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description=10 posts published by Laura Lam during November 2013;

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free, fiction, friday, november, 2013, shadowplay, goodreads, pantomime, month, poem, just, confessed, love, you, pseudonym, wfc, update, caesura, giveaway, longlisted, for, the, catalyst, book, award, california, events, previously, on, books, read, in, october, world, fantasy, con, writing, goals, welcome, pages, authors, publishing, where, else, to, find, me, archives,

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Text of the page (random words):
ly we learned of one small harassment incident that occurred on the saturday night when an extremely drunken fan made a nuisance of himself in the hotel lobby unfortunately he was not reported to either of the professional security guards who were on duty at the time or any member of the con committee as a result by the time we had found out about the incident and ascertained the details the individual concerned who was not attending the awards banquet had apparently already left the convention i m going to break down the inaccuracies alex dally macfarlane already did a great breakdown of the victim blaming language here and emma maree one of my friends who was harassed spoke up about her experience here 1 we learned of one small harassment incident i know that there was one man who harassed at least three women and i heard rumours of two other people who were also crossing the line 2 an extremely drunken fan made a nuisance of himself in the hotel lobby the person wasn t a fan but in industry professional this also is distancing as wfc kept banging on about how this was an industry convention not a fan convention while still happily taking fan s memberships and it was nowhere near making a nuisance of himself he made my friends deeply uncomfortable i m not even sure if it was in the lobby either 3 he was not reported to either of the professional security guards who were on duty at the time or any member of the con committee i was the one who helped emma and my other friend find someone to speak to so this very much raised my hackles i didn t see any professional security guards and even if i had seen them i would have thought they were hired by the hotel and not the con so i probably wouldn t have gone to them and it was indeed reported to a member of the con committee another friend of mine and this person reacted really well the paragraph makes it sound like there was a huge delay before the incident was reported it was maybe an hour tops this is why in my previous blog post i stressed the importance of having a clear harassment policy in place you can t get mad at people for not following a policy that doesn t exist that makes no sense 4 as a result by the time we had found out about the incident and ascertained the details the individual concerned who was not attending the awards banquet had apparently already left the convention i was informed that the board was told at 8 am the next morning about it had the person really left that early the whole thing leaves a very bad taste in my mouth and it s such a shame too because despite this huge disappointment i had fun at wfc and many people involved did a great job running and volunteering at the con and this casts a shadow over that if you care about the safety of your attendees you don t blame them in an email sent to every convention attendee you don t shame them for being brave enough to come forward you don t brush it away under a rug and lie on multiple points to try and make yourself look better i didn t really expect the board to do much but i didn t expect them to insult my friends either it s like a parody of how i expected them to react posted in conventions tagged fail sexual harassment wfc 9 comments free fiction friday caesura posted on november 15 2013 november 15 2013 by laura lam i have some fiction and poetry i wrote in university that i like and would like people to read however at the moment i don t have the time to devote to going on the query merry go round with them nor do i wish to self pub them so i ll put them on my blog every friday the first one is the shortest poem i ever wrote and one of my favourites this was previously published in my university s literary magazine occam s razor in 2009 volume 27 caesura she had her last period only to find that it was a comma a pause before a new idea new life comma spliced posted in free fiction writing tagged free fiction free poem poetry leave a comment shadowplay goodreads giveaway posted on november 15 2013 by laura lam there s a goodreads giveaway live for 3 copies of shadowplay that runs right up until just before launch which is goodness only 49 days away please go here to enter to win and perhaps add to your to read shelves cyan s asking nicely posted in giveaway shadowplay tagged giveaway goodreads shadowplay leave a comment pantomime longlisted for the catalyst book award california shadowplay events posted on november 14 2013 by laura lam this morning i noticed on twitter that i d been added to a catalyst book award list by librariesnl a few clicks later i found out pantomime has been longlisted for the award yay a huge congrats to everyone else on the list from the website catalyst is all about discovering and promoting the most exciting and thought provoking reading for teenagers in north lanarkshire this year we have a larger number of books in the longlist which hopefully means we are able to cater for all tastes young people from all 24 north lanarkshire high schools are encouraged to get involved in the catalyst experience in a number of ways from book groups within school or public libraries to author visits and book reviews on the blog young people will then vote on which books in the longlist should make it onto the catalyst shortlist and go forward to win the catalyst book award 2014 so it s like the ne teen book award in that it s decided by teens which is really exciting i m really excited to be nominated in other news i haven t linked to the california shadowplay events i have booked firstly there will be a launch at borderland books in san francisco i ve made a public facebook event page here anyone in the bay area please do feel free to come along i d love to say hi on january 8th there will be another event at my alma mater california state university east bay as part of their distinguished writers series does this mean i m distinguished they ve made a flyer which has all the relevant information here would love if you could come to one or both of them posted in awards links pantomime reading shadowplay tagged awards catalyst book award launches pantomime shadowplay squee leave a comment previously on pantomime posted on november 8 2013 november 8 2013 by laura lam i ve written a short summary of the main events in pantomime to refresh people s memory before shadowplay i know i have a rotten memory when it comes to books even if i really enjoy them however the summary is fine but doesn t really come alive as much as i d like so i was thinking it d be cool if people would comment with scenes they liked and go into more detail about them what scene in pantomime stuck in your head please post i ll feel so sad if there are no comments so without further ago the pantomime summary it quite obviously has lots of spoilers remember shadowplay is on netgalley for a limited time for reviewers and available for pre order links here continue reading previously on pantomime posted in pantomime shadowplay young adult tagged pantomime shadowplay summary writing 7 comments books read in october posted on november 7 2013 november 7 2013 by laura lam 1 eleanor park rainbow rowell can definitely understand the hype i read