There are only a couple of Mini Interviews left before Boskone begins, and this is your chance to help us welcome C.S.E. Cooney, Shahid Mahmud, and Don Pizarro. We hope you enjoy this group of interviews and look forward to seeing you soon!

You still have time to purchase your Boskone membership.

C. S. E. Cooney

C. S. E. Cooney is the author of Bone Swans: Stories (Mythic Delirium 2015), The Breaker Queen, The Two Paupers, and Jack o’ the Hills. She is an audiobook narrator for Tantor Media and the singer/songwriter Brimstone Rhine. She is a Rhysling Award-winning poet, and her short fiction can be found in Rich Horton’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, Strange Horizons, Apex, GigaNotoSaurus, Clockwork Phoenix 3 and 5, The Mammoth Book of Steampunk, and elsewhere. Check out her website or find her on Twitter or Facebook.

What are you looking forward to at Boskone?

This is my first Boskone ever! I don’t even know how to pronounce it. I have it on good authority that the art show is awesome, and that the atmosphere is relaxed. I loved Garth Nix’s Sabriel books, so I’m looking forward to the Guest of Honor events as well!

What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project?

I am working on the fourth draft of my novel, Miscellaneous Stones: Assassin. It’s about this girl who hails from a long line of assassins. Unfortunately, she’s born with an allergy to violence. Fortunately, that allergy is an early indication of necromantic powers—she’s so allergic to death that she can raise the dead, once she grows strong enough. But first, she has to survive childhood. Of course, the problem with “live by the sword, die by the sword” is that by the time she’s grown up, most of her family is dead. And she has enemies and allies both who are after her for her powers. This draft is particularly exciting, because I believe and hope that it is the submission draft—either it will win for me an agent and a  contract, or I put it away and work on something else that will. The stakes are high. And right now, as Raymond Carver writes in “Cathedral,” we’re really “Cooking with gas, bub.”

If you could recommend a book to your teenage-self, what book would you recommend? Why did you pick that book?

There are three female characters I encountered in fiction in my late twenties and early thirties that I want to be when I grow up. Cordelia Vorkosigan from Cordelia’s Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold, Tiffany Aching from the 4-book eponymous series by Terry Pratchett, and Gabrielle Reál, a recurring character in Carlos Hernandez’s short fiction. (We meet her three times in his collection The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria.) I would have loved my younger self to have had these women in her life: to look up to, to yearn toward, to have as example. Each, in her own way, is smart—but more than that, wise—imperfect, morally complex, heroic, terribly human, capable of great compassion and great ruthlessness, and the ability to think beyond their first flash reaction. “I open my eyes, then I open my eyes again,” says Tiffany Aching. I want to do that too.

Shahid Mahmud

Shahid Mahmud became a publisher in 2006 and subsequently created the dedicated SF/Fantasy imprint Phoenix Pick to publish out of print books. Phoenix Pick continues to reprint older SF/Fantasy and the catalog now includes books by Robert A. Heinlein, Larry Niven, L. Sprague de Camp and many other iconic figures of the genre. Shahid also publishes the Stellar Guild series pairing veteran authors with newer ones to write new fiction. Authors who have participated in the series include Larry Niven, Eric Flint, Mercedes Lackey, Robert Silverberg and a host of others. Feeling that life was not difficult enough Shahid partnered with Mike Resnick in 2013 to create an SF/Fantasy magazine, Galaxy’s Edge. The SFWA approved magazine publishes new and old fiction, plus columns, interviews and book reviews. He also organizes the annual Sail to Success Writers’ Workshop on board a cruise ship. Before entering the world of publishing, Shahid was an evil money manager but was able to keep his evilness well hidden. So much so, that the acting mayor of San Diego declared November 7th, 2005 to be “Shahid Mahmud” day for services he had rendered to the City. Check out his website or find him on Facebook.

What are you looking forward to at Boskone?

Meeting a great group of like-minded SF fans who love reading. Also meeting professional friends in the business.

What event or experience stands out as one of those ‘defining moments’ that shaped who you are today?

In 2005 I quit a lucrative day job to set up a publishing company, Arc Manor/Phoenix Pick. 10 years later I’m publishing some of my childhood idols as well as a critically acclaimed magazine, Galaxy’s Edge.

If you could recommend a book to your teenage-self, what book would you recommend? Why did you pick that book?

Dune (assuming being near the end of the teen years. While the book does not have some of the usual tropes modern SF embraces so easily like computers or robots, it epitomizes what the best SF books strive to do…be a mirror to our own souls. The book exquisitely creates a hugely complex world system in intricate detail, but ultimately is a beautiful narrative about human desires, ambitions and failings.

What is your favorite memory, scene, or line? What is it that that memory, scene or line that continues to stick with you today?

The Empire Strikes Back. Han’s response to Lia yelling out ‘I love you,’ as he is being frozen in carbon. “I know.” Just the cheekiness of the response even as he is being frozen is out of this world.

Don Pizarro

Don Pizarro has subsisted on red-eyes and gallows humor for over forty years. His writing has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Crossed Genres, and in other places online and in print. He is also the audio-aetherist (i.e. podcast editor) for Lakeside Circus. Don lives in upstate New York where he works as a university health care administration factotum. Come say hi at warmfuzzyfreudianslippers.com or on Twitter.

What is it that you enjoy most about Boskone?

To me, Boskone’s eclectic mix of programming makes it a place where I can get a hit from the creative vibes of the sci-fi/fantasy community at that late-winter point when my New Year’s resolution to “Write Moar!” starts to fade.

What are you working on now?

Aside from trying to kick out more essays (Just got one accepted the other day!) and short fiction, I’ve finally started my first novel! I’ve given it a codename on my blog, “PROJECT FLOSS,” because I’m too superstitious to start talking about it directly just yet.

What excites or challenges you about this project?

The fact that it’s the first story idea that’s come to me that really feels like it’s novel length. It also feels, for whatever reason (that I really don’t think I should examine very closely), like an idea I can actually have fun writing, and it’s that sense of fun that’s sustaining me through these early stages.

What is your favorite Star Wars memory, scene, or line? What is it that that memory, scene or line that continues to stick with you today? 

My 7 year old mind was convinced that Darth Vader was totally lying about being Luke’s father and that it had to be a con, because it came out of nowhere and how else could it make sense?? Such an innocent, simple child I was…

 

It’s time to sit back, relax, and read a few more Boskone Mini Interviews. Today’s batch features a trio of talented local writers, including Theodora Goss, Ken Liu, and Julie C. Day. We’re looking forward to seeing these terrific writers and all of our friends at Boskone this February.

If you haven’t yet picked up your Boskone membership, you can register here.

