I'm baaaaaaaack.
Actually, I've been back for almost two weeks now - just pokey about posting, as usual. First, a quick roundup of Balticon '08 (
www.balticon.org):
The family and I had a great time, as usual. I had a nice number of panels which left me plenty of time for hanging out and chatting with various friends and acquaintances. The Space and Time reception went off without a hitch and resulted in a healthy number of new subscriptions and single-issue sales. I made the acquaintance of a very nice fellow there who invited me and Diane Weinstein to speak...at the Library of Congress! More on that once arrangements have been made, but wow...how cool is that?
I met Naomi Novik, the 2008 Compton Crook award winner and author of the Temeraire (
http://www.temeraire.org/) series. She's a lovely young lady and proof that it is possible to successfully transition from fan fiction to original fiction. I also had a chance to meet and chat with fantasy author extraordinaire, Peter S. Beagle, (
http://www.myspace.com/petersbeagle) who is just a terrific guy. He really enjoys coming to Balticon and chatting with fans. We were on one panel together as well and I learned that he was a big Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan and of other genre television shows. No pop culture snobbery here!
I read my new short story, The Darren, which as I mentioned last entry will be published in a forthcoming anthology. The podcast should be up on the Balticon site soon. Judging by the audience laughter (in the right places), I think it went over well.
Of course, the biggest excitement for the family was my Spawn's winning the first ever Bobby Gear Award for Workmanship by a Young Fan in the Masquerade. She went as the Devil's Daughter (insert typecasting joke here) and boy, was she thrilled!
All in all, a fun weekend. For readers who have never attended Balticon, I highly recommend it.
In the meantime, speaking of anthologies, you should check out Dark Territories from the Garden State Horror Writers. Amazon is down right now, or I'd post a link...how dare they interfere with my post! Anyway, it's a great new anthology with stories from F. Paul Wilson, May SanGiovanni, and a little nasty something by yours truly. Coming soon to a store near you, including Target, or available directly from
http://www.gshw.net.
Issue #104 is being laid out as I type. If anyone out there would like an ad, now is the time to contact me at
hildy@spaceandtimemagazine.com. I'm happy to say ad space is filling up quickly and with a lead story from Harry Turtledove, it's bound to be a hot issue. Look for it to hit the shelves in early July.
One last thing: I just wanted to send a "thank you" to my buddy, Ty Drago, who has some kind words posted about me on his e-zine site, Allegory (
http://www.allegoryezine.com/mainpage.htm). Right back at'cha, my friend. Fans of S&T should definitely check out Allegory - Ty has some really great tales posted there. Try it, you'll like it!