| DAY | START | END | LOCATION | TITLE | DESCRIPTION | PANELISTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday | 6:00 PM | 6:50 PM | Saugatuck | Visions of Positive Masculinity | From high fantasy adventures to noir mysteries to superheroes and war stories , genre fiction has meticulously catalogued the narrow roles society expects men to occupy: strong, brave, and powerful, but also angry, competitive, emotionally repressed, and misogynistic. What does a character arc look like for the man who has decided not to be the best at performing this toxic vision of masculinity? We’ve seen many stories about women who struggle and triumph against gender roles. How can writers use social expectations of masculinity to create challenges that their male characters have to overcome to save the day? | David Anthony Durham, Jason Sanford, Jim C. Hines, John Chu, Pablo Defendini |
| Saturday | 10:00 AM | 10:50 AM | Saugatuck | Parenting in the 21st Century | Parenting has always been a challenge, but is it more challenging these days? Are “the kids” no longer sufficiently respectful of one’s lawn? And what is it with the YouTubes and the Twitters? Are these new problems, or just the same problems other generations of parents faced, dressed in new clothes? | James Breakwell, Mur Lafferty, Sarah Hans, David Klecha |
| Saturday | 11:00 AM | 11:50 AM | Saugatuck | Animal Sidekicks In Science Fiction and Fantasy | From Cinderella’s birds to Poe Dameron’s faithful droid, adorable animal(ish) sidekicks have a long history in genre fiction. From a writing perspective, what do cute animals bring to a story? How do they help us reveal character and worldbuilding? How do we balance their utility in generating empathy and lightening the tone against their potential to annoy the living heck out of the audience? | Addie J. King, Cassandra Morgan, Izzy Wasserstein, Jon David, Nisi Shawl |
| Saturday | 1:00 PM | 1:50 PM | Saugatuck | SF and Philosophy: Exploring the Connections | SF has been called the literature of ideas, and the ideas explored in SF have become increasingly philosophical throughout the history of the genre. What are the most illuminating thought experiments in recent and classic SF? Which philosophical questions do they raise? And how are philosophers in today’s universities employing SF in their teaching and research? | Benjamin C. Kinney, Andrea J, Dyrk Ashton, Ken Schrader, Nathan Rockwood |
| Saturday | 2:00 PM | 2:50 PM | Saugatuck | Limitations of Space | There are still parts of the Universe that will be forever inaccessible to us , no matter the technology. Let’s talk about what we will never find there! | Bob Trembley, Connie Trembley, Karen Burnham, Annalee Newitz |
| Saturday | 3:00 PM | 3:50 PM | Saugatuck | Fossils | Learn about Fossils in Michigan and Nationwide. Dive deep into the Late Devonian period , play in the Late Pleistocene period, get silly in the Silurian period, and cogitate in the Carboniferous periods. | Connie Trembley |
| Saturday | 4:00 PM | 4:50 PM | Saugatuck | Luke Ski Talks “Mighty MagiSwords”! | Comedy Guest Of Honor “the great Luke Ski” has been working the past 2.5 years on the Cartoon Network TV series “Mighty MagiSwords”! At this panel he’ll talk about what it’s like to work on the show at CN, show his storyboard drawings, behind the scenes animatics, talk about recording voices for the show, screen a full episode he wrote and storyboarded, and answer your fan questions. Anyone who shows up in full costume as a “Mighty MagiSwords” character will get a free custom made drawing from Luke Ski! | Luke Ski |
| Saturday | 6:00 PM | 6:50 PM | Saugatuck | Science of Death | The mechanisms and forensic aspects of death. Expect a couple references to where the worms go in and out. | Diana Rowland, Dr. Julie Lesnik, Sarah Grieve |
| Saturday | 7:00 PM | 12:00 AM | Saugatuck | Artemis Bridge Simulator – Royal Manticore Navy, HMS Ajax and HMS Roland Hosting | A multiperson team event where you work together to fly a star ship and protect your quadrant from enemy ships. 25 minute sessions starting on the hour and half hour. Sign your team up the RMN Fan Table, after 10 AM. One reserved session per per badge number. | |
| Sunday | 11:00 AM | 11:50 AM | Saugatuck | Goodnight Sweet Cassini | On September 9 , 2017 , Cassini began its final orbit around Saturn. Let’s talk about the data collected and wax philosophic about our late and great satelite. | Bob Trembley, Connie Trembley, Karen Burnham |
| Sunday | 12:00 PM | 12:50 PM | Saugatuck | Strong Female Characters and the Protags Who Harass Them | Princess Leia. Art3mis from Ready Player One. Zoe Saldana’s Uhura. Fiction is full of “strong female characters” who have to endure harassment campaigns from alleged heroes. In many cases they end up falling in love with their harassers. Their “strength” exists to present an obstacle to the male protagonist trying to conquer her, or as a foil for his wit. How do we create female characters whose strength serves their story, and write romances that portray female characters as respected equals rather than prizes to be won? | Cherie M. Priest, Delilah S. Dawson, Monica Valentinelli, Shweta Adhyam |
| Sunday | 1:00 PM | 1:50 PM | Saugatuck | To Mars! | NASA is finally ready to make humanity’s dream of sending people to Mars a reality. What challenges need to be overcome , and what is ready to go! | Bob Trembley, Connie Trembley, David D. Levine, Karen Burnham |