A Note on Programming Rooms
Because the Hilton is in the middle of making some changes we're taking a distributed approach to programme rooms this year.
Rooms can be found as follows:
- Annapolis Room: This room
is on the hotel's second floor. We believe the football players
are using it on Friday afternoon and evening as well as Saturday
morning, so opening the door to check what's going on in there
during that period is probably not a good idea.
- Assembly Room: The con's
social center as well as the location for some kaffeeklatsches
and more informal group discussions, is located on the Mezzanine
level of the hotel. It is reachable either via a short staircase
or by a small elevator/wheelchair lift.
- Capitol Ballroom: This room
is on the main lobby level of the hotel, tucked away behind the
reception desk. It's so new, we haven't yet found a hotel map
that shows it.
- Council Room: This room is
on the Mezzanine level of the hotel.
- Severn Room: This room is
on the hotel's second floor. Apply the same caution to this room
that you'd apply to the Annapolis Room.
Friday, Oct. 20th
Registration: 3pm-10pm
Town
Square: 3pm-Midnight in Assembly
Dealer Room:
4pm-8pm in Chesapeake
Saturday, Oct. 21st
Registration: 10am-10pm
Town
Square: 9am-2am in Assembly
Dealer Room: 10am-6pm
in Chesapeake
NOTE: There will be a formal
reception in the Potomac Room from
9pm-11pm
Sunday, Oct. 22nd
Registration: 10am-2pm
Town
Square: 9am-3pm in Assembly
Dealer Room:
11am-3pm in Chesapeake
Friday Program
3:00 PM
Registration Opens
Town Square Opens
4:00 PM
Dealer's Room Opens
5:00 PM
So You Want to Throw a
Party?
Join our intrepid party-throwers for tips
and hints on throwing a party, the essential items to include in
your party kit, how to make the best use of your space, and
other information they've learned through trial and
error.
Bill Lawhorn, Bob MacIntosh, & Mike
Pederson
Assembly
6:00 PM
7:00 PM
Expanding and Maintaining
an Audience
Fictionwise. Translations. Viral
marketing.
Lawrence M. Schoen and Diane Turnshek
Capitol Ballroom
The Magazine Editor's
Life
George Scithers talks about being an editor
(especially a magazine editor) and as the senior magazine editor
currently active in our field.
George
Scithers
1220
Reading: A. C.
Crispin
A. C. Crispin
1232
7:30 PM
KaffeeKlatsch/Literary Beer:
Yoji Kondo/Eric Kotani
Join Yoji with your beverage
of choice for conversation and discussion.
Yoji
Kondo/Eric Kotani
Assembly [Town Square]
Reading: Bud
Sparhawk
Bud Sparhawk
1232
8:00 PM
Re-Reading
Share
some of your favorite things to re-read with us -- and tell us
why.
Michael Dirda, Jim Mann, Patrick Nielsen Hayden,
and Tom Whitmore
Capitol Ballroom
WSFA Third Friday
Meeting
WSFA (Washington Science Fiction
Association) traditionally meets on the first and third Fridays
of the month. Today's a third Friday. Open to all Capclave
members.
WSFA members.
1220
Reading: David Louis
Edelman
1232
Dealer's Room Closes
8:30 PM
Reading: Tom
Doyle
1232
9:00 PM
Guest of Honor
Presentation: Time in Novels
.Time in
Novels. Kim Stanley Robinson's presentation on Olaf
Stapledon and Virginia Woolf's correspondence on the topic
during the 1930s. One was arguing from the perspective of
cosmological narrative; the other from a stream-of-consciousness
perspective. Stan will talk about that interaction and the
effects of their correspondence on the two novelists' work. Then
he'll move to a larger discussion on the ways time is used and
described in fiction.
Kim Stanley
Robinson.
Capitol Ballroom
Note: This item may run
as long as 1.5 hours.