Theodora Goss

Theodora Goss’s publications include the short story collection In the Forest of Forgetting (2006); Interfictions (2007), a short story anthology co-edited with Delia Sherman; Voices from Fairyland (2008), a poetry anthology with critical essays and a selection of her own poems; The Thorn and the Blossom (2012), a novella in a two-sided accordion format; and the poetry collection Songs for Ophelia (2014). Her work has been translated into ten languages, including French, Japanese, and Turkish. She has been a finalist for the Nebula, Crawford, Locus, Seiun, and Mythopoeic Awards, and on the Tiptree Award Honor List. Her short story “Singing of Mount Abora” (2007) won the World Fantasy Award. She teaches literature and writing at Boston University and in the Stonecoast MFA Program. Her first novel, based on her novella “The Mad Scientist’s Daughter,” is forthcoming from Saga Press. Check out her website or find her on Twitter and Facebook.

What is it that you enjoy most about Boskone?

What I enjoy most is seeing all the writers and artists from our Northeastern community, together in one place.  Boskone is where I can see writers like Jane Yolen and Elizabeth Hand, and artists like Omar Rayyan, each year.  It’s wonderful seeing what everyone has done, and reconnecting with this wildly inventive and productive groups of folks.

What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project?

I have two books coming out from Saga Press in 2017 and 2018.  Right now I’m writing the second book!  Both books are about the adventures of an unusual group of girls: Mary Jekyll, Diana Hyde, Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherine Moreau, and Justine Frankenstein.  They find each other in late 19th century London and form a club–you could call it a club for female monsters.  The first book is about who they are and how they find each other, as well as solve a gruesome series of murders.  The second book is about how they set out to discover why they were created, and takes us through late 19th century Paris, Vienna, and Budapest.  Which means I’m doing a lot of research!  But it’s so much fun to go on these mental adventures…

If you could recommend a book to your teenage-self, what book would you recommend? Why did you pick that book?

Unfortunately, the book I would recommend wasn’t written yet when I was a teenager, but I wish my teenage self could have read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.  I was reading a lot of fantasy back then, a lot of Anne McCaffrey and Tanith Lee.  But fantasy seemed so divorced from literary fiction.  I would have loved to see a book that bridges that divide. I’m glad it’s going away, that fantasy is being recognized as great literature.  It would have been wonderful to know, as a teenager, that someday I would be writing in a literary world that was not quite so rigidly categorized, in which the boundaries are blurring–as I think they are now.

Ken Liu

Ken Liu  is an author and translator of speculative fiction, as well as a lawyer and programmer. A winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards, he has been published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction,  Asimov’s,  Analog, Clarkesworld,  Lightspeed, and Strange Horizons, among other places. He also translated the Hugo-winning novel, The Three-Body Problem, by Liu Cixin, which is the first translated novel to win that award. Ken’s debut novel, The Grace of Kings, the first in a silkpunk epic fantasy series, was published by Saga Press in April 2015. Saga will also publish a collection of his short stories, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, in March 2016. He lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts. Check out his website or find him on Twitter and Facebook.

What is it that you enjoy most about Boskone?

The best part of Boskone for me has always been the random conversations that happen in the hallways and outside the the programming rooms, stimulated by the panels and presentations. It’s a great way to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project?

I’m putting the final touches on the English translation for Death’s End, the last volume of Liu Cixin’s Three-Body trilogy, and I’m also finalizing edits for The Grace of Kings II (not the official title). It’s pretty intense to be working on two books at the same time while getting ready to launch my collection, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories.

If you could recommend a book to your teenage-self, what book would you recommend? Why did you pick that book?

Paul Cohen’s Set Theory and the Continuum Hypothesis. I think if I got to read this book as a teenage, I might have stuck with my plan to become a mathematician.

What is your favorite Star Wars memory, scene, or line? What is it that that memory, scene or line that continues to stick with you today?

During college, the final exams one year coincided with the release of the last book in a well-regarded trilogy in the Star Wars universe. I bought the trilogy as a “reward” for myself after finishing the finals, but ended up not being able to resist the temptation to “read just one chapter.” The next thing I knew, the sun was rising, and I had squander my last chance to cram for the exams overnight. I did, however, finish all three books in 6 hours. I still do not regret that decision.

Julie C. Day

Julie C. Day hold an MFA in Creative Writing from USM’s Stonecoast program and a M.S. in Microbiology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Her stories have been published in magazines such as Interzone, Electric Velocipede,Farrago’s Wainscot, and Podcastle, as well as anthologies such as Resurrection House’s XIII and A cappella Zoo’s best of anthology, Bestiary. She is the host of Small Beer Press’s occasional podcast. Check out her website or find her on Twitter and Facebook.

What are you looking forward to at Boskone?

To be honest I’m a relatively recent con attendee. Boskone is the first con I ever went to–all of four years ago. I really had no idea how many of “my” people I would find. Classic story, right? This year finding “my” people will no longer be a surprise. Instead, it’s the main reason I keep coming back. Talking books and writing and publishers, I can’t wait. If you see me wandering the con, come up and say “hi.” Another classic con trait, I’m a bit on the shy side.

If you could recommend a book to your teenage-self, what book would you recommend? Why did you pick that book?

How did I miss Diana Wynn Jones?! And why hadn’t Ysabeau S. Wilce’s Flora Segunda trilogy been written when I was thirteen? I can’t possible list just one book. But funny, girl-centric, magical and full of the unexpected: I wish there are had been more fiction like on my bookshelf. I read a lot of fantasy and science fiction. The Foundation Trilogy and Ridley Walker were two of my favorites. I adored them, but teen me was also yearning for something she could relate to on a more personal level. Jones and Wilce would have been good first steps in that direction.

How would you describe your work to people who might be unfamiliar with you?

I am a short story writer. I write dark often surreal stories that tend to utilize specific science facts as some sort of story metaphor. Some descriptors that people have used for my work include weird, slipstream, magical realist, and spec-lit.

What is your favorite Star Wars memory, scene, or line? What is it that that memory, scene or line that continues to stick with you today? 

I have no quotes at my disposal–for any movie. But I remember being so damn in puppy love with Harrison Ford. I had his picture in my school locker, something I’d forgotten about until just now.

As we close in on February 19th, the first day of Boskone, we bring you another mini interview packed with fun answers by three exciting authors. Help us welcome Jeanne Cavelos, John Langan, and Melanie Meadors.

Jeanne Cavelos

Jeanne Cavelos began her professional life as an astrophysicist working at NASA. After earning her MFA in creative writing, she moved into a career in publishing, becoming a senior editor at Bantam Doubleday Dell, where she edited award-winning science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels and won the World Fantasy Award. Jeanne left New York to pursue her own writing career and find a more in-depth way of working with writers. She is the author of two science books, The Science of the X-Files and The Science of Star Wars, and four novels, including the best-selling The Passing of the Techno-Mages trilogy. Her writing has twice been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. Jeanne is currently working on a near-future science thriller, Fatal Spiral. Jeanne founded and serves as director of the Odyssey Writing Workshops Charitable Trust, a 501(C)(3) nonprofit dedicated to helping writers of fantasy, SF, and horror improve their work (odysseyworkshop.org). Odyssey holds an annual six-week summer workshop in New Hampshire. Guest lecturers include some of the top writers in the field. Odyssey also offers online classes, critiques, and numerous free resources for writers. She has been nominated for a World Fantasy Award for her work at Odyssey. Check out her website or find her on Facebook.

