Busy social calendar and assorted other stuff

[kinzel]

It seems funny to live next door to the middle of nowhere and to still have a busy social calendar, especially when most of the engagements are in cities hundreds (if not thousands)of miles from home. In any case it appears our schedules for Boskone week are rapidly going from pencil to ink; hope we'll be able to catch you there. I should note that I usually manage to make the artshow reception...and which, it turns out, will open just as we're finished our reading Friday night. The question is, will the Friday schedule allow us dinner?

Meanwhile, I woke to snow on the ground from the overnight snowshowers... and glad to see it, even if it was less than an inch. I assume we have more snow in our future as it almost always snows Boskone weekend.... Other than the snow, it was also more or less properly cool today; the temperature right now is 10.3 F according to our electronic weather-reader.

I see that the amazon rating for Crystal Dragon, which can come to a mailbox to you RSN, has been bouncing around in the 1850 to 3500 range. We'd love to see it higher of course -- in the meantime Sword of Orion (ranked at 4970 in books overall) was ranked #84 in the top 100 science fiction, which ought to put Crystal Dragon (currently at 2590 in books)somewhere above it. Who knows what it all means, anyway?

Tomorrow looks to be a busy one -- might drop a note late in the day, unless news catches us sooner.

Comments

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

Suddenly our busy social calendar starts to encompass PenguiCon, as well as Boskone...

Also, news of sorts: Thomas Peters, who did the nifty artwork for Necessary Evils and Liaden Universe Companion, is now working on sketches toward the cover of Calamity's Child ....

[(Anonymous)]

Steve I refuse to order Crystal Dragon twice just to get your ranking higher. :))
I'm sorry to say that I won't be at Boskone. I will be going to Stellarcon. I have a couple of reasons for this choice. First when I went to both sites and looked for guests all Boskone showed was
Guest of Honor: Ken MacLeod
Official Artist: Donato Giancola
Special Guest: Cory Doctorow
Featured Filker: Steve Macdonald
Hal Clement Science Speaker: William K. Hartmann
and nobody else.
While Stellarcon showed this.
GUESTS OF HONOR
Richard Hatch - Media GoH Lynn Abbey - Writer GoH
Actor from both Battlestar Galactica series Coauthor and coeditor of the Thieves' World series

Sean K. Reynolds - Gaming GoH Raven Mimura - Artist GoH
Game designer for Dungeons & Dragons Artist for Dungeons and Dragons & Magic the Gathering
SPECIAL GUESTS
Aaron Allston John Ringo
Star Wars author Author of A Hymn Before Battle and Gust Front
Steven Brust Michael Stackpole
Author of the Vlad Taltos series Star Wars and Battletech author

Elaine Cunningham JD Wiker
Star Wars and Forgotten Realms author Game designer for Star Wars d20

Simon Hawke Timothy Zahn
Author of the Time Wars and Wizard of 4th Street series Hugo Award winner and Star Wars author
LITERARY GUESTS
Marilynn Byerly James Maxey
Davey Beauchamp Karen McCullough
Julie Cochrane Tee Morris
Gina Farago Jana Oliver
Doug Hewitt Michael D. Pederson
Paula Jordan Stephen Mark Rainey
Tom Kratman Tony Ruggiero
Anthony R. Karnowski Allen Wold

ART
Scott Rorie Richard Spake
[sic] Productions Daniel Trout

FILM/TV
Dan Johnson Jen McCollom
Robert Harris James Roberts
Cheralyn Lambeth

GAMING
FANDOM Kelly Lockhart

LIVE PERFORMANCE The Dolls White Plectrum
A unique performance ensemble Aka. Keith Brinegar - filker popular at NC and VA cons

Quite a difference. Now I see Boskone has their programming up which shows a lot more authors.
Second reason was the room prices.
Boskone $137 Stellacon $75.
I will be staying 3 nights so that makes a large difference.

Final reason was I thought it might be a little warmer in NC.

Any chance you two will make it out to CA. for Worldcon?

