Just The Caffeine Talking

The Show Goes On!

The Book Event at Towne Book Center in Collegeville, Pennsylvania is set for this Saturday, April 5, at 3 p.m. Originally scheduled for early February, this Event had to get moved because of heavy snow. But now that the weather has improved from Utterly Horrid to Merely Unpleasant, the Event is back on! Come see me, Brian Staveley, and Ramona Wheeler talk about our books, sign copies, and read selections for the entertainment of good Pennsylvanians.

Also: another review of Darkling Sea, from Right Fans. (Spoiler: they liked it.)

An Event And An Interview

On Sunday, March 30, I'll join Brian Staveley and Ramona Wheeler for another joint Book Event at Flights of Fantasy Books and Games in Albany, New York. It all happens at 2 p.m. and everyone is welcome.

If you haven't read enough interviews with me about A Darkling Sea, be sure to check out Andrew Liptak's piece for SF Signal, in which I reveal the Zeppelin Connection among other things. Because there's always a Zeppelin Connection.

Lunacon Report

This past weekend my celebrated wife Diane and I drove through irritating Connecticut traffic to Rye Brook, New York for this year's Lunacon, the venerable New York science fiction convention. We had lovely weather, and took advantage of the fact that one of our kids is two weeks away from legal adulthood to have a little working getaway.

I'm not joking about working, either. The Lunacon organizers got full value from me: I participated in nine events from Friday evening to Sunday morning, with six of them on Saturday.

But it was fun work. I got to meet comics legend Walter Simonson, talk about Rudyard Kipling, try (and fail) to master the hula hoop, discuss how to use games for education, argue about inter-temporal trade, gush about the film Gravity, discuss human exceptionalism in science fiction, and thrash out how to combine mythologies in fantasy.

In between events I got to share drinks and canapes with the magisterial Michael Flynn, consume large amounts of meat with the Masonic operative Walter Hunt, and — of course — buy books in the dealer area. Like everyone else I was baffled by the layout of the Hilton Westchester hotel. And in the nearby town of Port Chester (which has a large South American population) I took the opportunity to get empanadas at a Uruguayan bakery.

So, overall it was a fun time. After my experience at the New York Comic-Con last fall, I was a little surprised at the intimate, old-school feel of Lunacon. It strongly resembles Boston's equally venerable Boskone, and feels almost like a private reunion of longtime SF fans. 

Books acquired: The Martian, by Andy Weir, and The Hermetic Millennia, by John C. Wright.

 

 

LunaCon 2014, Featuring ME!

If you're going to be near Westchester County, New York this weekend, please consider stopping by the Hilton Westchester hotel in Rye Brook for Lunacon, New York's venerable science fiction convention. I'll be there, and here's my schedule:

Friday, March 14, 5pm: Alternate Technologies in Historical Fiction — I'll be moderating a panel as we discuss what technologies might have come early, what alternative paths technology might have taken, and what's just flat-out impossible.

Saturday, March 15, 12 noon: Autographing — Bring me anything and I'll sign it. Copies of A Darkling Sea are a good choice if you can't  think of something you want signed.

Saturday, March 15, 1pm: Kipling's Fantasies — I get to join a very distinguished group of panelists to talk about Kipling's beast-fables, ghost stories, and science fiction.

Saturday, March 15, 2pm: Gamification in Education — Once again I'm moderating a very distinguished panel as we talk about how to use games in education, and how to make games educational.

Saturday, March 15, 4pm: Inter-Temporal Trade — How would trade between different times work? This should be a fun exercise in pure science fiction idea-banging.

Saturday, March 15, 5pm: The Mission of Gravity — I get to put on my movie-geek hat and talk about the recent hit film Gravity.

Saturday, March 15, 7pm: What IS It About We People? — Do we portray humans accurately? Can a human really view our species objectively?

Sunday, March 16, 10am: Mix-and-Match Myths — A panel about a subject which has vexed me for a long time: if all myths are true, how do you deal with the contradictions?

Sunday, March 16, 12 noon: Game Design Workshop — I'll help aspiring game designers figure out how to turn their ideas into games.

Promotional Round-Up

A little housekeeping here.

I'll be a guest at Lunacon in Rye, New York this coming weekend (March 14-16). If you're in the area, come and hear me talk about games, time travel, and Gravity, among other topics. You can also hear some expert science discussion by Dr. Diane A. Kelly.

March 30 I'll join Brian Staveley and Ramona Wheeler at Flights of Fantasy in Albany, New York at 7 p.m. for readings, book signing, and questions. 

If you still want to read more interviews about my book, here's one at the book 'blog My Bookish Ways.

 . . . And here's an interview at Clarkesworld.

 

 

A Darkling Sea — The Musical!

Despite having written a guest blog post about who I'd like to see in a movie version of A Darkling Sea, I'm pretty certain that it's one book which will never be filmed. As I pointed out in the blog post, it's about the most unfilmable novel ever written. Most of it takes place in pitch darkness, and half the main characters are giant lobster-things.

But, as I was dropping off to sleep one night recently, it came to me that A Darkling Sea would make a pretty awesome stage musical.Seriously! You wouldn't even need much of a set. Most of it would be black, or maybe very faintly blue-lit, with spotlights on the characters. The Ilmatarans can be giant puppets, with spotlit singers doing their dialog and musical numbers, à la The Lion King. 

Picture it: we start off with a big rousing showstopper for Henri Kerlerec, setting him up as the center of the story. We give Broadtail a song about how much he wants to be accepted by the company of scholars. Kill off Henri while the Ilmatarans sing a reprise of his own song.

Romantic duet for Rob and Alicia as she lures him out of his self-imposed isolation. Then the Sholen arrive, with another big number about how much they care about protecting Ilmatar. Comic montage of them interviewing the humans. Alicia shows Tizhos the glowing bacteria. 

Broadtail has his fight and trial. We end the act with a split number as the Ilmatarans of Broadtail's community sentence him to exile while the Sholen tell the humans they have to evacuate . . .

Am I crazy for thinking this could be great? Would any theater audience actually sit through a full-length show about singing lobsters on another planet?

There is this to consider: musical fans and science fiction fans look more and more alike with each passing year. They tend to be obsessive about certain works, have their own vocabulary of in-jokes and quotes, and often dress up oddly. As far as I know, there aren't conventions for musical fans (yet), and the SF fans don't have to make pilgrimage to New York and shell out $100 for a seat. A good science-fiction musical could effect a fandom merger.

If any aspiring songwriters want to take a crack at this, get in touch with me. It'll be great: we can use the old barn, and everyone will come!