#readercon — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #readercon, aggregated by home.social.
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Finished selecting and ranking the Readercon panels I'm interested in being on this year. Volunteered to moderate for all of them, because I'm a teacher. Moderating discussions is what I do. All day. With adolescents. It's my jam.
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Finished selecting and ranking the Readercon panels I'm interested in being on this year. Volunteered to moderate for all of them, because I'm a teacher. Moderating discussions is what I do. All day. With adolescents. It's my jam.
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Finished selecting and ranking the Readercon panels I'm interested in being on this year. Volunteered to moderate for all of them, because I'm a teacher. Moderating discussions is what I do. All day. With adolescents. It's my jam.
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Finished selecting and ranking the Readercon panels I'm interested in being on this year. Volunteered to moderate for all of them, because I'm a teacher. Moderating discussions is what I do. All day. With adolescents. It's my jam.
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Finished selecting and ranking the Readercon panels I'm interested in being on this year. Volunteered to moderate for all of them, because I'm a teacher. Moderating discussions is what I do. All day. With adolescents. It's my jam.
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You're also listed as a program participant at Readercon (July 9-12, Burlington, Massachusetts). Hope you still plan to go ... It's always fabulously fantastic fun, in its own high-literary way.
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#readercon registration / hotel rooms are live #sf #books #reading
Readercon 35, July 9 - 12, 2026 at the #Boston Marriott Burlington
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"The Rainseekers" looks great. Preordered!
First impressed by your reading at Readercon, panel appearances, and short stories. You're obviously one of the brightest lights in today's spec fic constellation.
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[Writer Matthew Mercier agrees with Kressel about writers' finances. On the subject of whether successful horror writers really rake in that sweet sweet, ah, let's call it blood money]
John Langan and Paul Tremblay are both public school teachers.
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[Writer Matthew Mercier agrees with Kressel about writers' finances. On the subject of whether successful horror writers really rake in that sweet sweet, ah, let's call it blood money]
John Langan and Paul Tremblay are both public school teachers.
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[Writer Matthew Mercier agrees with Kressel about writers' finances. On the subject of whether successful horror writers really rake in that sweet sweet, ah, let's call it blood money]
John Langan and Paul Tremblay are both public school teachers.
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[Writer Matthew Mercier agrees with Kressel about writers' finances. On the subject of whether successful horror writers really rake in that sweet sweet, ah, let's call it blood money]
John Langan and Paul Tremblay are both public school teachers.
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[Since 2008, writer Matthew Kressel has co-hosted the famous "Fantastic Fiction at KGB" barside reading series in Manhattan. (Each month, two spec fic authors read from their work, then everybody drinks.) Kressel indicates writing is not a job, it's an adventure.]
I'd say that less than 5 percent of the writers who come through the KGB series make a living as full-time writers.
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[Since 2008, writer Matthew Kressel has co-hosted the famous "Fantastic Fiction at KGB" barside reading series in Manhattan. (Each month, two spec fic authors read from their work, then everybody drinks.) Kressel indicates writing is not a job, it's an adventure.]
I'd say that less than 5 percent of the writers who come through the KGB series make a living as full-time writers.
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[Since 2008, writer Matthew Kressel has co-hosted the famous "Fantastic Fiction at KGB" barside reading series in Manhattan. (Each month, two spec fic authors read from their work, then everybody drinks.) Kressel indicates writing is not a job, it's an adventure.]
I'd say that less than 5 percent of the writers who come through the KGB series make a living as full-time writers.
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[Since 2008, writer Matthew Kressel has co-hosted the famous "Fantastic Fiction at KGB" barside reading series in Manhattan. (Each month, two spec fic authors read from their work, then everybody drinks.) Kressel indicates writing is not a job, it's an adventure.]
I'd say that less than 5 percent of the writers who come through the KGB series make a living as full-time writers.
