My schedule at LAcon, the 2026 World Science Fiction Convention

/ Sue Burke / Leave a comment

I will be attending the 84th World Science Fiction Convention. This year it’s being held in Los Angeles, California (actually in Anaheim), from August 27 to 31. It’s called LAcon V because this is the fifth time it’s been held in greater LA.

For most of the panels on my schedule, I volunteered to be on them, especially as moderator, because the topics have something to do with projects I’m working on. Moderators get to ask the questions — a sneaky research technique! If you’re not attending but you’re interested in my workshop on first paragraphs, you can find more information and the handout here.

All times PDT:

Virtual Table Talk with Sue Burke, Online 6 | Thursday, August 27, 9 p.m. — Do your houseplants hate you? No. Do they want to take over the world? Yes. Do our machines want to take over the world? Maybe, and what could stop them? Do you want to save the galaxy, or are you tired of trying? Let’s talk about all this.

Beyond the Pantsers and Plotters Spectrum virtual webinar, Online 2 | Friday, August 28, 10:30 a.m. — The writing process isn’t a binary, it’s a wide open universe. Panelists discuss different ways they approach story creation and the many metaphorical descriptions that people may find useful, including gardening, exploration, architecture, musical structures, outlining, “night driving,” and more. Participants: Ada Palmer, moderator; Dr. Phyllis Eide, Sarah Pinsker, Susie Williamson, Sue Burke.

Translation Tightrope, Redondo | Friday, August 28, Noon — Taking literature in one language and transforming it into a new work in another language is an art with plenty of tension and high stakes in terms of transmitted meaning. Come hear the translators and the translated bemoan and celebrate the pitfalls and powers of translation. Participants: S. Qiouyi Lu, moderator; Alex Shvartsman, Andy Dudak, John Chu, Sue Burke.

Interstellar Life: Trade in a Sublight Universe, 261 B | Friday, August 28, 3 p.m. — Humanity will eventually spread to the stars, but travel between these systems will take years if not decades. Is there anything that will be worth physically transporting from one star system to another? Will trade be exclusively in information transmitted at light speed? How will prices be negotiated, given the years-long delays? Will systems simply send information out there and trust that others will do the same? Participants: Sue Burke, moderator; Debora Godfrey, Geoffrey A. Landis, Humphrey Price, Mat Kaplan, WA Thomasson.

Do Extraterrestrials Really Need Water? 253 B | Saturday, August 29, 3 p.m. — Does extra-terrestrial life really need water? From the building blocks of galaxies and stars to the known environments of planets in our Solar System and beyond, we can seek clues about the nature of potential life. This panel will discuss these connections including elements in the universe, cells as factories, and extra-terrestrial habitats to see what life needs to survive: in science or in fiction. Participants: Sue Burke, moderator; Angela Horner, David Tucker, Ph.D., Joanna Rivers, Sam Scheiner.

Clarion Presents: It’s a Start: A Workshop On Your First Paragraph, Avila B | Sunday, August 30, 9 a.m. — A good opening paragraph for a story or novel will carry the work to success. In this hands-on workshop, we will consider seventeen different ways to start a work of fiction, such as action, philosophy, frame, or setting. We’ll explore how each one will affect the reader and evaluate the promise it sets for the story. Come ready to write and try out some new approaches. You’ll leave with a handout to use these in your work! Presented by Sue Burke.

Dark Skies: What Changes As The Stars Disappear? 256 B | Sunday, August 30, Noon, — With the majority of the population living in light-polluted cities, it is becoming harder to look up and see constellations in the night sky. Ideas like beaming light to places on Earth from orbit, or orbital billboards are being seriously explored. How does losing access to the stars affect our sense of wonder and our understanding of our place in a vast universe? Participants: R-Laurraine Tutihasi, moderator; Howard V. Hendrix, Logan Uber, Norman Sperling, Sue Burke.

