| Day | Time | Title | Description | Participants | Room |
|---|
| Friday |
| Friday | 4:00pm | Welcome to Capclave | Introduction to Capclaves and conventions | Sam Scheiner, Bob Macintosh | Montrose |
| Friday | 5:00pm | Library Thing | Catalog your books on the Internet and find out what others have in their library. Learn about this fascinating tool and other things bibliophiles can do on the Internet. | Colleen Cahill (m), C. Alan Loewen, Danny Birt, David Edelman, Lawrence M. Schoen | Montrose |
| Friday | 5:00pm | Eureka, Battlestars, and Other New Television | What are the best SF and fantasy shows on television and what makes them so good? What shows are having a promising season and which got off to a bad start? What are the advantages of arcs versus standalones? | Davey Beauchamp (m), Perriane Lurie, Scott Edelman, Resa Nelson | Randolph |
| Friday | 6:00pm | Do U Rd on Scrn | How is technology changing writing and reading? Do you write differently on a computer than with a pen or typewriter? Do you read differently on the Internet? How will e-texts, audible books, and the Kindle change the act of reading? How will writers write for readers accustomed to reading twitters and text messages? | Traci Castleberry (m), Neil Clarke, Resa Nelson, Jean Marie Ward | Montrose |
| Friday | 6:00pm | Reading | Hear our author GoH read from an upcoming work. | James Morrow | Twinbrook |
| Friday | 7:00pm | Shades of Grey | Anti-heroes and morally ambiguous characters (such as Elric or Snape). How do writers portray a character not firmly good nor evil. Why would a writer want to create such a character? What is the advantage of making an ambiguous character the hero? The antagonist? | Peter Heck (m), Catherine Asaro, Mindy Klasky, Victoria Janssen, Ted White | Montrose |
| Friday | 7:00pm | Manga & Graphic Novels | What can these combinations of visual/print do differently from traditional films and print? What are some of the best examples and what makes them good? What SF works are being adapted and which ones should be? | Drew Bittner (m), Steve Stiles, Lawrence M. Schoen, Lawrence Watt Evans | Randolph |
| Friday | 8:00pm | Meet the Guests | Hang out with the cool crowd in the con suite | Sam Scheiner, Michael Dirda, James Morrow | Con Suite |
| Friday | 8:00pm | SF Generation Gap | Writers used to believe that most of their audience had read the classics, had a shared background, and understood Asimov's robots, Wells' time travel, Zelazny's alternate universes etc. Does that common background still hold? And if so, from where? Television? Movies? How do you write for audiences, some of whom understand the basic tropes while others are new? | George Scithers (m), Catherine Asaro, Kathryn Cramer, Jim Freund, Scott Edelman | Montrose |
| Friday | 8:00pm | SF Pictionary | Fun game show comes to Capclave. Can you communicate SF ideas through your drawings? | Danny Birt (m), Steve Stiles, Jean Marie Ward | Randolph |
| Friday | 9:00pm | Philip K Dick | This year marks PKD's 80th birthday and the 40th anniversary of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. What makes him so interesting to the critics? Which of his books still speak to us today and why? | Lenny Bailes (m), David Hartwell, Doug Fratz, Ted White | Montrose |
| Friday | 9:00pm | WSFA Meeting | The Washington Science Fiction Association meets every first and third Friday, including tonight. Learn about the people who put Capclave together and how you can join DC-area fandom. | Cathy Green (m) | Randolph |
| Friday | 9:00pm | Reading | | Barbara Krasnoff | Twinbrook |
| Friday | 9:30pm | Reading | | C. Alan Loewen | Twinbrook |
| Friday | 10:00pm | Vampires - Do They Suck? | Why are vampires so popular? How did these characters, once monsters, become increasingly portrayed as romantic figures? Is there anything new to say about vampires? What writers, movies, and TV shows have the best vampires? | Darrell Schweitzer (m), Stephen Segal, Jeri Smith-Ready, George Scithers | Montrose |
| Friday | 10:00pm | Filking | | | Randolph |
| Friday | 10:00pm | Reading | | Danielle Ackley-McPhail | Twinbrook |
| Saturday |
| Saturday | 10:00am | Writing on the Job? | Is it better for a writer to have a non-writing job to save his/her writing energies for fiction or to use writing skills to make a nonfiction living on the idea that any writing improves fiction writing? And when should you quit your day job? Hear writers discuss the relationship between their day job and their writing. | Barbara Krasnoff (m), Brenda Clough, Andy Duncan, Mindy Klasky | Montrose |