History of Fandom and an
Appreciation of Wilson "Bob" Tucker
After suitable
reminiscences, participants will be encouraged to migrate either
to the bar or to a party (perhaps the Kansas City 2009 Worldcon
Bid party would be a good choice?) where a suitable round of
"smooth"s can be held in honor of Bob's inimitable style.
Lenny Bailes, Keith Stokes, and Tom Whitmore (m)
Assembly [Town Square] and the bar
9:30 PM
Reading: Darrell
Schweitzer
Darrell Schweitzer
1232
10:00 PM
Conversation Pit:
Creating Non-Human Characters
continuation of a
conversation on the topic begun at LACon IV. Lawrence said
something there about Jar-Jar Binks and Tourette's Syndrome. We
want to find out where this conversation goes next!
Walter H. Hunt and Lawrence M. Schoen
1220
Reading: Broad
Universe
Broad Universe is an international
organization with the primary goal of promoting science fiction,
fantasy, and horror written by women. Four of its members will
be doing readings from their own works.
They will also read
a selection from a novel by Schelly Steelman, who passed away
about a month ago. Schelly was a DC-area writer and a member of
Broad Universe. Her first novel came out last year.
Victoria McManus, Nancy Jane Moore (m), Kathryn Sullivan,
and Catherynne Valente
1232
Registration Closes
11:00 PM
Flannel Pajamas
Books Some books are like a good set of flannel pajamas
-- or flannel sheets, if you prefer to sleep naked. They keep
you warm when it's cold, wick away sweat when it's hot --
they're just comfortable. When the chips are down and you want
to crawl into a comforting nest, what books do you take along
with you and why?
Gregory Frost, Peter Heck, Jane
Jewell, and Tom Whitmore
Capitol Ballroom
Late Night Reading
Diane Turnshek
1232
Midnight
Town Square Closes
Saturday Program
9:00 AM
Town Square Opens
10:00 AM
Reading Aloud
Catherynne Valente will read a brief excerpt from one of her
works and dissect it line by line for reading choices and talk
about things like vocal inflection and character.
Workshop
participants will then each have the opportunity to read an
excerpt from one of their own works and get notes and
suggestions on its presentation.
The workshop is limited to
12 participants.
Catherynne Valente
Council
Room
2 hours
Astronomy and Science
Fiction
Exploring strange new worlds happens as
often at a writer's keyboard as it does at an astronomer's
eyepiece. In the real world, planets get promoted and demoted.
Discuss astronomy in science fiction.
Michael
Capobianco, Matthew Jarpe (m), Yoji Kondo/Eric Kotani, and
Michael Swanwick
Capitol Ballroom
Conversation Pit: Media
Matters
How do bloggers challenge lies and the
political distortion fields that mainstream media overlooks?
Kathryn Cramer and Victoria McManus
1220
Reading: Karl
Schroeder
Karl Schroeder
1232
Dealer's Room Opens
Registration Opens
10:30 AM
Reading: Catherine
Asaro
Catherine Asaro
1232
11:00 AM
Writers Workshop
Bring paper and a writing implement. All else will be
explained at the beginning of the session.
Allen L. Wold,
with L. Jagi Lamplighter, Edmund Schubert, and Jeri
Smith-Ready
1220
2 hours
Writing Non-Human
Characters
It's difficult for humans to think past
the reality of how we think sufficiently to create something
that's more of an alien than an athropomorphized Gila monster or
a psychic tarantula. How do we make non-human characters alive
but not weird or so cliched that readers begin yawning as soon
as they're introduced?
Laura Anne Gilman, Edward M.
Lerner, Benjamin Rosenbaum, and John C. Wright
Annapolis Room
A Taxonomy of
Fantasy?
"Primary fantasy", "source fantasy",
"mythic fantasy", "hard fantasy", "dark fantasy", "urban
fantasy" ... the list goes on. Rather than talk about what
defines fantasy, let's talk what it does, what it does in
combination with what other forms of literature, what
characterizes its permutations, the ancestry of its sub-forms,
et cetera.
