Note: I have tried to include information on a wide variety of science fiction/fantasy, gaming and general geeky conventions, but I am not guaranteeing this covers everything. Please feel free to suggest other conventions, for this month or future months in the comments!

Siggraph
August 7 – 11
Vancouver, BC

Going on now, this is a huge computer graphics and interactive techniques convention, complete with a computer animation festival. Obviously, it is too late to make plans to attend this year, but this is a good thing to put on your radar for next year if you work with computer graphics and animation at all.

Wizard World
August 11 – 14
Chicago, IL

While this may not be quite as big as last month’s San Diego ComicCon, it’s a close call. Patrick Stewart, Felicia Day, LeVar Burton and 8 members of the Buffy cast are going to be there! If you are going to be in Chicago this weekend, it looks like they are still selling tickets.

Pokemon World Championships
August 12 – 14
San Diego, CA

World Championships for the Trading Card game and the Video game will be held in San Diego this weekend, with contestants from all over the world, including gamers from Belgium, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Czech Republic and many more. The tournaments are mostly invitation only, with the top players from various regional competitions invited to compete for the title of World Champion, but there will be a single elimination Last Chance tournament on Friday. The event is free for competitors and spectators.

GDC Europe and GamesCom
August 15 – 17, August 18 – 21
Cologne, Germany

These may be more of a stretch for our American readers, but they look like a lot of fun, and a lot of good things will likely come from the learning and networking at these events. The Game Developer’s Conference has 5 main tracks: Business & Marketing, Game Design, Production, Programming and Visual Arts. GamesCom looks to be all about gaming and entertainment, and a really good time!

Renovation
August 17 – 21
Reno, NV

This year’s World Con will be held in Reno. This is where the Hugo awards will be presented. I wish I could be there to see everything, but the budget and schedule wouldn’t let me this year. Still, there will be online coverage–a live video stream, plus Twitter posts using the official @SFReno and @TheHugoAwards accounts, along with posts using the #hugos, #hugoaward and #hugoawards hashtags. I expect to be glued to my computer, or at least my smartphone, on Saturday night!

PAX Prime
August 26 – 28
Seattle, WA

This is a big one for us! Five of our Angels are going: @Cherithe, @Xalaga, @stealthyslyth, @GamesAre4Girls, and @rachelzg.  @Cherithe will be on a panel, Infinite Respawn: How Gaming Can Keep & Save Your Relationship, on Saturday at 10:30. There are many additional cool panels, with a wide variety of inclusive topics, with topics like Can Mommy & Daddy Come Over to Play? – The Truth About Being a Gamer Parent, Then and Now: How Competitive Gaming Has Changed, Getting Past Forums: The Future of Community, Gaming as a Lifestyle, Magic: The Gathering World Building Panel, Doing Good with Games, and Wil Wheaton! (I am not adding that exclamation point because I am excited about Wil Wheaton–that is what it is called.) I cannot wait until everyone gets back and tells me all about it!

ArmadilloCon
August 26 – 28
Austin, TX

This looks like a great time, with Paolo Bacigalupi as Guest of Honor, Emma Bull and Will Shetterly as Special Guests, and Elizabeth Bear, Ilona Andrews and Steven Brust as participants. There seems to be a good mix of programming, with fascinating topics like Steampunk Jewelry Making Demo, Class Issues in SF/F, What You Should Have Read in 2010-2011, What’s the Next Big Literary Movement in Texax SF/F?, A Look Back at the Shuttle Program, Learning from Others’ Mistakes: Writing Errors to Avoid, SF/F Movies of the 80s: A Look Back and many more. Wow, all this and more for only $50? If only my daughter weren’t having a birthday that weekend…

What conventions are on your radar? We are developing a calendar to keep track of these and more, so please give us suggestions for upcoming conventions to add to the list.

Writing teams are common on tv shows, but there is a rich tradition of this sort of thing in fiction as well. Over 75 authors who have written books or stories set in the Star Wars universe, and over 60 have written about the Dungeon & Dragons world. The online element adds a bit of extra accessibility to the whole thing, though. Some of the characters have twitter feeds or live journal accounts, and fans can interact with them there, although they are not allowed to break the fourth wall–as they say, “[t]he characters don’t know they’re fictional, after all.” There is also a busy message board, a wiki with a TON of information, and one of my favorite things, a page of extras, including teasers and deleted scenes (extra stories!), artwork and playlists for the characters and the episodes. Fans can also interact more directly with the authors, by following them on twitter or live journal, or by going to their individual boards on the forum.

