Each year, for about a million years, Western Australian science fiction fandom has held a local science fiction convention called Swancon.  The current one, which will run next March is the thirty-third such event (which suddenly makes me feel old – I helped run the 17th and started attending back at the 11th). Swancons have been held at different times during the year, but for some time now they’ve been held over the Easter weekend.  I’ve come to appreciate over the past ten years what a bad idea this is. For whatever reason, chunks of Perth shut down for the Easter weekend. Restaurants and bars are closed, there’s nothing to see or do. Good Friday is especially bad, but Sunday isn’t great either. Unfortunately, the burden for this falls most heavily on people who visit from out of State, who are looking to enjoy both city and convention. I’m sure Swancon 33 will be a hoot, and I’ll definitely be there for the first time in some years, but I hope future Swancon committees consider running the event at another time during the year. For conventions, Easter sucks a bit.

As you know, I’m making a list of all of the original anthologies that I know are appearing next year. One of them is a new book of alternate history stories, Other Earths, that has been edited by my Locus colleague Nick Gevers and the indefatigable Jay Lake. Nick sent me a copy of the ToC for the book, and it looks very good:

• This Peaceable Land, or, The Unbearable Vision of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Robert Charles Wilson
• The Goat Variations, Jeff VanderMeer
• The Unblinking Eye, Stephen Baxter
• Donovan Sent Us, Gene Wolfe
• Winterborn, Liz Williams
• Csilla’s Story, Theodora Goss
• The Holy City and Em’s Reptile Farm, Greg van Eekhout
• The Receivers, Alastair Reynolds
• A Family History, Paul Park
• Dog-Eared Paperback of My Life, Lucius Shepard
• Nine Alternate Alternate Histories, Benjamin Rosenbaum

It’s coming from DAW next summer. Looks well worth keeping an eye out for.