What are you looking forward to at Boskone?

It’s wonderful to spend time with friends, many of whom I only get the chance to see once a year, at Boskone.  I’m looking forward to the crazy fun that spontaneously erupts when I’m with so many creative people who love the same things I love.  I’m hoping for some of the great insights I’ve had listening to panelists at previous Boskones.

What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project?

I’m currently writing a science thriller set in the near future called Fatal Spiral.  It’s about cloning and genetic modification, but mainly about how our genes influence our personalities, emotions, and behaviors.  Many things excite me about the novel, but I suppose I’m most excited by the chance to explore how much we can transcend nature and nurture–genes and environment–through will, and if will is truly something separate from genes and environment, where does this “will” come from?

As for challenges, never write a novel set in the near future—especially if you’re a slow writer.  Technology has changed so much in the time I’ve been writing this book, I’ve had to upgrade my technology three times.  The cool things I invent keep getting stolen from my head and produced by various companies.  I’ve now taken the precaution of writing with a foil hat to protect my thoughts.

How would you describe your work to people who might be unfamiliar with you?

I tend to create characters who are very screwed up and struggling with a bad situation. They often suffer, and often die.  At the same time, I try to build suspenseful plots that take some unexpected turns and keep readers worrying and guessing until the end. Hopefully there’s some intense emotion and some cool science, too.

What is your favorite Star Wars memory, scene, or line? What is it that that memory, scene or line that continues to stick with you today?

The moment that is burned permanently in my memory is of sitting in a theater at age 17 when the original movie came out and seeing that opening shot, of Princess Leia’s small ship being pursued by a Star Destroyer.  At that time, no movie spaceship had ever looked as large as that Star Destroyer, and as it passed before the camera, gradually revealing its huge dimensions, I was so struck by awe and wonder that I couldn’t breathe.  I wrote about this major moment in my life in the introduction to my book, The Science of Star Wars.  Writing that book was a wonderful way to combine my love for science with my love for science fiction, and to explore areas like planets, aliens, robots, spaceships, weapons, and the Force, and see how those things we love in Star Wars might someday be reality.

John Langan

John Langan is the author of three collections: Sefira and Other Betrayals (Hippocampus 2016), The Wide, Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies (Hippocampus 2013), and Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters (Prime 2008). He has written a novel, House of Windows (Night Shade 2009). With Paul Tremblay, he co-edited Creatures: Thirty Years of Monsters (Prime 2011). One of the founders of the Shirley Jackson Award, he lives in upstate New York with his wife and younger son. Check out his website or find him on Twitter or Facebook.

What are you looking forward to at Boskone?

As ever, I’m looking forward to seeing old friends and to making new ones.  This year, I’m also looking forward to the debut of Erin Underwood’s The Grimm Future anthology, in which I have a new story.

What event or experience stands out as one of those ‘defining moments’ that shaped who you are today?

Reading Stephen King’s Christine during my freshman year of high school was one of the pivotal experiences in my life.  Before that book, I had been thinking I wanted to go into comics; after it, I knew this was what I wanted to do.

What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project?

I’m completing stories for a variety of anthologies devoted to some truly strange subjects. There’s also a novel I’m supposed to get back to.  The challenge and excitement lies in writing something that doesn’t repeat what I’ve done before, in continuing to move in new directions.

From a fan perspective, what new book, film, TV show, or comic are you most looking forward to seeing/reading?

I’m looking forward to all kinds of things.  The tops are probably Laird Barron’s next collection, Paul Tremblay’s new novel, and Livia Llewellyn’s next collection.

How would you describe your work to people who might be unfamiliar with you?

I continue to derive a lot of inspiration from King and Peter Straub’s fiction, so I’m happy to describe myself as working in that tradition.  I love monsters.

What is your favorite Star Wars memory, scene, or line? What is it about that memory, scene or line that continues to stick with you today?

Han Solo steering the Millennium Falcon directly into the asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back.  Nothing encapsulates the sheer bravado of the character for me like that gesture.

Melanie Meadors

A writer of speculative fiction and lover of geeky things, Melanie R. Meadors lives in a one hundred-year-old New England house full of quirks and surprises. She’s been known to befriend wandering garden gnomes, do battle with metal-eating squirrels, and has been called a superhero on on more than one occasion. Melanie is the Publicity Coordinator at Ragnarok Publications and also a core contributor to the GeekMom website. Her story, “A Whole-Hearted Halfling” will be included in the upcoming Champions of Aetaltis anthology, early 2016. Find her on Twitter or Facebook.

What is it that you enjoy most about Boskone?

I love attending Boskone because it’s the perfect size. It’s large enough to feature excellent programming from some of the top people in the speculative fiction industry. There are panels at Boskone that aren’t available elsewhere, but there are also those that stay on top of what’s hot in the genre. There are panels that are fun, and then those that make attendees think. There is truly something for everyone. At the same time, Boskone is small enough to maintain a more intimate atmosphere. If you come in order to meet someone, you’ll have no problem seeking them out. Everyone seems to be relaxed and approachable, instead of always running around through crowds, late. There are also plenty of opportunities for people to get together built right into the programming.

What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project?

Right now I’m finishing up a young adult novel that has been haunting my brain for a couple years now. For me, the challenge I always face with a writing project is not allowing my day job as an author publicist/marketing guru influence my creativity. It’s very easy for me to let marketing thoughts invade my creative space. “That will never sell!” “How would that be categorized?” I’ve had to learn to silence that part of my mind while I write, because otherwise self-doubt becomes crippling. My new novel is basically something I would have wanted to read when I was a teen, science fiction with a fantasy aspect to it, and I hope readers enjoy it!

What event or experience stands out as one of those ‘defining moments’ that shaped who you are today?

This sounds a bit odd, and I swear I wasn’t on drugs, but in college, I had a double major in physics and astronomy. One night in Flagstaff, AZ, I was walking from one side of the NAU campus to the other, and was admiring the stars as I usually did. Since Flagstaff is an astronomy city, with Lowell Observatory there as well as the campus observatory, the street lights etc are designed to keep light pollution at a minimum, so the stars are quite amazing there (for being in a city). Suddenly I had this weird moment where I could feel just how big things were, and how very small the section I could see (which is huge relative to a single person!) was. Everything I had learned in advanced physics came together, and the numbers I had been staring at for so long suddenly represented something real rather than being abstract, and I can’t ever remember feeling such awe (and a little fear) at how much we don’t know about the world we live in, at how much we will NEVER know. But it’s not just scary how little we know or how small we are. After my moment of strange panic, I actually felt comforted. How small my problems were compared to how big the universe is! Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I try to bring my mind back to that moment. Why am I worried about such trivial things? The world will still be here long after I am gone. This influences my writing as well. The interesting thing about fantasy, to me, is making it plausible. Making it all make sense, because in our universe, there are infinite possibilities. Perhaps somewhere, on some other planet in some other galaxy, a place like Middle Earth actually exists. Maybe there are dragons. We are only limited by our imaginations, yet how much reality is out there that goes beyond our imaginations? The world is a strange and amazing place.

