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My Preliminary Schedule for Ravencon 2014

No Comments » Written on April 4th, 2014 by
Categories: News

In just a few weeks I’ll be driving down to Richmond, VA to participate in Ravencon.

Here is my schedule as I currently know it to be:

Friday, April 25th

5:00 p.m. | You’re Getting Sleepy: Lies and Truths about Hypnosis
A short lecture about common misperceptions of hypnosis (as maintained by media and popular culture), what doesn’t work, and what does, and maybe even a brief demonstration.
Just me and a room full of victims interested participants.

Saturday, April 26th

5:00 p.m. | Secrets of Small Press Publishing
Nearly every SF/fantasy author has been published by smaller press some point in their careers. It is also known for publishing new authors, midlist authors, short story collections, and other “odd” books typically rejected by the big New York publishers. Our panelists represent a spectrum of publications, and can “tell all”
Philippa Ballantine, Rich Groller, Dan Hoyt, Edmund R. Schubert, and me.

Sunday, April 27th

12:00 p.m. | Comfort Reading
Panelists discuss their favorite stories and novels for reading (and reading again) when you’re feeling under the weather.
T. Eric Bakutis, Elizabeth Bear, Parick Vanner, Rachael Hixon, and me.

1:00 p.m. | Xeno-Linguistics
a discussion of how alien languages are used in SF, some simple tips for would-be writers to make their aliens sound… alien, general complaints about the use of “universal translators,” and more
Other panelists, and me.

I think there’s a very good chance that I’ll have a reading, and I’ll probably be hanging out and signing things at some point in time. Otherwise, look to find me kicking back in the con suite or the bar.

And it goes without saying that Barry, my faithful plush buffalito, will be with me as I wander the convention. It wouldn’t be the same without him.

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Doctoral Day 2014

No Comments » Written on April 2nd, 2014 by
Categories: News
D

And lo, it is once again the 2nd of April, that special day when the world wakes up from the excesses of April Fools’ gags and gets back to work.

Unless of course you’re me. For me, April 2nd, is a holiday. It’s the anniversary of the successful defense of my dissertation, or as I like to call it, Doctoral Day!

Of course, there are many ways to observe this sacred holiday, but here are some suggestions to guide you:

If you have a PhD (or other doctorate) dress comfortably, enjoy a special meal, and spend time in the company of good friends. Also, do make a point of being pompous. What could be easier?

For those among you who (for whatever reason) fall short of that level of academic initials, all is not lost. You can still participate in the joy that is Doctoral Day. You just need to locate someone with a PhD and offer up unto that person some act of kindness. I recommend cake. Or tell them that you’ve just bought one of their books (lying about this is optional). Hmm, no, go with the cake.

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International Polar Bear Day 2014

No Comments » Written on February 27th, 2014 by
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Mars Needs Baby Seals

As exciting as the past couple of days have been, what with all the announcement of this year’s Nebula Award Nominees, all of that has to take a backseat to today. Why?

Because today is INTERNATIONAL POLAR BEAR DAY!!!

It’s not my place to tell you how to observe such a splendid day, but I hope you find something that works for you. Maybe you’ll make a charitable donation Polar Bears International. Maybe you’ll eat a Klondike bar. As for me, I’m giving away copies of my short story, “Mars Needs Baby Seals,” because I originally wrote it as part of a contest involving less common holidays and I chose this one.

If you’d like an electronic copy of the story, simply go to my Contact page and leave me a note with 1) your name, 2) your email address, and 3) an indication of whether you’d prefer ePub or mobi format (sorry, those are the only formats available). And that’s it.

This offer is good through Sunday, March 2nd, 2014. Please allow up to 48 hours for me to email you back with the story.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go find an ice floe…

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A Wonderful Phone Call

3 comments Written on February 25th, 2014 by
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Trial of the Century

Last week while I was toiling away at the DayJob, I received a phone call with some really nice news about this year’s Nebula Awards, specifically that my novella, “Trial of the Century,” which appeared in the World Jumping anthology from Hadley Rille Books, had found its way onto the ballot.