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[I bought that Clute book from Joe Berlant in the Readercon Bookshop. You hear all sorts of things from booksellers; they've lived in the SFFH world a long time, & hobnobbed with players large & small. Example: Sally Kobee of the Larry Smith shop tells me she once cherished a pet, well, rat. Named, maybe, Cyndi? Which provides sorely needed context for her next sentence:]
I've known George R. R. Martin since forever; he once took one of my rat babies.
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[Due to a badly timed dorveille, I oversleep and miss a much-anticipated kaffeeklatsch with John Clute, the colossus of SFFH critics. But in the hall later, Rich Horton @hortonwho (the raja of reviewers) fills me in on the hour's highlights]
We're at a science fiction convention — so of course we spent quite a bit of time discussing Wallace Stevens. Oh, and the sins of the British Library.
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Well met at the hall in Readercon, editor and friend Rich Horton @hortonwho mentions that, with Eric Schwitzgebel and Helen De Cruz, he's currently assembling a new anthology, modestly titled something like]
Best Philosophical Science Fiction in the History of All Earth
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[In the Readercon hall on Sunday, I talk to writer friend Gillian Daniels. After years in the short story salt mines, she's making a break for the big tome]
I just sold my first novel! To Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. It's horror; called "Jenny Will Eat You Now." It's supposed to come out in summer 2026. So maybe I'll have advance reading copies for NEXT Readercon …
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[We're late back from dinner, so can't catch the Shirley Jackson Awards. "For outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic." (See www.shirleyjacksonawards.org for winners etc.) Sorry to miss them. Especially because of my general observation from past cons: as a class, horror people are the cheeriest, most good-humored writers I know. Maybe when you're not screaming, you might as well laugh.]
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[His own fiction counts quite a few horror and dark fantasy titles, but @ScottEdelman hasn't abandoned SF]
PS Publishing is putting out a new collection of my short stories — all science fiction —later this year.
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[In the Generative AI panel, data scientist and machine learning maven John O'Neil indicates he's heard some scary shit from those leading the AI gold rush. Including the capo of the company that brought you Chat GPT]
The most terrifying thing I've heard is Sam Altman said, "OpenAI can replace doctors."
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Thanks so much! I didn't open it, but it had a few legit-sounding bits that made me ask you wiser Mastominds for help.
And yes, Butler was tremendous; and her writing still is.
I got to see her in person, attend her events when she was Readercon GOH in 2002. Struck me as an unforgettable combination of shy, smart, and brave.
Plus, godammit — she was unforgivably prescient about how our politics might go.
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[Recent reading raves from P. Djeli Clark's blog—ending with dystopian prison gladiator TV]
Some of the best in genre currently: "The Library of Broken Worlds" by Alaya Dawn Johnson, "Mirrored Heavens" by Rebecca Roanhorse, "The Saint of Bright Doors" by Vajra Chandrasekera, "The Dead Take the A Train" by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey.
All were fabulous reads, but the one that stayed with me was "Chain-Gang All-Stars" by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. Blew. Me. Away.
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[And since I couldn't catch P. Djeli Clark in person, here are three recent semi-random bits from his excellent blog, https://disgruntledharadrim.com. Can we pretend he might have repeated them at the con?]
If you want to understand our current political moment, better read some Octavia Butler.
I got contracts and I owe people stuff. That’s what success is in writing, kids—you get contracts, and you owe people stuff.
I'm sketching out notes towards another (adult) novel.
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[Our other Co-Guest of Honor, P. Djeli Clark, has to leave the con for a family emergency. (Hope all turned out OK.) I never get to quote him in action, or beg for a sequel to "The Black God's Drums." Rats! So let's rerun a comment from his Readercon kaffeeklatsch last year: a split decision on feminism in the works of Robert Jordan]
Strong women, but HEY there's a lot of lady spanking.
