Readercon 30

Readercon is one month away!

Readercon is July 11-14 in Quincy, MA, and programming on Thursday night is free. If you want to join me, here’s my schedule!

Friday

11:30 AM – Reading: Andrea Martinez Corbin

Saturday

9:00 PM – Food at the Corner of Fiction and Community
Andrea Martinez Corbin (mod), N.S. Dolkart, Greer Gilman, Michael Swanwick, Sabrina Vourvoulias
Food plays a central role in many cultures and accordingly takes center stage in the work of many speculative fiction writers. How does cuisine help define, or build, a community? How can food be used to communicate important information about a people to the reader? What are some particularly noteworthy examples of the way food can be used to set, or subvert, expectations?

Sunday

11:00 AM – Lloyd Alexander, Existentialist 
C.S.E. Cooney, Andrea Martinez Corbin, Chris Gerwel, Marissa Lingen (mod), Sonya Taaffe
Lloyd Alexander, translator of Jean-Paul Sartre, wrote an existentialist epic fantasy series. As Jesse Schotter writes on Full Stop, “The end of The High King, and Taran’s choice to remain in Prydain… salvage[s] the idea of free will within the deterministic framework of the genre.” How did existentialism influence Alexander’s other work (Time Cat, the Westmark trilogy)? What are other examples of existentialist speculative fiction epics? With the present deconstruction of prophecy-driven epics, how can writers learn from Alexander’s work?

(Please note that I appear to be the Existentialism Expert for this panel, considering I am reading Lloyd Alexander for the first time in preparation. Hooray!)

Boskone 2019

This weekend, I’ll be at Boskone, New England’s longest running science fiction and fantasy convention. Boskone is Feb. 15-17. For more info, visit The Boskone Blog, Twitter, and Facebook, and if you want to join me, register here!

Friday, 2/15

4 pm – The Life Cycle of a Book

Most of us just see the finished product on the shelf. However, there are lots of little (and big) steps associated with getting the book to the store. What’s the life cycle of a book, from submission to publication? It’s not as simple as “the author writes it, then the publisher prints it.” What are the direct, indirect, and associated steps involved in the production and publication process — from editing to marketing, selling, reviewing, reprinting, and more?

Saturday, 2/16

4 pm – Social Change and the Speculative World

Speculative fiction prides itself on thinking beyond the box in multiple ways — including socially. However, the real world can have a hard time keeping up. What genre works show how particular social issues can or should be handled? Have any SF/F stories or characters inspired you to take real action?

5 pm – Flash Fiction Slam

Boskone’s Flash Fiction Slam returns! Be one of eleven (11) writers to compete for the title of The Flash, reading your own original fiction — which must tell a complete tale within a 3-minute period. Our expert panel of judges will score your work, and you automatically lose 10 percent for going over your 3-minute time. You may only read your own work. The reader with the top score wins! Sign up before the con by sending an email to program@boskone.org for one of eight (8) reading slots on a first-come, first-served basis. Or sign up onsite at Program Ops in the Harbor Foyer for one of three (3) at-con openings. A waiting list will also be available there.

Sunday, 2/17

1 pm – Exploring Interactive Fiction 101

Twine. Choice of Games. Sub-Q Magazine. Interactive fiction (IF) has come a long way since the ’70s. Now, IF is having a renaissance, with new tools and platforms that make it more accessible to both writers and fans. But do today’s fans know what IF is? Let’s define it, and then discuss it. Where can you find it? How can a writer break into the field? Is it fair to say that traditionally told stories are for passive readers, but IF is for adventurers?