I will be in the Baltimore area over Memorial Day weekend, but not for Balticon, which I will not be attending again any time soon for two very solid reasons (read about them here and here).
Instead, I will be at Horror on Main, a horror con that will be held at the venerable Hunt Valley Inn. I’ll be spending most of the three-day show in the Vendor Room in the Valley Ballroom, alongside Danielle Ackley-McPhail and the eSpec Books table, but I’ll also be doing a reading, along with Tim Lebbon, on Saturday at 2pm in Salon A.
KRAD readings (formerly KRAD COVID readings) is back! After taking 2022 off, I’m now doing a new reading in the middle of every month. This time ’round, it’s “You Can’t Buy Fate,” my Deep Space Nine story that appeared in the digital supplement of Star Trek Explorer #7 — my first new Trek fiction in thirteen years. The story has Ezri Dax and Nog making a first contact shortly after the end of the Dominion War, which goes horribly wrong…
KRAD readings (formerly KRAD COVID readings) is back! After a one-year hiatus, I’ll be doing a new reading in the middle of every month. This time ’round, it’s the “season finale” of the tales of Cassie Zukav, weirdness magnet: “Ragnarok and a Hard Place,” previously released only to crowdfund supporters, and which will be the anchor story in the collection of the same name that will be released later this year from Plus One Press.
I will be one of the guests of honor at Zenkaikon 2023 this coming weekend at the Lancaster County Convention Center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I will have a table in the Exhibit Hall — I believe I will be at Table #14, between A Case of Random and DerpyCon — where I will have a mess of my books for sale, including all seven Precinct books, all three of my Supernatural novels, Alien: Isolation, Spider-Man: The Darkest Hours, Thor: Dueling with Giants, Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness–The Beginning #1, A Furnace Sealed, All-the-Way House, Ragnarok and Roll, Without a License, Animal, a bunch of anthologies I’m in, including The Eye of Argon and the Further Adventures of Grignr the Barbarian, and many more besides!
I’ll also be doing some programming:
Friday
1-2pm: Opening Ceremonies (Freedom Hall A)
4.30-5.30pm: “Selfie Squares” w/Manly Battleships, Carolina Manga Library, and Uncle Yo (Freedom Hall A)
10-11pm: Guests Against Humanity! w/Bubblepop Entertainment and Carolina Manga (Freedom Hall A) — NOTE: this panel is 18+ and you must have an 18+ wristband from the con to enter the panel
midnight-2am: Eye of Argon Reading (Heritage A) — NOTE: this panel is 18+ and you must have an 18+ wristband from the con to enter the panel
Saturday
1.15-2.15pm: reading (Commonwealth 3)
4.45-5.45pm: “Writing in Other People’s Universes” (Commonwealth 1/2)
KRAD readings (formerly KRAD COVID readings) is back! After a one-year hiatus, I’ll be doing a new reading in the middle of every month. This time ’round, it’s my story in the 2022 anthology Three Time Travelers Walk Into…, edited by Michael A. Ventrella and published by Fantastic Books. Each of us who contributed took three figures from different points in history and mashed them together. My story, “What You Can Become Tomorrow,” puts author Mary Shelley, Negro Leagues baseball player Josh Gibson, and NASA scientist Katherine Johnson together.
KRAD readings (formerly KRAD COVID readings) is back! After a one-year hiatus, I’ll be doing a new reading in the middle of every month. This time ’round, it’s my first contribution to the shared-world superhero anthology series Phenomenons, to wit, “The Light Shines in the Darkness” in the first volume, Every Human Creature, the story that introduces Luminosity, the hero of the Bronx.
KRAD readings (formerly KRAD COVID readings) is back! After a one-year hiatus, I’ll be doing a new reading on the 15th of every month, starting today with “Ticonderoga Beck and the Stalwart Squad,” my contribution to the forthcoming Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2022 edited by Robert Greenberger and to be published by Crazy 8 Press.
What is likely to be my last public appearance of 2022 will be as the Principal Speaker at Philcon 2022 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey from 18-20 November.
Philcon is one of the oldest science fiction conventions, having gotten its start in 1936 when nine fans (among them future publisher of DAW Books Donald A. Wollheim, super-fan David Kyle, and future author Frederik Pohl) gathered in Philadelphia. It was the first convention I attended as a professional in the field after I started working for the late Byron Preiss in 1993 (prior to that, I’d attended cons — including a couple of prior Philcons — either as a fan or as press as part of The Chronic Rift).
And this year, three decades after my first time at Philcon as part of the Rift crew, I’m the guest of honor! And I’ll be launching two books, Phoenix Precinct (the sixth novel in my fantasy/police procedure series) and The Eye of Argon and the Further Adventures of Grignr the Barbarian (in which I’ll have a story).
Here’s my schedule…
EDITED TO ADD: Now with fellow panelists!
Friday
9-10pm: The Eye of Argon: The Play, w/Michael A. Ventrella, Ian Randal Strock, Gregory Frost, Hildy Silverman, Peter Prellwitz, and Jean Marie Ward (Grand Ballroom)
Saturday
11am-noon: “Science Fiction/Mystery Crossovers,” w/Russ Colchamiro, Roberta Rogow, Storm Humbert, and Aaron Rosenberg (Plaza 4)
12-1pm: Tea with Keith R.A. DeCandido (con suite)
2-3pm: Principal Speaker: Keith R.A. DeCandido (Grand Ballroom) — I will probably do this as a Q&A…
5-6pm: “Revisiting Deep Space Nine: Still More to Talk About,” w/Susan Shwartz, Dan Persons, Russell J. Handelman, and Savan Gupta (Plaza 2)
8-10pm: eSpec Books Launch Party for Phoenix Precinct, Espirit de Corpse, and Yeti Left Home (con suite) — this is the official launch of the three books that were recently successfully crowdfunded, including my own Phoenix Precinct
Sunday
11am-noon: “Writing in Someone Else’s Universe,” w/Elektra Hammond, Susan Shwartz, Aaron Rosenberg, Robert E. Waters (Plaza 4)
12.30-1pm: reading (readings room) — I will be reading one of the many short stories I’ve had out this year; which one will be up to the audience
1-2pm: “Star Trek in 2022,” w/Matt Black, Jim Prego, Hildy Silverman, and Orenthal V. Hawkins (Plaza 5)
On those vanishingly rare occasions when I’m not programmed, I’ll be in the dealer’s room at the eSpec Books table selling and signing books.
KRAD's Inaccurate Guide to Life 