Gregory Frost, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, and
Paul Park
Capitol Ballroom
Reading: Kim Stanley
Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson
1232
11:30 AM
Reading: Walter H.
Hunt
Walter H. Hunt
1232
12:00 PM
Humor in Short
Fiction
Esther Friesner, John G. Hemry, and Bud
Sparhawk
Annapolis Room
Kim Stanley Robinson's
Short Fiction
Stan's short stories have won the
Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy and Asimov's Reader Poll awards,
and have garnered nine Hugo nominations and seven Nebula
nominations. Let's talk about some of our favorites.
Tom
Doyle, Andy Duncan (m), and Doug Fratz
Capitol
Ballroom
Gibberish
Developing a language
system involves more than just removing the vast majority of the
vowels in your characters' names. What does it take? What
distinguishes a good language system in fiction from a bad one?
Michael Capobianco, Walter H. Hunt, and Lawrence M.
Schoen
Reading: Keith R. A.
DeCandido
Keith R. A. DeCandido
1232
12:30 PM
Reading: Gregory
Frost
Gregory Frost
1232
1:00 PM
Viral Batteries and Other New
Science
It's hard to keep up these days. Quantum
dots replace photovoltaic cells, we learn more about the ways
our brain processes mathematics. Scientists focus on the
intersection of physics and game theory, an optical atomic
clock, magma crystallization. MIT researchers are developing
low-cost manufacturing methods based on the rapid reproduction
of viruses. What else from real science is closer to "fiction
about science" than our genre fiction?
Catherine Asaro,
Matthew Jarpe, Sam Scheiner (m), and Karl Schroeder
Capitol Ballroom
Terrascaping the
Universe
Some books and stories re-arrange your
inner landscape. It's that same feeling you got the first time
you put on glasses and realized you could actually see leaves on
trees. What stories revolutionized the way you think, feel, or
view the world?
Yoji Kondo/Eric Kotani, Darrell
Schweitzer, and John C. Wright
Council Room
First Sentence, First
Paragraph: What Does It Take To Grab You?
Great
first sentences, to work, have to be sneaky or elegant. But
great first sentences are rare. So what qualities does a novel
or story have to have to make you keep reading beyond that first
sentence or first paragraph?
Keith R. A. DeCandido,
Gregory Frost, Laura Anne Gilman, and George
Scithers
Annapolis Room
Reading: Edward M.
Lerner
Edward M. Lerner
1220
Reading: Mindy
Klasky
Mindy Klasky
1232
1:30 PM
Reading: Barbara
Krasnoff
Barbara Krasnoff
1220
Reading: Victoria
McManus
Victoria McManus
1232
2:00 PM
Fantasy and Science Fiction
and Horror, Oh My!
Do we need dividing lines? Or as
Sarah Monette said recently, "They are different. They are the
same. Both statements are true, and both matter." Discuss.
A.C. Crispin, Scott Edelman, David G. Hartwell, and Lawrence
Watt-Evans
Annapolis Room
The Science in Science
Fiction
How much is there? How accurate? And can
writers keep ahead of the world of science as we know
it?
David Louis Edelman, Doug Fratz, Matt Jarpe (m), and
Bud Sparhawk
Power, Money, Sex, Love,
Aliens, and Beasts
Altering the formal rituals that
clue us in to social hierarchies and relationships can be a
powerful part of fiction. What things are so obvious to a
Western eye that we never question their appearance in science
fiction and fantasy stories?
Victoria McManus, James
Morrow, and Catherynne Valente
Severn Room
Dr. Gafia is out:
Remembering rich brown
Washington-area fan rich
brown passed away earlier this year. Join some of his friends
for some rich brown-related storytelling.
