Our Boskone follow up has been a bit delayed, but we wanted to make sure to share the award winners from this year’s covention…even if the information is posted a little late. On Saturday, February 20, 2016, NESFA held its awards ceremony and announced the winners of the 2016 Skylark Award, the Gaughan Award, and short story contest. Congratulations to all of our winners!

2016 Skylark Award

The Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction (the Skylark) is presented annually by NESFA to some person, who, in the opinion of the membership, has contributed significantly to science fiction, both through work in the field and by exemplifying the personal qualities which made the late “Doc” Smith well-loved by those who knew him.

2016 Skylark Award Winner:
Gardner Dozois

Gardner Dozois, one of the most acclaimed editors in science-fiction, has won the Hugo Award for Best Editor 15 times. He was the editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine for 20 years. He is the editor of the Year’s Best Science Fiction anthologies and co-editor of the Warrior anthologies, Songs of the Dying Earth, and many others.  As a writer, Dozois twice won the Nebula Award for best short story. He lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (bio from Macmillan)

2016 Gaughan Award

The Gaughan Award honors the memory of Jack Gaughan, a long-time friend of fandom and one of the finest SF artists of the 20th century. Because Jack felt it was important to encourage and recognize new blood in the field, The New England Science Fiction Association, Inc., presents the Gaughan Award annually to an emerging artist (an artist who has become a professional within the past five years) chosen by a panel of judges. (This year’s panel of judges included Greg Manchess, Arnie Fenner, and Cathy Fenner).

2016 Gaughan Award Winner: Tommy Arnold

Tommy Arnold is an Atlanta-based illustrator working primarily in fantasy and science-fiction. Clients include Tor Books, Orbit Books, and Wizards of the Coast. Visit Tommy online at tommyarnoldart.com.

NESFA Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Story Contest

The purpose of this contest is to encourage amateur and semi-professional writers to reach the next level of proficiency. We will look for engaging openings, good character development, well structured plotting, powerful imagery, witty or humorous language, unique word or phrasing choices, and convincing endings.

The 2016 winners were announced at Boskone 53, February 2016, as follows:

• Winner: “Super” by Kevin Fitch
• Runner-Up: “First Impressions” by Alexandria Krein

The final round judges were Tony Lewis, Dan Kimmel, and Garth Nix.

With so much great programming, unless you have a Time Turner or TARDIS, there’s bound to be something you miss. That’s where you and the Boskone social media community can help out!
Use #boskone on Twitter to live tweet panels, share fun photos or connect with con goers in general. I’ve personally met several amazing Boskone folks this way.

 

You can also share your experiences via the Boskone Facebook group. It’s a great way to get advice from the group, like where to eat, or share photo albums.

As always, be respectful of folks, especially when taking photos, and follow the handy Code of Conduct.

I can’t wait to see you, in real life (IRL) and on the interwebs.

 

 

Boskone’s Saturday night events are spectacular this year. So, get ready for a ton of fun.

After a full day of events ranging from art demos to readings, discussions, panels, and music… we have an evening full of special events for you. Come to the Boskone Book Party to discover new books and get some swag, attend the Rapid-Fire Theater for a series of exciting events (which includes the annual Boskone Awards Ceremony), and join us for some late night superhero fun down in the Galleria.

Boskone Multi-Author Book Party:

Publishers and authors come together in the Galleria to share what’s new since last year. This year NESFA Press is also launching two anthologies: The Grimm Future, edited by Erin Underwood, and Conspiracy!, edited by Tom Easton and Judith K. Dial. (Saturday, 6:30-7:45 pm)

Our Book Party authors and publishers include: D L Carter, Brendan DuBois, Tom Easton, Grady Hendrix, Carlos Hernandez, E. C. Ambrose (Elaine Isaak), Judith K. Dial, Sharon Lee, Steve Miller, Cerece Rennie Murphy, N.A. Ratnayake, E.J. Stevens,  Erin Underwood, and more!

