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Posts by Lawrence:

2012 Worldcon Schedule (a first look)

Written on August 1st, 2012 by
Categories: News

One of the ways to predict the quality of a convention is by how far in advance they send out preliminary schedules to their participants. Chicon 7 sent me mine today, four full weeks before the start of the convention.

I have no doubt there’ll be some changes. Some of my co-panelists will slip away and others will show up in their stead, rooms may change, and times surely will, but all in all, having a glimpse of what I can expect this far in advance is a clear sign that this worldcon is going to be awesome!

Wednesday, August 29th:
noon – 11:00 Klingon Language for Newbies

Thursday, August 30th:
9:00 – 10:00 Strolling with the Stars
3:00 – 4:30 Kaffeeklatsche
4:30 – 6:00 Autographing

Friday, August 31st
noon – 1:30 Iron Chef: Flash Fiction (M)
3:00 – 3:30 Writer Under Glass #23
4:00 – 4:30 Reading

Saturday, September 1st
09:00 – 10:30 Codex Breakfast
10:30 – noon Another View on Character Building
1:30 – 3:00 How to Speak Klingon

Sunday, September 2nd
9:00 – 10:00 Strolling with the Stars
noon – 1:30 Introduction to Linguistics
8:00 – 11:00 Hugo Awards

Monday, September 3rd
10:00 – noon Writers’ Workshop -Section U
4:01 – next several days Recovery Time – Enjoying the City of my Birth!

The actual schedule for Strolling with the Stars hasn’t gone out yet, but I’ve included my best guess above. Likewise, the day and time of the SFWA Meeting has yet to be announced, but if I had to guess I’d say it will happen just after lunch on Sunday. Stay tuned to see if I’m right, because if I am I’ll either have to miss it, or the Linguistics panel will end up moved to a different time.

As always, you can expect to see my faithful plush promotional device, Barry, riding on my shoulder during the convention. But this year, Barry is not alone. I’ll give one away to some lucky Buffalito Wrangler who comes to my reading, another at my Kaffeeklatsch, and at least one more to someone who comes to my Autographing session with three or more books for me to sign (yes, I know, I’m shameless, but you also know you want a plush buffalo dog of your very own, complete with a tiny blue tongue!). Also be sure to ask for a photo with Barry at any time during the convention. He has his own Facebook and Google+ pages, and he needs images to post.

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Eating Authors: Melissa Mickelsen

Written on July 30th, 2012 by
Categories: Plugs
Melissa Mickelsen

Welcome to another Monday installment of the weekly blog feature that asks writers about their most memorable meals. Joining us today is fantasy author Melissa Mickelsen whose powerful first novel, Nightingale, tells the story of a young girl raised and trained to be an assassin by the man who killed her true family. Melisa’s own upbringing in Georgia seems simple by comparison, culminating in a degree in Art History. She currently lives in Germany with her husband and a couple of cats. I was tempted to ask her how she got from this background to the story in Nightingale, but that’s not the purpose of this blog feature, and so restrained myself. But clearly, it’s a question for another day.

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Another Friday

Written on July 27th, 2012 by
Categories: News

It’s another Friday, but marked more than most.

For most of the world, today marks the start of the Olympic games. Like many, I’m turned off by the financial tumult the games bring to the hose nation, by the sheer mercantilism and nonsense of it all. I don’t like the whole “how many medals have we won attitude that I see on television (and the linguist in me really wishes that English differentiated between inclusive and exclusive first person plural pronouns, but alas). On the other hand, I do enjoy seeing some of the performances, the tangible/visual results of dedication of will and time and passion. That part is extraordinary.

For a smaller group of people, today marks a “choice point” in terms of quantum mechanical many worlds theorists who happen to subscribe to the fictional intentions of the ReDeus anthology that debuts next week. That universe begins today, a universe in which all the gods of every culture come back to resume their rightful places as objects of worship. Of course, you have to wait a week for the book, but oh well.

And, on a smaller and more intimate level, today marks my 53rd birthday. I’m spending the day quietly. I got up, did a bit of work, sent a few emails. I went to the gym, pushed myself a bit more than usual, and that was good. Then I went off and ate Chinese food, and that was good too. I’ve started in on another of the finalists that I’m reading for the Endeavor Award, and I’m enjoying the book (also a good thing). Having returned home from brunch, I’m doing laundry (eh, not so much a good as a necessary thing) and I’ll be doing some more work on a Paper Golem project as the day wears on.

I haven’t talked about it here, partly because I always worry of being one of those people who end up talking rather than doing, but since I came back from a Klingon gig in the Spring I’ve been a bit more careful about what and how much I eat, as well as improving my exercise regimin. I’m happy to report that I’ve dropped about 15 pounds and I feel great. In fact, I’m probably healthier now than I was a year ago.

There’s still a lot of stress in my work life, but I’ve become more philosophical about it and I’m not letting it get to me as much, and that’s a huge improvement. On the writing and publishing ends of thing, I find my creative powers are booming and I’m feeling more productive than I have in quite a while. So, yeah, yeah me.

My wife is happy and healthy, my dog is a source of delight. I have plenty of people in my life who are generous with their time and creativity and intelligence.

So, to the extent that I’m celebrating my birthday today, I’m doing so by acknowledging once more what a truly blessed life I enjoy, and giving thanks to the people who make it so. If you’d like to join in, go have a piece of cake, on me.

