Do you know what today is?! We are only 1 MONTH away from Boskone 57! To celebrate, we are interviewing Reiko Murakami, Nicholas Kaufmann, and Dr. Stephen P. Kelner Jr. who will tell you some of their favorite thing about attending Boskone each year!

Reiko Murakami

Reiko Murakami is a U.S. based concept artist and illustrator specializing in surreal fantasy art. With her expressive gesture drawings she focuses on capturing moments filled with unspeakable emotions. In 2013 she started a series called Resonance, a project that depicts complex emotional reactions through metaphorical representation of a figure. Her work has been exhibited at Nucleus Portland, Helikon Gallery, Krabjab Studio, Light Grey Art Lab and published in Spectrum, Infected by Art, ArtOrder Invitational: The Journal, Exposé, 2D Artist, and many others.

Visit Reiko on their Facebook, Twitter, and website!

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

I love attending Boskone because it provides a great opportunity to connect with authors, editors and fellow artists. Originally the appeal was mainly because I am local, but after participating in a few panels I found it’s a joy to communicate with the opposite end of the creative community of SFF. Also at Boskone, I get to meet many of the industry’s legendary illustrators. It’s inspiring to be there.

Artists: Fans love looking at the portfolio of artwork and asking artists about some of their most well known images. Which of your images, that receives less attention from fans, do you hold dear? What is it about the creation of that piece that makes it so special for you?

I’ve been making many small round pieces lately. My absolute favorite is the piece called “Flight”. It is a simple drawing of a dead bee on a white wall. This piece didn’t get much reaction on my social media, probably because of the unusual content, but I feel extremely passionate about this piece. This piece was based on the photo I took on one summer day, after finding there was a bee on a wall stuck and dead. The imagery reminded me how fragile our lives are. I projected myself as a struggling artist on the bee, which someone has stomped on it and got killed, but its final posture fixed it as if it’s frozen in the moment of flight.

What will you be working on in 2020? Any new releases or dates that fans should be looking forward to hearing about?

I’ve been working with DC Black Label for cover art of Joe Hill’s Basketful of Heads. Some have been published this year, but more to come in 2020! I’m also on some exciting NDA projects…a couple of video games and book covers!

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Nicholas Kaufmann

Nicholas Kaufmann is the Bram Stoker Award-nominated, Shirley Jackson Award-nominated, Thriller Award-nominated, and Dragon Award-nominated author of nine books, including CHASING THE DRAGON, DYING IS MY BUSINESS, IN THE SHADOW OF THE AXE, and the bestselling horror novel 100 FATHOMS BELOW with Steven L. Kent. In addition to his own work, he has written for such properties as ZOMBIES VS. ROBOTS, THE ROCKETEER, and WARHAMMER 40K. He and his wife live in Brooklyn, NY.

Visit Nicholas on their Facebook, Twitter, and website!

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

This will be my second time as a program participant at Boskone. I had such a great time last year that Boskone instantly went on my list of must-attend conventions. The people, the programming, the hotel, it all adds up to a wonderful experience!

Authors: Fans often ask authors to talk about their favorite main characters, but what about the side characters? Who is one of your favorite sidekicks or secondary/tertiary characters who have had a lesser role in your work?

Renshu “Philip” Chen in my novel DYING IS MY BUSINESS and its sequel DIE AND STAY DEAD! He’s a member of the Five-Pointed Star, the magic-powered group that protects New York City from supernatural threats, and a vampire with superhuman strength, biting (ahem) sarcasm, and a “give no f*cks* attitude, which made him very fun to write. He quickly became one of my favorite side characters, and there were big plans in store for him if the series had continued.

What was your first book event or literary convention? Tell us about it! Perhaps you even have a photo to share?

My very first book event was in the year 2000: a reading and signing for an anthology I was in called BELL, BOOK & BEYOND, which was all stories about witches and witchcraft, and which contained my first published story “La Bete est Morte.” The event was at a Barnes and Noble in New Jersey. I can’t quite remember in which city, though. All I remember is how nervous I was and how terrible I was at reading aloud. I’ve gotten much better at it since then!

If you could bring any object or device into the real world from fiction or film, and it would work perfectly, what would you choose? Why would you choose that item?

The TARDIS from Doctor Who. I would love to have a time machine/space ship that could go anywhere I choose. Of course, it couldn’t be the same TARDIS from the show because I would want it to actually work properly!

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Dr. Stephen P. Kelner Jr.

Dr. Stephen P. Kelner Jr. (“Steve”) is a motivational psychologist, a writer, and an assessor and developer of leaders, in no particular order. He is Managing Director and Co-Founder of Ascent Leadership Networks, which develops executive leaders in unique and measurable ways in extraordinary locations (like Skywalker Ranch!). He is published in nonfiction (numerous articles on leadership, capability, and motivation plus the book Motivate Your Writing!) and short fiction, and has a proposal for a book called Motivating Leadership based on his 30 years assessing and developing business and nonprofit leaders. He is married to his favorite editor, award-winning and bestselling mystery and urban fantasy writer Toni L. P. Kelner/Leigh Perry. They are parents to two highly artistic children (animation and music) and live on the North Shore.

Visit Stephen on their Facebook.

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

Boskone brings together the best of SF to my mind: diverse and fascinating people talking about interesting things intelligently and provocatively – but without hostility. It uses its long history in places like the art show, but stays on top of the latest developments in speculative fiction. It’s also a chance for me to share things I know with people who can benefit from them.

What topics are you most looking forward to talking about at Boskone?

Honestly, anything you are willing to let me talk about! As a motivational psychologist, I’m always up to discuss what makes people (or aliens) do what they do, and how to tap into that, whether for creative purposes or character creation. As an expert on organizational leadership, I’m interested in looking at the nature of leadership in SF, in real life, and speculatively. I’ve proposed talking about what the latest research says about gender (it’s a continuum, not a switch), race (biologically, it doesn’t exist), and IQ (it’s flawed at best) in contrast with how it has been used in SF, and I’m geared up for a battle on any of that. And given that I have a book proposal in play for motivating leadership (motivation of leaders and used by leaders), I am of course vitally interested in discussing that!

Bonus: Up for a challenge? Give us a haiku or limerick about Boskone!

Fictional empire
Now an SF festival
Helmuth speaks for us!

If you could be a fly on the wall during any scene or event in literature of film, which scene would it be and why? 

Too many choices…but perhaps on the Castle of Glass watching the climactic battle between Nodonn and Aiken Drum at the end of _The Nonborn King_, by Julian May.

Looking back, what was the first piece of work (whether it be from literature, cinema, art, music, video game, toy, or whatever it may be) that first made you love science-fiction and fantasy?

Truth be told, I think the Apollo program did more than anything else. I watched the Apollo 11 moon landing when I was six, and from then on was obsessed with anything related to space travel. I built multiple models of the Apollo spacecraft, then discovered Major Matt Mason (who appears to be getting a movie soon!) toys. The first book of SF I ever read was a Tom Swift, Jr. book, because it had a rocket on the cover. It was terrible SF, but I didn’t know that, and I was fascinated by the concepts. But when it came to the book that hooked me for got, it was _Have Space Suit, Will Travel_, by Robert A. Heinlein. After reading the last line and closing that book, I knew I had to find more…and so I did.

What was your first book event or literary convention? Tell us about it! Perhaps you even have a photo to share?

I think my first event was ChattaCon – IX or X, not sure which – which is still going, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the mid-1980s. It was great fun, and introduced me to many aspects of fandom I had never seen before. (I could have bought Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1, too, but knowing it was a one-off joke, I didn’t bother.) I got to see editors on panels as well as a number of writers I knew, and many I didn’t!

If you could bring any object or device into the real world from fiction or film, and it would work perfectly, what would you choose? Why would you choose that item?

The Lens of Arisia, from The Lensman Saga of E. E. “Doc” Smith. Because it guaranteed clear communication through telepathy as well as guaranteeing the integrity of the wearer, and we have little enough of either these days…

Register for Boskone 57 today!

Today we are interviewing William Hayashi, John Kessel, and Steve Davidson!

