I (Rowena, the alien romances Sunday blogger) will be attending my first science fiction/fantasy convention in mid-January. It's the literature-focused "ConFusion" and will at the Hilton Doubletree in Dearborn, Michigan.
If any friends of this alien romances blog will be there, I'd love to meet you.
The Literarature tract Guest of Honor, is Karen Lord, multiple award-winning author of Redemption in Indigo and Best of All Possible Worlds.
The Music Guest of Honor is Canadian recording artist & touring musician Heather Dale.
The Gaming Guests of Honor are Shanna Germain (a writer for and the lead editor of both Numenera and The Strange) and Monte Cook (professional writer and award-winning game designer).
The Science Guest of Honor is Dr. Cynthia Chestek, a professor and researcher in the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
The Honored Fan Guest is Aaron Thul, who has served on the convention of committee of ConFusion for 8 years and the Ann Arbor Science Fiction Association board for 3 years.
Subterranean Press is once again bringing Special Guests: Steven Erikson, author of the critically-acclaimed Malazan Book of the Fallen, Joe Abercrombie, author of the best-selling fantasy books The First Law Trilogy – The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings, and Ted Chiang, Nebula and Hugo-award winning short fiction writer.
This is my schedule
Friday 6pm: Every Creature (Real and Fantastical) Poops
"You may have read the book Everyone Poops, but it's so human-centric. What about mermaids, centaurs, and other fantastical creatures? Let's see if we can analogize from real species to arrive at a theory of fantastical pooping. (Caution: conversation may stray into food, sex and gestation.)"
Saturday 11am: Authors Who Game
Authors talk about their favorite games, of any type.
Saturday 12pm: Curing the Common Cold
Will we ever cure the common cold? What about the common cancer?
Saturday 3pm: Mass Autograph Session
Saturday 5pm: Where the %*$# Are All My Bookstores?!
"Ah, the good old days when you could just drive down the street to pick up your favorite book. Or is it easier now to just click a "Buy" button? How has the book selling industry changed in the last 20 years, and are bookstores going to quietly disappear?"
It sounds like fun. Does anyone have any tips for me about sci-fi cons? Any thoughts about any of the topics? Does one wear costume?
Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry
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Most Romance authors avoid any suggestion that their heroes and heroines do anything as sordid as Number Two.
ReplyDeleteHave fun! I love cons. I always wear theme-appropriate T-shirts. Some people "dress up" a little for panels, but at most cons it's pretty casual, so I think you can wear whatever you want. I can't wait to hear your report on your panels, esp. "Every Creature Poops." Good luck with the weather for travel. Michigan in deep winter?! There's an annual event called MarsCon in Williamsburg, VA, in January, an easy drive from home for us. My husband and I attended last year and had fun (went out to dinner the first night in Colonial Williamsburg, our long-ago home town as married college students). But we were lucky with the weather. I decided my original misgivings about travel in January were a good reason not to go every year.
ReplyDeleteMargaret, thank you for the con-appropriate advice.
ReplyDeleteGood Lord the mind boggles at the thought of trying to design a Theme appropriate T shirt for a panel on Poop.
I must look into it!!!
Well, by "theme-appropriate" I meant something more general -- anything fantasy or SF-related. Although I do have a wolf shirt for werewolf sessions, a vampire shirt or two, and a Sime-Gen shirt.
ReplyDeleteI have found a "Poop Rainbows" T-Shirt from Zazzle featuring a unicorn.
ReplyDeletePerfect!
ReplyDelete