Just a week and a half until Orycon, my local SF/F convention! Every time I’ve gone, I’ve had a terrific time. Here’s a picture of me from last year:

OMIGAWD Totoro!!! (Photo by Remy Nakamura)

I might be having a little too much fun here.

This year it looks like I’ll be on a handful of panels and I’ll be doing a reading, as well. Here’s a run-down of my schedule:

FRIDAY:

• 5 pm: CHOOSE A MONSTER & WRITE THEIR STORY, Broadway Room. This one’s for the kiddos! If you have kids, have them stop by and write a mini-masterpiece. Rawr!

SATURDAY:

•  1 pm: THE PARANORMAL AS METAPHOR, Ross Island Room. I’ll try not to talk about zombies and werewolves all the damn time, but I can’t promise anything.
• 7 pm: STRONG CHARACTERS IN SF, Hawthorne Room. How the heck do you write a strong character in a sfnal world?
• 10 pm: SMUT, GORE, AND MORE, Hamilton Room. My third year in a row on this panel! What does that say about me?

SUNDAY:

• 11 am: WRITE WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW, Roosevelt Room. Screw writing what you know, because that’s totally boring.
• 1 pm: WRITING IN OTHER PEOPLE’S WORLDS, Madison Room. Some really talented franchise writers talk about writing tie-in fiction. Oh, and I’ll be there, too.
• 2:30 pm: MY READING! You know you don’t want to miss that. It’ll be in Grant, like all the other great readings.
• 3 pm: GARDENING IN FANTASY LAND, Idaho Room. We’re talking about plants in spec fic–my favorite part of worldbuilding!

Just to warn you what you’re getting into, here’s a picture of me on my very first panel, at WFC 2010:

(Photo by the awesome Christopher Cevasco.)

I may have just said I’d throw someone out of a mother-f***ing helicopter if I thought they were a threat during a zombie attack, but luckily there is no audio recording of this panel.

Anyway, I plan to be quite a bit more sedate at this convention, because I’ll busy racing around like a maniac to catch readings and great panels with people like Jay Lake, Dale Ivan Smith, Liz Argall, and Liz Gorinsky. Also, I hope to catch some presentations about technology and disaster preparation. Plus, there’s a cool masquerade to watch and lots of filking–not to mention the importance of checking out the craft brew tasting party!

This convention is going to be great!