With less than a week until Boskone begins, we bring you the last of our Mini Interviews. However, this is just a taste of what’s to come next weekend. We hope you have enjoyed the interviews and this opportunity to get to know a bunch of our program participants who will be attending Boskone this year. It has been our pleasure to introduce them to you. And now, for our final batch of interviewees. Help us welcome Bill Campbell, Neil Clarke, and Carrie Cuinn. We look forward to seeing each of them and each of you at Boskone 52!

Bill Campbell

Bill Campbell is the author of Sunshine Patriots, My Booty Novel, and Pop Culture: Politics, Puns, “Poohbutt” from a Liberal Stay-at-Home Dad and Koontown Killing Kaper. Along with Edward Austin Hall, he co-edited the groundbreaking anthology, Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond. Campbell lives in Washington, DC, where he spends his time with his family, helps produce audio books for the blind, and helms Rosarium Publishing. For more information, visit Bill’s website, follow him on Twitter @bcampbellauthor, and friend him on Facebook. What are you looking forward to at Boskone? Well, this will be my first Boskone, and what I’m really looking forward to is the sense of envy I’ll have during the whole thing. Looking over the program, there are a lot of writers I’ve enjoyed or heard great things about. I’d like to hear them speak, but I’ll be in the Dealer Room most of the time. Maybe they’ll take pity on me and drop by to say Hello. What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project? Wow, good question. Well, as a publisher, I’m working on all of Rosarium’s releases. We’ve kind of exploded this past year and have a lot of books and comics coming out this year. It’s keeping me pretty busy. As an editor, I’m working with Nisi Shawl to finish up Stories for Chip, the anthology dedicated to Samuel R. Delany, and I’m also working with John Jennings and Jason Rodriguez for our benefit comic book anthology, APB: Artists Against Police Brutality. As a writer, I’m working on a comic book with the immensely talented, Ashley Woods called Baaad Muthaz, it’s a spaceploitation about a group of women who are pirates, smugglers, and a James Brown revival band. The main challenge in all of these projects is getting sleep. How would you describe your work to people who might be unfamiliar with you? Not for the feint-of-heart. But pretty damned funny.

Neil Clarke

Neil Clarke is the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Clarkesworld Magazine (clarkesworldmagazine.com). His work at Clarkesworld has resulted in countless hours of enjoyment, three Hugo Awards for Best Semiprozine and four World Fantasy Award nominations. He’s also a three-time Hugo Nominee for Best Editor (Short Form). In 2012, Neil suffered a near-fatal “widow-maker” heart attack which led to the installation of a defibrillator and a new life as a cyborg. Inspired by these events, he took on his first non-Clarkesworld editing project, Upgraded, an all-original anthology of cyborg stories published earlier this year. He currently lives in NJ with his wife and two sons. For more information, visit Neil’s website, follow him on Twitter @clarkesworld, and friend him on Facebook. What are you looking forward to at Boskone? It takes something special to get me to head north in the winter. I enjoy the panels, but for me Boskone is more about the people than anything else. What event or experience stands out as one of those ‘defining moments’ that shaped who you are today? The most recent thing would have to be my heart attack at Readercon two and a half years ago. There’s nothing like a brush with death to remind you what’s important in life. It shapes everything I’ve done since. What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project? I’m still working on Clarkesworld Magazine (clarkesworldmagazine.com). Our hundredth issue was published in January and I’m looking forward to what adventures the next hundred will bring. It never gets boring. For example, we’ve recently partnered with Storycom in China to start regularly publishing Chinese translations in each issue. It took us months to work out the logistics, but I’m really excited to have the opportunity to introduce English-speaking audiences to these works. The response from our readers has been amazing and now we have plans to expand those efforts to other languages as well.