 

 

Boskone is only a couple of weeks away, which gives you just enough time to check out the newly posted Boskone 53 Program Schedule and plan your convention! We’ll be posting the schedule in various formats soon for your convenience.

Free Friday Afternoon Programming:  Last year’s Free Friday Afternoon was so well received that we’re doing it again. Programming begins at 2:00 pm on Friday, February 19th and is free to the public from 2:00-6:00 pm. Memberships are required after 6:00 pm on Friday and throughout the duration of the convention.

David G. Hartwell Tie Day: On Saturday, February 20th, we invite our members to join us in remembering David Hartwell by donning your favorite signature tie in memory of Boskone’s longtime friend, member of fandom, and one of the most influential editors within science fiction and fantasy who passed away on January 20, 2016.

Boskone 53 Program Highlights!

Be sure to check out the full Program Schedule to see what else you would most like to attend.

Friday, 7:15 PM
Room: Galleria-Stage
Opening Ceremony: Meet the Guests
Welcome to Boskone, New England’s longest-running convention for science fiction, fantasy, and horror! Whether you are attending for the first time or the fifty-third, we invite you to join us in the Galleria to meet this year’s guests.
Tim Szczesuil (M), Richard Anderson, Bob Eggleton, Arnie Fenner, Cathy Fenner, Garth Nix, Vixy & Tony

Friday, 7:30 PM
Room: Galleria-Stage
Boskone 53 Reception
Connoisseurs and philistines alike: welcome to the Boskone Art Show! Join us in the Galleria for an upscale social mixer. Meet our program participants while enjoying refreshments, stimulating conversation, and exceptional art that is a feast for the eyes. Experience the music and the festivities as Boskone celebrates another year of science fiction, fantasy, and horror in Boston.
Richard Anderson, Bob Eggleton, Arnie Fenner, Cathy Fenner, Garth Nix, Vixy & Tony

Friday, 9:00 PM
Room: Marina 1
Coffee House Concert with Featured Filkers Tony & Vixy
Vixy & Tony (disguised by day as Michelle Dockrey, mild-mannered officemouse, and Tony Fabris, mild-mannered codemonkey) are award-winning musicians with an easygoing style, catchy songs, accessible lyrics, and energetic performances — enjoyed by both SF fans and mainstream music enthusiasts alike.
Vixy & Tony

Saturday, 11:00 AM
Room: Marina 1
Official Artist Interview: Concept Art and Bringing the Vision to Life
Richard Anderson is interviewed by Tor Art Director Irene Gallo on his past, present, and future as a concept artist. (He illustrates initial ideas that inspire team members, who refine them into final art.) His impressive credits? Video games from Guildwars to Batman: Arkham Knight. Movies such as Prometheus; Thor: The Dark World; Guardians of the Galaxy; and Edge of Tomorrow/Live Die Repeat. Plus book covers like Victor Milan’s series The Dinosaur Lords. In Richard’s work, edgy warriors stalk soaring cities and brooding landscapes, looking for trouble. Perfect preparation for getting interviewed at Boskone!
Richard Anderson, Irene Gallo

Saturday, 1:00 PM
Room: Marina 1
Interview with Guest of Honor Garth Nix
Boskone GOH Garth Nix is a man of many hats, who has worked as a literary agent, marketing consultant, book editor, book publicist, book sales representative, and bookseller, as well as a part-time soldier in the Australian Army Reserve. He’s also a young adult and children’s literature author whose books have appeared on the bestseller lists of The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Guardian, and The Australian. His work has been translated into 41 languages. Join us for this fun and engaging interview with Garth and his longtime friend Barry Goldblatt, mastermind behind the Barry Goldblatt Literary Agency. Garth lives in Sydney, Australia, where it is nice and warm right now.
Garth Nix, Barry Goldblatt

Saturday, 4:00 PM
Room: Marina 1
Special Guest Dialog with Arnie & Cathy Fenner
Join us for a fun dialog between Boskone’s Special Guests Cathy and Arnie Fenner, the creative geniuses behind the formation of Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art. They have also written, designed, and edited a series of titles devoted to masters within the speculative art world and have co-curated several special Spectrum exhibits, including the one at Boskone this year. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear the Fenners talk, share their thoughts on art, their experiences within the industry, and everything in between.
Arnie Fenner, Cathy Fenner

Saturday, 5:00 PM
Room: Marina 1
Remembering David G. Hartwell
David G. Hartwell (1941-2016) was arguably SF/F/H’s most influential editor for decades until he passed away this January. He helped inspire generations of readers and fans — and played a critical role in the careers of many of our genres’ greatest authors. He won the World Fantasy Award in 1988, was nominated for the Hugo Award an astounding 41 times, and won it in 2006, 2008, and 2009. David attended Boskone regularly over the last 50 years, was a Boskone Special Guest, and won our Skylark Award. Please join us for a discussion about his sensitive, intelligent work; his fannish heart; and his signature neckties.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden (M), Kathryn Cramer, John R. Douglas, Gardner Dozois, Rick Katze, Beth Meacham, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Melinda Snodgrass, Michael Swanwick

Saturday, 6:00 PM
Room: Galleria-Stage
Boskone Book Party
Join us for Boskone’s Multi-Author Book Party, see what’s new from authors you love, and discover new favorites. Boskone is also launching three NESFA Press books tonight: The Collected Stories of Poul Anderson Vol 7, Conspiracy!, and The Grimm Future. (Authors and publishers with a new book and a current Boskone membership are welcome to take part; contact program@boskone.org for details.)

Saturday, 7:30 PM
Room: Harbor II+III
Boskone Rapid-Fire Theater and Awards Ceremony
Tonight’s presentation: a fast-paced theatrical extravaganza, featuring a set of mini-shows that resemble live-action “podcast experiments.” This special Saturday night program has something for everyfan. We hope you’re entertained, amused, soothed, gratified, provoked, intrigued, informed, or if possible all of the above in swift succession. Hosted by Boskone’s very own David G. Grubbs.

7:30 pm – Music with Vixy & Tony: We kick off Boskone’s Saturday Night Shorts with a taste of the musical feast served by our Featured Filkers, Vixy & Tony. Come hear why they’ve won multiple Pegasus Awards — plus the hearts of a lot of fans here at Boskone already.

8:00 pm – NESFA Awards Presentation: The New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA) presents its annual Skylark and Gaughan Awards. The Skylark Award honors the work and personal qualities of an exceptional contributor to science fiction. The Gaughan Award is presented to a talented emerging artist. We will also be announcing the winner of the NESFA Short Story Contest.

