Sharon Lee and Steve Miller will be at Astronomicon in Rochester NY this Friday and Saturday!

Here's Sharon's Schedule

Here's Steve's Schedule

Here's the Whole Con Schedule

We hope to see you -- yes, you! -- there!

HELIOsphere is a mere 18 days in the future, and things are starting to firm up.

Steve and I will be hosting a Friends of Liad Breakfast in the hotel restaurant on Saturday morning, to kick off what looks to be a busy day full of fun.

Saturday's programming will include the Writer Guest of Honor interview -- Sharon Lee and Steve Miller chatting with Kathryn Sullivan.

A little later in the day, we'll be sitting down with Artist Guest of Honor David B. Mattingly to discuss whatever seems good to us -- art, maybe?  Cats, definitely.  Michael Ventrella will facilitate that discussion.

Then!  The Teddy Bear Tea in the hotel garden, where all the traveling stuffies get a chance to talk among themselves, and their humans can tell their stories to the other humans.

Saturday festivities wrap up with a mass signing -- All Attending Authors Together in one place, pens in hands.  Who can beat that?

In addition, Steve and I will be reading "The Space at Tinsori Light" -- time and place of reading TBA.

Sound like a good time?  You can be part of it.  Here's the link to everything you need to know.

And! the Final Boskone 60 schedules have arrived.

Things you need to know about this schedule:

1   All panels are 1 hour, by which Boskone means 55 minutes.

2   Our joint reading is 25 minutes, by which Boskone means 20 minutes.

3   The above time-slips are so that the room can be cleared, and allows the next event to start on-time.

4   You will note that there is no separate "autographing" item.  Please do bring your books to the Book Party on Saturday night and we'll bring our pens.

5   Boskone 60, February 17-19 at the Westin Boston Seaport, featuring  Nalo Hopkinson, Victo Ngai, Tui T. Sutherland, Dave Clement, Jeanette Epps.  Here's your link

Lee and Miller's Boskone 60 Schedule

FRIDAY

Building Fandom and Community
Marina 2
Fri 5:30 PM
Duration: 01:00
Janice Gelb (Janice Gelb) mod, Steve Miller, Jen Wilson-Hughes, Scott Edelman, Lisa Hertel
Fandom is a glorious and multifaceted thing that spans generations and genres. It's become more than a little fragmented over the years, but we are all still part of a larger whole. What have we lost with the fragmenting of fandom? How can its niche groups engage with the wider fan community while still honoring and protecting what makes them unique? This will be an inclusive session aimed at bringing people together.

Reading: Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
Griffin
Fri 8:30 PM
Duration: 00:25
Featuring Sharon Lee & Steve Miller as they team up for this special Boskone reading from one of their published or in-process works. They will also host an author Q&A as time permits

SATURDAY

Worldbuilding from the Ground Up
Harbor 1 - Hybrid
Sat 10:00 AM
Duration: 01:00
Liz Delton (mod), Marshall Ryan Maresca, Suzanne Palmer, Steve Miller, Paul Di Fillipo
Some spectacular stories take place in worlds very different from our own: from life on (or in) a gas giant to a civilization that lives on a world-tree as big as the Himalayas. But there are perils associated with venturing far beyond human experience. An inconsistent or poorly described worldscape can result in a confusing story or challenge a reader's ability to suspend disbelief. Hear from writers who have created fully realized worlds that their readers can almost see, touch, and smell.

Writing Romance across Genres
Marina 2
Sat 4:00 PM
Duration: 01:00
Christie Meierz (mod), Darlene Marshall, Sharon Lee, Andrea D Hairston
Romance plays well with other genres, creating threads that weave easily across stories, connecting characters and causing conflict. Our panelists explore the hallmarks of the romance genre, and how to pepper romantic plots and subplots in your fantastic and futuristic worlds. How can we best incorporate romantic tropes into other genres in a way that feels fresh and dynamic? And how do you write romantic conflict in realistic and compelling ways as couples try to survive your next plot twist.

Boskone Book Party
Galleria - Autographing
Sat 5:30 PM
Duration: 01:00
Jane Yolen, Andrea D Hairston, Annalee Newitz, C. S. E. Cooney, Cat Scully, Dana Cameron, Michael Green Jr., Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, Theodora Goss, Steve Miller (and Sharon Lee), Mike Allen, Laurie Mann
Come join the fun at Boskone 60’s Book Party. You’ll meet the authors and publishers who have new books coming out at the con! This is your chance to see what’s new from writers you already love, as well as those you have yet to discover.

