Can*Con is coming soon, and I will be there! If you’ll be there too, find me in the following places (or just around the con)!
Worldbuilding Focus: Park Politics. Saturday, October 17, 4:00 p.m., Mainstream room (3rd floor). The deliberate construction of the natural environment into “parks” and “sites” is a complicated part of any country, with a number of key considerations as part of worldbuilding. What are the overt and implicit goals of a park? Who is involved in their construction – and who is deliberately left out or displaced? Is the power over a space in the hands of its indigenous population or someone else, and how can that be used as commentary on the hierarchies and power structures of your world? Our panelists discuss examples from across genres and how real-world history can be used to inform considerations of parks and rec in fiction.
Classic or Merely Old? Saturday, October 17, 7:00 p.m., Traders room (2nd floor). Some vintage SFFH, like Dune, Wizards of Earthsea, and Frankenstein, are considered classics of the Anglophone SFFH world, worth remembering and studying even now. Others have been forgotten, and more are still considered despite their flaws (e.g. the racism and xenophobia present in H.P. Lovecraft’s works). What are the influences that determine which works get remembered, and which do not? How do we engage with the global Anglophone foundations of genre, while also being mindful of social and cultural changes? And how do we navigate inclusions, deletions, and qualifications to those foundations?
Horned Lark Press Party. Sunday, October 18, 10:00 a.m., Leaders room (2nd floor). My understanding is that this will involve several things but include me reading a bit of A Dubious Clamor, although I’m open to other plans if my publisher makes them.
Book signing. Sunday, October 19, 11:00 a.m., Vendors room (Newbridge room, Horned Lark Press table).