After several weeks, I’m still coming home from work every evening feeling like I’ve had my head tapped with a 1/2″ auger bit and all the neurotransmitter drained. It’s not the most awesome thing in the world, but, on the other hand, it’s far from the worst thing in the world, too.
But! Our local SF convention, Bubonicon, is THIS WEEKEND. And, like all Bubonicons, it will be great. Right now the promise of Bubonicon is what’s getting me through the week. Below the cut: schedules!
The full schedule for Bubonicon 44 is here. Notice the 5 (yes, 5) tracks of programming! The con is growing bigger every year. We’re in a new location, too, in case you’re planning to attend but were thinking to head out toward the airport.
Here’s how my convention is shaping up:
Friday, August 24
8:30 pm: Iron Men: Where Have All the Robots Gone?
D. Boop, G. Stevens, I. Tregillis, C. Willis, M. Snodgrass (M)
(THE ROBOTS ARE RIGHT HERE AND THEY ARE STEALING MY LUGGAGE.)
Saturday, August 25
3:00 pm: Adaptation: From Existing Story to Film Script/Graphic Novel
D. Abraham, M. Cassutt, S. Phillips, M. Snodgrass, Me (M)
(This is going to be a superb panel. Also one of the easiest moderating jobs at the entire convention. All I have to do is sit back, shut up, and let these folks talk for an hour. Don’t miss it.)
4:00 pm: A Plethora of New Planets: Exploration’s Next Step
L. Hall, L.J. Mixon, Me, D.L. Summers (M)
(I’m also on an exoplanet panel at Worldcon the following week. Come watch me test out new material before a friendly local audience before I head off to the big city of Chicago.)
5:20 pm: Mass Autographing
(Come watch me twiddle my thumbs while a room full of famous writers signs a metric shitload of books.)
Sunday, August 26
12:30 pm: Reading
(What will I read? No, really, I’m asking because I don’t know. Will I read from The Coldest War? Perhaps! Something else? Perhaps! Tea leaves? Perhaps!)
2:30 pm: Co-hosting one session of the Bubonicon Authors’ Tea
(Come say hello! Drink tea poured by very classy ladies and eat finger sandwiches with a far less classy gentleman (me).)
3:30 pm: Post-Post-Post Apocalypse: The Toys are Still Laying Around
M. Acevedo, T.J. King, Me, S.M. Stirling (M)
(And this is where we attempt to carry out the final panel of the convention with decorum. Will we usher in a dignified closing to Bubonicon 44? Probably not, but it’ll be fun to watch us try.)
Dear Mr. Tregillis,
Are you planning on sharing what your upcoming novels are about (the one following Necessary Evil) at the convention and, if so, will you share those plans here on your website shortly after the convention for those of us who are not going to be there? Thanks so much.
Those sound like fun. Some day I’ll have to wander out to Bubonicon. This year, though, I’m trying to sort through the approximately 10,000,000 panels at Worldcon.
Hi Kenny! (By the way, Mr. Tregillis was my father, har har har.)
I can even do better than that — no need to wait until after the convention. I haven’t talked much about the new book recently, but if you’re interested, you can read about it here.
Since then, I submitted the manuscript for SOMETHING MORE THAN NIGHT to my editor at Tor around the end of June. We’ll be doing editorial notes/revisions on it probably later this year. I know she has a lot of smart ideas about how to make the book better.
Meanwhile, we finished copyedits on NECESSARY EVIL earlier this month, so it’s well along the way to its April 2013 publication date. The next step is to review the galleys, which will probably happen this fall.
And I’m developing a new idea for a new book unrelated to both Milkweed and Something More, but it’s too soon to say anything about that 🙂
Thanks for the interest.
I highly recommend Bubonicon. It’s a really great convention. I look forward to it every year.
Steve, are you going to be at Worldcon? It would be fun to meet you in person!
Yes, we will be arriving in Chicago sometime around 4:30PM on Thursday depending on how well Amtrak works this time. Last year, the train turned into a bus due to the flooding in North Dakota. This year they have sent us messages that they may be late.
This will be my first Worldcon. The timing just hasn’t ever worked before, so I’m really pleased to be going.
Yeah, I’m looking forward to meeting you in person. I see you have a reading on Friday at high Noon, so I’ll be at that anyway if I don’t run into you earlier.
Terrific, Steve! I’ll look forward to meeting you. And good luck with the train — hope you don’t get stuck somewhere en route…
Even though I won’t be there, I cast my reading vote for gay robots. There can never be enough short stories about gay robots.
As a matter of fact I tossed a copy of that anthology into my bag last night! Any chance you’ll be at Worldcon?
*sigh* No cons for me this year – couldn’t afford it. Next year, though. In the mean time you could do a book tour that conveniently passes through San Francisco…
Hey, I’ve got an idea. I know you promised to lend me that $30,000 (by the way, I think the check got lost in the mail? because it hasn’t arrived yet? and it’s been a while?) but how about you just lend me $15,000 to finance a book tour? That would be really swell of you, and it would save you $15,000! I mean, it would be financially irresponsible NOT to do it. And we could make sure it passes through SF. I mean San Francisco SF not Santa Fe SF.
Tell you what, you fly me out to Chicon and pay for my hotel and I’ll personally finance your next book tour in San Francisco SF. I think that’s fair, considering you still owe me a Tom Baker Doctor Who scarf Mr. Makes Promises And Then Breaks His Fans Hearts With His Damn Dirty Lies.
Are you sure the scarf thing wasn’t a ploy by my evil doppelganger? Everybody has one of those, you know. Probably it was him. Or I forgot that I can’t knit. One of the two.
But I’ll tell you what. I’ll totally buy you plane tickets for Chicon. It’s probably too late for me to get them to you before you need to leave, so if I were you I’d just show up at the airport and tell them that you totally have a ticket. And if they pretend like they don’t know what you’re talking about, just escalate until they let you on the plane. See you in Chicago!