Seatle Worldcon Schedule

So, all other things being equal, it looks like I am going to be at the Seattle Worldcon in August. My first Worldcon was back in 2003, so this year it’ll be 22 years that I’ve been going to these things – I didn’t go to all of them, to be sure, but I’ve got a solid track record for it. Given that this one is kinda sorta in my back yard, it wasn’t a hard decision to attend; but it’s been a sad reflection of our times to watch so many international fen and panellists bail because they don’t feel entirely safe to cross a border into the States for assorted reasons. I was looking forward a great deal to a visit by a friend from across the pond whom I haven’t seen in person since the Japan Worldcon… but that alas is not happening. I am hoping that I get to see American friends in person at the con but even some of them have decided that travel is dicey… I am really hoping for a good con but I am not entirely sure how much of the ‘world’ will be in the worldcon this year.

That said, I am on the panel schedule, and it  looks something like this:

Wed 6:00pm-7:00pm room 445-446
What If the World Had Spun Differently?

Alternate Histories from Outside the West Alternate history, quite often referred to in the Romance Languages as Uchronia, takes on new dimensions when reimagined from outside the classical Western timeline. What if certain empires had crumbled earlier? What if Indigenous science or smaller nations had shaped space travel? What if the world had never been discovered? This panel brings together writers who bend history not just for speculation, but for justice, curiosity, and joy: reclaiming the past to reshape the future.
Luis Carlos Barragán Castro, Alma Alexander, Leonardo Espinoza Benavides, Remy Nakamura, Yasser Bahjatt

Thu 3:00pm-4:00pm room 321
Refugees in Science Fiction

Jerry Pournelle once observed that in the future, “There Will Be War.” Wherever there is war, there will be displaced persons. Some works might depict aliens as refugees, others involve time travellers fleeing from conflicts in another time. How does science fiction imagine the future of refugees and the empathy needed towards persons fleeing from conflict?
R.W.W. Greene (M), Alma Alexander, Bethany Jacobs, Diego Tovar, Sara K Ellis

Thu 7:30pm-8:30pm
How to Vet Fictional Society Rules room 423-424

You can’t break rules until you make them. All fictional societies need a (logical for them) legal foundation, and understanding it is a key component of writing compelling, credible science fiction. It is the Dev
>Editor’s job to make sure the rules make sense. Panelists will discuss how they vet social and legal structures for their clients’ novels and how breaking/bending these rules can create the story beats that keep readers turning pages.
Jennifer Brozek (M), Alma Alexander, James R. Wells, Joseph Brassey, Sarah Chorn

Fri 10:30am-11:30am room 427
Table Talks 29
Alma Alexander

You need to sign up for this, so somebody please do that it’s kind of nice to talk to people around a table as opposed to talking TO the table…

Sat 4:30pm-5:30pm
Autographs garden lounge (3F)

Alma Alexander
Casey Blair, Ada Palmer  Ai Jiang  Alex Shvartsman, Alison Clarke, Andrea Hairston, Blaze Ward, Brandon Sanderson, Brittany Tucker,  CJ Hosack, Michael Michel, Rosemary Jones, Ryan North, Usman T. Malik, Vincent Roth

(if you can find me in the Brandon Sanderson scrum, you can bring stuff to get signed if you have it but I’ll also have stuff like bookplates which you can bear away to place in appropriate volumes at your leisure…)

If you want to talk about social plans and you have my email or my phone number, hit me up there!

Otherwise… well… see some of you there, maybe.