8:20 pm – The Wesley Chu Interview: Saturday Night Shorts continues with an all-too-short interview featuring fun, fascinating Wesley Chu —bestselling author of the action-packed Tao series plus recently released novel Time Salvager. A Boskone newbie, Wesley’s also the 2015 Campbell Award winner for Best New Writer.

8:45 pm – At the Movies with Boskone: Join Boskone’s movie mavens Dan Kimmel and Garen Daly for a lively film discussion. Hosted by David Grubbs.

9:10 – Mystery Radio Play: Boskone’s Saturday Night Shorts comes to a clueful conclusion with a short radio play featuring crime-solving private detective Kurt Krieger. Featuring Bruce Coville, David Grubbs, Bob Kuhn, Laurie Mann, Melinda Snodgrass.

Saturday, 9:00 PM
Room: Marina 1
Superhero Open Mic
Kapow! Live from Boskone … enjoy the knock-out stylings of our program participants and audience members who share their open mic skills in the first-ever Superhero Open Mic. Each person gives his/her best 5-minute superhero performance – story, poem, song, skit, interpretive dance, or whatever! OPTIONAL: For extra appeal, feel free to come dressed as a superhero!

The Rules: Boskone members are invited to join our participants in the open mic by signing up for one of the eight open slots at the door to the event, which opens for sign-ups at 8:30 pm. Each performer is given a firm 5-minute time limit (max), including set-up time. So a quick transition between acts is key.

Walter H. Hunt (M), Kenneth Schneyer (M), C.S.E. Cooney, Carrie Cuinn, E.C. Myers, Garth Nix, Don Pizarro, Lauren Roy, Mary Ellen Wessels

Sunday, 11:00 AM
Room: Marina 1
Interview with NESFA Press Guest Bob Eggleton
He paints an alluring spaceship, a spooky skull, and a mean Godzilla. He’s got nine Hugo Awards and a Chesley. He’s published eight books and helped concept films including Jimmy Neutron and The Ant Bully. But Bob Eggleton is also great at talking about landscape art, dinosaurs, all kinds of films, all species of monsters (especially dragons), the futures of physical art and convention art shows, and what it’s like to be a Japanese movie star (OK, movie extra). Join us for this special interview with Bob Eggleton, conducted by Boskone’s very own Joe Siclari.
Bob Eggleton, Joe Siclari

Sunday, 3:00 PM
Room: Burroughs
Feedback Session
This con is over, people. (Except for Dead Dog Filking — and of course teardown, where we’d love to have your help!) But we’re already working on Boskone 54. Help us get a good head start with reports on what went right (or wrong) this time, and how to achieve perfection next year.
Tim Szczesuil, Erin Underwood, Bob Kuhn

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Want to attend Boskone? We’d love to see you there. All attendees need to purchase a Boskone 53 convention membership. Click here to buy yours today! 

Full Weekend Rates

• Adult: $65
• College Student: $40 (school ID required)
• K-12 Children: $25 (school ID may be required)

One Day Rates

• Friday One Day: $25
• Saturday One Day: $45
• Sunday One Day: $25

Boskone is coming and the next set of Mini Interviews is here! We are pleased to bring you Walter Hunt, Sarah Smith, and Christopher Weuve, all of whom have fascinating stories to tell. We hope you enjoy these Mini Interviews and we look forward to seeing you in February for a fantastic convention!

Don’t forget to register for Boskone.

• Full Weekend Rates:
  • Adult: $65
  • College Student: $40
  • K-12 Student: $25
• Daily Rates:
  • Friday: $25
  • Saturday: $45
  • Sunday: $25

Walter Hunt

Walter H. Hunt is a science fiction and historical fiction writer. His first four military sf books, originally published by Tor and now in the Baen e-library, were set in the “Dark Wing” universe; his 2008 novel, A Song In Stone, concerns the mysteries of the Templars and Rosslyn Chapel; his 2014 novel, Elements of Mind, (edited by Guest of Awesome Vikki Ciaffone) is about mesmerism in the Victorian era; and his first novel in the world of 1632, 1636: The Cardinal Virtues, has just been published by Baen. He is an active Freemason and baseball fan, and lives in Massachusetts with his wife and daughter. Check out his website or find her on Twitter or Facebook.

What is it that you enjoy most about Boskone?

Boskone has a tremendously literate, engaged community that is genuinely interested in, and devoted to, speculative fiction. Participants especially panelists – have to bring their “A” game, and can expect good attendance and well-thought out questions and comments.

What are you looking forward to at Boskone?

As always, the opportunity to meet up with friends and colleagues. Boskone is a smaller, friendlier convention, so it’s very difficult to miss anyone who’s in attendance.

What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project?

I’m writing a new novel with Eric Flint, the first book in a new series from Baen. It’s set in North America in 1759, so it’s demanding in terms of research. As a historian by training, I find this challenging and engaging rather than burdensome. I was pleased to be invited to participate in this new series.

How would you describe your work to people who might be unfamiliar with you?

I am a writer of speculative and historical fiction. I have written hard science fiction / space opera, time travel, and purely speculative (for example, my sixth novel, Elements of Mind, was about mesmerism, the 19th century fraud science). Historical settings are ones that I find the most interesting, because truth truly turns out to be stranger than fiction.

Sarah Smith

Sarah Smith’s first YA, The Other Side of Dark (ghosts, interracial romance, and a secret from slavery times) won the Agatha for best YA mystery and the Massachusetts Book Award. She has also written Chasing Shakespeares, The Vanished Child and The Knowledge of Water (both New York Times Notable Books), A Citizen of the Country, and horror, SF, and hypertext short stories. “A Dog in the Weather” appears in the NESFA Press book Conspiracies (ed. Tom Easton and Judith K. Dial). Chasing Shakespeares has been made into a play, and The Vanished Child is being made into a musical. She finally finished the Titanic book and all the Reisden/Perdita books are now going to be published as eBooks as well. What has she learned in the last year? Doing eBooks takes longer than you think. Especially the cover. Check out her website or find her on Twitter or Facebook.

What do you enjoy most about Boskone?

You’d think I’d be all about the literary panels because I write stuff, but I love the Art Show. It’s enormous, it’s full of rip-your-eyes-out brilliant work, the kind that slithers right through your eyeballs into your brain. This year, Richard Anderson’s the [artist] GOH, which means there’ll be a lot of his originals in the show. Man. Can’t wait to see his stuff in person. Maybe he’ll even create something during Boskone.

After that, it’s all about spending a weekend with my friends.

What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project?

I’ve just been writing about Titanic. You know the Titanic story: couple goes on board in crisis; ship hits iceberg; couple reconcile—“oh, my darling! I’ll see you in New York”—and he dies while she goes over the side. IRL it wasn’t that way; most of the survivors, male and female, suffered from PTSD lifelong. I wanted to give the satisfactions of that Titanic love story and do a little more. So the story’s about survivors, in love with each other, and what happens to them. They grow up through survival, they get where they can commit to the lives they wanted in the previous books in this series.