Is Interplanetary War Possible? 258 AB | Sunday, August 30, 4:30 p.m. — Interplanetary warfare is a staple of SF, but the realities of the technology required to survive and travel in space might render warfare moot. Come explore the physics and economics of interplanetary war — are the distances too vast for offensive operations to succeed? Might there be a point in time when the spread of technological civilization renders all forms of conflict that force an unwanted government on others effectively impossible? Participants: Sue Burke, moderator; G. David Nordley, Mark Roth-Whitworth, RM Ambrose, WA Thomasson.

My thoughts on the Hugo Award for Best Novelette

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I’ve read all the Hugo-finalist short fiction: novellas, novelettes, and short stories. I was underwhelmed by the novellas, which were fun to read but nostalgic and predictable. I’m more excited by the novelettes, so I’ll share my thoughts about them.

This year’s Hugo Awards will be presented at this year’s World Science Fiction Convention, LAcon V in Anaheim, California, USA, on August 30, 2026.

Here is my ranking:

6. “Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy” by Martha Wells (Reactor, July 10, 2025) — Delightful, but the story is only meaningful if you’ve been following the Murderbot series. I love Murderbot, and you might not, and that’s okay.

5. “The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For” by Cameron Reed (Reactor, April 2, 2025) — In a world ruled by savage corporations, a human body and life holds little worth, and daughters struggle as they must. Horrific and mostly believable; however, it feels like the first chapter of a novel.

4. “When He Calls Your Name” by Catherynne M. Valente (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 65) — A woman has a heart-to-heart talk with a vampire preying on her husband. Outstanding voice, although vampire stories are nothing new.

3. “Never Eaten Vegetables” by H.H. Pak (Clarkesworld, Issue 220) — A ship carrying embryos to populate a new colony has a near disaster, and there are other terrifying problems with the mission. The ending holds a surprise. I wouldn’t mind if this won.

2. “Kaiju Agonistes” by Scott Lynch (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 62) — A monster tries to convince Earthlings to stop doing suicidal things like exploding atomic bombs. Humanity does not listen. Great voice and humor.

1. “The Millay Illusion” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 67) — Magicians compete. A thoughtful story about truth, illusion, and identity.

My ranking of the Hugo Award for Best Short Story

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This year’s Hugo Awards will be presented at the World Science Fiction Convention, LAcon V in Anaheim, California, USA, on August 30, 2026

I’ve read all the short fiction finalists, which has some overlap with the Nebula finalists. This is my ranking of the short stories — but there are other opinions, too. I wouldn’t mind if any of my top four stories won the award. Overall, I thought this year’s finalists represent a good overview of the current field with its strengths and faults.

6. “Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything” by Effie Seiberg (Diabolical Plots, May 16, 2025) — A woman who uses a wheelchair discovers that superpowers will not overcome indifference to accessibility needs. Although the story won this year’s Nebula Award, I think it’s almost a rant and adds no nuance to ongoing concerns about accessibility.

5. “Missing Helen” by Tia Tashiro (Clarkesworld, Issue 226) — Slim SFnal thread but deep characterization. A woman and her clone meet in adversarial circumstances, although I wonder how the narrator knew all those things.

4. “In My Country” by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld, Issue 223) — In a strange country, people are permitted by law to speak plainly or not at all. This story is sort of a parable, and its telling is not plain, and it holds a lot of unspoken but deeply felt feelings.

3. “10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days” by Samantha Mills (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 63) — In the end, this is a very short love story, or rather a story about how love can endure along with survival. Grim and yet humane.

2. “Wire Mother” by Isabel J. Kim (Clarkesworld, Issue 229) — A teenage girl is blamed because she cannot love AI “people.” She can sense the harm they’re doing to her world, but she has little means besides her own fury to fight back. A close second.

1. “Six People to Revise You” by J.R. Dawson (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 62) — Liza is sure she needs to change to find peace because a corporation is persuasively selling its services for change to vulnerable, anxious people. But what to change and why? This was also my choice for the Nebula Short Story Award. The story may be a hard to understand at first because Liza is self-deluded, a truly unreliable narrator who reflects our times where ads and influencers try to convince people they are sick when they are not.

When ‘squirrel’ means ‘strikebreaker’

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The Spanish word esquirol looks like the English word “squirrel,” but that’s not what it means. The name for the animal in Spain is ardilla, which comes from an old Iberian language word. In Spanish, esquirol means “strikebreaker.”

