Literature Track 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, -E 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 INTERLOCHEN World-building Culture Beyond Aesthetics Many authors take care to ground readers in the aesthetic details of their secondary-world cultures, using clothing, architecture, food, and language to give readers a ‘feel’ for what a culture is like. Often, these details are drawn from stereotypes of real regions of the world, leaving us with the generic “”middle easternness”” of Narnia’s Calormen , or the “”future Chinese empire with no Chinese people”” of Joss Whedon’s Firefly. Let’s talk about how to go beyond aesthetics to build original cultures with their own philosophies, biases, social orders, and worldviews. How can we build distinct cultures in our work without using medieval Europe as the cultureless default against which other societies are compared? What are our favorite fictional cultures, and our favorite stories that use distinct original cultures to add more to their world than appropriated aesthetics? David Anthony Durham, Max Gladstone, Michael R. Underwood, Scott H. Andrews, Shweta Adhyam 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 5:00 PM 5:50 PM PETOSKEY Reading: Annalee Newitz Annalee Newitz Friday 6:00 PM 6:50 PM INTERLOCHEN Spoilers and the Mechanics of Surprise JJ Abrams famously hates spoilers so much that he threatened to ruin the career of any member of the Star Wars cast or crew who leaked to the press. Many authors and readers/viewers agree that it’s best to go into a work unspoiled, but some readers love spoilers. Some rely on spoilers as content warnings that tell them if they’ll be able to enjoy a work, while others simply don’t view surprise as a necessary element to their enjoyment. When is relying on surprise the right choice for a work, and when is it more flash than substance? Christine Knight, Dan Moren, -E, Jon Skovron, Tracy Townsend 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 6:00 PM 6:50 PM KEWEENAW Reading: John Scalzi John Scalzi Friday 6:00 PM 6:50 PM PETOSKEY Reading: Sarah Gailey, Mur Lafferty, and Charlie Jane Anders Charlie Jane Anders, Mur Lafferty, Sarah Gailey 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 CHARLEVOIX Pacifism in Speculative Fiction Representations of pacifism in speculative fiction is often unsympathetic and/or unrealistic. It seems that the only way a character can be a pacifist and a hero is if they’re not a pacifist at all. Shephard Book’s pacifism in Firefly dissolves into kneecapping bad guys as soon as the plot requires it, and Charles Xavier gets called a pacifist when he funds and trains a private army. Who are our favorite real pacifists in speculative fiction, and how can speculative fiction contend with the conflict of being a pacifist in a violent world without running for the easy conclusion that pacifism is naive, selfish, and unsustainable? David John Baker, Marissa Lingen, Matthew Bin, Max Gladstone, Annalee Flower Horne 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 10:00 AM 10:50 AM MANITOU Immigration and Refuge in Science Fiction Travel stories are classics in any genre, but in science fiction stories of travelling to a new home are often about colonization, or about intrepid explorers amongst the (primitive) aliens. Let’s talk about the science fiction stories that better reflect the experiences of immigrants and refugees in the real world. Alexandra Manglis, Amal El-Mohtar, David Anthony Durham, John Chu Saturday 11:00 AM 11:50 AM BIG TOP Black Gate Interview Jim Butcher Brandon Crilly of Black Gate Magazine sits down for a 30 minute interview with SubPress Guest Jim Butcher. Brandon Crilly, Jim Butcher Saturday 11:00 AM 11:50 AM CHARLEVOIX Using Real Scientific History To Enhance Fantasy World-Building Secondary-world fantasies often draw on an ahistoric view of the past, intermingling technological, scientific, and social advancements that span thousands of years in the real world. The effect is quasi-medieval societies that are in some ways anachronistically modern, but in many ways far less advanced than the real-world cultures on which they’re based. Let’s talk about the real science and technology of the world’s post-classical eras and how we can use the real history of science and technology to build deeper and more interesting worlds. A. T. Greenblatt, Dyrk Ashton, Elizabeth Shack, Jon Skovron, Lucy A. Snyder, Kate Elliott 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 11:00 AM 11:50 AM PETOSKEY Last Exit Before The Worst Timeline Alternate histories that explore what the world would look like if a particular horror had been averted can be a way of resisting the narrative that