ArmadilloCon Cometh!

Quick, quick!  What day is it?

"FRIDAY!"

Yes, but besides that!

"PAYDAY!"

Yes, but besides THAT.

"...Colm Meaney's birthday?"

Why, so it is!  (And very happy regards to the best engineer in Starfleet!)

But today is ALSO the day ArmadilloCon has released its schedule.  And if you are going to be within 200 miles of Austin from July 25th to 27th, this is massively relevant to you - because EVERYone who's ANYone knows that ArmadilloCon is the coolest, funnest, best-kept secret in the annals of literary SFF history.  It's the convention equivalent of that one little hole-in-the-wall restaurant - you know, the one? - that the locals all secretly flock to while the turistas suck down $8 margaritas at Chili's and bitch about the jalapeño cheese poppers on Yelp. 

And if you had ANY doubts that this is going to be the best event in the greater Travis County area, you may lay them to rest on my glorious shining face.  Yes indeed!  I'll be doing a reading on Saturday, and appear as a panelist for:

"Cool Locations"
"Space Westerns"
"Sub-Genres in Fantasy"
"Perfecting Your Locations"

(N.B.: I'M GONNA BE THREE FEET FROM STEVEN BRUST.  YOUR ARGUMENT IS INVALID.)

And (please make sure you're sitting down, and have smelling salts handy) even though One Night in Sixes won't come out until after the con, rumor has it that the magical book fairy may just bless us with advance copies for sale...!

"Say no more!" I hear you cry.  "What must I do?!"

Well, good citizen, you should certainly register today (and for all my fellow fictioneers, do not neglect the writers' workshop!)  And then, because you'll certainly need a distraction to tide you over through these eight hellish weeks between now and then, do yourself a favor and acquaint yourself with Mark Finn, Stina Leicht, Martha Wells, and my terrific good buddies J. Kathleen Cheney and Patrice Sarath.  These are the people whose realness is as a physical, palpable force - so, you know... come palp it!

(You may also like to swap pudding cups and make friends with Matt Borgard, Denise Dupont, and Lauren the Flute of The Returners fame - all of whom I have rigorously play-tested, and who have proven to be the absolute best con-buddies a body could ask for.)

So go!  Do!  Register!  And then come tell me that I will see you there!


And more than likely they'll be out tonight, a-wanderin' from the farms
Waddlin' down 1291 to keep their bodies warm
I'm talking walkin' belts and neckties, and boots for rodeo
They don't run too fast, don't waste much gas, I'm makin' lotsa dough

The armadillo...