that they were “embarrassed and disappointed” that they hadn’t had a say in the decision. As one put it, “the women I work with are intelligent and are full of love, and the decision of performing for a man that stands for everything we’re against is appalling…We will not be forced.”

At that point the Rockettes’ union chimed in with an e-mail that said, “Everyone is entitled to her own political beliefs, but there is no room for this in the workplace. If you are not full time, you do not have to sign up to do this work. If you are full time, you are obligated,” which led to headlines like, “The Rockettes Will Perform at Trump’s Inauguration, Whether They Like It Or Not”, and numerous tweets about how fitting it was for this particular inauguration that women were once again being forced to do something against their will with their bodies, and giving out the e-mail addresses and phone numbers of the union and the company for people to contact to register their disapproval.

At which point the company announced that it was all purely voluntary–“For a Rockette to be considered for an event, they must voluntarily sign up and are never told they have to perform at a particular event, including the inaugural. It is always their choice.”

But according to the New York Times, many of the women still felt under pressure “despite these assurances,” and union officials didn’t return any calls. Then on Friday evening, the union posted a statement on Facebook saying that it had reached an agreement with the Madison Square Garden Company (which owns the Rockettes) that would “allow all employees, even full-time dancers, to opt out of the inauguration” without repercussions. Still, other sources said that many of the Rockettes are still worried about their jobs if they refuse, so We Shall See.

But I was asfd12not at all surprised at the Rockettes’ refusing to perform or at their speaking out about it. The Rockettes have a proud history of speaking out and taking stands. I know this because I wrote a novella called “All About Emily,” the story of a robot who sees the Rockettes perform and decides she wants to be one, (well, I mean, what else would you want to be if you were a robot?) and in the process I did a ton of research on the Rockettes.

Most people don’t know this, but the Rockettes literally saved Radio City Music hall. In the late 1970’s it was due to be torn down because it was losing money and there was no longer an audience for the movies and live performances which it provided. A major campaign to save it had been launched, and everyone from New York’s mayor to the woman who owned the wrecking ball company which had been hired to demolish the building had protested its destruction and tried to convince the city to change its mind. Celebrities from Johnny Carson to John Belushi and Celeste Holme had begged for it to be saved. To no avail. The Rockefeller Corporation refused to change its mind, and the date for the building’s demolition was set. There’d even been a last, star-studded “memorial” performance in the building, and it looked like nothing could stand in the way of its destruction.

Enter the Rockettes. They took up positions all around Radio City Music Hall, dressed in their costumes and carrying clipboards, and began collecting signatures from passersby on a petition to save the historic building. This was in January, mind you. There is nothing more bone-chilling than the winds which blow through Manhattan’s concrete-and-steel canyons in the winter, especially when it’s snowing, and the Rockettes’ costumes consisted (and still consist) of leotards, fishnet stockings, and not much else.

But the Rockettes (all sixty of them, plus dozens of former and retired Rockettes) stood their ground, remaining there shivering in the cold till they had collected hundreds of thousands of signatures and had talked the city into restoring Radio City Music Hall instead of tearing it down. It’s now a beautifully refurbished Art Deco building and the host to dozens of events, rock concerts, and performances every year, including Cirque de Soleil and the famous Christmas Spectacular. Featuring the Rockettes.

It’s also one of the most famous–and most visited–tourist destinations in New York City, and is known as the “Showplace of the Nation.” Best of all, it’s been designated a New York City and a National Historic Landmark, which means it can’t be torn down. And the Rockettes are the ones who made that happen. Because they were willing to stand up for their principles.

And now, once again, they’re standing up and speaking out–this time against a man who’s bragged about sexually harassing women and indicated repeatedly that he has no respect for them. In his own words, “You have to treat ’em like shit.” Yea, Rockettes! You’re my heroes. You go, girls!

Connie Willis

P.S. The e-mail address for Radio City Music Hall is feedbackradiocity@MSG.com
and the phone number for the American Guild of Variety Artists is 212-675-1003.
To e-mail the producers directly:
J. Dolan@msg.com
Jill.DeForte@msg.com
larry.sedwick@msg.com

Make sure you tell them that if a Rockette does not wish to perform at the inauguration, she shouldn’t have to and there should not be repercussions.

