■ v POCKET PROGRAM CONTENTS Convention Hours inside front cover Event and Activity Loacations page 1 Friday Program Schedule page 2 Saturday Program Schedule page 9 Sunday Program Schedule page 27 Program Grids page 34 Hotel Maps back cover FEBRUARY 17-19, 2012 • BOSTON WESTIN WATERFRONT COVENTION HOURS FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY Registration 4 PM-8:30 PM 9:30 AM-6 PM 9 AM-Noon Art Show 6 PM—Midnight 10 AM-10 PM 10 AM-Noon Art Show Closeout - - Noon Art Show Sales - - 1 PM-3 PM Con Suite 4 PM-1AM 10 AM-1 AM 10 AM-4 PM Hucksters Room 5 PM-8 PM 10 AM-6 PM 10 AM-3 PM Information/Volunteers 3 PM-9PM 10 AM-9 PM 10 AM-3 PM Programming 5 PM—Midnight 10 AM-Midnight 10 M-4 PM Dragonslair 6 PM-9 PM 9 AM-Noon 9 AM-2 PM 1PM-5 PM 7 PM-9 PM Magic Tournament - - 9 AM (registration) 10 AM-?? "Dead Dog" socializing - - Sunday evening, post teardown Boskone is the annual science fiction convention run by NESFA, the New England Science Fiction Association. For latest information on Boskone check www.boskonc.org. Cover image © Dan dos Santos Boskone and NESFA are registered service marks of the New England Science Fiction Association, Inc. LOCATIONS see maps on back cover EVENT LOCATIONS Fascinator Construction (Fri night) Galleria Boskone Reception (Fri night) Sword-fighting demos Dead Dog(Sun) Silent movie (Faust) (Fri night) 2nd floor rooms Filking (evenings) Interview and Portraiture (Sat) Tricky Pixie concert (Sat night) Awards Ceremonies (Sat night) Magic the Gathering® Tournament (Sun) ACTIVITY LOCATIONS Newsletter Distribution Point 2nd floor Photo Booth pre-function space Program Participant Check-in Registration Anime/Video 2nd floor Filking (evenings) function rooms Main Programming Fan tables (lower and upper levels, not 1st floor) escalator lobbies ArtShow Galleria Art Demos Art Show Sales Autographing Con Suite Hucksters’ Room Discussion Groups Dragonslair Gaming (general) Information Kaffeeklatches Literary Beers Newsletter Distribution Office Party board Print Shop Program Operations Volunteers desk 2 PROGRAM F R I DAY | PROGRAM START: 5:00 PM The Publishing Industry Fuzzies Must Die! for the Teen Perspective S. C. Butler (M), Jordin T. Kare, Leah Wilson (M) Catherynne M. Valente Westin • Galleria-Demo • 1 hour Westin • Burroughs • 1 hour Special Interest Group. An interactive Panel. Be brave, and come declare your discussion for pre-teens and teens about the hatred of cute BEMs from every genre. whole publishing process, plus a creative If you hold a Smurf’s head in a plastic group activity. bag, what color does it turn? Tribbles are vermin! Is Little Fuzzy a fur-bearing animal? Do you like Hokas ... stewed or Welcome to Boskone! broiled? Which furry sidekicks should be Laurie Mann kicked to the curb? And do you know any Westin • Galleria-Discussion Group • 1 hour recipes for tasty BEMs? Docent Tour. Is this your first Boskone? Welcome! Join us in the Galleria (look Sui-sui: Currents in Anime for the cluster of blue balloons in the Timothy R Szczesuil (M), Reuben Baron, Discussion Group area), and we’ll give you Lisa Hawkridge, Gillian Daniels the grand tour. Westin • Carlton • 45 minutes Illuminati Panel. What directions has anime taken? What trends are hot at the moment? Westin • Galleria-Gaming • 2 hours What type of productions are fans likely Gaming. The classic game of conspiracy — to see over the next couple of years? with all three decks and the bonus pack. And given several big shake-ups in the industry recently (studios closing, prices HowTo Build A Genius shifting, digital releases), how can we Resa Nelson (M), Charles Stress, Greer expect to see them? Gilman, Catherynne M. Valente Westin • Harbor I • 1 hour Sexual Harassment & Assault Panel. Our panel of really intelligent in Fandom writers will discuss how to create characters Shira Lipkin (M) that are even smarter than they are. Westin • Galleria-Discussion Group • 1 hour Special Interest Group. Bruce Schneier Talks on the Human Side of Security and How It Making Art Show Awards Improves Society Westin • Galleria-DragonsLair • 1 hour Bruce Schneier Childrens. Westin ■ Harbor II • 1 hour Solo Talk. Our Hal Clement Science Speaker, Bruce Schneier, gives a talk on the human side of security, and how it induces trust in society. PROGRAM FRIDAY 3 SF/F/H in the Classroom Dressing the Parties — Jack M. Haringa (M), F. Brett Cox, Regalia and Symbolism B.A. Chepaitis, Kenneth Schneyer Darlene Marshall (M), Leonid Korogodski, Westin • Griffin • 1 hour Walter H. Hunt, Elizabeth Bear Panel. Kids today don’t have to hide their Westin • Harbor III • 1 hour SF book in class. It is their class. How Panel. Developing symbols and regalia are science fiction, fantasy, and horror in your worlds. Associations of colors taught in a