Philcon 2019!
This weekend I'll be attending the venerable PhilCon convention, in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. That's near enough to Philadelphia that you can still get scrapple for breakfast, so I guess it qualifies. Here's my schedule. Stop by and say hi!
Fri 6:00 PM in Executive Suite 623: READINGS ��� PAUL LEVINSON, APRIL GREY, JAMES CAMBIAS
I'll be reading a chapter from my forthcoming novel The Initiate.
Fri 7:00 PM in Crystal Ballroom Promenade: AUTOGRAPHS ��� PAUL LEVINSON, APRIL GREY, JAMES CAMBIAS
Fri 8:00 PM in Plaza II: CREATING IDIOMS FOR FANTASY WORLDS
[Robert C. Roman (mod), Alex Shvartsman, D.L. Carter, James Cambias, Ann Zeddies]
What do you have your characters call a French braid in a world where France doesn't exist? How do you fill the descriptive lacunae created when you want to avoid language that's anacosmistic?
Fri 11:00 PM in Crystal Ballroom Three: EYE OF ARGON INTERACTIVE
[Mark Singer (mod), Keith DeCandido, B. Lana Guggenheim, Michael Ventrella, James L. Cambias]
Yes, I'm going back for another struggle to keep from cracking up as I read from the charmingly inept Conan knockoff The Eye of Argon. Pray for me.
Sat 11:00 AM in Plaza II: WRITING FOR ALIENS ��� FAMILY AND SOCIAL STRUCTURES
[Sally Wiener Grotta (mod), Tom Purdom, Ann Zeddies, Chris Kreuter, James Cambias]
What if a species had no concept of marriage, or placed no value on raising one's own offspring? How would you write a culture that valued other relationships over ones that are viewed as the most important to humans without them coming across as cold and uncaring?
Sat 2:00 PM in Plaza II: OBSOLETE SCIENCE
[Earl Bennett (mod), Michael Swanwick, James L. Cambias, James Beall, B. Lana Guggenheim, Russell J. Handelman]
Remember when spaceships went whizzing through the ether? Remember the hollow earth? What obsolete scientific ideas shaped SF, and which ones still persist in it?
Sat 5:00 PM in Plaza III: HOW TO SERVE OUR NEW ROBOT OVERLORDS
[Simone Zelitch (mod), David Walton, Dr. Valerie Mikles, Bruce Dykes, James L. Cambias]
What it says on the tin.
Sat 7:00 PM in Plaza II: THE EVOLUTION OF MARS
[Darrell Schweitzer (mod), John Ashmead, Tom Purdom, James Cambias, Earl Bennett]
How have depictions of Mars changed in SF from the imaginings of Burroughs and Bradbury to the Mars we know now from studying its surface?
Sat 8:00 PM in Plaza III: GREAT SCIENCE FICTION MCGUFFINS
[Mary Spila (mod), Joe Siclari, Richard Stout, Christopher Hinz, James L. Cambias]
Alfred Hitchcock defined the McGuffin as the 'object' everyone in the story is looking for. This can be anything from a secret formula to a magic amulet to a living being. Which have been the genre's most interesting ones?