Carrie Cuinn

Carrie Cuinn is an author, editor, bibliophile, modernist, and geek. Her work often references and subverts classic science fiction, blending SF tropes with feminism, anti-colonialism, hard science, myth, magic, poetry, and more. Recent stories can be found at Unlikely Stories, Daily Science Fiction, Chaosium, and in her latest collection, Women and Other Constructs (June 2013). She founded Dagan Books, Ltd. in 2010, publishing SF/F anthologies, novellas, and Lakeside Circus, a quarterly magazine of very short fiction. In her spare time she listens to music, watches indie films, cooks everything, reads voraciously, and sometimes gets enough sleep. Visit Carrie’s website, follow her on Twitter @CarrieCuinn, and friend her on Facebook. What is it that you enjoy most about Boskone? For me, Boskone is a perfect mix of pop culture and fandom combined with intelligent and thought-provoking literary panels and discussions. I’ll meet fans that often feel more comfortable approaching me — or any of the other guests and panelists — than they seem to be at other conventions. I can see friends, be social, and connect with folks I may not see again for another year. At the same time, a large percentage of the attendees are fellow professionals, so even when we’re enjoying a relaxing moment, we tend to talk shop. I get a lot out of those conversations, especially from writers who’ve been in the business much longer than I have. I love being able to share information and stories with the audience during the panels I’m on, and I have learned something new from each one of those panels as well. In short, it’s entertaining enough that I know I’ll have a great time, and still professional enough that I know it won’t feel like a vacation, or worse (a waste of time). What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project? I have several short stories and poems that I hope to find a home for this year, and as someone who considers themselves more of a short story writer than anything else, I think I’ll always be working on a new story idea or revising an older one until I’m happy with it. For me, the most challenging project I’ve committed to this year is the non-fiction book about the history of printing presses. It’s an extension of my academic work, and it’s going to require a lot more research before I’ve got a good rough draft, but it’s exciting too because I have a chance to share the personal stories of the people who propelled what I consider to be humanity’s greatest technological achievement. I get to highlight the contributions of artisans who developed the press, and moveable type, long before Gutenberg put his name on it. I get to educate readers about the vital roles played by women, and by people of color, in not only developing the tech but also protecting the early presses, and advancing the cause of the printed word. If you could recommend a book to your teenage-self, what book would you recommend? Why did you pick that book? Nathan Ballingrud’s North American Lake Monsters. My teenage self read a lot of horror, especially Stephen King and Clive Barker. From them I learned important lessons about telling entertaining stories, about going from point A to point B to point C and still having the reader care about the story by the time you get there. But Ballingrud would have taught me about style. He would have taught me that the sort of story I most love to tell — where there’s far more going on than the central conceit, and not all of it gets explained by the time the end languidly but definitively rolls around — is a damn fine way of storytelling. If I’d known that, I could have spent more time being myself (as a writer), even when that only makes sense to me.

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Register for Boskone today. Join us February 13-15, 2015

Registration Rates:

• Adult rate: $60
• College student rate: $40
• K-12 student rate: $25
• Friday: $20; Saturday: $40; Sunday: $20

Boskone draws participants from far and wide and this year’s convention is no different. From California to New York to Texas, take a peek at Mini Interviews from a few of our traveling friends.

Valerie Frankel

Valerie Estelle Frankel has won a Dream Realm Award, an Indie Excellence Award, and a USA Book News National Best Book Award for her Henry Potty parodies. She’s the author of over 20 books on pop culture since 2012, including From Girl to Goddess: The Heroine’s Journey in Myth and Legend, Buffy and the Heroine’s Journey, Winning the Game of Thrones, Katniss the Cattail: A Guide to Names and Symbols in The Hunger Games, An Unexpected Parody, Teaching with Harry Potter, Joss Whedon’s Names, Sherlock: Every Canon Reference You May Have Missed in BBC’s Series 1-3, and Doctor Who – The What, Where, and How. Come explore her latest at VEFrankel.com. Check out Valerie’s blog, follow her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter @valeriefrankel.

What is it that you enjoy most about Boskone?

I have never been to Boskone. However, I have been to Baycon, Loscon, and other local sf and f cons put on by the fan groups so everyone can discuss and celebrate the works out there, from classic to recent. They’re always a blast. I love chatting with both the famous authors and the fans who love the same things I do.

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

Oh WAAAAY too many. I’m writing two different Doctor Who guides (should be done any minute) and editing two different anthologies of essays on Joss Whedon. Plus I have an Outlander and Myth book that may come back from one publisher any minute, and another on themes in Whedon that may ALSO come back for a DIFFERENT publisher any minute. And I’m writing a presentation on Game of Thrones. And producing audio books of some of my more popular works. And distributing some new ebook samplers. As for challenges, keeping it all straight and making sure everyone gets their questions and requests dealt with. All this ends up feeling like a squash match—things fly at my head, I serve them back, they fly at my head again. So it goes…

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

Avengers 2 is likely going to be a good one—everyone has high hopes from a great combination of writers, actors, and creators. Plus I need to write an Avengers book by then that’s been a long time formulating. Not so sure about Ant Man…we’re never getting a Black Widow film, are we?

Steven Sawicki

Steven Sawicki is a writer, reviewer, screenplay writer, producer, race car driver who has been professionally involved in SF and fantasy for more than 25 years. Visit Steven’s website or follow him on Twitter @Steven_Sawicki.

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

Most of my work deals with perceptions of reality.  i think we all see things a big differently. This comes out most in my Damn Aliens work–both the novellas and the reviews they do for Fantastic Stories fo the Imagination online.

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

I’m really waiting for a hard science fiction book or movie.  I’d love to see Asimov’s Foundation done or something similar.

What are you looking forward to at Boskone?

Definitely the people who attend. It’s the only reason for going.