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Eating Authors: N. K. Jemisin

Written on July 23rd, 2012 by
Categories: Plugs
N. K. Jemisin

Hello and welcome to another taste-tantalizing treatment of one author’s recollections of her most memorable meal. Our guest today is Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award nominee N. K. Jemisin. More specifically, she was nominated for all three of those award for her first novel from 2010, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Most writers would be stunned into insensibility by such a debut, but she followed it up with the brilliant sequel The Broken Kingdoms later that same year, and polished off the trilogy in 2011 with The Kingdom of the Gods.

You’d think that would be enough for a bit, but no. With that trilogy out of the way, she contracted for the two book Dreamblood series consisting of The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun, the latter of which came out last month. So now, if you’re like the rest of us, you’re asking yourself, “wowza, what’s she going to do next?”

And, if that wasn’t enough to recommend her to you, I’ll add that her undergraduate major in college was psychology (okay, so I’m biased, but the membership of the psychologists-writing-speculative-fiction club is pretty sparse).

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Happy Birthday, Gej!

Written on July 20th, 2012 by
Categories: News

Today is Gej’s birthday. I’ve tried to explain it to him, but he seems uninterested. Of course, this may change later tonight when he gets treats. And a new toy. And more treats.

Then too, he may sulk anyway because he’s also bound for the groomer’s in just a few minutes, and while he’s happy to be free of knots and matts, he’s not wild about the process that gets him there.

Here’s a photo of him this morning. As you can see, he’s one desperately shaggy pup.

Sad Gej

It’s a wonderful thing having a dog in your life. I highly recommend it to you it all.

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ReDeus: Coca Xocalātl

Written on July 19th, 2012 by
Categories: Gallery, Plugs
ReDeus width=

I’ve received word that the new shared universe anthology, ReDeus: Divine Tales has gone to press. We’ll have the book available on Friday, August 3rd, at Shore Leave (as well as a majority of the contributors on hand to autograph your copy).

As such, I thought I’d tell you a bit more about my story in the book. It’s entitled “Coca Xocalātl” and is the tale of an eighty-five year old professor emeritus from the linguistics department of a university in San Diego, California. Except now San Diego has been reclaimed as a state of Mexico (along with portions of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas). Why? Because the Aztec gods said so! But I digress.

Professor Garcia y Fuentes is more or less content to live out the rest of his days puttering around in the basement of the university’s library. He has his correspondence with former students and colleagues, he has articles to review for professional journals, and he has dead languages to tinker with. But if he’s allowed to do that, then there’s no story. So…

Instead, our good professor unwittingly draws the attention of one of the gods, Huehuecoyotl, aka Old Man Coyote. And while this isn’t quite the familiar trickster god of American folklore, he is still very much a trickster and he has plans for our professor. Oh my yes.

As for the title? It’s what you get when you mix Coca Cola with traditional (as in the year 1400, you know, old school) “hot chocolate,” or rather, it’s what you get if a god mixes it for you.

I leave you now with the stunning illustration that Carmen Carnero created to go with my story. Just outstanding!
ReDeus

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Eating Authors: Lawrence Watt-Evans

Written on July 16th, 2012 by
Categories: Plugs
Lawrence Watt-Evans

Come on in, you’re just in time for another rousing installment of Eating Authors, the weekly blog post that asks writers of speculative fiction about their most memorable meals. No, really.

Our guest today is Hugo Award winner, Lawrence Watt-Evans, who has been publishing novels since 1980 and shows no indication of stopping. Normally in the introductory section of this feature I like to list some of the author’s books before getting to the culinary portion, but in this case even listing the names of all of Lawrence’s many series would take up too much space.

He seems equally at home in Fantasy and Science Fiction, and is no stranger to the Horror genre either. Lawrence has even written Star Trek novels (though interestingly enough, he did so under the pseudonym of Nathan Archer, who also gets the credit for his movie novelizations). But it’s in fantasy that he’s most prolific, as demonstrated by such series as the four volume Lords of Dûs, the three volume Worlds of Shadow, the three volume Obsidian Chronicles, and the extremely popular, twelve volume (and still going strong) Legends of Ethshar series, including the recently released Tales of Ethshar, which brings together all the short stories from the series in one place.

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ReDeus: Divine Tales

Written on July 13th, 2012 by
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ReDeus: Divine Tales

On June 19th, Bob Greenberger sent me an email inviting me to join in an exciting new project that he had whipped up with Aaron Rosenberg, Steven Savile, and Paul Kupperberg. They were creating a shared universe called ReDeus. The premise was breathtaking: At the opening of the Olympic Games on July 27th, 2012, the gods of myth and legend – all of them, Zeus and Odin and Anu and Cernunnos and Abeguwo and and Yu-huang and Osiris and Ilmatar and Shiva and Kukulcan, seriously, all of them! – come back. Got that? Okay, now jump forward twenty years, and write a story in the world that has been transformed.

There was just one catch: they wanted to launch the book at Shore Leave, which meant the deadline for submissions was July 10th.

Okay, in my case, there was another catch: There was a minor snafu and I didn’t get the email.

Well, that’s not quite true. I did get it eventually, a week later. That made it a bit tougher, but the premise was so cool, and the people working on the project were folks I’d known for year but had never worked with, so even though I was in the midst of reading slush for the Cucurbital 3 anthology I put that on hold for a few days and wrote a story.

And I must have done all right because it’s been accepted and will be appearing in the anthology, coming your way on August 3rd.

I’ll have more to say about my story in a future post here, but for now, let’s all just gaze at this incredible cover by Anton Kokarev, shall we? Yes, let’s shall.

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