BSFW Attends Readercon 2012

     Readercon is the premier convention for serious writers of speculative fiction on the East Coast. That's my opinion and I'm sticking with it.
     I can describe Readercon in one word: groundbreaking. It reminded me why I write speculative fiction. The panels were excellent and the opportunities to connect with other writers, editors, agents, and publishers were almost surreal.  

Some highlights:  

• Discussing the editing field with Ellen Datlow and how to get noticed in anthologies, even how to start your own anthology of stories.
• Talking about time traveling Southern girls, and octopus intelligence with Delia Sherman.
• Being ivited into the interstitial  movement by Ellen Kushner.
• Hanging out with Genevieve Valentine to complain about gender and racial bias in comics. 
• Attending a panel on colonialism's impact on both native and non-native genre writers and author identity.
• Attending reading by Matthew Kressel.
• Zombie walking with freaking Samuel R. Delany in a voice lessons class. (I'm being quite literal. To loosen up our "sound makers," we walked with loose arms, slack jaws, and head down, making odd trilling noises.) 
  

     It's going to take some time to digest even 10% of what I experienced at Readercon and then apply it to my writing. But two things are for sure; I'm more motivated than ever to write and get published, and BSFW is going to Readercon 2013. Hope to see you there.

-Rob Cameron

To see some of what you missed, click here to watch the videos from Readercon on Youtube!

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