Marshall Ryan Maresca

Marshall Ryan Maresca is a fantasy and science-fiction writer, as well as a playwright, living in South Austin with his wife and son. His first two novels, The Thorn of Dentonhill and A Murder of Mages will be released by DAW Books in 2015. His work also appeared in Norton Anthology of Hint Fiction, in Rick Klaw’s anthology Rayguns Over Texas. He also has had several short plays produced and has worked as a stage actor, a theatrical director and an amateur chef. He is represented by Mike Kabongo of the Onyxhawke Agency. Visit Ryan’s website or follow him on Twitter @marshallmaresca.

What are you looking forward to at Boskone?

The big thing, for me personally, is this will be the first conference I’ll be attending after Thorn of Dentonhill is released. So that’s going to be a real thrill. Beyond that, Boskone has an incredible line-up of participants this year, and I’m quite excited to be a part of it.

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

Right now I’ve got quite a few things in different stages of development. The big thing I’m working on is the sequel to A Murder of Mages,which is giving me the opportunity to do macro-level worldbuilding on a micro scale. The city of Maradaine is very cosmopolitan, and it’s filled with cultural enclaves from different parts of the world. So the big challenge is showing how my protagonists navigate the complexities of these different cultures right up against each other, without it just becoming a Worldbuilding Travelogue.

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

Thorn of Dentonhill, and the follow-up novel A Murder of Mages, are both mixes of high fantasy and urban fantasy. They’ve got the deep, epic secondary worldbuilding of high fantasy with the street-level focus of urban. Thorn involves a magic student who becomes a vigilante to wage a one-man war against a drug lord, and Murder follows two constabulary inspectors as the work to solve a series of ritualized murders.

Part of the fun in putting together the program for a science fiction and fantasy convention like Boskone is finding the intersections between spec fic literature and notable dates on the calendar that inspire interesting topics for discussion. We are excited about these upcoming discussions! You still have time to pick up your Boskone membership online, and get ready for some great panels. We’ll see you there!

Friday the 13th!

Friday, 8:00 PM
Friday the 13th: When Sequels Run Amok
On Friday, March 13, 2015, the 13th movie in the Friday the 13th franchise will be released. As a genre, horror movies seem prone to extended franchises. (Okay, so Friday the 13th falls far short of the 23 James Bond movies.) Still, on this ominous Friday the 13th, we pause to consider this likewise significant date and the release of the cursed-number movie and wonder when — and whether — enough is too much for this and other horror movie franchises?
Jack M. Haringa (M), Christopher Golden, Paul G. Tremblay, Mallory O’Meara

Valentine’s Day

Saturday, 11:00 AM
Mythic Love and Epic Romance
Some of the greatest love stories come from ancient mythology, such as Psyche and Cupid or Odysseus and Penelope. However, great love stories that span the fantastic and (in some cases) the centuries also come in more modern tales, featuring couples such as Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese, Bella and Edward, Wesley and Buttercup, Dr. Frankenstein and Elizabeth, and Count Dracula and Mina. What do these tales of love and romance tell us about love? What do these epic love stories tell us about ourselves? And why are we drawn to them?
Darlene Marshall (M), Debra Doyle, Max Gladstone, Chris Jackson, Ada Palmer

Saturday, 2:00 PM
Paranormal Romance Before It Was Cool
Paranormal romance is one of today’s hottest genres, but it wasn’t always that way. Panelists discuss the origins and early works that built the foundation for today’s paranormal romance genre. What are some of the foundational works? What and who should you be reading from the early days of paranormal romance? Why did it take off like it did?
Leigh Perry (M), Melissa Marr, Darlene Marshall, Carrie Vaughn

Literary Anniversaries

Celebrating its 275th anniversary, Beauty and the Beast (HTML*) was originally published in 1740 by French author Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve.

Friday, 3:00 PM (free to public)
Beauty and the Beast
Disney adapted “Beauty and the Beast” into an animated film 25 years ago, but where did this age-old romantic story begin? What other stories of mythic love and romance have survived the ages? Are these old fairytales and myths derived from tales of “Cupid and Psyche” or “East of the Sun/West of the Moon?”
Priscilla Olson (M), Chris Jackson, Peadar Ó Guilín, Jane Yolen, Greer Gilman

Celebrating its 150th anniversary, From the Earth to the Moon (HTML) was originally published in 1865 by French author Jules Gabriel Verne.

Saturday, 10:00 AM
From the Earth to the Moon — and Beyond!
A hundred and fifty years ago, Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon surveyed the difficulties of building a giant space gun to propel three people to Luna. Fast-forward to today, when NASA is shooting to land people on Mars by 2035. Panelists discuss the challenging realities of space exploration — from getting off the ground to getting there to getting home.
Jordin T. Kare (M), Guy Consolmagno, Jeff Hecht, Walter H. Hunt, Ian Randal Strock

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Dune was originally published in 1965 by Frank Herbert.

