Tag: sff con

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Con Round Up: Boskone 60

This month I went to my first in-person convention since 2020, Boskone in Boston, MA. It was lovely being back at my ‘local’ con, but weirdly stressful, too. To paraphrase a friend, ‘we’re all a little feral now’, and have to re-learn how to do the event thing! By the end of each day, I was quite ready to retreat to my hotel room with a book… 

That said, I did have a great time… I was on four programming items. I led a Friday night meet up for young writers and ended up having a delightful chat to the two youngest participants — 10 and 13 years old. And a shout out to the pink stuffed axolotl that kept us company. On Saturday morning, I was in charge of organizing the Rapid Fire Reading for Broad Universe, an organization I belong to which supports women and non-binary people working in speculative fiction. We had eleven readers, and a nice variety of genres and writing styles to enjoy in five-minute bite-sized snippets.

I was also on two panels: I moderated Silver Haired Warriors on Saturday night, with Dana Cameron, Zin E. Rocklyn, and N.T. Swift, which I thoroughly enjoyed and yes, if you’re curious, we did decide that older characters are more than ready to take charge of spec fic, and that experience absolutely wins out against the hastiness of youth. On Sunday, I got to play with the other side of that coin, with Writing Realistic Teenagers. R.W.W. Greene was our trusty moderator, and my fellow panelists were Michael Stearns and Brad Abraham. One of my favorite takeaways was to remember to work from the heart and not the brain when writing teens, and to channel not necessarily your own memories, but the emotions that lay beneath.

There were plenty of good programming items to watch, and as usual the hard part is choosing! I caught a great panel on Friday called Digging the Past, with Darlene Marshall (M), Melanie Meadors, Katherine Arden, and Walter Jon Williams, where my favorite quote came from Katherine: “The best historical fiction wears its research really lightly.” (Along with a reminder that the writer does not owe the reader perfect accuracy.) After my Saturday reading, I stopped by the International Fandom Meetup, which only had a few of us attending but provided a nice break from the larger program items. 

Saturday afternoon, I managed to fit in two program items before my own panel. First off, How to Kill…a Character, an energetic debate with Max Gladstone (M), Brenda Clough, Bracken MacLeod, P. Djèlí Clark, and C.S.E. Cooney. Brenda Clough reminded us that nowadays, “no one has plot immunity”, while P. Djèlí Clark brought up the differences between how writers and readers experience a character’s death. Bracken MacLeod warned us that there should be emotional consequences, that a character’s death should feel ugly, even if they are evil and absolutely had it coming. The other Saturday item I caught was the Horror on Saturday group reading, with Nicholas Kaufmann, Bracken MacLeod, Max Martelli, and F. Brett Cox, a fantastic taster of great writing!

On Sunday, I stopped by at Seven Easy Steps to Taking Over the Universe, with Marshall Ryan Maresca (M), Christie Meierz, Mur Lafferty, Dana Cameron, and Steven Popkes, an absolutely hilarious discussion which concluded that: minions need good and fashionable jumpsuits, preferably with five pockets; that better toilet technology is a must, as well as a history degree (immortality is a maybe, but debatable); that every overlord-to-be needs a good slogan AND a good title; and that cats may already be our overlords…  The last panel I attended was The Shadow of the City, a discussion of cities as characters in urban fantasy with Walter H. Hunt (M), Sharon Lee, Darrell Schweitzer, and Carole Ann Moleti, and I think my favorite quote comes from Carole Ann Moleti: “Walk the city. (…) Observe the people, because that’s the story.”

All in all, a wonderful and inspirational event. Thank you to the New England Science Fiction Association for once again organizing a successful weekend, and for inviting me to be a part of it!

Afternoon tea break — view from my hotel bedroom
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Boskone 58 Round-up

Agent secrets panel

My first Boskone — in fact, my first ever SF/F Con — was in 2015. I’ve been back every year, faithfully checking into the Waterfront Westin in Boston each February for another weekend of panels, readings, and excellent conversation with new and old friends.

The 2020 Boskone took place just before the world locked down due to COVID-19. The 2021 edition wasn’t quite as lucky, but the New England Science Fiction Association, who organize the convention, rallied round and faced the challenge beautifully to produce a well-planned three-day virtual event.

With pared down and yet still extensive programming, there were plenty of interesting things taking place over the weekend, with the added bonus of recorded panels so attendees could catch up later. There was also a dedicated social Zoom open all day to give us a little of that feeling of chatting to people in hallways, in the con suite, and in the lobby lounge area. Was it the same as in-person? Of course not, but it was a good solution for a hard situation, and the virtual con had the advantage of broadening event access for those who might not otherwise be able to attend.