Boskone Rapid-Fire Theater and NESFA Awards Ceremony:

Tonight’s presentation: a fast-paced theatrical extravaganza, featuring a set of mini-shows that resemble live-action “podcast experiments.” This special Saturday night program has something for everyfan. We hope you’re entertained, amused, soothed, gratified, provoked, intrigued, informed, or if possible all of the above in swift succession. Hosted by Boskone’s very own David G. Grubbs. (Saturday, 7:30-9:30 pm)

• Music with Vixy & Tony.
• NESFA Awards Presentation: The New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA) presents its annual Skylark and Gaughan Awards as well as the winner of the NESFA Short Story Contest.
• The Wesley Chu Interview.
• At the Movies with Boskone (Dan Kimmel and Garen Daly)
• Mystery Radio Play (Bruce Coville, David Grubbs, Bob Kuhn, Laurie Mann, Melinda Snodgrass).
  

Superhero Open Mic:

Kapow! Live from Boskone … enjoy the knock-out stylings of our program participants and audience members who share their open mic skills in the first-ever Superhero Open Mic. Each person gives his/her best 5-minute superhero performance – story, poem, song, skit, interpretive dance, or whatever!

OPTIONAL: For extra appeal, feel free to come dressed as a superhero!

Cash bar available.

The Rules: Boskone members are invited to join our participants in the open mic by signing up for one of the eight open slots at the door to the event, which opens for sign-ups at 8:30 pm. Each performer is given a firm 5-minute time limit (max), including set-up time. So a quick transition between acts is key.

Walter H. Hunt (M), Kenneth Schneyer (M), C.S.E. Cooney, E.C. Myers, Garth Nix, Don Pizarro, Lauren Roy, Mary Ellen Wessels. (Saturday, 9:00 pm)

This year, Boskone has beefed up the presence of book clubs at the convention. In addition to our annual Boskone Book club that features a book by our Guest of Honor (this year it’s Clariel by Garth Nix), we are also featuring a time for the NESFA Book Club to gather as well as the addition of a new comics book club discussion group. For any book club gathering that you plan to attend, please be sure to read the book first so that you are properly prepared for an fun discussion.

Friday, 6:00 PM
Room: Marina 3
Boskone Book Club: Clariel by Guest of Honor Garth Nix
The Boskone Book Club continues! Join us for a conversation that brings con-goers together to consider one noteworthy work at length. This year we are reading Clariel by Garth Nix (Boskone’s Guest of Honor). Boskone’s own Bob Kuhn will lead the discussion; Garth Nix will join the group halfway through for a Q&A. To participate, please read the book and come ready with your observations on style, plot, character, setting, vision…

Saturday, 12:00 NOON
Room: Galleria-Meetup Spot
Comics and Cookies Book Club – Ms. Marvel
This year, Boskone is introducing the new Comics and Cookies Book Club! Join other fans in discussing popular and amazing comics. Hugo-nominated author G. Willow Wilson has created Ms. Marvel and a hugely popular character in Kamala Khan. Read the comics and come ready to discuss these thought-provoking stories. And, yes, there will be cookies!
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Saturday, 3:00 PM
Room: Galleria-Meetup Spot
Comics and Cookies Book Club — Saga (Adult Themes)
This year, Boskone is introducing the new Comics and Cookies Book Club! Join other fans in discussing well-liked and wonderful comics. The Hugo-winning Saga, by Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan, is hugely popular and full of humor, while providing a beautiful mix of science fiction and fantasy. Read the comics and come ready to discuss their thought-provoking stories. And, yes, there will be cookies! Please note that these comics — and the discussion — will feature adult themes.

Sunday, 10:00 AM
Room: Galleria-Meetup Spot
Comics and Cookies Book Club – Starlight (Adult Themes)
This year, Boskone is introducing the new Comics and Cookies Book Club! Join other fans in discussing popular and amazing comics. Starlight by Mark Millar and Goran Parlov calls on some of the elements of classic pulp science fiction, but adds a modern-day twist by metaphorically looking at how society treats the aging and those whom we believe to be mentally unsound. The comic has its own problems for some. Read the comics and come ready to discuss these thought-provoking stories. And, yes, there will be cookies! Please note that these comics and the discussion will feature adult themes.

Sunday, 11:00 AM
Room: Griffin
NESFA Book Club: Conflict of Honors by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
This February, the NESFA Book Club hosts its monthly meeting at Boskone. Join us as we discuss Conflict of Honors by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, who will join the group halfway through the discussion in order to lead a Q&A. All members are welcome and newcomers are encouraged to attend.

 

Save some time and register online!

Calling all fans, authors, artists, scientists, musicians, and publishers! Boskone’s online registration closes at midnight on Saturday, February 13th.