slavery, genocide, colonialism, sexism, and other social evils are inevitable steps on the road to human progress. What are our favorite alternate histories (and alternate presents) that look at better worlds, and how can we use the format to inspire people to hope–and action–in uncertain times? BluRaven C. Houvener, David D. Levine, Jackie (Literary Escapism), Michael W Lucas, Mark Oshiro 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 12:00 PM 12:50 PM BIG TOP Guest of Honor Interview: Nisi Shawl Jim C. Hines, Nisi Shawl Saturday 12:00 PM 12:50 PM INTERLOCHEN Game Boards in Stories From Through the Looking Glass to The Hunger Games to Karuna Riazi’s The Gauntlet, genre fiction has long been intrigued with the concept of game boards as settings for stories. Carroll’s Through The Looking Glass contains multiple references to how the characters would move in in chess–the game that forms the world’s setting. What are our favorite stories centered around games? What real world board games (aside from RPGs) would make for interesting story settings? Andrea J, Amy Sundberg, K. Lynne O’Connor, Monica Valentinelli, Andrea Phillips 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 12:00 PM 12:50 PM KEWEENAW Reading: Merrie Haskell, Michael R. Underwood, Mishell Baker Merrie Haskell, Michael R. Underwood, Mishell Baker Saturday 12:00 PM 12:50 PM LEELANAW Writing about Forensics Whether you’re writing a thrilling crime drama or a cozy whodunit , here are some useful tips for including forensics in your story. Adam Shannon, Addie J. King, Bryon Quertermous, Jen Haeger Saturday 1:00 PM 1:50 PM BIG TOP Guest of Honor Interview: Kate Elliott Join us for an interview of Guest of Honor Kate Elliott, conducted by John Scalzi. Kate Elliott, John Scalzi Saturday 1:00 PM 1:50 PM CHARLEVOIX Reading: Jim C. Hines, John Chu, Annalee Flower Horne Annalee Flower Horne, Jim C. Hines, John Chu 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 1:00 PM 1:50 PM PETOSKEY It Was All A Dream…But Should It Have Been? “You woke me out of oh! such a nice dream!” says Alice at the end of Through The Looking Glass. Modern authors are often warned to avoid dream sequences, because it’s difficult to get readers to invest in a story that can be wrapped up with a Deus Ex Alarm Clock. But the concept endures from Through the Looking Glass to Spirited Away and Inception. When is a dreamland the right choice for a setting, and how do successful dreamlands in fiction maintain stakes and tension? Liz Derrington, Seleste deLaney / Julie Particka, Shweta Adhyam, Teresa Nielsen Hayden 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 BIG TOP Any Sufficiently Detailed Magic System is Indistinguishable From Science The influence of tabletop roleplaying games is widely felt in fantasy. Many stories make a ‘science’ out of their magic that reflects the carefully-balanced rules of a tabletop sourcebook. What are the trade-offs between creating magic systems with strict rules and leaving magic as a mysterious and unknown force? How do we balance the sense of wonder and magic against the desire to give readers a stable hook from which to suspend their disbelief? What makes a well-defined magic system work in a story, and when are we showing the reader too much of the machinery behind the curtain? Brandon Crilly, Charlie Jane Anders, David Anthony Durham, Kate Elliott, Shweta Adhyam, Jim Butcher Saturday 2:00 PM 2:50 PM CHARLEVOIX Reading: James Breakwell James Breakwell Saturday 2:00 PM 2:50 PM MANITOU The Future of the Portal Fantasy Many classic children’s books, including Through The Looking Glass, are portal fantasy stories. What do new portal fantasies need to bring to the table to stand out in a crowded field? How do reinterpretations like Every Heart A Doorway fit into the portal fantasy landscape? Do you pretty much have to be Neil Gaiman to get away with playing this trope straight, or is there room for new voices? And where do we want to see portal fantasies take us next? Lee Harris, Mari Ness, Navah Wolfe, Sarah E. Gibbons Saturday 2:00 PM 2:50 PM PETOSKEY Fanfiction as Subversion and Commentary Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass were spawning parodies and third-party sequels practically as soon as they were published, including multiple political commentaries. People write fanfiction for a lot of reasons, but fanfic as a format is particularly well-suited to commentary on popular works. What can we learn from transformative works like fanfic about the state of genre fiction, and how can we adapt techniques found in fanfic to challenge ourselves to make the most interesting choices in our original work? Christine Knight, Stephanie Morris, Liz Derrington, Dessa