No Wasted Ink Newsletter & Ramblecast - September 2024
a newsletter and voiceover podcast by Poet Laureate Emerita Wendy Van Camp
Welcome to the monthly No Wasted Ink Newsletter. My name is Wendy Van Camp and I’m Poet Laureate Emerita for the City of Anaheim, California. This newsletter is not affiliated with the city. All views stated here are my own.
RAMBLE
Ever have one of those days? Maybe one of those weeks? How about a full month of bad luck that did not depart. Yes, it has been one of those months for this poet at large.
August started out well. I was off to Glasgow, Scotland to appear at WorldCon, the largest science fiction convention on the planet. WorldCon rotates to a new city each year, alternating between an American city and one abroad. I normally don’t attend the ones in other countries, but Scotland called to me as a destination. I had scored five events at the convention, including a kaffeeklatch and a speculative poetry reading. I felt gratitude for the acceptance and eager to network with my European peers.
Our travel to Scotland was pockmarked with problems. We missed our flight connection and ended up in the airport for nine hours, arriving in the dead of night at our hotel on the River Clyde. Our luggage was delayed and we were without it for our first night. Thank goodness we packed an extra change of clothes in our carry ons. Then the hotel claimed our package deal never paid them. Thankfully, my husband was prepared with print outs of our receipt from the travel agency. By the end of the trip, the hotel “found” our payment and we didn’t have to paid for the stay a second time. Otherwise, I would say the staff were lovely people and very helpful.
The day before the convention, I took a bus tour to visit the castles depicted in the cable series “Outlander”. I’ve been a fan of both the TV series and Diana Gabaldon’s books for many years. To see these sets in person was a dream of mine. The first stop was “Castle Leoch”, the home of Clan MacKenzie from the series. It’s real name is “Castle Doune”. Even though I walk with a cane and normally avoid stairs in favor of the elevator, I was determined to explore the second floor of the ruined castle.
Biggest. Mistake. Ever.
I missed the last step on the slippery, rain covered steps and went head first onto the cold stone courtyard. My only thought was to protect my head. I did, but at the expense of my right knee and my left hand. My knee swelled up and without my cane I wouldn’t have been able to continue. I could put weight on my leg and while I was heavily bruised, the pain was manageable with over the counter medication. My hand was not able to grip anything heavy, but I could still type or write with a pen if I was careful.
For the first time, I was dependant on accessibility at a convention. WorldCon went above and beyond to help those with mobility issues. For registration, there was a seated area for us to wait. Although I could have rented a wheelchair, I didn’t have anyone to push me and with my injured hand I didn’t want to do it myself. I stuck with my cane and focused on getting to those five events I was assigned to speak in and limited my walking the rest of the time.
On my second day, the bandages on my large knee abrasion became painful and I called upon first aid after checking in with accessibility. A very young and kind Scottish woman with a heavy accent cleaned my wound and told me the cheap bandages I used were sticking to my wound and likely was the source of pain. She gave me new bandages and then insisted on wheeling me to my hotel room personally. She was right about the bandages, once I used the new ones, my abrasion was no longer a problem.
I found that nobody blinked when I walked into panels with a cane. I was able to seat myself at each table and rely on my gift of gab to get me through each day. I spoke about working in Community Radio on the podcast interview panel. On the “Genre Poetry 101” panel, I agreed with the others that we are speculative poets, not genre poets. I was asked to outline the poetry programing SFWA is developing and our work on creating a new Nebula Award for poetry. Both topics were met with excitement by the poets in the audience.
The next day’s “Poetry Jam” was amazing. It was the highlight of my speaking appearances. I read my work along with seven other top-level speculative poets from around the world. It was to a full house, with hardly a seat unfilled in one of the larger convention rooms in the Scottish Events Center. My kaffeeklatch, on the other hand, was smaller than others, but I still had a few people who wished to chat with a bonafide poet laureate. I spoke about my time serving the City of Anaheim and read a few of my poems. I directed them to the art show where my poetry illustrations were on display.
My last panel was online and I was the moderator. I had lost my voice by that point and wondered if I could be replaced. I was asked to continue forward by the programming director and to type the questions to the panel in chat so they could see them. I did this and the panel was a success, even though my hotel wifi dropped me at one point. These things happen at conventions.
The way home was as bad as getting to Scotland. I used the airport wheelchair service. I’m sorry to say Heathrow was a disaster and I will never use the service in that airport again. However, Glasgow Airport and LAX were wonderful. I doubt I would have gotten home without the help of these mobility services.