Steve Stiles
and Ted White
1220
Reading: Terri
Osborne
Terri Osborne
1232
2:30 PM
Reading: Laura Anne
Gilman
Laura Anne Gilman
1232
3:00 PM
GoH Presentation: Global
Warming
Kim Stanley Robinson
Capitol
Ballroom
This item may run as long as 1.5 hours
The Future of Small Press
Magazines
Neil Clarke, Ed Schubert, Sean
Wallace, and Lawrence Watt-Evans
Reading: Jeri
Smith-Ready
Jeri Smith-Ready
1232
3:30 PM
Reading: Maria V.
Snyder
Maria V. Snyder
1232
4:00 PM
My Best and Worst
Reviews
Author panelists bring copies of reviews
that they're particularly fond of to share with the audience and
then talk about what makes something a "good" review for them.
Colleen Cahill (m), John G. Hemry, and Walter H.
Hunt
Moved to the bar after we unexpectedly lost the
room.
Reviewers
Workshop
A discussion of the problems and
techniques of book reviewing, with an emphasis on reviewing of
SF, fantasy and related genres.
Limited to 15 participants.
Participants may bring a short review (under 500 words) of a
recent book for group discussion. In addition to consideration
of specific reviews, the workshop will focus on ways to write an
effective and useful review, the relation of reviewing and
criticism, and the requirements of different audiences.
Peter Heck
Two hours
1220
The Evolution of Artificial
Intelligence
Tom Doyle, Edward M. Lerner, and
James Morrow (m)
Council Room.
Lost
It's a TV
show; it's the subject of fanfic; it's on many people's
"must-watch" lists.
Michael Capobianco and A. C.
Crispin
Severn Room
Reading: Benjamin
Rosenbaum
Benjamin Rosenbaum
1232
4:30 PM
5:00 PM
Endings: Slingshots and
Other Varieties of Wrapping Up
KSR defined the term
"slingshot endings": where an author slowly starts putting the
narrative hooks for the sequel into the present text, careful
all the while not to disrupt it. In the final pages, as the
resolution of the present story become clear, so does the nature
of the sequel. It's not always done well -- let's talk about how
and when it is done well, as well as the many other
challenges of creating good endings.
Paul Park, Maria V.
Snyder, and Michael Velichansky
Council Room
Fan GoH Tom Whitmore and
Friends in Conversation: What do we know, and how do we know
that we know it?
Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Jon
Singer, and Tom Whitmore
Capitol Ballroom
Building a Space-Faring
Civilization. Can we get there from here?
What
constitutes a space-faring civilization? What technologies do we
need to build one? Can we get there from here? How do we get
there from here? How far can we expect to go?
Catherine
Asaro, Yoji Kondo/Eric Kotani, Tom McCabe, and Karl
Schroeder
Severn Room
Reading: Lawrence M.
Schoen
Lawrence M. Schoen
1232
5:30 PM
Reading: Scott
Edelman
Scott Edelman
1232
6:00 PM
Graphic Novels and
Stories
Lenny Bailes, Tom Doyle, and Lawrence
Watt-Evans
Council Room
Dealer's Room Closes
7:00 PM
The New Weird, The
Interstitial Arts
What are we trying to accomplish
by defining new ways of looking at all/some/a small piece of
speculative fiction/science fiction/fantasy?
Gregory
Frost and Catherynne Valente
Council Room
Battle of the Sexes in
SFF
Discussion of the changing roles women have
played in shaping science fiction. This can range from
considering the range of women characters in SF (from sex
objects to 3-D characters in stories) to questioning whether and
how women's roles as authors, editors, and reviewers in the
science fiction field and as fans have changed.
Barbara
Krasnoff, Nancy Jane Moore, and James Morrow
Severn
Room
Reading: Michail
Velichansky
Michail Velichansky
1232
7:30 PM
Reading: Michael
Swanwick
Michael Swanwick
1232
8:00 PM
GoHs Kim Stanley
Robinson and Tom Whitmore in Conversation: Intentional
Communities
Kim Stanley Robinson and Tom
Whitmore
Capitol Ballroom
Alternative Sexualities in
SFF
How well are alternative sexualities (or
any sexuality) portrayed in science fiction and
fantasy?
