This Saturday, April 15th, I’ll be at the USA Science & Engineering Festival at the DC Convention Center from 2-4PM at the Baltimore Science Fiction Society booth. Lots of cool stuff for kids to do at this event, so stop on by the booth if you’re there. http://www.usasciencefestival.org/

Here’s the reason I’ll always think well of David Bowie: back in the fall of 1980 I was on an NYC theater tour with some other Detroit burbs high schoolers. We saw Bowie’s performance in The Elephant Man, which was a physical marvel. The next day, the lead actress (Patricia Elliott) spoke to our group, and it came out that one of our group had the Elephant Man’s condition, which had to be treated with continual surgeries. The actress arranged for her to meet with Bowie (which was of course very kind of her as well). Now, as the actress had explained to us, Bowie was spending hours before and after each performance dealing with the exhausting physical demands of the part–massages, stretching, etc. Yet he took time to meet with this young woman from the Midwest, and I can see no other real motivation besides the kindness of all concerned. So talk all you like about the cold Thin White Duke–I’m not buying it.

Tom Doyle (author of American Craftsmen and The Left-Hand Way) and Lawrence Schoen (author of Barsk: The Elephant’s Graveyard) will be in Lansing, MI at Schuler’s Books at Eastwood on Jan. 21st. An informal gathering will follow at Tony Sacco’s, also at Eastwood (north of the cinemas). The next day (1/22) we’ll be at the ConFusion SF convention in Novi, MI
http://www.schulerbooks.com/event/tor-author-highlight-tom-doyle-and-lawrence-m-schoen-eastwood
http://confusionsf.org/

For DC-area friends: my talk on spies in science fiction/fantasy is Tues. 11/17 at the Library of Congress LM139, Noon, followed by lunch. I’ll try to post the loose transcript and slides afterwards, as usual.

I’ll be at the D.C. Author Festival this Saturday at MLK Library from 10-5PM. Stop by and say “hi”! http://dclibrary.org/DCAuthorFest

This Saturday at 1PM, I’ll be throwing a book launch party for The Left-Hand Way and the paperback edition of American Craftsmen at the Capclave convention in Gaithersburg, MD this weekend. http://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave15/ Joining forces will be Walter Hunt with the launch of his 1636: The Cardinal Virtues.

Also on my schedule:
Reading: Fri. 6PM
Panels: Fri. 4PM American Classics of the Fantastic
Sat. 4PM Linguistics in SF
Sat. 7PM Always 20 Years Away: The Singularity

I will not be at Capclave on Sunday.

I’ll be at the SFWA tent at the Baltimore Book Festival this weekend (9/25-9/27), particularly at the following times:
Friday 1-2PM: Reading (1 of 4 authors)
Friday 6-7PM: Magic Systems panel (moderator)
Saturday 5-6PM: Signing tables
Saturday 6-7PM: Meet the Authors social gathering
Sunday 4-5PM: Alt History panel
To find out more, go here: http://baltimorebookfestival.com/schedule/location/11/Science-Fiction-and-Fantasy-Writers-of-America

Here are some fixed space-time coordinates where you can find me during Worldcon:

There’s a book giveaway of The Left-Hand Way over at Fantasy Literature: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/giveaway/thoughtful-thursday-tom-doyle-wonders-about-secret-mages-and-gives-away-a-book/