When I attended Chessiecon in Timonium, Maryland in 2018 — where in addition to taking part in programing, I recorded conversations with Jo Walton and Stephen Kozeniewski for episodes of Eating the Fantastic — I didn’t stay at the official con hotel. Instead of the Red Lion, I used miles to get a room next door at the Red Roof Inn. And I haven’t thought of that hotel since.

Until earlier this evening, while watching the first episode of the HBO series We Own This City, during which a drug bust went down on the same side of hotel where I was staying!

In the screen grab above, you can see a SWAT team on the second floor approaching the suspect. I no longer remember my exact room number, only its general location, but in my memory, I was in the middle right of that first floor, maybe even staying in the room by which you can see the housekeeping cart parked.

I look forward to seeing whether the remaining five episodes take me back to any other Baltimore geography out of my past.

Chessicon is held — sometimes in Baltimore, sometimes in the Baltimore suburbs — every year over the Thanksgiving weekend. I’m only able to make it for a single day this time around, so if you’re hoping to hear me pontificate, here’s where you’ll be able to find me —

The Collusion of Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction
Saturday 1:00 p.m., Salon C
We like to think of stories as falling into separate genres, but often a story will end up crossing genres. This panel examines, and will point out concepts and that might fit into any or all of the referenced genres. It should also include some examples of stories that illustrate these concepts, and how they do so, and what the purpose of cross-genre stories might be.
with Michelle Sonnier, Margaret Carter, and Ef Deal

Short SF/F Stories vs Novels
Saturday 5:00 p.m., Salon D
So, you’ve written a story. It has a bgeginning, a middle and an end. But have you actually completed a story? Or, have you written more words than there is story to tell? A look at how to fine-tune your writing for the story you have.
with Michelle Sonnier, Ef Deal, and D. H. Aire

Hope to see you there!

It’s time for return to Timonium, Maryland for the second of two episodes of Eating the Fantastic recorded last month at Chessiecon, following up on my lunch with the con’s Guest of Honor Jo Walton. This time around you’ll sit in on my meal at Noodle Charm with horror writer Stephen Kozeniewski.

At least I think we ate at Noodle Charm. I’m not really sure. (Give a listen to the episode to find out the reason for my uncertainty.)

Kozeniewski is the author of such gonzo novels as Braineater Jones, Billy and the Cloneasaurus, and The Ghoul Archipelago. He’s also been part of the writers room for Silverwood: The Door, a 10-episode prose follow-up to Tony Valenzuela’s Black Box TV series Silverwood, which was released in weekly installments in both prose and audiobook formats.

We discussed how it took nearly 500 submissions before his first novel was finally accepted, why he has no interest in writing sequels, his advice for winning a Turkey Award for the worst possible opening to the worst possible science fiction or fantasy novel, why his output is split between horror and science fiction (but not mysteries), the reason Brian Keene was who he wanted to be when he grew up, why almost any story would be more interesting with zombies, when you should follow and when you should break the accepted rules of writing, where he falls on the fast vs. slow zombies debate, and much more.

Here’s how you can eavesdrop as we down dumplings on a break from Chessiecon — (more…)

I don’t know what you were doing last week on Black Friday, but as for me, I was taking this year’s Chessiecon Guest of Honor Jo Walton out to lunch at the nearby Bluestone Restaurant. And, of course, recording the conversation so you’d be able to join us at the table!

Jo Walton won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2002 and the World Fantasy award for her novel Tooth and Claw in 2004. Her novel Among Others won both the 2011 Nebula Award and the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and (according to those who keep track of such things) is one of only seven novels to have been nominated for the Hugo Award, Nebula Award, and World Fantasy Award.

Her novel Ha’penny was a co-winner of the 2008 Prometheus Award. Her novel Lifelode won the 2010 Mythopoeic Award. Her incisive nonfiction is collected in What Makes This Book So Great and An Informal History of the Hugos. She’s the founder of International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day, something which we never quite got around to talking about, so if you want to know more about that holiday, well, Google is your friend. Her next book, Lent, a fantasy novel about Savonarola, will be published by Tor Books in May 2019.

