| News and Events |
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We lost track and did not keep up with events we attended in Atlanta, Colorado and the East Coast. Then there’s the pandemic. It is currently April 2, 2021 as I write this. We have been considering a “second edition” of Creating A Line-Family. However legal issues are starting to move with Somerville and Cambridge updating their domestic partnership laws to include polyamorous families, and the inclusion of three parents on a birth certificate in California. We feel we may have to wait a bit to see what direction things go and what new issues arise. The basic legal tools and concepts outlined on this website and explored in more detail in our book still apply to the vast majority of the US. Note: I put the title of our book in quotes because we feel a new name is in order. We barely register on Amazon anymore because the title does not use the word “polyamory” or some other closely related term. Hang in there and stay safe. We hope to see you soon. We followed up WorldCon with an appearance at Polycamp NW (www.polycamp.org). I did my first Line Family presentation at Polycamp NW many years ago when all I had was some handouts and a wild-eyed zeal. I talked about what I had been discovering about society and some of the things hidden in plain sight regarding multigenerational wealth management and inherited political power and influence. Make no mistake, information about multigenerational wealth and power is still in our presentations. Elon and I now talk about those topics as tools that are available for everyone should the need arise. At Polycamp we had around 18 people attend our presentation. Our new presentation form of a brief introduction followed by a moderated discussion with the audience has been working quite well. It means that every presentation is a unique event. We do use some visual aids and we want to say a special thank you to Storm from the Erosong family. He had an amazing video projector and portable folding screen that helped us to set up and break down quickly. We also want to thank Quintus (president of PolycampNW) and his crew for giving us a great venue and time slot in the programming. Because of that, we had the opportunity to talk with many polyam folks from families and other interested people. WorldCon 2015 (Sasquan) was a great event for the release of our book. We arrived on Wednesday to find that there were no polyamory events or panels scheduled. The closest thing to a polyam event was our book signing, scheduled for 1:00pm on Saturday. The lack of a panel on polyamory topics seemed odd because much of the organizing was done by the SpoCon organizers. They gave us room to give a line-family presentation at SpoCon in 2012 (see below). We immediately set about getting a meet-up on the schedule for people interested in polyamory. We filled out the meet-up schedule request form indicating our intention of having a polyam meeting that would focus on family issues. The staff members who took our paperwork were friendly and seemed pleased we were organizing something for polyamorous people. It was a couple of days later we found out that the meetup was scheduled for 4:00pm on Saturday, two hours after our scheduled author signing. The author signing didn’t go so well. That’s not too surprising as Elon and I are not well-known, or even slightly-known authors. A couple of friends dropped by and we had a pleasant time talking to the author and his friends sitting next to us. However, the experience left us feeling a bit uneasy about whether anyone would show for the meet-up. Two or three people were already in the room when we wheeled our cart full of books into the room. I thought to myself that at least we wouldn’t be sitting alone for an hour. Several people came into the room right on our heels. We smiled to each other. Our smiles got bigger as the room quickly started to fill. Soon it was standing room only. You must know that it was a small room and a rough estimate is that we had between 30 to 40 people in there. Several times people would come to the door, look in and leave. I think we might have been able to fill a room twice the size. A good conversation covering a wide range of topics ensued. During one lull in the action Elon asked for people who were from Spokane or the surrounding area to raise their hands. Not one hand went up. We know there are polyamorous people in Spokane, but they are a closeted group. Given the conservative political climate of the area, we were not too surprised that no one from Spokane showed up. We did have people from all over the US, Canada and even one individual from England. Most people expressed surprise at the lack of any official polyam events at the conference. At the end of the hour we had several people come up and buy our book. We had a great time at Sasquan and want to express our appreciation for the support we received from the staff and volunteers at the event. The Spokane science fiction community rocks. Worldcon has declined our offer of giving our presentation. However do not despair. We will be there and will organize a meet-up for people interested in talking about polyamorous families in general and line families in particular. We will have copies of our book for sale at a special reduced price. So, if you want an autographed copy of Creating A Line Family for cheap, come see us at World Con in Spokane in August. We have heard a rumor that our author signing is scheduled for the evening of the opening day, Wednesday August 19. We have not confirmed this yet. Follow what’s going on with us through Twitter using @linefamily1. Worldcon (World Science Fiction Convention) is coming to Spokane Washington August 19-23, 2015. Save the date and don't be late. The convention program includes hundreds of authors, editors, publishers, artists, scientists, game designers, and other creators of imaginative media. Worldcon has lots to see and do including panels, presentations, readings, autograph sessions, kaffeeklatsches, and discussion groups, as well as participatory activities including writing, art, and other workshops, costuming and cosplaying, filk and other music, games including role-playing, board, and card games, fanzines, children’s programming and other activities. We have submitted our proposal for our line family presentation/discussion group. We will find out if we are invited sometime between this fall and June 15, 2015. http://sasquan.org. In late January 2015 we will be travelling to the big island of Hawaii. The area south of Hilo is loaded with intentional communities. We have made arrangements with 4 of these communities to do interviews for our book. We thought you might like to see what the area we will be in looks like at night. 
