Chicon Schedule

I'm attending Chicon, the 80th World Science Fiction Convention, later this week. I’m doing the following in-person events, so please come check them out. I’ll also be attending the Hugo Awards ceremony, where I’m a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer.

I look forward to seeing everyone there!

  • Autographing Session
    Thursday, September 1
    1:00 PM CDT, 2:00 PM EDT

  • Table Talk (advance registration required, details here)
    Friday, September 2
    10:00 AM CDT , 11:00 AM EDT

  • Neurodivergent Fan Meetup
    Saturday, September 3
    4:00 PM CDT, 5:00 PM EDT

Gen Con Writer's Symposium schedule

I’m a panelist at the Gen Con Writer's Symposium, which starts tomorrow and runs through Sunday. R. A. Salvatore is the Author Guest of Honor and a ton of other great authors will also be attending, including Maurice Broaddus, C.S.E. Cooney, Mary Fan, Jaym Gates, LaShawn Wanak, Carlos Hernandez and many more.

The Writer’s Symposium is a tiny part of the larger Gen Con but it’s a great way to interact with authors and also get advice on writing and publishing your own works. Definitely check it out!

Here’s my schedule:

Thursday, August 4

The Full-time Myth: Does every writer really want to do this full-time?
11:00 am in Atlanta
Jennifer Brozek, Erik de Bie, Jason Sanford, C. S. E. Cooney, Jerry Gordon

Writing Tools: Tools to help organize your writing
1 pm in Austin/Boston
Katherine Monasterio, Marie Bilodeau, Jason Sanford, Howard Andrew Jones, LaShawn Wanak (M)

Finding Novels a Home
3 pm in Atlanta
Jason Sanford

Friday, August 5

Finding Short Stories a Home
4 pm in Atlanta
LaShawn Wanak, Jason Sanford

Saturday, August 6

Submitting Your Work: Bye-bye, SASE! Modern methods of submitting work, the good and the bad
1 pm in Austin/Boston
Howard Andrew Jones, Jason Sanford, Carlos Hernandez, Steve Diamond

NFTs and the future of fiction. Can writers benefit from trying to introduce NFTs into their fiction writing?
3 pm in Atlanta
Gini Koch, Lucien Soulban, Jason Sanford, Chris Bell (M)

Imagining Alternate Futures: How to extrapolate a future for your setting
4 pm in Atlanta
Gini Koch, Donald J. Bingle, Paul Weimer, Jason Sanford

Defining Traits: How to distinguish one character from another without overdoing it
5 pm in Austin/Boston
Jennifer Brozek, Erin M. Evans, Jason Sanford, David Mack

Finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer

For the second year in a row I’m a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer. Many thanks to everyone who supported my reporting and essays about the science fiction and fantasy genre, with most of these works published in my Genre Grapevine column on Patreon.

Worldcon is currently providing a Hugo Awards packet that includes a sampler of my 2021 fan writings. Here’s the sampler if you’d like to download it directly:

In addition, the contents of the sample can also be accessed online with the links below.

Essays, reviews, and special reports

Samples of Genre Grapevine Columns

Blood Grains sequence of stories

My new novella "Blood Grains Scream in Memories" is out in the current science-fantasy issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies. This novella is set in my Blood Grains universe, a far future Earth where nano-technology keeps humanity from damaging the environment. 

This novella is the final installment of my larger Blood Grains story arc, which functions as a mosaic novel told across four different stories. Each story focuses on a different main character as they deal with their place within the larger world that controls their lives. With this new novella, the complete story comes in at just under 80,000 words.

Many thanks to Scott H. Andrews, the publisher and editor-in-chief of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, for his encouragement and support in creating my Blood Grains saga. These stories wouldn't exist without him.

2021 year in review and award eligibility post

I’m late with this 2021 year in review and award eligibility post. Apologies for that but I’ve been dealing with some personal issues.

Fiction Writing

The big news last year is that my first novel Plague Birds was released by Apex Books. The novel is a genre-bending mix of SF and dark fantasy and the epic tale of a young woman betrayed into becoming one of the future’s hated judges and executioners, with a killer AI bonded to her very blood. Plague Birds is weird as hell and neurodivergent at its heart, being ripped from how I see the world.

The novel is eligible for the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy and other awards.

I also published three short stories in 2021:

Fan Writing

Finally, I’m again eligible for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer for my writings and reporting about the SF/F genre. I write a regular column called Genre Grapevine on my Patreon, along with publishing original essays and special reports.

Here are samples of my fan writings from 2021.

Essays, reviews, and special reports

Samples of Genre Grapevine Columns