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AussieCon

Next week in Melbourne, apart from copious eating of Melbourne food & some drinking (less so on the drinking; my liver is lonely without my gallbladder), I’ll be wandering about WorldCon trying not to think about how much time has passed since the LAST AussieCon in Melbourne’s Southbank Convention area.

There’s a weird bitter sweetness to this event which I’m kinda dreading. It’s making me look back and look forward in equal measure, at where I’ve come to since then and also at the changes I’ve made in recent years (both personal & in teh writing), and it’s consolidating my ambition re. what I want to do in the coming years, but with attendant nervousness about whether I can achieve all that.

So, I shall be in a weird and funky mood.

Unless I’m on Official Business, in which case I shall be cheerful! Here is my Official Business calendar:

Eneit Press BAGGAGE launch
Thursday 1300, Borders Southbank, h20 Convention Centre Place

(At which there will be cake! I love cake.)

Signing, Room 201-202, Sunday 1400
(Kim Stanley Robinson will be at this!)

(No, I don’t mean in the queue, I mean also signing. It’s not his only signing, but I predict several hundred people will flow through the room for Kim during this hour, while surely I’ve signed every A BOOK OF ENDINGS in existence already, so, er, one does wonder how I’ll fill my time. Cheerfully, though, of course.)

(Oh, there *is* a second print-run of A BOOK OF ENDINGS, though. Yay!! Plus BAGGAGE and SPRAWL anthologies to sign. So if you do acquire a copy of any of these, then firstly I thank you. And secondly, feel free to come along Sunday 2-3pm to have ’em cheerfully signed.)

And panels:

Great women of science fiction
Who are the great women of speculative fiction? A historical look at the female authors who helped shape science fiction and fantasy, those
who are well-remembered and some who have been forgotten, and a celebration of their collected achievements.
Andrew M. Butler, Lucy Sussex, Claire Brialey, Deborah Biancotti
Sunday 1300 Room 212

(I haven’t been confirmed on this one yet.)

The eternal border
Are there taboos in dark fantasy? At what point does the fantasy stop and the psychosis begin?
Deborah Biancotti, Terry Dowling, Richard Harland, Jason Nahrung, Catherynne M Valente
Monday 1300 Room 211

(Hmmm, my name is first on this one, I wonder if that means I’m meant to be chairing?)

Maybe I am too normal to enjoy this book…
Horror authors share the worst things ever said about their work and discuss the context of the outburst. Audience members are invited to share their own worst “critiques”.
Scott Edelman, Will Elliott, Deborah Biancotti, Rob Hood, Martin Livings
Monday 1500 Room 212

(Go on, bring something snarky to read out. Share your pain with the world.)

Looking forward to seeing y’all there.