This lava started flowing on June 27 of this year. It’s moving slowly, but it is moving near the area we will be staying. We are risking life and limb to bring you our book. (This is only slightly a joke.) Polycamp Northwest 2014 We just returned from an incredible weekend at Polycamp NW over the Labor Day holiday. It was great seeing old friends, meeting new people and canoeing around the perimeter of deep lake. However, the big news was meeting a Washington state attorney giving a presentation on the legal tools available for polyamorous families. (You’re right; we were in the front row for his talk.) In talking with him after the presentation we learned that he had read Robert Heinlein’s “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.” He is of the opinion that - given the flexible laws and legal documents available in Washington State – a line family is a totally doable entity. We were thrilled to hear a legal professional tell us that our unprofessional guess was right. In fact, the same type of laws and documents that would allow for a legal structure for a line family exists in most states in the US. There are other factors to consider when selecting a state to start building your line family. Reviewing state laws on consensual adult activities, cohabitation agreements and committed intimate relationships has caused us to add a chapter to the book regarding these issues. You won’t believe some of the stuff that we have found. That (and a small medical issue) is why the rewrite of the book has been taking longer than we planned. As we are attending the Worldcon Science fiction convention in 2015, our drop-dead-line for finishing the writing is the end of January 2015. No matter what, we will have the book for Worldcon. Elon and I actually work pretty well under pressure. Poly Living West is in Denver, April 25 - 27, 2014. We had a great time (occasional blackouts notwithstanding) giving our presentation, attending programs and hanging out with friends. We hope that Loving More is able to keep this event going. You can help by going to the Loving More website and pledging your financial support. Our editor said that Creating A Line Family needs stories from people who have used the techniques we talk about in our book (and on this website). Our efforts to get interviews with people have had little success. If you would like to help and live in an intentional community, commune, cooperative, large extended polyamorous family or even a line family we don't know about, please consider getting in touch with us at: director@line-family.com. We are looking for subjects like:
Rustycon was at the SeaTac Marriott Hotel from January 18th – 20th 2013. We did not give our presentation this year due to health issues. We finished the first version of our book, "Creating A Line Family." It is ready for our editor. Everyone is excited to be getting close to publishing. Now for the really big news… we have been invited to present at RustyCon 2013 and at Loving More's Poly Living Conference in Philadelphia. We're all still grinning ear to ear about being contacted by these organizations rather than us asking for a slot at their events. It is very gratifying to be recognized as having a message worth hearing. Our heartfelt thanks goes out to RustyCon and Loving More for their generous offers. We, of course, gladly accepted. 2012 is coming to a close. What a fantastic year for the staff at line-family.info. We attended SpoCon in Spokane WA and VCON in Vancouver BC and had a great time meeting the wonderful and interesting people who attended our presentations. As if that wasn't enough, we gave authors new ideas for settings and situations for their books. Look for more science fiction that includes polyamorous and line families in the coming years. Hurricane driven rains, earthquakes and even a tornado: don’t you want to go there for a vacation? YES, if it is where you find the 2011 Loving More Retreat. We were honored to be featured speakers at the retreat and had a wonderful time talking about line family issues and meeting special new people – you know who you are.
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I think the Midwest is ready for us.
for live presentation.