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WEBSITE UPDATE–12-22-16: CHRISTMAS AND COMMONPLACE BOOKS

loveactuallyA few years ago I discovered a book called A CHRISTMAS CRACKER, which its author described as a collection of entries from his commonplace book. I didn’t know what that was, but when I looked up the definition, I realized I did and that I’d been keeping them for years. I just didn’t know what they were called.

Commonplace books, which became popular in the 1400s, are simply personal scrapbooks of sayings, poems, quotations, and anecdotes compiled by an individual. I started my first one in high school in one of those black-and-white marbleized notebooks, with a quote from ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, and I still have it. I’ve also kept them and added to them ever since. I also keep a separate commonplace book for Christmas, a holiday, which as you all know, I love.

Anyway, the author of CHRISTMAS CRACKERS (and MORE CHRISTMAS CRACKERS and STILL MORE CHRISTMAS CRACKERS), John Julius Norwich, gave his friends a sampling of his favorite quotes, etc., from his commonplace book, for Christmas, and I thought that seemed like a great idea.

So, here for your Christmas delectation, are some selections from my Christmas commonplace book. Enjoy!

“Humanity must be forgiven much for having invented Christmas.”
Christopher Morley
* * * * *

“The first worldwide tweet: Fear not. For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people!”
* * * * *

“Do you know what Darth Vader said to Luke Skywalker?”
“I know what you’re getting for Christmas. I felt your presents.”

Whoever it is who thinks up terrible jokes * * * * *

“I have always thought of Christmas as a good time; a kind, forgiving, generous, pleasant time; a time when men and women seem to open their hearts freely, and so I say, God bless Christmas!” Charles Dickens * * * * *

“Christmas is a three-day festival dedicated to the birth of Bing Crosby.”
Willis Hall
* * * * *
“May you have the greatest two gifts of all on these holidays–someone to love and someone who loves you.”

John Sinor
* * * * *

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“I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.”
Shirley Temple
* * * * *
“(At Christmas) we ask ourselves why can’t the world be like this all the time…If we expect the world to change, I’m afraid we will always be bitterly disappointed because there are a great many obstacles to change, human nature perhaps being chief among them. We may not be able to change the world, but we can change ourselves. And that change may bring about other positive changes. The world did not change in Dickens Christmas tale, but Ebenezer Scrooge did after listening to his ghostly visitors, and that was enough to change the lives of those around him for the better. So too it may be with us.”

“Visions of Sugar Plums”
MagisterLud
* * * * *

“There are three things you never want to see on a Christmas present:
One size fits all.
Fun for all ages.
Removes unwanted hair.”
Jim Mullen in Entertainment Weekly
* * * * *

“Just for a few hours on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the stupid, harsh mechanism of the world runs down, and we permit ourselves to live according to untrammeled common sense, the unconquerable efficiency of good will.”
Christopher Morley
* * * * *

“Christmas is 1,940 years old and Hitler is only 51. he can’t spoil our Christmas.”
Sign in a London shop window, 1940

* * * * *

Have a merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, joyful Kwanzaa, fun Festivus, and/or whatever it is you celebrate this time of year. Like the fact that the shortest day is over, and, despite all appearances to the contrary, light is coming back into the world.

Connie Willis

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WEBSITE UPDATE–“SILENT NIGHT”

A few years back I wrote a novella called “All Seated on the Ground,” about an alien invasion in which the aliens didn’t attack or try to take over the planet or even demand, “Take me to your leader”–they just stood there, glaring like the heroine’s disapproving Aunt Judith, while people tried frantically to figure out what they wanted.

The answer involved the lyrics to Christmas songs (it’s a long story), and in the course of the story I talked about everything from “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” to “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” and “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.

Including a way-out-there rendition of “Silent Night,” which was the only version of any song the aliens (called Altairi) responded to.

“But that’s good, isn’t it?” I asked. “Now we can analyze what it was that was different about it that they were responding to. Which version was it?”

Instead of answering, [Calvin] walked over to the CD player and hit play. A loud chorus of nasal female voices began belting out, “Silent night, holy night,” shouting to be heard over a cacophony of clicks and clacks.
“What is that?” I asked.

