In the last few years, I've pared back on a lot of the events I've gone to. Mostly it was a combination of money (tale as old as capitalism) but also time commitment (conventions means I ignore parental duties for a weekend which has always been a source of contention). Also, it was the returns of time and effort. As an extrovert, I absolutely love talking to people and having a table to hawk my books is great, but I haven't really written or published anything recently to lure the folks who already have all my books to a table.

This year, I decided not to have a table at my “home” convention, ICON 49. Instead, I'm just going to do some panels, play games, and socialize.

A few weeks ago, I got my assigned panels but haven't really sat down to write them up and post them like I want to do. Naturally, the details about the individual panels aren't up at the moment so I'm going to go from memory with what the panels were about.

Though, to be honest, I don't usually plan ahead for my game sessions any more than my novels and my panels. When I do plan too far ahead, usually things go off the “plot” as it were, so it is easier to just understand the topic and be able to speak to whatever comes up.

All times are Central (CT).

Friday

Where Do We Go From Here? (22:00, 10:00 PM)

This is the one I'm not 100% on the topic. If I recall correctly (naturally this is the first one), it was about tomorrow science fiction and how our current world gets to those first steps of sci-fi. I'm pretty sure “AI” is going to show up.

I do write a fair amount of sci-fi stories. I'm trying to spin up my setting, These Measured Stars, but it has been slow going with all the other distractions in my life. Not sure if it will be as extensive as Fedran, but I'm also pretty sure I'm going to approach that setting in the same manner.

Saturday

Speculative Fiction and the Stages of Life (10:00, 10:00 AM)

This is a topic I'm really interested in. I know when I was younger, I had a craving for portal fantasies and start good verses evil plots. As I got older, I found my tastes had drifted into what I write now. I'm really looking forward to this conversation.

Dungeon Masters Workshop (17:00, 05:00 PM)

This is one of my evergreen topics. After running games for ten years and having a group of evil players who avoided plots, I have plenty of experiences to talk about. Plus, I just love talking about the meta of the games and seeing how others dealt with the same situations.

Sunday

The Formulas of Fantasy: A Study of Tropes (12:00, 12:00 PM)

If I have to do any research, it would be dedicating a few hours to visiting tvtropes.org as a refresher. Even that said, I have a tendency to review my stories after I write them to see which ones I hit and which trends I seem to be following.

Writing Fundamentals - How to Plan a Novel (13:00, 01:00 PM)

I like to think this is a topic I can riff off forever. I don't quite write as much as I'd like to these days, but I'm still at a reasonable quarter million words a year and usually pull off four or five novels. I figured I could talk about that without a problem.

Other Times

Beyond that, I'm looking forward to finding more panels to watch, strangers to meet, and friends to reacquaint with since I've disappeared from the social world when I left Facebook.

Sadly, I won't be doing an erotic reading this year either. That was a lot of fun but it is hard to keep reminding people that I exist when I'm not on the networks used for communication.

I'm also looking forward to finding new board games to try out, TTRPGs with mechanics I want to learn, and stacks of books to buy at the dealer hall.

ICON is only a week away. I'm excited.