To my abject shock, tonight at the Boskone awards ceremony — for which I was the MC, by the way — I was given the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction, more commonly called the Skylark because the other name has too many syllables.
The New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA) has been giving this award at Boskone (which they run) since 1966, and the past winners are a who’s who of the genre. I am humbled and honored and stunned to be in such august company.
Last year’s winner, Fantastic Books publisher Ian Randal Strock, presented the award, and I couldn’t have asked for a better presenter, as Ian and I have known each other forever, and he’s been a dear friend and colleague for more than three decades now.
Braka arrives at the Athena and here’s where the episode shines, as every moment that Paul Giamatti is onscreen shines, especially because in every scene, he’s sharing a room with Holly Hunter and/or Oded Fehr. Even if the other parts of the episode were terrible (they aren’t), just being able to watch these three interact, and then later watching Giamatti and Hunter interact, is magical. Absolutely great stuff, with the constant negotiating, the banter, the give-and-take, the snark, and the hidden meanings. All three characters are smart, all three characters are not easily misled, but two of them are hamstrung by ethics—something Braka points out rather snidely. Fehr is the voice of reason and compromise, as befits his position, even though he knows that Braka’s a piece of slime. Hunter plays things uncharacteristically close to the vest, not willing to give a millimeter to Braka. And Giamatti once against magnificently chews every micron of scenery, as Braka is in the driver’s seat, and he knows it.
The Interstellar Alliance gets pulled together with totally unconvincing speed. The notion that there’s an entire alliance with a president and an infrastructure in place in the time it takes to fly from B5 to Earth is patently absurd. Supposedly, Delenn and Sheridan had it in the works before Sheridan turned himself in to authorities on Earth, and I have to ask, when? Delenn was off on Minbar when Sheridan first headed to Proxima, and they were together for all of half a second after Garibaldi, Franklin, and Alexander rescued Sheridan from Mars before Sheridan led the fleet to take Earth. When exactly was all this put together? And it’s not like ambassadors make policy—they just represent their governments. All the ambassadors from the now-former League of Non-Aligned Worlds would have to report back to their governments before any kind of decision could be made. Yet somehow, it’s all a fait accompli by the time Delenn, G’Kar, and Mollari arrive on Earth, despite the latter two not even knowing about it until they left B5. Sure.
And yes, I know that a lot of this is due to Straczynski having to rush the storyline in case season five didn’t happen, but it really creates some believability issues. (Also the flyby of White Stars was a spectacularly bad idea, and should have resulted in a mess of Starfuries being launched against an invasion…)
For the first time since 2003, I will be attending Boskone in Boston, Massachusetts! I will be the Master of Ceremonies at this venerable convention — one of the longest-running SF cons around — and it should be a delight. Joining me will be Guest of Honor Greg Cox, Official Artist Charles Urbach, Special Guest Stefan Rudnicki, and Hal Clement Science Speaker Diego Patrimonio.
Here’s my schedule:
Friday
2.30-3.30pm: “Star Trek: A TV Show Into Novels,” w/Greg Cox and Melinda M. Snodgrass (Harbor III)
8-8.30pm: opening ceremonies, w/Greg Cox, Maria Daggett Eskinazi, Diego Patrimonio, Stefan Rudnicki, and Charles Urbach (Harbor I)
8.30-9pm: Boskone 63 Awards Ceremony, w/Joni Brill Dashoff, Maria Daggett Eskinazi, and Ian Randal Strock (Harbor I)
Saturday
10-11am: autographing, w/Greg Cox and Kevin McLaughlin (Galleria)
1-2pm: “Guest of Honor Dialogue: Writing and Editing and Editing and Writing…,” w/Greg Cox (Harbor I)
4-5pm: Kaffeeklatsch, for which you have to sign up at Program Ops (Stone)
Since SAM can’t consume food, she instead prepares a mess of food from Sisko’s Creole Kitchen for her fellow cadets—who, of course, love it. Jay-Den’s description is my favorite: “My mouth is on fire—and I never want it to go out,” which is about the highest praise you can give to Creole food.
