The countdown to Boskone 56 is on! Alas, it brings us the last set of mini interviews for this year. Don’t fret! Come to Boskone to meet all our talented program participants, including S L Huang, Brendan DuBois & Josh Dahl.

S L Huang

SL Huang is an Amazon-bestselling author who justifies her MIT degree by using it to write eccentric mathematical superhero fiction. Her debut novel, Zero Sum Game, came out from Tor in 2018, and her short fiction has sold to Analog, Nature, and The Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy 2016. She is also a Hollywood stuntwoman and firearms expert, where she’s appeared on shows such as “Battlestar Galactica” and “Raising Hope” and worked with actors such as Sean Patrick Flanery, Jason Momoa, and Danny Glover. She currently lives in Tokyo.

Visit Lisa on Facebook, Twitter or via her website.

With many conventions to choose from and limited time in your schedule, what attracts you to Boskone?

I’ve never been to Boskone, but I was very attracted to it because — BOSTON! I love Boston. I went to college there, and I feel a great nostalgia for the literary and genre people I met during my years in the area. And every time I go back to visit friends, I’m delighted by the vibrancy and brilliance of Boston communities.

I’m eager to catch up with friends and meet more locals, as well as hang with the other folks traveling in for the con. I can’t imagine a better city to do it in, and the more I interact with the Boskone community in particular and hear about how the convention is run, the more excited I am to experience it for myself. My publisher was stoked at the idea of my attending Boskone, too!

Do you have a favorite photo from a book event or literary convention? If so, when and where was it taken? What do you enjoy most about this photo?

“I DO. And it’s a Boston photo, no less!

Ken Liu, Elizabeth Bear, and I were all in MIT Press’s “Twelve Tomorrows” anthology together, and this photo is when we came to do a Q&A at the MIT Press Bookstore last year. It was one of the most fun events I’ve done, mainly because Ken and Elizabeth are utterly delightful people. As you can see from this photo — I don’t know what Ken said that made us laugh this hard!

We talked some of my favorite topics with the audience, such as hard science fiction and the science behind our favorite SF. Like every time I’ve been in Boston, the audience members were smart and responsive and so fun to engage with, and as an MIT alum myself I was over the moon to return to the bookstore as an author. Now, every time I see this photo it reminds me of what a giddily good time we had there — and how much fun talking science and science fiction can be.

Plus, the dress I am wearing in this picture is awesome. It has POCKETS.

Can you share some details about upcoming projects or what you’re working on now? Do you have releases in 2019 that readers should look for?
Yes, I have two upcoming releases that I’m very excited about! Yoon Ha Lee, Rivers Solomon, Becky Chambers and I have a collaborative series coming out very soon from Serial Box. It’s called The Vela, and it’s a space opera adventure that also digs into some deep themes. You can read more about it here: https://www.serialbox.com/serials/vela

Then my second book, Null Set, is coming out this summer. It’s the sequel to my debut novel Zero Sum Game, which my publisher calls “the geek’s Jack Reacher” — it’s about a superheroine who can do math really, really fast. She does use to kill slightly too many people . . . but I still love her.

Brendan DuBois

Brendan DuBois of New Hampshire is the award-winning author of 22 novels and more than 170 short stories. His third science fiction novel, BLACK TRIUMPH — the concluding novel in his DARK VICTORY trilogy — was published in October 2018 by Baen Books. This March, two novels co-authored with NYT bestselling author James Patterson — THE FIRST LADY and THE CORNWALLS ARE GONE — will be published. His short fiction has appeared in Playboy, Analog, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and numerous anthologies including “The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century,” published in 2000, as well as the “The Best American Noir of the Century,” published in 2010. Two of his short stories have appeared in Gardner Dozois’ “The Year’s Best Science Fiction” anthologies. His novel, RESURRECTION DAY, won the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History Novel of the Year. His stories have thrice won him the Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and have also earned him three Edgar Allan Poe Award nominations from the Mystery Writers of America. He is also a “Jeopardy!” gameshow champion.

Visit Brendan on Facebook or via his website.

With many conventions to choose from and limited time in your schedule, what attracts you to Boskone?

