Eileen Bell

Ryan McFadden did a nice write up on the win, so I won’t go into it here.  It was exciting, overwhelming, unbelievable — and we didn’t know enough NOT to crash the dead dog party, so obviously we still have lots more to learn.  My aunt endeared herself to all the “boys and girls” on the 15th floor — I will never forget this huge guy — Wookie like in my memory — walking up to me and giving me a high five.  “Your aunt is AWESOME!”  Yes, she is.

And then we came home.  My husband had been receiving increasingly panicky phone calls the whole time we were in Winnipeg — the last one was on Sunday, and the words “Do I need to get on a plane?” struck fear into my heart.  Winnipeg is a LONG way from Edmonton when you are Eileen, who hates driving, and who has to get the truck back home.  Luckily everyone calmed down long enough for us to hit the road — together — and head back.

We did it in one day.  Good drive, actually, and my husband even let me take the Alpha seat for a couple of hours.  The last Tims we hit was at Lloydminster — a town that straddles the Alberta Saskatchewan border, where we had spent many, many weekends watching our daughter play softball.  (And now the joke.  “There is NOTHING soft about that game!”)

We had both the awards in the back seat, and they tinkled — sometimes gently, sometimes not — depending on the condition of the road.  We made a lot of increasingly goofy jokes about “the twins” as the miles rattled under our wheels, until finally, we pulled into Edmonton, and then our driveway.  I can’t begin to tell you how glad I was to see that little round house and the raggedy overgrown grass.

Our daughter, who had been good enough to look after the animals,  burst out of the house, thrilled to see us — and thrilled about the wins.  (Competitor, after all.  Knows how nice it is to bring home hardware.) We talked for a bit, convinced her to stay one more night (so we didn’t have to drive another kilometer that day) and went to bed, exhausted.

We were all up early the next morning.  Husband had to fix all the damage wrought over the weekend (remember those phone calls?  Everyone who made them remembered!) and daughter had to be taken to work.  Then, I finally had the house to myself.  Nice.

I saw that Ryan had posted about the first day, and thought it was a pretty good idea.  So I did more or less the same thing.  A maudlin little piece about Dad — but it read well enough that I left it.  Then I milled about, not really ready to step back into my life, but not really ready to do much else.  (I didn’t even unpack.  Still haven’t, truth be told.)

The next day I went back to my blog, to add another day. And there were comments for the first post.  Cool.  I like it when people actually read this thing…

And one caught my eye.

Hi Eileen!

Congratulations on the award. I’ve been receiving congrats on your behalf – and thought I should pass them on!

Could you give me a call?

~Eileen Bell
630 CHED Radio

Yes!  The famous Eileen Bell from radio.  Talking to me!

This Eileen Bell has been on radio forever in this town, it seems.  And I have always had to endure the joke “So, are you the one on radio?”

“No,” I always reply.  “I am the other one.”

So I called her.  I could only imagine the look on the receptionist’s face when I asked for Eileen Bell, and she asked me who was calling.  “Eileen Bell,” I said.  The pause was long before she chimed “One moment please.”

And then I spoke to Eileen Bell.  Very cool.  Even cooler — she wants to interview me in July.  On being a writer — and being Eileen Bell.

I said yes.  Good grief, how could I not?  Here’s my five minutes of fame — and I get to share it with the other Eileen Bell.

Ha!

Hi ho.  Things got a little crazy here, so instead of blathering on about my adventures in Winnipeg, today I will post some wonderful pictures.  Enjoy!!

The Aurora Winners

Close up of the winners

The Apocalyptic Four with their Aurora

And here we are with our publisher, Brian Hades, at the Auroras!

The top two were sent to me by Chadwick Ginther, from McNally Robinson.  Thanks, Chadwick.

The second last one was taken by one of Billie’s workmates, and sent to me by Billie.  Thank you!

The last one was taken by my friend Barb Galler Smith at the Auroras.  Thanks, Barb.

I will post more as I get them, and I will continue to tell the story of Winnipeg, a bit at a time.  But tomorrow, Billie and I are off to Mountain View County, where we will be doing a presentation at the Word in the West Literacy Festival.  We expect to have a bunch of fun, are looking forward to it!

See?  The fun never stops!  I just forget to post about it, sometimes!

“So, do you want to come to Winnipeg?”

I was talking to my husband.  I didn’t often (ever) ask him if he wants to come with me to the conventions.  He is really not that kind of guy.  However, this one was different.  This time, I was up for an award.

“Sure, I could go,” he replied. “If you want me to.”

“Of course I do.  Do you want to fly or drive?”

He thought for a moment.  “Let’s drive,” he said.

Good enough.  Decision made.  I sent a frantic email to Billie Milholland (we had been talking about flying down together) to let her know that my plans had changed, and then really thought about what we were doing.

We were driving.  To Winnipeg.

It’s a long way from Edmonton to Winnipeg.  However, we decided we could turn it into a mini holiday.  You know, like regular people do.  Take a long weekend and go on a holiday.  Not do what we usually do,  which is hang around, waiting for the inevitable phone call that lets my husband know of some water related disaster in some small town somewhere in Alberta.  For once he would not be heading to that small town, usually late at night, trying to fix the disaster, so that the town would have water in the morning.  We would actually be going out of town.  For fun.  Ooh.  This was starting to sound good.

