I had such a good time at ConFusion in Novi, Michigan last year, I simply couldn’t sit it out in 2019. The fact that it’s Princess Bride-themed this year and I’ll be on so many panels running with that idea (many thanks to Brandon Crilly and Angus Watson for being my co-conspirators in that regard) is really the icing on the cake.
Here’s where you can find me for panels, readings, and signings:
| Friday |
8:00 PM |
Ontario |
How To Design A Monster |
Authors have a vast and deep mythology to draw from when writing vampires, werewolves, and other mythological creatures. How do we choose which parts of their myths to incorporate into our own worlds? How do we incorporate new traits while still making them recognizable, and how do we avoid making our monsters derivative and stale? We’ll talk about how to work out their appearance, limitations, social structures, and how they fit into the larger society of a fantasy world. |
Jennifer Blackstream (M), John Wiswell, A. Merc Rustad, Tracy Townsend, Petra Kuppers |
| Saturday |
3:00 PM |
Erie |
Autograph Session (3pm) |
Meet your favorite authors and get your books signed! Limit 3 items per person, please. |
Ada Palmer, Anthony W. Eichenlaub, Cat Rambo, Diana Rowland, Dyrk Ashton, Jason Sanford, Josef Matulich, Keith Hughes, Lucy A. Snyder, Mackenzie Flohr, Mark Oshiro, Michael R. Underwood, Mur Lafferty, Stacey Filak, Tracy Townsend |
| Saturday |
4:00 PM |
Rotunda |
Reading: Tracy Townsend, Josef Matulich, Mackenzie Flohr |
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Tracy Townsend, Josef Matulich, Mackenzie Flohr |
| Saturday |
5:00 PM |
Southfield |
Mostly Dead: The Problem of Death and Not-Quite-Death in SFF |
The frequency of resurrections or “they died, but they didn’t” moments in SFF is (if one wishes to be kind) statistically unlikely. In this panel, we’ll discuss various stories where death, death and resurrection, or false deaths play a key role in the narrative. How does the bloody ruthlessness of a series like Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire change which characters “get” to die, and who stays dead? What are our favorite “return to life” moments? Which ones don’t really work and why? And what must a writer do to make these moments serve the story and their audience? |
John Wiswell (M), Angus Watson, Jason Sanford, Tracy Townsend, Dan Wells |
| Saturday |
7:00 PM |
Allen Park |
To the Pain: On Making Characters Struggle |
Sometimes you can’t kill your protagonists outright … but you can definitely put them through a lot. How do writers use different kinds of “pain” to craft better stories around their characters? At what point does a writer push their characters too much? And is it possible to create tension and conflict with minimal struggle? |
Tracy Townsend (M), Angus Watson, Brandon Crilly, Dan Wells |
| Saturday |
8:00 PM |
Erie |
Inconceivable! Establishing Narrative Credibility in SFF |
The best science fiction and fantasy is often based around bizarre, alien worlds or premises, but these always need to be relatable to the reader. How do writers make the incredible credible? What effective tricks do we see our favorite authors pulling off, and which ones don’t work on us as readers? |
Tracy Townsend (M), Angus Watson, Brandon Crilly, Marie S. Bilodeau |