Full Weekend Rates
Adult Full Convention: $65
College Student Full Convention: $40 *
K-12 Full Convention: $25 *

One Day Rates
Friday One Day: $25
Saturday One Day: $45
Sunday One Day: $25

If you prefer not to use a credit card or you’d rather purchase your membership in person, you can also register at Boskone for either a Full Weekend or One Day pass on February 19-21, 2016.

View the Boskone 53 Program Schedule!

* Valid school ID may be required.

 

Still on the fence about Boskone? Consider checking us out on Friday, February 19 for an afternoon of free programming. That’s right, from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm Boskone is free and open to the public!

Hot on the heels of last year’s inaugural free Friday afternoon programming, we’ve stepped up our game. With more than 30 program items, Boskone offers a little something for everyone. Check out our full program schedule to see what Boskone has in store for you.

After 6:00 pm on Friday and through the rest of the convention, you’ll need to purchase an attending membership to stay and enjoy the events, panels, interviews, games, and more! Weekend passes as well as day passes are available for purchase online until midnight on Saturday, February 13th, but you can always purchase your Boskone membership in person during the convention (February 19-21, 2016) at the Westin Waterfront Hotel in Boston.

Come early, stay late, and return for more. It all begins at 2:00 pm on Friday, February 19. See you there!

While your days may be full of panels, interviews, art and more, don’t forget Boskone’s Signature Friday Night events!

Don your evening attire for an upscale social gathering, concert, and reading. Come enjoy the music and festivities as we celebrate another year of science fiction, fantasy, and horror in Boston.

Friday evening kicks off at 8:00 pm in the Galleria where you can Meet the Guests and enjoy The Boskone Reception as Boskone 53’s Convention Chair, Tim Szczesuil welcomes and introduces this year’s Guests: Garth Nix, Richard Anderson, Arnie & Cathy Fenner,  Vixy & Tony, and Bob Eggleton. The Videri String Quartet will also be performing during the Boskone Reception from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM.

During the Boskone Reception, you can mix and mingle with other members and program participants while enjoying refreshments, stimulating conversation, and the exceptional art on display in the Boskone Art Show.

At 9:00 pm, Boskone presents a special concert with our Featured Filkers Vixy & Tony in Marina 1. Coming from the Pacific Northwest,  Vixy & Tony have won multiple Pegasus awards, including Best Performer in 2008 and Best Writer/Composer in 2009 and are known for their easygoing style, catchy songs, accessible lyrics, and energetic performances. Their concert is not to be missed.

At 9:30 pm, immediately following the Boskone Reception, the popular Boston-based reading series Noir at the Bar comes to Boskone for a special night of reading,  fun, and giveaways with our noir, crime, mystery, and horror writers. Hosted by Chris Irvin and Errick Nunnally, Noir at the Bar features Dana Cameron, Christopher Golden, John Langan, Sarah Langan, James Moore, Melinda Snodgrass, and Paul G. Tremblay.

Friday, February 19, 2016
8:00 pm Meet the Guests (Galleria)
8:15 pm Boskone Reception (Galleria)
9:00 pm Concert with Featured Filkers Vixy & Tony (Marina 1)
9:30 pm Noir at the Bar (Galleria)

We look forward to seeing you there!

The last of the Boskone Mini Interviews is here. Since Boskone is known for its fantastic Art Show and since this year’s art show is going to the best yet, we thought we’d finish our mini interviews with an “artistic” flare by bringing you two artists. We are pleased to introduce you to longtime Boskone artist and conrunner Lisa Hertel as well as award-winning illustrator and fine artist Kristina Carroll.

Come see Lisa, Kristina, and the rest of our fantastic artists at Boskone this year. You still have time to buy your membership online before the convention begins. So, don’t delay!

Lisa Hertel

Lisa Hertel is a working artist in clay, watercolors, and more at Western Avenue Studios in Lowell. She has worked on almost all aspects of con-running at many levels, because she volunteers too much. She has two teenagers who grew up in fandom. Visit her website or find her on Twitter.

What are you looking forward to at Boskone?

Boskone was my first convention, and I go now for the same reasons I have since 1979: to see old friends, great art, and find cool new things in the dealers room. It’s a social occasion, but now that I’m a professional artist, it’s also an opportunity for professional development; I often ask other artists to critique my art, and get new ideas about new techniques from their art. In addition, over the years Boskone has afforded me the opportunity to meet some of the greats in the SFF field.

