Fyrecon Schedule

Fyrecon is a science fiction/fantasy conference in Utah making it's debut this year, and I'm excited to be attending and participating! Fyrecon places a bit more emphasis on classes over panels and refining one's craft (as you can see in their banner above), which I think is a great idea. It'll take place at the Davis Campus of Weber State University next weekend, 8-10 June. Check out my schedule below.

Fri 9 June at 4:30 PM - "Comic Books as Literature" (Building D3 Room 203)
This will be a class I'll be teaching solo, and I'm very excited about it. I love comics, and I think it's clear they have every bit as much "literary" potential as conventional prose. Here's the description:

Comics, even today, too often carry with them connotations of immaturity, laziness, and low-brow writing. That could not be further from the truth! In this class we'll discuss why comics are important and powerful. We'll look at a few specific examples of fantastic comics and see what we can learn from them.

Points the Class Will Cover:
a) Comics as Literature 
b) Maus and Watchmen 
c) What can we learn?

Sat 10 June at 11:30AM - "Understanding Story Archetypes" (Building D3 Room 307)
As many of you know, story structure is something I've taken great interest in. A few years ago I wrote a number of blog posts detailing my adventures through story structure, and I've slowly been developing that (and doing more research) and developing a presentation of sorts. So this will be a two-hour presentation where we talk about numerous versions of story structure, why it's important in general, and what we can do with it.

We'll explore a few different archetypes of story structure, and then apply our understanding of those structures to our own stories, hopefully coming to a deeper understanding of the stories we are trying to tell.

Points the Class Will Cover:
a) The Hero's Journey 
b) The Virgin's Promise 
c) Dan Harmon's 8- Structure 
d) Foolscap Method 
e) What can we learn? 

Sat 10 June at 1:30PM - "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Breaking the Tropes with Style" (Building D2 Room 110)
Well, it's a BtVS panel, so of course I'm on it, and of course I can't wait!

Sat 10 June at 5:20PM - "Is the Ultimate Evil Dead: What Are We Losing by Justifying Bad Actions? (Building D2 Room 110)
I'm looking forward to this one--it should be an interesting discussion. I have a lot to say about good, bad, shades of gray, and the differences between empathy and justification.