William Hayashi

William Hayashi is an award winning screen writer, and accomplished author of two speculative fiction trilogies, Darkside and Archangel-X, and several short stories. His Darkside Trilogy is in development for adaptation into a television show. He has been in and out of radio since the mid 1970 and has been the host of the Genesis Science Fiction Radio Show for the past eight years, interviewing Black creatives in science fiction, fantasy, and horror of all mediums (all shows are available as podcasts at no charge). He is also a frequent participant in science fiction conventions around the country, sitting on panel discussions on topics on diversity, science fiction media and culture, and specialized discussions about specific movies, trends, and other content creators throughout the industry.

Visit William on their Facebook, Twitter, and website!

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

Attending Boskone is a professional joy. The panels and discussions I’ve participated in have been interesting, informative, lively, and are often fun. The convention is professionally run, the volunteer staff are real standouts in terms of producing a truly excellent event, year after year.

Looking back, what was the first piece of work (whether it be from literature, cinema, art, music, video game, toy, or whatever it may be) that first made you love science-fiction and fantasy?

My father was a science fiction fan and had a library of hundreds of books written by the gients of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. One of my earliest memories was of reading Isaac Asimov’s original Foundation Trilogy. Shortly after that, I discovered Asimov’s Robots series – then it was off to the races. I read everything he had at home, then started taking a couple of books out of the library every other week, and this was at the age of eleven or twelve.

What was your first book event or literary convention? Tell us about it! Perhaps you even have a photo to share?

My first convention experience was at the 2016 WorldCon in Kansas City. As an independent author, up until I was persuaded to participate at WorldCon, I hated the though of sitting at a table and trying to sell books. It wasn’t until I sat on half dozen panels, moderating about half of them, that I saw a whole different side of the convention experience. I enjoy the experience of directly interacting with both fans and fellow creatives.

What will you be working on in 2020? Any new releases or dates that fans should be looking forward to hearing about?

In 2020 I will be publishing a new trilogy, The Archangel-X Trilogy, which is a sequel to my original Darkside Trilogy, which is currently being adapted for television. Also on the docket is my first Young Adult novel set in a dystopian, near future, the early chapters are available for review on my Patreon account page.

If you could bring any object or device into the real world from fiction or film, and it would work perfectly, what would you choose? Why would you choose that item?

Will anyone think less of me if I choose the Orgasmatron from the movie Sleeper? Because at my age, you sometimes you just don’t have the energy for anything more vigorous.

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John Kessel

John Kessel has written the novels Pride and Prometheus, The Moon and the Other, Good News from Outer Space, Corrupting Dr. Nice, and Freedom Beach (with James Patrick Kelly), and the collections Meeting in Infinity, The Pure Product, and The Baum Plan for Financial Independence. His work has received the Nebula, the Theodore Sturgeon, the Locus, the James Tiptree Jr., and the Shirley Jackson awards. He holds an undergraduate degree in physics and English and a PhD in English. At North Carolina State University Kessel helped found the MFA program in creative writing, serving twice as its director. He lives with his wife, the novelist Therese Anne Fowler, in Raleigh.

Visit John on their Facebook, and website.

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

I have not been to Boskone for a long time, but the 1970 Boskone was the first regional sf convention that I ever attended. There I met a number of people for the first time who were to become good friends, notably Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann–though our friendship was not to develop for another decade or so. Boskone (along with the 1969 Worldcon in St. Louis) was at the beginning of my association with organized sf fandom, which shaped my life and career for years afterward.

My pal and collaborator James Patrick Kelly is a regular at Boskone, and Kim Stanley Robinson, your author guest, is another friend, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to revisit the con.

Authors: Fans often ask authors to talk about their favorite main characters, but what about the side characters? Who is one of your favorite sidekicks or secondary/tertiary characters who have had a lesser role in your work?

My favorite secondary character from my recent fiction is the uplifted dog Sirius in my 2017 novel THE MOON AND THE OTHER. The novel is set on the moon in the 22nd century, when the intelligence of certain animals has been lifted to the point where at least some of them have gained important roles in society, though they are still second-class citizens without the legal rights of humans. Sirius is a media star (Dog Star!”) who has a political talk and interview show that is the most popular throughout my lunar colonies; I think of him as Sean Hannity as a Doberman.

Secretly, Sirius (his name comes from the 1944 sf novel of that title by Olaf Stapledon, about the life of such a superintelligent dog) resents his manipulation by his human creators, his short life span, his alienation from both human beings and from normal dogs. Though he is not a main character, Sirius plays a crucial role in the plot of my novel.

What will you be working on in 2020? Any new releases or dates that fans should be looking forward to hearing about?

I have completed a novella “The Dark Ride” which is about the assassination of President William McKinley at the Pan American Exposition, a world’s fair that took place in Buffalo in 1901, and an H.G. Wells-style trip to the moon based on a ride that debuted at the fair, the first true “dark ride” of amusement park history. It is the title story in a new story collection I have on submission.

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Steve Davidson

Steve Davidson is the publisher of Amazing Stories magazine, now in its second year of publication.

Visit Steve on their Facebook, Twitter, and website.

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

Well, beyond its proximity (which has made it my “go-to” con for years), is the fact that the committee made a committment to expanding the reach and appeal of a traditional fan-run convention to both younger fans and to diverse fan communities and I get to watch the positive effects of that committment each and every year – more “kids” in attendance, more people of color in attendance, more LGBTQI people in attendance – all while managing to retain the essential elements of what makes a convention a real convention – the camaraderie, the celebration of literature, the shared community.

What topics are you most looking forward to talking about at Boskone?

I love talking about the magazine of course, but I also love talking about both older works (film, TV, novels and stories) and newer works because at Boskone the audience is diverse enough to offer both – often with the same people.

Bonus: Up for a challenge? Give us a haiku or limerick about Boskone!

Appearing on panels is fun
so’s conversing until day is done
so long as I’m able
to visit the free table
before anyone else on day one

What was your first book event or literary convention? Tell us about it! Perhaps you even have a photo to share?

My first literary-focused SF convention was a Philcon in ’74 or ’75.I’d been attending Star Trek cons previously and found that I was more drawn to the dealer’s room and the SF magazine and book content there than I was the Trek stuff – after all, how many times can you watch the blooper reel?
At that first Philcon I was “attacked” by older fen for using the phrase “sci fi” (learned quickly why you don’t mimic fornicating crickets when talking about literature), spent quite a long time with Harry Stubbs (Hal Clement) and met Bob Madle who passed on to me a life-long love for the science fiction magazines.

What will you be working on in 2020? Any new releases or dates that fans should be looking forward to hearing about?

Amazing Stories is launching a line of selected novellas under the Amazing Selects imprint.Our first release (which may have been announced by the time this is read) will be Allen Steele’s Captain Future in Love, which was originally serialized in Amazing Stories.

If you could bring any object or device into the real world from fiction or film, and it would work perfectly, what would you choose? Why would you choose that item?

Either a working time machine or a working FTL drive.I so much want to experience many of the things I’ve read about over the past 50+ years, or at least experience their real world analogs.

Register for Boskone 57 today!

Happy New Years! We are almost one month away from Boskone 57 now! Today we are interviewing Darrell Schweitzer, Sharon Lee, and Paul Di Filippo!

Darrell Schweitzer

Darrell Schweitzer has published four novels, most recently THE DRAGON HOUSE (2018) and about 350 stories over the past forty-some years. He is a former editor of WEIRD TALES (1987-2007) and an active anthologist, having most recently edited MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS REVEALED (PS Publishing 2019), a “Lovecraftian global warming anthology.” THE BEST OF DARRELL SCHWEITZER (2 volumes) will appear from PS Publishing late in 2019. He is a 4-time World Fantasy Award nominee (and one-time winner) and has been a Shirley Jackson Award runner-up. He is a regular contributor to THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION.

Visit Darrell on their Facebook.

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

A friendly & literate convention devoted to intelligent discussion without ideological bias.

What topics are you most looking forward to talking about at Boskone?

SF history & criticism. This is pretty general. You always come up with good topics.

Bonus: Up for a challenge? Give us a haiku or limerick about Boskone!