A Muddle of Mad Scientists
Marina 4
Sat 7:00 PM
Duration: 01:00
Chad Childers (mod), Gillian Lynn Daniels, Sharon Lee, Michael M. Jones
From Faust to Dr. Horrible, genre fiction is filled with crazily creative geniuses. Why do we love them? What makes the mad scientist character so appealing in horror, comedy, and everything in between? Join us for a mad, mad discussion featuring some of our favorite screwy scientists and inventors from the past, present, and future.
Participant information: Wearing of lab coats optional :-)

SUNDAY

The Shadow of the City
Harbor 2
Sun 11:30 AM
Duration: 01:00
Walter H. Hunt (mod), Carole Ann Moleti, Annalee Newitz, Sharon Lee, Darrell Schweitzer
What are the challenges and benefits of using a real-world city in your urban fantasy or other spec fic? How accurate do you need to be before locals cry foul? London, Tokyo and New York have served as settings for innumerable novels. How would these stories change if the Tube were replaced by the New York subway, or vice versa? And if the setting was Paris, New Delhi, or Sydney, how would the story change?

Kaffeeklatsch 1: Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
Galleria - Kaffeeklatsch 1
Sun 1:00 PM
Duration: 01:00
Join these writers and a few fellow fans for an informal chat.  Sign up at Program Ops on the Upper Level near Registration, on Saturday after 10am.  You must be attending Boskone in person to sign up for this session, and you can only sign up for yourself.

So, let's do a little catch-up.

1  Amazon is currently having a $.99 sale on the Kindle edition of Shout of Honor: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 29, published in May 2019.  If you have an interest, or think someone you know might have an interest, here's the link.

2  Barnburner, a cozy Maine mystery by Sharon Lee, the first of two books featuring Jen Pierce, is now available as an ebook, paper book, and audiobook.  Here's your link.

2a  Gunshy, the second Jen Pierce novel, will be along bye-n-bye, so watch the skies.

3  The Wrong Lance, that being the start of the novel which is NOT Accepting the Lance, is being posted, a chapter a week on Mondays.  There are 11 chapters, and Chapter Six posted this morning.  If you'd like to join the fun, you can start here.

4  I will be moderating a panel at reCONvene on August 15, time to be determined.  Panelists are: Steven Barnes, Jenn Brissett, Br Guy Consolmagno SJ, Adrian Tchaikovsky. We will be taking up the topic of Earth's place in the future; what it may mean to be "from" Earth; and what Earth itself may look like, socially, and environmentally.  More information on reCONvene may be found here.

5  Today is Princess Jasmine Sprite's eighth birthday.  Here's a picture of her being patient when I interrupted her morning squirrel watch:

Today's blog brought to you by Styx:  "Mr. Roboto."  Here's the link.

AsyouknowBob, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller will be Writer Guests of Honor at Confluence, in Pittsburgh, August 4, 5, 6.

Here's your link to Steve's schedule.

Here's your link to Sharon's schedule.

Here's your link to the Master Schedule.

Here's your link to the con's front page.

You will notice that there is a Friends of Liad breakfast scheduled for Sunday at 8:30 am in the hotel restaurant.  Despite being scheduled, this is not a convention-funded event.  It is what we called in my youth Dutch Treat, with every attendee (including Steve and me) ordering, and paying for, their own breakfast and tip.  Steve and I try to host a FoL breakfast at every con we go to, whether we GoHs, panelists, or convention members.  The Friends of Liad breakfast is. . .Well, it's most like an extended family getting together to share a meal, and news, and memories.

The Teddy Bear Tea, now, scheduled for 4:30 pm on Saturday, is a convention event.  We try to have a Teddy Bear Tea at every convention where we're GoHs, ever since it came to our attention that many fans (including Steve and me) travel with plush friends.  Sadly, though, the plushies often don't get out to the larger convention.  So, the Teddy Bear Tea is event for the plushies to come out and socialize, while their human friends chat, and sip tea, and perhaps share the histories of their plushies.  The Teddy Bear Tea is open to all plushies and their friends.

Can we get a show of hands?  Who's coming to Confluence?

*raises hand*

In this case, too much.

Having finally achieved mastery of my form in the Pullman Class, I decided, naturally, to vary.  I thought that it would do no harm, and possibly significant good, if I were to make the honey-oatmeal-wheat bread that I'm partial to, and bake it in the Pullman Pan, thus creating Square Sandwich Bread.