Lux, Sunny Moraine Saturday 3:00 PM 3:50 PM CHARLEVOIX Improv Flash Fiction Fast paced and quick witted , authors create stories in real time , “”round robin”” style , using prompts from the audience. Jackie (Literary Escapism), Ken Schrader, Lee Harris, Sarah Gailey, Suzanne Church Saturday 3:00 PM 3:50 PM INTERLOCHEN Reflecting on Reboots and Reinterpretations Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass have been adapted countless times–sometimes in ways that are faithful to the source material, and sometimes with new interpretations (such as Tad Williams’s Otherland and Micheline Hess’s Malice in Ovenland). How do writers balance familiarity with novelty when rebooting or adapting classic stories? What makes a good retelling work for readers, and what are our favorite examples? Dominik Parisien, Jessi Cole Jackson, Julia Rios, Navah Wolfe, Sarah E. Gibbons Saturday 3:00 PM 3:50 PM KEWEENAW Reading: Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone Saturday 3:00 PM 3:50 PM MANITOU SubPress Chat Come join production manager Geralyn Lance and learn more about what makes Michigan-based Subterranean Press so special to the SFF field and to Confusion. Ever want to know what goes into producing a limited edition or selecting art for a dust jacket? Geralyn’s got you covered. Want to know about this year’s special guests sponsored by SubPress at Confusion? Ditto. She’ll also be previewing what books SubPress has coming in 2017 and giving away a few special books to lucky audience members. Don’t miss this chance to get the inside scoop on a unique publisher. Geralyn Lance Saturday 3:00 PM 3:50 PM PETOSKEY Forgiveness and Redemption Narratives In Genre Fiction Stories of terrible people seeking redemption and making amends can create powerful emotional resonance–but done wrong, they risk excusing inexcusable behavior. Who are our favorite evildoers turned heroes, and what makes their redemption work for readers? How do we built satisfying character arcs that end in forgiveness? And what role do race and gender play in redemption narratives? Angus Watson, Bryon Quertermous, Marie Bilodeau, Merrie Haskell, Tracy Townsend Saturday 4:00 PM 4:50 PM CHARLEVOIX Reading: A. T. Greenblatt, Marissa Lingen, Izzy Wasserstein A. T. Greenblatt, Izzy Wasserstein, Marissa Lingen Saturday 4:00 PM 4:50 PM INTERLOCHEN Examining Whiteness in Speculative Fiction When speculative fiction is so often addressing the human condition–and what it means to be human–it’s vital that we acknowledge that life on Earth isn’t the same for all of us. Many speculative works portray the experience of being white as if it is a universal human experience, without stopping to examine what whiteness means now or what it will mean in the future. How does (and how should) science fiction address whiteness as a specific, rather than universal, experience? Mishell Baker, Natalie Luhrs, Pablo Defendini, Stephanie Morris Saturday 4:00 PM 4:50 PM LEELANAW You Got Magic In My Science Fiction! We’ve developed a variety of labels for works that mix fantastical elements like dragons or magic into science fiction settings like spaceships and sprawling futuristic cities. Does Star Wars’s use of The Force place it in a different part of the Science Fiction canon than Mass Effect’s use of biotics? From a storytelling and world-building perspective, what separates elements with magical trappings from those with science fictional trappings? Should fantasy vs scientific explanations be a purely aesthetic consideration, or does putting magical elements in science fiction meet a specific storytelling need that handwavy science cannot? Dan Moren, John Chu, Lucy A. Snyder, Marie Bilodeau, Ryan Van Loan, Charlie Jane Anders Saturday 4:00 PM 4:50 PM PETOSKEY Works We Love and What We Wish We Could Change About Them Many stories we love contain critical plot elements that frustrate us–such as the memory wipes in The Dark is Rising and Doctor Who and the treatment of Susan in the Chronicles of Narnia. How do these stories inspire us to write and edit differently, and bring different kinds of stories to life in our own fiction and media? Cherie M. Priest, Denise M. Beucler, Kate Elliott, Navah Wolfe, Patrick Nielsen Hayden Saturday 4:00 PM 4:50 PM ST. CLAIR Autograph Session (4 PM) Come meet your favorite authors, artists and musicians and have them sign things! (Please limit your signing requests to 3 items per person.) Amal El-Mohtar, Annalee Flower Horne, Annalee Newitz, Carl Engle-Laird, Delilah S. Dawson, Diana Rowland, Dominik Parisien, Dyrk Ashton, Ferrett Steinmetz, James Breakwell, James L. Sutter, Jason Sanford, Jason Sizemore, Jim Butcher, Jim C. Hines, Julia Rios, Mark Oshiro, Michael