I’ve got a mess of personal appearances coming up over the next couple of months…..
7 February: Brooklyn Books & Booze Book Fair, Brooklyn, New York
As I mentioned in this blog post, I will be one of a bunch of authors (and also agents) who will be at this first-ever book fair hosted by Randee Dawn’s monthly reading series, held at Barrow’s Intense in Industry City in Brooklyn. It’ll be all day Saturday from 11am-5pm.
13-15 February: Boskone 63, Boston, Massachusetts
I will be the Master of Ceremonies at Boskone 63, my first time back at Boskone in two decades. I used to go to this con regularly in the 1990s, but after the turn of the millennium, I found myself prioritizing Farpoint — which at the time was always the same weekend as Boskone — due to my burgeoning career as a writer of tie-in fiction in general and Star Trek fiction in particular. Looking forward to returning!
27 February – 1 March: Long Island Convention of Horror (LICH), Hauppauge, New York
I’ve been trying to get to this local horror convention for years, but circumstances have continued to keep me away from it, so I’m very happy to say that I’m finally going to be a guest at LICH out on Lawn Guyland at the end of February.
13-15 March: AwesomeCon, Washington, DC
The last time I went to AwesomeCon was in 2018 with Bard’s Tower. This time, I will be joining the Crowded Shelf, a similar type of author gaggle sharing a booth at conventions together. I’m not sure who all else I’ll be sharing the booth with, beyond Wayland Smith, but it should be a fabulous bunch of word-slingers.
27-29 March: C2E2, Chicago, Illinois
I’mma be back in the Windy City! After not going last year, I will be returning to the Writers Block at C2E2 at the McCormick Center in Chicago! I will be selling and signing books at my Writers Block table once again!
17-19 April: JordanCon 2026, Atlanta, Georgia
I will be returning to JordanCon once again, and this time I’ll be debuting a book! My new novel, The Inflictors Book 1: Come Together will be launching from Spare Oom Press at the con!
I’ll be there selling and signing books, along with a bunch of great authors and also agents, some of whom will be taking pitches, others of whom will be giving talks. Plus there’ll be a raffle!
Here’s the full lineup:
Randee Dawn (also organizer of the event)
Lucienne Diver (also an agent with the Knight Agency)
James Farner (agent with JABberwocky)
Elias Fells
John C. Foster
Lara Frater
Leanna Renee Hieber
Jean Joachim
Eskay Kabba
Nicholas Kaufmann
Barbara Krasnoff
Shiva Kumar
Rebecca Matte (agent with Bradford Literary)
C.W. Rose
Aaron Rosenberg
Alex Shvartsman
Hildy Silverman
Sarena Straus
Ian Randal Strock (also editor and publisher of Fantastic Books)
Magnolia Xen
Christina Zobel (agent with JABberwocky)
The event will run from 11am to 5pm Saturday, and there’s plenty of nifty stuff in Industry City you can also check out. Hope to see folks!
Just three episodes ago, Ivanova was refusing communications from Garibaldi and ordering him to be shot on sight. Just one episode ago, he almost got a PPG to his head, and only didn’t due to a telepathic magic trick. And yet, here he is at the forefront of ground operations on Mars, and what the hell? Yes, fine, they know that Bester fucked with his head, and that’s why he betrayed Sheridan, and that can, possibly be forgiven, but also, Bester fucked with his head!!!!! There is no way you ever trust this guy with anything important after this because you don’t know what else Bester might have done. We only have Bester’s word for it that he’s done with Garibaldi and that he has no more use for him, and that’s not exactly a trustworthy source. And even if you believe Bester, he also said that he didn’t change the essence of who Garibaldi is, just made some small adjustments, but kept his distrust of authority and general personality intact. Which means you don’t trust this guy with your lunch order, much less running your super-important rebel ground operations.
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