I’ve been working with these characters for four books now, and it’s a pleasure to see them growing and changing.

Did I mention that the book’s also a thriller? Did I mention that Titanic sinks three times?

If you could recommend a book to your teenage self, what book would you recommend? Why did you pick that book?

It’s not what you read, it’s what books make your soul thrum. To my teenage self, I’d say, “Look at all those books you like. What do they have in common? What attracts you to them? What really works for you in them?” All my favorite books as a kid were about huge houses, houses that were almost worlds in themselves. Malplaquet in Mistress Masham’s Repose. Rest-and-be-Thankful in The Sherwood Ring. The whole of Gone-Away Lake (which wasn’t a favorite of mine as a child, because Greer Gilman introduced it to me years later. But it immediately became a childhood favorite). I’m still a huge fan of houseporn—golly, Hogwarts—but if I’d thought about what I was reading and loving then, I would have figured out earlier that the sorts of books I was meant to write were either worldbuilding SF or historical fiction (which is SF in disguise, with some of the worldbuilding bits already done).

What is your favorite Star Wars memory, scene, or line? What is it that that memory, scene or line that continues to stick with you today?

I saw A New Hope first, when it was the only Star Wars, so I’m all about the Mos Eisley Cantina. But I have a special feeling about the first scenes of Luke Skywalker, where he’s still at his aunt and uncle’s moisture farm. He’s just a farmhand, but he has a cool flying car, and he finds droids and fights Tusken Raiders and meets a Jedi Knight and and—The film starts at such a high pitch, you know it’s only going to get better from there. And it does.

Christopher Weuve

Christopher Weuve is one of the founding members of BuNine (David Weber’s Honorverse technical support team), and currently serves as BuNine’s President and Designated Extrovert. A professional naval analyst and wargame designer, Chris spent six years at the Center for Naval Analyses (he notes the Combat Information Center of an Arleigh Burke class destroyer would make an excellent starship bridge), and then five years on the research faculty of the US Naval War College, specializing in the use of wargaming as a research tool. Outside the day job, he was the “military expert” for the Discovery Channel’s Curiosity (Alien Invasion) show, and is (to the best of his knowledge) the only person ever interviewed by the journal Foreign Policy about science fiction warships — twice!   With BuNine, Chris was an editor for House of Steel: The Honorverse Companion in which he also co-authored (with David) the “Building a Navy” chapter. An avid science fiction fan since before he was old enough to read, Chris spends his time pondering the differences between Real-World™ naval warfare and how similar subjects are represented in science fiction. He still describes himself as an Iowan, over two decades after he moved east. Check out his website or Facebook.

What are you looking forward to at Boskone?

Boskone is a con I have been going to for the last seven or eight years, so I always look forward to seeing old friends.  It’s also a con with some depth to its programming, which I appreciate both as a participant and when I am in the audience.  And I usually look forward to doing a presentation or two at Boskone, but I honestly can’t remember if I signed up to do that this year.  (Looking forward to seeing the schedule!)

What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project?

Right now the big project I am working on is the new Honorverse companion book, House of Lies, which is being authored by David Weber and BuNine, David’s analytic visualization team.  This is the second book in the series, following House of Steel: The Honorverse Companion in 2013.  This book will be an in-depth background look at the (People’s) Republic of Haven and the Andermani Empire, with a few short stories from David to boot.  It’s a great opportunity for me and my BuNine colleagues to help define and expand the Honorverse.

Aside from that, I am working on a couple of projects.  One is a book on professional war gaming, based on my experience as a professor of war gaming at the US Naval War College and earlier at the Center for Naval Analyses.  The other is a book with the working title of Enterprise vs Enterprise: What the US Navy Taught Me About Starfleet.  At CNA I was the crazy guy they could get to go do an at-sea exercise on a week’s notice, and now I want to share what I learned with science fiction fans — in this case, through the lens of Star Trek.  It’s somewhat similar to the second interview I did for the Foreign Policy blog a couple of years ago.  If it does well, I intend to follow it up with two more books, one focusing on Battlestar Galactica and space-going “aircraft carriers,” and another on the general idea of space navies versus Real World™ navies.

How would you describe your work to people who might be unfamiliar with you?

So far I’ve mostly been working in the “about science fiction” space, rather than writing science fiction myself.  I’ve spent the last 15-plus years as a naval analyst (complete with a masters from the Naval War College), and I my hobby is to bring that skill set to the science fiction realm, which I do at cons and by serving as a technical adviser to science fiction writers.  (The list includes not only David Weber, but also Chuck Gannon, Tom Harlan, Walter Hunt, John Lumpkin, and Sherwood Smith and Dave Trowbridge.)   I often say that my fandom superpower is that I can talk about Real World™ navies and science fiction navies at the same time.

Want to attend Boskone? We’d love to see you there. All attendees need to purchase a Boskone 53 convention membership. Click here to buy yours today! 

Full Weekend Rates

• Adult Full Convention: $65
• College Student Full Convention: $40 (school ID required)
• K-12 Full Convention: $25 (school ID may be required)

One Day Rates

• Friday One Day: $25
• Saturday One Day: $45
• Sunday One Day: $25

If you prefer not to use a credit card, you can also register at Boskone for either a Full Weekend or One Day pass.

Kids Memberships

All children (ages 7–12) who use Dragonslair services must be convention members. Generally, children under 5 who stay with their parents at all times can be considered “kids-in-tow,” and need not have memberships. If you have any questions about the “kids-in-tow” classification, please contact Registration since Boskone. (“Kids-in-tow” do not receive any convention materials.)

We are not able to offer babysitting through the convention.

Boskone 53, February 19-21, 2016, held at Boston’s Westin Waterfront Hotel, is the longest running science fiction convention in New England.  Featured guests are Guest of Honor, author Garth Nix, Official Artist, Richard Anderston, Special Guests Arnie and Cathy Fenner, and NESFA Press Guest Bob Eggleton.

“Imaginative Art from the Pages of Spectrum“, this year’s Boskone Special art Exhibit, showcases work that has appeared in the first twenty volumes of the acclaimed, Hugo winning, Spectrum series of art books. Edited by Boskone Special Guests, Cathy and Arnie Fenner, the Spectrum series has become known as a Who’s Who of imaginative illustrators.

Our exhibit features 70 pieces that have appeared in Spectrum from the beginning through the last issue the Fenners edited.  The exhibit is sourced from both artists and collectors, who have enthusiastically contributed both paintings and 3D pieces.

Works will be on display from more than 35 artists, including Julie Bell, Brom, Jim Burns, Thomas Canty, Vincent Di Fate, Dan Dos Santos, Eric Fortune, Randy Gallegos, John Harris, Nicholas Jainschigg, Jeff Jones, Thomas Kuebler, Jody Lee, Greg Manchess, Petar Meseldzija, John Jude Palencar, David Palumbo, Mark Poole, Boris Vallejo, Vincent Villafranca, Ron Walotsky, Michael Whelan and Mark Zug.