This panel will conclude with the announcement of
the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards.
Bob Angell, Rob Gates,
Nancy Jane Moore, with a guest appearance by Esther Friesner
following her reading
Severn Room
LibraryThing
It's an online
cataloging tool that's become a social networking site too. Come
talk about how we're using
LibraryThing -- and
what we might do with it in the future.
Colleen Cahill
and David Louis Edelman
1220
Reading: Esther
Friesner
Esther Friesner
1232
9:00 PM
Group Discussion: New
Novelists
Join the group and discuss the realities
of finally being a published author. Wander between the SFWA
Reception and the Town Square.
David Louis Edelman, Jeri
Smith-Ready (m), Maria V. Snyder, and Catherynne Valente
Assembly
Creative Cursing and
Impressive Insults
[This item has been cheerfully
swiped from DucKon programming.] What does the way your
characters curse or insult others say about your world-building
expertise? Come invent some new hierarchies of curses -- the
last person not laughing wins.
Keith R. A. DeCandido
(m), Esther Friesner, John G. Hemry, and Lawrence M. Schoen
Capitol Ballroom
Reception: It is
with pleasure that the Capclave 2006 committee announces a fancy
dress reception, co-hosted with the
Science Fiction and Fantasy
Writers of America (SFWA). Fancy dress is encouraged but not
required; drop-dead dress or jeans as you prefer.
Potomac
Ballroom
10:00 PM
.Conversation Pit: What is
a Novel?
Paul Park, Kim Stanley Robinson, and
Michael Swanwick
1232
Registration Closes
2:00 AM
Town Square Closes
Sunday Program
9:00 AM
Town Square Opens
10:00 AM
Contracts
Workshop
Jane Jewell, Executive Director of SFWA,
will give you insight into the arcana of contracts: What do
those terms mean? Sub-Rights? Territories? Reserve Against
Returns? What to look out for. What you can usually change just
by asking. What they won't budge an inch on.
All those things
that you'd really rather learn before you start negotiating your
next contract!
Limited to 15 participants.
Jane
Jewell--Executive Director of SFWA who also worked with authors
and contracts at Tor Books, with Michael Capobianco--author and
past president of SFWA, A. C. Crispin--author, past officer of
SFWA, co-chair of Writer
Beware, and Peter Heck--author and former SF editor at Ace
Books
Council Room
2 hours
Writing Short
Shorts
Laura Anne Gilman, Benjamin Rosenbaum,
and Michael Swanwick
Annapolis Room
Forty Signs of
Rain/Fifty Degrees Below: Reader Responses
In
June, rain disrupted Amtrak service, flooding tunnels and a
major subway station, drowning crops and knocking out power to
government buildings. It was eerily reminiscent of our Guest of
Honor's Forty Signs of Rain; now some of us are dreading the
coming winter.
Doug Fratz, Nancy Jane Moore, and Patrick
Nielsen Hayden
Capitol Ballroom
Reading: Paul
Park
Paul Park
1232
Registration Opens
10:30 AM
Reading: James
Morrow
1232
Reading: John G.
Hemry
John G. Hemry
1220
11:00 AM
It Reads Like Fantasy to
Me
Genre tropes abound in stories and novels not
catalogued as genre. Share examples -- good and bad -- along
with tales of assimilation. Or comment on Paul McAuley's
recent
blogging on a similar topic.
Dennis Danvers, Mindy
Klasky, James Morrow, and Ed Schubert
Annapolis
Room
Alice Sheldon/James Tiptree
Jr.
