I’ve had a busy month so far.

On December 10 and 11, I was on a couple of panels at C2E2. At the first panel, science fiction writers Timothy Zahn, Delilah S. Dawson, J.S. Dewes, and I discussed world-building — and Andrew Warrick of The Beat took notes and wrote an article about the hour-long panel. Many people in the audience wanted to learn more about how to write, and we shared what we’ve learned along the way.

The next day at C2E2, J.S. Dewes and I talked about women in science fiction, and Andrew Warrick was back. His article is almost as good as being there.

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Blogger Tasshin has written a long and thoughtful post about ethics in the Semiosis duology. In particular, he discusses the moral character of Stevland, the rainbow bamboo. Beware, the analysis contains spoilers.

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Finally, I attended Discon III, the World Science Fiction Convention held in Washington, DC, from December 15 to 19. For obvious reasons, simply holding an event for 2000 people involved monumental challenges, but everyone was vaxxed and masked and, as of this writing, it doesn’t seem to have been a superspreader event.

Among the activities, I took part in a panel called “2020 Ruined My Novel.” Other writers spoke about how they’d faced problems with works in progress due to pandemic distractions or plots that had to be changed. I had a novel published about a coronavirus epidemic during the pandemic — with a coronavirus in the cover art!

I explained that the book, Immunity Index, differs greatly from our reality. “It has a happy ending,” I said, “because it has an ending.” With that tempting description, I managed to give away a few copies for holiday reading.

May 2022 be better for us all!