Saturday, 1:00 PM
Dune — 50 Years later
Frank Herbert’s Dune, published in 1955, was an epic science fiction saga that won the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award in 1966. Now, 50 years after its publication, we look back at the legacy left by Frank Herbert and his unique vision of a feudal interstellar society that was rocked by political machinations, contentious religious orders, and a very lucrative spice trade — and giant worms! How has this seminal work held up over time? What place might it take in the science fiction hall of fame? Panelists also discuss the impact that Dune has had on their own work as well as on the development of science and science fiction.
Kenneth Schneyer (M), Scott Lynch, Beth Meacham, Joan Slonczewski, Walter Jon Williams, Karl Schroeder

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Good Omens was originally published in 1990 by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

Saturday, 2:00 PM
25 More Years of Good Omens
Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s novel Good Omens has had 25 years of success. Now there is talk again that a six-part TV series is in development. What will it take to bring the book to the small screen? Are we missing out on a big-screen experience? And how did the BBC do with the recent radio play? How might the adaptation of the novel deviate, or what areas might it more fully develop? Are there good omens for this project happening in other media?
Vincent O’Neil (M), Ellen Asher, Mur Lafferty, Darrell Schweitzer

Celebrating its 100th anniversary, The Metamorphosis (HTML*) was originally published in 1915 by Franz Kafka.

Saturday, 4:00 PM
The Children of Metamorphosis
A hundred years ago, Gregor Samsa awoke from uneasy dreams to find himself transformed into a gigantic dung beetle. Franz Kafka was a fairly obscure writer at the time, but his fiction has since helped to transform literature as it challenged preconceptions about what could be done and how it might be done. What other stories of personal “metamorphosis” have since been published that echo or reflect Kafka’s masterpieces? Panelists discuss “Metamorphosis” (1915), Franz Kafka as an author, and his literary legacy.
James Patrick Kelly (M), F. Brett Cox, Sarah Langan, John Langan, Darrell Schweitzer

Based on Dune by Frank Herbert, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary (see above).

Saturday, 10:00 PM
The Jodorowsky Effect
Alejandro Jodorowsky, a Chilean filmmaker, author, and surrealist, influenced some of the greatest cult SF/F works of the last 60 years. He directed the first midnight cult film (El Topo), his comic series The Incal inspired The Fifth Element, and he spearheaded a failed effort to film Dune — “the greatest SF movie never made.” Jodorowsky’s production art for Dune inspired Star Wars, Alien, Heavy Metal, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and others. His other work is also critically acclaimed and hugely influential. Panelists discuss Jodorowsky’s legacy, his “Psychomagical Realism, ” and his influence on contemporary work.
Paul Di Filippo (M), Carrie Cuinn, Daniel M. Kimmel, Don Pizarro, Steven Sawicki

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 Click Here to Register for Boskone today!

We’re very excited to share that the Multi-Author Book Party at Boskone is returning for a second year! It’s going to be a lot of fun with some great authors and a bunch of new books to celebrate, and we hope you’ll be there to join us for a fantastic event.

Multi-Author Book Party at Boskone
Date: February 14, 2015
Event Time: 6:30-7:50 pm
Location: Galleria

Mark your Boskone schedules now for a fun event with some great authors and exciting books!

Participating Authors Include:

• Ken Altabef — Alaana’s Way: The Calling
• E.C. Ambrose (Elaine Isaak) — Elisha Magus: Book Two of the Dark Apostle
• M L Brennan — Tainted Blood
• LJ Cohen — Time and Tithe
• Valerie Estelle Frankel — Joss Whedon’s Names
• Betsy Grant — Adventures of Point-Man Palmer in Vietnam
• Walter H. Hunt — Elements of Mind
• Toni L.P. Kelner (Leigh Perry) — Dead But Not Forgotten: Stories from the World of Sookie Stackhouse(editors, Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner); and The Skeleton Takes a Bow
• Ken Liu — The Grace of Kings
• Marshall Ryan Maresca — The Thorn of Dentonhill
• Henry V. O’Neil — Glory Main and Orphan Brigade: Books One and Two of the Sim War
• Ammi-Joan Paquette — Princess Juniper of the Hourglass
• Roberta Rogow — Mayhem in Manatas
• Lauren M. Roy — Grave Matters
• Darrell Schweitzer — The Emperor of the Ancient World
• D. Lynn Smith — Gates of Midnight, Issue #2 Chosen
• Erin Underwood — Geek Theater
• Jo Walton — The Just City

Boskone’s Multi-Author Book Party will take place in the Galleria. Authors will have their new books, swag and knickknacks on hand to celebrate their new releases with fans and friends alike. Come check out these awesome new books and meet the authors before heading off to your next event!

