Michael and Minicon

[mmerriam]

It is a official, these are places I will be.

Writing Cross-Genre: Cross-genre fiction is coming popular at the same time that many new sub-genres are being defined. What is there about SF today that calls for ever more specific categories while also inviting blurring of those boundaries? One might say the whole point of genre is to help bookstores/libraries/etc know where to shelve your book, and cross-genre books are notoriously difficult to categorize. And if no one knows what to do with your book, it probably won't sell well. So why write cross-genre fiction? What is the appeal? Friday 8:30 PM – Krushenko's

Minn-Spec Meeting and Meetup: Learn about this resource-sharing network for professional and aspiring speculative fiction writers. Saturday 11:30 AM - Krushenko's

The Editors Panel: Editors answer questions/share their thoughts about the craft of editing. Saturday 2:30 PM – Krushenko's

Reading: I'll read an excerpt from my forthcoming novella, The Horror at Cold Springs and something from my collection, "Shimmers & Shadows." Saturday 4:00 pm Veranda 1.

Including Disabled People In Fiction: How is disability presented in movies, book and TV? What are some of the best examples, and what makes us change the channel or press the eject button? How can publishers and authors make media more friendly and accessible to disabled fans? Sunday 2:30 PM – Verandas 3 / 4

Reading:

Comments

Re: blindness is the more popular disability

[pgdudda.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm certainly willing to "go there" if the other panelists are up for it...

Re: blindness is the more popular disability

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

It's me, you, Elise, and Betsy. Oh, I think that group is up for anything.

I know I don't have the same perspective on deafness and you and tiny_wings not being, you know, deaf, but I worked at a catalog retailer (Harris Communications) who sold equipment and goods to the deaf and hard of hear community, and even in the workplace (almost everyone who worked there was deaf or HoH or work in the community as an ASL interpreter)there were obvious tensions between employees who were deaf and Deaf with the capitol "D." There is some of this in blind community as well, but it doesn't seem to be hard hard core.

Re: blindness is the more popular disability

[tiny-wings.livejournal.com]

And that's not even touching other forms of disabilities, like paralysis, missing limbs, whatever else... There's more of that in sci-fi (because of cool possibilities for prosthetics generally) than in fantasy. It's interesting how different genres will deal with different themes regarding disability...

Re: blindness is the more popular disability

[dmbaird.livejournal.com]

I am very interested to see where the conversation goes, because I have written a deaf character into my current project (and much of what I did with her scenes is based on what I learned from the panel on disability at CONvergence). It has been difficult to describe the communication process when my characters are not vocalizing their dialogue. With a blind character, you don't have to make any special notes about their dialogue, they can just "say" things.