“The Broadway chorus of the musical 42nd Street singing and tap-dancing to ‘Silent Night.’ They recorded it for a special Broadway Christmas charity project.”

I looked over at the Altair, thinking maybe Calvin was wrong and they hadn’t really fallen asleep, but in spite of the din, they had sagged limply over; their heads nearly touching the ground, looking almost peaceful. Their glares had faded from full-bore Aunt Judith to only mildly disapproving.
I listened to the 42nd Street chorines tapping and belting out “Silent Night” at the top of their lungs some more. “It is kind of appealing,” I said, “especially the part where they shout out ‘Mother and child!'”
“I know,” he said. “I’d like it played at our wedding.”

I knew the song because we’d seen a Broadway musical some years ago, and the cast had sold CDs of the charity album, which included all sorts of Christmas songs done by the casts of shows on Broadway at the time, after the performance. But our favorite was 42nd Street’s “Silent Night,” which was bold, brassy, and ridiculously at odds with the usual sickly renditions of the carol. Energetically tapping and shouting out the lyrics introduced a whole new and funny dimension to the song, and we’ve played it every Christmas since.

I’m telling you all this because this fall I got a great e-mail from Mylinda Hull, a Broadway actress living in Brooklyn who had played Anytime Annie in the 2001 revival of 42nd Street (reprinted here with her permission):

“My name is Mylinda Hull and I arranged the version of “Silent Night” sung by the cast of 42nd Street for “Carols for a Cure” that she used as a plot point in her marvelous novella, “All Seated on the Ground.”
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I came to the story randomly, browsing through the Brooklyn Public Library, and my eyeballs rolled around in my head for quite a while when I came to the part where she wrote about the song.

So I just wanted to tell Connie, thank you. I’m so glad she enjoyed it enough to include it. It must have tickled her, as it did me, to have the loudest tap dancing-est, trumpet blaring-est “Silent Night” on record. I’m curious to know if she happened upon it by chance, or if she did a search for group-sung versions of the song when she needed one for her story.”

I wrote her back:

“Thank you so much for your e-mail! I’m delighted to know who arranged it, since it’s my favorite “Silent Night” ever. The reason I knew about it is that I and my family went to New York the year of the 9-11 attacks. Mayor Giuliani (who I have since had many problems with, but who was great right after 9-11) had said to support the city by coming and spending money, so we did. We went to the Macy’s Parade, had Thanksgiving dinner at a deli off Times Square, visited Ground Zero, and saw the Rockettes’ Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall. We also went to see the musical Urinetown, and at that performance they were selling the “Carols for a Cure” CD, which my daughter bought and we all loved. Lots of great carols, but yours was the most amazing!

I love irony in all its myriad forms–one of my other favorite ironic songs is Barbra Streisand’s sad, torch-song version of “Happy Days Are Here Again”–but your song is my absolute favorite! Particularly since I spent years and years in church choirs singing versions of “Silent Night” which put everyone–including the choir–to sleep. I honestly thought there was nothing to be done that could save the song, but you proved me wrong! We’re not the only ones who love it. We play it for everyone at Christmas, and everyone who hears it adores it!”

I asked her if the song was available anywhere else or if the CD could be bought somewhere, and she replied:

Yes, I looked and the album is still available at the Broadway Cares online store http://broadwaycares.stores.yahoo.net/caforcucds.html [2001 edition] and a person can buy single tracks on itunes. I made another recording for them, in the 2005 version when I was in Sweet Charity, the one with Christina Applegate. Much sillier, a Christmas comedy sketch of sorts, it’s called “Joy to the World.” As a fellow connoisseur of curious Christmas lyrics, you might enjoy that one as well.

So if you’re interested, you can listen to it, too. This is what I love about writing. You meet the coolest people! And what I love about libraries–you never know what you might find when you start browsing in them!

Connie Willis

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Turing Law

THE TURING LAW

I just read that the British Parliament is moving forward with a bill which will pardon thousands of gay and bisexual men who were convicted of homosexuality. (The actual crimes they were charged with ranged from buggery and gross indecency to loitering with intent, most of which are no longer on the books.

