My Panelist Schedule for Ad Astra

Friday

Laughing in the Face of Death ? ? ?

Time: 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Room: Markham B

Panellists: Nancy Kilpatrick, Peter Prellwitz, Rio Youers

Macabre humour is a powerful tool and it is used deftly in genre literature. However, we are not able to bring it through in social media and instead our day to day is filled with the manic swing of never-ending global confrontations and death and the next silly kitten video. How do we deal with death and why doesn’t macabre humour work in the here and now?

A Merciless Deconstruction of Things that Other People Like: The Panel ?

Time: 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Room: Richmond A

Panellists: Adam Shaftoe, David Blackwood, Simon McNeil

Are you a sucker for punishment? Pitch a book, film or piece of media you love and watch as our panelists try to destroy it.

Saturday

Better Author Websites ?

Time: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Room: Markham A

Panellists: Elaine Chen, Julie Czerneda, Lesley Donaldson-Reid

You’ve seen it. The dreadful photo website. The untended grave website. The “I’m too shy to say anything except about my cats” website. And so on. What should be an author’s proudest space, able to inform and draw readers (and fellow panelists) is all too often neglected. But there’s hope! (And it’s not a template)

Time Travel and Alternate Histories: Why You Don’t Kill Hitler ?

Time: 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Room: Buttonville

Panellists: Kari Maaren, Matthew Johnson, Neil Jamieson-Williams

Discussing the fine details of how changing the past always seems to make things worse.

Formatting, Style and Sticking it to the Man ?

Time: 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Room: Oakridge

Panellists: Ada Hoffmann, Adam Shaftoe

Where do you draw the line between personal style and compromising? What is a “voice” versus “extraneous undisciplined spasms of words”?

Sunday

Readings: Andrew Barton & Mike Rimar ?