Friday 26 June at 7:30PM, the Philadelphia Fantastic Authors and Editors Series hosts Lawrence M. Schoen reading from his first novel, Buffalito Destiny. The place is Moonstone Art Center, 110 S. 13th Street (second floor), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (in Center City Philadelphia at the corner of 13th and Sansom Streets).
Of Buffalito Destiny, it might be said that it has everything you would want in a first novel: psychic aliens, eco-terrorists, temporal distortions, Mayan ruins, prophetic visions, volcanoes, and of course, hypnosis!
A teaser: A former stage hypnotist, the Amazing Conroy really just wants to have a good meal. He’s now the wealthy CEO of a company that leases buffalo dogs, alien creatures capable of biting into and devouring nearly anything. When he attempts to implement a solution for cleaning up massive industrial waste sites, Conroy becomes targeted by ecological terrorists who resent the use of alien technology (living or otherwise) to heal the Earth. But kidnapping and the destruction of his corporate headquarters are the least of Conroy’s problems. An unknown, telepathic intelligence has begun invading his dreams, warning of geological disasters that hinge on what Conroy does next. Further complicating his life are several groups of aliens, each believing that he has a special destiny to fulfill, though they don’t necessarily agree what it is. Accompanied by his pet buffalito, Reggie, Conroy must elude terrorists, confound alien zealots, withstand temporal distortions throughout the former state of Texas, and explore ancient Mayan ruins. His adventures will result in his reunion with a long dead relative, a chance to experience the world’s greatest sandwiches, exposure to alien bliss, a battle with a megalomaniac on the slope of an active volcano, and a trip to the asteroid belt for a final face-to-face confrontation with the creature that had been invading his dreams. Somewhere in the midst of it all, he has to find his true destiny.
Lawrence M. Schoen holds a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology, with a special focus in psycholinguistics. He spent ten years as a college professor, and has done extensive research in the areas of human memory and language. His background in the study of the behavior and the mind provide a principal metaphor for his fiction. He currently works as the director of research and chief compliance officer for a series of mental health and addiction treatment facilities. He’s also one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Klingon language, having championed the exploration of this constructed tongue and lectured on this unique topic throughout the world. In addition, he’s the publisher behind a new speculative fiction small press, Paper Golem, aimed at serving the niche of up-and-coming new writers. In 2007 he was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer. His fiction has been translated into Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, Finnish, German, Greek, Hebrew, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and more.
Philadelphia Fantastic presents a series of readings and informal discussions by and with local and regional writers of speculative fiction on the fourth Friday of the month. The events are free and dinner with the guest afterward is at a local restaurant on a pay-as-you-go basis. Upcoming readers include Catherine Asaro (24 July) and Gardner Dozois and Michael Swanwick (28 August)
The New York Review of Science Fiction Readings at South Street Seaport Museum are extending their season this year with a special event on 7 July, with the doors opening at 6:30PM for a 7 o’clock start at 12 Fulton Street, on the fourth floor, New York City. This month’s event is guest-curated by John Joseph Adams, and features three authors from his new anthology, Federations: K. Tempest Bradford, Allen Steele, and Genevieve Valentine.
K. Tempest Bradford’s fiction has appeared in Sybil’s Garage, Electric Velocipede, Podcastle, and Strange Horizons. She also contributes non-fiction essays and columns to Tor.com, Fantasy Magazine, and the Carl Brandon Society blog.
Allen Steele is the two-time Hugo Award-winning author of the novels Orbital Decay, Lunar Descent, Chronospace, Spindrift, and many others. Over the last several years, he’s been focusing on writing and expanding his Coyote milieu, of which his story in Federations is a part. The most recent novel in the Coyoteverse, Coyote Horizon, came out in March, and will be followed by Coyote Destiny. Steele is also a prolific writer of short fiction, with four published collections, and a new one—The Last Science Fiction Writer—on the way. His stories have appeared in the magazines Asimov’s Science Fiction, Analog, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Omni, Science Fiction Age, and in numerous anthologies.
