My OryCon 39 Schedule!

OryCon 39 is this weekend! Specifically, November 17th - 19th at the Red Lion Hotel in Jantzen Beach. Here's where I'll be:


Friday, November 17

Literary Techniques: Awesome or Snobby? (7:00 pm - 8:00 pm) - Literary fiction and genre fiction has been at odds for a long time, but they don't have to be enemies. Learn some literary techniques that will help improve your writing and take you deeper into your story. You may even end up with a great reading list of 'literary' genre fiction that will challenge your preconceptions about literary fiction and literary devices. Jeff Soesbe, Erica L. Satifka, Laurel Anne Hill (M), Leigh Goodison


Saturday, November 18

Spaceships, Colonists, and Castaways (11:00 am - 12:00 pm) - How small communities function in isolated conditions with minimal resources. Bart Kemper, Erica L. Satifka (M), Blaze Ward, John M. Lovett

Political Economy for World Builders (12:00 pm - 1:00 pm) - Learn the basics of political philosophy, forms of government and economic systems to inspire your story, game or more informed voting habits. Erica L. Satifka, A.M. Brosius

Autograph Session 4 (3:00 pm - 4:00 pm) - Get your books (or whatever) signed by your favorite writers! Erica L. Satifka, EM Prazeman, Amy DuBoff, Sheila Finch

Escape With Us! (5:00 pm - 6:00 pm) - While film is often used to explore complex social themes and situations, the movie theater also functions as a refuge from reality. The nature of the escape changes depending on the larger social landscape. Does the current proliferation of films about super heroes and live-action fairy tales reflect a cultural desire to be rescued, or is it something else? Erica L. Satifka (M), Judith R. Conly, Marshall Ryan Maresca, John M. Lovett

Crime and Fantasy (8:00 pm - 9:00 pm) - From vampire assassins to wizard private eyes to undead thugs, crime has been mixing it up with fantasy for years. What is it about crime, noir, and the paranormal that's so appealing? Also - what are some really good titles? Erica L. Satifka, Fonda Lee, Diana Pharaoh Francis (M), Marshall Ryan Maresca, Rory Miller

Sunday, November 19

Erica L. Satifka Reading (10:00 am - 10:30 am) - Erica L. Satifka reads from her works.

I'll be selling copies of my British Fantasy Award-winning novel Stay Crazy for $10 (the "get these excess book copies out of my house so I can fill that space with candy" price) at the autograph session, and reading from my newest short fiction publication "The Goddess of the Highway" at the reading. And... that's it! See you there!

My Fantasycon 2017 Schedule!

In light of being nominated for the British Fantasy Award for Best Newcomer (!!! <--this is still deserving of multiple exclamation points), and it being my first award nomination, and having the ability to splurge on a major trip for which I am extremely grateful, I'm going to England! Rob and I will be in London for a week, followed by a few days in Peterborough for Fantasycon 2017. If you want to actually see pictures of and commentary on the trip I'll be dropping them on Twitter and Facebook. I'm also going to be on two panels at the con, and here they are! Both of them are on Saturday, September 30.

New Author Experiences (1:00 PM): Every writer has a different path towards getting their work published and finding an audience. Join a selection of new writers on this panel who are experiencing different parts of the process and listen as they compare their journeys. Phil Lunt (mod), Jeanette Ng, Anthony Laken, Erica L. Satifka, Kevin Elliott, Joseph E. Cole

Being BFA Nominees (4:00 PM): An award nomination can be a great confidence booster for a writer. It can also lead to all sorts of new opportunities. Our panel of BFA nominees will discuss what got them to this stage and what they hope their nominations will bring in the future. Ian Hunter (mod), Erica L. Satifka, Pete Sutton, Neil Williamson, Phil Sloman

I will also have copies of Stay Crazy for sale in the dealers' room and would like to make space in my luggage for books and touristy things, hint hint.

And finally, in short fiction news, my novelette "The Goddess of the Highway" is out in the current issue of Interzone (272), along with stories by Paul Jessup, T.R. Napper, and Aliya Whiteley. I'm waiting to talk about the story until people have gotten copies of the magazine and read it, but in the meantime check out the gorgeous story art below by Vincent Sammy, which pretty much nailed my own mental picture of the titular character.

In Which I Am Nominated for an Award!