| Saturday | 10:00am | Space Warfare | Is war in space inevitable? How might it be fought? How can writers write about it in realistic ways? What writers/TV shows do a good job? Is there a way to do this without treating spaceships like warships or rewriting the Napoleonic wars? | Gary L. Oleson (m), Catherine Asaro, Chris Christopher, Charles Gannon, David Williams | Plaza II |
| Saturday | 10:00am | Workshop - Writers' Groups | WRITERS' GROUP DYNAMICS. Aly Parsons, who has led a writers' group for over 25 years, offers advice on how to create and sustain a mutually beneficial in-person writers' group. The workshop will include tips on finding or forming a group, critiquing methods, and maintaining equilibrium among group members. The workshop will be limited to 15 persons. Please sign up in advance | Aly Parsons | Randolph |
| Saturday | 10:00am | Reading | | Jeri Smith-Ready | Twinbrook |
| Saturday | 10:30am | Reading | | Maria V. Snyder | Twinbrook |
| Saturday | 11:00am | Beyond Slide Rules on Spaceships | It has been said that all SF is more about the period in which it is written than it is about the future. This explains all the Golden Age novels where characters fly spaceships but have moral attitudes (and slide rules) straight out of the 50s. Is this inevitable? What might be some of today's assumptions that writers automatically include? Are some authors better than others at avoiding this? And how can this tendency be used for satire? | Tee Morris (m), Andy Duncan, Victoria Strauss, Ian Randall Strock, A.C. Crispin | Montrose |
| Saturday | 11:00am | Dirda Interview | Interview with our critic GoH. Hear about Michael Dirda's adventures with the Washington Post and trying to maintain culture in a city where politics rules all. | Michael Dirda, Peter Heck | Plaza II |
| Saturday | 11:00am | Workshop - Writers' Groups (cont) | | Aly Parsons | Randolph |
| Saturday | 11:00am | Reading | | Davey Beauchamp | Twinbrook |
| Saturday | 11:30am | Reading | | Danny Birt | Twinbrook |
| Saturday | 12:00pm | Is the Face of Short Fiction Changing? | As the traditional digest magazines shrink in both size and audience, what are some of the new vehicles for short stories? What new roles are being played by the small press, web magazines, and corporate supported sites? Anthologies? What can be done to save short fiction? | Kathryn Cramer (m), Neil Clarke, Edmund Schubert, Sean Wallace, Hildy Silverman | Montrose |
| Saturday | 12:00pm | Appeal of King Arthur | What makes so many writers from Twain to Mary Stewart to Lerner and Lowe produce their own takes on 'the matter of Britain'? Why do King Arthur books thrive while other legends like Robin Hood get far less attention? What are the best takes on the Arthurian legend? | Christopher Cevasco (m), Tom Doyle, Darrell Schweitzer, Jean Marie Ward | Plaza II |
| Saturday | 12:00pm | Workshop - How to Get a Real Agent | This two hour mini-workshop will be conducted by SFWA's Chair of Writer Beware. Ann Crispin will discuss sources for locating and querying appropriate agents with good track records of sales. She will also instruct participants on how to avoid the many incompetent or outright scam agents proliferating these days. Participants should bring their query letter, and Ms. Crispin will critique it and make suggestions for improvement. | A.C. Crispin, Victoria Strauss, Rich White | Randolph |
| Saturday | 12:00pm | Reading | | David Edelman | Twinbrook |
| Saturday | 12:30pm | Reading | | Peter Heck | Twinbrook |
| Saturday | 1:00pm | Girl Meets Monster - Gets Boyfiend: Paranormal Romances | What is paranormal romance? Is it absorbing urban fantasy or is it a completely separate genre? Why is it so popular? Why now? Should they be filed under romance or fantasy? | Victoria Janssen (m), Maria V. Snyder, Mindy Klasky, Jeri Smith-Ready, Traci Castleberry | Montrose |
| Saturday | 1:00pm | Unexplored Territories | What time periods are rarely mined for SF/fantasy and why? Why do democratic Americans want to read about lords and kings and refight the civil war? What are some writers who are going beyond the faux medieval kingdoms infesting modern fantasy? | Michael Swanwick (m), Danny Birt, Christopher Cevasco, Michael Dirda, Lawrence Watt-Evans | Plaza II |