So, I did that.  The recipe for the honey-oat bread normally makes two one-pound loaves; the Pullman Pan accommodates one really big loaf.  Things went pretty much as I expected that they would to the point where I put the bread into the oven.

With a Pullman Pan, you cover the bread for the first 25ish minutes of cooking, to keep the bread square, taking the lid off in the last 10 minutes in order to brown the top of the loaf.

When I opened the oven to take the lid off, I noticed that the bread dough had overflowed and there were curlicues of bread on the oven rack.  Not good.  I took the pan out in order to remove the lid -- and it took Steve holding the pan and me pulling on the lid to finally get it off.  The bread crust, of course, was torn.

Back the pan went into the oven for the final 10 minute browning, came out,  thumped appropriately hollow, and went onto the cooling rack.

. . .and, as it began to cool, it began to. . .sag.

Experienced bread makers will know what this means.

Yeah, not done in the middle.

So, as an experiment, for Science!, we have a success, in that we tried.  Obviously, if I wish to continue on this course, Tweaking will be required.

For the moment, then, since we're writing a book and all like that, the honey-oat will go back to being baked in its two regular bread pans, whence it emerges tasty and, more importantly, cooked through.  And I will continue to bake Pullman Bread for Steve, so that sandwiches can happen.

#

Writing has been going forth, with about 14,000 more-or-less usable words written in the last four days, which is, Ladies and Beans, what can happen when the calendar is clear and you turn off Facebook and Twitter.

It also helps if you know where this bit goes, because it's one of the foundation shticks that convinced you to write this book in the first place.  Run while the route goes downhill, and all like that.

For those who dote upon numbers, Neogenesis -- by which I mean the melded Part One, and the still-under-construction Part Two -- now clocks in at plus-or-minus 82,400.  Which would be more exciting news if we were looking at a 100,000 word book, but at a projected length of 130/140,000 isn't, so much.

Given the structure, I briefly flirted with SFWA's lower limit for novels and an adding machine, but I'm not sure I can make it all come out even.  And 160,000 words is a LOT of words.

#

Today, for the first time in a couple weeks, I go back to the gym, and hope not to collapse into a hacking heap on the treadmill.  After, there are errands, while I'm in town and all, and then home, for the midday meal, and so to work.

Tomorrow, I get my hair cut, which is Long Overdue, and then things are pretty much clear on the calendar/writing front until November 6, which, in addition to being the Death of Daylight Savings Time, is our wedding anniversary.  Not sure what we'll do about that.  Possibly put off the celebration until Tuesday (since we Early Voted), and run away from the news, upcountry.

End of the week is Comic Con, which will be fun for All the Usual Reasons, and also because I've Completely Missed ever being in the state of Rhode Island before.

So that's today's episode in the Exciting Life of a Writer.

Hope y'all are doing well -- and welcome to November.

#

"Surely, you'll do better to appeal to Captain Waitley in this matter?"

"Possibly so, sir, but -- there's a. . .complication."

"Of course there is.  There can be nothing other than complications, in Captain Waitley's orbit."

As previously advertised, Steve and I will be at Boskone (February 19-21, 2016) in Boston, MA for New England's longest running science fiction and fantasy convention. It's going to be a fun weekend filled with books, film, art, music, gaming, and more, and we'd love to see you there! For more information about Boskone, check out The Boskone Blog, Twitter, and Facebook. Visit the Boskone website to register.  The Full Con Schedule may be found here.

Our schedule for the weekend is below.  Also look for us in the Art Show, the Dealer's Room, and sitting around the lobby, chatting with friends.

As in previous years, we intend to host a Friends of Liad breakfast at Boskone.  Since our Saturday is rather full, and in addition begins with a 10 a.m. Kaffeeklatsch, we will be aiming for a Sunday morning breakfast.  For those who are new to this tradition -- the Friends of Liad breakfast is an informal, extra-con event, where Friends and readers of Liad meet to catch up with each other, and with the authors.  All are welcome.  Everyone pays for their own breakfast, even Steve and Sharon.  As soon as we've made arrangements with Saucity, the Westin's in-house restaurant, we'll put out the word regarding time, and day.

Hope to see you at Boskone!