You know how it goes: You're sitting in a neurologist's waiting room running on a medically-mandated two hours of sleep. You're reading Twitter, because you're always reading Twitter, and you see that you've been nominated for a British Fantasy Award. And then the EEG tech comes and gets you, and you can't play with your phone anymore, and you mumble something like "I think I've just been nominated for an award" but the tech is all "oh dear, you are tired, aren't you?" You lay in a quiet room for an hour trying to take a medically-mandated nap but you can't because you're wondering: did it happen?

It totally did.

I am so thrilled and honored that my debut novel Stay Crazy has been nominated for a British Fantasy Award in the Best Newcomer category. My first shortlist! So incredibly stoked! This book is pretty important to me, and it means the world that some other folks liked it too. Thank you judges and readers, from the bottom of my heart.

Assuming we can get passports and a hotel, I'll be attending Fantasycon 2017, as well as spending a week in the UK because why not. My first trip overseas! Exciting! See you there!

My OryCon 2016 Schedule

First of all: Yep, world's a shitshow. I'm not gonna go into politics here not because I don't want to but because this blog is pretty much a dumping ground for my con schedules and reviews of my book and stories. If you want to know my up-to-the-minute thoughts on the waking nightmare we all live in you can check out my Twitter and Facebook.

So with that in mind, OryCon 2016 is this coming weekend (November 18-20) and here is my schedule!


FRIDAY

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm: Women Role Models in Science Fiction - Are there any good female role models in science fiction? Or are they still relegated to being damsels in distress? A discussion of both weak and strong female science fiction characters across all media.Christina Hartley, David Weber, Erica Satifka (M), Mike Shepherd


SATURDAY

12:00 pm - 12:30 pm: Erica L. Satifka Reading - Erica L. Satifka reads from her debut novel Stay Crazy.

2:00 pm - 3:00 pm: Underpinnings of World Building - Waste water treatment, civil engineering, power generation - how much do you need to have to make your world believable? Erica Satifka (M), JJ Ark, Ken Lizzi, Mark Ezell, Vannessa McClelland

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm: We Can't Talk to Flipper, so How Can We Talk to Aliens? - The real problems of inter-species communications, and things we might be able to do to deal with them. Universal translator? Let's start with *a* translator. Erica Satifka (M), Gerald Nordley, Howard Davidson, Peter Wacks

8:00 pm - 9:00 pm: Political Economy for World Builders - Learn the basics of political philosophy, forms of government and economic systems to inspire your story, game or more informed voting habits. Erica Satifka, Matt Bellet


SUNDAY
11:00 am - 12:00 pm: The Death of the Stand-Alone Book - Trilogies, tetralogies--we're not even sure of the right names for five, six, seven-book series! Where does the madness end? Is there no market any more for non-series books? Diana Francis, Erica Satifka, Maura van der Linden, Tori Centanni (M), William Hertling

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm: Structurally Speaking - Stories have rhythm. Is there One True Pattern, or can we mess with it? Are we really bound to the Hero's Journey, or are there other models? David Boop, Erica Satifka, John C. Bunnell, Sharon Joss (M), Theresa Reed

And that's it! I will also have copies of Stay Crazy both in the dealers room and with me if you'd like to get one. I'm told it's quite humorous, which might make it a pleasing diversion from this hellscape.

My Westercon schedule!

Westercon 69 is happening in Portland in three short weekends, from July 1-4, at the Doubletree Hotel near the Lloyd Center. As usual with cons, I am on a lot of panels, and a lot of these are political which I'm really looking forward to.


SATURDAY

5:00:pm - 6:00:pm: Creativity and Mental Health - The care and watering of the creative brain. Ways of actively taking care of mental health to optimize creativity rather than coping or thinking mental health struggles as the price of creativity. Blythe Ayne, Erica Satifka, Langley Hyde, Kristin Landon

6:30:pm - 7:00:pm: Erica Satifka Reading - (This will be something from Stay Crazy, just don't know what yet!)