J. DeLuca, Michael R. Underwood, Monica Valentinelli, Mur Lafferty, Nisi Shawl, Patrick S. Tomlinson, Sarah Gailey, Scott H. Andrews, Seleste deLaney / Julie Particka, Stacey Filak, Suzanne Church, Tracy Townsend Saturday 5:00 PM 5:50 PM CHARLEVOIX Is That An Anti-Hero Just a Jerk? Anti-heroes have an enduring place in science fiction and fantasy. They can provide explorations of the nature of heroism or hilarious counterpoints in comedic work. But some alleged anti-heroes are really just jerks. At what point does a character’s alleged heroism become an excuse for terrible behavior like misogyny and murder , rather than a complex reflection on the flawed nature of humanity? And why are anti-heroes overwhelmingly white guys? Is there space for people of all genders and races to be seen as heroic in spite of deep flaws? Carl Engle-Laird, James L. Sutter, Kelsi Morris, Patrick S. Tomlinson 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 5:00 PM 5:50 PM LEELANAW Reading: Dyrk Ashton, Tracy Townsend, Sarah Hans Dyrk Ashton, Sarah Hans, Tracy Townsend Saturday 5:00 PM 5:50 PM ST. CLAIR Autograph Session (5 PM) Come meet your favorite authors, artists and musicians and have them sign things! (Please limit your signing requests to 3 items per person.) A. T. Greenblatt, Addie J. King, Andrea Phillips, Angus Watson, Benjamin C. Kinney, Brandon Crilly, Charlie Jane Anders, Cherie M. Priest, Dan Moren, David D. Levine, Dyrk Ashton, Izzy Wasserstein, John Chu, John Scalzi, Kate Elliott, Lucy A. Snyder, Marie Bilodeau, Marissa Lingen, Max Gladstone, Merrie Haskell, Mishell Baker, Navah Wolfe, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Ryan Van Loan, Shweta Adhyam, Stephanie Morris, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, David Anthony Durham Saturday 6:00 PM 6:50 PM BIG TOP Robots vs. Fairies Reading Join us to listen to authors from the Robots vs. Fairies anthology from Saga Press read from their work! Dominik Parisien, Jim C. Hines, John Scalzi, Max Gladstone, Navah Wolfe, Sarah Gailey, Delilah S. Dawson, Annalee Newitz 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 Saturday 6:00 PM 6:50 PM MANITOU Drawing on Real Rituals For Fictional Magic A presentation on how historical cultures, particularly Hittites, have used “magic” rituals in the real world–and how we might draw on those magic systems as inspiration for fiction. Dr. Hannah Marcuson Sunday 10:00 AM 10:50 AM CHARLEVOIX Missing and Deleted Scenes in the Age of the Internet On the advice of artist John Tenniel, Lewis Carroll dropped an entire chapter from Through The Looking Glass. That chapter was almost lost to history until a galley turned up in a Sotheby’s auction. These days, writers have a lot more options for their missing scenes, including sharing them as promotional freebies on their websites or including them in newsletters or crowdfunding platforms. Can scenes that ultimately didn’t strengthen the work still merit sharing with readers? What makes a missing scene a good candidate for sharing with readers vs. consignment to the recycling bin of history? Bryon Quertermous, David D. Levine, Jim Butcher 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, John Winkelman, Mari Ness Sunday 11:00 AM 11:50 AM CHARLEVOIX Heroes and Mental Health When writing mentally ill heroes , authors not only have to portray characters with sensitivity and the right amount of realism , but also work against social stigmas that will have their characters labelled as whiny, dramatic, wooden, or otherwise unlikeable. Who are our favorite mentally ill heroes, and how do authors bring them to life in an engaging and sympathetic way? Dominik Parisien, Jim C. Hines, Mishell Baker, Mur Lafferty, Sarah Gailey, Shweta Adhyam Sunday 11:00 AM 11:50 AM ISLE ROYALE Reading: David D. Levine and Stephanie Morris David D. Levine, Stephanie Morris Sunday 11:00 AM 11:50 AM KEWEENAW Dressing A Fictional World They say clothes make the man , but they also tell us a lot about his physical and social world. Come help a team of writers design a fictional world and determine how people in that world would dress , based on their climate , culture , technology , and resources. This is an audience-participation panel. Annalee Flower Horne, Denise M. Beucler, Elizabeth Shack, Jessi Cole Jackson Sunday 11:00 AM 11:50 AM PETOSKEY Your Cake Is In Another Castle Carroll’s Through The Looking Glass sends Alice into a chessboard-world where she’s told that if she crosses the entire board, she’ll be crowned queen. It’s not until she reaches this goal that she learns it’s not what she really needs: the goal of chess isn’t to promote a pawn; it’s to put the king in check. When does moving the goalposts on a character feel