Brian's ConFusion Schedule
The weekend of January 22nd is coming up on us quickly. If you're in the Detroit area during that time you have the chance to witness something special - The March of the Authors. This is when almost seventy industry pros of various shapes, sizes, and specialties make the long, cold trek to Michigan in order to participate in ConFusion.
ConFusion is a small genre convention that has, in recent years, attracted a huge number of pros who now view it a bit as VacationCon, where we can go for a quiet drink to hang out with out friends and interact with fans without the enormity of a comic con. It promises to be something special this year and, as usual, I'll be there hanging out for the whole weekend. Below is my schedule:
Saturday 9:00:00 AM Author RPG: Planet Mercenary!
Authors from across the genre spectrum come together to put Howard Tayler's new game, Planet Mercenary, to the test. Come watch these exceptional creatives put on a show and enjoy some laughs. Please remember to give the players their space.
Howard Tayler (M), Brian McClellan (M), Delilah S. Dawson, Cherie Priest, Mur Lafferty, Robert Jackson Bennett, Saladin Ahmed, Brent Weeks
Saturday 12:00:00 PM MacArthur to MacGuffin
From the King's Army on the march, to the trying to survive basic, to the epic clash of Helm's Deep, the genre reader can hardly escape military operations. Is the military an integral part of genre fiction or is merely an easy milieu to deploy? What about the military makes it such good fodder for genre stories?
Tom Doyle, Stina Leicht, Brian McClellan, Steve Buchheit, Brent Weeks
Saturday 2:00:00 PM Beyond The Hero’s Journey
Joseph Campbell wrote about the hero's journey in 1949 and it has become the default character arc of western writers for the past sixty years. But, there are many human experiences beyond heroism as narrowly defined by Campbell. What narrative types exist beyond the Hero's Journey? And why aren't they more widely
Cameron McClure, Brian McClellan, Max Gladstone, Miriam Weinberg (M), Paul Kemner
Saturday 3:00:00 PM The Rise of the Novella
The last few years have seen a resurgence of shorter forms of fiction. Novelettes, novellas, and even short novels are doing better than they have in years, through self publishing and traditional publishers like Harper Impulse, Tor.com Publishing, and Subterranean Press. Is this resurgence a result of a digital evolution or declining attention spans? What does the future hold for fiction under 50,000 words.
Melissa F. Olson, Brian McClellan, Jason Sanford (M), Yanni Kuznia, Carl Engle-Laird
Saturday 5:00:00 PM Autograph Session 2
Saturday 8:00:00 PM Would You Rather?
Hosted by fantasy author Sam Sykes, the contestants will play a science fiction and fantasy inspired game of "Would you rather?" Expect shenanigans, adult language, and laughs.
Brian McClellan, Sam Sykes (M), Cherie Priest, Greg van Eekhout, V.E. Schwab