The law, named the Turing Law, will also give pardons posthumously, and its passage is not without controversy. Some LGBT advocacy groups don’t think it goes far enough, since it requires a case-by-case review instead of a blanket pardon, and others say a pardon is the wrong solution since it implies wrongdoing on the part of those who were convicted. As one of the men who would be pardoned under the law said, “I wasn’t guilty of anything.”

I see their point, and I agree “pardon” is probably the wrong word. I’d like something more on the lines of what the judge said in Dorothy Sayers’ Strong Poison when Harriet Vane was absolved of the crime she’d been charged with: “The Crown, by withdrawing this dreadful charge against you, has demonstrated your innocence in the clearest possible way. After this, nobody will be able to suppose that the slightest imputation rests upon you, and I most heartily congratulate you on this very satisfactory ending to your ordeal.”
But even given the problems with calling it a pardon and the fact that living individuals will have to apply for pardons rather than having it given to them automatically, I hope the Turing Law goes into effect because of all the people who will have their names cleared under it, including those who will be pardoned posthumously.

The law’s named after Alan Turing, who, in case you haven’t seen The Imitation Game,
cracked Germany’s Enigma code, designed the modern computer, was a major reason we won World War II–and was convicted on homosexuality charges in 1952 and forced to undergo chemical castration, which led directly to his suicide. But he won’t be pardoned under the law. Turing was already officially pardoned by Queen Elizabeth II in 2013, and the government has apologized for its shameful treatment of him.

But Oscar Wilde hasn’t been pardoned or apologized to. Oscar was one of late Victorian England’s most brilliant writers, one of its most popular lecturers (he even came to Leadville, Colorado, where he gave a speech to a wildly enthusiastic bunch of miners), and the wittiest man in London, delivering such lines as “I think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability,” and, “Always forgive your enemies–nothing annoys them so much,” and, “All of us live in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
He was the most famous writer of his time, the most popular, and the most quoted–none of which kept him from being convicted of sodomy (for having an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, who had a vengeful father) and being sentenced to two years’ hard labor, during most of which he was forbidden to have pen and paper.

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And lest you’re thinking, “But what’s the point of pardoning him now? You can’t change what’s already happened. It’s too little, too late, and this won’t help Oscar. He’s long dead, and it’s all water under the bridge anyway,” here’s what Oscar wrote about his being transferred from the Hospital Ward of Wandsworth Prison to Reading Gaol:

“On November 13, 1895, I was brought down here from London. From two o’clock till half-past two on that day I had to stand on the centre platform of Clapham Junction in convict dress and handcuffed, for the world to look at. I had been taken out of the Hospital Ward without a moment’s notice being given to me. Of all possible objects I was the most grotesque. When people saw me, they laughed. Each train as it came up swelled the audience. Nothing could exceed their amusement. That was, of course, before they knew who I was. As soon as they had been informed, they laughed still more. For half an hour I stood there in the grey November rain surrounded by a jeering mob.”

You’re right–a pardon won’t fully make up for what was done to him. But it’s still something. And it’s never too late to try to make amends for past wrongs.

So here’s to the Turing Law! May it make up a little for what you had to endure, Oscar.
Connie Willis

{editor’s note – information on what actually happened in Parliment can be found here  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing_law )

 

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Post Election Thoughts From Connie Willis

Wednesday, November 9, 2016
The Day After the Election

My mom died when I was twelve, and one of the things I remember about that day was how strange it felt that the world continued to go on going to work, eating, shopping, laughing, chatting about the weather, and watching TV, as if the world had not catastrophically, irrevocably changed.

I had that same feeling this morning as we walked our dog, amazed that our neighbors had put out their trash, that the students on campus were still blithely talking about term papers and being late to class. “How can you be worried about that?” I wanted to scream at them. “Don’t you understand what’s just happened?”

America, the country I love, has elected a man who supports torture, “even if it doesn’t work,” and who’s promised to deport millions of immigrants, put Muslims under surveillance, require a religious test for citizenship, pull out of NATO and leave Europe at the mercy of Russia, leave Japan and South Korea at the mercy of North Korea, put his political opponent in jail, dismantle freedom of the press, and require everyone to say, “Merry Christmas.”

