UPDATE! I’m on two additional panels now. Comedy! Horror! Writing mechanics! It’s my life, except my real life also has a lot of dog hair in it too!

I’ll spend the majority of Norwescon volunteering with the Fairwood Writers’ Workshop, but I’m making a few other appearances as well.

Thursday

The Moral of the Story: Fantasy, Horror, Current Events

3:00pm – 4:00pm @ Cascade 11

 It’s a given that characters should be complex and a story’s message, or moral, should not be overly evident. Is fiction a place where big questions of ethics, morality, and humanity should be discussed? Many readers read in order to have such questions addressed. Or is literature simply supposed to be entertainment, unburdened by philosophy and morality? Do authors have a moral responsibility when creating stories? What is moral fiction, if it exists at all, and what role do genre stories have in addressing ‘the big questions’ of life?

Guest of Honor Banquet

5:00pm – 6:30pm @ Grand 2

I’m speaking briefly on behalf of Clarion West.

Friday

 The Best Comedy Workshop You’ve Ever Attended: Writing Workshop

5:00pm – 6:30pm @ Cascade 13

This is me and Curtis Chen pretending we know what we’re doing. Curtis at least has written a funny book and has a slide deck and intelligent things to say. I have written a lot of stories where monkeys die. I don’t know why he agreed to do this with me.

Do you want to write funny stories? Or would you prefer to be a wry storyteller? What’s the difference between jokes and humor? (Don’t say one’s a liquid. DON’T SAY ONE’S A LIQUID.) Tegan Moore and Curtis Chen explain it all. No props, no animals, no hyperbole, no refunds. Presented by Clarion West. Ages 18+. Space is limited and advance sign-up is required in Cascade 1.

Saturday

Fairwood Writers’ Workshop Social

1:30pm-3:30pm @ the Presidential/Party Suite

The Horror Of Being Twelve

6:00pm – 7:00pm @ Cascade 10

Stranger Things and the new movie version of It made their heroes a group of kids right on the edge of puberty. What makes that age work so well as a viewpoint in horror?

Death is Easy, Comedy is Hard

7:00pm – 8:00pm @ Cascade 9

The principles of comedy and drama may be identical (timing, foreshadowing, characterization, etc.), but learning to write drama is completely different than learning to write comedy. Can comedy even be taught? If comedy changes from region to region and generation to generation, how do writers learn to be funny in print? Who are the best comic writers in genre fiction, and what makes them so funny?

Sunday