We discussed how Harlan Ellison’s fandom-slamming essay “Xenogenesis” caused her to miss three conventions she would otherwise have attended, why Robert Silverberg’s Dying Inside is really a book about menopause, the reason she wishes George Eliot had written science fiction, the ways in which during her younger days she was trying to write like Poul Anderson, her technique for getting unstuck when she’s lost in the middle of writing a novel, why she loathes the plotter vs. pantser dichotomy, how she developed her superstition that printing out manuscripts is bad luck, the complicated legacy of the John W. Campbell Award (which she won in 2002), how she managed to write her upcoming 116,000-word novel Lent in only 42 days, and much, much more.

Here’s how you can eavesdrop as we chow down in Timonium, Maryland — (more…)

Thanksgiving weekend is sneaking up on us, which means it’s way past time for me to let you know where to find me during Chessiecon.

Here’s what I’ll be pontificating about during my two days there —

How Not to Get Published
Friday, November 23, 4:15 p.m.-5:15 p.m.
A discussion of the mistakes and pitfalls common in SF/F publishing, and how to avoid them.
with Linda Adams, Steve Kozeniewski, Karen Osborne, and Steven R. Southard

Good Art, Problematic Artist
Saturday, November 24, 1:45 PM-2:45 p.m.
How are readers’ reactions to a story or other work of art affected by the actions and views of the creator? Can and should art be judged independently from the people and cultures that produced it?
with Margaret Carter, Beth Chandler, Don Sakers, and Steven R. Southard

If you’re also be at Chessiecon, please be sure to say hi!

The program for next month’s Chessiecon has just been posted. Which means …

… now you know where you can find me!

Here’s what I’ll be doing there—

Emotionally Engaging Modern Readers with Futuristic Characters
Friday, November 24, 5:30 PM-6:30 p.m.
How can writers create characters who exist in far-flung places and times and make them relatable for readers of our own times? How can the writer evoke sympathy and understanding (or hatred and disdain, as the story and character requires)? If “human nature” is, for the purposes of a particular SF/F work, imagined differently, reinterpreted, or done away with altogether, how does that happen without losing the interest of potential readers?
with D.H. Aire, Carl Cipra, Mary Fan, Andrew Hiller

Reading
Friday, November 24, 9:45 PM-10:15 p.m.
I’ll read the opening section of “How Val Finally Escaped from the Basement,” a short story appearing this month in Analog.

The Psychology of Fear: Why Do We Love Horror?
Saturday, November 25, 12:30 PM – 01:30 p.m.
Panelists will discuss the enduring quality of horror tales. Why do we love being scared when the world is already a pretty darn scary place?
with Margaret Carter, Meg Eden, Meg Nicholas, Jay Smith

How The Twilight Zone Embraced ‘Less is More’
Saturday, November 25, 6:45 PM-7:45 p.m.
In 1959, Rod Sterling’s television anthology The Twilight Zone engrossed audiences with thrilling stories of all sorts. In 2017, many episodes of the five-season series and its various spin-offs are still intense, captivating, and even scary, often thanks to the show’s ability to say as much as possible with very few special effects. Our panelists talk about their favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone and how the minimalist style made it more effective and memorable.
with Elektra Hammond, Steve Kozeniewski, Karen MacLeod, Alanna Morland

If you’re also be at Chessiecon, stop by and say hi!

There’s only one more convention I plan to attend before the end of 2016, and it’s not the World Fantasy Convention, since I decided to give that stop on the circuit a pass this year. Instead, you’ll be able to find me at Chessiecon, which was highly recommended by this year’s Guest of Honor, Sarah Pinsker. And since I trusted her enough to invite her to be the first guest on my Eating the Fantastic podcast, I figured I could trust her on that as well.

If you make it to Timonium, Maryland at the end of November, here’s where you’ll be able to find me … aside from when I’m wandering the halls or hanging out in the bar, that is.

Reading
Saturday, November 26, 2:15 p.m.
I plan to read an excerpt from my short story “101 Things to Do Before You’re Downloaded,” which will appear in the upcoming anthology You, Human.

Stupendous Bollocks
Sunday, November 27, 1:45 p.m.
Our host asks obscure questions which exist not as much to be answered as to encourage panelists to tell us what they know (or what they can make up) about the subject. Points are awarded for interesting answers, regardless of their correctness or relevance to the original topic.
with Carl Cipra, Heather Rose Jones, Steve Kozeniewski, Elizabeth Schechter

I have no idea what that second item on my agenda will be like, but I look forward to finding out together. Hope to see you there!