I Speak

Posted on August 15, 2003    Posted by John Scalzi

Hey, a shout-out to all my science fiction geek homeys: In addition to simply loitering at Torcon 3 (i.e., The 61st World Science Fiction Convention), I’m also going to be on two panels. Yes, I’m managed to make them think I’m an author. Ah ha ha ha ha ha! The fools.

Anyway, here are the panels, their descriptions (someone else wrote them) and who else are on them with me.

Day Jobs for Writers — Journalist, Freelance Technical/Science Writer or Professor Track?

Remember the good old days when you had to hide your SF/Fantasy from your English teacher? English teachers are now writing the stuff. Is all that respectability squeezing the life out of SF? Is becoming a professor to support your SF habit like cutting your hair in the early 70’s after coming down from that great rush of we’re-all-gonna-change-the-world rock and roll?

Panelists: Bridget Coila, Jonathan Cowie, William Dietz, John Scalzi, Edward Willett

and

Writing Your First Novel

Are you starting to think about writing a novel? Are you stuck in the middle of one? Are you struggling to make the jump from writing short stories to writing novels? Are you wondering if you have what it takes to finish your first novel … or how to fix that problem-ridden draft thats sitting on your hard drive? Come hear what established novelists have to say about the challenges that face first time novelists and veterans alike. This is the place to bring your questions!

Panelists: Nick Sagan, John Scalzi, Amy Thomson, James Van Pelt, Michael Z. Williamson

Nick Sagan, incidentally, son of Carl, and whose novel Idlewild just came out this last week. I’m looking forward to meeting him.

I think these should be interesting panels, although just from the description alone, it seems like whoever thought up the “Day Job” panel seems to think they’re something to be mildly defensive about. And of course, I don’t think that at all.

Not entirely incidentally, I’ll be blogging for AOL from the convention, so if you’re there and you see me geeking out, by all means drop by. I’ve requested a high-speed Internet access-ready room, and my computer is WiFi capable, so I’m guessing that I’ll see a lot of people parked outside my room with laptops, sipping off my feed. Fine, people, be that way. Just slip me a buck under the door. That high-speed feed is $12.95 a day Canadian. I take loonies.