I survived my first book reading

I think it went well–I didn’t flub too much,and the crowd of 30 or 40 asked lots of good questions…but then, atheists always are full of questions. The staff at Barnes & Noble were also wonderfully gracious and helpful. The only weird thing is that afterwards several people mentioned the dissonance of the shelf of teen nonfiction behind me.

20130813-202506.jpg

Uh, Rapture Practice for teens? In non-fiction? OK.

The author of Rapture Practice has shown up in the comments — it sounds like a good book, not at all what I feared from the title.

Be gentle, it’s my first time

I’m cruising into Edina tonight to give my first ever reading and signing as an author — at 7:00 PM I’ll be at the Barnes & Noble in the GalleriaShopping Center, 3225 W 69th, Edina.

I have no idea what I’m doing. I’ve pulled out a couple of short pieces from the book, I’ve got a general introduction to what it’s all about, but I don’t know how long I should sing and dance to entertain — I’m erring on the side of brevity right now, and know I can fill out any span of time by opening up to questions. Maybe some Catholics will show up! Or dudebros! Or maybe it will all be warm and welcoming. I can’t lose!

If anyone has suggestions about what not to do or can tell me about horrible experiences with authors, feel free to spin a yarn here.

Not my best day

I might be cranky today. Little sleep last night — a bad back ache is keeping me groggily awake. And today is the day the custodians shut me out of my lab so they can strip and wax the floors, an extremely annoying yearly ritual.

If you run into me on the street, don’t say hello, I might bite.

More of me!

I told you I was going to be in Houston next week…but I’m also going to be in St Paul on 9-10 August for the Minnesota Atheists convention. They’ve got me on a panel squaring off against an accommodationist, so it should be a bloody good time!

Wait! There’s more! I’ll be in Washington DC on 8 September pushing some book.

“What if I don’t want any PZ?” you squawk. “Well, there’s the Atheist Alliance of America convention in Boston on 30 August — that hasn’t got any PZ in it.” Sure, you can go to <further conversation drowned out by rowdy Vikings singing something about “PZ”…>

Reminder: I’ll be in Houston next week

Houston speakers

On 4 August, I’ll be joining Aron Ra and Zack Kopplin and Lilandra and Mike Aus in an afternoon of talks titled Answers in Science, in which we rebut the nonsense peddled by Answers in Genesis (Ken Ham was invited to speak, since he’ll be right there in Houston for a homeschool conference, but ever since we met his demand of having a “Ph.D. scientist” on the podium, he has gone pointedly silent). I think I’ll be giving my “Evolution of Creationism” talk, since it explains just how freaking weird and unbiblical and even more unscientific creationism has become in the last 60 years.

If you just can’t bear the thought of listening to me speak, this event is being held in the Houston Museum of Natural Science — I won’t blame you if you skip out of all of the talks to tour the museum instead. I’m tempted!

Geeks. Just geeks. Definitely no gods.

I was interviewed at Convergence by Geeks Without Gods, and the podcast is now available for your listening pleasure. There was something something something about Hitler, a question about my favorite atheist, and lots of banter. I should do that again.

They didn’t even edit it to make it sound as if I was denying the evidence for evolution! That’s my new low, low standard for a respectable interview.

Convergence Day 4 #cvg2013

Whew — the con is over. After a long weekend of late nights, it all ended with a few last panels, lots of packing up, and the long dreary drive home…and then passing out, sleeping in, and struggling to get back into my routine.

This was my fourth day at Convergence.

The first event of the day was “Science and Religion: Friends or Foes?” with Heina Dadabhoy, Bridget Landry, Daniel Fincke, me, and Debbie Goddard moderating. You can guess which side I took. Landry was the sole theist, and even at that, she’s one of those very liberal Catholics. It was therefore a bit one-sided. I did get one woman who came up afterwards and smugly told me that we scientists are so arrogant and think we know everything and lectured me about how evolution and the Big Bang were “just a theory” and they could be proven wrong at any moment. I sort of blasted her and she went away, yelling about how rude I was.

My last panel was “Ask a Scientist”, with Laura Okagaki, Lori Fischer, Matt Lowry, Tom Mahle, Siouxsie Wiles, Indre Viskontas, Nicole Gugliucci, Bridget Landry, Bug Girl, and me — a mix of physicists, chemists, and biologists. This is an event they run every year in which a large and diverse group of scientists who are attending are put up on the stage and then the audience gets to ask questions, any questions they want, and we try to answer them. Matt Lowry moderated and made the useful suggest that every question be phrased as a tweet to keep them short and to the point…not many people were able to do that, but it helped. There was a good mix of questions, too — all the expertise on the stage got a workout.

And then we went home. It would have been good to stay for the dead dog parties, but hey, Mary and I have work to do.

Next year, CONvergence will be held on the 4th of July weekend again, 3-6 July. The theme is “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”, and it’s to be a celebration of the urban fantasy genre. Skepchick and FtB will be there again! Plan ahead, mark it on your calendar, and come on out!