Readercon 10 program
In panels: "(M)" = Moderator
All items are 1 hour long unless otherwise stated.
Viking and Autumn are the two main program rooms, located past the Bookshop in Baldwin/Chandler. (Well, it's past the Bookshop if you're coming from the main lobby.) Nugget and Wellington are the two reading rooms, on the other side of the hall from Viking and Autumn. Empire and York are located downstairs. The staircase is kind of behind the rest rooms that are on the other side of the hall from Registration.
FRI. 02:00 PM (Viking) Literary synesthesia
Samuel R. Delany (M), Debra Doyle, Greer Gilman
It is possible to map imaginative literature to other forms of art. Do some works by their very nature evoke aspects of abstract painting or Baroque music? How do individual readers do this? Is this essentially an emotional process, rather than a critical one? Does reading aloud alter this process? What are your favorite artistic analogies?
FRI. 03:00 PM (Viking) Meanwhile, back in the real world...
F. Brett Cox (M), Paul Di Filippo, Eileen Gunn, Allen Steele, Gene Wolfe
How will recent world developments, such as the end of the cold war, the AIDS epidemic, cloning, and multiculturalism, help to shape the evolution of sf? Has the range of topics been narrowed, or merely redefined? How will developments in sf continue to influence science in the real world?
FRI. 04:00 PM (Viking) Weird reading strategies
Billie Aul, Tom Jackson (M), Sarah Smith, Jennifer K. Stevenson
Have you ever read the ending of a novel first? Some readers don't want to commit to characters who won't survive, or simply want to get major surprises out of the way. Some people also deconstruct a story by reading it out of order, or even completely randomly. These strategies obviously won't work with everything, but can produce interesting new views of your favorite fiction.
FRI. 05:00 PM (Viking) The blurb ruined it for me
Ellen Asher, Terry Bisson, Steven Sawicki (M), Robert J. Sawyer, Gene Wolfe
Blurbs are generally misleading and can give too much away, as can reviews. Grrrrr--we all have favorite examples of monstrous misprision to recount. Can a blurb honestly describe a book without spoiling it? What are the best ways to entice a reader to make a purchase?
FRI. 06:00 PM (Viking) Stories for the turned-on brain
Suzy McKee Charnas, Samuel R. Delany, Elizabeth Hand, Barry N. Malzberg, Cecilia Tan (M)
"The more honest an author is about what turns her on, the more likely I am to enjoy reading him, no matter what my personal preferences might be." This quote from a retired collector of erotica is a good place to begin a discussion of the power of the erotic in imaginative literature.
FRI. 06:00 PM (Autumn) The art of translation
Geary Gravel, Yves Meynard, Lawrence Schimel, Bruce Sterling, Jean-Louis Trudel (M)
How does translation impact our experience in reading a given work? Is something often lost, or do we simply read a story that is subtly different from what the author intended? What does the translator bring to the writing itself, in this unique form of collaboration? The translator is even occasionally the source of a given work's perceived greatness. Besides the obvious questions about translations between spoken/written human languages, there are different problems inherent in working with forms of communication such as American Sign Language and invented alien languages.
FRI. 06:00 PM (Empire) Discussion: Bookaholics Anonymous Annual Meeting
Patrick O'Leary (M)
Many Readercon attendees have admitted that being a bookaholic can actually be a good thing. But no matter how much you love book ownership, reading remains the best part of the book experience. Come testify at the meeting!
FRI. 06:00 PM (30 min.) (Nugget)
Lisa Goldstein reads.
FRI. 06:00 PM (30 min.) (Wellington)
Michael Swanwick reads "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy-O."
FRI. 06:00 PM (York)
Kaffeeklatsch: John Crowley & Debra Doyle / James D. Macdonald
FRI. 06:00 PM (Bookshop)
Autographs: Hal Clement & Andy Duncan
FRI. 06:30 PM (30 min.) (Nugget)
Donald Kingsbury reads from "Historical Crisis," an expansion of a story in Far Futures, taking place in an alternate Asimov Galactic Empire.
FRI. 06:30 PM (30 min.) (Wellington)
Rachel Pollack reads a story from her forthcoming collection, Burning Sky.
