I’ll be at Boskone this coming weekend, and with any luck I’ll be a little less frazzled than I was at Arisia. (Although if I’m entertainingly frazzled, then that’s fine too.) Here’s my schedule for the con:
Friday, 8pm: Biblical Themes and Religion in Genre Fiction
OK, the Bible is full of some really fabulous stories, and a lot of people are familiar with it, so there’s resonance in the well of souls. What other reasons propel writers back to those tales? And what about the Koran and the Torah—do they not also have fabulous stories? Give example of great SF/Fantasy that have used Biblical and religious themes (Because there are never enough books to read…)
Jeffrey A. Carver (M), Walter H. Hunt, Dani Kollin, Steven Popkes, Margaret Ronald
Saturday, 3pm: The Heroine’s Journey
We’ve got a whole book and academic sub-genre dedicated to the hero’s journey and its mythic importance in our culture (thank you, Joseph Campbell!) As usual, they left out the girls. Is the heroine’s journey different from that of the hero? If so, in what ways and why? (Is the differentiation embodied in those two terms even germane any longer?)
Lois McMaster Bujold, Greer Gilman, Rosemary Kirstein (M), Margaret Ronald, Jo Walton
Sunday, 9:30am: Reading
Margaret Ronald
(I’ll see if I can arrange coffee for anyone who shows up.)
Sunday, 1pm: Why Adults Love YA
Are grown-ups just trying to recapture their mispent youth, or is there something either more compelling about this kind of fiction? If so, what?
Bruce Coville, Michael J. Daley (M), Sarah Beth Durst, Margaret Ronald, Navah Wolfe
As usual, I’m way over my head. But the last few times that’s happened, I’ve had a lot of fun, so we’ll see how it works out this time. Hope to see you there!



Yes, I have my Advance Review Copies for Wild Hunt! And they are beautiful. I’ve been told that there’s a particular “new book smell” about the copies you receive, or a different feel to them, but for me the most wonderful and strange element of the whole experience is opening it to any page. There’s always a moment where I don’t quite recognize the words, and then a burgeoning sense of deja vu as it finally clicks that yes, I know this part because I wrote it.