Keith R.A. DeCandido's Blog, page 8

I’m at ConnectiCon this weekend!

I’m a guest at ConnectiCon XXII this coming weekend at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford! I’ll be at B02 in the Daily Marketplace section of the exhibit hall selling and signing my books, and I’ll also be doing two panels with my buddy and fellow word-slinger Rick Heinz:

Saturday

12.30-1.30pm: “You Got Your Mystery Peanut Butter in My Fantasy Chocolate!: Blending Genres” (Bespin Barracuda)

Sunday

11.45am-12.45pm: “Creating Your Unreal Setting: The Art of World-Building in Fantasy & Sci-Fi” (Mandalore Mangoes)

Hope to see folks!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’s “Hegemony, Part 2” and “Wedding Bell Blues”

Strange New Worlds is back! After two years, we finally get the resolution to the season-two-ending cliffhanger in “Hegemony, Part 2” and we get a fun romp that does entertaining things with the Spock-Chapel dynamic in “Wedding Bell Blues.” Read my review!

An excerpt:

And one thing I particularly love about “Wedding Bell Blues” is that it shows how long it takes to recover from trauma. This applies to the Enterprise, first and foremost, as the vessel requires a three-month repair period. It also applies to Batel who, even three months later, hasn’t fully recovered from being infested with Gorn eggs. After the Spock-Chapel wedding is retconned back into a Centennial celebration, we see the characters dancing to Wham!’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” (yes, really). Batel can only dance for a verse or so before she needs to sit back down.

Babylon 5 Rewatch: “War Without End, Part 2”

We find out the final fate of more than one character, and it’s not always what you expect. Plus we’ve got Zathras at his Zathrasiest and we finally get the entire other half of “Babylon Squared.” The Babylon 5 Rewatch looks at “War Without End, Part 2.”

An excerpt:

One of the difficulties with aggressively plotting out a five-year storyline for television is that sometimes changes happen due to circumstances beyond your control, like actors leaving the show. In particular, J. Michael Straczynski’s storyline was given a punch in the solar plexus by Michael O’Hare’s departure at the end of season one. Not all of Sinclair’s role in the overall storyline—most particularly his going back in time to become Minbari Jesus Valen given how much of that was seeded in season one—was something that could be just transferred to another character.

This two-parter is an attempt to get the storyline’s breath back following that gut-punch (he says, abusing the metaphor). On the one hand, you can see that some of the fixes are wielded with a very large hammer; on the other, you gotta admire the fact that Straczynski mostly pulled it off.

preorder sale for Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD on B&N!

If you haven’t preordered Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD Book 1 yet, now’s your chance to get it for cheapsies! Barnes & Noble is doing a preorder sale from the 8th to the 11th of July for rewards and premium members, whereby you can get 25% off on the hardcover, eBook, or audio of SCU! You can become a rewards/premium member for free if you aren’t already, and then get this fabulous deal!

So check it out!

Babylon 5 Rewatch: “War Without End, Part 1”

Sinclair and Zathras are back just in time for a wacky time-travel adventure! Secrets from both the past and the future are revealed, as the Babylon 5 Rewatch looks at the first part of “War Without End.”

An excerpt:

We get some really cringe-y attempts at humor, from Sheridan’s eye-rolling, “As my great-grandfather used to say, Cool!” to Garibaldi reminding us of past awful dialogue in his attempt to find a password to Ivanova’s awkward “I’ll be in the car” in a setting in which we’ve never seen a car to Sinclair’s comparisons to him and Sheridan (“Butch and Sundance, Lewis and Clark, Lucy and Ethel”).

That last one is not aided by a truly somnolent performance by Michael O’Hare. Knowing now about O’Hare’s mental health struggles, that somnolence is, at least, understandable, but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s being acted off the screen by everyone around him. His stilted line readings stand out, especially when he’s standing next to Bruce Boxleitner’s relaxed charisma, Jason Carter and Claudia Christian’s snark, Mira Furlan’s intensity, and Choate’s loopiness.

debuting this weekend (and on sale online): PRISM: The Mission Files

At Shore Leave this weekend in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Crazy 8 Press will debut PRISM: The Mission Files, the shared-world anthology of 80s-style spy-thriller stories edited by Hildy Silverman, with a story by me, and tales by other cool folks. (Full table of contents can be found here.)

Best of all, not only will there be copies for sale, but most of the authors will be guests of the con! Christopher D. Abbott, Russ Colchamiro, Mary Fan, Robert Greenberger, Aaron Rosenberg, Dayton Ward, and me and Hildy will all be there to scribble on your copy!

And if you won’t be in Lancaster this weekend for the con, fear not! The book is also available to order online!

my Shore Leave schedule

I will be both an author and musical guest, as well as a dealer, at Shore Leave 45 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania this coming weekend. Shore Leave is one of my absolute favorite cons, and I have yet to miss one this millennium. Looking forward to this weekend very very much!

I’ll have a table in the dealer room (adjacent to the eSpec Books table) where I’ll be selling and signing books, as well as some of Wrenn’s craft works. I’ll also be doing the following bits o’ programming:

Friday

3-4pm: “Collaboration,” w/Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Kathleen O. David, Laura Ware, & JK Woodward (Cornwall)

5-6pm: “There Are No Small Parts,” w/Adeena Mignogna & Jenifer Purcell Rosenberg (Cornwall)

10pm-midnight: Meet the Prose Party, w/all the other authors (Wheatland)

Saturday

11am-noon: Boogie Knights concert (Lincoln Theater)

4-5pm: self-defense workshop for kids & teens (Ballroom B)

Sunday

11am-noon: Shore Leave’s Goodbye to Peter David, w/Kathleen O. David, Michael Jan Friedman, Robert Greenberger, & Howard Weinstein (Wheatland)

noon-1pm: self-defense workshop for adults (Wheatland)

2-3pm: “Literarily Sherlock,” w/Christopher D. Abbott, Mary Fan, Scott Pearson, & Hildy Silverman (Ballroom B)

3-4pm: “Writing the Good Fight,” w/Derek Tyler Attico, Michael Jan Friedman, & Mike McPhail (Ballroom A)

Looking forward to seeing folks there!

Friday fanfare: “The War of 1812”

On this particular Independence Day, I find this ditty by Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie is the only song I feel even a little comfortable posting today……..

Babylon 5 Rewatch: “Interludes and Examinations”

Sheridan wants Kosh to shit or get off the pot, Morden wants Mollari back on his side, and Franklin wants everyone to leave him alone. Sheridan gets what he wants, but pays a price; Morden gets what he wants, and Mollari pays the price; Franklin doesn’t get what he wants, but does get what he needs. The Babylon 5 Rewatch has some “Interludes and Examinations.”

An excerpt:

In the grand scheme of things, this is an important moment for Mollari. He’s lost the only thing that brings him joy, which makes him far more dangerous. And I love the way Morden is written in his interactions with Mollari, in particular how he addresses him. When he confronts him in the corridor about Refa’s sudden silence, he calls him “Mollari” with the same dismissive tone that G’Kar uses. When Morden “learns” of Adira’s death, he refers to him as “Londo,” acting the sympathetic friend. And once Mollari reengages in his deal with the devil, Morden respectfully refers to him as “Ambassador,” pretending to be his humble servant when he is, in fact, neither.

I’ll be at Horror on Main this weekend

I will be returning to Horror on Main, a nifty little horror convention at the Sheraton Harrisburg Hershey Hotel in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I’ll have a table in the dealer room alongside eSpec Books, and will also be doing a reading from Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD Saturday at 5pm in the Haunted Forest room.

Come see me!