Conventioneering — Warning: Geekery Ahead!

Posted on September 23, 2005    Posted by John Scalzi      14 Comments

Given that I’m still giving my brain a rest from thinking about anything of any importance for at least the next couple of days, in the absence of actual thought I’m considering which science fiction conventions to attend in 2006. If all goes according to plan I will have no fewer than three books hitting the stores in 2006 (The Ghost Brigades in the first part of the year, The Android’s Dream in later part, and a non-fiction book project I can’t tell you about yet but probably will soon smack dab in the middle), and being as I am a great big schmoozing publicity ho, I want to do the meet-and-greet thing amongst my demographic, and also (and not coincidentally) see some friends who are likely to be at some of these shindigs.

At the moment I’m focusing on the first several months of 2006, and here are the conventions I am thinking of making an appearance at. Bear in mind this is still in the thinking stage; I’m unlikely to go to all of them because as it happens making conventions one’s primary source of amusement is expensive, even when it’s tax deductible, and contrary to rumor, I’m not actually made out of $100 bills. Clearly, I need to get me some of that hot and sweet "Con Guest of Honor" action, but I think I need more of a paper trail than two in-genre novels to get that. Oh, the tribulations of the neo-pro. Anyway, here’s what I’m thinking.

January: Synthetic ConFusion — This is pretty much a done deal as I’ve already been chatting with the programming folks about which panels I will be on and what have you. Also, I had a big bundle of fun at it last year, so, you know, why not do it again.

February: Boskone — Old Man’s War is apparently going over pretty well with the NESFAns, so that’s definitely a point in Boskone’s favor, and as two of next year’s guests of honor blurbed OMW and another did the hardcover jacket art, it seems almost fated that I should attend. Fate! We’ll have to see what airplane tickets are to Boston a little later in the year, however, to see how expensive fate is. Extra point in Boskone’s favor: it’s the weekend before Ghost Brigades officially debuts (according to Amazon), which means in reality it should be fresh in the stores. Mmmm… that new book smell.

March: Lunacon — I can combine this with seeing publishers, agents and business clients for maximum business bang for the travel buck.

April: Penguicon — Another possible repeat engagement, since I had a fine time at it this last year.

May: WisCon — Another one that’s very likely as nearly all my favorite SF people plan to be there, and the Governor’s Lounge is a veritable font of love and beer. Should I go to this, Krissy will be coming along with me, since most of my favorite SF people actually want to spend time with her instead of me. No, I’m not bitter.

July: Confluence — the Confluence people very nicely asked me if I’d like to attend this year and unfortunately I just couldn’t get it into my schedule, so I’m going to see if I can get it on my 2006 schedule. However, I also hear good things about CONvergence, and it has the added benefit of being in Minneapolis, home to (or at least conveniently located near) a number of dear friends, some of whom have been trying to drag me in that direction. So we’ll have to see.

August: L.A. Con IV — This is a definite. It’s a Worldcon, I’m an LA native, and on the off-off chance I’m nominated for anything Hugoesque in 2006, I want to be able to lose in person. Also: In-N-Out Double Doubles. Enough said. This will probably be a family affair, with the whole Scalzi clan, and my mother-in-law in tow for Athena wrangling.

Post August 2006, I got nothin’. If anyone wants to suggest a con for the latter months of 2006, the comment thread’s the place to do it.

As for the rest of 2005, it doesn’t seem very likely I’ll get out to any other conventions. There is a very outside chance I (or we) might get to World Fantasy, but if I were you I wouldn’t be holding my breath on that, particularly since I don’t actually write fantasy. I know, it’s a piddling detail, but what are you going to do. Have fun without me, kids. I’ll be thinking of you.

So those are my con thoughts for right now.