Where I'll Be: WorldCon 2018

Once again I’ll be at Authors Alcove for Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio. Please stop by the booth and say hi, or come to one of my panels! I should have handouts for some of the panels. I’ll also have buttons and badge ribbons to give away!

Thursday

11:00 AM
Let’s Get Cozy: Writing Cozy Fiction*
GCCC – 2nd Floor – Meeting Room A 212 – Authors Track
Cat Rambo, Aaron Rosenberg
Everyone’s all about the cozy these days. What is a cozy, exactly? And how do you write one?

Friday

1:00 PM
Writing Resistance
GCCC – 2nd Floor – Meeting Room A 212 – Authors Track
Cat Rambo, Sarah Hans, Laura VanArendonk Baugh
How do we create narratives that inspire and encourage social change without writing propaganda?

Saturday

1:00 PM
Writing along the Gender Spectrum
GCCC – 2nd Floor – Meeting Room A 212 – Authors Track
Jenifer Purcell Rosenberg, Cat Rambo, Sarah Hans, Amy Schneider
How do we create characters that show and celebrate the diversity of the human race when it comes to gender and sexuality?

2:00 PM
Effective Worldbuilding *
GCCC – 2nd Floor – Meeting Room A 212 – Authors Track
Daniel Myers, Cat Rambo, C.S.E. Cooney, Jeri Shepherd
Games and fiction require creating interesting, immersive worlds. What are some tips and tricks?

4:00 PM
Giving Encouragement to Prospective Authors
GCCC – 2nd Floor – Meeting Room A 212 – Authors Track
James Daniel Ross, Cat Rambo, Addie J. King
How do you do it succinctly? How do you do it without that conversation becoming the rest of your day?

5:00 PM
Basics of Writing Short Stories *
GCCC – 2nd Floor – Meeting Room A 212 – Authors Track
Donald J. Bingle, Cat Rambo, Kelli Fitzpatrick, James Daniel Ross
How you get started writing – and then finishing – a short story.

Sunday

11:00 AM
All About Self-Publishing *
GCCC – 2nd Floor – Meeting Room A 212 – Authors Track
Sarah Hans, Cat Rambo, Aaron Rosenberg, Laura VanArendonk Baugh
Self-publishing used to be a bad word, but it’s become much more respected in recent years. Should you self- publish? How do you go about it?

*I have a handout for this panel. If you miss the panel, come by the booth afterward and I’ll give you the applicable handout (if I still have any).

Lisa Mantchev described it best when she Tweeted: I’ve never actually been run over by a Zamboni full of glitter, but that’s what it feels like after a really great convention.

That’s how SteamCon was. I arrived Friday afternoon for the Steampunk Reimagines Fairy Tales. This was a writing-focused panel, and I’d like to see future SteamCons make a wider space for a writing track, since this was jam-packed with attendees. Lisa Mantchev was our excellent moderator, and J.R. Boyett, a fellow participant in the FairyPunk project, was another panelist. We talked about how to create stories that best take advantage of the steampunk setting, without making it seem as though you’re just gluing a gear on it.

Later that evening, I had the first of my three panels on Victorian explorers. This was the best of them, because it focused on women explorers, and that’s an area I am reasonably well-read in, because I love some of those stories so much. That session included moderator Carmen Beaudry, Lori Edwards and another exquisitely garbed woman whose name, unfortunately, I didn’t catch. It was AWESOME and we all had a lovely time. I’ll mention some of the names we touched on, and urge you to go look these ladies and their amazing stories up: Harriet Chalmers Adams, Gertrude Bell, Isabelle Eberhardt, Mary Kingsley, Annie Smith Peck, May French Sheldon, and Lady Hester Stanhope, among many others.

Saturday was two more panels on expeditions, first one with Joshua Merrill-Nach on Great Quests of the 19th Century and later one on cryptozooological expeditions with a last minute substitute panelist whose name I know only as “Sean,” unfortunately, but who was terrific. Both panels were pretty full, the second one standing room only.

Sunday morning, I read from “Her Windowed Eyes, Her Chambered Heart” to a small but select audience that included the fabulous Sandra M. Odell. And then I made one last pass through the wonders of the dealer’s room and retreated home. Adieu glitter and goggles!