| Saturday | 1:00pm | Workshop - How to Get a Real Agent (cont) | | A.C. Crispin, Victoria Strauss, Rich White | Randolph |
| Saturday | 1:00pm | Reading | | Darrell Schweitzer | Twinbrook |
| Saturday | 1:00pm | Reading | | Jean Marie Ward | Twinbrook |
| Saturday | 2:00pm | E.T. Phone Earth: First Contact and Alien Communication | What happens when humans meet aliens? How might we communicate with them? What barriers stand in the way? How have different SF stories, TV shows, and movies addressed this situation? | Lawrence M. Schoen (m), Judith Moffett, Victoria Janssen, Charles Gannon | Montrose |
| Saturday | 2:00pm | Morrow Interview | | James Morrow, Jim Freund | Plaza II |
| Saturday | 2:00pm | Workshop - Writing | Allen Wold with Edmund Schubert, Davey Beauchamp, and Jeri Smith-Ready. Bring paper and a writing implement. All else will be explained at the beginning of the session. | Allen Wold, Davey Beauchamp, Edmund Schubert, Jeri Smith-Ready | Randolph |
| Saturday | 2:00pm | Reading | | Dina Leacock | Twinbrook |
| Saturday | 2:30pm | Reading | | Hildy Silverman | Twinbrook |
| Saturday | 3:00pm | Sigma - SF Writers Save the World! | The Department of Homeland Security really does have an advisory group of SF writers working with its Science & Technology Directorate to help them think out of the box. Learn what they do and how they may help take fictional ideas to real world applications | Chris Christopher (m), Michael Swanwick, John Hemry, Bud Sparhawk, Charles Gannon | Montrose |
| Saturday | 3:00pm | Morrow Interview | | James Morrow, Jim Freund | Plaza II |
| Saturday | 3:00pm | Workshop - Writing (cont) | | Allen Wold, Davey Beauchamp, Edmund Schubert, Jeri Smith-Ready | Randolph |
| Saturday | 3:00pm | Signing | | Tee Morris | TBD |
| Saturday | 3:00pm | Reading | | Dennis Danvers | Twinbrook |
| Saturday | 3:30pm | Signing | | Peter Heck | TBD |
| Saturday | 3:30pm | Reading | | Larry Hodges | Twinbrook |
| Saturday | 4:00pm | Small Press, Big Impact | What is the role of the small press in today's publishing environment? What can they do that the big ones can't? How do you start a press and is this just a hobby or can you make a living at it? | Mike Walsh (m), John Betancourt, Lawrence M. Schoen, Sean Wallace, Michael Dirda | Montrose |
| Saturday | 4:00pm | Is the Singularity Still Singular? Writing about the Far Future | How likely is the singularity? Is there one vision of the singularity common in SF or do different writers have their own takes on it? How do you write about something whose main point is that it cannot be understood by preSingularity cultures like us? Who does the Singularity best? What are some alternatives to the singularity available to writers? | Tom Doyle (m), Catherine Asaro, Michael Capobianco, Kathryn Cramer, Bud Sparhawk | Plaza II |
| Saturday | 4:00pm | Workshop - Publicity | How can you -- and your books -- stand out from the crowd? What can authors do to get their names out and people to pay attention to their work. This workshop will present practical strategies for gaining publicity. | Maria V. Snyder | Randolph |
| Saturday | 4:00pm | Signing | | Ann Crispin | TBD |
| Saturday | 4:00pm | Reading | | Mindy Klasky | Twinbrook |
| Saturday | 4:30pm | Signing | | Davey Beauchamp | TBD |
| Saturday | 4:30pm | Reading | | Yoji Kondo | Twinbrook |
| Saturday | 5:00pm | Ending Stories - Bang or Whimper? | So many short stories start out well but end abruptly or just trail off, leaving the reader to wonder, what's the point. Why does this happen and how can writers avoid this fate? How do you determine your endings? Is a twist ending a cheat? | Allen Wold (m), Brenda Clough, Dennis Danvers, Barbara Krasnoff | Montrose |
| Saturday | 5:00pm | Science Versus Religion | Must science and religion be adversaries? In an age of 'teach the controversy', can there be compromises between them? How do we make Americans science literate at a time when more than half do not believe in evolution? What happens when scientific discoveries conflict with religious belief? And are they even speaking the same language? | Sam Scheiner (m), James Morrow, Judith Moffett, Victoria Strauss, Doug Fratz | Plaza II |
| Saturday | 5:00pm | Workshop - Publicity (cont) | | Maria V. Snyder | Randolph |
