I’ll be attending Arisia in at the Westin Boston Waterfront hotel from January 13-16. I’m waiting to see what Friday the 13th at a con has to produce. I expect costumes, people; Friday the 13th costumes.

NB: trying to get back into blogging in 2017. We all know how New Year’s resolutions tend to go, but hey – Gonna try!

While there, I’ll be presenting, trying to nab some audio, and generally trying to catch up with people. Here is my schedule. Drop me a note if you’d like to be part of this schedule!

• Friday, 5:30pm, Burroughs room
  What are the New Questions Science Fiction/Fantasy Should be Asking (mod)
  Speculative fiction needs to speculate, as changes in the world pile up thick and fast. News of these new developments – scientific, political, cultural, and personal – reaches a broad audience, sometimes even before the developments have actually developed. Does SF have space to speculate? Should we try to keep pace with the way the world changes? Is that possible? What new questions should we ask?
• Friday, 7:00pm, Marina 2
  This is How it Ends: Risks to Our Civilization (panel)
  Catastrophic global climate change. Economic collapse. Mass crop failure. Solar flares that knock out electrical grids. Society depends on a lot of assumptions, and many of them could potentially go off the rails at any time. This panel will examine the possible whimpers and bangs, how they might play out, and how they relate to each other.
  
• Saturday, 11:30am, Marina 3
  What we know from Juno (panel)
  Juno is a NASA space probe currently orbiting the planet Jupiter. For 20 months the probe will gather a wealth of new information including more details about the planet’s atmospheric composition and core density. Come find out what we’ve learned so far.
• Saturday, 1:00pm, Burroughs
  The Year in Bad Science (panel)
  Scientists are people, and make mistakes. Many people are not scientists, but use the language of science to mask some outrageous claims. Here are the howlers from the last year.
• Sunday, 7:00pm, Burroughs
  Beyond Physics: Many Sciences of Science Fiction (Burroughs)
  While a lot of speculative fiction is still very focused on physics, speculation can come from any field of study including anthropology, computer science, psychology, and history. A discussion of some of the more unusual ways that science fiction has chosen to examine the human condition.
  

See you in Boston?