It shall evermore be my intention
to attend every Boskone convention.
They’re always such fun
and admirably run,
your invite has got myattention.

Authors: Fans often ask authors to talk about their favorite main characters, but what about the side characters? Who is one of your favorite sidekicks or secondary/tertiary characters who have had a lesser role in your work?

I don’t have that many sidekicks in my work. One who stayed with me for six stories was Nick the Gaoler in the Tom O’Bedlam stories, who was originally rather cruel and petty, but once Tom was let loose and Nick became his companion on the road, then Nick was redeemed by enlightened lunacy. We should all hope to go mad just like that.

What will you be working on in 2020? Any new releases or dates that fans should be looking forward to hearing about?

A new PS Publishing anthology, SHADOWS OUT OF TIME, about Lovecraftian conflicts with time. Great Race of Yith optional.Lovecraft thought that the conflict with time was the most potent of all weird themes. I hope my authors can prove this.

If you could bring any object or device into the real world from fiction or film, and it would work perfectly, what would you choose? Why would you choose that item?

A STAR TREK transporter system. If you use it right, it is a fountain of youth. The signal can be edited. Remember that episode of NEXT GENERATION in which everybody suddenly became 12 years old, but retained their adult memories. As you approach 70, that becomes an attractive proposition.

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Sharon Lee

Sharon is most often seen writing as half of the blockbuster team of Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, authors of the long-running Liaden Universe® space opera novels. Occasionally, however, she sneaks off and writes something on her own, such as the near-word fantasy Carousel Trilogy: Carousel Tides, Carousel Sun, and Carousel Seas. Her latest novel, co-written with Steve, is Accepting the Lance, the 23rd novel in the Liaden Universe®, published by Baen in December 2019. Upcoming in 2020 is Trader’s Leap. Sharon is a member of the National Carousel Association and the United States Lighthouse Society. You can keep up with Sharon, Lee-and-Miller and their cats at http://www.sharonleewriter.com.

Visit Sharon on their Facebook, Twitter, and website.

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

Steve and I try to attend Boskone every year.We have missed a few in the 30 years that we’ve been living in Maine, which makes Boskone our “home” convention — because or prior commitments, or health issues, or — ahem — day-job issues, but more often than not, if it’s mid-February, we’re at Boskone.This may seem an odd choice, given what the weather is typically like in the Northeastern US in Feburary, but Boskone is worth getting on a train at way-too-early on a frigid February morning, and gambling with the weather.

For long-term attendees, like Steve and me, there’s the obvious draw of a winter party attended by a sizeable number of our friends and colleagues in the science fiction community, but Boskone has a lot to offer new attendees, as well, which is one of the things I’ve always liked about it.In addition to its welcoming atmosphere, there are several tracks of thoughtful — and frivolous — panels, discussions, and demonstrations. Attendees have the chance to meet artists, authors, experts, musicians, other fans; to tour a really splendid art show; shop in an extensive dealer’s room; listen to filk music; and to talk — or listen — as mood and temperament dictate.

If I had to pick one thing that I, personally, like most about Boskone — it would be the Big Living Room; a grouping of comfy chairs, sofas,and tables, where people can sit and read, or knit, or chat, put together jigsaw puzzles, bead, or just decompress.It’s a splendid space and eloquent of Boskone’s “fan family” philosophy.

Bonus: Up for a challenge? Give us a haiku or limerick about Boskone!

Grey sky, icy wind
Friends inside mingle and meet
Will it snow, or not

What was your first book event or literary convention? Tell us about it! Perhaps you even have a photo to share?

Well…if I’m going to talk about my first book event or literary convention, that would have been Book Expo, back in…2005, I think.Instead, I want to talk about my first science fiction convention, which was BaltiCon 10, held in Baltimore (I’m originally from Baltimore).I was an attendee by accident, sort-of.I didn’t know anything about science fiction conventions, and if I had known anything, I wouldn’t have attended because I was Much Too Shy and did not voluntarily seek out large groups of people.

I did, however, want to be a writer, and BaltiCon 10 sponsored a short story contest, the winner to receive a free membership to the convention, a cash prize, and an opportunity to meet the convention’s guest of honor who was, that year, Isaac Asimov.Since I did want to be a writer, and a writer of science fiction, I entered the contest*.

I also won the contest.And so I attended my first con, met Isaac Asimov, spent my winnings in the dealer’s room, met a handful of convivial people, and in general had a confusing, but exhilarating, adventure.I didn’t make it to BaltiCon 11, but I did attend BaltiCon 12, where Anne McCaffrey was guest of honor, and the rest is, as we say — History.Even, Ancient History.
__________
*I may have also, maybe, gotten a little impetus to compete because my then-boyfriend’s best friend had determined to enter, also, and was, loudly and obnoxiously, IMHO, assured of his win over a field of “amateurs,” and I, well…thought not.

What will you be working on in 2020? Any new releases or dates that fans should be looking forward to hearing about?

Oh, let’s see…March 2020 will see the re-issue, in mass market paperback, of the third-ever Liaden Universe® novel, Carpe Diem.Toward the end of the year, Trader’s Leap, the twenty-third novel of the Liaden Universe®, will be published….Leap is the…companion novel to Accepting the Lance, which came out in December 2019.

If you could bring any object or device into the real world from fiction or film, and it would work perfectly, what would you choose? Why would you choose that item?

Oh, look! A barrel of fish.Obviously, I would import the autodoc from the Liaden Universe® by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, primarily because Fuck Cancer, though there’s nothing wrong with getting a broken arm healed by spending a couple hours in the ‘doc, either.Mind you, we’d have to figure out a way to keep this technology from falling into the hands of those who would exploit it for their own profit, ignoring the suffering and shortened life expectancies of those who can’t pay. . . but that’s another story.

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Paul Di Filippo

Born in 1954 in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Paul Di Filippo discovered fandom in 1973 by attending his first convention, Torcon II. He went to Rhode Island College, where in 1976 he met Deborah Newton, his life partner ever since. In 1982, his long-simmering desire to become a professional writer could no longer be denied. Adopting Ray Bradbury’s advice to write a story a week, he did so for a year or more without selling any. Then he began to click, landing two near-simultaneous sales. In the subsequent four decades he’s amassed over 200 short fiction sales, and accumulated them, plus his novels, into over forty books.

Visit Paul on their Facebook and website.

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

Boskone is a bastion of fannish tradition and fantastika classicism, while still exhibiting that vaunted and beloved stefnal openness to new ideas, new faces, new themes and new fun!Run by bighearted and knowledgable people, this con blends the best of the old with the best of the new.

If you could be a fly on the wall during any scene or event in literature of film, which scene would it be and why? 

I want to watch Anita Ekberg frolic in the Trevi Fountain during the filming of LA DOLCE VITA.

Looking back, what was the first piece of work (whether it be from literature, cinema, art, music, video game, toy, or whatever it may be) that first made you love science-fiction and fantasy?

The year was 1961, the summer between first and second grades, and one of my relatives–probably my indulgent grandmother–bought me a 25-cent Dell Giant titled MIGHTY MOUSE IN OUTER SPACE.That sealed the deal.

If you could bring any object or device into the real world from fiction or film, and it would work perfectly, what would you choose? Why would you choose that item?

I think the “portable holes” from Warner Brothers cartoons would be very useful.

Register for Boskone 57 today!

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What better way to end of 2019 and start 2020 than with another set of Boskone 57! Today we are interviewing Trisha J. Wooldridge, Dr. Tom Easton, and Gregory A. Wilson!

And remember! Be safe out there tonight!

Trisha J. Wooldridge

Trisha J. Wooldridge writes grown-up horror, dark fantasy, SF, and weird short stories and poetry—some even winning awards! Her publications include stories and poems in all of the New England Horror Writer anthologies, Gothic Fantasy Supernatural Horror, The HWA Poetry Showcase Volume 5 and Volume 6, Nothing’s Sacred Volume 4, the Pseudopod podcast, Wicked Weird, and The Book of Twisted Shadows. As child-friendly T.J. Wooldridge, she’s published three spooky kids’ novels, poetry in The Jimmy Fund charity anthology Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, and will be in the upcoming New Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (HarperCollins 2020). Under her business, A Novel Friend, she’s edited over sixty novels for a variety of publishers and independent authors, six anthologies, is editing the next New England Horror Writers anthology Wicked Women, and she works with independent bookstores on publicity and events. She’s a member of SCBWI, SFPA, HWA, New England Horror Writers, New England Speculative Writers, and Broad Universe. Join her adventures at http://www.anovelfriend.com.

