Con Schedule

Posted on by scott

Thanks for all your great suggestions for the Uglies Guide. Keep them coming, and I’ll be doing more posts about the Guide in the near future.

But in the meantime: On Thursday, Justine and I are headed to Confusion in Detroit. For any of you attending, here’s our schedule. Justine and I are on all the same panels—so I give you Justine’s interpretation from her blog:

FRIDAY 18 JANUARY:

1900 Den 1 Interview: Author GoHs by John Scalzi
Tee hee! Mr Scalzi will ask us questions and we will plead the fifth and get away with it because we know where he buried the bodies. I suspect zombies will be mentioned.

2000 Salon FGH Opening Ceremonies
We will say a few words but there won’t be an actual speech speech. Some of my words will be “quokka”, “zombie”, and “oscillate”, or maybe not. Depends.

2100 Salon FGH Dessert Reception
Where we eat dessert and natter with folks what want to natter.

2200 Den 1 Originality is Overrated
There’s this idea that writers work entirely alone and create their work out of whole cloth. That’s rubbish. If a work were wholly original no one would be able to read it. All writers are influenced by those who came before them. Most writers talk to other writers. Many are in writers’ groups and even those that aren’t frequently read and comment on each other’s work. Let’s talk about the influence and community that writers share. Even when they don’t know each other. Justine Larbalestier, Scott Westerfeld (M), Patrick Nielsen Hayden, John Scalzi, Patrick Rothfuss and Doselle Young.

I confess that I wrote this description on account of it’s something that drives me crazy and I’m looking forward to talking about it with such esteemed and smart companions. Especially Doselle. Everything is better if Doselle is involved.

SATURDAY 19 JANUARY:

1100 Den 1 Fantastic Sports
Organized sports are a vital part almost every culture on the globe. But sf and fantasy novels tend to overlook this key aspect of world-building. We examine what sports are and what they tell us about a culture, and dig up some good examples in sf and fantasy. Justine Larbalestier (M), Scott Westerfeld, Steve Ainsworth, Dave Klecha and Catherine Shaffer.

Mmmm . . . sport. If I weren’t moderator I would just spend the session teaching USians cricket.

1300 Salon G Juvenilia
Writers dust off the storage trunks, turn off the shame meter, and read from their 5th- through 12th-grade works of unalloyed proto-genius. A great way for young writers in the audience to feel much better about their own efforts. Justine Larbalestier (M), Scott Westerfeld, Merrie Haskell, K. Tempest Bradford and Marcy Italiano.

I can’t tell you how disappointed I am that Scalzi is not on this panel. Laughing at his early writing efforts was the whole reason I agreed to go to ConFusion!

1400 Den 1 SF Is Not Dead
More sf is written and consumed these days than every before, in the form of manga, video games, rpgs, and YA lit. Yet our beloved field constantly bemoans its own demise, while ignoring those 100,000 crazy kids down the road at Comicon. How do we connect these two worlds of sf? Justine Larbalestier, Scott Westerfeld (M), Anne Harris, Jim Frenkel and Peter Halasz.

Because me and Scott are sick to death of hearing the folks in the old sf people’s home whingeing about the death of sf. It ain’t dead! It’s doing just fine, thanks.

1500 Den 1 Golden Age of Young Adult Lit
Some argue that the YA books being published now are some of the best the field has ever seen. There are more of them, the quality is better, and the authors are being paid more. Is now the Golden Age of Young Adult Literature? And if so what does that mean for the next generation of readers? Justine Larbalestier (M), Scott Westerfeld, Steve Climer, Suzanne Church and Peter Halasz.

I think it is. I also think it’s just going to get better and better and better.

1700 All-Author Autographing Session
If you have books you want strange author types to scribble on here’s your chance.

2100 Concierge Literary Beer
The only thing we’re doing that you have to sign up for. It’ll be me and Scott sitting around with a smallish group of interested folks and answering their questions while we all drink beer (or water or whatever you wish to drink. I wish to drink Krug—I hope the ConCom is on top of that!).

SUNDAY 20 JANUARY:

1100 Salon H Gluten-Free Fantasy
Most medieval cultures didn’t have chainmail, swords, horses, or wheat. Yet the overwhelming majority of medieval cultures in fantasy do. What do we stand to gain by breaking the bonds of Europe on our collective imagination? And what’s so scary about bolas, sled-dogs, and rice? Justine Larbalestier, Scott Westerfeld, John Scalzi, Karl Schroeder, Jim Frenkel.

This panel is also something me and Scott came up with. It has a backstory. Way back in the dark ages we were on a panel together about fantasy where we panelists suggested that there were other settings for high fantasy other than mediaeval Europe. Scott went as far as to say that wheat is not essential to high fantasy.

The audience turned on him. “We LOVE wheat!” they proclaimed. “We hate fantasy that isn’t set in mediaevel Europe. We hate wanky literary fantasy. In fact, we hate you writers on the panel who are trying to take away our wheat!”