7:00:pm - 8:00:pm: Obligatory Paranoia Panel - What's the government really doing? And why is this panel obligatory? Ari Goldstein, Erica Satifka, Frog Jones, Rhiannon Louve


SUNDAY

10:00 am - 11:00 am: Kaffeeklatsch - Small group discussions with authors, artists, and other interesting personalities (referred to as "hosts") Sessions are limited to the host and a small group of attendees. A.M. Brosius, Erica Satifka, Sharon Joss, Wendy Wagner

11:00 am - 12:00 pm: Future Laws - How is copyright law going to deal with 3D printers? Piracy laws on movies/music still don't work with the invention of videos/DVRs now, how will it handle physical mass copying of objects? Ari Goldstein, Andrew P Mayer, Erica Satifka, Sean Robinson, William Hertling

2:00 pm - 3:00 pm: Zombies, Vampires, and Capitalism - If the modern vampire may have functioned as an apt metaphor for the predatory practices of capital in colonial and post-colonial societies, today's zombie hordes may best express our anxieties about capitalism's apparently inevitable byproducts: the legions of mindless, soulless consumers who sustain its endless production, and the masses of 'human debris' who are left to survive the ravages of its poisoned waste." How apt are these analogies? Are there other ways to link our modern capitalist practices to the creatures of horror and fantasy? And if capitalism is a horror story, do other economic philosophies offer more hope of a happy ending? Emily Jiang (M), Bob Brown, Gwen Callahan, Andrew P. Mayer, Erica Satifka

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm: The Leisure Society: Phantom or Just Around the Corner? - People are working harder and longer hours over the last couple of decades, despite increased productivity and automation. Was the leisure society we were promised simply a fevered dream born of the a drug-fueled decade, or has the promise been somehow perverted or inverted? Bob Brown, Erica Satifka, Ramez Naam, Rhiannon Louve


And that's it! See you in two weeks!

The Return of the Return of Numbered List Posts

1. My PCC Community Education class Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy is now open for enrollment! If you're in Portland and looking for an introductory writing course geared to genre fiction, I hope you'll check it out.

2. This is a very good post on class and writing that I want to say more about, but in a separate post. While I'm completely on board with pushes for diversity in SF (or any other genre), you can't deny that economic class is the forgotten (or purposely skipped over) component of that intersectionality everyone likes to talk about. There's no "Poors Destroy Science Fiction!" Even Scalzi doesn't factor class into one's "difficulty setting" because it's not immutable, which isn't something I really agree with, but I don't want to get into SJ territory just about now. But yeah. That post. Read it.

Yes, I AM wearing cat socks and a cat-head hoodie.

3. Last weekend was OryCon and I had a lot of fun! I had a reading where I read to people I didn't even know and I was on a ton of panels. Maybe too many panels? It's also awesome to have a con that I can bike and take public transportation to. While I'm usually far more into the lit-only cons, and OryCon is a more general lit + media + costuming + filk con, it's still my local con now so I'm going to it for as long as Portland will have me.

4. While at OryCon I went to a number of great panels (that I wasn't on). One of the best was a panel about how to write faster. I am not a fast writer, at all. I mean, I've written a ton of short stories, but when it comes to long-form stuff I work at a snail's pace, probably because I don't like writing novels all that much. But I want to write them! Which means I need to write faster. I picked up a copy of Rachel Aaron's ebook 2k to 10k on a panel recommendation. It's really short, so I finished it in about an hour. A lot of the advice is geared toward plotters instead of pantsers (definition: a plotter is someone who charts out their novel in advance, a pantser is someone who just starts writing and lets stuff happen) and I am most definitely a pantser.

But if I want to write novels and especially series of novels (which isn't necessarily something I want to do... but I may anyway), I think I'm going to have to learn to plot. Just a little. Nothing super detailed, because honestly, that would take a LOT of the fun out of writing for me. However, while going through my final final yes it's final this time maybe novel revision, I did notice inconsistencies. A lot of inconsistencies. Some my beta readers (I love you both!) noticed, but some only I did. And you know, it would have been much better to figure all that out in advance before wasting a ton of words on it. Even just writing a sentence per chapter indicating the month and where I was in the plot would have kept certain things straight. So... I'm plotting my next long-form project (a novella) and seeing how that goes.

Aaron also gives the advice to put your book onto a Kindle so you can read it like a reader would. It's the simplest idea that I've never even considered doing. I've read through the novel several times of course, but on Word, where I can make changes (and did). On a Kindle you can't make changes to the text, just jot things down on a pad. Brilliant! This is something I will do for sure after completing the final-really-maybe version of the book. (Well, I'm going to sit on it for a few months first, because of The Clarity of Distance.)

