As you might have seen, Bogi is the Fan GoH at ConFusion this year (hurray!), so all three of us are going to ConFusion as a family. Mati is also coming.
If you are at ConFusion, please come say hi!! 🙂
Some details about that: I am often disoriented at cons (they are noisy/full of people/stress) even if I do not appear disoriented. I also have issues with face recognition and can really struggle with recognizing people I have not seen for a while (I am fine recognizing people whom I have seen recently). So please, please do not take it personally if I seem confused – please just remind me. I would love to talk to you!
Without further ado, the schedule:
Reading: Bogi Takács and R.B. Lemberg
Friday 2:00PM Saugatuck
Join Bogi Takács and R.B. Lemberg for a reading session
Bogi Takács, R.B. Lemberg
Avoiding Muddled Messes in World-Building
Friday 6:00PM Isle Royale
World-building is one of the most important, and also most daunting, aspects of sff writing. Here we’ll examine some of the pitfalls of world-building, from cardboard cultures to “planet of hats” races and beyond. In an effort to get beyond fantasy couched in vague European-ness, and science fiction built entirely of jumpsuits and holodecks, we ask: “What can we do to create better, richer, more interesting, and more thoughtful worlds?”
Sarah E Gibbons (m), Tracy Townsend, J. Zachary Pike, R.B. Lemberg
Emotional Non-Violence In Fiction
Saturday 11:00AM Petoskey
A discussion on what it looks like and what it means to integrate themes of emotional non-violence in fiction – also is emotionally non-violent fiction important? Going beyond higher level issues of emotional abuse to more subtle topics such as consent, misidentification, and personal questions.
E.D.E. Bell (m), Jason Sanford, R.B. Lemberg, Brandon O’Brien
Masculinity and Trauma Recovery in Genre Fiction
Saturday 2:00PM Isle Royale
Science Fiction and Fantasy are full of tough manly heroes (and anti-heroes) with trauma in their backgrounds, from murdered families to witnessed war crimes. More often than not, these traumatic backstories serve as a justification for sarcasm, alcohol, and violence. In a world where men are significantly less likely to get professional help to heal from their trauma, how can science fiction and fantasy help to create positive examples of heroes who face their demons constructively?
Brandon O’Brien (m), dave ring, John Wiswell, R.B. Lemberg
Inventing Mythos
Saturday 6:00PM Charlevoix
Okay, so your secondary-world fantasy has totally awesome gravity-defying dragons, but how do people think they got there? What stories do they tell about the Space Emperor Undying? What do the fables of our speculative universes say about the morals taught to children, and how did The Boy Who Lived become anything more than an urban legend to the wizarding world?
K.A. Doore (m), Stacey Filak, Izzy Wasserstein, R.B. Lemberg
