The speculative, intrigued smirk of a speculative fiction author, mid-panel discussion on "What makes science fiction, 'science fiction'?" at MisCon this summer.

So what might be going through my mind at this moment? Smug confidence that I've got a zinger of an answer to the clever question an audience member is asking? Delight at how awesome and insightful the discussion is turning out to be? (<-this one was definitely true) Or is an entire new world and story exploding into my mind in this instant, discussion be damned? Or the perfect solution to a thorny plot problem materializing, triggered by something a panelist just said (which would definitely result in delight breaking through to my expression)?

The thing you must understand about an author, and doubly-so a spec-fic author, is that at any given moment, even if the conversation we're having with you is engaging and fulfilling, odds are at least 50% that characters are chattering away in our head. Supernovas are exploding. Ships are firing. Dramatic reveals are unfolding.

We apologize for our distraction--it's not you, it's us--but we always have one foot in another world, and there's simply nothing to be done about it.

Thanks to Steven Sears for sending me the pic, and his lovely wife and awesome spec fic author Jessica Brawner for capturing it!