Confluence and Worldcon (Denvention)

[jpskewedthrone]

I'm attending both Confluence at the end of this month, followed by Worldcon in Denver at the beginning of August. It's a little early, but others seem to be posting their panel schedules and seeing who else is going, and since I am a giant lemming ("I'll go get my ball" for those who've seen the trailer for Bolt), here we go!

Confluence Panel Schedule:

Friday 7:00pm Rhyme, Meter, and Language in Fantasy (Herb Kauderer, Joshua B. Palmatier (M, GAH!), Tamora Pierce, Michelle (Sagara) West)

In her essay "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie," Ursula Le Guin discusses the importance of style in fantasy. She contents that fantasy requires a style that, if not followed, can hurl the reader out of Elfland and send him or her to Poughkeepsie. (She cites the way characters in fantasies by Zelazny and Leiber break into contemporary slang as examples.) The panel discusses the importance of style in fantasy.

Saturday 11:00am Making It Real: Bringing a Fantasy or SF Setting to Life (Kenneth B. Chiacchia, Joshua B. Palmatier, Tamora Pierce (M), Michelle (Sagara) West)

Saturday 2:00pm Comedy in High Fantasy (S. C. Butler (M), Susan Dexter, Joshua B. Palmatier, Tamora Pierce, Karina Sumner-Smith)

Saturday 5:00pm Reading (0.5 hrs) (Joshua B. Palmatier)

Sunday 2:00pm My Favorite Series: The Best Current Fantasy and SF Series (S. C. Butler (M), Susan Dexter, Timothy Liebe, Joshua B. Palmatier, Karina Sumner-Smith)

What are you're favorite series -- both recent and classic. George Martin's Song of Ice and Fire. Lois Bujold's Miles stories? Repairman Jack? What about series you really like that you feel are very underrated?

Denvention Panel Schedule:

Writers reading from their juvenalia Thur. 10am

Using Myths to Kick Off a Fantasy World Fri. 4pm



So who else is going to either of these?

Comments

[misunderstruck.livejournal.com]

I'll be at Denvention.

My schedule for the convention involves bartending at the BWB parties on Friday and Saturday.

[xraytheenforcer.livejournal.com]

Oh wow! So will I! Coincidences! ;-)

(that is, if I can get the edit gods to smile on me and my feature goes out on schedule -- it'll be nice to meet you, J, when I'm not dying of some horrible viral scourge like I was at Boskone this year)

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Here's to features going out on schedule! And not dying of some horrible viral scourge!

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Hmm . . . I'll have to attend the BWB parties then. You will let me know where and when, right? *grin*

[misunderstruck.livejournal.com]

But of course! As for when, I know we're doing parties Friday and Saturday nights. There both in the party hotel, but I don't know what room yet. Probably on the same floor as all the other parties.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

But none of the other parties matter, right?

I'm sure I'll be able to find the party (room and whatnot) once it gets much closer.

[mindseas.livejournal.com]

I'll see you at Denvention!

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

I'm sure by this point you know where to find me. You have the most experience, due to the VC. *grin*

[tcastleb.livejournal.com]

I'll be at Denvention. I'm on three panels. Woohoo!

Oh, for series? Hmmm. I have all Melanie Rawn's books. I have all Lynn Flewelling's books (which are great fun.) The Kushiel books. Robin Hobb (the apprentice books are better than the more recent series, though.) Lian Hearn's Tales of the Otori series. Chelsea Quin Yarbro's St. Germain books. My favorite series is MZB's Darkover though.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the series suggestions! And I hope to see you at the con, somehow, somewhere, at some time. . . .

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

That sucks. Any cons at all the rest of this year?

[madkestrel.livejournal.com]

Worldcon, me!!! I don't know if I'll be on any panels yet (I registered a little late, so I'm waiting to hear if they can use me.)

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

We all know the REAL action is at the bars anyway. And the dealers room.

