Still a little shocked that I somehow survived 2015 long enough to arrive more-or-less whole at my first convention of 2016, which will be what is becoming the annual writer gathering at ConFusion just outside Detroit.
It’s a nice centralized con, just a couple hours by plane from either coast and a three-hour drive from my digs here in Ohio. The low-cost-of-living Midwest writing contingent is pleased with this. Most of my programming is Saturday. I’ll also have plenty of books that you can buy during the autograph session as well.
If you can’t make it to Michigan this year, no worries. I’ll be at ICFA in Orlando in March, ReaderCon in July, Gencon in August, and possibly NYCC in October if the money (and my sanity) hasn’t run out. I’m also working on trying to put together a little
ConFusion Schedule: January 21-24, 2016
Saturday 10:00:00 AM The Fiction of Political SFF
Most “political” science fiction doesn’t really deal with politics, it deals with the setting out of ideologies. In other words, it tells stories that have little to do with running a government. The result is a debate of ideas where the political is described by greed and corruption, but never the merely bureaucratic. Why are these tropes recycled time and again? How can politics be approached in a more authentic way and remain compelling?
Kameron Hurley, Patrick Tomlinson, Justin Landon (M), Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone
Saturday 12:00:00 PM Lionizing the Status Quo
Genre novels are often about restoring the status quo. Repel the aliens! Defeat the Dark One! Frodo just wants to go back to the Shire and get high. How have these kinds of narratives impacted the way we relate to the world? Should we be more concerned with narratives that do the opposite and seek to overturn the traditional order of the world?
Elizabeth Shack, Douglas Hulick, Ferrett Steinmetz (M), Kameron Hurley, Brigid Collins
Saturday 4:00:00 PM Autograph Session 1
Saturday 6:00:00 PM It’s the Economy Stupid
National economies are complicated. Far more complicated than Dark Lords and Evil Queens. Nevertheless, books like James SA Corey’s The Expanse series and Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor manage to use economic pressures to create compelling motivations and narrative tension. What are the essential parts for a story built around economics? What’s appealing about these kinds of stories and do the resonate more today than they did a decade ago?
Carl Engle-Laird, Max Gladstone, Kameron Hurley, Ann Leckie, Brent Weeks
Saturday 7:00:00 PM Colonialism and Post-Colonialism
Novels of invasion and colonization often end with the glorious liberation. But what happens next? How deep does the impact of colonization go–culturally, politically, economically, socially–and how long does it really take to recover from its consequences? In what ways is the colonizer, too, changed by the experience? In a larger sense, are science fiction and fantasy beginning to repudiate colonialist narratives?
Stina Leicht, Kameron Hurley, Tobias S. Buckell, DongWon Song, Matt Pearson
Sunday 12:00:00 PM The Business of Rejection
Writing is a business built around rejection. Almost every writer in the industry has experienced it at some point, and many experience it constantly. Come learn how working writers deal with rejection, move past it, and embrace it for what it is.
Amy Sundberg, Kameron Hurley, Greg van Eekhout, Mur Lafferty (M), Gwenda Bond
