I will be at Balticon this weekend.  I’ve been to Baltimore many times but this will be my first Balticon.

I have a reading Saturday at 3 PM.  Not sure yet what I’ll read–perhaps my short satire piece forthcoming in Space and Time #114 this summer, or my “slipstream + armor” piece that’s forthcoming in On Spec.

I also might be on a panel Sunday evening (I don’t know yet). Otherwise I will be roaming the halls with a stack of shiny BCS flyers and, of course, in the bar. :)

This weekend I will be at Boskone, the Boston-area F/SF convention. I’ve been for the last several years and have enjoyed it (and returning to two of my favorite brewpubs and small breweries).  I will be on several panels, including one Saturday at noon on Sword & Sorcery Today–a very cool topic similar to the panel I moderated at Word Fantasy.

I will also be hosting a reading for my magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, on Sunday at noon (note the change from the earlier schedule).  Several authors from the magazine will read their stories that will be appearing in BCS this spring.

Drop by and give them a listen. And if you see me in the halls, feel free to say hello!

Weird Tales, the very long-running SF/F/H magazine where my first published fantasy story appeared, has made some major upgrades.

As detailed in this announcement, WT will now be paying 5 cents a word, up from 3 cents.  They’ve also adopted the very slick electronic submissions system that Clarkesworld Magazine pioneered and that Fantasy Magazine and Asimov’s use.  Ann VanderMeer, who as Fiction Editor bought my story “Excision” several years ago, is taking over as Editor-in-Chief.

I’m sure these changes will only improve this run of the magazine under Ann, which has already won the 2009 Hugo for Best SemiProZine.  I’ve been a fan and subscriber ever since “Excision” appeared in WT #347, her first issue, the one with the cool cover art of a severed head in a jar.  :)   I had the pleasure of dining with Ann and Jeff at Capclave, and they are tireless champions for short fiction.  I look forward to this new era for Weird Tales!

I had a great time at World Fantasy!

I saw a bunch of people I know from other cons: my drinking buddy Saladin Ahmed, who read from his novel coming out next hear from DAW. I had read parts of it in draft form, and the final version he read is even better. BCS author and Sybil’s Garage editor Matt Kressel read from his upcoming BCS story “The Suffering Gallery”; I think I had a beer with him three days in a row. :) Fellow Codexians Corry and Mary, my former instructor now BCS author Steve Rasnic Tem, my Oddfellows drinking buddies, the ever-rosy Mike Allen, and more.

I met a ton of people I know online but hadn’t met before: BCS authors Marie Brennan, Vylar Kaftan, Erin Cashier, Ferret Steinmetz, Renee Stern, Brad Beaulieu, J. Kathleen Cheney, and more. Fellow Codexians Lon Prater, T.L. Morganfield, Jeremy Tolbert, and more. Fellow editors who dig what I’m doing with BCS Janson Sanford (storySouth, The Million Writers Award), John O’Neill and Howard Andrew Jones (Black Gate), John Klima (Electric Velocipede).

The swords & sorcery panel I sat on was quite good. Howard Andrew Jones mentioned many of the classics and the biggest new author out of Black Gate, James Enge; I mentioned Clark Ashton Smith and my favorite current author, Chris Willrich; Patricia Bray and Martha Wells mentioned a number of insightful things, including Charles Saunders and Saladin.

Patricia said that a lake monster in some S&S she’d read years ago felt like “the coolest thing ever.” That I think is a great tagline for the coolness or awe in S&S that all of us love–stuff that’s the coolest thing ever. :)

I enjoyed the panel on epic fantasy–all the panelists had good ideas and were into the discussion. Here’s some online video of that panel. Also here are some quotes of wisdom that Jason Sanford compiled and blogged.

The BCS not-officially-a-party went well–attendees included Steve Tem, Blake Charlton, Walter Jon Williams, lots of BCS authors and fans, and apparently the whole class of Clarion 2010! We only had a little beer left over, and I didn’t mind showering Sunday morning standing in three inches of still-melting ice. :)

Thanks all! It was an awesome weekend.