It’s elected a man who mocks people and calls them names, talks publicly about his own sexual prowess in the most crass way, insults war heroes and Gold Star families, cruelly imitates the disabled, and, by his own admission, sexually assaults women. And then threatens to sue them when they confirm his crimes.

In one fell stroke, Americans have changed forever the way we’ll be seen by the rest of the world, and worse, the way we see ourselves. Nations can survive almost anything (look at England in World War II.) The one thing they can’t survive is their citizens losing faith in what they stand for. And yesterday our nation said it stands for racism, misogyny, homophobia, bullying, the breaking of treaties, and the use of brute force and/or blackmail to get its way, things I could never stand for, never believe in.

It handed the One Ring to Sauron, and now all hell is about to break loose.
So how can the sky still be blue? How can the sun still be shining?

To quote W.H. Auden:

The stars are not wanted now, put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.”

Connie Willis

Thursday.
Two days after the election.

Feeling a little better, not because my assessment of things is any less grim than it was yesterday. but I’ve been remembering World War II and the Blitz and how the Brits held up in the face of certain disaster, and it’s made me a bit more cheerful. I knew all that research for “Fire Watch” and Blackout/All Clear would come in handy someday.

Some insights that might be helpful in our current situation:

–Just because things look bleak, it doesn’t mean you should give up.
Things looked worse than bleak for Britain.. Not only had France been totally occupied, the British Army’s equipment abandoned on the beaches of Dunkirk, the RAF badly decimated, London–and Liverpool and Manchester and Coventry–pounded into dust, but for four and a half years Great Britain lost battle after battle, convoy after convoy, and there was scarcely any good news. But they didn’t give up. And they eventually won the war.

–It’s entirely appropriate to feel kicked in the gut, scared, and despairing right now.
When all this first happened, the British weren’t the “Keep Calm and Carry On” heroes we all know about and admire. After the soldiers were rescued off Dunkirk, they came home exhausted, battle-shocked, and completely demoralized, and at the beginning of the Blitz, Londoners were terrified and close to panic. It took them a few days to pull themselves together, and during that time they were really scared. But then they rallied. And decided to not give up without a fight.

–Don’t think there’s nothing you can do.
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The British never took the attitude of “I’m only one person. What can I possibly do?” Instead, they each did their bit, volunteering to spot fires and drive ambulances, signing up for the Home Guard and the ARP, manning anti-aircraft guns and putting on ENSA revues and passing out tea and sandwiches at canteens.

And they performed miracles. A flotilla of retired sailors and weekend mariners and young kids rescued the entire British Army from Dunkirk right from under Hitler’s nose. A ragtag bunch of choir directors, vergers, and church staff saved St. Paul’s Cathedral. A bevy of naked girls kept the Windmill Theater open. And an eccentric band of mathematicians and college professors and crossword puzzle enthusiasts broke the Enigma code and won the war.

So do your bit. Demonstrate. Protest injustices. Write your senators and congressmen. Donate to the organizations who can fight for the causes which are in danger. Write blogs. Speak out.

–Don’t let this ruin everything in your life.
The British didn’t let Hitler ruin their daily lives or their morale. He may have been raining bombs down on them, but they continued to have Christmas parties in the Underground shelters, continued to go dancing and shopping and to concerts and the movies and church, continued to laugh and fall in love and have children. They continued to read and wrote books, put on plays, work to keep all the things they cared about alive. And in the process, they kept civilization going.

–Follow Virginia Woolf’s example described below.
Virginia was working in the garden, and her husband Leonard called out for her to come inside, that Hitler was just about to speak on the radio.
Virginia refused. “I am planting irises,” she said, “and they will be here long after Hitler is gone.”

And they are. You can go see the irises at their house, still blooming.

Connie Willis

Oh, and one other thing.

