This weekend is our increasingly low-key winter science fiction convention, Boskone. Here is where I'll be and what I will be doing.

 

Saturday 10:00 - 11:00, Occupy Luna, Carlton ( Westin)

How do we have a lunar society that avoids some of the problems we have today.

Vince Docherty (M), Allen M. Steele, Ian Randal Strock, Alexander Jablokov, Patrick Nielsen Hayden

I presume I will figure out what this means by the time I'm done with the panel.

Saturday 11:00 - 12:00, The Writing of Short Fiction, Carlton ( Westin)

Let's take a close-up view of what to do when you create a horror, science fiction, or fantasy story in one of the shorter lengths. How do you decide that this idea will work best short? How many characters can you fit? What's got to go in? What must you leave out? What short form masters should you steal blind?

Alexander Jablokov  (M), Laird Barron, F. Brett Cox, James Patrick Kelly, Beth Bernobich

Hey, I’m the moderator for this panel! That’s way more work than just making ill-considered observations. I’ll have to figure out some interesting questions to ask.

Saturday 13:00 - 13:30, Reading: Alexander Jablokov, Independence  ( Westin)

I will probably be reading my recent alien sex story, “Comfort of Strangers”.

Saturday 15:00 - 16:00, Environmental Rearguarding: What To Do After It's Too Late, Burroughs ( Westin)

Let's assume, as some scientists now fear, that the tipping point for catastrophic global climate change has already been reached. What can and should we do to 1) lessen its effects and 2) build a sustainable civilization on the world we'll have left?

Alexander Jablokov (M), Jeff Hecht, Tom Easton, Joan Slonczewski, Shira Lipkin

I only just noticed that I’m the moderator for this one too. Better start thinking.

Sunday 11:00 - 12:00, Reading: Flash Fiction from the Cambridge SF Workshop, Lewis (Westin)

Elaine Isaak, F. Brett Cox, Alexander Jablokov, James Patrick Kelly, Steven Popkes, Kenneth Schneyer

This was a fun event last year. I’ve been so busy with my novel that I had no time to write a short piece for this. I’ll probably read a short, relatively self-contained portion of the novel in progress, Timeslip.

Sunday 13:00 - 14:00, Crossover: Mystery & Genre, Burroughs ( Westin)

Which genre do mysteries most resemble: science fiction, fantasy, or horror? What mental muscles do they use similarly, for writer and for reader? If a mystery story is a whodunit, is an SF tale often a howdunit? What works have most successfully crossed the streams?

Toni Weisskopf (M), Dana Cameron, Alexander Jablokov, Leah Cypess, Toni L. P. Kelner

I love SF/mystery crossovers, and have written a few myself.