And no party is a party without cake, or at least cupcakes! So, in true fandom style, we’re also holding a “spec fic cupcake bake sale” run by B. Diane Martin to benefit the Tiptree Awards. These amazing cupcakes are handmade and donated by Joanna and Frederic Norton. Here’s a picture taken by Seanan Maguire of some of the Norton’s cupcakes from last year (2014). They were a real hit!

Note: All donations received from the Tiptree Bake Sale will be sent to the  James Tiptree, Jr. Award Council as donations to help support their non-profit organization.

We are looking to making this a fun and festive event for everyone. Please share this post with your friends and other fans who would enjoy hanging out and chatting with some amazing authors about their new books!

… and don’t forget to mention the cupcakes!

Congratulations to all of our authors and their new books!

Enjoy! Celebrate! Read!

at Boskone’s Multi-Author Book Party.

 Click Here to Register for Boskone today!

Boskone’s appreciation of science fiction and fantasy also expands to horror fiction, including his year’s Official Artists, Charles Lang and Wendy Snow-Lang,  known for horror illustration as well as science fiction illustration. Today’s Mini Interviews feature horror aficionados Christopher Golden, Mallory O’Meara, and Darrell Schweitzer who often wander through shadows and dark spaces within speculative fiction. Check out what they’re looking forward to in 2015.

Christopher Golden

Christopher Golden is the New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of such novels as Of Saints and Shadows, Strangewood and Snowblind. His novel with Mike Mignola, Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, was the launching pad for the Eisner Award-nominated comic book series, Baltimore. As an editor, he has worked on the short story anthologies The New Dead and Dark Duets, among others, and has also written and co-written comic books, video games, screenplays, and a network television pilot. Golden was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. Visit Chris’s website, like him on Facebook , or follow him on Twitter @ChristophGolden.

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

I write what inspires me, from horror (SNOWBLIND) to SF thriller (June 2015’s TIN MEN) to comics (BALTIMORE) and graphic novels (CEMETERY GIRL with Charlaine Harris). I’m incredibly fortunate to be able to work across genres and mediums, and I never forget how fortunate.

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

I’m giddy with anticipation for Benedict Cumberbatch in DOCTOR STRANGE. If I could go back in time and tell my twelve year old self that one day these movies would be made and they would be amazing…twelve year old me would never believe it. Book-wise, I’m lucky to have read and blurbed several amazing 2015 releases that I’m thrilled for other people to read, including Tim Lebbon’s THE SILENCE, Pierce Brown’s GOLDEN SON, and Naomi Novik’s UPROOTED.

What is it that you enjoy most about Boskone?

Boskone has so much to recommend it that I can’t name just one thing. I love the dealer’s room and the art show, love the kaffeeklatsches that I’ve taken part in and just wandering, bumping into people. But overall, Boskone’s panels are its best feature. They are routinely the most interesting and in-depth panels at any convention I attend.

Mallory O’Meara

Captain of the Arkham Horror Book Club, producer with Dark Dunes Productions, and cohost of the Miskatonic Musings podcast, Mallory O’Meara is a New England native and unashamed book sniffer. Visit Mallory’s website, friend her on Facebook, follow her on Tumblr or follow her on Twitter @sexoskeleton.

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

I produce films as part of the Dark Dunes Productions team – a company dedicated to creating original horror, sci-fi and fantasy films that employ practical – non-computer-generated – special effects to tell a story. We specifically focus on monsters, people in make-up and creature suits, and puppets – our passion!

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

The film I am currently producing with Dark Dunes Productions is called Yamasong: March of the Hollows and is an all practical puppetry film with an original story inspired by Japanese mythology. Think “The Dark Crystal” meets “Princess Mononoke”. It’s an extremely exciting project and will be the first major, feature-length puppet film made in the U.S. since “”Team America”” came out over ten years ago (non-Muppet, that is). We are incredibly thrilled to bring the world of puppetry to new
audiences.

What are you looking forward to at Boskone?

I am looking forward to Boskone for the variety of people, both fans and professionals, that it attracts. It’s a smoothly-run con at a great venue with relevant and interesting paneling – you can’t go wrong!

Darrell Schweitzer

Author of The Mask of the Sorcerer, the Shattered Goddess, etc. and about 300 stories. Most recent collection, The Emperor of the Ancient World. Former co-editor of Weird Tales. Active anthologist.

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

I would describe my work as camped out right on the fantasy/horror borderland, dark more often than not, sometimes in contemporary settings, sometimes in never-neverland. Of late I have been writing an increasing number of explicitly, if hopefully subtly Lovecraftian stories. I can be funny too. I believe my “Kvetchula” is still the leading Jewish vampire story ever written by a Gentile. Right now I am trying to write a story for Joshi’s BLACK WINGS 5.

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

I am always looking forward to James Morrow’s next novel, whatever it is.

What are you looking forward to at Boskone?