[madkestrel.livejournal.com]

And as for series, I love-and-adore Roger Zelazny's Amber books (named my son for one of the princes!) and F Paul Wilson's Adversary Cycle - the end of the last book, Nightworld, left me shredded! There's nothing like a book that can cause such an emotional reaction from me. I just finished Kushiel's Mercy this weekend, so I love those books, too.

That's just a few, but I didn't want to overload your comment page. :D

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking of the Amber books the other day. It was one of my favorites when I was in my twenties, but I haven't read it for a while.

[madkestrel.livejournal.com]

My son just started reading them. Which means I'm constantly wandering past his room while he's reading, peeking in to see how far he's gotten, and annoying the tar out of him. *grin*

[davidkeck.livejournal.com]

Do you remember MacAvoy's Damiano's Lute (and its two sequals). Lovely stuff. There was a dog. I cried.

[madkestrel.livejournal.com]

Yes!! I loved those as well! I still have my beaten-up paperbacks of Damiano and Damiano's Lute and I've been watching the used bookstores for a replacement of Raphael.

Speaking of the 80's, how about Megan Lindholm's Ki & Vandien Quartet? I was brokenhearted to realize there really were only four.

[davidkeck.livejournal.com]

Good luck with Raphael. My kind of fantasy. (She did such a good job convincing you of that setting).

But I missed the quartet. (Shouldn't the "quartet" thing should have tipped you off to the eventual total...?)

;)

~Dave

[madkestrel.livejournal.com]

*laughs* It wasn't referred to as "quartet" until many years later.

[davidkeck.livejournal.com]

Ah. That explains it. (You can never tell how bright a mad kestrel is likely to be).

I wonder what MacAvoy's doing these days. We need more people writing fantasy with an historian's edge and literary pretensions -- I think my subgenre is flagging a bit.

~D

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Great suggestions! Thanks!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Besides the usual suspects,
Classic series: Patricia McKillip's Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy, and Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan books, which span the classic to current time periods.

Current series where new books are "must immediately buy and read" include Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson books, mizkit's Walker Papers series and Rob Thurman's Cal Leandros stories.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestions!

mini-minion

[vcmorris.livejournal.com]

Hey, I put your books on my "virtual bookshelf" over on Facebook. Does that make me a mini-minion?

Re: mini-minion

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Definitely a mini-minion. *grin*

Thanks!

[davidkeck.livejournal.com]

I'm forced to miss both. But I'm intrigued by the juvenalia thing! (Have you got a real clinker in a trunk somewhere?)

~Dave

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

The juvenalia thing was my panel suggestion actually. I figure we all have something hideously embarrassing from our high school (or earlier) days and it might be fun to share that with fans and other aspiring writers.

And yes, I *ahem* DO have some stories in a trunk somewhere. Got to dig a one of those out before the con.

[davidkeck.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I've got a couple of interesting stories lurking in the bottom of the hard drive.

The best one would have to be a childhood effort in which an entire story ends suddenly with the cast of something like Star Trek realizing their phasers were actually electric razors (!).

As I remember it, I laughed a lot. (I'm not sure anyone else did).

~D

[nymeria87.livejournal.com]

I'd love to come to Denvention, but it looks like I won't have the necessary change for it :(

It sounds like a really fun convention though!

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

I haven't been to a Worldcon in a while, but it should be fun. In fact, the last time I was at a Worldcon . . . I wasn't published! *gasp*

Worldcon is rather expensive. Are there any local cons in your area? Those are generally much cheaper and are just as fun.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

I'll be at the worldcon.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Great! We'll have to catch a drink at some point!

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Definitely. As for my favorite F/SF series... I'd add military SF's The Lost Fleet, by John G. Hemry writing as Jack Campbell. Anything else? Sean Williams has far-future story Astropolis, which began with Saturn Returnsm and now has Earth Ascendant out, but I don't know if that's a trilogy - which might be considered different from a series.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

How could I forget to mention Girl Genius?

[steve-buchheit.livejournal.com]

See ya at Confluence. Have the membership, have the room, now I need to syphon gas from my neighbors to be there.