World Con Panels

I'm off to World Con on the 14th! This will be my first World Con. I missed it two years ago when it came to Finland in 2017. I was packing up house getting ready to move halfway across the world and I missed it last year because it was in the states and I was traveling around Iceland. And I missed it the previous years because my career was teaching and I'd pretty much given up my dream of being a writer. This year however, I am going! I'm so excited that I just can't wipe a grin off my face every time I think about it or talk to someone about it. 

The Schedule was finally released last week on Friday. I ended up combing through it with a friend at a cute coffee shop near Kamppi in Helsinki, and with my husband that night in my apartment, trying to pick and choose the panels I wanted to attend.  

I had the surreal experience of comparing picking the panels to picking my university classes back when I was in college. It had the same feel to it and the same "Oh this (panel) looks awesome! But this other one is also at the same time! But this other panel is 30 minutes later and I don't know which one to do to! They all look so cool! Ahh!" 

So after an exhaustive mental deliberation these are the panels that I finally decided on attending (and a few that I still can't decided on)... I'll get there and I'll probably choose last minute by closing my eyes and running in direction. 

Thursday Panels:

11:00 Ruins, curses, and family secrets: the Gothic 

12:00 Writing villains in YA literature who defy expectation 

12:30 How to build an evil empire     

13:30 Throwing Grandma Out The Airlock 

14:30 Science, religion, and the art of storytelling 

16:00 ‘Celtic’ fantasy and mythology 

16:00 Autographs: George R. R. Martin – session #1

18:00 Talking animal characters in SFF

Friday Panels:

·       10:00 Nothing about us without us: disability in YA (OR)

·       10:00 Short fiction of 2018 (OR)

·       10:00 The ethics of secret power

·       10:30 Have publishers got your back?

·       11:00 Fleshy fears: horror and the body

·       12:00 Done to death: the art of killing characters

·       14:00 Pitch perfect

·       15:00 Publishing novel-length horror in today’s market

·       16:00 YA fiction: literary gateway or lifestyle choice?

·       17:00 Let’s do the time loop again

·       18:00 Ireland’s legends and lore

·       20:00 Anniversary: The Left Hand of Darkness (book)

Saturday panels: 

10:30 Writing realistic injury scenarios (or)

 11:00 Rural pagans, haunted forests: folk horror revival

 12:00 Contracts and talking terms

 13:00 There be dragons! Crafting maps for fantasy worlds

 14:00 Autographs: George R. R. Martin – session #2

 14:30 Reading: Naomi Novik

 15:00 What I learned along the way

16:00 Into the woods

17:00 Horror: where are we going?

19:00 In the background: class in YA fiction

 20:00 Bright Club Ireland

 22:00 Cats in SFF

Sunday panels:

 10:00 It’s all gone to shit: grimdark worldbuilding (or)

10:00 Writing past our literary blind spots (or)

10:30 The author as a fellow traveller on the hero’s journey

11:00 Fantasy: beyond Europe

12:00 The politics of horror

13:00 Gods, religion and atheism in the genre (or)

13:00 Getting published and staying published

14:00 What agents want