David G. Hartwell, Nancy Jane Moore,
and Michael Swanwick
Capitol Ballroom
How To Get a Real
Agent
In this free two-hour workshop, taught by
SFWA's Chair of Writer
Beware, attendees will learn:
- When a writer needs the services of a literary
agent.
- How to evaluate an agent's website to
determine whether the agent is legitimate or a scammer to be
avoided. How to find the websites where the "watchdogs" list
info about who the scammers are.
- The best sources for finding agent names,
contact information, and submission guidelines. How to determine
from agent listings which agents are the ones to query for a
specific project.
- How to write a query letter and synopsis to
send to an agent.
During the workshop, participants will be given
the opportunity to write a query letter and have it evaluated
and critiqued by Ms. Crispin. They should come prepared with the
means to compose a query letter. Participants will be given
handouts. These are many of the same handouts Ms. Crispin uses
in her "for pay" writing workshops.
Limited to 10
participants.
A.C. Crispin
1220
2 hours
Reading: Kim Stanley
Robinson
Kim Stanley
Robinson
1232
Dealer's Room Opens
12:00 PM
Giving Good
Interview
Are you struck dumb at the sight of
someone bringing a microphone near you? Join are panelists as
they offer up their tips to make the best of your moments in the
spotlight.
Jim Freund and Mike Zipser
Annapolis
Room
Why is "Genre" a Dirty
Word?
Let's talk about the way so many people talk
about genre fiction with an air of not-so-vague Puritan guilt --
they might feel that reading genre is, somehow, lowering or
perhaps they were scared in the cradle by somebody equating
"make-believe" with filth.
Dennis Danvers, Terri
Osborne, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Michael Swanwick
Capitol Ballroom
Books That Kids and Adults Can
Enjoy: What's New in YA
Recommendations and
reasonings. Things to look for in the near future.
Laura
Anne Gilman, Victoria , and Tom Whitmore
Council
Room
Close of Silent Auction
Bidding
Dealers Room
12:30 PM
Reading: Catherynne
Valente
Catherynne Valente
1232
1:00 PM
The Challenges of Writing in
"Known" Universes
When you're writing in the
StarTrek, Serenity, or
Buffy universes, fans are convinced that they
already know the universe—and they have expectations both
about how that universe operates and what certain characters are
likely to do and say. How do you balance their desires for "more
of the same" with your desire to create something new?
Keith R. A. DeCandido and Terri
Osborne
Annapolis Room
The Scents of
Poison
Join Maria V. Snyder, author of Poison
Study (2005) and Magic Study (2006), and
sample the subtle tastes and smells of chocolate ... and poison.
Maria V. Snyder
Council Room
Just Because You're in SFWA
Doesn't Mean We Have to Put You on Programming … or How To
Make Friends with Convention Programmers
And other
tales from the trenches of convention programming.
Conventions like having authors and editors be part
of their programming. Most of the time.
We'll tell you some
stories of how some new authors have made an incredibly positive
impression on programming people, and how other authors (new and
experienced) have earned themselves a place on the "not over my
dead body" lists of programming heads around the country.
Elaine Brennan (m), Jim Mann, and Teresa Nielsen
Hayden
Capitol Ballroom
Reading: Brenda
Clough
Brenda Clough
2:00 PM
Why is SF Losing Ground to
Fantasy?
Brenda Clough, John G. Hemry (m), Jane
Jewell, and George Scithers
Annapolis Room
Caudel Ferry Departyd with a
Blamanger: Medieval Cooking Revealed Live in All Its [Somewhat
Dubious] Glory, with Hot-and-Cold Running Redaction and
Commentary
Also known as A Fifteenth
Century Cookry Boke
Teresa Nielsen Hayden and
Jon Singer
Capitol Ballroom
Talk Back to Us
You get to tell us what went right, what went wrong, and
what you'd like to see more of next year.
Capclave 06,
Capclave 07, and Capclave 08
Council Room
Registration Closes
3:00 PM
Dealer's Room Closes
Town Square Closes
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