Sitting on this news for the past week (as requested by the Events folks at SFWA) has been maddening. All they told me was that I’d made the list. Now, seeing the other names and stories, I’m even more blown away and humbled (a word that I try to avoid using) at the company I’m keeping.

Thank you to everyone who read my novella. Time is every writer’s most precious commodity, and knowing some of my fellow SFWA members have burned some of theirs in reading my work is very gratifying. Even more thrilling is that some of those folk liked it enough to nominate it. This in turn increases the likelihood that other SFWA members will give it a read (now that it’s on the ballot), and that makes me really chuffed indeed. Who among us doesn’t want to be read, and more, read by our peers?

Congratulations to all the nominees, and especially to Andy Duncan & Ellen Klages, Vylar Kaftan, Nancy Kress, Veronica Schanoes, and Catherynne M. Valente. I look forward to seeing you all in San Jose in May.

If you haven’t yet read “Trial of the Century,” here are some links to help you fix that tragic oversight:

epub
mobi
pdf

 

For those of you who like award trivia, let me hook you up:

This is my second year in row being nominated for the Nebula for Best Novella. Both novellas are from the same series, my Amazing Conroy universe. And both novellas were published by a small press, Hadley Rille Books.

Finally, for those of you who are not members of SFWA but who do have nominating rights for this year’s Hugo Awards (which opened just the other day), feel free to download your own complimentary copy of “Trial of the Century.” Despite landing on the Nebula ballot, last year’s novella didn’t make the Hugo ballot. Let’s try and correct that this year, okay?

 

creative commons licencse

This novella is released under a Creative Commons, Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives license.
Follow the link if you’re not sure what that means.

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My Preliminary Schedule for Anachrocon 2014

No Comments » Written on February 9th, 2014 by
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Coming up all too quickly now, I’ll be heading down to Atlanta, GA to be a part of Anachrocon.

Here is my schedule as I currently know it to be:

Friday, February 14th

4:00 p.m. | Meet and Greet
Immediately following the opening ceremonies, all Eternal Members and Ambassadors are cordially invited to join Dr. Lawrence M Schoen and the other guests and panelists from the Culture and Media Track, along with the Directors and Staff of AnachroCon.
All guests and panelists.

5:00 p.m. | Meet and Greet
Light hors d’eourves will be served at this relaxed and informal Meet and Greet reception for our most prestigious members.
All guests and panelists.

8:00 p.m. | Short Fiction
Short Fiction differs from the novel in a number of key ways. Hear our panelists discuss their latest works, their craft, and the art of the short story.
Desirina Boskovich, Lee Martindale, Kimberly Richardson, and me.

Saturday, February 15th

10:00 a.m. | Science plus Fiction
Sci-FI is about more than just “wacky stuff in the future.” Come listen to our esteemed guests discuss the art of weaving hard science through fiction, whether a fantastical universe or dystopian future, to lend credibility to the story and aid the reader in suspending disbelief.
Randall Carlson, Stephanie Osborn, and me.

1:00 p.m. | Q&A with Dr. Lawrence M. Schoen
Spend an hour with Dr. Lawrence M. Schoen, Psychologist, Publisher, Scholar extraordinaire and one of the foremost authorities on the Klingon language.
Um… yeah, that would be me.

8:00 p.m. | Q&A with the Authors
Have a question for one of our authors that hasn’t been answered yet? Bring it to our Q&A when our esteemed authors will be on hand to answer questions and chat.
All authors.

Sunday, February 16th

I’m not formally scheduled for anything on Sunday, but I think there’ll be an excursion off site to get Dimsum!

That’s how things stand at the moment. I don’t know if the convention plans on scheduling me with either a reading or a signing session (though I’ve made inquiries), but if nothing else the possibility remains that I’ll be updating this schedule sometime in the next couple of days.

And of course, I’ll be joined this weekend by Barry, my faithful plush buffalito, who I suspect will be frantically handling out postcards for the latest Conroy novella in the last hours before Nebula ballots are due.

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Novelocity – Which authors have left you wanting more?

No Comments » Written on January 28th, 2014 by
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Novelocity

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a member of Novelocity, an authors’ consortium that regularly posts topics for discussion.

Our current question is Which authors have left you wanting more?

