| DAY | START | END | LOCATION | TITLE | DESCRIPTION | PANELISTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday | 12:00 PM | 12:50 PM | Isle Royale | The Care and Feeding of Your Subject Expert | Writing science fiction and fantasy requires a ton of research. Having the internet at our fingertips makes it easier than it used to be, but sometimes we need to ask an expert. Many folks are delighted to geek out about their specialties, but we still need to do due diligence, respect their time, and make sure we’re asking the right questions. How do you find qualified experts? Do you approach them with prepared questions? When is it ethical to pick someone’s brain for free, and when should you insist on compensating your expert? | Marissa Lingen, Michael Kucharski, Monica Valentinelli, Patrick S. Tomlinson, Teresa Nielsen Hayden |
| Friday | 1:00 PM | 1:50 PM | Isle Royale | Co-Writing For Fun and Profit | Writing is often viewed as a solitary activity , but many well-regarded works in SFF are the product of collaboration. With serialized fiction reclaiming its place as a major player in the field , collaborations amongst large groups of authors are gaining popularity and praise. What makes a good collaboration work? How do co-writers get–and stay–on the same page? What should authors keep in mind from the business end when signing contracts for co-written work? | Andrea Phillips, Michael R. Underwood, Carol Flynt, Mur Lafferty, Max Gladstone, Delilah S. Dawson |
| Friday | 2:00 PM | 2:50 PM | Isle Royale | How A Manuscript Becomes A Book | “I’m just an MS…sittin’ here on an editor’s desk…I hope and pray to be a book someday, but today I am just an MS!” There’s plenty of information on the web about how to write and sell a manuscript , but the process after the deal is signed is often opaque to new writers. We’ll walk through the steps a manuscript typically goes through between deal day and launch day, and what authors can do to help the process go smoothly. | Cherie M. Priest, Navah Wolfe, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Richard Shealy, Yanni Kuznia |
| Friday | 3:00 PM | 3:50 PM | Isle Royale | Writers and Fundraising For Charity | Thanks to the modern web and social media, it has never been easier for people to organize amongst themselves to raise funds for people in need. What are the best ways for authors to leverage their platforms to draw attention to worthy causes? How can we best mobilize big-hearted fans quickly when needs arise suddenly, due to extreme weather events or other immediate crises? How do we vet the causes we’re supporting, and provide transparency so that fans can likewise vet our fundraising efforts? | Christine Knight, Ferrett Steinmetz, Monica Valentinelli, Pablo Defendini, Mark Oshiro |
| Friday | 4:00 PM | 4:50 PM | Isle Royale | Collaborating With Your Copyeditor | Bad copyedits are so legendary in this business that STET has become both a punchline and a battle-cry. But most copyeditors are genuinely trying to help authors achieve their vision. Let’s discuss how to form productive working relationships that produce more polished books and don’t leave anyone contemplating STET knuckle tattoos. Dear copyeditors: there is a typo in this panel description just for you. | Richard Shealy, Michael R. Underwood, Vanessa Ricci-Thode, Jason Sizemore, Teresa Nielsen Hayden |
| Friday | 5:00 PM | 5:50 PM | Isle Royale | Disaster Response in Science Fiction and Fantasy | Many SFF stories feature cataclysmic events , both natural and man-made , that rain destruction on civilian populations. We’re accustomed to seeing the camera spend a few moments “looking for the helpers” as our heroes crash through occupied buildings or drop mines on the Klingon fleet, but what about the hours and days that follow? What opportunities do science fiction and fantasy present to educate and reflect on disaster response processes in the real world? | Jon Skovron, Marissa Lingen, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Vanessa Ricci-Thode, Diana Rowland |