There is also a lot of interesting experimentation with narrative differences that they are able to incorporate by doing on an online tv show. First, they are able to include a lot more detail than what can be done in an actual tv show. The episodes all have the flavor of a tv episode, but it seems like they are longer, and they include more of the characters inner thoughts. For that matter, they vary in length and style. Episode 3.03, by Will Shetterly is told through a series of letters from the villian of the piece and is much shorter than other episodes. Early episodes are almost all 5 Acts, but later ones may be only 3. Because they don’t actually have to fit into one hour, minus commercial time, they are able to vary the length to fit the actual story.

I find that the cast of characters is also much more diverse than what you see on tv, in many ways. The two supervisory agents of the team are a black man and a Jewish woman. On the team, there is a black woman, a Latino man, an Asian woman, two white men and a white woman. One of the men is gay, and one of the women is bisexual, and she gets married to another woman during the show. On actual tv shows, it seems like many casts have one black character and that is diverse enough.Sexuality isn’t even addressed, unless it is straight sexuality, or a minor character, often for only one episode. Here, it seems more like the reality that I see in the workplace all the time, only more tolerant.

This is an interesting way to experiment in the new publishing environment. The website is reader funded, with no payment required for reading, but there is a link to donate on PayPal at the top of every page. There is also a CafePress store, with shirts, hats, bags and coffee mugs available for purchase. As of this month, Season 1 is also available in ebook form, with 3 volumes. The books seem to include some of the extras, including livejournal stuff, according to the forums (I am waiting until I am done with Hugo reading to get these.) I don’t know how much money they are getting from this, but I hope it is a lot, or at least enough for everyone to continue to feel it is worth their time to continue the project.

Season 3 just ended. Like all season finales so far, it involves a huge change for one of the main cast members, which I don’t want to spoil for anyone who hasn’t started reading yet. This one had me in tears, though. I can’t wait for next season, which begins next month. There are a few extras to help tide me over, but I am interested to see how the new season will start. Is anyone else reading this?

As someone who does a little writing herself, I have had an idealized view of what it would be like to be a writer that supports herself through writing work. Sleeping in! Working when it is convenient! Lounging around in PJs all day! Adoring fans writing letters and sending gifts (which is somewhat true apparently, at least for some authors, but we can’t all be Neil Gaiman)!

Following professional writers is a good way to find out what writing life is really like. It’s like a virtual water cooler where they gather to talk shop, exchange banter, maybe throw around a little industry gossip, and we get to eavesdrop. The first thing you learn is that it really is work, being a professional writer. It is work they enjoy, but they have to make sure they do it, too. Seeing these professionals with real publishing deals post triumphantly that they made their word count for the day really makes me feel better about those nights I am forcing myself to sit at the keyboard. Watching days of tweets about editing progress and the trials of proofreading shows the level of craft and polishing that goes into truly professional work. A few weeks ago, several writers that I follow participated in a robust discussion about whether the internet distracts them from work or supports their work, which was intriguing to follow, and helps me to think through the ways that I use the internet for research and procrastination.

I also have found several new to me authors through Twitter. I had never heard of Lauren Beukes (@laurenbeukes), for instance, before William Gibson (@GreatDismal) began aggressively promoting her around the end of last year with multiple tweets for her new book, Zoo City. I went out and got both Zoo City and her first book, Moxyland, and I am glad that I did.

I have also purchased books by Elizabeth Bear (@matociquala) and Catherynne Valente (@catvalente) after finding them on Twitter, although I have not been able to read them yet. Cory Doctorow (@doctorow) isn’t exactly new to me, but I discovered that I didn’t actually own any of his books not too long after I started following him on Twitter, a lack I have since remedied. Nnedi Okorafor (@Nnedi) was already on my radar thanks to the excellent Who Fears Death, but thanks to Twitter, I am on the lookout for Akata Witch for my daughter and I to share now. I will be buying books by a few of the other authors I am following, too, as soon as I knock some books off my To Be Read pile (a never-ending task if ever there was one…). I am keeping a close eye on the feed of Rachel Swirsky (@rachelswirsky), who I’ve written about here before–I don’t want to miss anything that she writes!

