Chattacon 44 Report!

Chattacon Panel: "What in Hell Do We Want from Horror?"
(Left to right: Gregory Nicoll, Tim Waggoner, Me, Scott W. Baker)

Last week I attended Chattacon 44 here in Chattanooga, TN.  As I noted earlier, Chattacon has been a tradition for me since 2015.  Another tradition has been my reports on Chattacon!

Here are some highlights of my experience at Chattacon 44!

"Famous as the Moon" Now Available in Big Echo!

I'm thrilled to announce that my short story "Famous as the Moon" is now available in the latest issue of Big Echo: Critical SF.  There is a lot of really great stuff in this issue (Issue 11), so check it out!

For a previous incarnation of my story, I prepared a bit of a philosophical commentary.  While I realize that from an artistic point of view there's something a bit gauche about explaining a short story, my academic tendency for pedantic over-explanation is deeply ingrained.  So, I thought I'd provide this here for anyone who might be interested.

Getting Ready for Chattacon 44!

I'm thrilled to be attending Chattacon 44 this weekend here in Chattanooga, TN, USA.  It's hard to believe, but this will be my fifth Chattacon (okay, it's not that hard to believe based on evidence from this blog from 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018).  This year Chattacon will be at the Read House Hotel, which is a really nice place in a great location for restaurants in easy walking distance.

This year I'll be on a few panels, some with people I met at Chattacon in previous years.  You can find the full programming schedule here, but this is what I'll be doing.

Short Story Coming Soon to Big Echo!

Source: http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=6,11668,0,0,1,0#.XEfAYC3Mwcg

I'm pleased to announce that my short story "Famous as the Moon" will be appearing in the next issue of Big Echo. If a story about a Buddhist university in another solar system 1000 years in the future with cyborg debaters and an AI insurrection based on Yogācāra metaphysics (plus jokes and a bit on personal identity) sounds like something you'd enjoy, check it out! The next issue of Big Echo should be available in the next few weeks.  It's also a neat online journal that publishes a lot of cool, experimental stuff.

Tough Minds, Tender Hearts, Moral Arcs, and Science Fiction: MLK Day 2019

Source: https://angiegreaves.com/martin-luther-king-jr/

“We must combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.” - Martin Luther King, Jr. , Strength to Love (1963)


January 21, 2019 is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day here in the United States.  It has been my tradition on this blog to write something every year in commemoration of MLK Day, which is my favorite holiday.

But why continue to celebrate a single, complicated man who died more than 50 years ago, a man whose message has been watered down, commodified, exploited, and misunderstood (sometimes deliberately) by many on both the left and the right?  Aren't there more important things going on?

The Queen's Stories: How Long 'Til Black Future Month by N. K. Jemisin

N. K. Jemisin has been having a great few years.  She won three consecutive Best Novel Hugos for her Broken Earth trilogy, a ground breaking (literally) revitalization of the fantasy genre with hints of science fiction.  I recently heard her referred to as The Queen of the Genre, and it's hard to dismiss this as hyperbole.

Many of her fans, including this one, were anticipating her first collection of short fiction.  So, how is it?

Story Time: The Wind Through the Keyhole: A Dark Tower Novel by Stephen King

As Constant Readers of this blog know, I've been on a bit of a Stephen King kick in recent months, which has included an unexpected obsession with his epic Dark Tower series.  I plan to write a post on why I love the Dark Tower books so much, but before that I realized I had one more book to read: The Wind Through the Keyhole.

Just when you thought the Dark Tower books were done with The Dark Tower: The Dark Tower VII (published in 2004), King added another book in 2012.  The Wind Through the Keyhole is a fun trip to the Dark Tower multiverse that's suitable for newcomers and Constant Readers alike, but it's not as trippy as the core books.