FRI. 07:00 PM (Viking) New maps of heaven
John Clute, Joseph Mayhew, Teresa Nielsen Hayden (M), Kit Reed, Mark Rich
All of a sudden we're drowning in books about priests (e.g., Russell's The Sparrow), cults, and spiritual topics galore. Are these other planes just the most recent frontier imaginative literature has found to colonize, now that other planets and other times have been sharecropped to death, or is something else at work here? We hope it's a reaction to the sterility and emptiness of postmodern culture and not related to that millennium thing!
FRI. 07:00 PM (Autumn) Memetics and sf
Debra Doyle, Glenn Grant (M), Eileen Gunn, James Patrick Kelly, Patrick Nielsen Hayden
What are the memes of the sf community? What are the differences between memes and tropes? Some memes may interfere with literature and the writing process, and others may help to define the work itself. Does the name "Golden Age" simply refer to the time before today's debilitating memes got into circulation?
FRI. 07:00 PM (Empire) Discussion: SF and the Approval of Mainstream Literature
Gordon Van Gelder
FRI. 07:00 PM (Nugget)
Robert J. Sawyer reads from his forthcoming novel, Mosaic.
FRI. 07:00 PM (30 min.) (Wellington)
Linn Prentis reads a work by Richard Bowes.
FRI. 07:00 PM (York)
Kaffeeklatsch: Candas Jane Dorsey & Scott Edelman
FRI. 07:00 PM (Bookshop)
Autographs: Paul Park & Rachel Pollack
FRI. 07:30 PM (30 min.) (Wellington)
Jennifer K. Stevenson reads from Trash, Sex, Magic, a novel about white-trash sex magicians.
FRI. 08:00 PM (Viking) Science versus pseudoscience
Hal Clement, Jeff Hecht, James Morrow (M), Allen Steele, Bruce Sterling
How does the interpenetration of real and pseudoscience (often found in popular culture) affect contemporary sf? Is the dividing line between them always clear? How can we put the science back into speculative fiction?
FRI. 08:00 PM (Autumn) The imaginative literature of Lisa Goldstein
Paul Di Filippo, Mark Graham, Ken Houghton (M), James Patrick Kelly
FRI. 08:00 PM (Empire) Completing Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman by Walter Miller, Jr.
Terry Bisson
FRI. 08:00 PM (Con Suite) Chautauqua: Video Editing
John Crowley, Kurt Engfehr
Mr. Crowley and Mr. Engfehr will talk about modern video technology and the television industry. Mr. Crowley makes historical documentaries for television. Mr. Engfehr works as a video editor for HBO; he has also written television promos and film scripts, and has worked with MSNBC, WNET, ESPN, and E!
FRI. 08:00 PM (Nugget)
Ellen Kushner reads a new Bordertown story, "Hot Water."
FRI. 08:00 PM (Wellington)
Esther M. Friesner reads "An Old Man's Summer."
FRI. 08:00 PM (York)
Kaffeeklatsch: Brenda W. Clough & Andy Duncan
FRI. 08:00 PM (Bookshop)
Autographs: Donald Kingsbury & Carter Scholz
FRI. 09:00 PM (Empire) Chautauqua: War, Work, and Worship: Watercraft in Ancient Egypt
Noreen Doyle (30 min.)
FRI. 09:00 PM (30 min.) (Nugget)
Samuel R. Delany reads.
FRI. 09:00 PM (30 min.) (Wellington)
Suzy McKee Charnas reads a chapter from a new novel, The Conqueror's Child, the last in the Holdfast series.
FRI. 10:00 PM (3 hours) (Viking/Autumn)
Meet-the-Pros(e) Party
SAT. 09:30 AM (Viking) The crisis of the midlist: revamping the publishing industry
Samuel R. Delany, Lisa Goldstein, David G. Hartwell, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Gordon Van Gelder (M)
Most of the writers we collectively value at Readercon are members of the midlist, or will be after they have published their first novels. What can we do to make sure the work of the writers we enjoy is available to us in future, in the form of actual books? What can be done to help insure the future of independent publishers and booksellers, and the continuation of library collections?