Genevieve Valentine’s fiction has appeared in or is forthcoming in Strange Horizons, Journal of Mythic Arts, Fantasy Magazine, Farrago’s Wainscot, Sybil’s Garage, and Escape Pod. She is a columnist for Tor.com and Fantasy Magazine. Her appetite for good costumes and bad movies is insatiable.
Guest Curator John Joseph Adams is the editor of the anthologies Federations, The Living Dead, Seeds of Change, and Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse. Forthcoming work includes the anthologies Brave New Worlds, By Blood We Live, The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Living Dead 2, The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination, and The Way of the Wizard. He is also the assistant editor at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and a columnist for Tor.com.
The NYRSF Reading Series is held the first Tuesday of every month. Admission is free, but $5 donations are encouraged to offset costs and buy dinner for the readers. Following the readings, a nearby pub serves as the site of dinner/drinks/continuing conversation. Radio producer and talk show host Jim Freund is the series producer and executive curator. He also airs most of the readings on his WBAI FM radio program, Hour of the Wolf. The series takes a break for the summer months, and will return in September.
The next entry in the Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series will be a Clarion West Special Evening, on 15 July 2009. Hosts Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel, and guest host Rajan Khanna, will present Samuel R. Delany, Jack Womack, Cat Rambo, and Kris Dikeman at the KGB Bar (85 E 4 St, New York, New York). The event starts, as always, at 7PM.
The special evening will be honoring 25 consecutive years of the Clarion West Writers Workshop and Amazon.com’s challenge grant. Clarion West is “a non-profit literary organization that administers the Clarion West Writers Workshop, an intensive six-week workshop for writers preparing for professional careers in science fiction and fantasy, held annually in Seattle, Washington, USA. Amazon.com has pledged to donate one dollar to Clarion West for every dollar the workshop receives from individuals, corporations, government offices, charitable foundations, and special events.”
Samuel R. Delany is a novelist and critic who lives in New York City and teaches at Temple University in Philadelphia. His books include Nova, Dhalgren, Aye and Gomorrah and Other Stories, Atlantis: Three Tales, and his most recent novel, Dark Reflections, won the 2008 Stonewall Book Award and was a runner-up for that year’s Lambda Literary Award. His forthcoming novel, Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders, will appear from Alyson Books in 2010.
Jack Womack is the author of Ambient, Terraplane, Heathern, Elvissey, Random Acts of Senseless Violence, Let’s Put the Future Behind Us, and Going, Going, Gone. He was in 1994 a co-winner of the Philip K. Dick Award and has twice taught at Clarion West. He is also the Publicity Manager for Orbit Books US, and is presently working on his next novel, Ashland: A Kentucky Murder Ballad.
Cat Rambo attended Clarion West in 2005 and has since published dozens of short stories in such markets as Weird Tales, Asimov’s, Strange Horizons, and Clarkesworld. Her collaboration with Jeff VanderMeer, The Surgeon’s Tale and Other Stories, appeared in 2007, and her first solo collection, Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight, is forthcoming from Paper Golem Press. She is also the managing editor of Fantasy Magazine.
Kris Dikeman is a graduate of the Clarion West class of 2005. Her work has appeared in Sybil’s Garage, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Strange Horizons, PodCastle, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, and the forthcoming Year’s Best Fantasy #9. She was a finalist for this year’s storySouth Million Writers Award.
Rajan Khanna is a graduate of the 2008 Clarion West Writers Workshop. His work has appeared in Shimmer Magazine. He lives and writes in
Brooklyn, NY.
As with the other events, dinner usually follows (in this case, at a nearby Chinese restaurant). Upcoming Fantastic Fiction at KGB events include: Kaaron Warren and Robert Wexler on 19 August; Chris Genoa and Andrew J. Fox on 16 September.