Some of my personal highlights from the weekend:

  • The Friday night reading by Paul Tremblay and Joe Hill was fabulous, and it was great getting to hear them chat about horror and writing.
  • The Agents: Revealing the secrets panel with Mur Lafferty, Michael Stearns, Joshua Bilmes, and Sara Megibow had good advice, such as: when vetting potential agents, remember there are bad agents, but there are also good agents who might be bad for you.
  • Supernatural Sleuthing with Dana Cameron, Leigh Perry, Nancy Holder, Bracken MacLeod, and David McDonald was a blast and had some of my favorite Boskone regulars on it. Advice included: a mystery needs to be solved. A mysterious novel just needs to create atmosphere. It’s all about audience expectations and author promise
  • The Guest of Honor interview, where Joe Abercrombie told Joe Hill that, “I like characters that are neither heroes not villains, but something in between”.
  • I loved the panel on The Representation of LGBTQ+ in Popular Culture, with Gillian Daniels, John Chu, Julia Rios, Jennifer Williams, and Sara Megibow — they could have done with double the time! One point made over and over was that ‘good representation’ shouldn’t mean just positive — characters should be allowed to be messy, nuanced, etc. In other words, realistic vs ‘good’.
  • GoH Joe Abercrombie joined Rebecca Roanhorse, Marie Brennan, Aleron Kong, and Bob Kuhn to talk about The Gritty Underbelly of Fantasy. A lot of the discussion centered on ‘grimdark’ being a reaction to the good/bad simplicity of classic fantasy.
  • A discussion on Post-Pandemic SFF Conventions, with Brenda Noiseux, Gerald L. Coleman, Steven Silver, Priscilla Olson, and Marcin Klack brought up a lot of interesting points, such as the current situation being the jumping-off point for future hybrid events which include virtual aspects so as to be accessible and inclusive for those who would not normally be able to attend due to financial, physical, and geographical constraints, among others.

Some thoughts:

  • Virtual con burn-out is just as much a thing as in-person event exhaustion. It’s tiring staring at a screen, and it’s tough to schedule watching time around things going on at home. Recordings helped with this, but screen fatigue definitely puts limitations on watching.
  • Despite this, I got a lot out of the panels I watched, and with the recorded events there was the bonus of being able to pause to take notes.
  • The chat feature during panels was for the most part lively and fun, and no unpleasant incidents occurred during the events I watched.
  • One nice aspect of having webinars routed through Grenadine was that it allowed us to see who was ‘in the room’ before the webinars started. It was nice being able to spot people I knew!
  • I wish I’d planned times to meet up with friends in the social rooms! I did drop in and look around, but it was the equivalent of randomly walking through the con suite to see if anyone I knew was there…
  • This was a huge undertaking and seemed overall to run very smoothly. Well done NESFA for another successful Boskone!

Left: Supernatural Sleuthing panel; Right: Joe Abercrombie and Joe Hill at GoH interview

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Ireland Roundup: Part I (Worldcon)

From the moment Worldcon 2019 was confirmed for Dublin, I knew I wanted to go. Eurocon was taking place a week later, in Belfast, and this was the most golden of golden opportunities to get to meet some of my UK and Irish SF/F writing friends in person. I talked it over with my husband, and we decided I should take the plunge and buy the memberships to both cons.

Fast forward two years and there I was, landing in Dublin on a grey and drizzly Wednesday morning at oh-my-god-it’s-early o’clock for my first ever Worldcon. I had arranged to meet my friend Pol, who was sharing a rental house with me and a couple of others from the forum we all post on — the SFF.Chronicles.com. Pol was fresh off the ferry from England, also arriving at horrible o’clock in the morning, so we kicked off our adventure by spending the hours until we could check in by traipsing all around Dublin. Two museums and a multitude of other stops later, including Trinity College and the statue of Oscar Wilde, it was finally time to drag our exhausted and zombie-like selves to a taxi and head over to our home for the week.

Dublin doorway
Oscar Wilde
Death globe selfie at Trinity College

The rest of the day was spent settling in, getting to know my housemates in person, and popping over lightning quick to the event venue to get our registration done. Thursday morning was Day 1 of Worldcon, and the four of us — Pol Dee, Jo Zebedee, Shellie Horst, and myself — took a taxi in the morning, excited to get started. The first panel I caught that day was Invasion and the Irish Imagination (Jo Zebedee, Peader Ó Guilín, Ruth Frances Long, Ian McDonald, Jack Fennel), a lively and thought-provoking discussion. Perhaps my favorite moment was when Jo told us, “as writers, keep asking those questions, and asking them hard.”