To all you people who voted for Trump:

I’m already hearing a lot of talk about how liberals brought this on by living in a bubble or not understanding Trump’s supporters’ point of view or not realizing how much white men have been hurting, etc. So let me get this straight. Because we foolishly thought this was a country that was kinder and more enlightened than it actually is, because we foolishly thought all Americans believed in the same principles of freedom and fairness we did, you were forced to elect a bullying, arrogant, lying, anti-gay, anti-women, anti-immigrant, cruel, authoritarian narcissist to the position of the most powerful person in the world.
I’m not buying it. This is the kind of thing abusers say to justify their crimes–“You forced me to hit you. If you hadn’t made me mad, it would never have happened.”

But that’s a lie. And an excuse. The truth is: I didn’t do this, and neither did the left or the Democrats or anybody who voted for Hillary. You did this, and we have no intention of taking the blame for it.

I’ve spent the last two years obsessively following Trump’s campaign, becoming more and more alarmed, and telling anyone who would listen how dangerous he is. I worked Hillary’s campaign, donated money, helped get the vote out, and voted for her. *I* wasn’t the one who voted for someone racist who abused women and mocked the disabled and advocated torture “even if it doesn’t work,” and neither were the Democrats or the left. You  were.

You set us on a course that will lead us relentlessly not just into the past, but into the dark, ugly past we’ve fought so hard to come out of. It’s a course which is likely to spin out of control and take us places we can’t even imagine. And whatever happens, whatever damage he does, whatever whirlwind we end up reaping, it will be your fault and nobody else’s.

We’re all going to suffer for what you’ve done, but we’re jolly well not going to take the fall for this, too. The blame is squarely on you and only you.

Connie Willis

*Please note, Connie sends her updates to be posted here, but she is not personally on this blog and I (the webmaster) usually have comments turned off.

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October is Crosstalk Month – Signings and Cons (NYCC and MileHiCon)

crosstalklgCrosstalk comes out in the US on October 4th and Connie has a very busy month ahead.  She is not doing a full book tour but will be signing at several Colorado  book stores (and on Albuquerque one) who will be more than happy to take your order for a signed copy of Crosstalk.

She will be a guest at New York Comic Con and will also take part in a post NYCC Author Coffee Klatsch at Penguin Random House with several other authors.  If you can make that, please RSVP to them ASAP.   Connie will also be at the long running MileHiCon science fiction and fantasy convention in Denver, CO at the end of October.  I will add Connie’s program schedule to this post once we have those details.

October 4–Book launch and signingTattered Cover,2526 E. Colfax Avenue,
Denver, CO–7 p.m.

October 6-9–New York Comic Con–Javits Center, 655 W. 34th Street, Manhattan, NY
        Oct. 6–12:00 to 1:00 p.m.–Signing–Del Rey Booth 2110
                    2:45-3:45 p.m.–Panel:  Women in Geek Media–12A21
                    4:00-5:00 p.m.–Signing–Hall 1B Autographing Area–Table 22
        Oct. 7–12:00 to 1:00 p.m.–Signing–Del Rey Booth 2110
        Oct. 8–2:45-3:45 p.m.–Panel:  Geek Geek Revolution–1A18
                       4:00-5:00 p.m.–Signing–Hall 1B Autographing Area–Table 22
        Oct. 9–1:3–2:30 p.m.–Signing–Del Rey Booth 2110
       
October 10–Author Coffee Klatsch at Random House–1745 Broadway,
Manhattan–11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
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RSVP: Please RSVP to delrey@randomhouse.com with “RSVP” in the subject line and the full names of everyone in your party in the e-mail body.

The authors attending this year are Katherine Arden, Chuck Wendig, C.A. Higgins, Connie Willis, Naomi Novik, Peter V. Brett, Myke Cole, Daniel Jose Older, Seanan McGuire, Sarah Kuhn, Aaron McConnell, and Bill Schweigart.

October 12–Signing–Old Firehouse Books–232 Walnut Street, Fort
Collins, CO–6:30 p.m.  Event at Old Town Library,201 Peterson St, Fort Collins, CO 80524

October 22–Signing–Broadway Book Mall–200 S. Broadway, Denver,
CO–3:00 p.m.

October 28-30–Milehicon— Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center–7800 E.
Tufts Avenue, Denver, CO

November 22 — Signing–Page 1 Books850 Eubank Suite B-41, Abq, NM–6:30 p.m.

