PhilCon Schedule and Praise from Ian McDonald

A few bits of Infoquake-related news.

First up is my panel schedule for the PhilCon Conference in Philadelphia next weekend. I believe I’ll be doing a reading too, but those haven’t been scheduled yet so I’m not positive. Regardless, I’ll be hanging around most of the weekend attending panels, schmoozing in the halls, and handing out free promotional Infoquake CDs. Feel free to grab me in the hall and say hello.

Here’s the schedule. If there are any late-breaking changes — and you know these things happen — I’ll make sure to post them here and on the Events page on the Infoquake website.

  • Friday, November 17:
    Writing as a Hobby Versus Writing for a Living (8:00 PM)
  • Saturday, November 18:
    Navigating Amazon (10:00 AM)
    Has Science Fiction Swung to the Right? (11:00 AM)
    Teleportation Is More Than a Way of Getting Somewhere (1:00 PM)
    Pointy Headed Intellectual Fiction for the Pretentious Elite (3:00 PM)
  • Sunday, November 19:
    Fifty Ways to Leave Your Reader… (2:00 PM)
    The Long Tradition of the Anti-Hero in Science Fiction (3:00 PM)

While I’m on the subject of appearances, I should also mention that I’ve accepted an invitation by the marvelous Ellen Datlow to read at the KGB Bar Fantastic Fiction Series in New York City in March. More details to come.

Finally, the resplendent Ian McDonald, author of River of Gods and the forthcoming Brasyl, and nominee for more SF awards than I’ve got eyelashes, had some very nice words to say about Infoquake in an interview with Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist:

Q: PYR is earning loads of acclaim and new readers in the US. How do you feel about the eclectic and expansive output, other than RIVER OF GODS, of this new publisher? Do you have any favorites from their catalog?

David Louis Edelman’s Infoquake. So fresh and good I shamelessly stole an idea from it: the whole premise of a future corporate thriller. I remember Lou Anders pitching this one at the Pyr panel at Worldcon in Glasgow and thinking, of course! It’s so bloody obvious! That’s a genius idea. It sent me back to an old novel by James Clavell called ‘Noble House’ about corporate intrigue in an old Anglo-Chinese trading company (it got made into a pretty dire TV miniseries), so that’s in the mix at the back of my head. Buy Infoquake, read it (I think The Steg already has). Give him the Philip K Dick award.

What can one do when faced with such kind words but blush?

(FYI… I did read Clavell’s Noble House, long ago — in addition to a few others in his Asian saga — but too many years have passed for me to remember many of the details of the book. Perhaps they soaked into my subconscious somehow. Anybody read any of Clavell’s works lately? Do they hold up?)