SAT. 09:30 AM (Autumn) Essential stories you should read
Ellen Datlow (M), Barry N. Malzberg, Ed Meskys, Carter Scholz, Michael Swanwick
What works are essential reading in the field of imaginative literature? We will include recent favorites, as well as classics, and establish a core list. Be prepared, should you ever be stuck on the proverbial desert island!
SAT. 09:30 AM (Empire) Presentation and slide show: Bleachworld
Hal Clement
Mr. Clement's story "Option" is based on this fictional planet with a chlorine atmosphere and an eccentric orbit.
SAT. 09:30 AM (Con Suite) Presentation: Brackett's Hollywood Career
Andy Duncan
Mr. Duncan will discuss the Hollywood career of Leigh Brackett and show clips of her films. He will theorize about the important themes and issues raised in these movies, and how they pertain (if at all) to her other writing, and pay particular attention to the portrayal of women characters.
SAT. 09:30 AM (Nugget)
Paul Park reads.
SAT. 09:30 AM (30 min.) (Wellington)
Kit Reed reads a story from Weird Women, Wired Women.
SAT. 09:30 AM (York)
Kaffeeklatsch: Glen Cook & Gene Wolfe
SAT. 09:30 AM (Bookshop)
Autographs: John Crowley & Darrell Schweitzer
SAT. 10:00 AM (30 min.) (Wellington)
Brenda W. Clough reads from a novel.
SAT. 10:30 AM (Viking) Single-gender stories
Janice M. Eisen (M), Geary Gravel, Lawrence Schimel, Delia Sherman, Susanna J. Sturgis
The single-gender world is one possible way to examine gender issues. How does the process of separating or excluding people by gender aid in exploring human relationships? Why does "women" almost never equal "people" except in tales of single-gender worlds?
SAT. 10:30 AM (Autumn) Where did they get that?: Hollywood and sf
Terry Bisson (M), Don D'Ammassa, Craig Shaw Gardner, Leigh Grossman, James D. Macdonald
The giant spaceship shadowing the city in Independence Day comes from Childhood's End, the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi bear a striking resemblance to H. Beam Piper's Fuzzies, and Alien reminded a lot of us of Voyage of the Space Beagle. Images have obviously leaked into public consciousness from written sf. Why aren't the originals as well known as the derivatives? Should some stories never be adapted as films, in order to preserve their essential qualities?
SAT. 10:30 AM (Empire) Chautauqua: Why and How We Sleep
Eric M. Van
An overview of the field, up-to-date with the very latest (and very interesting) findings from scientfic journals, together with some original thoughts.
SAT. 10:30 AM (Nugget)
Bruce Sterling reads either a new short story or from a forthcoming novel.
SAT. 10:30 AM (Wellington)
Patrick O'Leary reads from his novel-in-progress, The Impossible Bird, and/or "23 Skidoo."
SAT. 10:30 AM (York)
Kaffeeklatsch: Donald Kingsbury & Pat Murphy
SAT. 10:30 AM (Bookshop)
Autographs: Esther M. Friesner & James Morrow
SAT. 11:30 AM (Viking) The relationship was my favorite part of the story!
Catherine Asaro, Lisa Goldstein, James Patrick Kelly (M), Barry B. Longyear, Gene Wolfe, Jack Womack
Characterization-centered writing is quite popular, because it explores relationships and inner lives. In addition to its obvious merits, it also provides a nice counterpoint when juxtaposed with scientific explanation in traditional hard sf. How does this approach to writing color the various subgenres of imaginative literature, and vice versa?
SAT. 11:30 AM (Autumn) The science fiction of Bruce Sterling
F. Brett Cox, Glenn Grant, David G. Hartwell (M), Tom Jackson, Charles C. Ryan
SAT. 11:30 AM (Empire) Presentation and slide show: Focus on 19th-Century Paintings
Cortney Skinner
How did painters and illustrators of the 19th and early 20th century maximize the effect of their artwork, and insure an intimate connection between it and the viewer? What makes a successful painting seems like it should be obvious, but we will examine what ingredients made the painters succeed in telling a story, and what today's illustrators and publishers can learn and are learning from the past.