Here is the list of sf/f authors I created from the authors I follow: https://twitter.com/#!/sussabmax/sf-f-authors/members. This is by no means a complete list of authors on Twitter, nor is it an attempt to pick the best that Twitter has to offer in this category. As I said above, I spend a lot of time on Twitter, and I don’t have enough time for it really, not to follow everyone completely, so I am not looking to add more interesting people to follow. I am still adding people, but I have mostly stopped going out to look for them. I might add someone because of a recommendation from someone else I follow, or a particularly funny or smart retweet, but most of my new followings are organic like that these days.

Is anyone else following their favorite writers on Twitter? I hesitate to ask (see: way too busy already), but who has the most interesting tweets?

Below are some of the books we mentioned that we’re looking forward to this year so you can learn more about them.

Stealthyslyth’s picks:
Jim Butcher’s Changes (Book #12 in The Dresden Files)
Frank Beddor’s Hatter M Vol. 3
Richard A Knaak’s Stormrage
Holly Black’s The Poison Eaters & Other Stories

Cherith’s picks:
Rachel Caine’s Unknown (Book #2 in Outcast Season)
Elizabeth Bear’s Chill
Patricia Briggs’ Silver Borne (Book #5 the Mercy Thompson series)
Kim Harrison’s Black Magic Sanction (Book #8 in The Hallows)
Penny Arcade – The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade: The 11 1/2 Anniversary Edition

If you haven’t caught up yet with all of last year’s podcasts, use can use the widget in the sidebar over there —->>> to listen to all of them.

There’s a lot of great new books this year to check out for the holidays.  Some of them are continuations in specific series, and we’ll let you know which ones in our recommendations.  If you think we left out an important recommendation, leave a comment and let us know!

For Kids

Title: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
Author: Jacqueline Kelley
Price: $11.55
GA Amazon Link
An interesting story about a girl who teams up with her grandfather one summer in 1899 to learn why yellow grasshoppers are larger than the green ones.  It’s a good combination of a story about growing up, family and friendship as well as what it might’ve been like to be 11 at the turn of the century. ~Cherith

Title: A Really Short History of Nearly Everything
Author: Bill Bryson
Price: $11.69
GA Amazon Link
There’s an adult version of this book – The Short History of Nearly Everything, that I highly recommend, especially if you can grab it on audiobook.  The kids version is different in that it relates much of the information to a kid, as well as talks about some subjects that are very interesting to the younger fans, like dinosaurs.  Good for that kid on your holiday shopping list that always questions why things are, or how they came to be.  ~Cherith

For Teens

Title: Fade Out (Morganville Vampires #7)
Author: Rachel Caine
Price: $6.99
GA Amazon Link
Rachel Caine is the author of the adult Weather Wardens series, and has made a name for herself in the Urban Fantasy genre.  In the Morganville series, Claire, an extremely intellegent 16 year-old girl has moved to Morganville to attend the local college.  What she doesn’t realize until it’s too late is that the town is filled and run by Vampires.  Definitely a fun read, especially for that teen reader on your list that’s into the current Vampire craze.  If you want to know more, you can read an except on Caine’s site, here.  ~Cherith

Title: Leviathan
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Price: $10.79
GA Amazon Link
Scott Westerfeld is the author of the “Uglies” series and has made a name for himself with teenage stories with interesting backgrounds and unique characters, and Leviathan is sure to be no different.  ”Leviathan” takes place on the cusp of World War I, but in an Alternate History where the Austro-Hungarians and Germans have powerful steam-driven “Clankers”, the British have fabricated animals and the Leviathan is a huge whale air-ship in the British fleet.  The story follows Deryn Sharp a common girl working in a male disguise as an airman in service to the British.  This is sure to be a favorite for readers that love alternate histories and unique stories.  Check out this trailer below if you want to learn more. ~Cherith

Title: ArchEnemy (The Looking Glass Wars #3)
Author: Frank Beddor
Price: $12.23
GA Amazon Link

Frank Beddor is probably well known for his Looking Glass Wars series. ArchEnemy is the third, and last, installment in this series and picks up right where Seeing Redd left off. Wonderland is in disarray after the destruction of the Heart Crystal, and all of its inhabitents have lost their imaginations, even Alyss and Redd. Seeking to capitolize on a situation, King Arch leads an attack on the capitol of Wonderland in order to take control and become king. Alyss and Redd have to form a tentative alliance with each other in order to try and save the kingdom that they both care about.
~Stealthyslyth

