My WorldCon Schedule

more or less final, unless it's not.


Thursday 1:00pm Autographing
Come one, come someone! With luck, I won't end up doodling on my own arm out of boredom...

Friday 11:30am Reading
(if you're very very good, I might do a bit from BRING IT ON...)

Friday 1:00pm How do You Research Things that don't Exist?
What are the "rules" of vampires or fairies? How do you justify departure from the rules.


Saturday12:00 noon Making a Good End of It: The final seasons of Buffy and Angel
Buffy and Angel are both now over. Both took rather different turns in their final years. Buffy returned from the dead and teamed up with Spike. Angel took over Wolfram and Hart (and teamed up with Spike). Did they do the right thing? Or did they go wrong? What should they have done differently? I'm moderating this one, apparently. Heh. I hope my fellow panelists are prepared to defend their positions...

Saturday 1:00pm Inhabiting an existing universe -- writing and reading fan fiction
(I'm moderating this one, too. Expect fireworks...those of you who were at the Lunacon panel know what I mean.)

Saturday 5:00pm It Can't be Fantasy, I Like It
What makes certain apparently generic fantasies stand head and shoulders above the others?
We may name names and diss careers, here.

Sunday 11:00am Kaffeeklatsch
Thank god. Based on established past history, at this point in the weekend I'm going to need the caffeine just to stay upright and breathing...

REVISED WorldCon schedule

Realized that I won't be getting in until after my signing on Thhursday. The folks at Interaction were kind enough to shuffle things, so now I'll be doing my signing at 10am on Friday.

I know it's early. If I promise to bring coffee, will anyone show up?

Shelby Foote, RiP

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- Novelist and historian Shelby Foote, whose Southern storyteller's touch inspired millions to read his multivolume work on the Civil War, has died. He was 88.

Foote, a Mississippi native and longtime Memphis resident, wrote six novels but is best remembered for his three-volume, 3,000-page history of the Civil War and his appearance on the PBS series ''The Civil War.''

He worked on the book for 20 years, using a flowing, narrative style that enabled readers to enjoy it like a historical novel.

"I can't conceive of writing it any other way," Foote once said. "Narrative history is the kind that comes closest to telling the truth. You can never get to the truth, but that's your goal."