I know it’s a bit late for this announcement, but just a bit.
This weekend I’ll be attending AdAstra in Toronto, or better said in Richmond Hill.
You can find me:
- Saturday (July 14th) at 10:30 AM reading from RecipeArium(my novel, which is a finalist for Aurora Awards this year) in Markham A.
- Saturday (July 14th) at 11 AM moderating the panel WTF (Where’s the Food?)
Could we write genre fiction about food as art, as a cultural aspect and as a social tool? We always talk about food as a necessity, what to eat when on an adventure, or how to feed an army, or a population in an increasingly poorer land. But, how about Chefs and their life of creating the most exciting and tasty recipes? Can this still happen in humanity’s future or in an alien civilization? How about food as a show of social status, or social bonding, or ethnic identity?
- Sunday (July 15th) at 12 PM moderating the panel Alien Worlds – how much is too much? in Oakridges.
Building an alien civilization/culture without the human context is something that has been used only in building an alien life, not entire civilizations. Can we do it? How far can we go? How much is too much? What can we do to still keep the reader’s interest in the alien civ without making them human-like? Can we tell a story in an alien world without human characters?
Also, I’d like to mention that this year AdAstra will have a wonderful series of panels on gaming, both for players and designers. Strongly recommended.
And you can meet one of this year’s Guests of Honour: Bill Fawcett, Maria V Snyder, Timothy Zahn, Jody Lynn Nye, Sylvain Neuvel, or Returning Guests of Honour: Ed Greenwood, Robert J. Sawyer, Lesley Livingston, and Eric Choi.
Hope to see you there!