Visit Trisha on their Facebook, Twitter, and website.

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

Boskone is a convention with a good mix of intellectual and fun panels. There’s also a diverse attendance of pros, guests, and vendors, which is something I strongly support. I’ve found so many authors and artists I hadn’t known before and now am a fan of; I’ve had the most amazing and enlightening conversations on panels and in social settings; and I feel very welcomed at the convention on all levels: concomm, fellow vendors and panelists, and attendees.

What topics are you most looking forward to talking about at Boskone?

I had an absolute blast on a panel talking about being neuroatypical and a creator at Boskone last year, so I hope I get to be on that panel again. Even if I’m not on it, I want to attend it because I learned so much and felt supported and “seen.” I also have had awesome workshops with people when I teach Tarot and Writing or Self-Editing. I haven’t made it to as many of the growing horror and dark fantasy panels as I would have liked in prior Boskones, but I’m hoping to hit them this year because I’ve heard excellent things from my friends who have attended or paneled for them. Also, I always learn something new or find a new authors to follow on the various panels that cover underrepresented demographics.

Bonus: Up for a challenge? Give us a haiku or limerick about Boskone!

Friends and strangers share
impassioned, odd, beautiful
true things at Boskone.

Looking back, what was the first piece of work (whether it be from literature, cinema, art, music, video game, toy, or whatever it may be) that first made you love science-fiction and fantasy?

The first thing that I remember being definitively science-fiction that changed me for the better was Joanna Russ’s THE ADVENTURES OF ALYX. I’m pretty sure we picked it up at a yard sale, where i got most of my books, and I probably read it while I was still in elementary school. It was different than anything I’d ever read and had a kick-ass female lead that was fighting against things I could find similarities too in my life–before I even knew there was a thing as “feminism.” I knew stuff was unfair for girls in a lot of ways, and this was a character doing more than rebelling on a school level. While I normally skew toward fantasy and horror, this book was the first overtly speculative thing I can remember reading.

What will you be working on in 2020? Any new releases or dates that fans should be looking forward to hearing about?

I have a lot I’m excited for in 2020! While I’m at Boskone, I’ll be in the throes of reading submissions for WICKED WOMEN, the next anthology from the New England Horror Writers, and getting art and poetry ready for the 2020 Blackstone Valley Art-Poetry show. Of course I’ll be reminding attendees to submit, and if anyone is near or will be passing through Central Massachusetts after Boskone, I’ll have art and poetry in a variety of libraries and stores. Later that year, NEW SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK will be coming out, and I am beyond thrilled and honored to be part of that! As for still-in-progress stuff, I am shopping around one middle grade novel called THE CIRCUS UNDER THE BED, and will be finishing two other adult novels–a paranormal adventure thing and a dark high fantasy thing. Hopefully I’ll have more details on those at Boskone, too.

If you could bring any object or device into the real world from fiction or film, and it would work perfectly, what would you choose? Why would you choose that item?

I need a TARDIS. Like, REALLY need one. I mean, probably everybody does…except, boy-hooey, that could be a disaster. But I would totally be a responsible TARDIS owner and just use it to get all the things done I want to do, write all the books and poems, get out to the barn and play with my horse and the chickens more often…and then stop time and catch up on my sleep. Totally boring, non-world-breaking things. If David Tennant or Jodie Whitaker want to come by and borrow it for actual universe-saving stuff, that’s cool too.

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Dr. Tom Easton

Tom Easton is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, a well-known science fiction critic (he wrote the SF magazine Analog’s book review column for 30 years), and a retired college professor. He holds a doctorate in theoretical biology from the University of Chicago. He writes textbooks for McGraw-Hill on Science, Technology, & Society and Environmental Science. He started publishing science fiction in the 1970s, and since then he has published about sixty science fiction and fantasy short stories, ten SF novels, and several anthologies, of which the latest, coedited with James D. MacDonald and Judith K. Dial, is Horror for the Throne (Fantastic Books, 2020).

Visit Tom on their website.

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

I’ve been coming to Boskone since about 1980. I had reached a point in my writing career when cons made sense, and Boskone was the closest. It was also be best!

If you could be a fly on the wall during any scene or event in literature of film, which scene would it be and why? 

In the movie TROY, a view down an alley shows livestock being taken to shelter. Among the hers are llamas.I would love to witness the chewing out the director gave–or should have given–the flunky who was told to “get us some livestock.”

What will you be working on in 2020? Any new releases or dates that fans should be looking forward to hearing about?

With coeditors James D. MacDonald and Judith K. Dial, I just handed in to Ian Randall Strock’s Fantasic Books HORROR FOR THE THRONE: ONE SITTING READS. We’re hoping for a Boskone launch.

Later in the year, look for DESTINIES: ISSUES TO SHAPE OUR FUTURE, a collection of short essays from B Cubed Press.

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Gregory A. Wilson

Gregory A. Wilson is Professor of English at St. John’s University in New York City, where he teaches creative writing, speculative fiction, and various other courses in literature. In addition to academic work, he is the author of the epic fantasy The Third Sign, the graphic novel Icarus, the dark fantasy Grayshade, and the D&D adventure/sourcebook Tales and Tomes from the Forbidden Library. He also has short stories in a number of anthologies, and has several projects forthcoming in 2020. He co-hosts the critically acclaimed Speculate! The Podcast for Writers, Readers, and Fans (speculatesf.com) podcast, is a member of the Gen Con Writers’ Symposium and other author groups, and is regularly invited to conferences nationally and internationally. Finally, under the moniker Arvan Eleron, he is the host of a successful Twitch channel focused on story and narrative, with several sponsored TTRPG campaigns. He lives with his family in Riverdale, NY. His virtual home is gregoryawilson.com.

Visit Gregory on their Facebook, Twitter, and website.

What topics are you most looking forward to talking about at Boskone?

I’m really interested in talking about both the art and craft of speculative fiction, particularly in the ways the field is shifting over the past twenty years. I’m also increasingly interested in other forms of narrative, including those represented in games and tabletop role-playing systems; I run a number of TTRPG campaigns on my Twitch channel, and I find the intersection of narrative, gaming, and live streaming–sort of a collaborative storytelling–to be fascinating.

Authors: Fans often ask authors to talk about their favorite main characters, but what about the side characters? Who is one of your favorite sidekicks or secondary/tertiary characters who have had a lesser role in your work?

There’s no question that Rig, the solar (kind of a large, lava-resistant dog with two tails) in my graphic novel series The Longest Fall, is somewhat of a fan favorite with my readers. I originally imagined him as kind of a sidekick character for Jellinek, one of the main characters in those books, but as time has gone on I’ve come to see him as more of a main character, whose presence has an enormous impact on everyone within the book and who has his own will and experience. As he does within the narrative, becoming more of a part of the story, so he has become more a part of my conception for the series over time. (And if anything serious happens to him as the series continues, I already know I’m going to have a lot to answer for. People always root for animals, even two-tailed lava resistant ones!)

Looking back, what was the first piece of work (whether it be from literature, cinema, art, music, video game, toy, or whatever it may be) that first made you love science-fiction and fantasy?

I know it’s cliched, but it’s also the truth: J.R.R. Tolkien, and specifically The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, really fired my imagination as a kid, both through their characters and the prose. I had an old dog-eared copy of The Hobbit from my father, who had marked it with his own reactions in the margins (when we first meet Gollum: “DON’T TRUST HIM!” my father wrote in the margin), and reading it was almost like reading along with him. I even had an NPR audio version on tape which I would listen to over and over again, especially on winter nights when the storm was howling outside the house. I fell in love with the genre because of those books, and I’ve loved speculative fiction ever since.

