Continuum 11.

It's that time of year. Continuum 11 is on next weekend, and the program is looking great.

For those who have never heard of Continuum, here's the description from their website.

"Continuum is an annual Melbourne speculative fiction and pop culture fan convention celebrating creativity across genre and media. From hard-edge science fiction to high-flown fantasy, comic books to film noir, high culture to sub-culture … we sink our teeth into it all!

2015 marks our 11th convention, and we’re taking the time to celebrate Australia.  Not in a yellow-and-green-how-many-gold-medals-did-that-koala-get-in-the-sports way, but looking at Australia’s history and future, and also Australian genre and media, our fandom, and our people."

This will be my seventh Continuum. Unfortunately, due to other commitments, I won't be able to attend the entire weekend as I usually do. I'm even unsure of when I can manage to drop in, But I will definitely be there Saturday afternoon.

I'm only on one panel this time, Religions in Spec Fic, alongside David McDonald, RJ Anderson, Alexandra Pierce and Stephanie Lai. 

Religions are portrayed as good and bad forces in specfic, but in Western SF there are certain long-standing traditions. What are "neglected" religions? Has the way religion been portrayed changed along with its changing role in society? What are some of the mistakes writers make when incorporating religion?

Come along to Continuum. Check out the Religions panel. And if you're not even sure you want to go, Friday night of the program is a gold coin donation entry.

You can't get anything better for that price these days.

Creepy And Kooky, Mysterious And Spooky.

Now that I actually have some time to listen to stuff as I drive to and from work, I've taken the opportunity to check out some podcasts that have been on my 'to listen' list for a while.

I've quickly become a fan of Eerie X, a podcast which, according to their website,  "discusses human subcultures and the oddities of our world. From the strange to the supernatural, the obscure to the absurd, the paranormal to the peculiar and the uncommon to the unthinkable. Eerie X, flogging the sacred cows of humanity."

Yup, that's right up my alley. 

When I was a kid, my Dad bought a book from Readers Digest which I devoured. I must have read it hundreds of times. Strange Stories, Amazing Facts is a collection of scientific, historical and paranormal oddities and mysteries. I still have it, and although some of the scientific stuff has dated, the rest of it holds up really well. I still haven't found a more recent book to supersede it. I also have a copy of A Book Of Beliefs, an overview of religions, sects, cults and beliefs. Together, these two books are great for dipping into, and pretty much sum up a major area of fascination for me.

So it should be no surprise the second podcast on my playlist is produced by a friend of mine with similar interests. Meat Mutant has developed into a show worth a regular listen. Joe and Emma, a couple of ex-Catholics and now staunch athiests from opposite sides of the world, broadcast their own form of irreligiosophy.

Then, of course, there's the speculative fiction podcasts that I've been planning on listening to for the longest time. I know some of these broadcasters personally, and the names involved speak for themselves. Galactic Suburbia, presented by Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce and Tansy Rayner Roberts, is about to hit its 100th show. Congratulations on the Hugo nomination. An associated podcast, Galactic Chat, is a series of interviews with people within the speculative fiction field, while the Coode Street Podcast consists of conversations between Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe.

OK, so I have a lot of catching up to do. I simply never had time to sit and listen to these broadcasts.  But I'm loving what I've listened to so far and I'm really enjoying my driving time each day.

I'm sure there are lots of great podcasts out there, and I'm certainly open to recommendations.