SAT. 11:30 AM (Nugget)
John Crowley reads from Daemonomania, part three of Aegypt.
SAT. 11:30 AM (30 min.) (Wellington)
Cecilia Tan reads "The Dragon's Daughter," forthcoming in the lesbian fiction anthology To Be Continued....
SAT. 11:30 AM (York)
Kaffeeklatsch: Suzy McKee Charnas & Allen Steele
SAT. 11:30 AM (Bookshop)
Autographs: Robert J. Sawyer & Michael Swanwick
SAT. 12:00 Noon (30 min.) (Wellington)
Connie Hirsch reads "Puck in Boots: The True Story."
SAT. 12:30 PM (Viking) Why women write horror
Ellen Datlow (M), Paul Di Filippo, Esther M. Friesner, Kelly Link, Kit Reed
What is it about horror that particularly appeals to women writers? Does "oppression" equal "horror" within the context of women's lives? Do such factors as biology and the cultural definition of women by ephemeral appearance make this natural?
SAT. 12:30 PM (Autumn) One ring to rule them all: global corporations in sf
Brenda W. Clough, Aline Boucher Kaplan, David Alexander Smith (M), Bruce Sterling
In the global marketplace, politics and economics are becoming the same thing. Global corporations will influence both the future real and literary worlds. Why aren't more people writing about this? What new alternatives to capitalism will emerge?
SAT. 12:30 PM (Empire) Discussion: A Meeting of the Young Trollopes (One of an Occasional Series)
Candas Jane Dorsey, Ellen Kushner, Laurie J. Marks, Delia Sherman
The Young Trollopes is a new literary movement founded by Ms. Kushner, Ms. Sherman, Terri Windling, and friends. It postulates that novels entirely about character, like Anthony Trollope's, can be totally satisfying, that plot and story are not the same, that story can be more interesting than plot, and that scenes in which people sit in a room and talk are not a bad thing. It also, like Trollope, supports the idea of works of fiction with continuing and interweaving sets of characters.
SAT. 12:30 PM (30 min.) (Nugget)
Pat Murphy reads from a novel-in-progress.
SAT. 12:30 PM (Wellington) Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald read.
SAT. 12:30 PM (York)
Kaffeeklatsch: James Morrow & Patrick & Teresa Nielsen Hayden
SAT. 12:30 PM (Bookshop)
Autographs: Samuel R. Delany & Nalo Hopkinson
SAT. 01:00 PM (30 min.) (Nugget)
Joseph Mayhew reads "Delivering the Mail."
SAT. 01:30 PM (Viking) The plot's the thing
Jeffrey A. Carver (M), Alexander Jablokov, Paul Park, Robert J. Sawyer, Michael Swanwick
Serious literary fiction can be a wonderful thing, but playing with language can obscure what many readers value most: the story itself. Is the ostensible primacy of plot inherent in the very notion of story? What are the special advantages of plot-oriented writing, within the parameters of imaginative literature?
SAT. 01:30 PM (Autumn) Our glorious history: tales of Readercons past
Scott Edelman, Merryl Gross (M), Donald Kingsbury, Gordon Van Gelder, The Joey Zone
Come listen to the personal reminiscences of panelists and audience members, in celebration of our tenth convention.
SAT. 01:30 PM (Empire) Discussion: The Wild, the Innocent, and the Godzilla Shuffle
Craig Shaw Gardner
Is it all right to like both J. G. Ballard and Gamera the Flying Turtle? Mr. Gardner will discuss the use of innocence and experience in the fantastic, or how Ed Wood, Pogo the Possum, and Philip K. Dick are all telling us the same thing. And why did the new Godzilla movie suck, anyway?
SAT. 01:30 PM (Con Suite) Chautauqua: Using Stock Footage
John Crowley
Mr. Crowley will show his documentary "No Place To Hide," about the bomb shelter madness of the 1950s, narrated by Martin Sheen, and scored by Brian Eno. The video lasts 30 minutes, and then he will talk for 30 minutes about using stock footage to create narrative. Readers of his novel Beasts will remember the character Meric Landseer who produced from stock footage an annual documentary that seemed always to be the same but was actually modified every year to echo the current need and spirit of the community.
