I will be at Readercon! Want to find me? Here’s my schedule:
Friday, July 12
11:30am (Salon C) – Reading: Caroline M. Yoachim
2:00pm (Salon 3) – Panel: Retroactive Problem Solving in SF
A lot of the more hopeful SF is written in worlds where the most urgent problems facing our society today have already been solved, and the characters face other, different problems. But by imagining futures where our current crises are of the past, are we missing out on an opportunity to blaze a real path into such futures? What does it mean to tell stories about solving our problems, rather than stories where the problems have already been solved?
4:00pm (Salon B) – Panel: How Psychology Can Inform SFF
How can knowledge of psychology inform the writing of SFF? Practitioners and authors will delve into the ways that modern-day psychology departs from Freud and Jung, and how they’ve used concepts from the field to deepen characterization or generate worldbuilding ideas. They will also discuss how to research psychology and how to avoid common pitfalls, including stereotypes and ableism.
Saturday, July 13
10:00am (Salon B) – Panel: Striking the Right Genre Balance
Almost every author considers how to satisfy readers’ expectations while also keeping them guessing with inventive plot, character, or settings that might be unusual for the genre. It’s a balance: tip too far toward the tried and true, and one risks reader (and author!) boredom; tip too far on the other side and the reader may feel that the writer has reneged on what they expect from a given genre. This panel will consider striking the right balance.
noon (Salon 6) – Autograph Session: Caroline M. Yoachim
3pm (Basalt) – Kaffeeklatsch: Caroline M. Yoachim