If you could bring any object or device into the real world from fiction or film, and it would work perfectly, what would you choose? Why would you choose that item?

The glaive, from Krull, because that was the coolest freaking thing in the world when I was ten years old. And it worked against evil…so considering some of the bullying I went through, I could have imagined its usefulness.

Register for Boskone 57 today!

Don’t miss a single moment of Boskone 57! Between our evening programming and morning workshops, a good night’s sleep can make all the difference!

Boskone negotiates special rates with the convention hotel which is attached to the convention areas. No trucking in and out of the Boston winter required!

Important Dates

Boskone’s convention dates are February 14-16, 2020. For your convenience, the room block covers the convention dates PLUS the shoulder dates, which will be listed in our hotel block. Our block rates are good through January 21, 2020 or until rooms sell out.

Guest Room Rates

• $159 plus tax (currently 14.45%) for Single/Double/Triple/Quad

The Boskone hotel rates at the Westin Boston Waterfront include in-room WiFi. There is also free WiFi in the lobby area.

Guest Room – Reservation Links

Choose a quiet room in the Non-party block, or if you’re feeling in the party mood, book in the Party block. Lock in the special convention rate by booking before January 15, 2019.

• Non-Party Kings: https://book.passkey.com/go/BoskoneNonPartyKings2020
• Party Kings: https://book.passkey.com/go/BoskonePartyKings2020
• Non-Party Doubles: https://book.passkey.com/go/BoskoneNonPartyDoubles
• Party Doubles: https://book.passkey.com/go/BoskonePartyDoubles

*Party Block Notice: When making your reservation for a room in the “Party Block,” please note that this year we’re requiring people to book for both Friday and Saturday to avoid holes in the party block that could potentially be filled with non-Boskone attendees would could potentially complain about noise and cause parties to shut down early.

More information is available at http://b59.boskone.org/hotel.

 

 

 

 

Today we are interviewing Sarah Jean Horwitz, David B. Coe/D.B. Jackson, and Dr. Jonathan McDowell!

Sarah Jean Horwitz

Sarah Jean Horwitz is the author of the middle grade steampunk fantasy series CARMER AND GRIT. She loves storytelling in all its forms and holds a B.A. in Visual & Media Arts with a concentration in screenwriting from Emerson College. Sarah’s other interests include circus arts, extensive thematic playlists, improvisational movement, tattoos, curly hair care, and making people eat their vegetables. She currently works as an administrative assistant and lives with her partner near Cambridge, MA. Her next middle grade fantasy novel, THE DARK LORD CLEMENTINE, will be published in fall 2019 by Algonquin Young Readers.

Visit Sarah on their Facebook, Twitter, and website.

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

I love the opportunity to chat with other SFF children’s book authors, which surprisingly doesn’t happen that often! Boskone hosts such amazing veterans of the industry – Bruce Coville, Jane Yolen, etc – and it’s an honor to be in their company.

Authors: Fans often ask authors to talk about their favorite main characters, but what about the side characters? Who is one of your favorite sidekicks or secondary/tertiary characters who have had a lesser role in your work?

My current favorite supporting character is Darka Wesk-Starzec, a fierce unicorn huntress on a revenge quest in my latest novel, THE DARK LORD CLEMENTINE.

Looking back, what was the first piece of work (whether it be from literature, cinema, art, music, video game, toy, or whatever it may be) that first made you love science-fiction and fantasy?

Like many millennials, the Harry Potter series was my introduction to fantasy as a kid. It remains my favorite series to this day.

If you could bring any object or device into the real world from fiction or film, and it would work perfectly, what would you choose? Why would you choose that item?

I’d like to get my hands on the philosopher’s stone from Harry Potter. I could live forever until I didn’t feel like it anymore, stop taking the stone’s elixir, and then kick the bucket whenever I wanted. Plus, the financial security from all that gold wouldn’t hurt, either.

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David B. Coe/D.B. Jackson

David B. Coe/D.B. Jackson is the author of twenty novels and as many short stories. As D.B. Jackson (http://www.DBJackson-Author.com), he is the author of TIME’S CHILDREN (October 2018), the first book in The Islevale Cycle, a time travel/epic fantasy series from Angry Robot Books. He also writes the Thieftaker Chronicles, a series set in pre-Revolutionary Boston that combines elements of urban fantasy, mystery, and historical fiction. Under his own name (http://www.DavidBCoe.com) he has written the Crawford Award-winning LonTobyn Chronicle, the critically acclaimed Winds of the Forelands quintet and Blood of the Southlands trilogy, the novelization Ridley Scott’s, ROBIN HOOD, and a contemporary urban fantasy series, the Case Files of Justis Fearsson. He is the co-author of How To Write Magical Words: A Writer’s Companion. He is currently working on several projects, including his next book for Angry Robot, his first editing endeavor, and a tie-in project with the History Channel. David has a Ph.D. in U.S. history from Stanford University. His books have been translated into a dozen languages.

Visit David on their Facebook, Twitter, and website.

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

I’m relatively new to Boskone. This will be only my second one. What I found last year that made me want to come back was a gathering of fans and professionals that felt small enough to offer an intimate convention experience, but large enough to offer diversity of attendance and programming. There is so much going on, so many interesting people, and one actually has the opportunity to meet and interact with those people. It’s a friendly con, but it also feels weighty, like there are important conversations taking place, in informal settings as well as in panel rooms. And, I will add on a more personal note, that I have ties to New England and the Northeast, both personal (I grew up and went to school in that part of the country) and professionally: The Thieftaker Chronicles, the work for which I’m probably best known, is set in pre-Revolutionary Boston.

Bonus: Up for a challenge? Give us a haiku or limerick about Boskone!

Chowder and cold beer
Stormtroopers march in snow boots
Welcome to Boskone

Looking back, what was the first piece of work (whether it be from literature, cinema, art, music, video game, toy, or whatever it may be) that first made you love science-fiction and fantasy?

The first piece that turned me on to SF and Fantasy was a dramatized version of THE HOBBIT that I auditioned for at sleep away camp when I was 11 years old. I didn’t know anything about THE HOBBIT at the time, but this was my first summer away at camp and my parents had told my counselors that they thought I should try doing some drama. Fine, okay. So I try out for the play, which has this really odd script, and I get cast as some guy named Bilbo Baggins. The plays at camp had a really fast turnaround. Auditions Monday, performance Sunday and then on to the next production. So for a week I was totally immersed in Tolkien’s world, and I was literally never the same. After that play, I wanted to read all the fantasy I could find, I was desperate to read the actual novel of THE HOBBIT, and soon after THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Truly, it changed my life. And all because my parents were fully aware that I was a total ham…

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Dr. Jonathan McDowell

Dr. Jonathan McDowell is an astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, part of the Center for Astrophysics (Harvard and Smithsonian) in Cambridge, MA. A staff member of the Chandra X-ray Center (CXC), he studies black holes, quasars and X-ray sources in galaxies, as well as developing data analysis software for the X-ray astronomy community as part of the Chandra X-ray Observatory team. As well as studying distant quasars, McDowell is known for work on the history of space exploration, and maintains the most comprehensive list of satellite and space launches. McDowell’s online newsletter on space launches, Jonathan’s Space Report (since 1989) gives details of all satellite launches, and the associated web site, https://planet4589.org, contains tables of rocket launches and space activities. In 2018 Dr. McDowell published a paper giving physical arguments that the lower boundary of outer space should be at 80 km above the Earth, and not the currently-popular value of 100 km. Main belt asteroid (4589) McDowell is named after him.

Visit Dr Martin Elvis on their Twitter and website.

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

I’m a Boston area resident so there’s that. I’ve been a couple times over the decades but usually I am out of town when it happens so I’m glad the schedule works for me this time.

What topics are you most looking forward to talking about at Boskone?

While I love many kinds of SF and fantasy my own expertise is in the reality of space exploration by humans and robots in the 20th and 21st centuries, so I look forward
to sharing some thoughts about that.

If you could be a fly on the wall during any scene or event in literature of film, which scene would it be and why? 