SAT. 01:30 PM (30 min.) (Nugget)
James Patrick Kelly reads "Itsy Bitsy Spider" (or something new).
SAT. 01:30 PM (Wellington)
Shariann Lewitt reads from Rebel Surta, forthcoming from Tor in summer 1999.
SAT. 01:30 PM (York)
Kaffeeklatsch: Bruce Sterling
SAT. 01:30 PM (Bookshop)
Autographs: Patrick O'Leary & Gene Wolfe
SAT. 02:00 PM (30 min.) (Nugget)
F. Brett Cox, Jeanne Beckwith, Paul Di Filippo, Andy Duncan and Tom Jackson read a one-act play, "It Came Out of the Sky."
SAT. 02:30 PM (30 min.) (Nugget)
Terry Bisson reads "First Fire," a literary homage to Arthur C. Clarke's "The Nine Billion Names of God."
SAT. 02:30 PM (30 min.) (Wellington)
Ellen Brody reads from Leigh Brackett's The Long Tomorrow.
SAT. 03:00 PM (Viking/Autumn) Lisa Goldstein Interview
Ellen Kushner, Lisa Goldstein
SAT. 04:00 PM (Viking/Autumn) Bruce Sterling Interview
Stephen P. Brown, Bruce Sterling
SAT. 05:00 PM (Nugget)
James Morrow reads scenes from The Eternal Footman, the final volume of the Godhead Trilogy.
SAT. 05:00 PM (Wellington)
Delia Sherman reads either from her novel-in-progress, The Freedom Maze, or a new story, "The Parwat Ruby."
SAT. 06:00 PM (Viking/Autumn) Banquet
SAT. 07:00 PM (2 hours) (Viking/Autumn) James Tiptree, Jr. Award Ceremony and Auction
Candas Jane Dorsey, Kelly Link, Pat Murphy, Ellen Klages, Elizabeth Hand, Nalo Hopkinson
SAT. 09:30 PM (90 mins) (Viking/Autumn) The Eleventh or Twelfth Non-Annual Kirk Poland Memorial Bad Prose Competition
Scott Edelman, Craig Shaw Gardner (M), Geary Gravel, Rachel Pollack, Eric M. Van (M)
SUN. 08:30 AM (3 and 1/2 hours) (Cortland) Closed Workshop with David Alexander Smith
SUN. 10:00 AM (Viking) The idea as hero
Kathryn Cramer (M), John Crowley, Thomas A. Easton, Barry N. Malzberg, Bruce Sterling
Ideas were often the focus of sf in the 1940s and 1950s, mapped with a sense of wonder. Classic works that integrally rely on ideas include Asimov's Foundation trilogy and Clarke's 2001. Is idea-driven writing becoming rarer due to ideas being used up, or is this simply evidence of changing literary tastes at the end of the 20th century? Could contemporary scientific advances shift the balance?
SUN. 10:00 AM (Autumn) The career of Leigh Brackett
Andy Duncan, Donald Kingsbury, Darrell Schweitzer (M), Gordon Van Gelder
SUN. 10:00 AM (Empire) Discussion: The SF in Gilbert & Sullivan, or, FTL Pinafore, or Priest-Kings of RuddyGore
Daniel Dern and friends
Sure, you're familiar with Gilbert & Sullivan's comic operas as being humorous and hummable--but did you know they're also full of science fiction, fantasy, and magic? Come and find out more.
SUN. 10:00 AM (30 min.) (Nugget)
Jack Womack reads from Going, Going, Gone, a new novel.
SUN. 10:00 AM (Wellington)
Aline Boucher Kaplan reads from novels-in-progress Master of the Wind and Crossing the Line: Vol. 1 of the Demons of Godsworld.
SUN. 10:00 AM (York)
Kaffeeklatsch: Ellen Datlow & Samuel R. Delany
SUN. 10:00 AM (Bookshop)
Autographs: Brenda W. Clough & Barry B. Longyear
SUN. 10:30 AM (30 min.) (Nugget)
Candas Jane Dorsey reads.
