Balticon 42

Will folks have monogamy? Legalized same sex marriages? Group marriages? Line marriages? Or no marriages?

“Cost of Doing Art” - Hidden costs of doing art shows and conventions.

Panelists will make a list to send to movie studios, and justify their choices!

How do you write them shorter without cheating your readers?

Silent Horror Cinema, still popular today!

Does SF have any answers more effective than today’s antabuse and buprenorphine - other than the Brave New World, where people are drugged by their government?

Show how Connie Willis turns these popular themes into good SF!

The Science and the Fiction. A presentation on nanotechnology and its applications in medicine

Using pastels to create fantasy worlds containing dragons, fanciful creatures, fairies, etc on black paper(materials supplied)

Can a mundane religious story find an audience in our genres? Is it fantasy? SF? Horror? Or all of them?

Come and Hear Rapid Fire Microreadings from members of an organization promoting the works of women in SF, Fantasy and Fantastic Horror!

How to use natural items such as leaves, flowers, branches, vines, stones, shells, and even bones as costume elements, architecture, embellishment, and decoration. We’ll examine techniques for selecting and using natural items as part of a costume presentation. Also discussed will be tips preserving ... (daha)their appearance and changing them subtly to suit you needs, enabling the costumer to make use of easily found items in creative, and perhaps not so obvious, ways.

Learn how to draw Manx Interlace Dragons. Bring pencil and paper

A lot of readers love armor, but how well does it protect its users, whether knights or stormtroopers? Discuss advantages and disadvantages of this hot part of your story!

Trace the ideal of magic numbers as The Answer. Anyone dare to guess at the Question?

Basic stage make-up for costume presentations. Techniques and tips for applying various types of make-up will be demonstrated.

Onezumi, creator of the comedic horror comic, “Stupid and Insane Defenders Against Chaos”, demonstrates how she uses Photoshop to do her comic and other digital artwork.

Its power trumps all other social and political forces. How do you use it in your writing? Describe mistakes to be avoided!

Let them assemble and tell us their stories - Why we need them now more than ever!

Do you love to make costumes but don’t know what to do on stage? Whether you’re alone or in a group, learn how to create a great presentation. Panelists will also gladly give advice to anyone competing in tonight’s masquerade. Please ask! We are here to help.

Famed Doll Artist Heidi Hooper shares some of her favorite techniques.

Will writers continue to have characters who smoke even as governments keep adding restrictions in reality? How do writers use smoking, and get it right in their stories?

Start with Connie Willis’ Doomsday Book, and take it from there!

Fashion information for the ladies of Naomi Novik’s novels or for the Regency dancer/reenactor. Fashion plates, changes during the early 19th century, recommended patterns and resources, underwear, and accessories for the complete lady of the Napoleonic era. Information for both the beginner and the ... (daha)experienced costumer.

Tristan shows how adding the right details to make your art more realisitc, set the right mood and give context to your characters

Come to honor a writer who led us to a new tomorrow, and encouraged a wider social acceptance of SF!

Talk about new trends in SF/F writing. Have you started one? Is your concept or style going to last? For how long?

With movies like Iron Man, Indiana Jones, The Dark Knight and Star Trek coming soon, isn’t it time to have fewer sequels and more originals?

Fashion information for the gentlemen (and the female aviators) of Naomi Novik’s novels or the Regency dancer/re-enactor. Fashion plates, style notes, recommended patterns and resources, and hands-on lessons on how to tie a cravat in several early 19th-century styles!

See Hannah do some things you never knew acrylics could do.

In a world where people will soon live to 140, SF fans have a pivotal role in driving the development of medical technology. What kind of life can we have? Charles Gannon, Brenda Clough (M), Don Sakers, Jul Owings.

A source of this TV series’ timeless appeal!

Tell us about characters that look, sound and feel realistic - and real women who are warriors!

Contour drawing from life - Hands-on class from a favorite Balticon teacher, for new and old hands alike. Hone your drawing skills. Bring your sketch book!

Still a collector’s item. Who likes to read them on paper? Meet folks who write and draw them!

Blended Genres with a strong streak of SF have been very big recently; for example, To Say Nothing of the Dog, a SF/Mystery blend. What more can be done with such fusions?

Gesture drawing from life - A fast-paced class from a favorite Balticon teacher. Rev up your drawing energy. Bring your sketch book!

Which social sciences are useful? When and how are they best used?

Some countries plan to create “their own” (most likely restricted) internets because they’re uncomfortable with the present halcyon freedom “on line.” What’s the future of www?

