Sci-fi Conventions, Dark Fantasy and Quirky Books

Ahhh. San Diego.  I just reluctantly turned down the invite from Conjecture, a regional sci-fi convention in San Diego, and now here's salt in the wound.

UC San Diego has just opened their Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination, "an interdisciplinary center where researchers in the arts, sciences, medicine and technology will come together to unlock the mysteries of imagination." Read all about the center and the Starship Century Symposium on the 21st and 22nd of this month to commemorate its opening.

I am, however heading to a regional sci-fi convention closer to home. Look for me at BayCon 31 in Santa Clara May 24-26. This year's theme is Triskaidekaphobicon. Fear of the Number 13 Con, basically. It's the 31st BayCon held in 2013 in a hotel with a 13th floor. More importantly, this year's con will explore the darker side of science fiction and fantasy. My latest story credit should fit right in. I sold a flash to Every Day Fiction that's terribly - or deliciously - dark. One of the editors said,
"So, where is the moral?" Well, I guess if there's a lesson, it's "Sometimes discovering the truth just makes it worse." "The Curse of Having Been a Man" will most likely appear in June or July. This is my fourth sale to EDF.

Want to read an appetizer-sized dark fiction piece now? Read "Raining Good Intentions" right here by yours truly, Ann Wilkes. You can always hit the Flash Fiction tab on this blog to read some more little nibblets.

In honor of Zombie Awareness Month, I'm reading The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters. I love Quirk Books! I reviewed another of Winters' Quirk books, Android Karenina, at Mostly Fiction. I also just requested William Shakespeare's Star Wars from Quirk.


Finally, here's a sneak peek at I, Frankenstein, which hits theaters in January.