it in a day and it made me smile reminded a lot of my teenage awkward romance and falling in love very sweet 2 saga volume 2 brian k vaughan this is an amazing series i m so impatient for volume 3 3 locke key volume 5 joe hill another amazing series that ends of a cliffhanger noooo 4 6 rachel rising volumes 1 3 terry moore i read this on steve aryan s recommendation and it didn t disappoint a creepy small town atmosphere with witches magic and people who just won t stay dead a little twin peak y 7 the year of the flood margaret atwood i listened to this one on audiobook as ever an excellent read of a near future gone horribly wrong split between three narratives all engaging i have a signed copy of this from when i saw atwood speak in aberdeen a few years ago and i remember someone asking why she set it partly in a spa well she said if i had to spend the post apocalypse somewhere a spa seems a good enough place it has fluffy pink towels 8 fables volume 1 bill willigham i decided to start the series over again and catch up as i m about 6 volumes behind lots of graphic novels this month as i got a new tablet so i can read them properly my old one broke and was an awkward size i find them extra freeing to read when i m in the midst of drafting novels as it s a different medium posted in links reading tagged graphic novels lists reading leave a comment world fantasy con 2013 posted on november 5 2013 november 5 2013 by laura lam so i m back from world fantasy con in brighton i m exhausted and distinctly under the weather though i m feeling a bit better now it was my first and only convention of the year i believe and overall i had a wonderful amazing time though i do have one complaint which i ll get to after the excited squeeing this was my first con since pantomime came out it was so cool bizarre amazing to have a few people come up to me and say how much they enjoyed pantomime both some people i knew and even a few strangers thank you so much to everyone who took the time to tell me that i even met ellie patchworkbunny who had just started shadowplay thank you to mieneke pallekenl for bringing me stroopwaffels the main highlight for me was being able to meet two of my favourite authors and find out they re both really nice people i met robin hobb for the first time and she gave me a big hug i managed not to cry but i came close she s been my favourite author since i was 15 and is a big influence plus i also met my husband through her books i even brought my husband s battered childhood copy of assassin s apprentice down to show her much to his acute embarrassment i also met scott lynch another of my favourite authors and got a hug from him too as well as meeting the amazing elizabeth bear whose books i must go hunt down now in the photo below scott lynch is wearing my glasses and making a sad face it s strange meeting authors whose work you admire for the first time you don t know them not really but you ve spent so much time in their imaginations it s a funny little disconnect i wasn t on any panels but i managed to sneak on and do a ninja reading with amy mcculloch which was fun amy s reading was fantastic so i felt a bit nervous following on after her i loved the giant alice in wonderland thrones they had in the readings it was funny going back and reading from pantomime since i hadn t read the start of chapter two in a while i had to resist the urge to go back and edit photo credit girl___friday i went to a few of the programming events the conversation with terry pratchett which was sweet and a little melancholy the how far is too far in ya panel and the are all the best books in genre now ya the first i found amusing as many of the authors were basically like we have to discuss this so many times when will we give the magical answer so that they stop making this panel at every convention which you know is a fair point i particularly enjoyed francis hardinge s responses and remember her saying something along lines of books are comforting books are kind books are there when no one else is which stuck with me though not enough for me to quote it verbatim with any certainty the other ya panel was a veritable panel of ya royalty with susan cooper garth nix neil gaiman will hill and holly black it was a good panel though it seemed to sidetrack more into what is ya rather than exploring what about ya makes them some of the most exciting works in genre such as the blending of subgenres et cetera sir terry pratchett ya ghosts on saturday evening i went out for dinner with my agent and the 11 or so of her authors that were in attendance it was really great to meet some of them i only knew online and joke around with several more there were a lot of in jokes spawned to the left is a photo of andrew reid stephen aryan tad williams in the background and a langoustine that about sums up the tone of the night mostly what i came away from this con with was that so many people in genre are kind and welcoming and it s nice to geek out and see old faces and meet new ones it s fun to blend the lines between author professional and fan there was a bit of a dark spot on the con unfortunately and i did want to discuss it as the con wasn t as smooth for others as it was for me there were complaints before the con about the lack of panel parity and the almost belligerent tone of official correspondence additionally several people mentioned that there was no harassment policy and this was an answer to the harassment policy faq world fantasy convention 2013 as with any other predominantly adult gathering will have a number of rules and regulations for the safety of attendees these will be clearly stated in our programme guide which will be given to each attendee when they register in the meantime we refer you to the uk s protection from harassment act 1997 source however it was later changed to world fantasy convention 2013 will not tolerate any form of verbal or racial abuse sexual harassment aggression violence or lewd behaviour towards any attendees or members of staff if reported to our professional security and stewards or to a staff member and substantiated by the event organisers then any person deemed to have committed such an act will be immediately ejected from the convention without refund and may even be reported to the police under the uk s protection from harassment act 1997 source even though that s much better that s not a specific separate harassment policy which many other conventions have for example here s one for nine worlds which covers what harassment is what someone should do also includes an anti racism statement and clearly states what will happen if they violate these conditions two of my friends were harassed by a drunk man on saturday night making them feel incredibly uncomfortable they compared notes and realized they should report it and i helped them find someone to speak to the organisers responded very well and quickly by taking down the information but then the person in question was not as far as they know removed though that faq answer up above says they would be nor have they as of now been contacted for a follow up there was one tweet that they were investigating a sexual harassment claim however they weren t even sure if it was related to their experience as there was evidently an author who was harassing women as well though i m not sure if anyone officially reported about the other person i m not mentioning names as i was not directly involved i do know that these two names have been noted down for bristolcon and that they won t be allowed to attend while obviously sexual harassment is protected by law it would be nice if all cons no matter how big or small how professional of fan oriented put a harassment policy in place sometimes people are lec...