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[At Saturday's panel on The Works of Cecelia Tan, writer Laura Antoniou talks about how our overachieving Co-Guest of Honor (who later tells us that in the 1980s, in her mid-teens, she was scoring $250 checks for penning articles about Menudo) pioneered incredibly early exploitation of, basically, digital crowdfunding]
I admire Cecelia's mastery of capitalism. She made money writing on the internet before anyone else.
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[At Saturday's panel on The Works of Cecelia Tan, writer Laura Antoniou talks about how our overachieving Co-Guest of Honor (who later tells us that in the 1980s, in her mid-teens, she was scoring $250 checks for penning articles about Menudo) pioneered incredibly early exploitation of, basically, digital crowdfunding]
I admire Cecelia's mastery of capitalism. She made money writing on the internet before anyone else.
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[At Saturday's panel on The Works of Cecelia Tan, writer Laura Antoniou talks about how our overachieving Co-Guest of Honor (who later tells us that in the 1980s, in her mid-teens, she was scoring $250 checks for penning articles about Menudo) pioneered incredibly early exploitation of, basically, digital crowdfunding]
I admire Cecelia's mastery of capitalism. She made money writing on the internet before anyone else.
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[At Saturday's panel on The Works of Cecelia Tan, writer Laura Antoniou talks about how our overachieving Co-Guest of Honor (who later tells us that in the 1980s, in her mid-teens, she was scoring $250 checks for penning articles about Menudo) pioneered incredibly early exploitation of, basically, digital crowdfunding]
I admire Cecelia's mastery of capitalism. She made money writing on the internet before anyone else.
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[At Saturday's panel on The Works of Cecelia Tan, writer Laura Antoniou talks about how our overachieving Co-Guest of Honor (who later tells us that in the 1980s, in her mid-teens, she was scoring $250 checks for penning articles about Menudo) pioneered incredibly early exploitation of, basically, digital crowdfunding]
I admire Cecelia's mastery of capitalism. She made money writing on the internet before anyone else.
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[At that Friday dinner, Joe Berlant salutes another much-missed Readercon luminary, David G. Hartwell (1941-2016) — per the EOSF, "perhaps the single most influential book editor of the past 40 years in the American sf publishing world." I'd thought David died a true bookman's death toting tomes down the stairs; Joe demurs.]
Not books. He fell carrying an entire glass-fronted BOOKCASE.
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[At a warmly convivial alfresco dinner with my brother Michael, fan friend Gene Reynolds, and bookseller pals Chris Logan Edwards and Joe Berlant, we toast the memory of Arthur Henderson (1942-2024) of Henderson Books. Art's bulldog grin and soft Virginia snark enlivened myriad Readercon moments for me and many others.]
www.ealvinsmall.com/obituaries/arthur-henderson
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[At the panel on The Purposes of Memorable Insults in Sci-Fi and Fantasy, writer Anne E. G. Nydam recalls a non-genre jibe (delivered by a Brit peeress/politician to the original bad-girl-blonde movie star) that's too bad to pass up]
The time that Margot Asquith disliked it when Jean Harlow kept mispronouncing Asquith's first name, and finally said, "The 't' is silent, as in 'Harlow.'"
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[Rich Horton @hortonwho does have a favorite on this year's Best Novel Hugo ballot]
"The Ministry of Time," by Kaliane Bradley. First novel by a British writer, but expertly written. Time travel slash alternate history. The government rescues people from different periods of time; a woman has to look after one of them, who was snatched from the Franklin expedition, where everybody died in the Canadian Artic. Anyway, very absorbing. I loved it.
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[After the Year in Spec Fic panel, friend / awesome editor / prodigious reviewer Rich Horton @hortonwho talks about the one that got away]
Not on the Hugo ballot, but the novel I think best of the year is "Cahokia Jazz," by Francis Spufford. You know Cahokia was a settlement of the Mound Builders, not far from where I live? The book has the city survive into an alternate 1920s. And there's a murder mystery, a political story—it's just really terrific.