Boskone Schedule:

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

FRIDAY

Collaboration: Writers, Artists, and More!
Friday 6:00 - 6:50, Harbor III (Westin)
Creative collaboration is an endurance event. Each experience is different, whether working in a shared universe, co-writing a story, or working word by word with another author. Whatever the scenario, it can be an immensely rewarding experience. However, personalities can clash and the final decision isn't always mutual. If you're curious about creative collaborations and want to find out where to start or how to avoid the most common missteps, this panel is for you.
Steve Miller (M), Julie C. Day, Teddy Harvia, Stephen Hickman, Sharon Lee

SATURDAY

Kaffeeklatsch 2: Sharon Lee, Steve Miller
Saturday 10:00 - 10:50, Harbor I-Kaffeeklatsch 2 (Westin)

Foppish Fiction: The Dandy in SF/F/H
Saturday 11:00 - 11:50, Harbor II (Westin)
The Scarlet Pimpernel and Zorro both hid their secret identities behind foppish appearances. We'll explore their descendants, both male and female, in speculative fiction. Then there's the effete ruler of a decadent empire as a trope (or is that a meme?) of our genres. And what about the sidekick with a flair for fashion? Why are our protagonists all Winters in jewel tones, and none of them Autumns in burnt umber?
Sharon Lee (M), Ellen Asher, Debra Doyle, Grady Hendrix, Walter Jon Williams

Reading: Steve Miller & Sharon Lee
Saturday 12:00 - 12:25, Griffin (Westin)

How You Get the Word Out: Starting and Running a Successful Podcast
Saturday 2:00 - 2:50, Harbor III (Westin)
Podcasting gives us an outlet to share our thoughts and ideas with the world, and everyone seems to have something (perhaps a lot) to say. But is podcasting right for everyone? How do you go about "bootstrapping" a podcast? What do you need and what do you need to know? How do you attract and keep an audience? Where do you find a place to host your site? Successful 'casters pass on their secrets.
Steve Miller (M), Kate Baker, C.S.E. Cooney, Don Pizarro, Brianna Spacekat Wu

Romance Across Space and Time
Saturday 3:00 - 3:50, Marina 2 (Westin)
Romance shows up in the unlikeliest places: from prehistory to the far-flung future; from pole to pole; from fantasy and science fiction to horror. Must it be a guilty pleasure? Or should we proudly proclaim the heart of the matter: wherever they may find it, all the world loves a love story!
Darlene Marshall (M), D L Carter, Mary Kay Kare, Steve Miller, E.J. Stevens

Writing: Pinning Down Your Plot
Saturday 4:00 - 4:50, Marina 3 (Westin)
Complicated plots need proper handling. Writers who lose control of a twisty tale can confuse and/or alienate their readers. But just how do authors manage a complex story line? Come hear their tips for keeping track of the trickiest of plots.
Steven Popkes (M), Ken Altabef, Sharon Lee, Christie Meierz, Vincent O'Neil

Boskone Book Party
Saturday 6:00 - 7:20, Galleria-Stage (Westin)
Join us for Boskone's Multi-Author Book Party, see what's new from authors you love, and discover new favorites. Boskone is also launching three NESFA Press books tonight: The Collected Stories of Poul Anderson Vol 7, Conspiracy!, and The Grimm Future. (Authors and publishers with a new book and a current Boskone membership are welcome to take part; contact program@boskone.org for details.)
D L Carter, Tom Easton, Grady Hendrix, Carlos Hernandez, E. C. Ambrose, Judith K. Dial, Sharon Lee, Steve Miller, Cerece Rennie Murphy, N.A. Ratnayake, Erin Underwood

SUNDAY

NESFA Book Club: Conflict of Honors by Sharon Lee & Steve MIller
Sunday 11:00 - 11:50, Griffin (Westin)
This February, the NESFA Book Club hosts its monthly meeting at Boskone. Join us as we discuss Conflict of Honors by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, who will join the group halfway through the discussion in order to lead a Q&A. All members are welcome and newcomers are encouraged to attend.
Michael Sharrow (M), Sharon Lee, Steve Miller

Autographing: James Cambias, Sharon Lee, Steve Miller
Sunday 12:00 - 12:50, Galleria-Autographing (Westin)

Take Me To Your Leader
Sunday 1:00 - 1:50, Harbor II (Westin)
Does SF/F get leaders all wrong? How do leaders in large organizations actually act? Are leaders creative? What motivates them? Let's compare character archetypes from page and screen to real-world leaders.
Stephen P. Kelner Jr. (M), A.C.E. Bauer, Vincent Docherty, Sharon Lee, Teresa Nielsen Hayden

Exoplanets Are Out There
Sunday 1:00 - 1:50, Burroughs (Westin)
Did you ever expect to view exoplanets from Earth? SF writers since Doc Smith seemed to assume we’d discover planets only when we approached the stars they orbited. Now astronomers have confirmed 2,000 exoplanets and counting; they’re designing new devices to resolve their spectra and hint at their habitability. Was this a failure of imagination, a choice to build drama, or an unexpected success of astronomical instrumentation? Didn’t any writers get it right?
Charles Gannon (M), Jeff Hecht, Beth Meacham, Steve Miller, Mark L. Olson

Herewith the triangulated preliminary schedule. Subject to change, please check the convention’s on-site material to verify day, time, panelists, room &c, &c.