SUN. 11:00 AM (Viking) Words as magic
John Crowley, Greer Gilman, Lisa Goldstein, James Morrow (M), Rachel Pollack, Gene Wolfe
In Red Magician Lisa Goldstein wrote: "A magician's business is with words." Words are the ultimate power in the universe of this novel, used to make magic and shape reality. In other fiction, a facility with the magic of words and language can also be important in more prosaic ways, both within the story and to the reading experience. And we cannot forget the beauty of language itself in literature. We will discuss the various implications of the magic of words and language, for characters, readers, and writers, in the context of imaginative literature.
SUN. 11:00 AM (Autumn) Feminist criticism now
David G. Hartwell (M), Shariann Lewitt, Pat Murphy, Sarah Smith, Susanna J. Sturgis
Several years ago, the New York Review of Science Fiction called for more explicitly feminist criticism. Would this help imaginative literature grow and deepen, or should we not dignify the vulgar curiosity of outsiders hoping to see a catfight? Where is the debate today? We will skip the "who is a real feminist?" argument and discuss those who represent the state of the art.
SUN. 11:00 AM (Empire) Chautauqua: The Dharma of Buffy
Donald G. Keller
Mr. Keller will discuss the parallels between Hindu mythology and the television show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
SUN. 11:00 AM (Nugget)
Catherine Asaro reads from Aurora in Four Voices or The Last Hawk.
SUN. 11:00 AM (Wellington)
Carter Scholz reads "The Amount to Carry," forthcoming in Starlight 2.
SUN. 11:00 AM (York)
Kaffeeklatsch: Terry Bisson / Paul Park & Patrick O'Leary
SUN. 11:00 AM (Bookshop)
Autographs: Bruce Sterling
SUN. 12:00 Noon (Viking) Alternate histories of sf
Richard Bowes, Eileen Gunn, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, David Alexander Smith (M), Allen Steele
Imagine a world in which Cyril Kornbluth lived long enough to develop some feminist tendencies in his work. How would the work of Alice Sheldon be different if she were actually a man? What if Isaac Asimov hated robots? What if Judith Merril had terrible taste in fiction? Would Readercon even exist without the influence of Philip K. Dick? And--what about Naomi?
SUN. 12:00 Noon (Autumn) Sheldon's continuing legacy: sf and aging
Suzy McKee Charnas, John Clute, Jeanne Gomoll (M), Connie Hirsch, Stephen Popkes
The Tiptree Award has done an incredibly good job of promoting fiction that explores gender, but Alice Sheldon was a writer who also examined aging. What classic and current stories do we admire most that shatter conventional assumptions about growing older? What themes remain to be addressed?
SUN. 12:00 Noon (Empire) Discussion: Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis
Joseph Mayhew
SUN. 12:00 Noon (30 min.) (Nugget)
Alexander Jablokov reads.
SUN. 12:00 Noon (Wellington) Joint reading
Nalo Hopkinson / Kelly Link
Ms. Hopkinson reads from her novel, Brown Girl in the Ring; Ms. Link reads "Travels with the Snow Queen."
SUN. 12:00 Noon (York)
Kaffeeklatsch: Barry B. Longyear & Delia Sherman
SUN. 12:00 Noon (Bookshop)
Autographs: Ellen Datlow & Candas Jane Dorsey
SUN. 12:30 PM (30 min.) (Nugget)
Andy Duncan reads from a new unpublished novella, The Executioners' Guild.
SUN. 01:00 PM (Viking) Writing respectfully about other cultures
Noreen Doyle, Ellen Kushner (M), Shariann Lewitt, James Morrow, Paul Park
Do you have to be a member of an ethnicity, religion, or "race" in order to write honestly about it? Is it sufficient to acknowledge your own biases where appropriate? Does good research transcend most experiential limitations? Do these questions also apply to fictional or alien cultures? Should we embrace political correctness, and how can we without ultimately stifling the full range of our creativity?