There’s so much to enjoy about Boskone it’s hard to know where to begin. I do not enjoy the weather. Boskone is cold and far away, but it is always worth going to and I wouldn’t miss it. I appreciate the quality of the programming, and the level of the “conversation” which makes up the entire convention. It is open to everyone, and to every point of view, but maintains a certain level of intelligence. I often find that if my panel ideas are deemed too “intellectual” for some conventions, I can always pass them on to Boskone, where they run without difficulty.I appreciate, too, that Boskone doesn’t take itself too seriously. The musicals and theatrical productions, such as last year’s dramatic reading of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S STAR WARS help lighten the tone.

Writers, writers, and more writers! Boskone has plenty of authors who attend the convention each year. Today’s Mini Interviews feature writers versed in novels, novellas, short stories and more!

Alex Jablokow

Alexander Jablokov (pronounced ‘Ya-‘) is the author, most recently, of Brain Thief, recently out in paperback. Previous books are Carve The Sky, A Deeper Sea, Nimbus, River of Dust, and Deepdrive. His stories have appeared in the Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Twenty-Eighth Year’s Best Science Fiction (ed. Gardner Dozois); and in Asimov’s, Amazing, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Aboriginal SF. The Breath of Suspension, a collection of his short fiction, was published by Arkham House in 1994 and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife, Mary, his son, Simon, and his daughter, Faith. Visit Alex’s website.

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

I’m working on a novel set in the universe of my novel Deepdrive, set on an extensively terraformed Venus, where the first part of that novel also took place. It’s a fun adventure across the complex backcountry of Venus, with two characters who don’t know whether to trust each other. And it is that, showing how trust can grow despite good reasons for resisting it, that is the both the interesting and challenging part of the work for me.

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

There is no need to give up good sentences for good plot and characters. Be more demanding!

What are you looking forward to at Boskone?

I’m sure that everyone lists a variation of the same thing: seeing the people I have not seen from last year. I have some time-division multiple access friendships that work on a one-year frequency. By the time both of us die, we will have been in each other’s presence maybe a dozen days total, but that doesn’t mean these friendships aren’t valuable. Since everyone is going to say that, say instead that I am looking forward to the End of Days, which I hear is scheduled for this Boskone.

John P. Murphy

John P. Murphy is an engineer and writer living in New Hampshire. His research interests include robotics and network security. His fiction has focused on mystery in SFF. Visit John’s website or follow him on Twitter @dolohov.

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

I’m working on a novel-length sequel to my SF mystery novella Claudius Rex, which was an homage to the Nero Wolfe mysteries. I’m excited about bringing these characters to a longer form where they have more space to interact with each other and near-future Boston, and to fully develop as characters in their own right, and I find that I have a lot more to say on the subject of how people might get along with artificial intelligences. But at the same time, that novella was structured as an origin story, which gives a lot of opportunity to naturally worldbuild, and the novella->novel sequence is likely to mean a higher new reader ratio than an ordinary sequel would have. It’s been tough trying to naturally introduce the characters and the setting to new readers without that origin story structure and also without boring the folks who already know them.

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

When I was signing up for college courses freshman year, I was mostly looking at engineering classes, but in the back of my head remembering that humanities requirement. Just flipping through the catalog, I saw that they taught Japanese. At the time, growing up in West Virginia, I knew nothing about the language or the country — I wasn’t even an anime fan like half my class turned out to be. I just thought, “hey, that might be cool” and on the spur of the moment added it to the list. I took that class, then the next, and wound up studying in Japan. I saw parts of the world I never would have otherwise, met fascinating people, and got introduced to an enormous body of film, literature, and food that has enriched my life over the years. It’s taken a long time, and I’m still not sure I’ve fully learned the lesson, but learning to randomly say “yes” to unexpected opportunities that present themselves, trusting that “hey, that might be cool” instinct, has turned out to be a very useful life skill.

What are you looking forward to at Boskone?

I have a number of friends in the SFF community who I really only get to see once a year at Boskone — some of whom I met there in the first place! I’m very much looking forward to catching up with them, and to meeting new friends to look forward to seeing next year. I think it speaks very highly of Boskone that I can rely on seeing so many interesting people come back for more every year.

Paul Di Filippo

Paul Di Filippo recently published his 200th story and 35th book. He is not yet ready to rest. Visit Paul’s website.

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

I just finished a story that, given editorial approval, will appear in the upcoming tribute volume to Chip Delany. It’s titled “Devils at Play.” Shaping this piece to resonate with Chip’s work reminded me of how much the field has shaped my life, and what wonders I’ve enjoyed, thanks to writers such as Chip. Trying to reach the same high standards set by his work, I was reinvigorated to hone my own chops!