Well, it’s an hour’s drive away, which is nice. Hah-hah. No, what appeals to me is nostalgia and the future. Nostalgia because I was a fierce SF fan back in the 1970s, in grade school and high school. In 1977, as a senior in high school, Boskone was my very first convention of any kind, and I was instantly welcomed. That’s the nostalgia part. After a decades-long absence, and with me re-entering the SF and fantasy field as an author, I find Boskone just as open, warm, and welcoming. It still honors its roots in SF and fantasy, and also promotes the future and changing field of which I have so much affection.

If you could relive your first experience with any book or film, which one would you pick? What is it about this book or film that you want to experience again for the “first time?”

The book would be Robert Heinlein’s Red Planet, first published in 1949. I probably read this book about 20 or so years later, as a young boy, and it was just a wonderful introduction of a YA type of SF where young boys were the lead. Of course, *I* imagined myself as a young lad on Mars… and that (along with the Apollo space program) just fed my life-long love with SF and space.

What is your favorite memory of a fan interaction at a convention? It could be you as a pro interacting with one of your fans or you as a fan meeting someone you admire.

This is a story I’ve told many, many times before, so please forgive me. As noted earlier, back in 1977 I was a high school senior, in love with writing and science fiction. My parents actually allowed me to go to my first SF convention in Boston, Boskone, about an hour away form home.

I was alone. Didn’t know a soul. But at some reception I fell into conversation with the one and only David Gerrold. We talked for a while and I couldn’t believe how cool this was… me, a kid from New Hampshire, sharing time with the guy who wrote the Tribbles episode and so much other cool stuff.

Later on, he said, “I’ve having dinner with Larry and his wife. Want to join us?”

I said sure. “Larry” turned out to be SF author Larry Niven and his wife Marilyn, a/k/a Fuzzy Pink.

So there I was, the first day of my first SF con, having an intelligent and lovely dinner with two of the greats in SF. They treated me as an equal, as someone who would be a pro “one of these days.” And that dinner at Boskone changed my life, and gave me the inspiration and dedication to continue writing, as a journalist and then a full-time fiction author in 1998.

Do you have a favorite photo from a book event or literary convention? If so, when and where was it taken? What do you enjoy most about this photo?

This photo was taken at Bouchercon in 2016, when I met up with David Gerrold for the first time since 1977. I’m holding an autographed PB from him that was published at that time, and *he’s* holding an autographed copy of my first novel. The circle closes…

Can you share some details about upcoming projects or what you’re working on now? 

Last fall, I completed the third novel in my first science fiction trilogy, Black Triumph,  which was published by Baen Books.Next month, my first collaboration with James Patterson, The Cornwalls Are Gone, will be released by Little, Brown.

Who is your favorite literary character of all time? What is it about this character that you admire?
Oh, it would have to be Lazarus Long, the creation of Robert Heinlein, who “lived” in works published in the 1940’s, 1970’s and 1980’s. In these fictional worlds, he lived for several thousand years, through various timelines. See: Methuselah’s Children, Time Enough For Love, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, and To Sail Beyond The Sunset.

Josh Dahl

Visit Josh on Facebook or via his website.

With many conventions to choose from and limited time in your schedule, what attracts you to Boskone?

Boskone is both low-key, but intense. It is smart, but silly. It is intriguing, but inviting. It’s fun.

They say you can find hints of creators in their work. Looking back at your work, which character, piece of art, song, poem, article, etc. most closely resembles you? Why?

All of my comics are really about me, but the one that is most clearly autobiographical is Rapid City: Objects at Rest.

What is your favorite memory of a fan interaction at a convention? It could be you as a pro interacting with one of your fans or you as a fan meeting someone you admire.

I was sipping my second sad-and-alone gin n tonic at the Comixology after-party for New York Comic Con. I didn’t know anyone there and was ready to mope back to my room. Just then, a mysterious woman cut through the crowd, moving directly toward me. She looked up at me and said “Are you Josh Dahl? You are one of my favorite writers”.
I won’t get into the specifics after that, suffice it to say that we played a few rounds of trivia with her friends. It was wonderful.

Can you share some details about upcoming projects or what you’re working on now? Do you have releases in 2019 that readers should look for?
Skies Over Superior is an ongoing comic series with artist Laura Bearl. Teenager Merilee Fit discovers that mythical creatures are arising from Lake Superior to destroy her northern Michigan town… and all of humanity. It is up to Merilee and her uncle to find a way to stop them. This serialized graphic novel is supported by Patreon and available through Tapas.