My Wiscon schedule arrived this week, and I love it. Here it goes:

American Victorian "Gentlewomen of the Macabre" Ghost Story Writers
Friday, 8:45-10:00 p.m.
Anne Lane Sheldon, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, Stephanie Burgis

Feminist Romance
Saturday, 4:00-5:15 p.m.
Jennifer Stevenson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Lyda A. Morehouse, Cynthia Gonsalves, Stephanie Burgis, Emma Bull

Welcome to Our Worlds (Readings)
Saturday, 9:00-10:15 p.m. in Conference Room 2
Patrick Samphire, Jenn Reese, Sarah Prineas, Stephanie Burgis

Eeee! I am so excited. I can't wait for the joint reading, with some of my very favorite people, and I'm really happy about the panels I'm on (although I'm going to have to do some desperate catch-up re-reading beforehand, since my days of obsessively reading Victorian women writers' ghost stories peaked about 16 years ago--I still have warm fuzzy feelings about them but remember far too few specific details...). I'm psyched about all the amazing writers on my panels--but of course everyone who's read this blog lately knows exactly which specific name, on which panel, made me let out an embarrassing shriek of geeky excitement when I saw it... :)

So. My next trip to the library, I'll be checking out all the Edith Wharton, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Sarah Orne Jewett stories that I can find...which may be sadly few, because they're not as easy to get hold of in England. (Marcy? Maybe I can borrow some in Michigan?) Luckily, "The Yellow Wallpaper" is permanently burnt into my mind, as anyone who has ever read Stitching Time probably already knows.

Feminist romances, though--now those are easy. Sometimes I love doing research...

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I've taken this whole week as half-days so that Patrick and I can alternate our work hours and Nika won't have to stay home alone with her Elizabethan collar on for more than an hour at a time. (She gets horrible panic attacks from the collar, and the only way she gets through it at night is to snuggle as tightly as possible into one of us for reassurance. So being on her own for wearing it...is no fun.) I'm really enjoying the half-day system. When I come home, it's sunny, beautiful, and I have oh so many hours stretching ahead of me to write. Mmmm....

And congratulations to my brother Ben, who just got accepted to Clarion West (and just sold his application story, too)! Woot! Now if only anyone has any suggestions for raising large amounts of money quickly, let him or me know...