 

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The Coode Street Podcast and GoodReads interviews Connie Willis

Episode 285 of The Coode Street Podcast interviews Connie Willis about Crosstalk, which is now out in the U. K. and Australia.

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And there’s also a new interview on Goodreads with Connie.

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Silent Night

WEBSITE UPDATE–“SILENT NIGHT”

I got a great e-mail from Mylinda Hull, a Broadway actress living in Brooklyn who had played Anytime Annie in the 2001 revival of 42nd Street (reprinted here with her permission):

“My name is Mylinda Hull and I arranged the version of “Silent Night” sung by the cast of 42nd Street for “Carols for a Cure” that she used as a plot point in her marvelous novella, “All Seated on the Ground.”

I came to the story randomly, browsing through the Brooklyn Public Library, and my eyeballs rolled around in my head for quite awhile when I came to the part where she wrote about the song.

So I just wanted to tell Connie, thank you.  I’m so glad she enjoyed it enough to include it.  It must have tickled her, as it did me, to have the loudest tap dancing-est, trumpet blaring-est “Silent Night” on record.  I’m curious to know if she happened upon it by chance, or if she did a search for group-sung versions of the song when she needed one for her story.”

I wrote her back:

“Thank you so much for your e-mail!  I’m delighted to know who arranged it, since it’s my favorite “Silent Night” ever.  The reason I knew about it is that I and my family went to New York the year of the 9-11 attacks.  Mayor Giuliani (who I have since had many problems with) had said to support the city by coming and spending money, so we did.  We went to the Macy’s Parade, had Thanksgiving dinner at a deli off Times Square, visited Ground Zero, and saw the Rockettes’ Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall.  We also went to see the musical Urinetown, and at that performance they were selling the “Carols for a Cure” CD, which my daughter bought and we all loved.  Lots of great carols, but yours was the most amazing!

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I love irony in all its myriad forms–one of my other favorite ironic songs is Barbra Streisand’s sad, torch-song version of “Happy Days Are Here Again”–but your song is my absolute favorite!  Particularly since I spent years and years in church choirs singing versions of “Silent Night” which put everyone–including the choir–to sleep.  I honestly thought there was nothing to be done that could save the song, but you proved me wrong!  We’re not the only ones who love it.  We play it for everyone at Christmas, and everyone who hears it adores it!”

I asked her if the song was available anywhere else or if the CD could be bought somewhere, and she replied:

Yes, I looked and the album is still available at the Broadway Cares online store http://broadwaycares.stores.yahoo.net/caforcucds.html and a person can buy single tracks on itunes.  I made another recording for them, in the 2005 version when I was in Sweet Charity, the one with Christina Applegate.  Much sillier, a Christmas comedy sketch of sorts, it’s called “Joy to the World.”  As a fellow connoisseur of curious Christmas lyrics, you might enjoy that one as well.

So if you’re interested, you can listen to it, too.  This is what I love about writing.  You meet the coolest people!  And what I love about libraries–you never know what you might find when you start browsing in them!

Connie Willis

 

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Crosstalk – News and Information

crosstalklg

Crosstalk by Connie Willis is being published by Del Rey on October 4th, 2016.

Part romantic comedy and part social satire, here one of science fiction’s most lauded authors examines the consequences of having too much connectivity, and what happens in a world where, suddenly, nothing is private.

One of science fiction’s premiere humorists turns her eagle eye to the crushing societal implications of telepathy. In a not-too-distant future, a simple outpatient procedure that has been promised to increase empathy between romantic partners has become all the rage. So when Briddey Flannigan’s fiancé proposes that he and Briddey undergo the procedure, she is delighted! Only…the results aren’t quite as expected. Instead of gaining an increased empathetic link with her fiancé, Briddey finds herself hearing the actual thoughts of one of the nerdiest techs in her office. And that’s the least of her problems.

For more information, visit the GoodReads page for Crosstalk
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There will also be a signed limited edition from Subterranean Press Note that the book summary there I’d consider much more spoilerly than the one above.

The U.K. edition is being published in paperback by Gollancz on September 15, 2016.

http://www.gollancz.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/9781473200937_Crosstalk_TPB.jpg

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