Well, Norwescon is right around the corner. Time off from the day job has been requested, house/cat sitter arranged, and the logistics of toting all my gear down to Sea-Tac has been looked at. I figure all that remains is to hip y’all to my schedule for the con. It’s going to be a good year.
Thursday: 9pm Cascade 4 — Geriatric Batman
Some of the best loved mainstream comic story arcs are limited series with otherwise definitive endings. Despite this, big name superheros continue to be re written and resurrected, with little or no long term change “in continuity.” Will the fans revolt if we change their beloved characters, or are we craving more finality to our stories? Should Wolverine or Superman ever really die?
Ashley Cook, Matt Youngmark, Nathan Crowder, Wayfarer’s Moon, Andrew Dolbeck
Friday: 12:30pm Cascade 3 — Nathan Crowder reads “The Price of Cream” from Human Tales
Come find out what happens when pride of workmanship, labor relations, and mythical creatures run afoul or one crazy bastard at the top. Urban Fantasy/Fairy-tale
Friday: 4pm Cascade 4 — New Shared World Anthologies
Where are they headed? What makes them good? What are the pitfalls? Are they headed in a new direction? Is this an old idea being addressed in a new way? What are examples? Do they have staying power? Is it difficult for writers to maintain an internally consistent continuity and to avoid contradicting details in earlier works?
Mary Robinette Kowal, Jennifer Brozek, Nathan Crowder, Jay Lake, Jordan Lapp
Friday: 7pm Cascade 8 — Quarter Century Old Horror
How do movies that debuted 25 years ago hold up? The panel will discuss such releases as: James Cameron’s Aliens, Davis Cronenberg’s The Fly, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, The Hitcher, and more, and if they hold up as genuine scares or flops.
Eric Morgret, Jenna M. Pitman, Mark Rahner, Nathan Crowder
Friday: 9pm Cascade 7 — Deconstructing the Superhero
How has comics’ oldest genre matured? No longer mainly read by 12-year-olds, mainstream comics have had to change with their aging fans, not to mention indie comics being affected by the age-old stereotypes they encompass. How do newer comics treat the idea of a superhero? How do these ideas still affect small artists, no matter how hard they try to get away from them?
Andrew Dolbeck, Matt Youngmark, Nathan Crowder
Saturday: 3pm Grand 2 — Autograph Session 2
Patricia McKillip, Kinuko Y. Craft, Marie D. Jones, Jim Butcher, Shannon Butcher, Lou Anders, Alma Alexander, Anina Bennett, S. A. Bolich, SatyrPhil Brucato, Rob Carlos, Brenda Cooper, Nathan Crowder, James C. Glass, Roberta Gregory, Paul Guinan, Eileen Gunn, Jay Lake, Stina Leicht, R.L. McSterlingthong, Darragh Metzger, Joshua Palmatier, Kevin Radthorne, Cat Rambo, Mary Robinette Kowal, Ken Scholes, Jack Skillingstead, G.Robin Smith, Renee Stern, Rodney Thompson, K Wiley, Christine Winters, Stan!
In addition to the official schedule, there are the many evening parties, including a little room party on Saturday which I’ll be co-hosting with recent Silver Hammer of Service recipient Angel Leigh McCoy of the HWA. We’ll put up flyers at the con. Stop by and say howdy. Norwescon is one of my two pro/social cons of the calendar year, and I have a ton of writing and such to do once it’s done. At this rate, you might not get another chance to see me out in the wild until Foolscap in the fall.
Tales from the Ragged Edge 