Uncovering the monolith in 2001.Because (a) I love the thrill of discovery.(b) it would mean I’d be on the Moon!(c) most of the other dramatic scenes I can think of take place in universes I am rather happy I don’t live in

Looking back, what was the first piece of work (whether it be from literature, cinema, art, music, video game, toy, or whatever it may be) that first made you love science-fiction and fantasy?

I started watching Dr Who when I was 3 so there’s that. I remember reading the Little Prince as a small kid and that gave me an abiding interest in asteroids. Then at around ten or so I discovered at around the same time Tolkien and Asimov/Clarke/Heinlein.

If you could bring any object or device into the real world from fiction or film, and it would work perfectly, what would you choose? Why would you choose that item?

A human-mind-uploading-to-computer device, like for example the ones in Fred Pohl’s Gateway saga. Because it’s the least implausible avenue to living for ever.

Register for Boskone 57 today!

Today we are interviewing Gerald L. Coleman, Tabitha Lord, and Dr. Martin Elvis!

Gerald L. Coleman

Gerald L. Coleman is a Philosopher, Theologian, Poet, and Author residing in Atlanta. Born in Lexington, he did his undergraduate work in Philosophy and English at the University of Kentucky. He followed that by completing a degree in Religious Studies, concluding with a Master’s degree in Theology at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville. His most recent poetry appears in, Pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture, Drawn To Marvel: Poems From The Comic Books, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel Vol. 18, Black Bone Anthology, the 10th Anniversary Issue of Diode Poetry Journal, and About Place Journal. He is a speculative fiction author with short stories published in these Anthologies: The Science Fiction, Cyberfunk Anthology: The City, the Rococoa Anthology by Roaring Lion, Terminus Urban Fantasy Anthology, and the Dark Universe: Bright Empire. He is the author of the Epic Fantasy novel saga The Three Gifts, which currently includes When Night Falls (Book One) and A Plague of Shadows (Book Two). He has been a Guest Author and Attending Professional at DragonCon, Boskone, Blacktasticon, JordanCon, Atlanta Science Fiction & Fantasy Expo, The Outer Dark Symposium, World Horror Con, and Imaginarium. He has recently joined the staff of WorldCon Dublin as its Programme Content Consultant, and Multiverse Con as a Director in programming. He is a co-founder of the Affrilachian Poets and has released three collections of poetry entitled the road is long, falling to earth, and microphone check. You can find him at geraldlcoleman.com

Visit Gerald on their Facebook, Twitter, and website.

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

There are a few criteria I look at in determining whether I’ll go to, or return to, a convention. Is the Con Committee committed to inclusion at every level of the convention? What kind of members of fandom show up? Is the Con pushing fandom in a positive and constructive direction or is it comfortable being what it’s been for the past ten or twenty or thirty years? Do I, on a personal level, feel welcome? Boskone meets those expectations and so I’m willing to return to it if invited.

Authors: Fans often ask authors to talk about their favorite main characters, but what about the side characters? Who is one of your favorite sidekicks or secondary/tertiary characters who have had a lesser role in your work?

Ossassande Bantu A’ Omorede, the Commander General of the Peoples Company is the central protagonist of my epic fantasy series, The Three Gifts. A favorite secondary character is difficult to chose because I love all of them for different reasons. Maybe Zezza din’ Nightblinder? She’s a member of the ancient Order of the Ki’gadi. She’s young, powerful, wild, and filled with duty but with a strong sprinkling of independence, which has only been encouraged by her Master and teacher, Mino din’ Darksbane.

Looking back, what was the first piece of work (whether it be from literature, cinema, art, music, video game, toy, or whatever it may be) that first made you love science-fiction and fantasy?

The Rats of NIMH was a book I picked up in elementary school through scholastic. It opened my mind up to wonder, the fantastic, and fantasy. I Loved animated films like The Rescuers, The Secret of NIMH, Watership Down, LOTR, The Hobbit, Robin Hood, and later on Heavy Metal. That coupled with comics gave me a fundamental love and appreciation of the fantastical early on.

If you could bring any object or device into the real world from fiction or film, and it would work perfectly, what would you choose? Why would you choose that item?

The replicator from Star Trek. It would solve a lot of problems like hunger, greed, inequality, etc. Second would be the Holodeck – go anywhere, be anyone, can you image the D&D games!? Lol. I’d be the Captain of a federation Starship every night of the week.

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Tabitha Lord

Tabitha’s HORIZON series has received seven independent book awards including the Writer’s Digest Grand Prize in 2016. Her short fiction has been featured on podcasts including Star Ship Sofa and Tales to Terrify, and in anthologies published by World Weaver Press, Grimbold Books, and more. In addition to writing novels and short fiction, Tabitha is a partner and senior writer for Book Club Babble and managing editor for the Inkitt Writer’s Blog. She lives in Rhode Island with her husband, four kids, and lovable fur babies.

Visit Tabitha on their Facebook, Twitter, and website.

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

This is my first Boskone! I sign and sell my books at many Comic Cons around the country, and as much fun as they are, they are more celebrity centric. I’m thrilled to be at a conference focusing on all things science fiction. I can’t wait to talk to other science fiction writers and meet fellow fans of the genre.

Authors: Fans often ask authors to talk about their favorite main characters, but what about the side characters? Who is one of your favorite sidekicks or secondary/tertiary characters who have had a lesser role in your work?

When crafting side characters, it’s important that they help move the story forward and complement or challenge the main characters without overshadowing them. It’s a tall order, but just like the supporting cast in a movie, these side characters add flavor and complexity to the story.

In my Horizon series, I’m particularly fond of Lieutenant Finn Braden. He’s a member of the Amathi army, sent to destroy the neighboring settlement and home of the main character, Caeli. She survives this raid, is taken captive, and resettled in Alamath, where she’s recruited to a resistance movement by Finn himself.

I love Finn’s arc. He’s a soldier, drawn to serve, but when he’s forced to invade his neighbors’ home and kill innocents, he’s devastated. The resistance movement offers him a way to atone. His friendship with Caeli, and her forgiveness, earns him redemption. What I really love about Finn is that he doesn’t just feel bad about what he’s done, he owns it, and then risks his life over and over again in service of the very people he was originally taught to hate. Finn’s courage, in my opinion, makes him one of the most heroic characters in the story.

Looking back, what was the first piece of work (whether it be from literature, cinema, art, music, video game, toy, or whatever it may be) that first made you love science-fiction and fantasy?

I fell in love with science fiction at seven years old watching Star Wars with my dad. I saw the movie at a time when special effects were, well, special, and a story like this one had never been seen on the big screen. Spaceships, aliens, evil villains, reluctant heroes, and a bad-ass princess – everything a girl could ask for! I was obsessed. Every night I fell asleep to Jon Williams’ music playing on my record player (I still feel warm and fuzzy when I hear the theme). Model x-wing fighters hung from my bedroom ceiling, the Millennium Falcon I built with my dad had a light-up cockpit, my Empire Strikes Back lunchbox still had its thermos, and my Princess Leia action figure was the one with the real buns (you know – fake hair instead of plastic, and you could never fix it after you’d messed with it). When I attended my first Comic Con many years later, I realized I should have saved those toys. My collection would have rivaled any I’ve seen.

As a storyteller myself now, I am in awe of stories that touch the collective consciousness of millions, and this one sure did!

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Dr. Martin Elvis

Dr. Martin Elvis is a highly cited astrophysicist (over 30,000 peer citations) who has published some 400 papers on supermassive black holes, seen as quasars, out to the edge of the universe over the course of many years. Lately, concerned about the growing cost of space telescopes, he has turned to researching the astronomy needed to enable asteroid mining, with a view to cutting those costs in the long run. He has published widely on issues related to asteroid mining and the space economy. He is proud that he is (probably) the first professional astronomer to visit the Harvard Business School on business. He obtained one of the first PhDs in X-ray astronomy, and has worked at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics ever since on a series of space X-ray telescopes, culminating with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Member of the Aspen Center for Physics, and is past-Chair of the Hubble Space Telescope Users’ Committee and of the High Energy Division of the American Astronomical Society. Asteroid 9283 Martinelvis is named after him. His book on asteroid mining should appear in 2020 from Yale University Press.

