5:00 PM
Oddball Subfandoms
People with diverse fannish interests (conlanging, SCA,
fan fiction, smofs, etc) get together to discuss the
following topics. What's it like to belong to a
subfandom? How do you relate to larger fandom? How
did your subfandom get started? How is it evolving? Are
there similarities among the groups? Differences?
Aul, finder, Smith, Bunt
6:00 PM
Gaming 101: Basics for the Novice
What kinds of gaming are there? How do you get started
in each? How do you know if you're playing out of your
league?
Atwood, Ford
We Don't Get No Respect
Sci-fi movies and TV bring in the big audiences and the
big bucks, but never get mainstream awards. Is this the
same old sf ghettoization that we've seen before, or is
something else going on?
Fludd, Rothman, Tourtellotte, Lieven
7:00 PM
Is YA Still for Young Adults?
Why is Harry Potter being read by adults? Are YA books
a guilty pleasure? What other YA authors are out there
and being read by adults? And young adults?
Cook, Lee, Jael, Ritter, Finder
Whose Point of View?
How do you choose the point of view in a story? How
does the story change when the viewpoint changes?
Wunder, McGarry, Miller, Martens
9:00 PM
Interacting with Fiction
Gaming, fan fiction, interactive fiction, art, costuming,
etc. are all ways of interacting with a fictional universe
other than just reading. What is the draw of such
activities? Do they involve creativity of their own or are
they just using ideas that other people have already come
Aul, Wunder, Atkinson, Bunt, Redick
10:00 PM
Backrub Workshop
Finder
Does Gender Exist?
Why do we want to class people into two sexes (and
ignore a lot of anomalies as we do so?) Why do we want
each sex to act a certain way? Is this kind of
classification a trap, a necessity, or something else?
Stephenson, Fludd, Scott, Martens, de Guardiola
Is the Sci-Fi Channel Really Science Fiction?
Allen, Lieven, Delaurus
11:00 PM
Erotic Draw-Off
Our erotic guest of honor and possibly some friends go
Calkins
Shapeshifters in the Dark
Why do were-creatures terrify? Why are things that were
once human, or like humans but aren't, more frightening
than animals or aliens?
Handelman, Perkins, Chepaitis, Fludd
10:00 AM
Autographing
Gresh
Hall Costumes vs. Masquerade
What are the basic differences? What can you get away
with in one but not the other? What are the drawbacks
of each?
Connell, finder, Bunt
Maim 'Em Right
Members of the health care professions will tell you what
really happens when a character has a concussion, is
shot in the chest, and encounters other common medical
problems found in fiction.
Perry, Huston, Macdonald, Ashton, Miller
Reading
Brilliant
Worldbuilding 101
The panelists throw around ideas for an interesting
habitable world.
Harris, Olson, Stephenson, Levinson, Clement, Sakers
10:30 AM
Autographing
Martens
11:00 AM
Alien Food
What biological traits reflect the kind of food aliens eat?
How does culture affect food? How does environment
affect food?
Doyle, DeVito, Lee,Huston,
Autographing
Levinson
Is the Truth Out There? The Quality of Information on the
Are there quality guardians on the Internet? Should there
be? If the truth is out there, can you find it?
Sirois, Rothman, Scott, Lieven
Slideshow
Come and see some of the finest work by Jael
Jael
11:30 AM
Autographing
Perkins
12:00 PM
Autographing
Lee, Miller
Editing for Writers
How do you develop the mindset to be critical of your
own work? What tools do you need to edit your own
stuff? How do you know when to stop?
Macdonald, Barnett, Strock, Harris, McGarry
Meet the FGOH
jan howard finder as the Wombat, no he doesn't play one
on TV.
Finder
Reading
Dunne
What is a Padwolf?
The people from Padwolf Publishing discuss what they do
Raetz, Perry, Thomas
12:30 PM
Autographing
Tourtellotte
1:00 PM
Anime Without Tears
Experts gently introduce you into these fascinating
Japanese cartoons.
Delaurus, Persons, Handelman,
Cheap, Fast and Out of Control: Technology in the
Sometimes technology has unexpected uses and
unexpected consequences. What kinds of things might be
getting loose, now and in the future? What ramifications
could result from things like DNA testing at home?