5. Speaking of ebooks, here's one you can buy. See how smooth that was? I am a marketing genius.

6. If you're into flash fiction, there's a new site called QuarterReads where you can buy forty hand-selected short stories for only $10! I have a page on there, and a few of those stories aren't available anywhere on the Web (and won't be), so QR is your best bet for reading them if you don't want to pick up their respective anthologies. Or you can read other people's stories too! It's only the price of two hypothetical fancy lattes that people who are not me drink every single day.

Take My Class!

Do you live in Portland? Do you want to learn more about the craft of speculative fiction: how to work from a prompt, how to bring together ideas and characters and plot into a cohesive whole, how to critique both published and peer work, how to submit your own stories for publication? And do you want to take this class with... me?? Well, now you can! This coming semester I'll be teaching a four-week workshop at Portland Community College. Here are the details:

Title: Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy
Dates: January 24 through February 14, 2015 (Saturday)
Time: 10:00 AM - 11:50 AM
Location: Cascade Campus in North Portland, 705 N. Killingsworth St.
Cost: $55

The class will be largely focused on flash due to the short time frame, but it's truly open to any speculative genre. There will be lots of in-class writing and critique time. For more information, go to the PCC Community Education site (the class will be listed on November 10), email me, or reply to this post.

In other news, this weekend is OryCon, i.e. the only convention I'll be going to this year. I'm really looking forward to it! Come join all the people on the West Coast who couldn't afford to travel to the World Fantasy Convention this year. We have food carts, that's all I'm sayin'.

My OryCon Schedule

I have an interview up at the Weightless Books blog, talking about Portland, the Codex Writers Group, how boring novels are to write, and more. Check it out!

Also, I'll be at OryCon two weekends from now, November 7-9 and will be on a mess of panels. Here's my schedule:

FRIDAY

1:00 - 1:30PM:  Erica Satifka Reading - Erica Satifka reads from her own works. (Eek!)

2:00 - 3:00PM: Woman in the Fridge - You need to give your hero a reason to do something. Quick! Kill his girlfriend and have him discover her stuffed in the fridge! Come have a respectful discussion on avoiding misogynist tropes in your fiction. MeiLin Miranda, Erik Wecks, Sheila Simonson, Diana Francis (M), Erica L. Satifka

3:00 - 4:00PM: Green Tree, Blue Tree, Purple Tree - What are some exotic ideas that could actually work based on current knowledge? Erica L. Satifka, Richard A. Lovett, Jessica F. Hebert, Daniel H. Wilson (M)

4:00 - 5:00PM: Workshop: Story Outline in an Hour - Bring something to write on and write with. You'll have an outline (or a good start) to a story by the end of this panel. Bonus--this would be a great head start to that creative writing class homework you're ignoring over the weekend. Erica L. Satifka, Frog Jones (M), Jason Andrew

5:00 - 6:00PM: Getting Your First Professional Sale - An author can struggle for months or years before achieving their first success, but even after writing their opus, they can be tripped up by a process which is both entirely new to them and yet critical to their success. This panel describes what an author may experience as they revel in their first success. Shawna Reppert (M), Annie Bellet, Erica L. Satifka, Kristin Landon, Devon Monk

SATURDAY

10:00 - 11:00AM: What I Wish I Would Have Known: Pitfalls for New Writers - All the things writers should know going in, from craft to scams, and what our panelists wish they'd known. Erica L. Satifka, Marshall Ryan Maresca, Dean Wells, John Hedtke, Mike Moscoe

1:00 - 2:00PM: Backstory: Too Much, Too Little, Just Right - What to use, what to lose. Writing the details without having to explain every last one. G. David Nordley, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, John C. Bunnell (M), Erica L. Satifka, Matthew Hughes

3:00 - 4:00PM: Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading - Join members of Broad Universe--an organization dedicated to women in genre fiction--for a whole bunch of really short readings crammed into one hour. MeiLin Miranda, Shawna Reppert, Erica L. Satifka, Susan R. Matthews

SUNDAY

10:00 - 11:00AM: Organizing a Successful Critique Group - A good critique group can make or break a writer. Different types of critique groups, the lifespan of a group, ground rules, ideal numbers, etc. Clayton Callahan, Erica L. Satifka (M), Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Edd Vick

1:00 - 2:00PM: Fiction in a Flash - Short fiction for a world of compressed time--flash and tweetable micro-fiction. Common pitfalls, quirks, problems and teh awesome inherent in the very short form. Jennifer Linnaea, Jason Andrew, Esther Jones, Erica L. Satifka (M)

Whew! Anyway, it's at the DoubleTree Hotel right next to the Lloyd Center in beautiful Portland, Oregon. Come check it out, and make sure to stop in the mall to visit the Suncoast Video.

