Thread by @sfwa

Ignite Talks at #Nebulas2018 - many things very quickly!

First up, Rekka Jay talking about sailing ships to a good crowd.

A ship is moving six directions at once. You can get used to that - get your sea legs - but you may never get completely over being sea sick.

Your food will have bugs!

Below-decks is dark. Above decks there’s a lot of work to do. The crow’s nest moves the farthest.

You can hear the wind, the water, the ship, all of the time. The crew, let alone in the ports, you will hear all sorts of languages. Sailing has its own common language.

Your experience on a ship will also depend on your class and privilege. A longer version of this talk will be on Rekka’s website later.

Next: Mary Soon Lee, on getting poetry into Science magazine.

A seventeen-syllable haiku-format poem about hydrogen, followed by a haiku about helium, then lithium...

That was fun, and different. But there are more elements... Mary did a lot of research.
(Yttrium: not a name, but a spelling error!)

The complete set: rejected by Nature the very next day. Sent to Science: accepted! All 119 haiku published in August 2017.
Some were reprinted, some translated... they are being set to music.

Sometimes writing can be an adventure. Sometimes if you try something new, you never know where the next seventeen syllables will take you.

Next talk! Dr. Shana Feibel, on how to accurately portray mental illness, from the point of view of both a psychiatrist and writer.

A psych exam starts from outward symptoms, moves to inward causes.

Symptoms are revealed thru a mental status exam. Appearance;
behavior;
mood and affect (mood is subjective; statement may differ from appearance of mood- affect);
thought process (logical responses vs flight of ideas);
perceptions (hallucinations, etc).

Writers can reveal these things as slowly as quickly as necessary to the story.

Onward! John Appel on historic sword fighting, based on surviving treatises and practical reconstruction.

This is a longsword, a two-handed weapon, about three feet long. They can be used for:
cutting;
thrusting;
slicing.

Your sword is also your defense. The historic fighters would often not be armored.

Original material available at wiktenauer.com and other HEMA sites.

Claire Humphrey: how covers differ between countries and genres, and how readers interpret them.
Readers look at a book for 8 seconds when deciding.

How do you catch their eye? This is especially important for indies, but everyone can use this info.

We all use visual language to decide whether this is “for us”.

Poetry example: changed covers of classic books to match high-selling current releases. It worked!

But how do you stand out in an environment where everything looks very similar?
Online is different from in stores. What’s your target?

Region is important.
American covers are very literal, depict people a lot.
British covers are more abstract.
Canadian books get some of both.

Color has a lot of impact. The Pantone color forecast actually matters.
So does font.
What about physical elements? Glossy, sparkles, foil, for physical books, can catch eyes.

Blurbs are important in attracting people.
Author photos: want one that makes you look like yourself, and is recognizable.

Next up: JR Dawson, ghost hunting!

JR started ghost hunting in 2008 while doing research for a story, and kept at it.
Are ghosts real? We’re not going to talk about that today.

There are all kinds of places to go ghost hunting: the hotel that inspired the Shining (a summer resort for ghosts), or a morgue in Missouri that is terrifying.

Tools a character might use depend a lot on character and story.
Goals:
Evidence;
Contact;
Resolution.
Usually start with dowsing rods; ask a spirit simple questions, kindly.

Lollipops can be used with kid spirits.
More professional tools: laser scanning, heat detectors, motion recording.
You can use your phone with a monochrome filter and taking a lot of pictures.

Try. Record. Repeat. Doubt.
Patience. Debunk.

What does a ghost look like? What will your character see?

A human figure; a sense of dread; varies widely.
Some ghosts are “live” and can interact.
Some ghosts are not.

Why is your character ghost hunting?
To contact someone; to debunk; because it’s fun.

Jason Sanford, the emotions of salvage archaeology.

A shovelbum is a low-level archaeologist who does the hard work.

True archaeology is slow and patient, and exposes the truths about our world, not always available in the written histories.

Book recommendation: In Small Things Forgotton, by James Dietz (?)

When we touch and witness history, history comes alive.
We’ve made history boring, dry facts, but when you experience history, you realize that the people who preceded us are just like us.

A lost thimble, lovers’ names carved into a beam, newspapers stuffed into the walls for insulation.

A child’s burial, with a toy tucked in tightly. A gravestone with a single word, “Mother.”

History is more than a series of big events and battles. It is a series of small forgotten moments, of people living their lives and working toward the future.

Larry Ivkovich, science fiction and rock and roll: the intersection between SFF and R&R.

Jimi Hendrix: Purple Haze from a Farmer novel.
Kate Bush.
David Bowie, obviously.
Nightwish, inspired by Dragonlance.
Black Sabbath, especially Lovecraft and other occult thrillers.

Pink Floyd: a space rock band.
Jefferson Starship: Blows against the Empire (heinlein) - first album nominated for a Hugo.
Splendor & Misery, by Clipping was the second (last year).

Alan Parsons Project: album I Robot.
Rush, album 2112.
George Clinton, various albums.
Janelle Monae: Archandroid.
Queensryche: Operation Mindcrime.
SJ Tucker, 2 albums based on Cat Valente’s work.

Hawkwind collaborated with Michael Moorcock.
Moorcock collaborated with Blue Oyster Cult, and performed onstage with them at first Dragoncon.

If you’re here, there are CDs and handouts for this one, which is good because I couldn’t type fast enough.
“Keep on rocking in the speculative world!”

Leslie Smith, on elementary particle physics for regular people.

We are all made up of elementary particles.

The standard model:
Special relativity - the theory of very fast things.
Quantum mechanics - the theory of very small things.

Special relativity: the twin paradox, other SF concepts.
Quantum mechanics: particles linked; Heisenberg uncertainty.

Combine the two to get quantum field theory.
Matter particles: fermions
Particles that carry forces: bosuns

Also antimatter particles, paired to others. Why? Who knows!

We are made of particles.
We obey fundamental forces.
There are still many mysteries!

Ignite is over! Whew!

That was great fun, but I need to go ice my hands now...