Along with my usual joy of discussing media, I hope sci-fi fans will be interested in my defense of depressing, pro-wallow television when you're already bummed, my enthusiasm for director Julie Taymor's Titus (1999), the ways writers explore personal biases through fiction, my adoration for complex female characters, particularly one played by Katee Sackhoff, and the impact of Shakespeare. I'm really pleased I signed on for this episode.
We were in fifth grade the February we played hockey on the lake. It was Ryan, Becky, a few other girls in our class, and I. It was my idea. Recently, I had seen curling on TV for the Winter Olympics and thought we could figure out how to do it with real stones and evergreen branches as brooms, but Ryan wasn’t interested and Becky just nodded politely. It must have sounded to them like the time I got really into Swiss Family Robinson and wanted to build a fort in the woods with the kids I babysat. When I instead said “hockey,” though, Ryan and Becky lit up. The rink in town was being used by the boys in our class that day and the snow had melted enough that we could ride our bikes to Clearwater Lake.
When we looked down at it from the top of the hill, he stood on the ice. He was a black pupil in the center of a white eye.
Read the rest here!
I just sold a short story to the horror and dark fantasy magazine, The Dark Magazine! I'm very excited about this one. It's called, "A Game at Clearwater Lake," and it involves a possible ghost and a hockey mask. (Is announcing this on June 13th a coincidence? PERHAPS. OR PERHAPS NOT.) My thanks to editor Sean Wallace!
18 Feb 2022, Friday 18:00 - 18:50, Marina II (Westin)
Horror is a feeling. Or maybe it's a body count. For some people, it's just a four-letter word. From body horror to folk horror to slasher, we'll discuss the differences and similarities in these subgenres — and see if we can find common ground.
Jennifer Williams, Paul Tremblay, Gillian Daniels (M)
19 Feb 2022, Saturday 13:00 - 13:50, Marina I (Westin)
With a much-needed surge of people openly embracing diverse genders and sexual identities, how is speculative fiction doing in representing the breadth of identities in stories set in SF/F/H? Is there still a disparity? How can SF writers/creators best write the "other" if it's outside their own lived experience? And what more do we want to see in an engaging queer future within speculative fiction?
Julian K. Jarboe, Andrea Hairston (Smith College), Gillian Daniels, Vince Docherty (M)
19 Feb 2022, Saturday 16:00 - 16:50, Harbor II (Westin)
Should you find yourself in Fairyland: eat not, drink not, and think not the folk there are of any trifling pixie kind. Tales of old warn the Fae are clever sly creatures of a most uncertain temper. Listen to our seasoned Fairyland farers, know well that certain other Rules there be … and pray their tips and tricks may shield your stay in the Seelie Court.
Gillian Daniels (M), Sarah Jean Horwitz, Anne Nydam, Esther Friesner
19 Feb 2022, Saturday 17:00 - 17:50, Harbor I (Westin)
Loki: the Marvel trickster we all adore to abhor. Is it the charming actor, Tom Hiddleston? The fun of seeing his pride persistently punctured? The appeal of his battling brother act with poor Thor? Let’s talk about the God of Mischief we know from the comics, the movies, the TV screen — and the even weirder Norse legends.
Jennifer Williams, Gillian Daniels (M), Kenneth Schneyer (Johnson & Wales University), Mike Squatrito (Association of Rhode Island Authors), Jennifer Pelland
20 Feb 2022, Sunday 11:00 - 11:50, Burroughs (Westin)
When it comes to horror fiction, is hope just a four-letter word? Can a successful horror story have a happy ending? Can it afford to teach us anything positive about the human condition? Or is it by definition doomed to hopelessness and nihilism?
Paul Tremblay, Gillian Daniels, Errick Nunnally (Journey Planet Fanzine)
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