SUN. 01:00 PM (Autumn) The Beat influence
Terry Bisson, F. Brett Cox, Paul Di Filippo (M), Eileen Gunn, Bruce Sterling
In his essay "Letters from Home," Rudy Rucker wrote that he, Sterling, Shirley, and Gibson can be matched with four of the greatest Beat poets: Burroughs, Ginsberg, Corso, and Kerouac, respectively. Can the individual parallels help us learn more about the essence of writing? Did the wide-ranging legacy of the Beats play a formative role in the creation of one of the most important recent subgenres in sf?
SUN. 01:00 PM (Empire) Presentation: Electronic Book Production
Leigh Grossman
Mr. Grossman will give a presentation about the electronic production of traditional print-on-paper books, including his 1-page guide on preparing author disks, for people who know nothing about computers.
SUN. 01:00 PM (Nugget)
Laurie J. Marks reads "How the Ocean Loved Margie."
SUN. 01:00 PM (30 min.) (Wellington)
Mark Rich reads from a novel-in-progress.
SUN. 01:00 PM (York)
Kaffeeklatsch: Hal Clement & Robert J. Sawyer
SUN. 01:00 PM (Bookshop)
Autographs: Lisa Goldstein
SUN. 01:30 PM (30 min.) (Wellington)
Jeff Hecht reads "Missing Link."
SUN. 02:00 PM (Viking) Suffering for your art
Samuel R. Delany, Rosemary Kirstein, Barry N. Malzberg, Delia Sherman (M), Gene Wolfe
Does art require suffering? Emotional pain is part of the human experience, and no one is exempt. Is more suffering truly conducive to greater productiveness and better quality art?
SUN. 02:00 PM (Autumn) The crisis of the midlist: alternative publishing
Bryan Cholfin, Candas Jane Dorsey, Donald G. Keller, Fred Lerner (M), Charles C. Ryan
What are the current and possible future alternatives to traditional publishing? Fiction is now available online, and as books on tape. Future possibilities include printing on demand and the ascendance of small presses. Whose needs do these forms of publishing address?
SUN. 02:00 PM (Empire) Presentation: SF in French
Jean-Louis Trudel
SUN. 02:00 PM (Nugget)
Glenn Grant reads "Thermometers Melting," from Arrowdreams: The Anthology of Alternate Canadas.
SUN. 02:00 PM (Wellington)
Greer Gilman reads.
SUN. 02:00 PM (York)
Kaffeeklatsch: Alexander Jablokov & Rachel Pollack
SUN. 02:00 PM (Bookshop)
Autographs: Kathryn Cramer & David G. Hartwell
SUN. 03:00 PM (Viking) The Tiptree short lists
F. Brett Cox, Gregory Feeley (M), Jeanne Gomoll, Nalo Hopkinson, Laurie J. Marks
We will discuss fiction of interest by past and present Tiptree Award winners, and by other authors whose work has been deservedly considered.
SUN. 03:00 PM (Autumn) The enchantress of Venus vacations on Skaith: sf settings
Samuel R. Delany, Janice M. Eisen (M), Jeff Hecht, Robert J. Sawyer
It has long been traditional for sf authors to set tales on our neighboring planets, in other star systems, and in interstellar space. What are the pros and cons of using each of these settings? How have recent advances in astronomy influenced the frequency and style of their use? Are extra-solar settings and interstellar travel becoming more popular, because our own solar system has become too mundane?
SUN. 03:00 PM (Empire) DiscussionL SF Poetry Tom Jackson
SUN. 03:00 PM (Nugget)
Barry B. Longyear reads "Preliminary Report," forthcoming in Andre Norton's Catfantastic Vol. 5.
SUN. 03:00 PM (30 min.) (Wellington)
Hal Clement reads "Half Life."
SUN. 03:00 PM (York)
Kaffeeklatsch: Aline Boucher Kaplan & Ellen Kushner
SUN. 03:00 PM (Bookshop)
Autographs: Alexander Jablokov
SUN. 03:30 PM (30 min.) (Wellington)
Don D'Ammassa reads "Wormdance."
SUN. 04:00 PM (Viking) Readercon 10 Critique
Members of the Readercon 10 Committee
SUN. 04:00 PM (Autumn) SFWA Emergency Medical Fund Auction
Peter Heck