This Friday is Day 1 of FogCon, a literary-themed, genre fiction convention that takes place in Walnut Creek every year. But for me, Friday is Day Everything! That’s because I have three–3!–events going on that day, and I would love for you to join if you’re attending the festivities.

First up is the Social Media for Writers and Authors panel, taking place 3:00-4:15 pm in Salon A/B. I thought my food blogging background might yield a different perspective on this topic, the description for which is “Join our panelists for a nuts and bolts discussion from personal experiences in the brave new world of Social Media as Writer and/or Author. What platforms work, and for what? How do you get followers/fans? What is the most effective way to reach people who will buy my books, not just other writers? How do you keep these people engaged and interacting on your networks?”

Immediately thereafter, I’ll be hosting and reading in the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading session in the Santa Rosa room, 4:30-5:45 pm.

Broad Universe is an organization of female writers and their supporters of all genders that work together to raise the profile of women in the industry. Our Rapid Fire Readings are a mainstay at many science fiction conventions around the nation, and this one will consist of two rounds of 8-minute readings from four authors…and we may have a special guest author as well! The slate is myself, Loren Rhoads, L.S. Johnson, and Sarah Grey.

Then, I get to eat dinner! And get more of a break before my second panel, How Did You Survive the Election? We will be tasked with tackling this terrifying topic in Salon A/B at 9:30-10:45 pm. Ah, such a sweet way to send us to slumber…The full panel description is “The 2015-2016 election season drove many of us to desperation, drink, or other distractions. Some of us turned into political denialists, some of us became political junkies, some of us amassed gigabytes of cute cat videos. How did you survive the campaigns, the stresses, the misrepresentations, coping with relatives who didn’t understand/were partisans for the wrong side, and so on? Panelists and audience share their experiences with this tectonic election, as well as tips for surviving the stresses of political campaigns, political work, and dealing with the political news.” I’ll be approaching the topic from a viewpoint of ways to become an activist without breaking down relationships with those close to you whom have a different political persuasion.

And after that…I’m off the hook! Well, almost! Saturday and Sunday, you may often find me at the hotel’s lobby bar when I’m taking a break from checking out someone else’s reading or panel. But you will for sure find me there on Saturday during the lunch block, 12:00-1:15 pm, when I’ll be the point person for members of the East Bay Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Meetup to, well, meet up! If you’re interested in meeting other East Bay genre writers, that’ll be a great time to swing by. But whenever you see me, I’m generally always down for a chat!

Hope to see you through the Fog this weekend!