What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project?

I’m working on a series of fairy tale illustrations. So far, I’ve been concentrating on the familiar stories of my childhood, but I hope to expand beyond Grimm, Aesop, and the like. I’ve always loved fairy tales and myths. I’m thinking soon of doing an African tale, and I welcome suggestions. In addition to the illustration, I do a retelling of the tale; I investigate multiple sources to come up with the story, which I then retell in my own words. I’m also considering doing biblical tales, which are really just a different sort of myth.

How would you describe your work to people who might be unfamiliar with you?

I wouldn’t have been able to answer that question a few years ago! But I’m finally developing a style. In clay, I tend to mix in glass or copper to add dimension to my work. I’ve also been using a wood-fired kiln. In watercolors, I start with a pencil drawing, ink it with details, then use the watercolors to add color and dimension. I think people are attracted to my love of detail.

What is your favorite Star Wars memory, scene, or line? What is it that that memory, scene or line that continues to stick with you today? 

I think my favorite Star Wars memory is when I went to the first movie (as we knew it). I went with a bunch of friends from high school, some of whom later became notable in their fields, such as Scott McCloud, Kurt Busiek, and Ted Dewan. We sat down near the front of the Sack Cherie in Boston. And when that big ship came in over us, I wasn’t the only one who ducked!

 

Kristina Carroll

Kristina Carroll is an award winning illustrator and fine artist specializing in magical realism with a figurative focus. She is heavily influenced by the Symbolist movement and all manner of imaginative storytelling, both old and new. Kristina is especially drawn to mythology, archetypes, metamorphosis and how those themes can be translated into modern narratives. Kristina graduated from the School of Visual Arts in NYC and she has been recognized nationally for her work both in illustration and fine art. Some achievements include a Bronze medal from the Society of Illustrators L.A., inclusion in the Spectrum Fantastic Art annuals and as a finalist in the Art Renewal Center Salon. Clients include Wizards of the Coast, IDW and Realms of Fantasy. Her work has been exhibited in Museums and Galleries across the country. Kristina is also the force behind the popular Month of Love and Month of Fear art challenges that are now entering their third successful years. These challenges attract some of the top artists in the industry and allow them to push their art to new heights with inspiring themes and community support. Check out her website or find her on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

What is it that you enjoy most about Boskone?

Boskone is a little light to look forward to during one of he harshest months in New England. At a time where it’s too easy to go into hibernation mode, Boskone gets me motivated to make new art to share and gets me out of the house to see people I adore.

What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project?

Right now I am working on compiling an art book for my Month of Love/Month of Fear Projects. They are month-long art challenges. I run in February and October that bring together artists from all over the world to create new work under weekly challenges falling under the “Love” and “Fear” themes. These projects have been a labor of love for 3 years now and have produced some jaw-dropping work from the artists involved. I’m collecting the first 3 years into a book with some new material from the artists involved. You can learn more at bookofloveandfear.com.

From a fan perspective, what new book, film, TV show, or comic are you most looking forward to seeing/reading?

Apparently Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain, Black Swan) is adapting Margaret Atwood’s Oryx And Crake For HBO. I love everything about this combination and have already built it to unattainable expectations in my head.

What is your favorite Star Wars memory, scene, or line? What is it that that memory, scene or line that continues to stick with you today? 

Star Wars was my first introduction to science fiction as a little girl so it’s very hard to identify just One moment. It was wholly formative. But, as a kid, I was always fascinated by Jabba the Hut for some reason. I think it might have been because he was a villain that I could easily see reflected in the people around me, unlike Darth Vader. Jabba was vice personified and I saw a lot of vice growing up. Perhaps I was intrigued with how it controlled the adults around me. So when Leia takes her chains and chokes the life out of him. (Probably the most intimate kill in the series) it makes a big impression. In fact the only two Star Wars toys I own are a vintage R2-D2 and a Jabba the Hut (complete with pipe, trap door and Salacious B. Crumb.) The psychologists in the audience can take from that whatever they like.

 

There are only a couple of Mini Interviews left before Boskone begins, and this is your chance to help us welcome C.S.E. Cooney, Shahid Mahmud, and Don Pizarro. We hope you enjoy this group of interviews and look forward to seeing you soon!

