classrooms from people who've never walked the streets of France. "You had a good teacher," said Cade. "Human or machine?" As they entered the Orchid Ballroom, Mandi said, "My language teacher was a computer about the size of this hotel." "I'll bet most of it was empty space; mostly just places for people to hook up to it or whatever." Choosing a pair of chairs in the third row, Mandi said, "You'd win that bet." A woman tapped on a water glass to start the panel introductions. Reps from two small presses and three self-published authors gave their names and credits, then the moderator -- a woman who'd written two PG-13 novels and self-published them -- opened the floor to questions. The first question came from a woman in row two, who asked, "Why is it that women in science fiction are always portrayed only as victims, goddesses, or demons?" One of the small-press reps, a guy named Donovan, said, "They aren't, actually. Most women in sf are used as support characters, just as they are in movies and music videos. It's a trend that should be rectified." "Rectified how?" asked a woman in the seventh row. "Even most female authors tend to use male lead characters." Donovan shrugged and said, "If you're really an author, you'll write your characters your way." "But if I buck the trend, will I ever be published?" "Ninety-nine percent of all manuscripts aren't published when they don't buck trends, so all you can do is try, like everybody else." The rest of the session was about the same. Nobody asked any questions that couldn't be answered in about the same manner, and one of the small-press guys gently ranted about how expenses and tight budgets made publishers extremely selective about what sorts of manuscripts were accepted. One of the self-published authors used the small-press guy's rant as a springboard for extolling the virtues of being your own publisher, citing total control and other aspects. Someone asked him how many copies of his book were sitting in his garage, waiting to be sold, and how many copies had been sold. The self-pubber's answer was rather vague, but it didn't actually seem evasive; in fact, it seemed to Cade that the guy had simply been unprepared for the question and really didn't have the actual numbers at hand. A guy in the fourth row asked if epublishing could be considered a valid form of being published. Donovan took that question, too, and opined that -- as far as he was concerned -- 'real' books were made of paper. It was a wholly predictable response from a guy who made his living as a paperback publisher. Cade raised a hand, and when called upon said, "Since 1999, I've paid taxes on nearly thirty thousand dollars that came from ebook sales on the Internet. How are books that people pay for and read not 'real' books?" Glancing to his left and right as if for solidarity with the others of the