| Friday | 6:00 PM | 6:50 PM | Isle Royale | Morality and Personality Matrices in SFF | From D&D’s alignment system to the houses of Hogwarts, astrological signs, and Myers- Briggs types, many geeks can’t resist classification systems that sort characters–and real people–into easily-categorized types. What are the benefits and drawbacks of these systems in terms of characterization and worldbuilding? When do they help writers build realistic and consistent characters, and when do they artificially limit characterization and steer writers towards caricature? | James L. Sutter, Jeff Pryor, Julia Rios, Navah Wolfe, Stephanie Morris |
| Friday | 9:00 PM | 9:50 PM | Isle Royale | Let’s Talk: Physics | A lighthearted talk on a hard science topics with smart and funny people. Let’s Talk: Physics will dive deep into the building blocks of the Universe and try not to giggle about Super G-Strings. | Allison Deiana, David D. Levine, Daniel Dugan, David Lockett |
| Saturday | 10:00 AM | 10:50 AM | Isle Royale | Reading: Lucy A. Snyder, Ken Schrader, Sunny Moraine | Ken Schrader, Lucy A. Snyder, Sunny Moraine | |
| Saturday | 11:00 AM | 11:50 AM | Isle Royale | Reading: Benjamin C. Kinney, Angus Watson, Marie Bilodeau | Angus Watson, Benjamin C. Kinney, Marie Bilodeau | |
| Saturday | 12:00 PM | 12:50 PM | Isle Royale | The Ancient 1980s | When most people think historical fiction, they think of the 16th through 19th centuries. But genre fiction is increasingly taking on the recent past. What’s the draw (beyond nostalgia) of the 1980s and 90s as fictional settings? What unique research challenges do they present, and how do writers balance providing familiarity for those who remember the era with background information for those who need context? What are our favorite modern works set in the recent past? | Alexandra Manglis, David Anthony Durham, Michael W Lucas, Stephanie Morris |
| Saturday | 1:00 PM | 1:50 PM | Isle Royale | Reading: Stacey Filak, Andrea A. Phillips, Michael J. DeLuca | Andrea Phillips, Michael J. DeLuca, Stacey Filak | |
| Saturday | 3:00 PM | 3:50 PM | Isle Royale | Mad Scientist Lab | Build basic circuits for flashing lights and sounds. A hands on approach. | Reid Minnich |
| Saturday | 4:00 PM | 4:50 PM | Isle Royale | Nasa Spinoffs | Since 1976 , NASA has featured an average of 50 technologies each year in the annual publication. Of these 1000 , what has changed lives daily? What can we expect in the future? | Andrea Phillips, David D. Levine, David John Baker, Karen Burnham |
| Saturday | 5:00 PM | 5:50 PM | Isle Royale | Star Wars: The Last Jedi as a Cast Study in Storytelling | Our panel of writers discusses the structure, pacing, characters, themes, and world-building in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Also the swords, floaty rocks, and tiny fluffbeasts. | Amal El-Mohtar, Annalee Flower Horne, Annalee Newitz, Delilah S. Dawson, Julia Rios, Nisi Shawl |
| Saturday | 6:00 PM | 6:50 PM | Isle Royale | Reading: Mark Oshiro | Past Fan GoH Mark Oshiro reads from some of his own work! | Mark Oshiro |
| Sunday | 10:00 AM | 10:50 AM | Isle Royale | Poetry In Novels | Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass include lengthy poems, placing them in a long tradition of long-form fiction that incorporates poetry into the work. How does writing poems for prose fiction differ from writing poems that stand alone? What distinct techniques does it require? Where do poems within stories exist in the landscape of genre poetry today? | Amal El-Mohtar, Clif Flynt, Jeff Pryor, Josef Matulich, John Winkelman, Mari Ness |
| Sunday | 12:00 PM | 12:50 PM | Isle Royale | The Robots are Here! | 2018 is the year that robots officially took over. This panel will serve a guide on how to best appeal to your robot overlords. | Annalee Newitz, Curtis Potterveld, Tracy Townsend |
| Sunday | 1:00 PM | 1:50 PM | Isle Royale | Stories on Game Boards | The Chessboard in Lewis Carroll’s Through The Looking Glass makes a natural story setting, because every game of chess is a story of a battle between two warring factions and a journey across the board. Even outside of classic story games, like RPGs , we’re currently experiencing a renaissance of board and video games that use gaming as a form of literature. What makes games unique as a storytelling medium? What can you do as a storyteller with a game that you can’t do with prose fiction, comics, or film? | K. Lynne O’Connor, Kelsi Morris, Monica Valentinelli, Nathan Rockwood |