In addition, we expect a number of artists represented in the exhibit to be in attendance at Boskone, including Rick Berry, Kristina Carroll, Scott Grimando, Stephen Hickman, Ingrid Kallick, Tom Kidd, Gary Lippincott, Omar Rayyan, Ruth Sanderson, David Seeley, and of course Boskone Official Artist Richard Anderson and NESFA Press Guest Bob Eggleton,.

Don’t miss this opportunity to appreciate a fabulous selection of art that has appeared in the most prestigious series of art books in the field.  Attend a docent tour, talk to the artists and our guests, or simply wallow in the sense of wonder that this art engenders.

For more information about the convention, go to http://b58.boskone.org/

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Register for Boskone today. Join us February 19-21, 2016

Registration Rates (good through January 19th):

• Adult rate: $50
• College student rate: $35
• K-12 student rate: $25
• Friday: $25; Saturday: $45; Sunday: $25

At Boskone, you’ll find folks working on a wide variety of projects in the realm of science fiction and fantasy. From urban fantasy, military science fiction or SF/F mysteries, today’s mini interviews from Dana Cameron, Brendan Dubois and Charles Gannon will give you a little taste of the variety Boskone offers.

Dana Cameron

Dana Cameron’s fiction is inspired by her career as an archaeologist. In addition to the six Emma Fielding mystery novels and her “Fangborn” urban fantasy novels, Dana’s short fiction covers the spectrum, including mystery, historical, noir, thriller, SF/F, Sherlockian pastiche, and horror. The latest novel in the Fangborn series, HELLBENDER (47North, 2015), combines archaeology with werewolves, vampires, and oracles. Her work has won multiple Anthony, Agatha, and Macavity Awards, and has been nominated for the prestigious Edgar Award. Dana lives in Beverly, Massachusetts. Check out her website or find her on Twitter or Facebook.

What is it that you enjoy most about Boskone?

Seeing old friends and making new ones!  I got to know Boskone through the mystery world and realized that there was a lot of overlap among the many genres represented at Boskone.  A place where I can spend the weekend talking about comics, Dr. Who, Sherlock Holmes, monster, movies, and SF/F? Sign me up!

What event or experience stands out as one of those ‘defining moments’ that shaped who you are today?

The time a guy with a gun who came to the archaeological site where I was working was pretty definitive.  He showed up and started to use a metal detector, and when my boss protested, the site looter pulled a pistol on us.  A lot of things run through your mind at a moment like that, but I figured the only thing I could safely do, in that moment, was memorize his description, license plate, etc.  Eventually he left and we were able to make a report to the sheriff.

A few months later, I was telling a friend about that event, and she said, “you should write it down.”  A blinding moment of satori, and I realized I needed to write a novel.  That led to the six Emma Fielding archaeology mysteries, which led to everything else.

What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project?

I’m working on a whole flock of things!  My second Sherlockian pastiche will be published next year in Echoes of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger.  My fifth Anna Hoyt colonial noir short story will also be published by Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.  And my very first science fiction will also be out this year.  There may even be another Fangborn short story in the works—my latest Fangborn UF novel, Hellbender, came out this past March.  I’m very proud of these stories, and the more I can write across genres, the happier I am.

The novel project I’m writing next will be a noir crime novel based on the Anna Hoyt character.  It’s very dark, and frankly, she’s not easy to live with.  She’s not what you’d call a role-model for finding peaceful solutions; on the other hand, she’s a great vehicle for sneaking in some of my feminist politics.  It’s set in 18th-century Boston, and I really enjoy bringing in my expertise on that period to my fictional work.

What is your favorite Star Wars memory, scene, or line? What is it that that memory, scene or line that continues to stick with you today? (It could be a moment from within any of the films, a moment associated with the films, or something inspired by the films.)

My favorite Star Wars memory comes from the first time I saw the movie (“A New Hope”), and Princess Leia picked up a blaster and started searching for a way to escape.  I really didn’t understand at the time why that made me so incredibly happy, but after more than a decade of having watched so many princesses literally sleep through the action and wait for someone to save them, I realize now that I was more than ready for a female character like Leia.

 

Brendan Dubois

Brendan DuBois of New Hampshire is the award-winning author of eighteen novels and more than 150 short stories. His first true science fiction novel, “Dark Victory,” was published in January 2016 by Baen Books, and he’s currently working on its sequel. His short fiction has appeared in Playboy, Analog, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and numerous anthologies including “The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century,” published in 2000, as well as the “The Best American Noir of the Century,” published in 2010. Two of his short stories have appeared in Gardner Dozois’ “The Year’s Best Science Fiction” anthologies. His novel, “Resurrection Day,” won the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History Novel of the Year. His stories have twice won him the Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and have also earned him three Edgar Allan Poe Award nominations from the Mystery Writers of America. He is also a “Jeopardy!” gameshow champion. Visit his website or find him on Facebook.

What are you looking forward to at Boskone?

I’ve been to several Boskones before, but this upcoming one will be very special for one simple reason:  a month earlier, my very first science fiction novel, Dark Victory (Baen Books) will have been published, and it will be a treat indeed to be at a science fiction convention as an SF author.  It will be great to mingle with readers and fans as a published science fiction author (although my first published novel, a mystery called Dead Sand, was published in 1994.)

What event or experience stands out as one of those ‘defining moments’ that shaped who you are today?

That event happened to me as a high school student while attending my very first Boskone, in 1977.  In the pre-Internet days, one experienced science fiction fandom through magazines and fanzines.  It was a thrill beyond belief to be among fellow SF and fantasy fans, to know you weren’t alone.  As chance would have it, on Friday, the very first night of the convention, I struck up a conversation with author David Gerrold, who invited me to go out to dinner with his friend, fellow author Larry Niven, and Larry’s wife Marilyn.  To spend a few hours with this charming group inspired me to become a published author, no matter the struggles, no matter the obstacles.  And after years of effort, that happened… and I know it all came from that night at Boskone.

What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project?

I’m currently working on the sequel to Dark Victory, called Red Vengeance. Except for my Lewis Cole detective series, this will be the first sequel I’ve ever written, and I had a lot of fun doing it, and returning to the science fiction universe of Dark Victory. I do hope that this second book will set the stage for a third, and possibly a fourth…

 

What is your favorite Star Wars memory, scene, or line?

Again, it was Boskone in 1977.  At the time the con would run 24-hour a day films, cartoons, shorts, reels and previews.  I had heard buzz of a new movie called “Star Wars,” and they had a trailer available.  The crowded room broke out in cheers after seeing the preview… it was something so new, so terrific and different, every there knew it was going to be a hit.

Charles E. Gannon

Dr. Charles E. Gannon ‘s award-winning Caine Riordan/Terran Republic hard sf novels have been multiply best-selling and Nebula finalists He also collaborates with Eric Flint in the NYT and WSJ best-selling Ring of Fire alternate history series. His other novels and short fiction straddle the divide between hard SF and technothrillers and have appeared through various imprints and in various magazines.