Title: Going Bovine
Author: Libba Bray
Price: $12.23
GA Amazon Link
Libbra Bray is well known as the author of the teen Rebel Angels series.  With Going Bovine Bray tells the story of 16 year old Cameron who gets sick.  A loopy/punk angel hooked on sugar appears and tells Cam there’s a cure, but he has to search for it.  Cam has what he thinks is “mad cow” disease, and with the help of some unusual sidekicks sets off about the country looking for his cure.  ~Cherith

For Adults

Title: First Lords Fury (Codex Alera #9)
Author: Jim Butcher
Price: $9.00
GA Amazon Link
Jim Butcher, known for his popular Harry Dresden urban fantasy series, has also written the fantasy series, Codex Alera.  Next up is “First Lords Fury” to be release two days before Thanksgiving, November 24th.  If you’ve got a Jim Butcher fan on your list, this is a must buy.  ~Cherith

Title: By the Mountain Bound
Author: Elizabeth Bear
Price: $17.15
GA Amazon Link
As long as she keeps churning out books, I’ll probably recommend Elizabeth Bear every year in our Holiday Guides.  This year,  I specifically want to point your towards “By the Mountain Bound” the prequel to Bear’s “All the Windcracked Stars”.  The story takes place after Ragnarök has occurred, and there’s a lot that needs to happen to cleanse the world.  Even if you haven’t read anything by Bear before, if you’re a fan of Norse mythology, great storytelling, unique characters or all of the above, it’s worth checking out.  Do yourself (or your holiday recipient) a favor and grab “All the Windcracked Stars” while your at it.   ~Cherith

Title: Hammer of God
Author: Karen Miller
Price: $7.99
GA Amazon Link
Hammer of God is the third and final book in Karen Miller’s Godspeaker trilogy, and it’s quite the read! Rhian, after leading a force to reclaim her rightful position of queen sits on the throne of Ethrea but her problems have continued. Her once trusted friend, Dexterity, has been banished from court, and her newfound warrior, Zandakar is now imprisoned after being revealed as the son of the woman who is hell bent on taking the entire world that they live in as her own. Rhian also has to contend with pressing matters of court, rebellious dukes and skeptical ambassadors while trying to figure out if Zandakar can be trusted. All the while the great army of Mijak marches on to their cries of “Chalava! Chalava! Chalava, Zho!” ~Stealthyslyth

Title: A Touch of Dead (Sookie Stackhouse: The Complete Stories)
Author: Charlaine Harris
Price: $12.93
GA Amazon Link
This is the perfect companion for any friends or family who are fans of True Blood and/or the Sookie Stackhouse series. In A Touch of Dead, five short stories by Harris that expand upon the Sookie Stackhouse universe. Previously published seperately, this is a great book to get for someone who may just be starting out reading about the materials that inspired the TV show. And many Harris fans may enjoy receiving a nice anthology of these five stories to add to their collection!  ~Stealthyslyth

Title: And Another Thing
Author: Eoin Colfer
Price: $19.49
Read Yukino’s Review here!
GA Amazon Link
Bringing us back to the far reaches of the Galaxy, And Another Thing is the continuing tale of Arthur Dent, Trillian, their daughter Random, and their need to escape once more from the Vogons. Accompanied by Ford Prefect and Zaphod Beeblebrox, our favourite intergalactic travellers visit new planets, anger Nordic gods, and discover there is a chance they could maybe become a somewhat functional family.  ~Yukino

Title: The Meteoric Rise and Fall of Nat Nelson: Vaudevillian Extraordinaire
Author: Heatherlyn Egan
Price: $13.95
Create Space store link
“I’m already Nat Nelson, the Vaudevillian…but now I’m your Vaudevillian.”
This premiere novel from Heatherlyn Egan tells the story of Nat Nelson, a small town boy who winds up getting a lucky break into the Vaudeville scene. But when Nat’s ambition becomes to great he risks destroying his career and reputation. Based on inspiration from her own family history, Egan has crafted an amazingly detailed story full of facts and places from the rich vaudeville history of the US. The characters have great personalities and really draw you into the novel and make you care when Nelson decides to make some bad decisions and you just want to yell at him. As a bonus for the holiday season to Gaming Angels readers, order this book now through the above link and use the code CTXVEMLN at checkout to get a 25% discount! ~Stealthyslyth