April = Busy

Blogging here has dropped here since a couple of years ago. A predominant reason is that most of the reviews that I'd have otherwise written here are going elsewhere, which is nice. On top of that, as seen by my bi-weekly liner note posts, a lot of my critical thinking and research has been going to the SF History column on Kirkus, which is a joy to write. So, despite the relative calm here, things have been busy. April in particular seems to have become an incredibly busy month. I've had three separate papers accepted to conferences, and it's going to keep me on my toes.

April 5th: New Genre Army. This is a one day conference at the University of Lincoln, and my paper proposal, Generations of Military Speculative Fiction, was accepted. I'm not actually going to be there: the travel logistics simply aren't in my favor, due to a wedding that I'm attending the same weekend. Hopefully, I'll make a remote appearance: to be determined.

April 10th/11th: William E. Colby Military Writer's Symposium. This is a long-standing conference at Norwich University, and I'll be talking about Norwich University and the 2nd World War, which I've written about for Armchair General and for the school's Staff Ride programs to Normandy and Belgium. I've been a participant for ten years as a student and generally interested party, and it'll be fun to speak to students about their school's history. Author Myke Cole will also be there, talking about his works, which will be pretty cool.

April 27th: 75 Years of Science Fiction. This conference will be held at UVM. My proposal, based on my work with the Kirkus column, looks at the evolutionary roots of the genre prior to John W. Campbell Jr.'s reigns at Astounding Magazine. It should be an interesting time!

I didn't get in to the North Eastern Historical Association's Spring Conference in MA (my proposal was on the history of SF), but that's okay: I'll be headed to Boston Comic Con instead with the 501st New England Garrison and Rebel Legion's Alderaan Base. Should be a bit more entertaining, I think. At some point in between here and there, I have a costume to finish, which I'd like to debut at the convention.

So, busy, but it's a good sort of busy.