My recovery time after the convention has been a long time. I caught Covid at the convention, my laryngitis lasted around three weeks, and the healing of my knee has been taking a long time. I still walk with some pain, but at least I no longer limp.
This month, I will not be posting my usual writing tips essay. I apologize, but my health prevented me from the writing and recording of my newsletter on time. I hope to be more on track next month in October.
yours in poetry,
Wendy
SCIFAIKU
heartbreak on display mountains beckon her to come the cards never lie
I have a great love for the mountains and hiking, but don’t often get up there as much as I would like. This literary poem speaks of my love for the mountains and how sometimes it takes a turn of a card to give you a sign to go. The poem is by Wendy Van Camp and was originally published in “Anaheim Poetry Review #2.”
UPCOMING APPEARANCES
Flights of Foundry (Virtual Writer Conference)
August 27th - 29th
https://flights-of-foundry.org/
I am a panelist at Flights of Foundry. Flights should be free to attend if you are interested in attending an online scifi conference with writing tracks, science tracks, and Media tracks. Please register at the website if you are interested in attending.
Saturday, September 28th at 2pm Pacific
Ask an Editor
Saturday, September 28th at 3pm Pacific
Speculative Poetry Meetup
Sunday, September 29th at 4pm Pacific
Solo Reading by Wendy Van Camp
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Indie Author Magazine
August Issue
https://indieauthormagazine.com
"Ten Tips: Landing Local Media Appearances" an essay by Wendy Van Camp is about effective strategies to boost your visibility through local media. The essay is mentioned on the cover of the magazine. IAM offers both a print version or an ebook/pdf version on their website.
Verse-Virtual Journal
August Issue
https://www.verse-virtual.org/2024/August/van-camp-wendy-2024-august.html
Wendy Van Camp has two poems published in the August 2024 issue. Both are nonet form poems and are literary in theme.
"Twain" is based on a true story of a whale and scientists from Whale-SETI who are using Chat GPT to create a sort of whale chatbot. One day they hope to learn how to talk to our friends in the sea.
"Haiku Rain" was inspired by a news article. A poet laureate used invisible paint to put the haiku poems of her young students onto pavement in a park. The paint is activated by water, so every time it rained, haiku poems would shimmer into existence....like a poetic mystery.
Scifaikuest
August Anniversary Issue 2024
https://www.hiraethsffh.com
Wendy Van Camp is published in the August 2024 issue of "Scifaikuest", a speculative poetry quarterly of minimalist poetry, such as haiku, scifaiku, tanka, haibun, senryu and others. This is their 22nd Anniversary issue!
My poetry appears on "The Wendy Van Camp Page" and it includes a few of my favorite scifaiku poems including: [under the full moon], [tedious capture], and [rivers shrink to sand].
Writing Coach Services Open!
I’m pleased to announce I have opened my consultation service at Indigoskye Press. I offer single hour coaching via google meet or in the lobby of my Second Life Store via avatar, your choice. I can help you navigate through the complex process of organizing a poetry chapbook, to either publish Indie or to prepare to entice a small press to pick up your book. I can explain how to Indie Publish your novel. I can also help on board potential science fiction authors and poets into the convention scene.
Please visit my shop via the link at the top of my portfolio website or go there direct: https://indigoskye.com
LINKS TO SOCIAL MEDIA
Portfolio - http://wendyvancamp.com
Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/author/wendyvancamp
Medium - https://medium.com/@wvancamp
Indigoskye Press - https://indigoskye.com
X (Twitter) - https://twitter.com/wvancamp
Instagram - https://instagram.com/nowastedink
Mastodon - https://me.dm/@wvancamp
Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/indigoskye.bsky.social
BOOKS
The Planets: a scifaiku poetry collection - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Z8HMPF2
The Curate’s Brother: A Jane Austen Variation of Persuasion - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OU1V45A
ANTHOLOGIES
Eccentric Orbits: An Anthology of Science Fiction Poetry
Volumes 1 - 4
Editor
Available for purchase: https://dimensionfold.com
Anaheim Poetry Review 2023
Volumes 1 - 2
Editor
Free to Read: https://anaheimpoetry.com
Eye To The Telescope: Quests #46 - Fall 2022
Guest Editor
Free to Read: https://eyetothetelescope.com/archives/046issue.html
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