like a satisfying next step, and when does it break the compact with the reader? Amy Sundberg, Ken Schrader, Matthew Bin, Ryan Van Loan, Tracy Townsend Sunday 12:00 PM 12:50 PM INTERLOCHEN The Setting As Character In Science Fiction and Fantasy , settings can literally come alive–be it via the talking flowers of Through The Looking Glass or the rage of Peter Quill’s creepy dad-planet in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. In Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch universe where ships have minds, main characters can be both people and places at the same time. Are living settings a science fiction/fantasy extension of the classic “Hero Vs. Nature” story? How do they exist in conversation with real-world beliefs about whether the world around us has a will of its own? A. T. Greenblatt, Cassandra Morgan, David John Baker, Ferrett Steinmetz, Suzanne Church Sunday 12:00 PM 12:50 PM MANITOU Do Not Be Satisfied With Stories: Narrative Structure and Expectations A short PowerPoint lecture (all images or short clips! no boring text slides!) on how the expectations we bring to a story influence how we engage with the story, with a particular emphasis on how opening paragraphs (and opening sequences in films) often rely on familiarity and cultural knowledge to draw us in. Focus on science fiction and fantasy stories. Kate Elliott Sunday 12:00 PM 12:50 PM PETOSKEY Good Days and Bad Days In Narrative Arcs Disabilities in fiction are often displayed as binary and static: characters with wheelchairs are completely unable to stand or walk. Blind and Deaf characters have complete and bilateral vision/hearing loss. Depressed characters are barely functional. In the real world, disability exists on a broad spectrum, and a person’s place on that spectrum is rarely static. Disabled people have good days and bad days and experience a range of effects from their disability. Some people are able some days and disabled other days. How do we portray these more realistic ranges of ability and disability in fiction without the characters’ changing capabilities coming across as a plot contrivance? Dominik Parisien, Merrie Haskell, Mishell Baker, Yanni Kuznia, Annalee Flower Horne 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, Monica Valentinelli, Shweta Adhyam Sunday 1:00 PM 1:50 PM CHARLEVOIX Q&A: Jim Butcher Q&A: Jim Butcher Jim Butcher Sunday 1:00 PM 1:50 PM INTERLOCHEN Hopepunk in the Age Of Resistance Author Alexandra Rowland defines hopepunk as the opposite of grimdark: “Hopepunk says that kindness and softness doesn’t equal weakness, and that in this world of brutal cynicism and nihilism, being kind is a political act. An act of rebellion. Hopepunk says that genuinely and sincerely caring about something, anything, requires bravery and strength.” What are the stories that inspire us to reject cynicism and fight for the good in this broken world? Izzy Wasserstein, Michael J. DeLuca, Nisi Shawl, Stacey Filak 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 Sunday 1:00 PM 1:50 PM LEELANAW Imagining A Future Without Police Policing is so deeply-rooted in our ideas about society that calls to abolish policing can seem disconnected from reality. Won’t there always be bad guys? How would we enforce the rule of law? Even future utopias like Star Trek still have police. But alternative methods of justice exist in the world. What would a city, space station, or extra-planetary colony of the future without police look like? How could they build and maintain collaborative instead of adversarial justice systems? Addie J. King, Angus Watson, Pablo Defendini, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Andrea Phillips Sunday 2:00 PM 2:50 PM CHARLEVOIX A Novel Look at the Short Story Short stories require a different approach to pacing , character , world-building , exposition , and plot than longer works. Let’s explore the tools we use to convey important information to the reader when we have a lot fewer words to do it with. A. T. Greenblatt, Amal El-Mohtar, Jessi Cole Jackson, Lucy A. Snyder, Scott H. Andrews Sunday 2:00 PM 2:50 PM KEWEENAW The Liar, The Traitor, and the Reader The Red Queen in Through The Looking Glass manages to deceive Alice without ever telling a lie. Betrayal tales are as old as fiction, and betrayers can make fascinating villains–and heroes. But characters who can’t be trusted require delicate handling. Readers often feel that protagonists were stupid not to see a betrayal coming. What does it take to get readers to identify with the deceitful–or the deceived? Who are our favorite betrayers in science fiction and fantasy, and why do they work? Cassandra Morgan, -E, Dyrk Ashton, K. Lynne O’Connor, Jason Sizemore