fbpx

My Tentative Confluence 2016 Schedule

No Comments » Written on June 28th, 2016 by
Categories: News
Tags: , , , ,

Don’t look for me in the greater Philadelphia area come the end of July. I’ll actually be at the other end of the state. For the first time ever, I’ll be attending Confluence, which this year runs July 29 thru 31st.

Even better, I’m one of the convention’s GOHs — which means someone else is providing me with Diet Coke!

They have lots of things planned for me, and I’m hoping there may even be some Barsk-based hall costumes (with a potential Tuckerization up for grabs), but we’ll have to wait and see. In any case, they sent out tentative schedules with a month to spare, so here’s mine:

Friday, August 29th
4:00 p.m. (Commonwealth East) Invented Languages
Characters need to speak it, but readers need to be able to follow it, too. How to invent a new language for a story, and make it “work.”
With Fred Capp

6:00 p.m. (Ballroom 1) GOHs Gone Wrong
Confluence’s featured author guests discuss the many things in their writerly careers they have done badly, backwards, or just plain wrong. NB: Authors are professionals, do not try this at home.
With Saladin Ahmed

9:00 p.m. (Ballroom 1) Meet the Confluence guests
Emcee Kevin Hayes will introduce the Confluence guests of honor and special guests. There may be singing and tomfoolery.
With Saladin Ahmed, Jeff Bohnhoff, Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, Steve Goodie, and Kevin Hayes

Saturday, July 30th
11:00 a.m. (Commonwealth West) Communicating with Aliens
A standard theme in SF is the challenge of communication with an alien intellect. This is often treated as a novel enterprise. But humans have millennia of experience communicating with nonhuman intelligence. We have coevolved and can communicate with domesticants, commensals, prey, and predators. Experts in interspecies communication through shared work can cast insight into the bridges and the barriers with new and newly encountered form of nonhuman intelligence.
With William Keith, Charles Obendorf, Bud Sparhawk

12:00 p.m. (Kaffeeklatsch Room) Anthropomorphic SF: Not Just Furries In Space
What are the pros and cons of bringing in anthropomorphic characters in lieu or in addition to traditional aliens in science fiction? GOH Lawrence M. Schoen discusses how the nonhumans in his novel Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard resonant better than aliens.
Kaffeeklatsch – advance sign-up in Registration required

2:00 p.m. (Solstice) Perhaps It IS A Good Day To Try… Klingon
An introduction to the Klingon language. No one will be admitted during the voiced velar fricative portion.

Sunday, July 31st
10:00 a.m. (Equinox) Reading
Warning: There may be elephants. Oh, who are we kidding, of course there’ll be elephants. Also Q&A if desired.

Of course, we are a month out, and anything above could change. I will likely post a “final” schedule a week or so before the convention.

See you at Confluence!

Tags: , , , ,

Leave a Reply