catrambo and buying jimhines some sort of beverage to say, "Thanks for being The Awesome Guy on the Internets Who Gives Me Hope for Humanity." And such things of that nature. I will also be there with the usual suspects... the
splash_the_cat, the daveamongus, the vidensadastra, the iuliamentis, of course (three of these come with the hotel room!), and hope to see the becoming-usual steve_buchheit, jeffreyab... and many more! (Is this a tappu year? I will find out shortly!)My panels this year:
Smut and Nothing but Smut 10:00 PM Friday Dennison III
David Rozian, Kelley Armstrong, Anne Harris, Merrie Haskell, and Violette Malan
A discussion of sex scenes in genre fiction and whether they have any redeeming literary value or are they just inserted for prurient interest to sell the book.
I'm not afraid of this one. I have... Opinions.
The Short Story 12:00 PM Saturday Salon E
Cat Rambo, William Jones, Merrie Haskell, Jim Hines [M], and Steve Buchheit
The best of these are an art form unto themselves. Where can we find them? How has the electronic age affected them? Selling short stories -- aimed at telling people how to submit short stories, how to get started and keep it up.
Can do this one in my sleep at this point, which is fortunate, because I'm going to need sleep.
Paranormal Romance: Meet the New Boss 3:00 PM Saturday Salon H
Kelley Armstrong, Melody Barker, Merrie Haskell [M], Steven Harper Piziks
Meet the New Boss about love, vampires and werewolves is the new economic engine of the genre. Where did it come from? Who writes it? Who reads it?
I'm glad I'm moderating, because the sudden appearance of Kelley Armstrong has sort of awed me. Shockingly, I'm much less opinionated in front of persons with more experience and authority than me. However, if you have any advice--or better, questions--about Paranormal Romance, comment with them! I'll attempt to write a semi-decent panel report in return.
Gadgetering 12:00 PM Sunday Dennison I/II
Cory Doctorow, David Rozian, Merrie Haskell, Philip Edward Kaldon and Freon
Creating gadgets in SCIENCE fiction
I'm not sure why SCIENCE is all capitalized like that? But I'm not sure that this is a *hard* topic? Just writers saying, "Well, I do thus and such?" and "Boy howdy, I like Q." Am I underthinking this? Why am I the only woman? Am I doing gadgets wrong in my fiction? Am I undergadgety to be on this panel, or am I overgadgety for my gender? I'll let you know next week, I guess.
Anyway, I'll be around. Comment if you want to meet up. Pop me an email if you want my cell number. (mythos (at) merrie haskell (dot) com)