Kaffeeklatsch: Pat Cadigan, Laurel Anne Hill, Shanna Swendson, Carrie Vaughn
Thursday 15:00 – 16:00, 2211 (KKs) (Kansas City Convention Center)
Oceans: The Wettest Frontier
Friday 10:00 – 11:00, 3501F (Kansas City Convention Center)
Although science fiction tends to focus on strange environments in space, there are also strange environments (with aliens) here on Earth. Discuss fiction set in oceans — on Earth and elsewhere.
James Cambias, Mrs. Laurel Anne Hill, Patricia MacEwen, Christopher Weuve (M), Alyx Dellamonica
The Steampunk Explosion
Friday 14:00 – 15:00, 3501H (Kansas City Convention Center)
Steampunk is one of the most popular and fast growing sub genres in fandom. From costuming to films to comics. Is there more that spurred its the rapid growth than “it looks cool”? Can Steampunk maintain its primacy in fandom?
Gail Carriger, Mr. Jeffrey Cook, Mrs. Laurel Anne Hill (M), Nina Niskanen, Carrie Vaughn
Ethics of Tomorrow in Young Adult Fiction
Friday 15:00 – 16:00, 2204 (Kansas City Convention Center)
Do young adult authors have a role in creating the ethical attitudes of tomorrow? How can young adult authors of SF&F write characters and stories that will inspire tomorrow’s adults and leaders to be more open-minded, tolerant, and moral? Do you see that happening in today’s young adult science fiction and fantasy, or not?
Jane Ann McLachlan (M), Tamora Pierce, Kathryn Sullivan, Mrs. Laurel Anne Hill
Hard Fantasy — Does it Exist?
Friday 19:00 – 20:00, 2209 (Kansas City Convention Center)
‘I’m going to write about what Tove Jansson called “the lonely and the rum,” the unschoolable and ungroupable, those strange and shaggy literary creatures that have no ilk or kin and that mathematically can be contained in no set smaller than the set of all sets contained in no other sets’. (Michael Swanwick).
Does Hard Fantasy have a place in fantasy literature, and how should we approach it?
Michael Swanwick , Mr. Preston Grassmann (M), Sebastien de Castell, Mrs. Laurel Anne Hill, Courtney Schafer
Writers Workshop 9B
Saturday 13:30 – 15:30, Lester Young B (Marriott, Writing Workshop) (Kansas City Marriott Downtown)
Susan Forest, Mrs. Laurel Anne Hill
Space Technology Spinoffs
Saturday 16:00 – 17:00, 2210 (Kansas City Convention Center)
There have been some 2,000 technological products, inventions and ideas trasferred from NASA missions to commercial products and services. Of these, many have made life on Earth better in the fields of health and medicine, transportation, public safety, consumer goods, energy and environment, information technology, and industrial productivity. Panelists discuss their favorite examples of space technology spinoffs.
Mrs. Laurel Anne Hill, Les Johnson, Janet Freeman-Daily (M), Joy Ward, Brenda Cooper
Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading: Group Reading
Sunday 10:00 – 11:30, 2504B (Kansas City Convention Center)
Join members of Broad Universe — a nonprofit association dedicated to supporting, encouraging, and promoting female authors of science fiction, fantasy, and horror — as they read tidbits of published works and works in progress. Hosted by Loren Rhoads.
Loren Rhoads (M), J. Tullos Hennig, Mrs. Laurel Anne Hill, Roberta Rogow, Kathryn Sullivan, Paula S. Jordan, Katie Li, A C Ellas, Tamara Jones, Wendy Van Camp
Terraforming Terra: Geoengineering for Climate Change Survival
Sunday 12:00 – 13:00, 3501B (Kansas City Convention Center)
What can we do in terms of really big engineering projects to change or adapt to what looks like a pretty hot, wet, and stormy future?
Gregory Benford, Ian McDonald, Patricia MacEwen, John DeLaughter PhD, Elizabeth Moon, Mrs. Laurel Anne Hill (M)
PLUS, Laurel Anne Hill is in charge of the Broad Universe Table (Section I, Table #17) in the Dealers’ Room, and will be spending around 15 hours there during the con. Please drop by.