Speculation, Fact and Fiction

This is my schedule for next weekend, at Boskone, at the Westin Waterfront Hotel, in Boston, and I am really looking forward to it.

Friday 9pm - What do you read for Pleasure?
With Patricia Bray, Mary Kay Kare, Lawrence M. Schoen, Paul G. Tremblay and Ann Tonsor Zeddies.
"Cheap romances. Yaoi manga. Archeology journals. Sword and sorcery.Cookbooks. What's your secret pleasure? Why? Does it affect your writing? (How?)"

Friday 10pm - Keeping Your Series Fresh
With Patricia Bray, Michael F. Flynn, Steve Miller, Joel Shepherd
"If you re lucky enough to create a long-running series, how do you stave off staleness? Have your protagonist take a new case, trip, job, or lover with every installment? Preplan a mega-story arc,building in new expansion joints, trapdoors, and maguffins as you go? Or just keep killing off everybody s favorite characters....?"

Saturday 10am - Workshopping Dos and Don't
With Theodora Goss, Alexander Jablokov, James Patrick Kelly,Steven Popkes
"Screaming "this is crap" is somewhat impolite. Sleeping with the instructor (unless really cute) breaks the rules. Our panelists, who have been there and done that (well, maybe....) when it comes to writers workshops, offer similar and sometimes even more practical tips for workshop selection and survival."

Saturday 11:30am Reading

Saturday 1pm - Kaffeeklatsch along with Joshua B. Palmatier
(googling suggests he writes very much the kind of thing I really enjoy reading, so that'll be splendid)

Saturday 3pm - Game On!
With Muriel Hykes, Eytan Kollin, Christopher Weuve
"Sales of videogames recently surpassed those of both movie tickets and DVDs. Shared worlds flourish on the web. Many of these games have SF, fantasy, or horror themes. What are the most common and/or effective? What similar itches do reading, writing, and gaming scratch? How do writers use their gaming experiences in their work?"

(NB this panel will cover the whole gamut of gaming, not just computer/console games)

Sunday 10am - Autographing

Sunday 12noon - Breaking Out of Stereotypes
With Nina Harper, Lawrence M. Schoen, Melinda Snodgrass, Wen Spencer, Mary A. Turzillo
"Do writers ever get typecast? Is this exclusively because of what they've done in the past, but are there other (gender, whatever?) biases? What are some of the ways professionals can get out of the mold into which they're cast, and build a new identity?"

So, a very interesting mix of panels, with some folk I know, some names I know, and some folk who'll be entirely new to me. Excellent. I will be paying back some of the cosmic debt I owe for the useful advice I've garnered from events over the years - and will also come away with useful stuff for my own work, current and future. And yes, flagging up the forthcoming publication of Irons in the Fire to hopefully interested folk. It's all good, as they say.

I fly out Thursday afternoon from Heathrow and come back Sunday night, landing early Monday morning. Burglars please note both sizeable teenage sons and black belt husband will still be very much in residence as the diary doesn't accommodate a family trip - shame. Maybe next time?

I am as you may imagine keeping a weather eye (ho ho) on this epic winter storm they're forecasting. Hopefully whatever materialises will be dealt with by Thursday.

So now I need to review and revise the To Do list, since stuff I expected to tick off on Friday didn't happen, on account of sons around and such. But I did tick off other stuff that was scheduled for mid-this-week so it's as broad as it's long, really.