Photo: This is Elissa's brain on cons.
(Our canteloupe negligence dates back to 2005.)

I did three events in March -- a Barnes & Noble book-signing in Ocala, Mega-Con in Orlando, and a Critique Retreat at the Homosassa Public Library.

Mary and I were also caretaking our cat Red, who passed on March 20 at the age of 16. That leaves his buddy Daisy, making us a one-cat household. We've all been adjusting.

April has been a month of rest and planning, and even some writing in the midst of it all. Here's what's coming up:

May 23-26: WisCon (Madison, WI), the world's leading feminist science fiction convention. I'll be on panels, have signed up to do a reading, and will be at the Broad Universe book table. This will be my first WisCon, and I can tell I'm going to have a lot of trouble choosing among the panel offerings to attend. They rock something fierce.

Electric Velocipede #14 debuts at WisCon, containing my story "Hermit Crabs." You can see Lisa Snellings-Clark's terrific cover and pre-order the issue at
blog.electricvelocipede.com/2008....html

Three days after I return from Wisconsin I drive to...

May 30-June 1: The Wrath of Con in Panama City Beach on the Florida panhandle. This is an Aisling Press event, so I'll be hanging out with staff and fellow Aisling authors at the sales table(s). This will also be my first trip to the panhandle. I've got my AAA TripTik in hand.

June 21: I pop down to Tampa for a book-signing at Barnes & Noble.

July 17-20: Readercon (Burlington, MA). "A typical Readercon features well over 100 writers, editors, and critics (attracting prominent figures from Canada, the U.K., and occasionally even Australia) and more than 400 of their readers. Readercon is the only small convention regularly attended by such giants of literary sf as Samuel R. Delany, John Crowley, Barry N. Malzberg, and Jonathan Lethem." Lethem is this year's Guest of Honor (I loved his novel Motherless Brooklyn). I was a professional guest at the first Readercon in '87, then held in Boston (I think in Brookline, unless I'm confusing it with Arisia). I could take the subway to it, then (*insert wistful sigh*).

August 6-10: Denvention (World Science Fiction Convention) in Denver, CO. This will be my third Worldcon -- my first was Noreascon II in Boston in 1980 (where I discovered the Science Fiction Poetry Association); my second was ConStellation in Baltimore in 1983. This is the progenitor of sf conventions, with the first held in New York in 1939. (The first Denvention dates back to 1941.) This is also where the Hugo (Science Fiction Achievement) Awards are given. It will mark my first stay in Colorado beyond an airport stopover.

About 2-1/2 weeks after I get home from Denvention, I drive up to Atlanta for...

August 29-Sept. 1: DragonCon, "the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US" and an Aisling Press event. This one gets around 30,000 attendees. I have yet to order my TripTik for this one, but I did get AAA's latest Georgia Tour Book. It will mark my first stay in Atlanta beyond an airport stopover. Mary and I drove through Georgia when we moved from Boston to central Florida five years ago, but I haven't seen the state beyond looking out the window at pretty landscapes.

October 10-12: Necronomicon in St. Petersburg, FL (moved from Tampa). So far I'm on a dark poetry panel (as I was last year). This is also an Aisling Press event. In 2006, Necro marked my return to sf conventions after an almost 20-year absence. My 2007 attendance marked Covenant's debut. By the time of the 2008 convention I should have the sequel, Deviations: Appetite, in hand.

October 17-19: Florida State Poets Association annual conference, which moves around the state and this year occurs in Ocala, about 30 miles from me. I'm giving a workshop on the 18th, topic TBD.

November 14-16: Florida Writers Association conference in Lake Mary, FL (outside Orlando). I'm giving workshops in metaphor and in character and plot development, and will be available for one-on-one interviews, plus I'll have use of the convention bookstore. By that time, if all goes according to schedule, I can place three and maybe four titles -- two novels (Covenant and Appetite) plus two anthologies: Riffing on Strings (Scriblerus Press), with my story "Arachne," and (if released by then) Unspeakable Horror (Dark Scribe Press), with my story "Memento Mori."

I'll see if I can increase my number of panels, readings, and whatnot as the year progresses. My "To Do" list includes putting together handouts and talking points, some of which I've already done because I'm recycling/expanding on workshops I've given in the past. I'll also be doing the work that precedes Appetite's release, along with my usual freelance assignments.

The buzzword for this year is: Stamina! I've got some serious motivation to keep myself healthy. Links to the conventions can be found on my website at
home.earthlink.net/~deviati...ions.html

Click on the "archive of past events" link to access photos and blog entries of my events during and preceding March.