Thomas Monaghan

[(Anonymous)]

They have quite a few guests attending. Looks like a good list of people.
http://www.nesfa.org/boskone/program.html

Confirmed Program participants as of January 27, 2006
Claire Anderson
Ellen Asher
Lenny Bailes
Elizabeth Bear
Judith Berman
Beth Bernobich
Patricia Bray
Ginjer Buchanan
Michael A. Burstein
James Cambias
Jeffrey A. Carver
Bruce Coville
F. Brett Cox
Kathryn Cramer
Susan Hanniford Crowley
Don D’Ammassa
Daniel P. Dern
Bob Devney
Cory Doctorow
John Douglas
Debra Doyle
Thomas A. Easton
Bob Eggleton
John Farrell
Greg Feeley
Michael F. Flynn
John Ford
Esther Friesner
Irene Gallo
Craig Shaw Gardner
Deb Geisler
Janice Gelb
Donato Giancola
Greer Gilman
Geary Gravel
Leigh Grossman
Jess Hartley
William K. Hartmann
David Hartwell
Daniel Hatch
Jeff Hecht
Chip Hitchcock
Walter H. Hunt
Elaine Isaak
MaryAnn Johanson
Robert I. Katz
James Patrick Kelly
Dan Keohane
Tom Kidd
Daniel Kimmel
Rosemary Kirstein
Ellen Kushner
Geoffrey A. Landis
Sharon Lee
Fred Lerner
Paul Levinson
Shariann Lewitt
Timothy Liebe
Ernest Lilley
James D. Macdonald
Steve Macdonald
Ken MacLeod
Jim Mann
Laurie Mann
Darlene Marshall
George R. R. Martin
Parris McBride
John McDaid
Clayton L. McNally
Beth Meacham
Steve Miller
Sarah Monette
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Teresa Nielsen Hayden
Naomi Novik
Mark L. Olson
Priscilla Olson
Margaret Organ-Kean
Chad Orzel
Joshua B. Palmatier
Paul Park
Sheila M. Perry
Tamora Pierce
Larry Pfeffer
Steven Popkes
Omar Rayyan
Mike Resnick
Faye Ringel
Don Sakers
Steven Sawicki
John Scalzi
Karl Schroeder
Darrell Schweitzer
George Scithers
Melissa Scott
Delia Sherman
Joe Siclari
Wen Spencer
Allen Steele
Edie Stern
Ian Randal Strock
Charles Stross
Geri Sullivan
Tim Szczesuil
Cecilia Tan
Paul Tremblay
Mary A. Turzillo
Kestrel Verlager
Peter Weston
Eleanor Wood
Jane Yolen
Ann Tonsor Zeddies

[(Anonymous)]

Yes but they did not have this posted a month or so ago when I had to make my decision. I asked Boskone about this and they stated that until the program is completely confirmed they don't post anything except GOHs. I have to make my decisions at least a month ahead for good price plane tickets. Since Boskone Hotel rooms are twice as expensive per night also having to guess who their guests were made my choice easy.

Thomas Monaghan

[(Anonymous)]

A little effort on your part could have shown you who was there in past years as also attending. Its a good yardstick to use to see who will be at a con year after year.

http://www.nesfa.org/boskone/websites.html

http://www.nesfa.org/boskone/b42/programschedule.html

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

You pays your money and you makes your choices.

We... usually make Boskone, unless we're offered a conflicting Guest of Honor or Special Guest gig (as we were last year with SheVaCon).

This year? We get to sign our books with Art Guest of Honor Donato -- he's done the last three Meisha Merlin covers for us and will be doing the cover for the next one, too -- and Crystal Dragon's debut means we'll break the book with a signing at one of the country's top SF bookstores (Pandemonium) followed by three days of one of the premier conventions in the country, with the co-signing at the Meisha Merlin table *and* an official convention signing to boot. Add the fact that our agent attends Boskone, two of our publishers attend Boskone, a loyal bunch of Liaden fans comes to the con every year from all over, and we can get to the con in only four hours... it's the choice we make.

The other question -- well, Worldcon is very iffy for us this year. We're looking at multiple converging deadlines as well as some spring/summer follow-up medical stuff for me. Since we usually make West Coast worldcons into a two week tour a lot depends on things that are supposed to happen between now and early July. We shall, as they say, see.

[(Anonymous)]

Steve I can see that Boskone is completely the best fit for you and Sharon and I hope to see you again at Worldcon.

Thomas Monaghan