Congenial

This weekend, it's Congenial, the combined Unicon and British national role-playing con, happening this year in Cambridge, with the amazing Phil and Kaja Foglio, the authors of Girl Genius as guests of honour. I've met them, and they are fabulous people, very talented, very interesting. They are going to rock as GoHs. The marquis is on the committee; I, together with other members of The Write Fantastic, have helped to design the literary programme.
Here's my schedule:

Saturday, 12:00, Council Room: How to do Sex and Death Properly
Sex and death, or at least relationships and action, lie at the core of
many SFF novels, but can be surprisingly tricky to write. Our panel
discusses the problems and pitfalls and possible techniques. Juliet
Mckenna, Kari, Kate Keen, and Tanya Brown.

Saturday 14:00, Council Room: Writers on Reading
Our panel will discuss This Is Not A Game, by Walter John Williams, with
each other and the audience.
Juliet Mckenna, Kari, Phil Nanson and Simon Bradshaw.

Saturday, 15:00, Long Room: Cities of the Mind
Alternate pasts and presents. Other worlds and imagined lands. With
Juliet Mckenna, Mike Shevdon, Anne Lyle, and Kari.

Sunday 11:00, Long Room: 1001 Musketeers
Sequels to, re-imaginings of and conflicting versions of The Three
Musketeers. A talk by Kari. Updated since its last appearance! With
illustrations and commentary.

Also...

I have the honour and privilege of blogging today on the Big Idea feature on John Scalzi's website, Whatever. I'm talking about banned books and printing and Antwerp: do come by and take a look. And many, many thanks to Mr Scalzi.

Elsewhere, I'm preparing my talk for Congenial, writing about musketeers, pondering my new book idea and wondering what the cats are doing. How are your days going so far?

Skirt of the day: blue cotton.