We were both up early on the morning of May 20th.  All we had to do was pack up the Element and head out before 10 AM.  Nice leisurely drive down the road, stop in Yorkton, maybe meet Barb Galler-Smith, Diane Walton and Ann Marston for supper.   Have a good sleep, and head to Winnipeg the next morning.  Nice.

Then the phone rang.  A few minutes later my husband ran out the door, yelling “Pack the truck!  I’ll be back when I can!”  A disaster had befallen one of those small towns, somewhere in Alberta.  I hadn’t even thought to ask “Where are you going?”  I just closed the door and brewed myself another pot of coffee.  Suddenly I had tons of time.

I packed my suitcases.  (Yeah, I’m one of those late packers.)  Then I watched the season finale of “Supernatural.”  I ate.  Played with the dog.  Wondered if I could still get a plane ticket.  Wondered if my husband was ever going to come home again.  Wondered why the heck I ever thought driving to Winnipeg was a good idea.

He came back at 2 PM.  “Did you fix it?” I asked.  I didn’t even ask what “it” was.  At that point, I didn’t give a rat’s ass.

“No.  But I think it will hold together for the weekend.”

“So we’re still going?”

“Yes.  Is the truck packed?”

Oops.  Luckily it only took a few minutes to throw the luggage in the truck, and by 3 we were on the road, the jury rigged town water system behind us.  We got to Yorkton, too late to meet Barb, Diane, and Ann, but we made it all the same.  And the next day, we booted it for Winnipeg.

Winnipeg, and Key Con.  And the Auroras.

Women of the Apocalypse reviewed in Vue Weekly!  How cool is that?

Review here.

And remember, last week to be able to nominate Women of the Apocalypse and our novellas for Auroras. (And I just found out that Herman Lau, who did our cover, has his name in under artist.  Don’t forget him, if you like his work.  Link here.

It’s award time, and I have a couple of places I’d like you to go, and vote for my novella — and for the anthology, Women of the Apocalypse.

First one: http://www.critters.org/predpoll/antho.shtml

This is something called “Critters Workshop” and is an on-line workshop/critique group for serious writers of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.

If you don’t see Women of the Apocalypse on the list — add it to yours.  There is a space at the end for you to do this.  Publisher is Absolute Xpress, and add www.womenoftheapocalypse.com as the website.

Deadline is January 14th.

The second one is for the Auroras.

My story “Pawns Dreaming of Roses” and our anthology Women of the Apocalypse are both on the list for an Aurora, which is THE Canadian SF award.  I need some help getting these works to the short list.  This is where you come in.

Please go to this website, and fill out the form:  http://www.prixaurorawards.ca/English/AwardProcess/nominationForm.php

If you want to check out all the “hopefuls”, go to this site:  http://canadiansf.com/node/42

Just as long as you are a Canadian citizen, you can vote. And it doesn’t cost you a thing.  However, you can only vote once, so make it count!

And please, do it soon.  The deadline is February 5th, I believe.

Thanks.

Am working on the next project, so will update when I have extra words to spare for blogging.  Until then, though… Vote early, vote often!

Normally, I don’t call Ryan.  The man lives in Ontario (!) and so is always living  2 hours in the future, which hardly ever works out well for me.  (I think about giving him a call at 10ish my time — and he is either at work or asleep, depending on the 10 I pick.) It’s inconvenient, because I actually have to think about what the heck I’m doing.  Plan for it.

I don’t do so well with planning, as anyone who has ever received my Christmas cards can attest.  (Mid February, anyone?)

So, when I went on Facebook (Yeah, I know, but whatever) prior to shutting things down for the night, the last thing on my mind was calling Ryan.

Then I saw Rob Sawyer’s post — and I was on the phone in a flash.  Of course, Ryan didn’t answer.  He is, after all, a father — and it was probably close to bedtime for his little girls.  So I left an incoherent message that asked — begged, really — him to check out Facebook.

Then I called Billie.  Luckily she was home.  I told her to check it out — and she did.  Then she lost her mind, and I knew I hadn’t imagined it.

The Hugo Award winning Rob Sawyer, science fiction heavyweight, who gets to go to all sorts of cool places and do all sorts of cool things ,  talked about Women of the Apocalypse.  He didn’t just talk about it.  He gave it an excellent review!

“Nothing gives me more joy than when my students do well, and so it’s with great pride and pleasure that I draw your attention to the fabulous new anthology Women of the Apocalypse, an anthology of stories (“Four women, Four Shooters, Four destinies to save the world”) by Eileen Bell, Roxanne Felix, Ryan T. McFadden, and Billie Millholland. The book — a handsome trade paperback with an eye-catching stark black-and-white cover — is published by Absolute XPress, a division of Calgary’s Hades Publications….This is, without doubt, one of the major theme anthologies of 2009, and deserves a place on the Aurora Award ballot — as do the individual stories. The anthology recently made the bestsellers’ list published in the Calgary Herald.”

Ryan eventually called me back, and we did the teenage girl jumping up and down and screaming thing for a while.  (Sorry Ryan, but people deserve the truth.)  And why did we do this?

Because back in 2006, Ryan and I were in Rob Sawyer’s writing class in Banff.  He ripped us both – bad.  He ruthlessly pointed out EVERYTHING we did that was keeping us from being published.  Everything.

We could have run away crying (like those self same teenage girls we emulated a couple of days ago). But we didn’t. Both of us took what he said to heart, and went away, licked our wounds, and stepped up.

Apparently we learned some of those lessons quite well.

Thanks Rob.  You’re the best.