Visit Dr Martin Elvis on their Twitter.

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

I’m 100% new to Boskone. In fact, I hadn’t heard of it until being invited!

What topics are you most looking forward to talking about at Boskone?

Whether Sci-Fi is imaginative enough about human expansion across the Solar System.

Looking back, what was the first piece of work (whether it be from literature, cinema, art, music, video game, toy, or whatever it may be) that first made you love science-fiction and fantasy?

A short story “The Wall”, byArthur C. Clarke, because it was mind-bending. And then many, many more.

What was your first book event or literary convention? Tell us about it! Perhaps you even have a photo to share?

This would be it.

What will you be working on in 2020? Any new releases or dates that fans should be looking forward to hearing about?

My popular (I hope) book on Asteroid Mining is almost ready with Yale University Press. It should be out next Fall.

Register for Boskone 57 today!

Happy Friday (the 13th!)! Today we are interviewing Daniel M. Kimmel, Nightwing Whitehead, and R.W.W. Greene!

Daniel M. Kimmel

Veteran film critic Daniel M. Kimmel is the author of the Hugo nominated collection of essays “Jar Jar Binks Must Die.” He has branched out into humorous SF/F and has had a number of short stories published as well as three novels, the most recent of which is “Father of the Bride of Frankenstein.

Visit Daniel on their Facebook, Twitter, and website.

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

I came to organized fandom late (i.e., in my 30s) although I’d been reading and viewing SF all my life.Boskone welcomed me in as a professional film critic who celebrated SF, and let me indulge myself as both a reader and a movie/TV watcher and, more recently, as an SF writer.Plus, if you haven’t been, the Friday night dessert buffet is to die for.:)

Authors: Fans often ask authors to talk about their favorite main characters, but what about the side characters? Who is one of your favorite sidekicks or secondary/tertiary characters who have had a lesser role in your work?

I’ve had three novels and two dozen short stories published, and I’m always surprised when characters take on lives of their own. I’ve had this happen many times where the plot goes somewhere I wasn’t expecting. In “Time on My Hands,” my time travel comic novel, I had a scene where the narrator — the inventor of a time travel device — encounters Cort, whose job it is to tell time travellers that they can only travel so far into the future. Cort was just supposed to be in one scene but as I was writing I found that he was a key to solving my plot problems getting to the end of the novel. More recently I had an opportunity to do a short story focused on Cort which I’m hoping will see the light of day in 2020.

What was your first book event or literary convention? Tell us about it! Perhaps you even have a photo to share?

My first con as a participant was a Boskone where I made the classic newbie mistake of arriving for my first (and only) panel and asking, “Who’s moderating?” since no one was listed.The other panelists, with more experience than I, turned to me and said, “YOU are!”And I’ve not only come back, but have volunteered to moderate many panels since.

If you could bring any object or device into the real world from fiction or film, and it would work perfectly, what would you choose? Why would you choose that item?

Easy enough: the transporter from “Star Trek.” Instantaneous travel would make life much more efficient than relying on the MBTA.

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Nightwing Whitehead

Nightwing was born in 1958, the Barbie was born in 1959. So for a year Nightwing had nothing to do. She has been trying to make up for lost time ever since. Nightwing has been around theatrical wardrobe departments all her life, her first paying job was at an opera house in Colorado. Her creations have been seen in plays at every level from Community to Equity, as well as several independent films. She is a professional full-time enigma who, in what spare time she has, enjoys reading and howling at the moon.

Visit Nightwig on their Facebook(1), Facebook(2), and website.

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

It seems that all my friends, even some I have not met yet, attend Boscone. It is time I did the same.

What topics are you most looking forward to talking about at Boskone?

Anything to do with costuming. Or fabric. Or both.:-)

Authors: Fans often ask authors to talk about their favorite main characters, but what about the side characters? Who is one of your favorite sidekicks or secondary/tertiary characters who have had a lesser role in your work?

Artists: Fans love looking at the portfolio of artwork and asking artists about some of their most well known images. Which of your images, that receives less attention from fans, do you hold dear? What is it about the creation of that piece that makes it so special for you?

Filkers: Listeners often know your most popular music. Which of your other, less well-known songs, affects you deeply? What is it about that song that speaks to your creative spirit?

As a costumer, my favorite person to create is Cinderella. I love the way the audience gasps in unison when she transforms and I know it is because of my work. This is what I strive for with everything I create. Being able to help a new person, be it Bat Girl or a Princess, step forth is a true “Cinderella Moment” for me.

Looking back, what was the first piece of work (whether it be from literature, cinema, art, music, video game, toy, or whatever it may be) that first made you love science-fiction and fantasy?

For Halloween one year, when I was not yet a teenager, I was Ozma from Oz.I created my costume using what fabrics and paper I could find at home. I wish pictures of it still existed, as I looked very like Princess Leia (a full decade and more before she was on the big screen). No one knew whowas, but *I* knew, and was excited by the idea of making a character come to life.

What was your first book event or literary convention? Tell us about it! Perhaps you even have a photo to share?

My first *book* event was the annual Scholastic Readers Book Fair that visited our grade school. I would save my allowance for months getting ready for it, and would buy as many books as I could, usually reading them all before the month’s end.

My first “media” event was a TrekCon; not a lot of costumes other than Star Trek, but I did meet Leonard Nimoy and have all my poetry books signed. And, I was instantly addicted to the feeling of of coming-home.

If you could bring any object or device into the real world from fiction or film, and it would work perfectly, what would you choose? Why would you choose that item?

A friend of mine wrote a book in which the people wear clothing made of fabric that can be programmed to shift colors and patterns as it is worn. It is used by his characters to reflect their moods and to affect those the encounter. I want this fabric, and I want it NOW!

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R.W.W. Greene

R.W.W. Greene is a New Hampshire writer who once believed he’d be living in orbit by now. His debut novel, The Light Years, is out from Angry Robot February 11, 2020. His fiction has seen daylight in Metaphorosis, Stupefying Stories, and Daily Science Fiction, among other places. He collects typewriters, keeps bees, and Tweets about it all @rwwgreene.

Visit R.W.W. on their Twitter and website.

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

I’m still a Boskone rookie–I’ve only been attending for about a decade–but I come to this con chiefly because of the quality of the program and program participants. It doesn’t hurt that there are usually astrophysicists, biologists, astronauts, linguists, and other smart people in the audience that can round out any discussion. You never know who you’re sitting next to because there is so little ego involved. Everyone is just there to be and learn and chill.

What topics are you most looking forward to talking about at Boskone?

I tend to geek out at the science panels; it’s great to hear the ideas of people who are in the bleeding edge. I’ve also been delighted to see how much sci-fi from other parts of the world is becoming available to me through translations and NetFlix. It’s really bliss.

Bonus: Up for a challenge? Give us a haiku or limerick about Boskone!

No panel right now
Wandering the dealer room
Please don’t bump my tea

Looking back, what was the first piece of work (whether it be from literature, cinema, art, music, video game, toy, or whatever it may be) that first made you love science-fiction and fantasy?

My father took me to see “Star Wars” when I was six (1977). I remember doing a lot of duck and cover when Darth Vader came on the screen, and the experience twisted my brain. It has never recovered.

What will you be working on in 2020? Any new releases or dates that fans should be looking forward to hearing about?

Hopefully, by the time 2020 rolls around, I’ll have a new novel to pitch and another in the works. Will that in-the-works book be the one about the centaurs, the one about the sci-fi Seventies, or the one about the alien who believes it is a demonic summoning? Tune in and see!

If you could bring any object or device into the real world from fiction or film, and it would work perfectly, what would you choose? Why would you choose that item?

I don’t need a full starship, but I’d love to have a Federation runabout complete with an emergency-medical hologram. I figure I can get a lot done with a rig like that.

Register for Boskone 57 today!

Good morning! Today we are interviewing Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Matthew Warner, and Gene Doucette!

Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of the novels Signal to Noise, Certain Dark Things, The Beautiful Ones; and the science fiction novella Prime Meridian. She has also edited several anthologies, including the World Fantasy Award-winning She Walks in Shadows (a.k.a. Cthulhu’s Daughters). Gods of Jade and Shadow is her latest novel. She is a columnist for the Washington Post and a reviewer for NPR.

Visit Silvia on their Twitter and website.

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

I lived for a while in the Boston area but never attended any cons there, so this is a chance to hopefully see some of the old sights around the city and discover what the convention is like. Also, I don’t like very huge events so this seemed more moderately sized, ha.

What was your first book event or literary convention? Tell us about it! Perhaps you even have a photo to share?

I think it was probably the HP Lovecraft Film Festival, which takes place in Portland every year. It’s a very small event and they screen all sorts of horror short films. I’ve also attended Necronomicon, which takes place every two years in Providence, and that’s a convention focused on the Weird and has an academic panel track, which is what I find the most interesting. There’s also a masked ball. I’ve gone twice to that. I won the World Fantasy Award editing an anthology inspired by the work of Lovecraft called ‘She Walks in Shadows,’ hence the focus on this sort of stuff.

What will you be working on in 2020? Any new releases or dates that fans should be looking forward to hearing about?

My first crime novel, Untamed Shore, is out February 2020 and in June Del Rey will be releasing Mexican Gothic, which is exactly what it sounds like: a Gothic novel. A Mexican socialite travels to the countryside to visit her cousin, who has recently married, and discovers nothing as it seems in the strange, old house in the mountains where she lives. Or, like the jacket cover more elegantly puts it: “a story about an isolated mansion in 1950s Mexico—and the brave socialite drawn to its treacherous secrets.”

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Matthew Warner

Matthew Warner is a website designer working with Deena Warner to create websites for authors and publishers. Additionally, he is a SF/F/H author with seven novels and three collections, and he is a martial arts enthusiast.

Visit Matthew on their Facebook, Twitter, and website.

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

Deena Warner and I will be guests concerning website design and online promotion. We learned about Boskone while redesigning the NESFA website (https://www.nesfa.org/), and we were invited to attend the convention. I’m also looking forward to attending as a writer, having had a few science fiction short stories published in the small press.

Looking back, what was the first piece of work (whether it be from literature, cinema, art, music, video game, toy, or whatever it may be) that first made you love science-fiction and fantasy?

The story that really affected me was 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Once I read the Arthur C. Clarke novel, the Stanley Kubrick film finally made sense! Back in 2001, I even corresponded a few times with ACC, via snail mail to Sri Lanka. I sent him a copy of my high school short story about him, in which a Dave Bowman-like space entity plucks ACC’s spirit from his body at the end of his natural life in order to change him into a space baby like itself. ACC kept writing back. so I guess he liked it! He was my first, favorite author, and having the privilege of swapping letters with him reinforced that with some hero-worship.

What will you be working on in 2020? Any new releases or dates that fans should be looking forward to hearing about?

My next publication will be a short story in THE BIG BOOK OF BLASPHEMY from Necro Publications, coming in 2019 or 2020. I’m also writing short stories as time allows between designing websites.

If you could bring any object or device into the real world from fiction or film, and it would work perfectly, what would you choose? Why would you choose that item?

I would bring in the time viewer technology from THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter. The time viewer is a wormhole through which you can observe any event and location from the past. It has profound societal effects as people are forced to confront the actual origins of their religions and mankind’s evolution. I would like to see this tech enhanced to allow for interstellar exploration — a kind of perfect clairvoyance to the entire universe.

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Gene Doucette

Gene Doucette is a hybrid author, albeit in a somewhat roundabout way. From 2010 through 2014, Gene published four full-length novels (Immortal, Hellenic Immortal, Fixer, and Immortal at the Edge of the World) with a small indie publisher. Then, in 2014, Gene started self-publishing novellas that were set in the same universe as the Immortal series, at which point he was a hybrid. When the novellas proved more lucrative than the novels, Gene tried self-publishing a full novel, The Spaceship Next Door, in 2015. This went well. So well, that in 2016, Gene reacquired the rights to the earlier four novels from the publisher, and re-released them, at which point he wasn’t a hybrid any longer. Additional self-published novels followed: Immortal and the Island of Impossible Things (2016); Unfiction (2017); and The Frequency of Aliens (2017). In 2018, John Joseph Adams Books (an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) acquired the rights to The Spaceship Next Door. The reprint was published in September of that year, at which point Gene was once again a hybrid author. Since then, a number of things have happened. Gene published two more novels—Immortal From Hell at the end of 2018, and Fixer Redux in 2019—and wrote a new novel called Apocalypse Seven that he did not self-publish; it was acquired by JJA/HMH in September of 2019. Gene plans to continue writing novels for both markets (traditional and self-published) as long as that continues to make sense. His current work-in-progress is Immortal: Last Call, and a large science fiction world-building project taking place on his Patreon site.

Visit Gene on their Twitter, Facebook, and website.

What is it about Boskone that makes this the convention you choose to attend each year?

Or if this is your first Boskone, what attracted you most to Boskone this year?

Proximity!

Last year was actually only my second visit to Boskone, and my first as a panelist, which is terrible considering I live just down the road. (Hopefully, the fact that I haven’t been going to any other conventions either makes this slightly less terrible.) So: it’s definitely true that I go to Boskone each year—but it’s a short streak—and I don’t go to any other conventions, for some reason.

But what makes it special? Well, I had a fantastic time last year, and I was overjoyed to have been invited back, and that’s all pretty special.

Looking back, what was the first piece of work (whether it be from literature, cinema, art, music, video game, toy, or whatever it may be) that first made you love science-fiction and fantasy?

I’m having a hard time deciding which came first. My father’s influence on my tastes was pretty substantial, because he was a big sci-fi fan. He used to hand me books all the time, with a ‘read this, you’ll like it’ recommendation that was always correct. So, early on, science fiction was just ‘this is the kind of fiction adults read for pleasure’. From that perspective, I’d probably pick something like Foundation, Lucifer’s Hammer or Inherit the Stars. But those probably aren’t the right answers.

I started reading fantasy (which my father didn’t care for) on my own. I don’t remember how or when I started, but every family trip to the bookstore ended up with me in the fantasy section. I read a lot of epic fantasy, but the first thing that springs to mind isn’t in that category: it’s the Xanth books by Piers Anthony. The second thing is The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, although possibly because I was in seventh grade and that trilogy scarred me deeply. But those probably aren’t the right answers either.

I think the answer might have to be The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Not because I fell in love with science fiction when I read it—I was already in love with science fiction by then. No, I mention it because this was the first book that made me want to write fiction.

What will you be working on in 2020? Any new releases or dates that fans should be looking forward to hearing about?

It’s going to be an interesting year because I have no idea what I’m going to be working on, and it’s been a long time since I could say that.
As I write this, I’m finishing up Immortal: Last Call, which is the sixth book in my Immortal series. It may be the last book in that series, but even if it isn’t, I’ll be looking elsewhere for a new project in 2020.

I’d like to return to Sorrow Falls for a third book (following up on The Spaceship Next Door and The Frequency of Aliens) but right now I’m not sure what that new story would look like, so I can’t promise anything.

I’ve also been busy doing some world-building on my Patreon site. The plan there is to create a planet with its own history and what-not, so I can set a series of books on that planet. I already have the beginnings of a plot for between three and seven books, but I’ll have to do a lot more world-building before I’m ready to start writing. That work will continue into 2020, but I don’t know yet if it will produce a book in 2020.

I will be doing a lot of work on what’s coming out in 2021. I wrote a novel called Apocalypse Seven in early 2019. It was part of a plan to develop into more of a hybrid author, which in this case meant I pitched it to John Joseph Adams Books (JJA Books is a Houghton Mifflin Harcourt imprint) rather than publishing it myself. JJA/HMH acquired it, and it’ll be coming out in the Spring of 2021.

That means I’ll be spending at least part of 2020 doing the editing and promotional work that comes with a new release with a traditional publisher. What does that mean? I don’t know yet, but I’m looking forward to finding out.

Register for Boskone 57 today!