Martha Wells's Blog, page 213

The YA book I've been reading is Moribito: Guardian of th...

The YA book I've been reading is Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit by Nahoko Uehashi. It's book one of a series, was originally published in Japanese, has been very popular, and is now available in English translation. The first book won an ALA Batchelder award in 2008.

It's set in a fantasy world based loosely on feudal Japan, where a woman who works as a bodyguard ends up saving a boy prince, then discovers that he may be the host for an egg laid by a demon who reappears every hundred yea...

Another neat thing about AggieCon this year was the numbe...

Another neat thing about AggieCon this year was the number of hall costumes. There was a Zombie theme, and a few people came with great Zombie outfits. One of the artists was also doing Zombie face painting Saturday night, so that was very neat. A few people had steampunk outfits with goggles and gadgets, and Saturday night there was also a workshop on SF/F fashion and a workshop for decorating tiny little hats. So by later that night, everybody was stylin'.


Convention Links:

Patrice...

AggieCon Reprise

I was really, really glad to see AggieCon come back strong this year because, for one thing, it's always been an important con for young fans in this area. I was 23 when I was AggieCon chairman, and about 95% of the committee (which back then was probably around 75 people) were my age or a couple of years older or younger. Most of the people running AggieCon this year weren't born, or were maybe a few years old, when I was chairman. AggieCon committee members have gone on to work on Armadi...

Just a quick note: I found out yesterday that Phil Klass...

Just a quick note: I found out yesterday that Phil Klass (William Tenn) passed away. The first time I heard him speak was at the Nebula Awards ceremony in 1999 where The Death of the Necromancer was on the ballot, and a few years later in 2004 I sat next to him on a panel at the Boston WorldCon, where he was charming and wonderful to listen to and very nice to me. I wish I'd had many more opportunities to hear him speak.

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I'm going to try to do more of a con report later, but in short, Ag...

AggieCon in progress

That's me at AggieCon yesterday, doing my special guest reading/question and answer thing in the very large meeting room at the hotel.

The con has been really great. This year the con had to move from the Memorial Student Center/Rudder Theater Complex to the Hilton hotel, since the MSC is being remodeled and is completely shut down. I think the involuntary change of venue has really helped it in some ways. When the movie program was at its height, and there were between 1500 and 2000 people...

An addition to my AggieCon schedule: I'll be doing an au...

An addition to my AggieCon schedule: I'll be doing an autographing Saturday, at 11:00 am. But you can ask for me to sign your books after my reading/q&a program at noon, or catch me after a panel, or whenever.

I've put a signed hardcover copy of The Death of the Necromancer up for auction in the helptheproject community over there, to benefit the Virginia Avenue Project. There are lots of other wonderful things up for auction. Stories, pottery, autographed books, seductive European cookies...

AggieCon 41 Schedule

AggieCon 41 February 5-7, 2010.

I'm not too sure about the times, but I think this is close to being right.

Friday

6:00 pm "Journey to the Beginning of Sci Fi" - These are the classics modern sci fi is beholden to. Our panelists debate who is the mother (or father) of all science fiction. [Bowers, Cupp*,
Datlow, Montz, Gould, Wells:]

7:00 pm Opening Ceremonies

8:00 pm "What's in a World?" - New worlds to explore are one of the key characteristics of fantasy. Our panelists discuss what goes into...

Save the Project Online auction

Save The Project is a fandom auction to benefit the Virginia Avenue Project, a free afterschool arts and academics program. 100% of participating children graduate from high school. 90% go on to college. 85% are the first person in their family to go.

I've put a signed hardcover copy of my book The Death of the Necromancer up for auction in the savetheproject community over there.

The Death of the Necromancer was published by Avon Eos in 1998, was a Nebula nominee, and has been out of print in ...

Author Kage Baker passed away yesterday. She was only 57...

Author Kage Baker passed away yesterday. She was only 57, and had a very aggressive uterine cancer.

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Care2's Click to help Haiti site.

SF/F Conventions and Me

As an alternative to Amazon, a few people have recommended Book Depository.com and Book Depository.co.uk, which advertise free worldwide shipping.


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AggieCon 41 will start next Friday, February 5, at the College Station Hilton in College Station, TX. I'm special guest, and the other guests are listed here.

Unless my professional and financial situation changes, this will probably be my last SF/F convention for a while. This is kind of fitting, since I was a member of the student committee th...