| Saturday | 5:00pm | Signing | | Danny Birt | TBD |
| Saturday | 5:00pm | Reading | | Michael Swanwick | Twinbrook |
| Saturday | 5:30pm | Signing | | Yoji Kondo | TBD |
| Saturday | 5:30pm | Reading | | Bud Sparhawk | Twinbrook |
| Saturday | 6:00pm | Workshop - Contracts | 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 | Jane Jewell, Michael Capobianco | Randolph |
| Saturday | 6:00pm | Reading | | Catherine Asaro | Twinbrook |
| Saturday | 7:00pm | YA Literature and Young Protagonists | Young teens may be the closest thing to an intelligent alien life form on the planet. How do you write for this age group without being condescending? How are YA novels different from an adult novel with a young protagonist? Why are there so many YA fantasy novels but relatively few YA science fiction? And what YA books can adult readers enjoy? | John Betancourt (m), A.C. Crispin, John Hemry, Michael Swanwick | Montrose |
| Saturday | 7:00pm | Workshop - Contracts (cont) | | Jane Jewell, Michael Capobianco | Randolph |
| Saturday | 7:00pm | What Editors Want | Editors discuss what they are looking for in a manuscript and what authors can do to increase their chances of selling a story or book. What is within the author's control? How does the editor make the decision, how quickly, and on what basis? | Edmund Schubert (m), Neil Clarke, Moshe Feder, George Scithers, Christopher Cevasco | Twinbrook |
| Saturday | 8:00pm | Award Ceremony & Party | Celebrate the second annual WSFA Small Press Award and learn this year's winner. And eat cake. | Sam Scheiner, Cathy Green | Plaza II |
| Saturday | 9:00pm | Weird Tales Anniversary | Twenty years after the Weird Tales revival, learn the secrets of the magazine that will not stay dead! How has this last survivor of the original pulps changed since 1923? | George Scithers (m), John Betancourt, Stephen Segal | Montrose |
| Saturday | 9:00pm | How to Build Your Career | You sold your first story or maybe your first novel. Congratulations! Now what? How do you go from being an unknown to being the next Heinlein or Asimov? What advice do old hands have for newbies and what plan are ambitious writers following? | Peter Heck (m), Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Larry Hodges, Jane Jewell, Steve Stiles | Randolph |
| Saturday | 9:00pm | Reading | | Victoria Janssen | Twinbrook |
| Saturday | 10:00pm | Best & Worst Ideas | Science fiction has been called the literature of ideas. What is the best idea you ever had and what did you do with it? Did it work as well in practice as in your mind? What was the worst idea you ever had and what did you do with it? What are some of the best and worst ideas you've seen in the work of others? | Jim Freund (m), David Edelman, Lenny Bailes, Dina Leacock | Montrose |
| Saturday | 10:00pm | Filking | | | Randolph |
| Sunday |
| Sunday | 10:00am | Why Did We Give Up on Space? | Fifty years ago the first man-made object orbited the Earth. Eleven years later a man walked on the moon. Why did this rapid advance stop? What could have been done to keep the momentum? Should it be restarted and if so, how? Can private groups do it if NASA won't? | John Hemry (m), Yoji Kondo, Gary L. Oleson, Ian Randall Strock, David Williams | Montrose |
| Sunday | 10:00am | Laughter with a Wince: Humor and Satire | What makes humor work? How do you write humor in a way that does not simply make the story one joke? How do writers like Pratchett and our own James Morrow manage to be serious and funny at once? And how can humor be used to teach a lesson without going over the top? | Andy Duncan (m), James Morrow, Bud Sparhawk, Larry Hodges | Plaza II |
| Sunday | 10:00am | Workshop - Reviewers | Peter Heck gives a discussion of the problems and techniques of book reviewing, with an emphasis on reviewing of SF, fantasy and related genres. 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. Limited to 12 participants. | Peter Heck, Michael Dirda | Randolph |
| Sunday | 10:00am | Reading | | Mattie Brahen | Twinbrook |
| Sunday | 10:30am | Reading | | Lawrence M. Schoen | Twinbrook |
| Sunday | 11:00am | Does Mundane Fantasy Lose the Wonder? | A number of fantasies are set in a world where magic is commonplace and the police have paranormal CSIs or wizards squabble over school board politics. How do writers maintain a sense of wonder if they are trying to make the magic everyday? How do they make magic magical if it is just a substitute for electricity? What books, stories, or films have done this to good effect and how did they do it? | Tee Morris (m), Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Moshe Feder, Danny Birt | Montrose |