You still have time to purchase your Boskone membership.

C. S. E. Cooney

C. S. E. Cooney is the author of Bone Swans: Stories (Mythic Delirium 2015), The Breaker Queen, The Two Paupers, and Jack o’ the Hills. She is an audiobook narrator for Tantor Media and the singer/songwriter Brimstone Rhine. She is a Rhysling Award-winning poet, and her short fiction can be found in Rich Horton’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, Strange Horizons, Apex, GigaNotoSaurus, Clockwork Phoenix 3 and 5, The Mammoth Book of Steampunk, and elsewhere. Check out her website or find her on Twitter or Facebook.

What are you looking forward to at Boskone?

This is my first Boskone ever! I don’t even know how to pronounce it. I have it on good authority that the art show is awesome, and that the atmosphere is relaxed. I loved Garth Nix’s Sabriel books, so I’m looking forward to the Guest of Honor events as well!

What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project?

I am working on the fourth draft of my novel, Miscellaneous Stones: Assassin. It’s about this girl who hails from a long line of assassins. Unfortunately, she’s born with an allergy to violence. Fortunately, that allergy is an early indication of necromantic powers—she’s so allergic to death that she can raise the dead, once she grows strong enough. But first, she has to survive childhood. Of course, the problem with “live by the sword, die by the sword” is that by the time she’s grown up, most of her family is dead. And she has enemies and allies both who are after her for her powers. This draft is particularly exciting, because I believe and hope that it is the submission draft—either it will win for me an agent and a  contract, or I put it away and work on something else that will. The stakes are high. And right now, as Raymond Carver writes in “Cathedral,” we’re really “Cooking with gas, bub.”

If you could recommend a book to your teenage-self, what book would you recommend? Why did you pick that book?

There are three female characters I encountered in fiction in my late twenties and early thirties that I want to be when I grow up. Cordelia Vorkosigan from Cordelia’s Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold, Tiffany Aching from the 4-book eponymous series by Terry Pratchett, and Gabrielle Reál, a recurring character in Carlos Hernandez’s short fiction. (We meet her three times in his collection The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria.) I would have loved my younger self to have had these women in her life: to look up to, to yearn toward, to have as example. Each, in her own way, is smart—but more than that, wise—imperfect, morally complex, heroic, terribly human, capable of great compassion and great ruthlessness, and the ability to think beyond their first flash reaction. “I open my eyes, then I open my eyes again,” says Tiffany Aching. I want to do that too.

Shahid Mahmud

Shahid Mahmud became a publisher in 2006 and subsequently created the dedicated SF/Fantasy imprint Phoenix Pick to publish out of print books. Phoenix Pick continues to reprint older SF/Fantasy and the catalog now includes books by Robert A. Heinlein, Larry Niven, L. Sprague de Camp and many other iconic figures of the genre. Shahid also publishes the Stellar Guild series pairing veteran authors with newer ones to write new fiction. Authors who have participated in the series include Larry Niven, Eric Flint, Mercedes Lackey, Robert Silverberg and a host of others. Feeling that life was not difficult enough Shahid partnered with Mike Resnick in 2013 to create an SF/Fantasy magazine, Galaxy’s Edge. The SFWA approved magazine publishes new and old fiction, plus columns, interviews and book reviews. He also organizes the annual Sail to Success Writers’ Workshop on board a cruise ship. Before entering the world of publishing, Shahid was an evil money manager but was able to keep his evilness well hidden. So much so, that the acting mayor of San Diego declared November 7th, 2005 to be “Shahid Mahmud” day for services he had rendered to the City. Check out his website or find him on Facebook.

What are you looking forward to at Boskone?

Meeting a great group of like-minded SF fans who love reading. Also meeting professional friends in the business.

What event or experience stands out as one of those ‘defining moments’ that shaped who you are today?

In 2005 I quit a lucrative day job to set up a publishing company, Arc Manor/Phoenix Pick. 10 years later I’m publishing some of my childhood idols as well as a critically acclaimed magazine, Galaxy’s Edge.

If you could recommend a book to your teenage-self, what book would you recommend? Why did you pick that book?

