I'll be at OryCon in Portland Oregon this year, Nov. 18-20. 

This year's Guests of Honor include:

Writer: David Weber
Editor: Diana Gill
Artist: David Mattingly
Music: Mark Osier

In addition, we'll have Special Musical Guest Leslie Hudson

Here is my schedule. If you're attending, please come by and say hello (especially for my reading and autographing sessions!)

Fantasy vs. Science Fiction
	Salon C (LL1)
	Sat Nov 19 11:00am - 12:00pm
	Ann Gimpel, David Dvorkin, Deborah Ross, Peter Jones, Sharon Roest
Finding Diverse Voices & Characters in SF/F
	Salon C (LL1)
	Sat Nov 19 2:00pm - 3:00pm
	Caroline M. Yoachim, Cat Rambo, David Levine, Deborah Ross, Jeffrey Cook
Reaching Readers Who Don't Know You Yet
	Meadowlark (3)
	Sat Nov 19 4:00pm - 5:00pm
	Anthony Pryor, Blythe Ayne, Deborah Ross, Jennifer Brozek, Josh Boykin
Endings: Cuddling with the Reader
	Douglas Fir (3)
	Sun Nov 20 10:00am - 11:00am
	Dean Wells, Deborah Ross, Mary Rosenblum, Mike Shepherd, Sharon Roest
Deborah J. Ross Reading
	Hawthorne (2)
	Sun Nov 20 12:30pm - 1:00pm
	Deborah Ross
Autograph Session 7
	Autograph Area (LL1)
	Sun Nov 20 1:00pm - 2:00pm
	Blythe Ayne, Curtis Chen, David Dvorkin, Deborah Ross, Joyce Reynolds-Ward

Highly Idiosyncratic Orycon Diary

November 1, 2012. As usual, I began with good intentions to get daily exercise. At home, I typically exercise for half a hour before breakfast, and then get in a walk later in the day. So Friday morning I wended my way to the hotel fitness center. The treadmills, my torture of choice, were equipped with headphones and leeetle television screens. After flipping from one channel to another (which reminded me emphatically why I do not watch television), I discovered a program of videos made by Japanese children in the wake of the tsunami and then a year later. They were lovely, poignant, generous, joyful, grief-stricken, honest as only children can be honest. I wanted everyone to see them. They were all the more powerful in the context of Hurricane Sandy.

November 3, 2012. Writers workshop went well yesterday. Likewise my reading, which was well-attended considering it was 5 pm on Friday. I believe there were a number of snafus with other readings, so I felt grateful that mine actually took place where and when it was supposed to. Today’s panels went really well – as moderator for all of them, I happily accept my fair share of credit. Topics were: what authors influenced you (and what do you see as the wave of the future, which none of us were interested in talking about, so we ignored); gender (as if writing the other); is publishing obsolete. The latter two drew large, engaged audiences, always a nice thing for a panelist. I particularly enjoyed the gender panel; we started with the issue of whether/how we write opposite-gender characters and progressed to larger issues of gender fluidity, gay/queer characters, tolerance in general and how fiction informs and infuriates various audiences. I usually keep my own book pimpage to a minimum (no “wall’o’books” for me!) but I did get to talk about creating a gender-fluid race for my sf novel, Collaborators (forthcoming from Dragon Moon Press, May 2013). The panel gave rise to some pretty amazing connections.