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

My teenage self disdained mimetic fiction, thinking that “reality was for people who can’t handle science fiction.” Of course, I’ve come to realize the insanity of that attitude. So maybe I could have alerted my younger self to something like Kerouac’s ON THE ROAD, which I did not encounter till college. Just think of the adventures it could have inspired while I was still adolesecent-stupid and unfettered!

What is it that you enjoy most about Boskone?

I attended my first Boskone in either 1974 or 1975, so after forty years (not that I could be present every year, alas), the convention feels like a family reunion. At the same time, I continue to be amazed at how vital it remains, not just an exercise in nostalgia. Meeting new folks is as vital to me as reconnecting with old pals. And the level of discourse is among the highest in fandom. Lots of big thinkers, free spirits and warm hearts.

The new pre-convention version of Helmuth (Boskone’s official newsletter) is now available online. We’ve combined it with PR2 (Progress Report 2) so it’s packed full of info. Some highlights include:

Get Ready for Boskone
Boskone is a family-friendly science fiction and fantasy convention. Our programming starts at 2:00 pm and is free/open to the public from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm on Friday, February 13th. Memberships are needed after 6:00 pm on Friday and throughout the duration of the convention.

Boskone’s Program is Online
More than 140 program participants. Over 350 program items. New England’s longest running SF and fantasy convention returns for another terrific weekend of smart, fun, and exciting events.

View the Program for Boskone 52

Boskone is about people
From guests to participants and fans, Boskone is about the people. Every year people return to Boston to take part in New England’s longest running science fiction and fantasy convention. This year, our guests include:

Guest of Honor: Steven Brust
Official Artists: Charles Lang & Wendy Snow-Lang
Special Guest: Robert K. Wiener
Featured Filkers: Maya & Jeff Bohnhoff
Hal Clement Science Speaker: David L. Clements
NESFA Guest: Vincent Di Fate

We also have more than 140 amazing writers, artists, publishers, scientists, and editors coming back to Boskone. Many of them are featured in our new series of Mini Interviews.

Get Involved
Would you like to help out? We’re always looking for volunteers to help with a variety of tasks.
If you’re interested in being a Boskone volunteer, please contact volunteers@boskone.org.

Helmuth is has all the details. Be sure to check out the full report.

The Boskone block at the Westin Waterfront is currently full and we currently have no rooms available at our rate.

We have added an overflow block at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel, which is about a quarter mile from the Westin, along D St. The rooms are available for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, at a rate of $199/night.

Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel
606 Congress Street, Boston, MA 02210
(617) 338-4111

Press Release #2 is available now! This year we’re trying something new. Instead of mailing paper copies to everyone, we decided to send  PR2 in the email version of Helmuth, Boskone’s official newsletter. You can access the newsletter on the NESFA website to see what’s new at Boskone!

BUT…don’t delay in buying your membership for Boskone 52 because today is the last day to receive the pre-convention rates. You can still buy your memberships online tomorrow, but that’s when the at-the-door rates begin.

Boskone is a great convention for those who love science fiction and fantasy literature as well as for professional and aspiring writers. In today’s mini interview, a few of our participating writers share why they look forward to attending Boskone and why you should attend.

Darlene Marshall

Darlene Marshall writes award winning historical romance about pirates, privateers, smugglers & the occasional possum. Look for her newest novel, The Pirate’s Secret Baby (2014). Visit Darlene’s website, like her on Facebook,  or follow her on Twitter @DarleneMarshall.

What is it that you enjoy most about Boskone?
Boskone is the perfect mix of professionalism and fandom. I always come away from it with information that’s helpful to my writing, whether it’s swordplay demonstrations or panels on worldbuilding. In addition, the fans are interesting, fun, and interested in what’s happening in SF, Fantasy and related fields. They recharge my batteries, and help me return home with a fresh focus on my writing. Finally, it’s a con that’s just the right size–not so large that one can get lost in the shuffle, not so small that there’s not enough happening to hold our interest. You know it has to be special if I’m willing to fly from Florida to Boston in February!

What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project?
I’m writing a follow-up to my 2014 novel The Pirate’s Secret Baby. As soon as I finished TPSB, I began to wonder, “What does happen to a pirate’s illegitimate, mixed-race little girl when she grows up?” To give you a clue, the working title of the current project is The Legend of Marauding Mattie, or, The Pirate, Her Cabin Boy, and What The Parrot Saw. What’s challenging is, well, everything. I’m weaving into the novel real events from the 1830s while selling readers on a story with pirates, cross-dressing heroines, and a hero who’s wondering how the hell he landed in this mess. And then there’s a parrot who thinks he’s the ship’s cat, so it’s getting more complicated by the day. I’m confident though that I’ll have it all worked out at some point. After all, as my publisher gently reminds me, if I don’t finish the book it’s hard for him to send me royalty checks for it. If readers are scratching their heads and wondering at this point where the SF connection comes in, I’m a long-time SF & convention fan whose day job is writing historical romance. But I find what I get out of Boskone helps me professionally. Learning from the good writers there transcends genre lines.