Later, in Sports in Science Fiction and Fantasy (Neil Williamson, Chris M. Barkley, Rick Wiber, Fonda Lee), Fonda talked about sports as a microcosm of society, and suggested that “sports are a way to reflect and reinforce some of the social conflicts and divisions.” I was particularly interested in this panel, as I’m getting ready for another revision pass of the SF sports thriller that I wrote last year. Lots of great tips!

View of the Liffey…
…from the conference center

I managed to fit in two more panels that day, Found in Translation (Rebecca Gomez Farrell, Jean Bürlesk, Umiyuri Katsuyama, Andy Dudak), and ‘Celtic’ Fantasy and Mythology (Kerry Buchanan, Kathryn Sullivan, Kristina Perez, Deirdre Thornton, David Cartwright). I also connected with some of the other SFFChronicles members who were attending Worldcon, and a few other ‘e-friends’ who I had been looking forward to meeting in person. As evening fell, we shared another taxi home to our ‘con within a con’, to chat about our day over dinner and a well-deserved glass of wine.

Friday was a day for readings, with one by Charlie Jane Anders — a delightful surprise, as I wasn’t familiar with her work — and Victoria Schwab — who is every bit as amazing in person as she is online. At the end of the day it was my turn ‘on stage’, as part of the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading. It was lovely to be part of Worldcon’s programming, and we had a nice turnout for our event.

The Broad Universe group
Con badge and con nails
BU and anthology swag

By Friday, Worldcon was busy, busy, busy; lots of people and lots of lines everywhere for all panels and events. We were forced to strategize, paring things down to basics, attending only the things we really wanted. For me, on Saturday, this included a great panel on Gender and Sexuality in YA (Victoria Schwab, Sam Bradbury, Diana M. Pho, Rei Rosenquist, Rachel Hartman), where we were urged by Rei to “stand on the ground you stand on” and know which story is actually ours to tell. Victoria added that writers need to understand the core of their own identity first.

Other Saturday events included a reading by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and a kaffeeklatsch with Peter V. Brett, where much Demon Cycle wisdom was shared. But possibly my favorite moment of the day was going out to dinner with a mixed group of SFFChronicles members and writers from Otherworlds NI, a Northern Irish science fiction group, the brainchild of Jo Zebedee. The Otherworlders are all collectively lovely, and us Chronners were more than happy to become honorary Otherworlds adoptees. This, to me, is the highlight of these events: the friendships forged or strengthened, the conversations held, the smiles and laughter gathered.

I kicked off Sunday by attending a kaffeeklatsch with fellow Broad Universe member Randee Dawn. This was followed by a panel on Getting Published and Staying Published (E.C Ambrose, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, George Sandison, Michelle Sagara, Rachel Winterbottom), where Elaine reminded us that most writers’ careers are a rollercoaster of ups and downs instead of a linear ascension. At What is Irish Science Fiction Now? (Jo Zebedee, Val Nolan, Atlin Merrick, Sarah Maria Griffin), Sarah declared that “no one is going to talk about us if we don’t talk about ourselves. (…) It is urgent that we represent ourselves.” When the subject turned to the divide between perception of ‘literary’ vs genre fiction, Sarah delighted the audience by saying, “I do believe they’re called book shelves for a reason, and not book plinths.”

Sunday evening was the Hugo’s ceremony, which Pol and I livestreamed from the house as we were both absolutely out of energy. I had already decided to give the last day of the con — Monday — a miss in the name of Dublin tourism, but I felt that Sunday was the perfect ending to an extremely hectic but very rewarding event.

More to come! Touristing in Dublin and Belfast, Eurocon/Titancon, the Titancon coach tour, and my day out in Howth…

Click here for Part II and Part III.

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View from my bedroom window

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Summer 2019 Updates

Summer! (At least for all of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere.) Life for me lately has been a busy but happy balance between visiting family, hanging out with the kids, and writing. This is what I’ve been up to, and what’s ahead for August…

June brought a visit from my mother, who flew up from Brazil to spend almost three weeks with us. We had a wonderful time exploring some of Connecticut’s parks and gardens, finishing things up with a glorious weekend in NYC.

