I’ll be a guest at the Capclave convention soon (September 28 – 30) held just north of Washington DC. It’s a fun little convention dedicated to the written word, whose slogan is “Where reading is not extinct.”
The Guest of Honor is Hugo, Nebula, Campbell, Sturgeon and Locus Award-winning author Nancy Kress!
Here’s my schedule!
| Friday 4:00 pm: Beginnings (Ends at: 4:55 pm) Eisenhower Panelists: Nancy Kress, Wendy S. Delmater, Will McIntosh, Michael A. Ventrella (M) First sentence, first paragraph, first chapter. You only get one first chance to grab your reader’s attention. How do you craft the perfect opening hook? |
| Friday 6:00 pm: SFF of Political Resistance (Ends at: 6:55 pm) Washington Theater Panelists: Tom Doyle, Carolyn Ives Gilman, Larry Hodges, Michael A. Ventrella (M) Science fiction and fantasy are often not politically neutral: they can serve as a mirror of and a screen for contemporary controversy. What are examples of the SF/F under past repressive regimes? How may current authors best engage in political expression, and what are the pitfalls in balancing art and advocacy (there are certainly examples of bad writing making for worse propaganda). How may an author’s politics affect their career, for good or ill? |
| Friday 7:00 pm: Biggest Mistakes Made by New Writers (Ends at: 7:55 pm) Monroe Panelists: David Bartell, Wendy S. Delmater, Ian Randal Strock, Michael A. Ventrella (M) Our panelists just might be wiling to serve as examples of what not to do. Panelists share stories of things you shouldn’t do or at least what did not work at all for them. |
| Friday 8:00 pm: Anthology Builder (Ends at: 8:55 pm) Washington Theater Panelists: Neil Clarke, Alex Shvartsman, David Stokes, Michael A. Ventrella (M) So you want to edit and publish an anthology. How do the stories get picked? How do you come up with a theme? What sells and what doesn’t? How do authors produce readable fiction in the straitjacket of an original themed anthology? How do you properly curate your anthology? |
| Friday 9:00 pm: Dealing With Rejection (Ends at: 9:55 pm) Eisenhower Panelists: Neil Clarke, Scott Edelman, Barbara Krasnoff (M), Michael A. Ventrella Everyone in the field has to deal with rejection at some point. Panelists will talk about how they handle rejection, and in the case of editors, panelists will offer suggestions on how NOT to handle rejection |
| Friday 11:00 pm: How NOT to Get Published, a/k/a Late Night Tales From the Slush Pile (Ends at: 11:55 pm) Eisenhower Panelists: Neil Clarke, Wendy S. Delmater, Bjorn Hasseler, Ian Randal Strock, Michael A. Ventrella(M), Sean Wallace Editors will discuss all the things authors shouldn’t do if they want to be published. For instance, submission guidelines exist for a reason. And no matter how brilliant your story is, threatening the editor will reduce the probability that it will be published to zero. |
| Saturday 7:30 pm: Mass autographing (Ends at: 8:55 pm) Eisenhower Panelists: Nancy Kress, Alyssa Wong, Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Jeanne Adams, Catherine Asaro, T. Eric Bakutis, Stafford Battle, Jonathan Brazee, Jack Campbell – John G. Hemry, Neil Clarke, Doc Coleman, Wendy S. Delmater, Tom Doyle, Kelly Dwyer, Deidre Dykes, Andrew Fox, Jim Freund, Charles E. Gannon, Craig L. Gidney, Carolyn Ives Gilman, J. L. Gribble, Bjorn Hasseler, Inge Heyer, Larry Hodges, David Keener, Barbara Krasnoff, Mark Laporta, John Edward Lawson, Edward M. Lerner, Will McIntosh, Mike McPhail, Bernie Mojzes, James Morrow, Kathryn Morrow, Lawrence M. Schoen, Darrell Schweitzer, Alex Shvartsman, Jack Skillingstead, Alan Smale, Joe Stech, Michael A. Ventrella, David Walton, Jean Marie Ward, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Joan Wendland, Steven H. Wilson, A.C. Wise, Allen L. Wold |
| Saturday 10:30 pm: Eye of Argon (Ends at: 11:55 pm) Monroe Panelists: Hildy Silverman, Ian Randal Strock, Michael A. Ventrella (M) Our panelists read the worst fantasy story ever written, mistakes and all, and if they laugh or read it incorrectly, they are forced to act out the story. Just try not to fall over laughing! At some point, volunteers from the audience can participate and discover firsthand the author’s contentious relationship with spelling, capitalization and punctuation. |
| Sunday 10:00 am: Politics in SF vs. Fantasy: Meaningful Differences or Not? (Ends at: 10:55 am) Washington Theater Panelists: Aaron Emmel, James Morrow, Michael A. Ventrella (M) Do writers handle politics differently in fantasy than SF? How different is politics in a faux medieval setting vs. a future polity based on 20th or 21st century political movements? |
| Sunday 11:00 am: Endings (Ends at: 11:55 am) Eisenhower Panelists: Nancy Kress, Wendy S. Delmater, Mary Fan, Michael A. Ventrella (M) How do you stick the landing? So many stories start out well but end abruptly or just trail off, leaving the reader to wonder, what’s the point. Why does this happen and how can writers avoid this fate? How do you determine your endings? Is a twist ending a cheat? |
| Sunday 12:00 pm: I Hate His/Her Politics, But I Love His/Her Books (Ends at: 12:55 pm) Monroe Panelists: Day Al-Mohamed, James Morrow, Cerece Rennie Murphy, Michelle D. Sonnier, Michael A. Ventrella (M) Should a personal evaluation of an author be separated from how you view his/her politics? Many people refused to see the movie Ender’s Game because of Orson Scott Card’s statements on homosexuality and other writers charge that political views influence award nominations and who is picked for con programming. Is this true and if so, is it a good thing or a bad thing? |
| Sunday 1:00 pm: Handling the Unavoidable Infodump (Ends at: 1:55 pm) Truman Panelists: Jack Campbell – John G. Hemry, Brenda W. Clough, Iver Cooper, James R. Stratton, Michael A. Ventrella (M) As you know, Bob, it’s often considered more elegant to establish backstory or setting details gradually rather than in an infodump. Sometimes, though, the demands of the rest of the novel leave little choice. What are some of the tricks to infodump in a way that at least keeps the reader interested, and doesn’t disrupt the other elements of the story? Are there ever points at which an infodump is preferable over other methods of communicating setting detail? |
| Sunday 2:30 pm: Reading: Michael A. Ventrella (Ends at: 2:55 pm) Lincoln Author: Michael A. Ventrella |
| Sunday 3:00 pm: Write What You Don’t Know (Ends at: 3:55 pm) Eisenhower Panelists: Jeanne Adams, Doc Coleman, Michael A. Ventrella (M) Fantasy authors rarely get irate email from dragons saying they got it wrong. How to write characters from places and times that you don’t know but members of your audience do, and why it’s important to get outside your comfort zone. |
Here are some pictures from previous Capclaves!
Filed under: writing | Tagged: Capclave, conventions |
Michael A. Ventrella 
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