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

So much good SF was published after I was a teen, it’s hard to know where to begin. I think I’d recommend the YA novels of Sharon Shinn and Terry Pratchett. Both authors write outstandingly good SF and fantasy that deals with real issues, the kinds of things teens wonder about: war, religion, relationships, ethics. If I had to pick only two books by those authors, I might go with General Winston’s Daughter by Shinn and Nation by Pratchett. The first novel deals with race and colonialism, the second is about survival, and growing up, and the choices we make in life.

Kenneth Schneyer

Kenneth Schneyer received a Nebula nomination for his 2013 short story, “Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer”.  Stillpoint Digital press released his first collection, The Law & the Heart, in 2014.  You can find his stories in Analog, Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Clockwork Phoenix 3 & 4, Bull Spec, Ideomancer, Daily Science Fiction, Escape Pod, Podcastle, and elsewhere.  He attended the Clarion Writers Workshop with the mighty Class of 2009, and now belongs to the Cambridge Science Fiction Workshop.  By day, he teaches business law and science fiction literature at Johnson & Wales University.  A Polish Jew from Detroit, he now lives in Rhode Island with one singer, one dancer, one actor, and something with fangs.  See his blog at ken-schneyer.livejournal.com, his bibliography at www.writertopia.com/profiles/KennethSchneyer, and his musings on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter.

What are you looking forward to at Boskone?

Seeing the friends I only ever get to see at conventions.  When I first started attending, it was to help publicize my work, become known by publishers and other writers, and attend panels concerning interesting stuff. But the longer you do this, the more it’s about the people you enjoy hanging out with.

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

I’m revising a short story that challenges race and gender issues in high adventure fantasy. The two big hurdles are: (1) it can be presumptuous for a straight white dude to write something like this, and I want to avoid making an ass of myself, and (2) I want to make sure that the plot and characters are compelling and convincing, and don’t get lost in my political intent.

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

I use alternative, indirect voicing a lot. My stories often play with, subvert, or abuse the ordinary narrative assumptions most readers have when they approach a story. I write both science fiction and fantasy, and I don’t particularly care about the boundaries between the genres; basically I write whatever comes to mind.

LJ Cohen

LJ Cohen is the writing persona of Lisa Janice Cohen, poet, novelist, blogger, local food enthusiast, Doctor Who fan, potter, and relentless optimist. LJ lives just outside of Boston with her family, two dogs (only one of which actually ever listens to her) and the occasional international student. When not doing battle with a stubborn Jack Russell Terrier mix, she can be found making something out of clay, or working on the next novel, which often looks a lot like daydreaming. Time and Tithe, the sequel to her YA fantasy debut novel, The Between, will be published in February of 2015. She is currently writing the sequel to Derelict, a science fiction novel. This is the first year LJ is also participating in the Boskone art show.  Visit Janice’s website, like her on Facebook, add to your G+ circle or follow her on Twitter @lisajanicecohen.

What is it that you enjoy most about Boskone?

Writing can be a very solitary pursuit, and when what you write is science fiction and fantasy, even friends and family who understand what it is to have a writer in their lives may just scratch their heads at what you choose to create. (“Are you ever going to write anything normal?” “Why are your stories always so weird?”) To spend several days embraced by fellow writers, readers, and fans of the geeky and the odd is a little bit of paradise.

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

I am currently drafting the sequel to DERELICT, my most recent SF novel. Since this is book 2 of a planned series, it gives me the chance to deepen the world of the story and extend the conflicts that were hinted at in book 1. In DERELICT, we hear about the war forty years prior that caused the ship, Halcyone, to become the wreck Ro Maldonado resurrects. In its sequel, we discover that the war still casts its shadow on the shape of the Commonwealth. Filling in the pieces of the story’s past allows me to see its present in a new way. That’s very exciting. One of the challenges in this series is managing an ensemble cast. Ro took center stage in DERELICT. In the current story, the sibling relationship becomes the focal point when Barre has to find Jem before black market doctors implant his younger brother with an illegal neural. While each story stands alone, the overarching story of the Commonwealth and the war that created it is sprawling and complex and I can’t wait to get it all down on paper.

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

In the past couple of years, our family has experienced several significant and traumatic events, including a fire that chased us out of our home at 5 a.m. on the frigid morning of December 1, 2010. What I realized, watching our house and our possessions burn, was that so much of what we worry about doesn’t really matter, that life is short and uncertain, and if you wait until the time is right to take a chance, it may never happen. We were unbelievably fortunate to survive that fire and compared with nearly losing my life or my family, very little else has the power to scare me. Rejection? Negative reviews? Whatever. Bring it on. Four years later, I am still grateful for every day (and for cloud back ups!).