2019-06-26 13.40.55-1-1

In July, I dove into revisions. I’m working on something new and rather scary, at least for me. It’s my first non-YA novel, my first try at working completely in a fantasy world (and not urban fantasy or portal fantasy), and also my first attempt at first person POV in novel-length work. The first half of Shiver’s story is now off with my wonderful (and hugely patient) beta readers, and to say I’m anxious is probably the understatement of the year!

2019-07-26 17.52.00

August began with a visit from my mother-in-law, also from Brazil. We’ve been busy, and have lots more fun stuff planned; one of the nice things about having friends or family to stay is the excuse to get out and about.

2019-08-06 12.32.28

Now, this is where things get truly adventurous. On August 13th I’m off to Ireland! Worldcon 2019 is in Dublin, and I’m looking forward both to exploring the city and to my first ever Worldcon. I’ll be doing a reading as part of the Broad Universe event, so if you’re there, I’ll be in the Liffey Room 3 at the CCD on Friday August 16th, from 5-5.50pm.

From the Con program: “Broad Universe is an international organization for women and female-identifying authors of science fiction, fantasy and horror, working together to promote women’s works in the genres! Our signature event, the Rapid Fire Reading, gives each author a few minutes to read from their work. It’s like a living anthology of women writers.”

On August 15th, more excitement! That’s release day for our all-female collaborative sci fi anthology, DISTAFF. I’ll have bookmarks on me in Dublin, come hunt me down. But our actual launch party will have to wait until the following weekend…

After Worldcon is over, I’m off to Belfast for Titancon (Eurocon). Here, we’ll be officially launching our anthology. Yes, there will be a proper event, all fancy-like with cupcakes and chocolates, so if you’re at Titancon, stop by on Friday 23rd, from 7-9pm in the Lisburn room.

At Titancon, I’ll also be part of the Literature Night readings on Thursday 22nd, and I’m moderating a panel: Found In Translation, discussing the business, practicalities and pitfalls of translating SF&F, with Francesco Verso (Future Fiction), Radoslaw Kot, and Jean Bürlesk (Science Fiction & Fantasy Society Luxembourg). That’s on Thursday 22nd, from 5-6pm at the Waterfront room.

I fly home on the 28th, hopefully full of the good sort of exhaustion that comes with meeting friends and making new ones, watching panels, traipsing around new cities to take in the sights, and generally getting enough inspiration to last a good few months!

2019-07-31 14.11.44

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Boskone 56 Round-up

Another year, another edition of Boskone, ‘New England’s longest running science fiction convention’. I’ll always have a soft spot for Boskone, which represents a lot of firsts for me: first SF/F con I ever went to (back in 2015, two years after moving to the USA) and first time on panels (2017) are two of them. This year I added another couple of firsts: my first time moderating a panel and my first time doing a reading.

Here are some of my Boskone 56 highlights!

  • Trying my hand at moderating. I…actually had a great time doing this. The other participants of the Agency and Free Will in Speculative Fiction panel — Gillian Daniels, Rebecca Roanhorse, Greer Gilman, and M.C. DeMarco — did a fantastic job with a pretty tricky theme, so a huge thanks to them all for playing along with my not-so-easy questions.
  • The Broad Universe group reading. Broad Universe has been organizing their Rapid Fire Readings for years now, and as a new member of the group I was delighted to give this a go. We each got an allotted six minutes to give the audience (and each other) a taste of our work, and I really enjoyed the mixture of styles and genres.
The BU reading: thanks L.J. Cohen for the photo!
  • Talking fights in the Now, That’s a Great Action Scene panel. Unfortunately our moderator Errick Nunnally only made it for the end of the panel, but Bracken MacLeod stepped in and kept S.L. Huang, Vincent O’Neil and myself busy with plenty of fun discussion points. And I got to take my HEMA longsword to show offprove a point (ha! point…) about the need for proper research.
  • Debating trilogies and series in the Middle Book Syndrome panel. Fran Wilde did an awesome job moderating this (plus, we had matching nail polish!), and Kenneth Rogers Jr., Sarah Beth Durst, Sharon Lee and myself had a great time trading tips and tricks for keeping those trilogies flowing.
Middle Book Syndrome panel; thanks to Jennie Ivins for the photo!
  • Readings! Besides the Broad Universe reading, I also caught the Unlikely Imaginarium group reading, with Elaine Isaac/E.C. Ambrose, Clarence Young/Zig Zag Claybourne, Kenneth Schneyer, C.S.E Cooney, Carlos Hernandez and Cerece Rennie Murphy. And later that same day, a reading by S.L. Huang, whose Zero Sum Game sounds awesome and has already been added to my to-read list.
There’s Clarence at the Unlikely Imaginarium reading…
  • I always try to fit in a few panels, and Laundering Your Fairy Tales with Jane Yolen, Theodora Goss, Victoria Sandbrook, Karen Heuler and Melanie Meadors was a great pick, delving into the often-dark history of popular fairy tales. Of Gods, Devils, And Tricksters was another good one, with an in-depth look at trickster figures in mythology. This one was moderated by Max Gladstone, with Rebecca Roanhoarse, Shannon Chakraborty, Jane Yolen and Dana Cameron. And I ended up going to The Great Agent Hunt, with S.L. Huang, Joshua Bilmes, Christopher Golden, Lauren Roy and Barry Goldblatt. Lots of good advice, and plenty of cautionary tales… 
  • People. All the people. New friends, old friends… Conversations everywhere: at the bar, in the hallways, at the tail end of panel sessions. This is what really makes Boskone such a great event — getting to hang out with other readers, writers, and fans for two days straight. You are all awesome and I loved spending time with you! I hope to see you next year!
A selection of postcards and bookmarks: to-read reminders!