typical course today? What and creatures. Displays of rank. Pilot do the teachers know that we fans don’t, patches. Japanese symbology and family. or vice versa? What works work best in A lot of the systemization of heraldry is the classroom? Does studying the stuff in a very late development. Any hints from school recruit lifelong speculative fiction SCA experience? Has awareness of all this readers, or drive them away in droves? increased from Game of Thrones? Winter is Here: How Game of Reading: John Langan Thrones Plays on TV John Langan Bob Devney (M), Myke Cole, Teresa Nielsen Westin • Independence • 30 minutes Hayden, Joshua Bilmes Reading Westin • Harbor I • 1 hour Panel. The HBO series Game of Thrones was must-see TV for fans of the George R. 6:30 PM R. Martin books and millions of others. And everyone has an opinion. Did the Reading: Kathryn Cramer onscreen depiction live up to the written Kathryn Cramer word — the story, the casting, the action, the food? Will you tune in next season? Westin ■ Independence • 30 minutes What are you anticipating when Game of Reading. Thrones returns in April? How Scientists Influence SF & Vice Versa Jerry Pournelle, Toni Weisskopf Westin ■ Harbor II • 1 hour Dialog. Join Boskone Special Guest Toni Weisskopf and NESFA Press Guest Jerry Pournelle in a dialog about the way scientists have had an impact on SF — and the way SF has impacted scientists. 4 PROGRAM F R I DAY --------------------------------------------- 7 Wonders Westin ■ Galleria-Gaming-2 hours The Thorn and the Blossom - Gaming. Try out one of die hottest games Unique Challenges of on the market as you race to build up your Specialty Book Publishing empire — whilst trying not to give your Stephen Segal, Theodora Goss opponents the chance to build theirs. A game of manipulation ... and just a tad of luck. Westin • Burroughs ■ 1 hour Dialog. The Thorn and the Blossom is NESFA Hymnal Singing Theodora Goss’s latest book, edited by Stephen Segal. They’ll discuss the unique Erwin S. Strauss challenges that went into writing and Westin • Griffin • 1 hour producing it, and the process of crafting a Demonstration. Group singing of “geek story that reads both as mythic fantasy and songs” from the NESFA Hymnals, Vol. 1 as contemporary romantic realism. and 2. Loaner hymnals will be provided. A good way to learn some of the old classics Sword of the Stranger of filk and find your inner geek. Westin • Carlton • 1 hour 40 minutes Anime. (Bandai; PG-13 for violence) Reboots: Refreshing or Depressing? A young boy is on the run from Ming Ian Tregillis (M), Daniel P. Dern, Leah Wilson, Dynasty assassins, who want to use him as John Scalzi part of an experiment to gain immortality. Westin • Harbor I • 1 hour His only company: his dog and a nameless Panel. From Star Trek to DC comics to ronin. Inspired by the epics of Kurasowa the Fuzzy saga, hitting the “start over” and Leone, this film is filled with amazing button is suddenly a popular move. Why action from the animators of Fullmetal do creators do it? (And how can they Alchemist. do it well?) Why do fans enjoy it? Is it a gravestone on top of exhausted ideas, or Fascinator Construction a neon sign pointing the way back to a Westin • Galleria-Demo ■ 2 hours brighter future? Demonstration. Join us for an event inspired by a certain astonishing royal A Study of the Humours — Medieval wedding hat! Make your own, er, Medicine whatever-it-is! Laurie Mann (M). Elaine Isaak, Darlene Marshall, Kenneth Schneyer, Storytelling with Bruce Coville James D. Macdonald Bruce Coville (M) Westin • Harbor II • 1 hour Westin • Galleria-DragonsLair ■ 1 hour Panel. For thousands of years, learned Childrens. doctors insisted that health and illness was governed by “the four humours” http://www.klieper.net/topics/typology/ four_humours.html. A look at how old ideas persisted and how they led to odd treatments like bleedings. PROGRAM FRIDAY 5 Why I Love/Hate Heinlein 7:30 PM Karen Cooper (M), Dana Cameron, Sharon Sbarsky, Bud Sparhawk, Fred Lerner Reading: Chad Orzel Westin • Harbor III • 1 hour Chad Orzel Panel. Surveying the celebrated — if Westin • Independence • 30 minutes sometimes controversial — works of Reading. classic SF author Robert Anson Heinlein (1907-1988), writer Jo Walton observes, “Even when I don’t like Heinlein I do like him.” Discuss. Ten Best Books Reading: Resa Nelson of the Past Ten Years Resa Nelson Claire Eddy (M), Ellen Asher, Don D'Ammassa, Westin • Independence • 30 minutes Michael J. Walsh, Paul G. Tremblay Reading. Westin ■ Burroughs -1 hour Panel. Let’s take the longer view and Absent Friends pick the works of science fiction, fantasy, Tony Lewis (M), Don D'Ammassa, Ellen Asher or horror that stood the test of the last Westin • Lewis • 1 hour decade or so.