| Sunday | 11:00am | The Opera Isn't Over Until the Fat Spaceship Explodes - The Grand Scale Space Opera Revival | There has been a huge explosion in the number of grand scale space opera stories published. Why now? Or have they always existed? And why are so many British? How are they avoiding the cliches of the past? Who does space opera well? | David Hartwell (m), Bud Sparhawk, Doug Fratz, Yoji Kondo | Plaza II |
| Sunday | 11:00am | Workshop - Reviewers (cont) | | Peter Heck, Michael Dirda | Randolph |
| Sunday | 11:00am | Signing | | Maria V. Snyder | TBD |
| Sunday | 11:00am | Reading | | Christopher Cevasco | Twinbrook |
| Sunday | 11:30am | Reading | | David Williams | Twinbrook |
| Sunday | 12:00pm | Is Genre Good? | There's lots of talk about crossing genres and breaking genre restrictions. Authors find themselves having to use different names in different parts of the bookstore. So why do we have genre? What do these lines do for good or for ill? What happens when writers ignore these lines or try to cross them? | Jim Freund (m), Michael Dirda, Ted White | Montrose |
| Sunday | 12:00pm | Deus Ex Machina | How do you write gods (or superpowerful characters) in a way that they don't simply solve the book's problems with a wave of their hand? How do you create a religion that seems convincing? And do you worry that this is blasphemy? | James Morrow (m), Mattie Brahen, Tom Doyle, Moshe Feder | Plaza II |
| Sunday | 12:00pm | Workshop - Writers continued | For participants in yesterday's writers' workshop only | Allen Wold | Randolph |
| Sunday | 12:00pm | Reading | | Judith Moffett | Twinbrook |
| Sunday | 12:30pm | Reading | | John Hemry | Twinbrook |
| Sunday | 1:00pm | Keeping Control of your Characters | How do you make sure your characters follow the plot you want without making the author's hand too visible or your characters seem out of character? Do you follow your characters or your plot? Or do you not outline at all, just create characters and see where they go? | David Hartwell (m), Davey Beauchamp, Brenda Clough, Dina Leacock, Resa Nelson | Montrose |
| Sunday | 1:00pm | Election 2208 - Politics and Economics of the Future | How will politics and economics change for the future? Will candidates of 2058 be talking about the same issues as today. What about in 2208? What SF/fantasy have believable politics that can work in real life and what makes them work? | Larry Hodges (m), Chris Christopher, Dennis Danvers, David Edelman, Ian Randall Strock | Plaza II |
| Sunday | 1:00pm | Workshop - Podcasting | Tee Morris, a podcasting producer, explains how podcasting can help you reach a wider audience. He discusses both the creative and technical details for how to use this new medium effectively. | Tee Morris | Randolph |
| Sunday | 1:00pm | Signing | | Judith Moffett | TBD |
| Sunday | 1:00pm | Reading | | Andy Duncan | Twinbrook |
| Sunday | 2:00pm | Who Should We Be Reading? | Who are the great writers of our day. Who is unfairly neglected. Panelists recommend books, stories, films, and authors. | Kathryn Cramer (m), Lenny Bailes, Hildy Silverman, Doug Fratz | Montrose |
| Sunday | 2:00pm | Sequelitis | Book two and onward. Why do so many SF writers create sequels and series? Which do you do? Is this driven by author desire, editorial whim, or reader preferences? Do you deliberately write a book so a sequel will fit in? And why are so many second books merely treading water so the situation continues into the third book? How can you end one book/story with a satisfying conclusion while still setting up a sequel? | Traci Castleberry (m), David Edelman, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Maria V. Snyder, Allen Wold | Plaza II |
| Sunday | 2:00pm | Workshop - Podcasting | | Tee Morris | Randolph |
| Sunday | 2:00pm | Signing | | Dennis Danvers | TBD |
| Sunday | 2:00pm | Reading | | Tom Doyle | Twinbrook |
| Sunday | 3:00pm | Gripe Session | What went right and wrong at Capclave? What would you like to see next year? If you don't voice your opinions, we cannot improve. | Sam Scheiner (m), Bill Lawhorn, Sam Lubell | Montrose |