Levinson, Sakers, Steele, Sirois, Stephenson
Invisibility
Invisibility has often been explored in sf and fantasy
(e.g., "The Invisible Man," "The Women Men Don't See,"
the Ring-Bearer, etc.). What are the advantages of
invisibility? What are its disadvantages? What does it
cost to be invisible?
Atkinson, Gresh, Chepaitis, Rapacioli
Slideshow
Hal Clement's latest slideshow - Gestation
Clement
2:00 PM
AGOH Slideshow
Come and see some of the finest work by Joe DeVito
DeVito
Autographing
Sawicki, Chepaitis
Make Your Own Religion
What sorts of things does a religion need in order to
function? What things make a religion interesting in
fiction? What things is a religion better off without?
Macdonald, Tourtellotte, Miller
Wetware vs. Hardware
Could human intelligence actually migrate to a machine
environment? Is it a good idea?
Dunne, Gresh, Dedman, Ritter,
2:30 PM
Autographing
Scott, Barnett
3:00 PM
Autographing
Steele
Emotional Hard SF
Is there room in hard SF for romance or is that a
contradiction in terms? What opportunities does SF
provide for expanding romance themes?
Fludd, Ashton, Tourtellotte, Chepaitis
Outside the Castle: Realistic Fantasy
How do you get beyond the story of the prince and
princess? Is it good for fantasy to have a social
Brilliant, McGarry, Cook, Scott, Raetz
Reading
Sakers
The Long-Term Future of Life in the Universe
How does our knowledge of cosmology and the future of
the universe affect our view of the future of life? Are
some cosmological scenarios better for life than others?
What would it take for life to continue forever?
Smith, Levinson, Stephenson, Olson, Lieven
3:30 PM
Autographing
Doyle, Macdonald
4:00 PM
Autographing
Clement
Cover Blurbs to Amazon Reviews: the Ins and Outs of
What's involved in marketing a book, artwork, or game?
What strategies are useful? What strategies have
downsides?
Pinzow, Perkins, DeVito, Hartwell,
What Do Heroes Do for Day Care?
Heroes seem to always be pre- or post-family. Why is this
so? How come the hero never takes his/her family along
on the adventure? Is there a way to make this work?
Barnett, Doyle, Dunne, Brilliant
What in the Universe?
A panel of experts will examine artifacts from alien
cultures and describe their function.
Sawicki, Calkins, Rapacioli, Harris, Scott
4:30 PM
Autographing
Sakers
5:00 PM
Autographing
Dedman
Get It Straight from the Officers
All about SFWA
Tourtellotte, Rothman, Levinson, McGarry
Has the Apocalypse Been Canceled?
We're almost through the Millenium -- is anything else
bad on the horizon?
Martens, Stephenson, Olson, Gresh
Heroic Pasts, Heroic Futures
Are we the first civilization that looks to our future for a
golden age rather than to our past? What does this say
about us? Are there elements of our past that we
consistently project into our vision of the golden future?
Steele, de Guardiola, Barnett, Sakers, Cook
Reading
Lee, Miller
6:00 PM
Amateur vs. Professional Art
The Art Show gives us different perspectives on genre
art. What different styles, subject matter, etc. are there
between the professionals and amateur artists? What is
the crossover between the two groups?
Keener, Jael, Ritter, Redick, Calkins
Getting Beyond Cliches: How to Breathe New Life into
How do you avoid the criticism of "it's been done
before"? Are there things so overused that it's impossible
to use them again?
Dunne, Sirois, Pinzow
7:00 PM
Improvisational Storytelling
This year our storytellers will use the results of Dueling
Easels as a starting point for their tales.
Harris, Rothman, Brilliant, Chepaitis
Reading
Perkins
8:00 PM
Saturday Evening Extravaganza
Cook, Hartwell
10:00 PM
Reading
Levinson
That Which Terrifies
What makes something really creepy? Why are things
creepier at night? How do our taboos play into our
sense of horror?
Redick, Chepaitis, Ritter, Fludd
Trash vs. Treasure: Getting Ready to Sell Your Stuff
When you're ready to offload some of your stuff, how do
you: find out how much it's worth? find someone who
wants to buy it? avoid getting cheated?
