Sci-fi Conventions, Dark Fantasy and Quirky Books

Ahhh. San Diego.  I just reluctantly turned down the invite from Conjecture, a regional sci-fi convention in San Diego, and now here's salt in the wound.

UC San Diego has just opened their Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination, "an interdisciplinary center where researchers in the arts, sciences, medicine and technology will come together to unlock the mysteries of imagination." Read all about the center and the Starship Century Symposium on the 21st and 22nd of this month to commemorate its opening.

I am, however heading to a regional sci-fi convention closer to home. Look for me at BayCon 31 in Santa Clara May 24-26. This year's theme is Triskaidekaphobicon. Fear of the Number 13 Con, basically. It's the 31st BayCon held in 2013 in a hotel with a 13th floor. More importantly, this year's con will explore the darker side of science fiction and fantasy. My latest story credit should fit right in. I sold a flash to Every Day Fiction that's terribly - or deliciously - dark. One of the editors said,
"So, where is the moral?" Well, I guess if there's a lesson, it's "Sometimes discovering the truth just makes it worse." "The Curse of Having Been a Man" will most likely appear in June or July. This is my fourth sale to EDF.

Want to read an appetizer-sized dark fiction piece now? Read "Raining Good Intentions" right here by yours truly, Ann Wilkes. You can always hit the Flash Fiction tab on this blog to read some more little nibblets.

In honor of Zombie Awareness Month, I'm reading The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters. I love Quirk Books! I reviewed another of Winters' Quirk books, Android Karenina, at Mostly Fiction. I also just requested William Shakespeare's Star Wars from Quirk.


Finally, here's a sneak peek at I, Frankenstein, which hits theaters in January.

Opportunities abound - including a trip to space!

In honor of its 50th Anniversary, the Seattle Space Needle is sending some lucky space-lover into space! They have lots of other prizes. Entering the contest gains you access to the grand prize of a private (as in not NASA, not by yourself) rocket ride into the heavens - a sub-orbital jaunt, really. But how cool is that? Find out more here.



Phoenix Pick's free ebook for September is A. A. Attanasio’s Radix . This from Phoenix:

This particular edition of Radix is scheduled to be taken off the market
during January 2012 (due to contractual reasons), so this may be one of
your last chances to get this, what the author considers, his favorite
edition of the book.

Readers will also have the option of purchasing other books of the Radix
Tetrad at a substantial discount when downloading the free ebook
(instructions will be given on the download page).

A young man's odyssey of self-discovery in a world eerily alien, yet
hauntingly familiar.

Set thirteen centuries in the future, A. A. Attanasio meticulously creates
a brilliantly realized Earth, rich in detail and filled with beings
brought to life with intense energy.

In this strange and beautiful world, Sumner Kagan will change from an
adolescent outcast to a warrior with god-like powers and in the process
take us on an epic and transcendent journey.

Carl Schirmer spontaneously transforms into light. Then, 130 billion years
later, when all of spacetime is collapsing into the vast nothingness of
the cosmic black hole, Schirmer is remade from the remnants of his light.
He is reborn in time’s last world, the strangest of all—the Werld.

“An instant classic.”—Washington Post

“RADIX is sheer pleasure to read: brimming with living characters,
splendid adventures...It is an exhilarating novel.”—Minneapolis Tribune

The Coupon Code for September is 9991421 and will be good from September 2
through September 30, 2011. Instructions and download link, as usual,
through our online catalogue at http://www.PPicking.com

**end PR**

And if you're anywhere near San Diego, attending Conjecture will give you a multitude of opportunities to hear from yours truly! This year's theme is Incredible Worlds and their GOH is Allen M. Steele.

Here's my so sweet schedule of panels for this small, but long-running con in beautiful San Diego.

Friday 2PM Post Apocalyptic Fever
Friday 5PM Care and Feeding of Writers' Groups
Friday 6PM Are There Any New Stories?
Friday 7PM Reading

Saturday 3PM Alien Libraries
Saturday 5PM A Feudal Future: SF as Fairy Tale
Saturday 7PM How Will We Feel When We're No Longer Made of Meat?

Sunday 11AM Comedy in SF & F

I can't wait! I'm going to make sure to hit Seaworld and the beach while I'm there, too!



And though Renovation is over, look what's in store for Worldcon 2013 after Chicon (Chicago 2012):

LoneStarCon 3 wins 2013 Worldcon bid for San Antonio
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 20, 2011

RENO, Nev. – The World Science Fiction Convention will return to Texas for the first time since 1997 after voting results announced Aug. 20 at Renovation, the 2011 Worldcon, awarded the right to host the international conference to the Texas in 2013 bid. LoneStarCon 3–the 71st World Science Fiction Convention–will be held Aug. 29-Sept. 2, 2013, at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas. The Mariott Rivercenter and Mariott Riverwalk will serve as the host hotels.

