CONvergence Schedule

[mmerriam]

Friday:

 Signing

Venue: Autograph Table
Start: 2:00 pm   End: 3:00 pm
About: Dana Baird, Michael Merriam and Joel Arnold
Panelist(s): Michael Merriam, Joel Arnold, Dana Baird

MinnSpec Meeting

Venue: Cabana 118
 Start: 5:00 pm   End: 6:00 pm
About: Come learn about this resource for local aspiring science ficiton and fantasy writers.
Panelist(s): Hilary Moon Murphy, Michael Merriam

 

Saturday:

 Reading

Venue: Vista Suite
Start: 11:00 am   End: 12:00 pm
About: The author of "Shimmers & Shadows" reads from of his work.
Panelist(s): Michael Merriam

Disabilities in Science Fiction

Venue: Cabana 118
Start: 12:30 pm   End: 1:30 pm
About: Looking at the disabled through the lens of science-fiction - or do handicapped Captains get better parking places in space dock? What will we consider to be a disability if blindness is cured ala La Forge's visor?
Panelist(s): Michael Merriam, Elise Matthesen, Betsy Lundsten
 

 

Sunday

Writing Workshop For Teens

Venue: Vista Suite
Start: 12:30 pm   End: 1:30 pm
About: Michael Merriam will give some tips and tricks for young writers just getting started. The focus will be on the basics of story and story construction with some time for Q & A. As the name suggests, this panel is meant for younger attendees.
Panelist(s): Michael Merriam (mod)
 

 The Twin Cities School

Venue: Atrium 8
Start: 3:30 pm   End: 4:30 pm
About: The Cities have produced a lot of professional writers. Is there something in the water? Is it the great fans and built-in audience? Is it Dreamhaven and Uncle Hugo's? The Loft? What? Join area writers as they talk about the local SF & F scene.
Panelist(s): Kelly McCullough, Hilary Moon Murphy, Michael Merriam, Ruth Bermam

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I decided after a few years of watching Geordi LaForge that I didn't believe in blindness being cured by one thing. I believed that Geordi got the visor and BlindGuy#2 had some surgery on his optic nerve and BlindGalA got treatments that changed her body chemistry and prevented her going blind in the first place and BlindGalB...you know what I mean here: blind isn't just one thing.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

I am deeply dubious about any Sf/F that presents a "Once size fits all" approach to "curing" a disability. I am also deeply tired of disabled characters in SF/F that seem to exist for the sole purpose of being Cured! By! Science! (or Magic! in fantasy) or else play the Wise! Mentor! who guides the hero until they are killed.

Fortunately, since I work as a fiction writer, I am able to at least attempt to do something about this.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Noting that disabilities panel, I should mention that I did sell that piece with a police detective with RP (I asked you a handful a questions about that one) to Baen's Universe....

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

I'll have to bring that story up at the panel!

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Should be out in 2010...

In the story, he has implants attached to his optic nerve (a small computer inside each eyeball) along with contact-lens-mounted cameras. This technology is only mundane SF, though, since it's actually been tested by a handful of people in Germany for short periods. (Not together, though--the contacts are newer than the implant.) The implants were tested with a glasses-mounted camera with a battery pack.

[careswen.livejournal.com]

We saw a documentary or something about the glasses-and-implant combo. At that time, the resulting image was just a series of dots, which formed shapes. The subject could "see" a line of dots, but they wouldn't know if that line represented the edge of a book or the edge of a building. The subjects were clearly disappointed, even though they had been warned that this was not going to be real vision, they had unrealistic hopes. It was a very interesting program.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Sadly, this technology is years away from being usable in humans, and from what I recall of the German tests, they were only left in for a month at a time....

It is a cool concept, though. They've now come out with contacts with the camera powered by a solar cell in the lens, which would cut down on the bulk of glasses and a battery pack.

The detective in my story can't see normally, and has a facial recognition program built into the implant that assists him in recognizing people. (They actually developed one over a decade ago to assist people who have short-term memory problems....it scrolls the person's identity constantly across the field of vision so that the wearer can remember to whom they're speaking)

[queenofillusion.livejournal.com]

Will be glad to run into you again at con. I'm on 4 panels, one with Dana!

July....

Veronica

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

I'll look forward to seeing you there!