My Loncon 3 Schedule: Come See Me

Below is my schedule of official events at Loncon 3 (Worldcon in London, U.K.). Come see me.

The schedule may change.

Thursday 15:00 - 16:30, Capital Suite 16 (ExCeL):

The Anthology as Advocacy

The published is political. SF has a healthy tradition of anthologies that seek to open up space for new voices and new conversations, from groundbreaking books such as So Long Been Dreaming and the Bending the Landscape series, to recent anthologies such as Long Hidden, We See a Different Frontier, the Speculative Japan collections and the Apex Books of World SF. How are such books received and reviewed by the field? How do editors and contributors of such books participate in the conversations they generate? And to what extent do an anthology's political goals interact with editorial considerations and/or marketing considerations?

John Kessel (M), Grania Davis, Fabio Fernandes, Derwin Mak

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Friday 12:00 - 13:30, Autographing Space (ExCeL):

Autographing 6 - Derwin Mak

Come keep me company as I sit at the autograph table and watch the long lines grow for other writers.

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Saturday 11:00 - 12:00, Capital Suite 14 (ExCeL):

Beyond the Force: Religion in the Future

Writers working with futuristic settings often use present-day and historical religious forms to frame something new; Dan Simmons uses Catholicism in Hyperion, for example, and Kameron Hurley takes a similar approach to Islam in God's War. How can this be done in a manner that respects religious traditions and believers, while still allowing the author creative license? To what extent do such works succeed at imagining how religions change over time? What are the advantages and disadvantages of extrapolation compared to inventing a new faith -- and do common templates for such invention, such as science or the state, make sense given what we know about how humans respond to the spiritual?

Simon Morden (M), Derwin Mak, Rosanne Rabinowitz, Elisabeth Vonarburg, Janice Gelb

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Saturday 15:00 - 16:30, Capital Suite 14 (ExCeL):

The World at Worldcon: Chinese Diaspora SF

Chinese immigrants have gone all over the world for 400 years. However, the Chinese diaspora has written science fiction only in the last 4 decades, with Laurence Yep possibly being the first Chinese American science fiction writer. Now they are becoming more prominent, and writers such as Ken Liu and Ted Chiang have become well known. What do their stories say about the immigrant experience (often a sort of alien experience) and about ethnicity, identity, and culture in America, Canada, Europe, Philippines, Malaysia, and other countries? How have they combined Chinese society with those of other countries?

Emily Jiang (M), Eric Choi, John Chu, Derwin Mak

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Sunday 10:00 - 11:00, Capital Suite 13 (ExCeL):

Droning On

From remotely piloted attack vehicles to robot package delivery services drones suddenly seem to be everywhere. What impacts will they have, from wars to where we buy books? And is that guy in the park with a quadrocopter just a harmless hobbyist or a high tech peeping tom?

Phil Dyson (M), Myke Cole, Derwin Mak, Mike Bakula, Terrence Karney

Call for Submissions to Ricepaper's Speculative Fiction Issue: Short Stories, Articles, Manga Excerpts/Comics

Ricepaper, the Asian Canadian literary magazine, is calling for stories, articles, and poems for its special Speculative Fiction issue, to be published circa January 2015. Derwin Mak (co-editor, The Dragon and the Stars) and JF Garrard (author, The Undead Sorceress) will be guest editors of the Speculative Fiction issue. 

Each issue usually contains 3-4 fiction stories, 3-4 creative non-fiction articles, and 2-3 poems. These are not rigid rules, though.

We are looking for short stories, non-fiction articles, poems, and manga/comics excerpts by authors with East Asian or Southeast Asian descent. Eighty (80%) percent of the issue's content should be authored by Canadians. All content should be in English. If content was originally written in another language, send us the English version.

Short stories: stories can be of any of the speculative fiction genres, i.e., science fiction, fantasy, horror, alternative history. Stories should have an East or Southeast Asian aspect to them, which can include immigrant and diaspora themes. Stories should be previously unpublished and not already sold for publication to another magazine or anthology.

We do not intend to buy a story that lacks an Asian aspect, even if it's written by an author of East/Southeast Asian descent. The only exception we'll make is if none of the characters are human, but your story better be worthy of an Aurora, Hugo or Nebula nomination if you go that route. No overly political content. Of course, no racist content. Sexual content is usually fine.

Maximum word length for short stories is 6,000 words.

About novel excerpts: the editors are not adverse to novel excerpts, but be advised that we will give preference to original short stories. We know that you’re proud of your novel and wish to preview it. However, your novel will be published and available soon; the short stories, on the other hand, rely on magazines for their first publication, and we can best serve the speculative fiction community by using this magazine space to showcase new short fiction. Please do not submit a novel excerpt without inquiring with the guest editors. Please do not argue or debate our preference for short stories with us.

Non-fiction articles: also known as creative non-fiction in Ricepaper, these should be related to science fiction, fantasy, or speculative fiction genres. They can be of various forms, including interviews with authors, an essay on the genre or the state of the art, or an author's reminiscence on the influences and inspirations on his/her writing. Maximum word length: 6,000 words.

Poems: poems should be in the speculative fiction genres. Poems must have an East Asian/Southeast Asian aspect. Maximum length: half a page each.

Manga/comics: Ricepaper occasionally publishes excerpts from manga or comics. Excerpts are 1 to 5 pages long. For this issue, we'll also consider an original comics story if it's 1 to 2 pages long. Stories must have an East Asian/Southeast Asian aspect and be of a speculative genre.

Use standard manuscript format, but with emphasized words in italics (not underlined), and leave one space between sentences, e.g., between the period and the start of the next sentence.

Please submit your submission as a Microsoft Word file to hello@jfgarrard.com . In the subject line, please put “Submission: [Title of your Story]”.

Deadline for submissions is August 15, 2014 at 11:59 p.m., Eastern Time.

Payment is $50-$250 for short stories and articles (depending on length), $50-$75 for poems, upon publication. Ricepaper will acquire world first North American English serial rights.