Brown, Delaurus, Atkinson, Sawicki
11:00 PM
Galaxy Quest: The Adventure Continues
What were our favorite episodes? What did they mess up
in the movie? What are they planning for Galaxy Quest:
The Next Generation?
Calkins, Rothman, Delaurus, Brown,
Recitation of "The Ballad of Eskimo Nell"
Jim MacDonald recites from memory this NC-17 rated
ballad. No minors, please!
Macdonald
10:00 AM
Earth as a Third World Country
The Peace Corps of the Galactic Federation wants to
build us a space station to give us a leg up. What are the
pros and cons of letting them help us?
Stephenson,Tourtellotte, Sakers, Aul
Expanding the SF Audience
Proposals for expanding the sf audience have included
getting sf into schools and giving more support to the
small press. Let's discuss the strengths and weaknesses of
these ideas and see if new ideas emerge.
Martens, Strock, Sawicki, finder, Brilliant
Is There Art and Music in the Future?
Fantasy books are full of musicians and tapestries, but
try to find that kind of stuff in sf and it's more difficult. Is
it harder to project the arts into the future than other
aspects of culture? Or is there another problem?
Keener, Scott, Lee, Miller, Redick
Reading
McGarry
11:00 AM
Last One to Leave Turn Out the Lights: The Aging of
There's a lot of discussion about the aging of fandom, but
marketing in various media seem to think we're a big
enough market to pay attention to. What's really going
on? Certainly a lot of younger fans are not at this con.
Is that because they don't exist or because they are
elsewhere? Can/should we do anything about this?
Clement, Dedman, Wunder, de Guardiola
Oh My God, Where Did They Get That?: How is Cover
Writers and artists talk about good examples and bad
examples. How do genre conventions affect what is
allowed on cover art?
Doyle, Jael, DeVito, Harris, Redick
Slideshow
Come and see some of the finest work by Chuck and
Wendy Snow Lang,
12:00 PM
Meeting at the Crossroads: Genre Blending
Cross-genres can be fun, but it can also be tricky. What
kinds of pitfalls are there? Which blends of genre work
best? Badly? Not at all?
Macdonald, Dunne, Scott, Barnett, Cook, Rothman
Privacy and the Future
Can we continue to have privacy in a future where
everything from your genetic code to your book buying
habits could be stored on a computer? Is there a limit to
private property? Can living things be patented? Should
copyrights extend forever? Is privacy a notion of the
past that we can live without?
Strock, Olson, Ritter, Sakers, Thomas
Reading
Sawicki, Chepaitis
The Black Plague vs. Chernobyl: Natural vs.
Do natural and technological disasters have different
outcomes? How does each change our culture? Do they
require different methods of prevention?
Sirois, Rapacioli, Levinson
1:00 PM
Is It Memorex or Is It Print?
In the past century we've developed ways of recording
aural and video phenomena and reproducing real-
events. What does this technology mean for the future of
culture? What things still need to be stored in words and
pictures in non-linear media (like books)? What things
work better when moving pictures and sound are
Cramer, Lieven, Sakers, Aul
Me Tarzan; You Talk Funny
Humans have always used different varieties of language
(dialects, slangs, jargons, etc.) to distinguish in-groups
and out-groups. What can we learn from socio-linguistics
to help us make better language distinctions among
characters? What makes an invented dialect or slang
sound believable? How can you balance the need to
make it sound strange against the need to make it
comprehensible to the reader?
Rothman, Brilliant, Huston, Doyle, Smith
Reading
Tourtellotte
2:00 PM
Is There a Weaker Sex in Zero-G?
What perceived gender differences could be altered by
changing the environment? Which ones can be altered by
technology? Which ones can be altered by changing
cultural perceptions? Is anything left?
Strock, de Guardiola, Clement, Sirois
That's Not Funny: How to Get Laughs
What makes comedy so difficult? What are some of the
tricks of the trade? How do you find out if your work is
really funny?
Rapacioli, finder, Delaurus
3:00 PM
Worst SF Movie Ever?: Battlefield Earth
What made this movie so bad? Would the Scientology
connection have killed it anyway?
Macdonald, Rapacioli