Dune (assuming being near the end of the teen years. While the book does not have some of the usual tropes modern SF embraces so easily like computers or robots, it epitomizes what the best SF books strive to do…be a mirror to our own souls. The book exquisitely creates a hugely complex world system in intricate detail, but ultimately is a beautiful narrative about human desires, ambitions and failings.

What is your favorite memory, scene, or line? What is it that that memory, scene or line that continues to stick with you today?

The Empire Strikes Back. Han’s response to Lia yelling out ‘I love you,’ as he is being frozen in carbon. “I know.” Just the cheekiness of the response even as he is being frozen is out of this world.

Don Pizarro

Don Pizarro has subsisted on red-eyes and gallows humor for over forty years. His writing has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Crossed Genres, and in other places online and in print. He is also the audio-aetherist (i.e. podcast editor) for Lakeside Circus. Don lives in upstate New York where he works as a university health care administration factotum. Come say hi at warmfuzzyfreudianslippers.com or on Twitter.

What is it that you enjoy most about Boskone?

To me, Boskone’s eclectic mix of programming makes it a place where I can get a hit from the creative vibes of the sci-fi/fantasy community at that late-winter point when my New Year’s resolution to “Write Moar!” starts to fade.

What are you working on now?

Aside from trying to kick out more essays (Just got one accepted the other day!) and short fiction, I’ve finally started my first novel! I’ve given it a codename on my blog, “PROJECT FLOSS,” because I’m too superstitious to start talking about it directly just yet.

What excites or challenges you about this project?

The fact that it’s the first story idea that’s come to me that really feels like it’s novel length. It also feels, for whatever reason (that I really don’t think I should examine very closely), like an idea I can actually have fun writing, and it’s that sense of fun that’s sustaining me through these early stages.

What is your favorite Star Wars memory, scene, or line? What is it that that memory, scene or line that continues to stick with you today? 

My 7 year old mind was convinced that Darth Vader was totally lying about being Luke’s father and that it had to be a con, because it came out of nowhere and how else could it make sense?? Such an innocent, simple child I was…

 

It’s time to sit back, relax, and read a few more Boskone Mini Interviews. Today’s batch features a trio of talented local writers, including Theodora Goss, Ken Liu, and Julie C. Day. We’re looking forward to seeing these terrific writers and all of our friends at Boskone this February.

If you haven’t yet picked up your Boskone membership, you can register here.

Theodora Goss

Theodora Goss’s publications include the short story collection In the Forest of Forgetting (2006); Interfictions (2007), a short story anthology co-edited with Delia Sherman; Voices from Fairyland (2008), a poetry anthology with critical essays and a selection of her own poems; The Thorn and the Blossom (2012), a novella in a two-sided accordion format; and the poetry collection Songs for Ophelia (2014). Her work has been translated into ten languages, including French, Japanese, and Turkish. She has been a finalist for the Nebula, Crawford, Locus, Seiun, and Mythopoeic Awards, and on the Tiptree Award Honor List. Her short story “Singing of Mount Abora” (2007) won the World Fantasy Award. She teaches literature and writing at Boston University and in the Stonecoast MFA Program. Her first novel, based on her novella “The Mad Scientist’s Daughter,” is forthcoming from Saga Press. Check out her website or find her on Twitter and Facebook.

What is it that you enjoy most about Boskone?

What I enjoy most is seeing all the writers and artists from our Northeastern community, together in one place.  Boskone is where I can see writers like Jane Yolen and Elizabeth Hand, and artists like Omar Rayyan, each year.  It’s wonderful seeing what everyone has done, and reconnecting with this wildly inventive and productive groups of folks.

What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project?

I have two books coming out from Saga Press in 2017 and 2018.  Right now I’m writing the second book!  Both books are about the adventures of an unusual group of girls: Mary Jekyll, Diana Hyde, Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherine Moreau, and Justine Frankenstein.  They find each other in late 19th century London and form a club–you could call it a club for female monsters.  The first book is about who they are and how they find each other, as well as solve a gruesome series of murders.  The second book is about how they set out to discover why they were created, and takes us through late 19th century Paris, Vienna, and Budapest.  Which means I’m doing a lot of research!  But it’s so much fun to go on these mental adventures…

If you could recommend a book to your teenage-self, what book would you recommend? Why did you pick that book?