FRIDAY

2-3 pm — Fantasy before Fantasy, SF before SF – The Odyssey, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Frankenstein, Gulliver’s Travels, and Journey to the West. A look at classic works of world literature that, while not written as science fiction and fantasy, have been co-opted in the 20th and 21st centuries by speculative fiction readers and used as inspiration by the writers. Benton B
James Hollaman, Susan Satterfield, Dennis Young, Steve Miller, Issac Bell

7 pm – Opening Ceremonies

8 pm – Meet the Authors & Artists Reception

SATURDAY

10-11 am — Anne McCaffrey Memorial Panel — Discuss the life and work of one of the most award winning and influential female Scifi writers of all time. Benton B
Steve Miller, Sharon Lee, James Hollaman, Zo Leavy, Kat Donovan, Bev Hale

11 am-noon — The Good, The Bad, and the Fixable Genre writing workshops have proliferated in the last decade or so and now range from con-based three hour mini-courses to six week long marathons. Are writing workshops worthwhile for everyone? What are the warning signs you should not be a workshopper? What joys and discoveries have the panelist had for themselves or for others they’ve workshopped with? Fremont
Steve Miller, Shauna Roberts, Chris McKitterick, Lynette Burrows, Steven Gould

12-1 pm — The road to publishing — A talk with Publishers, Editors, and Authors who discuss the road to publishing along with the dead ends and potholes you might come across. Benton B
Sherry Foley, Eric Reynolds, Robert Collins, Sharon Lee, Shannon Butcher

1-2 pm – Guests of Honor session

3-4 pm – The Great Book Signing Event

5-6 pm — The Campbell Conference — Some authors are ditching the print industry all together and making a nice living off of the self publishing and novella trade for ebook. We’ll talk about the different writing styles of the two markets and why one might be more for you than another. Atlanta Ballroom
Brent Bowen, Sharon Lee, Dennis Young, David Pedersen, Steven Gould, Ursula Vernon

SUNDAY

Noon-1 pm — How hard should science fiction be? Truth told, a lot of science ficiton isn’t scientific at all, but utilizes handwavium (or Timonioum and Nonobtainium) to get the story in gear and make it run. Is today’s science fiction letting the world down? Should the writer do the math so the reader doesn’t have to? Are books that are “too sciencey” chasing readers to fantasy or online games? Freemont
Ross Hathaway, Steve Miller, Rob Chilson, Lynette Burrows

3-4 pm — PR Kicking ass in high heels: These days women can kick ass, save the world, and still have time to fall in love. But why are they still doing it in hotpants and high heels? Can heroines be a size 18 and still be beautiful? Benton B
Deb Sturgess, Cleo Hathaway, Karin Gastreich, Bev Hale, Sharon Lee

5 pm – Closing Ceremonies

Slept in; Steve made us a lovely ham omelet for breakfast, after which I repaired to the office and have been doing odds ‘n ends of clean-up and touch-up at the Splinter Universe site. Since I had the hood up, anyway, I posted the first 340-odd words of “Guaranteed Delivery.”

You can thank me later.

Close study of the schedule for the Steampunk Expo would seem to have us getting into Fitchburg on Thursday evening, since Opening Ceremonies is at 10:00 Friday morning.

At noon, Steve and I will be doing a panel/dialog, “How Not to Lose Your Readers in the Maze,” then conducting Part One of the Writers Workshop from 2:00 – 4:00.

On Saturday, there will be a Friends of Liad breakfast at 10:00 a.m. in the Gardner Room; then at noon we’ll be doing another panel/dialog, “Writing a net serial versus a traditional novel.”

We’ll be conducting Part the Second of the Writers Workshop on Sunday from 11:00 to 1:00.

Also? We’ll definitely be at the Abney Park concert on Saturday night, and in the dealer’s room (oh, my, yes), and in All the Usual Places.

Do come! It’ll be a blast.

In other news, I see by my calendar that it’s time once again to post the list of Auctorial Influence. I hope to get around to that a little later today.

After I, yanno, do some work.

Later.

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.