A Distinguished Professor of English and Fulbright Senior Specialist, his best known work of non-fiction, Rumors of War and Infernal Machines, won the 2006 American Library Association Award for Outstanding Book.  He is a recipient of five Fulbright Fellowships and Travel Grants and has been a subject matter expert featured in  various national magazines, as well as media venues such as NPR and the Discovery Channel.

A member of SIGMA, the “SF think-tank,” he has served as a consultant for  various intelligence and defense agencies , including DHS, Pentagon, Air Force, Army, Marines, NATO, DARPA, NRO, NASA, and several other agencies and defense contractors with whom he signed NDA’s.

Prior to his academic career, Dr. Gannon worked as a scriptwriter and producer in New York City, where his clients included the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and The President’s Council on Physical Fitness.  He also has many credits, in game design, including GDW’s Traveller, 2300 AD, and Dark Conspiracy RPGs.

What is it that you enjoy most about Boskone?

I enjoy the con’s “classical” feel. Don’t get me wrong: I have a blast at Comic cons and other conventions which are fusions of both old and new SF/F gathering modes. But Boskone is not only keeping alive a con tradition, but is one of the last, true “traditional cons.” It’s hard to say exactly what produces this sensation for me: it could be the sustained focus on literary tracks, or the great art show, or a demographic that cuts across age and interest groups wonderfully. But whatever it is, Boskone is one of the very “best” of its breed: a large regional con with national reach and an interest in bringing in both new, cutting-edge names as well as old favorites. So, yeah: I’m a huge Boskone fan, and am glad to be back!

What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project?

Right now, I’m working on the fourth book in the Caine Riordan/Terran Republic series, Caine’s Mutiny. I am excited by this project because it is actually a much more focused story-line than the first three in the series. I enjoyed the sweep of the earlier books, particularly Trial By Fire (#2) and Raising Caine (#3), but right now I’m ready for something a little different. The largest challenge is to keep the Big Idea hard SF mood of the third book fresh and strong in the dramatic pith of this new novel. Big Idea SF usually flies best on a big canvas. This is going to have a lot less room to turn, so to speak—but I am actually looking forward to working with that.

How would you describe your work to people who might be unfamiliar with you?

My novels—which to date have been almost all hard SF—have won awards, has garnered two Nebula finalist nominations, and were multiple best-sellers but for all that, they are a distinct fusion of old and new. In short, I wanted to revisit and re-energize a lot of the tropes of classic SF while doing so through prose styles and cultural sensibilities that were distinctly modern. I also determined that I wanted to make the Caine Riordan novels a subgenre mashup that hadn’t really been attempted before: mid-future hard sf with political/techno-thriller. Nothing says “today” more than cutting edge thrillers. They are immediate and visceral. And I wanted to bring that same sense of gritty urgency and reality to my SF. In short, I wanted to imbue a future history with a narrative style that imparted a sense of present-day urgency.

Most far ranging SF or sf-fantasy tends to place us in a far-future world with what I will call the Utopist’s Device: the universe depicted is separated from us by a signifcant gap in  time and historical linkages. It is A Very Different Place that only faintly points back to its origins in this, our contemporary moment.  So, somehow, humanity crossed from the humble banks of our every-day river of reality to that far shore of a wondrously different world. I think this is fine, and I like a whole lot of this literature. I write some of it myself, but it is not, in my opinion, a distinctive project. Lots of people do it. In the Tales of the Terran Republic, I chose to do something very different.

I site my series neither on the banks of contemporary experience, nor on the far shore of a distant future, a point so far removed from today’s realities that we can’t really assess how we could have reached that destination from our current circumstances. Rather, for the Caine Riordan series, I chose a narrative vantage point places the characters squarely upon the bridge of change, the bridge that we must ever build as we move from the present day toward the far shore of the future. And when the series is assembled as a mosaic (my intent from the start), I hope readers will, in retrospect, not only reflect upon how far we have come and how fast, but also, how in getting there, the characters did not experience the journey as an endless rollercoaster of dislocating jolts. Rather, the progress into that vastly changed future seemed deceptively, almost insidiously, gradual, more marked by it seeming normative rather than stupendous.

This is fundamental to my interest in creating immersivity, in creating a world that feels real because it follows a key feature in our experience of change: it does not arrive as a fast cascade of momentous events. Rather, most change comes daily, on cat’s feet, and we only realize how far we have come when we glance in the rearview mirror. Being utterly committed to verisimilitude (because: immersivity), I want that experience to track into my fiction; in short, that change is something we feel more in retrospect than in any given moment.

What is your favorite Star Wars memory, scene, or line? What is it that that memory, scene or line that continues to stick with you today? (It could be a moment from within any of the films, a moment associated with the films, or something inspired by the films.)

Okay, I’m sure mine is the same as so many others: Empire Strikes Back. “Luke, I AM your father.” Firstly, this made the whole story arc ring with real classical gravity—and it also showed that Vader was not a simple, brutal villain. He had complex motivations as well as extraordinary power.

AND…I knew from that moment that the Emperor’s prophesy referred to Luke only indirectly; I knew knew *KNEW* that Vader was going to be the one to kill Palpatine in an act of fatal redemption. I was, as the English say, pretty chuffed when I saw the end of the third movie….

Come join the fun at Boskone 53’s Book Party, and meet the presses and authors who have new books coming out at Boskone! This is your chance to see what’s new from authors you already love as well as those you have yet to discover.

Boskone is once again holding a book party on Saturday night during the convention to give our authors and publishers the opportunity to show off their newly released titles.

The Boskone 53 Book Party

Day: Saturday, February 20th
Time: 6:30-7:45 pm
Location: Con Suite, in the Galleria Level, Westin Waterfront Hotel

Authors & Publishers: If you have a new book that was (or will be) published within a few months of Boskone, we invite you to participate in the Boskone 53 Book Party. Bring your books and swag to share with readers who come to mix, mingle, and talk fiction with Boskone’s authors.

Authors and publishers (with a new book and a membership for Boskone 53) who would like to join the party, should email us at Program@boskone.org with your book’s information, including:

• Title:
• Author Name:
• Release Date:
• Publisher:
• Cover Image URL (if available):

Please note that space is limited. So, please be sure to contact us as soon as possible to let us know that you’re interested in joining the party. The more the merrier!

You still have a little time to get your advertisement into the Boskone 53 Souvenir Book, which is given to ALL members who attend Boskone! This is a beautiful handout that is packed with great information about our guests and the convention, and it’s a smart way to get your books, art, conventions, and services in front of fans.

The deadline for ads is January 20, 2016. So, please be sure to contact b53ads@boskone.org for more information today.

Souvenir Book Advertising Rates

TYPE OF AD	PRO	FAN
Back Cover (color):	$495	$350
Back Cover (greyscale):	$400	$270
Inside Cover:	$330	$215
Full Page:	$260	$95
1/2 Page:	$160	$65
1/4 Page:	$95	$35

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