100!

It only took me four years to hit the 100th post on this blog. Pretty sure I had a hundred posts on LiveJournal within the first six months.

Anyway, plug first: My short story "The Silent Ones" is in the new issue of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet! You can get it here. It's a story of interplanary travel, alien invasion, dudes in robes, and... okay, it's kind of a hard story to summarize. This was the only story I wrote between 2009 and late 2011. Here's a sample:

Not everything happens all the time, everywhere. 

That’s the first line on every bit of literature dealing with the alternate worlds. Want to visit a world where the triple World Wars never happened? You can. Want to see a place where computers run on steam power and even the horses wear corsets? Go for it.

Or you can just muck about in a world full of beautiful hillbillies or debauched Atlanteans. That’s more your personal speed, anyway. 

Most of the planes open for travel aren’t that different from your world. The atmosphere has to be breathable, at least, and it’s helpful if the inhabitants are roughly human, and mostly your size. Nothing will destroy a plane’s Yelp rating quite like a tourist crushed by forty-foot-tall giants.

LCRW has published so many amazing stories over the years, and I'm ecstatic to have a piece in it.

In other news, you've all been keeping track of #Ferguson on Twitter, right? One of my zine friends summed it up perfectly on Facebook: "Using McDonald's milk as an antidote for cop-fired teargas at a protest that was supposed to be peaceful but turned violent. If that's not an image of our century, I don't know what is." This is your science fiction future, people. And if you think it can't happen to you because of where you live or the color of your skin, you are sorely mistaken. (Not that race isn't an important part of what's going on in Ferguson, because it absolutely is. But it's not all of the story. Even your lily-white town or city police department has tanks and canisters of tear gas, you know.)

Last but not least, if you're going to Worldcon next year, better sign up now before the rates increase on September 1st. This will be my first Worldcon, and I'm excited! It's in Spokane, only a medium-sized bus ride away, so I'm pleased that I'll be able to attend my first one without shelling out hundreds of dollars for plane tickets. Come help me keep Doctor Who from winning another Hugo.

My DarkoverCon Schedule

Next weekend (November 29 - December 1) I'll be attending my first (and likely only, what with that whole upcoming West Coast dealie) DarkoverCon at the Crowne Plaza Baltimore hotel in Timonium, MD! Below are the panels I'll be speaking on:

FRIDAY

 

5:00 – 6:00PM: Comics & Graphic Novels vs. "Literary" F&SF - Compare and contrast F&SF comics and graphic novels with short stories and novels. Do they approach F&SF differently? Are there different strategies or goals? Whiteley (M), Sarah Pinsker, Timothy Liebe, Erica Satifka, Rob McMonigal (yes, the very same).

 

 

SATURDAY

 

1:00 – 2:00PM: Different Medium - Different Message? - Artists discuss how working in different media affects their craft. For example: two-dimensional art vs. ceramics or woodwork, hand-drawn art vs. computer-generated art, fiber arts vs. costuming, etc. Different design strategies for different media, different representational goals, etc. Vonnie Winslow Crist (M),  Erica Satifka, Alexander, Pyracantha, Halla.

 

3:00 – 4:00PM: Writing Workshop – Held in Steampunk (Greenspring Ballroom 1) -- I will be assisting with Meriah Crawford on this.

 

5:00 PM – Broad Universe Reading (Held inside Programming 2: Chesapeake 3-5): Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Margaret Carter, Meriah Crawford, Elektra Hammond, Kelly A. Harmon, Erica Satifka, Vonnie Winslow Crist, Leona Wisoker, Sarah Pinsker (M)


SUNDAY

 

2:00 – 3:00PM: Q&A for Authors - Is there something you've really wanted to ask one of the attending authors but haven't had a chance to ask yet? Well, here's your chance to ask! Heise (M), Rosemary Edghill, Don Sakers, Warren Rochelle, Melissa Scott, Leona Wisoker, D.H. Aire, Scott MacMillan, Stephanie Dray, Morland, Satifka, Tamora Pierce, Katherine Kurtz, C.S. Friedman, Meriah Crawford, Heather Rose Jones, Sarah Pinsker.