Here’s what happened: In Catalonia, in eastern Spain, the word in the Catalan language for the animal is esquirol, which comes from the Latin sciurus, which comes from the Greek skiouros. The English word shares the same root.

Toward the end of the 19th century, in a town near Barcelona named Santa Maria de Corcó, an inn had a pet squirrel in a cage at its entrance. Eventually the town began to be called “L’Esquirol” after the Inn of the Squirrel.

In 1902, 1908, and 1917, textile workers in the nearby towns went on strike, and workers from L’Esquirol offered to work in place of the strikers. So “strikebreaker” became esquirol — a term of disrespect, like scab in English.

That’s how the Latin-based word for “squirrel” finally entered the Spanish language. But the term has no connection with the cute little animal except for that minor historical accident.

When words travel from one language to another, they don’t always arrive safely.

Squirrels themselves are concerned about their own safety. Urban squirrels seem to believe that they’re safer close to noisy streets, even though they might become roadkill, because cars scare away their predators.

Here in Chicago and many parts of the United States, the animal that symbolizes a strikebreaker is a rat, specifically a rat named Scabby. The giant inflatable rat, often used by labor unions in street protests, is protected by free speech laws.

Chicago’s actual rats are preyed on by our urban coyote population, which traveled from the countryside to our streets, and we’re glad to have them.

Magic Rules Zero Through Four

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My favorite words are “but” and “what if.” One day I thought about the way the laws of thermodynamics begin with zero. What if magic had rules that started with zero, too? Our understanding of thermodynamics gives us great powers, but what powers would the rules of magic give us? My story offers one answer, but what if there are better answers? This flash fiction story was published at Daily Science Fiction in 2021.

***

Magic Rules Zero Through Four

by Sue Burke

Rule 0. Magic works. But few people believe in it.

A half-dozen students awaited their teacher in a secluded garden. The sorcerer, they thought, would be an elderly man with a long white beard and wise sad eyes. Instead a carefree young woman strolled in, wearing a fashionable hoop skirt, bell sleeves, and corseted waist. She hummed as she sat on a wicker bench.

Years later, you labor in the War Department in utter secrecy. If anyone asks, you manage a special procurement research project, which your coworkers believe is a cover for espionage. You never correct them.

***

Rule 1. The forces of the world will work in accord with magic. But they must be persuaded or beguiled.

“Magic is a matter of will.” Her voice warbled like birdsong. “Human beings are endowed with an enormous force of will. We live for our plans and desires.” The way she said desires made the entire class fall in love, or at least lust. Then she showed how she did that.

You’re not a spy, but your country has excellent spies. The enemy hopes to change the course of the war with an invasion. You know exactly when and at which section of the coast.

***

Rule 2. The past and present cannot be changed. But the future can, and the further into the future, the more easily it can be changed.

She pointed to a nearby rosebush with impossible, sky-blue flowers. “Two years ago I introduced the sky to the rosebush and let them see each other’s beauty. A love charm today can alter the course of a dynasty.” She waved her hand, and a tiny cloud condensed around her wiggling fingertips. “A major storm? Oh, it might take weeks to convince the right tempestas.”

You spend sleepless days and nights negotiating with kobolds, flirting with undines, and chanting to the volcano goddess Pele’s forgotten Atlantic Ocean cousin.

***

Rule 3. Every part of reality in the past, present and future is connected; thus one change can affect many things. But all those connections must be understood.

She suddenly grew grim. “I have much to learn about the causes of famines. I also made a series of sad errors regarding Napoleon Bonaparte.”

Your troops, vastly outnumbered, clear civilians from a coastline and send cannonballs and bullets to slow the onslaught, but the enemy establishes a beachhead. At the right moment, the ocean floor snaps and a tsunami races toward shore. Your soldiers withdraw just in time, and the enemy is ravaged.

***

Rule 4. Rarely can accurate predictions be made about the future. But the future must be considered at every move.

“I have lived for two hundred forty-seven years,” she said, “and experience has taught many hard lessons.”

You fear that sooner or later, the enemy will begin at zero.