Scalzi was in the audience along with the wonderful Karen Meisner and they both say it was one of the most extraordinary things they have ever seen. Karen even sent Scott a Canadian license plate wth a beautiful picture of wheat on it. Scott still contends that we were caught in the wave of an Atkin’s diet backlash.

Here’s the con’s full schedule.

Hope to see some of you there! I mean if this wussy Aussie girl can brave the dead of winter in Detroit, so can you!

82 thoughts on “Con Schedule”

  1. my advice, Bran-la, is to not ask questions like that. they are dangerous no matter what the anserw is. it is cruel to ask such things.

    my school’s full of preppy people, but i don’t know if they’re the only ones. i say like a lot and i am NOT *emphaisis on the home-dyed pinkred hair and home-sewed arctic monkeys sweatshirt* preppy.

    i am posting more Graduation! really soon! i promise! like ten minutes! on my LJ!

  2. Serafina,I have to say i am going to use that advise. That is prouabaly the wisest thing to do. Boys + questions= frustration
    Very Bad Combo!

    Is it possible for computers to destroy your eyesight?

  4. Bran-la, let me enroll in your school. ALL the people at my school are preppy. Its very… how do I put it? Freaky… 😐

    Oh… and Lizzy-wa, I like the new chapter on your “Chasing Midnight Werewolves Club” site. Your club is fawesmoe.

    xD “fawesmoe”! Hahaha!

  6. Thats funny Bre-la.

    Serafina, i asked because i have been having trouble readin stuff off the bored and i dont want to het classes and i love being on the computer. + this is there i write my stories.

  7. Hey Scott when you do book signings do you ever get someone who has like ALL of your books and wants you to sign them right then and it takes you like ten minutes just to get through one person? They have a big huge bag of books and they just keep coming out and more and more and more! lol that would be funny ha ha ha 😆

  8. my school has a little bit of everything.

    man i have to go back to school tomorrow… 🙁 and i have all new classes so i don’t know where anything is. crap.

  11. Hmmm…I say like All the time.I hope that doesn’t make me preppy.
    I finished The Last Days a few hours ago,and of course it was fawesome(love that word!)I told my friends about it and they’ve been saying it all day.HeHeHe! Yeah, but my friends(including me) ask eachother if we’re annoying like(there it is again,’like’)all the time, and the answer’s always YES! And we know it too, but it’s fun being annoying together.(LoL!!!)
    See Ya!

  14. ok so i have one question for u scott

    WHY WONT YOU COME TO GA? I DON’T CARE WHERE IN GA!!!!!!!! I WOULD DRIVE ALL OVE GA IF I COULD MEET U AND GET MY BOOKS SIGNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PRETTY PLZ COME TO GA!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

    ok so…………

    Bored……………

    SoPhIe-La
    WoRd 😉

  15. Sophie-la, I heard that if you want him to come somewhere you have to talk to like Borders or some other book store and ask them to host an event,I don’t know all the details though.
    See ya!

  17. Yeah, that part was sad 🙁 Can’t wait to read more…

    Cannot wait… for new chapters… New Moon… and for Froday…

    I can’t spell at all! Typo! Hahhaha! “Froday”! xD 😀

    I meant Friday

  18. ahhhh to those who are romeo and juliet fans on this comment board, my class just read the part where **spoilers**
    mercutio dies…..it was quite sad…..:( i know this is really off topic, lol i just know a few of us on these boards are shakespearean fans so i had to update….lol

  19. ahhh like a 6 hour drive to detroit as well
    its a shame that i have midterms next week
    otherwise i would totally fancy going to meet you scott

  20. grrrrrrrr!!! My stupid computer kicked me off line right when I pushed send for a comment!And I’m much too lazy to retype it.
    HaHaHa!!!I’ve been really giggly today!
    See ya!

  21. As I posted on Justine’s blog:

    Gah! I grew up in Michigan, and even lived in Detroit for over a year (well, a suburb..)…..and now that two way-cool people are going to be there I’m in Germany! *sigh*

  22. Serefina, about the confusing paragraph, It’s not confusing, because I get it.

    Like the other day I said to my friend “Is that the thing that goes to the thing that attaches to that thing for that thing?”

    And my other friends like “what the hell, (insert name)”

    And the friend that I was originally speaking to was like “ya, thats the thing”

    I can’t believe he actually understood me, I guess that shows how much my friends now me!

    Wow, that was total randomness

  23. exactly. Steampunk Day makes perfect sense.

    wow, we’re reading Romeo + Juliet in class too. we just started though.

    glad u liked the Graduation.

  24. serafina zane not doing research……
    thats cool i like romeo and juliet…..we had a big test thing and i think i blew it tho…..
    not a surprise my test grades have been not so hot lately
    but we have midterms next week….hopefully those’ll go better
    stupid school
    if it werent for school maybe id be abel to go to teh con….:( cuz i live close

  26. Yeah, the other day I just walked over to my Mom and told her that we were going to Detroit and she said have fun getting there and send me a postcard. So I guess that’s a no.(I don’t see why, It’s only a few thousand miles.HeHeHe!!!)

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