Here’s how I answered:

This is a brutal question, but I’m going to break into two parts. I’d have liked more of Burroughs’s planetary adventure novels; I’d trade ten later Tarzan novels for another visit to Amtor or Barsoom, and twenty of them for a sequel to Beyond the Farthest Star. I want an Alfred Bester novel that takes on the SF trope of Time Travel the way he brilliantly defined the genre’s take on Telepathy and Teleportation and Immortality in his other works. I’d like to discover a manuscript in a trunk in New Mexico with a sequel to Zelazny’s Jack of Shadows and find out if Morningstar reached Jack in time, and what happened after. I desperately wish my friend Jay had more time, and could give us the third volume from his City Imperishable trilogy.

Those are the books I don’t imagine getting, but there are others that I might. I want to read Walter Jon Williams’s third book in his Metropolitan series, if only a major publisher will come along and pay him to write it. I want to begin reading a long series of books about the next generation of Vorkosigans. I want another book form China Mieville like Perdido Street Station that pummeled me with its sheer brilliance and creativity, or Embassytown that felt like he was writing directly to me. And I’m sure I’m not alone wishing that Ursula Le Guin would take us back to the world of The Left Hand of Darkness, because surely we need it here in this 21st century we’re living in.

If you’d like to see how others in our little group responded, just head on over to Novelocity for “part one” of the answer. The second part posts later in the week.

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Novelocity – Favorite College Reads

No Comments » Written on January 15th, 2014 by
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Novelocity

As I think I’ve mentioned before, I’m part of a small group of authors performing various stealth missions under the sobriquet of Novelocity. Each week we kick around a different topic, and various members share their thoughts.

Today’s topic is our favorite books from college.

Here’s how I answered:

My undergrad years were a mess. It took me six years. Along the way I dropped out of university, lost my scholarship, worked on a loading dock, went back to a different school, changed my major three times, and eventually petitioned the university to let me design my own.

I tell you all of this because it provides the background for the book that kept me whole during that time, Roger Zelazny’s Doorways in the Sand. It’s the story of Fred Cassidy, a young man whose uncle wills a healthy stipend to his nephew until he completes an undergraduate degree. Fred chooses never to graduate! As the novel begins he’s been in school more than a decade, always changing majors one class short of a degree. He’s outlasted multiple academic advisors and authored academic papers worthy of dissertations! Fred Cassidy is the perpetual student, and he gets caught up in adventures far beyond his dreams. Friends and strangers try to kill him. Aliens disguised as animals pursue him. A missing artifact on loan from a museum on another planet sends him secret messages. If that’s not enough for you, Fred has every cell in his body rotated into its mirror opposite, which in turn changes the flavor of everything he eats and almost guarantees that he’ll be dying of malnutrition because he can no longer process right-handed proteins.

Through it all, Fred draws on insights and experiences that you’d expect from someone who has nearly completed every major at a modern university. Read this book, you come away with that same feeling. It’s empowering, creating a sense of control at a time in a young adult’s life when everything seems to be chaos.

I reread this book every semester during exam week. It put everything in perspective for me.

If you’d like to see how others in our little group responded, just head on over to Novelocity.

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Shatner and me!

No Comments » Written on January 9th, 2014 by
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So here I am in Raleigh, NC for Illogicon, which starts tomorrow. I just did an interview and in that interview I was asked what I thought about another interview, one done quite recently with William Shatner. Here’s the link for that. It seems he’s in town performing his one-man show, Shatner’s World: We Just Live In It, on Sunday at the Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh.

In that interview, they asked him for a comment about the NC councilman who recently quit his job with a resignation letter written in Klingon. Shatner wasn’t impressed. Apparently the interviewer followed up, and mentioned Illogicon and my being their Guest of Honor, calling me a Klingon language authority. Shatner’s response: “It brings to mind what is language, and how is language devised and can you have subtlety in a made-up language? It’s a really interesting creative question.”

I think so too. But then, I also believe it’s not about the language, it’s about the language speaker. Not everyone can do subtle, regardless of what language they speak.

Hmm… I wonder if he’ll be stopping by the convention? That would be fun indeed.

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