Multiverse 2022 - A Whole Lotta Trouble... The Good Kind

It is October and this means time at Multiversecon. For those of you who are new or did not know, I am the PLAY track director for Multiversecon and have been for about four years now. In that capacity I spend a great deal of my time in game mode, talking about or running games. This is fun, but it leaves less time to immerse myself in the writing side of my brain. Although as I am working on a game writing project at the moment, it all ties in well together.

But What About Multiverse?

Glad you asked. Multiverse was very good as usual. Conventions always have their challenges and MVC is no exception. We still need more volunteers so that those of us who are volunteering can enjoy the con a bit more, but from a programming stand point, Multiversecon is top notch. From the beginning it has been built and, from a conversation with the Programming Vice Chair, overbuilt so that when the membership grows we will be ready for them. And right now, MVC's mission of being a safe and inclusive space built organically to accommodate the spectrum of humanity is right on target. We can do more; we can always do more, but the convention is already considered a safe haven for folks who do not feel as welcome in other spaces.

Multiverse has also been the first con for a number of people. I remember my first convention and how it affected me in my life. It was a mixed experience but not horrific. The fact that MVC is such a good first convention for people is a credit to the hard work of the volunteers and the consistent vision of the chairs.

Multiverse this year was perhaps my most social con I have had in a few years. I met a great many people in person for the first time and reconnected with some old friends. A few folks even asked about where they could find my stuff or what name I write under. I cringe a bit at that, since the Obscura anthology is out of print now. I need to do something with the Druid of Market Street and that includes finishing the sequel novel, Bourbon & Djinn. They also asked what I am working on and I am sure I gave a different answer each time lol. So, the short list:

Front Burner

Bourbon & Djinn (novel) (Urban Fantasy?)

Epilogue (novella) (Science Fiction)

The Sea is Also Salt (short collection as a prelude to a series) (Fantasy)

The Blood Shepherds (...not-vampire SF)

Vacuum of Battle (Military SF)

Lots of Shorts

Back Burner

Rot of Sorcery (Fantasy)

Impossible August (Mil SF)

The Royal Wolf Guard - Pike & Howl series idea

Tumbledown - last year's Nano project (Fantasy Cold War Spy)

And at the convention, thanks to a great panel talking about the show Penny Dreadful, I started working on an idea I am calling Lightning's Children. Call it gothic SF related to Mary Shelley's The Modern Prometheus (Frankenstein). Finally there is the pure SF short novel series I want to start with Nanowrimo. No details until November, but it breaks some new ground for me.

That is a ton of fucking projects, constant reader. My hope is to have three of them written and two of them published by Jordancon in April of 2023.

Later Chummers,

~SMH