The guests of honor list for LoneStarCon 3 includes Ellen Datlow, James Gunn, Norman Spinrad, Darrel K. Sweet and Willie Siros, with Paul Cornell serving as toastmaster and featuring special guests Leslie Fish and Joe R. Lansdale.

**PR truncated**

Clare de Lunacon

Clare Deming reports on Lunacon 54

On the weekend of March 18-20, I had the opportunity to attend Lunacon 54 in Rye Brook, NY. This science fiction convention covers everything - from books to gaming to costuming. Lunacon is run by the New York Science Fiction Society and was first held in 1957. Spanning two and a half days, the Hilton Rye Town hosted panel discussions, a masquerade, a dealer's room, art show and sale, filk, gaming and socia events.

Guests of honor this year were Lawrence M. Schoen (writer), Rachael Mayo (artist), and special guest Eric "In the Elevator" Zuckerman. Bios on the guests and other details about the con can be found at http://2011.lunacon.org.

I spent most of my time attending panel discussions on writing. Topics spanned many aspects of the field. I enjoyed discussions of Urban Fantasy, The Biggest Mistakes New Writers Make, Borrowing From the Past, and World-Building for Historic/Fantasy Fiction.

Costumes were abundant, from the LARPers with foam-padded swords to steampunk to Star Trek. I managed to escape the dealer's room with only a couple of t-shirts, but there were several vendors offering books, jewelry, weapons, and accessories.

The Hilton has hosted Lunacon for eighteen years and I found most of the facilities were adequate. However, the service at the restaurant was a bit slow, and I ended up eating my breakfast and lunch in the con suite, where the bagels were tasty. On Sunday morning, I know I was not the only one to discover that my shower lacked hot water.

Next year's convention will be held at the same location, March 16-18, 2012. Guests will include writer John Ringo, artist Howard Tayler, and YA writer Tamora Pierce.

Faeries, FOGcon and panel discussions on writing

A trip down memory lane - faerie style.








And you can still read my fractured faerie tale, "Troll Games" at Flashquake.

FOGcon here I come. I just got my panel assignments for March 12, 2011 at FOGcon in San Francisco. The theme for this year's Friends of Genre reader convention is The City in SF/F.


My City Goes to 1011 (Saturday, 1:30-2:45 P.M.)

Can an online community be considered a city? Why or why not? If so, how
does one define the community boundaries? If not, what are the
differences?


Let's Build a City (Saturday 8:00-9:15 P.M.)

Right before your very eyes (and with your vigorous suggestions from the
audience!) our panelists will create a city out of nothing but the room's
imagination. Will it sit in the crater of an active volcano? Will it have
different districts for people to live in based on their culinary
preferences? Come and find out...


I'll also be moderating the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading (RFR) with BU members Mary Holland, Pheobe Wray, Valerie Frankel, Julie Andrews, Corie Ralston and Danielle LeFevre from 10:30 - 11:45 Saturday morning.


This evening, I'll be on a library panel on Style of Writing in Sebastopol sponsored by the Redwood Writers. If you're local, come out and hear what my fellow panelists and I have to say about the various kinds of writing one might pursue and why. What makes one form harder than another? Is it just a matter of preference?

Night of the Living Trekkies

Night of the Living Trekkies

Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall

2010 Quirk Books

Trekkies and geeks and zombies, oh my!

Jim Pike, an emotionally wounded war hero, has only one mission in life - to not be responsible for anyone. That way he can't let anyone down or let anyone die because he wasn't there to keep them safe. His job at the Botany Bay Hotel and Conference Center in Houston is well below his abilities and potential, but he likes it that way.

Strange things always happen at sci-fi conventions. It's part of their charm. But an attacking mime? And a beheading by bat'leth? In Night of the Living Trekkies, a zombie epidemic breaks out in the Botany Bay just as it is filling up for GulfCon.

Authors Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall kept my attention throughout with unexpected twists and turns to an otherwise standard "attack of the undead" book. It reads like a spoof of a 70s horror movie and is clearly intended for a young adult audience.

Jim, his sister and a handful of unaffected congoers are quickly outnumbered and on the run. They all look to Jim to get them out alive. Our reluctant hero has to get his geek on if they have any hope at all of not becoming undead.

GulfCon being a strictly Star Trek convention, Star Trek references and trivia abound. This is a fun, quick read - especially if you appreciate, as I do, both Star Trek and zombies.

Leave a comment to enter a random drawing for your own copy of Night of the Living Trekkies. If you also tell me the name of the talkative, blue crew member on Star Trek Next Gen, I'll throw in the poster. Winner will be announced on November 30th.