It's easily accessible to Baltimore folks via light rail, so you have no excuse!

It's Hard to Hold a Candle in the Cold November Rain

This is a picture of a cheeseburger between two grilled cheeses. Your argument is invalid.

So I was going to post a lot more about our Portland trip but then I realized that probably nobody cares and also it's been over a month since we got back so not topical anymore, you know? I have to be honest, I've been pretty upset since we returned. Anyone who knows me even a little (which is probably most of the people who read this journal?) knows that I haven't been fond of this Baltimore place since approximately two weeks after I got here. Going to a city like Portland, where everyone is so friendly and the streets mostly don't smell of pee and despair, just reminded me that even though in some ways I've "made it" here, that I have friends and a job and my writing, I am really not happy. Yeah, I know, most people aren't happy, suck it up. But it's getting to the point where I'm emotionally wrecked whenever I leave Baltimore, because I have to come back, and this is something that can't continue indefinitely. So yeah, changes are coming even if they're not coming as fast as I would like.

Anyway, in writing news, my #fullcommunism story "The Afternoon Revolution" was accepted for the Bundoran Press political SF anthology Strange Bedfellows, along with original stories by Eugie Foster, Ian Creasey, Craig DeLancey, Alter Reiss, and many more. So look for that in April 2014, yay!

Rob and I attended Capclave in October, go read his exhaustive recap on The Book Stew. This was the con that killed our car, but good riddance. It was great to see all my east coast SF writer friends, and I hope we can meet up with everyone at least one last time before going wherever it is we're going.

Lastly, although I am not doing Nanowrimo, I am currently in the process of turning out a long-form November-centric writing project. After spending the past few years exclusively focused on short stories, writing something with more word length is weird. You mean I can add elements, not subtract them? You mean I can/should put in character moments and world-building that has nothing to do with the central idea? It's really weird to me, and I'm not sure I like working long like this, but it's an experiment to say the least. But don't worry, short fiction, you'll always be first in my heart.

Capclave 2013: Be There AND Be Square!

Portland posts are on hold while I wait for Rob to upload some more pictures to break up the massive text blocks of gushing appreciation for America's Hipster Heartland. Meanwhile, I'll be at Capclave this weekend (October 11-13), so come say hi if you are nice and cool and want to talk about crazy 1970s SF writing, bicycle rights, or fancy European board games. Not on any panels or doing a reading because you apparently need to register for panel gigs at SF cons five years in advance. I'm stoked about it since it's a con centered on short fiction (despite the fact that this year's GOH is George R.R. Martin), and that's kind of my thing. Getting in these East Coast cons while I can, I guess?

However, I was actually on my first (authorized) panels this year at the Baltimore Book Festival, talking about diversity and also about short fiction. It's weird, for someone who doesn't really enjoy speaking publicly, I loved being on panels, perhaps because you're not the center of attention, and also there's a lot more structure. Not doing a write up since Rob already did an excellent one which you can find here.

In writing news, finally dusting off the novel. Parts of it are much worse than I remembered. Parts of it are way better. They say the best thing you can do when you finish a novel is to put it in a drawer for at least six months before editing. Well, it's now been four years since I looked at it. For once I am following standard writing advice, if only accidentally.

New Stories, New Sales, and the Baltimore Book Festival!

1. My short story "Super-Parents Last All Childhood Long" has just been posted at Daily Science Fiction for your non-subscriber reading pleasure. It's a tale of refrigerator parenting by actual appliances, and breaks my six and a half year streak between professional publications. (Although to be fair, there's an intentional hiatus in there.)

2. My experimental flash fiction piece "Thirty-Six Interrogatories Propounded by the Human-Powered Plasma Bomb in the Moments Before Her Imminent Detonation" was also just picked up by Daily Science Fiction, so look for that in the coming months.

3. Speaking of DSF yet again, they are currently holding a Kickstarter to fund the magazine through spring 2014 and keep it free to subscribers. I know a lot of people are Kickstartered out, but if you like the magazine and want to see more speculative flash fiction out there, consider donating or buying one of the books. DSF is a great magazine that publishes everyone from new writers to Nebula winners, and it's not just a flash magazine: longer stories are published every Friday. They publish everything from straight-ahead sci-fi to more literary/slipstream pieces to experimental stuff. So if you're not subscribed, go ahead and do that first, then consider donating to the Kickstarter. Thank you.