I only stayed two days this time, instead of the full weekend, to save a little on hotel money. I was sad to leave early, but it’s for a good cause: in August I’ll be at Worldcon in Dublin and then Titancon in Belfast! I’m really excited to be trying something new, but you can bet that in 2020 I’ll be back at Boskone, my ‘home con’ and forever favorite.

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Boskone 56 Schedule

It’s almost February, and that means it’s getting close to Boskone time! I absolutely love this friendly New England Con, and I’m glad to be returning. If you like science fiction and/or fantasy, and live anywhere near Boston, why not drop by to check it out?

This year brings a couple of firsts for me: my first time as a panel moderator at Boskone, and my first reading, as part of the Broad Universe group. Besides my own program items, I’m looking forward to catching up with friends and hopefully making a few new ones; watching a couple of panels (see full program here); and maybe attending a reading. Let’s see how much I can cram into the two days I’ll be there!

If you’re planning to attend, here’s my schedule:

Agency and Free Will in Speculative Fiction

Friday 15th Feb 2019, 18:00 – 18:50, Harbor III

Fantasy often makes use of prophecy. But when a protagonist is the prophesied one, how can they experience true conflict, risk — or agency? They can’t fail, right? Shouldn’t this deflate the reader’s interest? What happens when you have conflicting prophecies? And if we’re in a mechanistic universe, governed by the laws of physics, where is free will?

Juliana Spink Mills (M), Gillian Daniels, Rebecca Roanhorse, Greer Gilman, M. C. DeMarco

Broad Universe Group Reading

Friday 15th Feb 2019, 21:00 – 21:50, Griffin

Join members of Broad Universe — a nonprofit association dedicated to supporting, encouraging, and promoting female authors of science fiction, fantasy, and horror — as they read tidbits of works and works in progress. Readers will include Terri Bruce, Trisha Wooldridge, L. J. Cohen, Roberta Rogow, Juliana Spinks Mills, Joanna Weston, and others. Moderated by Elaine Isaak.

Now, That’s a Great Action Scene!

Saturday 16th Feb 2019, 11:00 – 11:50, Burroughs

Fight scenes are not all created equal. Action scenes can make or break a story: drawing readers in, or shattering the suspension of their disbelief. Let’s look at some of the best action scenes and sequences to see how it’s done right — and why some scenes are just wrong. How do you keep the energy up without confusing the readers with a flurry of movements that only martial arts enthusiasts can follow — or care to?

Errick Nunnally (M), S L Huang, Bracken MacLeod, Juliana Spink Mills, Vincent O’Neil

The Middle Book Syndrome

Saturday 16th Feb 2019, 16:00 – 16:50, Marina 4

The first book of your series was amazing: solid story; compelling characters; great reception by publisher, critics, and fans. Now, the hard part: living up to all the high expectations. Or maybe the first book had a less receptive reception, but you still need to produce that second volume? Plus there’s the rhythm problem — first book, thrilling beginnings; last book, satisfying conclusions; middle book, recaps and repetitions … How do you deal with the pressures of a multi-book contract and impatient fans?

Fran Wilde (M), Juliana Spink Mills, Kenneth Rogers Jr., Sarah Beth Durst, Sharon Lee