Unfortunately, the book I would recommend wasn’t written yet when I was a teenager, but I wish my teenage self could have read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.  I was reading a lot of fantasy back then, a lot of Anne McCaffrey and Tanith Lee.  But fantasy seemed so divorced from literary fiction.  I would have loved to see a book that bridges that divide. I’m glad it’s going away, that fantasy is being recognized as great literature.  It would have been wonderful to know, as a teenager, that someday I would be writing in a literary world that was not quite so rigidly categorized, in which the boundaries are blurring–as I think they are now.

Ken Liu

Ken Liu  is an author and translator of speculative fiction, as well as a lawyer and programmer. A winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards, he has been published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction,  Asimov’s,  Analog, Clarkesworld,  Lightspeed, and Strange Horizons, among other places. He also translated the Hugo-winning novel, The Three-Body Problem, by Liu Cixin, which is the first translated novel to win that award. Ken’s debut novel, The Grace of Kings, the first in a silkpunk epic fantasy series, was published by Saga Press in April 2015. Saga will also publish a collection of his short stories, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, in March 2016. He lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts. Check out his website or find him on Twitter and Facebook.

What is it that you enjoy most about Boskone?

The best part of Boskone for me has always been the random conversations that happen in the hallways and outside the the programming rooms, stimulated by the panels and presentations. It’s a great way to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

What are you working on now? What excites or challenges you about this project?

I’m putting the final touches on the English translation for Death’s End, the last volume of Liu Cixin’s Three-Body trilogy, and I’m also finalizing edits for The Grace of Kings II (not the official title). It’s pretty intense to be working on two books at the same time while getting ready to launch my collection, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories.

If you could recommend a book to your teenage-self, what book would you recommend? Why did you pick that book?

Paul Cohen’s Set Theory and the Continuum Hypothesis. I think if I got to read this book as a teenage, I might have stuck with my plan to become a mathematician.

What is your favorite Star Wars memory, scene, or line? What is it that that memory, scene or line that continues to stick with you today?

During college, the final exams one year coincided with the release of the last book in a well-regarded trilogy in the Star Wars universe. I bought the trilogy as a “reward” for myself after finishing the finals, but ended up not being able to resist the temptation to “read just one chapter.” The next thing I knew, the sun was rising, and I had squander my last chance to cram for the exams overnight. I did, however, finish all three books in 6 hours. I still do not regret that decision.

Julie C. Day

Julie C. Day hold an MFA in Creative Writing from USM’s Stonecoast program and a M.S. in Microbiology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Her stories have been published in magazines such as Interzone, Electric Velocipede,Farrago’s Wainscot, and Podcastle, as well as anthologies such as Resurrection House’s XIII and A cappella Zoo’s best of anthology, Bestiary. She is the host of Small Beer Press’s occasional podcast. Check out her website or find her on Twitter and Facebook.

What are you looking forward to at Boskone?

To be honest I’m a relatively recent con attendee. Boskone is the first con I ever went to–all of four years ago. I really had no idea how many of “my” people I would find. Classic story, right? This year finding “my” people will no longer be a surprise. Instead, it’s the main reason I keep coming back. Talking books and writing and publishers, I can’t wait. If you see me wandering the con, come up and say “hi.” Another classic con trait, I’m a bit on the shy side.

If you could recommend a book to your teenage-self, what book would you recommend? Why did you pick that book?

How did I miss Diana Wynn Jones?! And why hadn’t Ysabeau S. Wilce’s Flora Segunda trilogy been written when I was thirteen? I can’t possible list just one book. But funny, girl-centric, magical and full of the unexpected: I wish there are had been more fiction like on my bookshelf. I read a lot of fantasy and science fiction. The Foundation Trilogy and Ridley Walker were two of my favorites. I adored them, but teen me was also yearning for something she could relate to on a more personal level. Jones and Wilce would have been good first steps in that direction.

How would you describe your work to people who might be unfamiliar with you?

I am a short story writer. I write dark often surreal stories that tend to utilize specific science facts as some sort of story metaphor. Some descriptors that people have used for my work include weird, slipstream, magical realist, and spec-lit.

What is your favorite Star Wars memory, scene, or line? What is it that that memory, scene or line that continues to stick with you today? 

I have no quotes at my disposal–for any movie. But I remember being so damn in puppy love with Harrison Ford. I had his picture in my school locker, something I’d forgotten about until just now.