4. I will be at the Baltimore Book Festival, and will be speaking on several panels! Come to the SFWA tent in Mount Vernon, Baltimore City to hear me bloviate on:

Diversity in SF: The Protagonist Looks Like Me (Friday 9/27, 5:00 PM)

Come hear our authors discuss the portrayal of race, sexuality, gender, disability, and age in science fiction and fantasy. Is everyone represented? Whose stories are we telling? Whose are we missing? Join in the discussion and get recommendations of stories to read.

Other panelists: Don Sakers, Julie Czerneda, Cat Rambo, Peggy Rae Sapinoza (moderator)

The State of Short Fiction: From Pulps to Anthologies to Ezines (Sunday 9/29, 5:30 PM)

Join us to talk about the state of short fiction in fantasy and science fiction. Our panelists will discuss how it has changed over the years, what are the latest developments, and what stories they recommend. This is also a great panel for newcomers to the genre. If you haven't read science fiction or fantasy, short fiction is a good place to start. Come hear what's good, what's hot, and what's out there.

Other panelists: Rahul Kanakia, Don Sakers, Robin Sloan, Lawrence Connolly, Catherine Asaro (moderator)

And if those topics, and the rest of the programming, isn't enough to make you want to attend, can I remind you that one of the featured guests happens to be Brian Boitano?

Pre-Post "Boston Is Awesome" Filler Post; Also Readercon

So for the past 10-ish days Rob and I have been hanging out in New England generally, Boston specifically, and I have already decided that Boston is the greatest place in the world and I want to live there right now. Unfortunately, we won't be able to move there until 2014 at the earliest, but I am super stoked to see there is a place where people can talk about things other than traffic and parking. While I gear up to write the giant BOSTON RULES post, let's talk about Readercon, which is where I spent the last three days of our trip. It was awesome! This is only the fourth sci-fi (yes, I do call it sci-fi) con I've ever been to, and without a doubt it was the best due to its focus on books to the general exclusion of other forms of media. (Context also has more of a book focus as I recall, but I don't remember all that much about it overall. My memory for things that happened prior to around 2011 is seriously spotty as hell.)

Rob and I brought attention to ourselves by livetweeting several panels. I definitely found the panels much more in-depth and useful than previous panels I've witnessed; again, the focus on books helped, as well as the fact that the panels were quite diverse and/or evenly split by sex. (There WAS an incident with men passing over women in the audience early on, but it only happened once and after that I avoided dude-only panels.) What's funny is that it seemed nobody was really livetweeting at first, but after an hour or two more people started joining in. Thus begins and ends my entry into Internet trends. If you want to read some of the livetweets (by now that word has lost all meaning), go to my feed and scroll down. I don't tweet much. You can't miss them!

I also went to the Broad Universe reading and read part of my upcoming Daily Science Fiction story. Both exciting and nerve-wracking, as readings tend to be. (Psst, story email-drops on July 30th, pass it on.)

And on the last night there was hot tub and swimming pool aplenty. My one regret at Readercon is going to late night panels on the other two nights instead of going to the pool because I friggin' NEVER get to go to pools.

In addition to hanging out with some people from Secret Online Writing Club, I also met several authors and editors who I've known of or vaguely communicated with for years. If I try to list names it will come off sounding smarmy or I'll forget someone important, so I'll just say that if I spoke with you (yes, YOU!) this past weekend, it was a delight. I will absolutely be going to Readercon every year it's feasible.

(Crossposted from LiveJournal.)

Hartford/Boston/Readercon Trip, Day 1

We just stopped at the first hotel of the giant, ten-day-long New England Adventure, after a drive that wasn't nearly as terrible as long drives usually are. Our last semi-long trip, to Richmond, was practically unbearable. Then I realized that the reason why it didn't suck could be because we're heading north. That tells you all you need to know, really.

The ultimate destination of this trip is Readercon in Burlington, MA, which is like any other science fiction convention except that instead of a person dressed as the Fourth Doctor having a heated conversation about anime with someone dressed as the Seventh Doctor, it's actually about writing and authors and junk. Which means that this is a con made for me!

Tomorrow we go to Hartford, CT. And then to Boston, a city I expect to love. No updates every day, just when I feel like it.

(Crossposted from LiveJournal.)