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[After the Year in Spec Fic panel, friend / awesome editor / prodigious reviewer Rich Horton @hortonwho talks about the one that got away]
Not on the Hugo ballot, but the novel I think best of the year is "Cahokia Jazz," by Francis Spufford. You know Cahokia was a settlement of the Mound Builders, not far from where I live? The book has the city survive into an alternate 1920s. And there's a murder mystery, a political story—it's just really terrific.
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[Writer, creativity coach, and somatic therapist Sophia Babai offers plenty of interesting comments throughout the Year in Spec Fic panel. Unfortunately Babai talks fast and at length, so my notes are all frags and tatters. Here's one surviving insight.]
Gothic in the West tends to rise in times of great social upheavals based on race.
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[At the panel on The Year in Speculative Fiction, writer A. C. Wise beautifully sums up one fundamental appeal of genres like true crime and horror. The scary stuff is RIGHT THERE — but don't worry, it can't get you.]
Horror can be a comfort read … The horror is confined to the page.
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[At the panel on The Year in Speculative Fiction, writer / Washington Post reviewer Charlie Jane Anders joins the chorus of praise for the latest from horror heavyweight Stephen Graham Jones, about a vengeful Blackfeet vampire in the Old West]
"The Buffalo Hunter Hunter" is currently my favorite book of the year … Honestly just a frickin masterpiece.
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[At her kaffeeklatsch, I bring up one of my favorites of Hand's novels, "Curious Toys" (2019)—featuring the outsider artist/writer/janitor Henry Darger. (During the 2012 Worldcon, I visited his recreated room in the Intuit museum; see it at https://art.org/exhibitions/henry-darger.) Here, he's helping a cross-dressing teenager chase a serial killer in 1915 Chicago. What sparked this one, Liz?]
My Mom said, "You should write a book where Henry Darger is the detective."
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[For Ellizabeth Hand, maybe fiction writing is more nurture than nature]
A novel is like a newborn. It takes constant attention.
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[As with most writers, completed stories don't exactly burst forth in a blaze of glory from the forehead or hand of, er, Hand. (Note to self: needs rework.) First comes the work. Then comes the rework…As with her 2015 novella about a legendary English folk band that decides to jam in the wrong creepy old house.]
Wylding Hall — that was first intended as a YA book...But it just didn't work. It ended up as a short adult novel. After several tries.
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[Shirley Jackson's estate had never allowed another writer into the Shirleyverse. Until they came to Hand with an inquiry: Would she like to write a book based on Jackson's 1959 masterpiece "The Haunting of Hill House"? (Spoiler: it became Hand's "A Haunting on the Hill," 2023.)]
I didn't feel I could write a Shirley Jackson novel—except the house is really a character. So I said I would write an Elizabeth Hand novel set in Hill House. They said fine.
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[In addition to all her often award-winning original work, Hand has produced quite a few nifty novelizations, from "12 Monkeys" to many Star Wars volumes to "Catwoman." I think she's indicating here that in the byzantine world of film financing, paying writers to do the book of the flick more or less comes out of the promotional budget?]
Novelizations are loss leaders for the movie.
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[In the Time Loops panel, fan David G. Shaw cites a later classic of the subgenre]
There's a good book from 1987: "Replay" by Ken Grimwood. It was an inspiration for the movie "Groundhog Day." A guy keeps being reborn at age 18, then whatever he tries to do differently, dies of a heart attack at 56…Ironically, Ken Grimwood died of a heart attack while he was writing the sequel.
[Unironically, Grimwood made it to age 59]
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I wrote some reflections on running a dealer table in the bookstore at #Readercon34. https://stevendbrewer.com/readercon34-bookstore/ #readercon
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Home from Readercon! I had a wonderful time. But I am so tired now. I’m having a nap with the cat.
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Finishing up #Readercon34 strong! With two super cool panels, and then a final GOH Autographing Session! So if you missed me or my earlier autographing, just come say hi before things end! The panel on weird Jobs should be really fun. :-)