Why are they so often villains even as our lives are extended by their technology. They used to be heroes. What has changed?

Learn the history of this rising genre in Victorian SF alternate history which devolves into Fantasy and provides fertile ground for authors and artists!

Create a plot that continues the story…

Can you stump the panelists? Tell them your vague memories of stories you read long ago - and they’ll give you the name of the author and the title of the story.

Financial Advice for beginning and intermediate writers.

Name them and defend your choices to fellow panelists and the audience.

Celebrate the 85th anniversary of the world’s first magazine of dark fantasy, with an hour of readings, music, and other sensory stimulation!

Use furnishings, food, lighting, architecture and clothing to make the sex more powerful and romantic.

Captain Video, Tales of Tomorrow, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and others were a lot of fun for kids in the 1940’s and 50’s. Come relive those happy days when SF was simple and clean!

Free Tools for Writers, presented by Anthony Stevens. Includes free CD handout for each member of the audience!

What can you expect if you write stories for a tie-in/shared world created by another writer? Tell us how this works for an interested writer!

(ex: “everyone” or “everybody” is not a “him” or a “her”) without slaughtering our classical language. How can writers be poetic without being sexist - either way?

Examining the appeal of cats on covers and in the art show, to say nothing of dogs or dragons.

Open Source vs. MS Office, with CD handout and tutorial on style sheets, presented by Anthony Stevens.

Learn from those with experience in this exciting field!

Lecture and slide show.

A teaching tool of how to break down every bit of costuming (other than design and sewing) and get stuff on stage.

How are art shows at conventions changing. Pros and cons. How artists are being treated at conventions now.

Ghosts! Tell us how you handle them in your stories.

We’ve come a long, long way! Let writers tell us what’s new and what works with this still popular character in drama.

Supernatural Fantasy comes out of the shadows. Let’s hear from its writers!

Learn about how to handle query letters, fiction and non fiction book proposals!

Examine Archologies from Larry Niven, Chuck Rothman, Timothy Zahn-and I.M. Pei’s real ideas for large buildings! Can we really use such buildings, or are they just fantasy in our world?

How to make changes to commercial patterns to correct fitting issues, make them fit nonstandard body types, or make them look closer to a design or garment you’re trying to match.

Learn how to work with an Editorial Assistant!

Babylon 5, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xena the Warrior Princess! Why are they still popular?

Other body parts such as ears may also be cast depending on time left.

Mark L. Van Name and Jennie Faries telling us about Baen’s SF and Fantasy - complete with many giveaways!

Peak Oil, Alternative Sources, New Technologies in conservation and recycling. What looks most promising to meet our present and future needs?

A great hat can make your outfit a knockout. Learn how to design and create fantastic hats that compliment your costume.

Making your characters speak well on TWO counts!

With the next movie coming soon, how much more life does this venerable franchise have?

A favorite author’s description can fire the costumer’s imagination. What would different costumers create based on that description? The possibilities are endless. Panelists will read a passage and discuss designing the costume from the inside out.

From them we got Cons. Meet Old Fans from all over the world!

Come meet the writers and contributors to this science fact and fiction magazine!

Researching and recreating a historical garment can be very confusing when using period documentation written in the “ye olde original language.” Learn how sewing terms, tools and techniques have changed in only a few hundred years.

How to portray this system of mutual obligations ordained by religion and social customs upon even the powerful. Learn how to make it realistic!

Are large cities sustainable in our modern world? Can green building and alternate housing keep them during global warming or our next ice age? Could they become utopias?

Effective self-promotion for artists, authors and other shy persons.

He says all SF is the Same Old Story. Learn how to write it! Talk about theme and variations.

Avoid them if you can! Cite common mistakes made by writers.

Who was wiser-Elrond, who chose to be immortal; or his brother Elros, who opted for a 500-year mortal life - choices won by service in the war against evil in Middle Earth? Was Tolkien right to regard natural death as a gift to humankind?

How Does a Writer Create a Physical Universe? Get it done without breaking the laws of Newton and Einstein. How to get geology, biology and weather right enough for a reader to believe them!

Learn how a book you may not even be able to finish would haunt you for the rest of your life!

Can any system of government keep such a nation stable and prosperous? This is a common theme in SF/F stories. How do their writers solve this problem?

Name them and tell us why it’s impossible - or at least difficult - to make them into movies!

Yes, he wrote a lot more than Sherlock!

Compare and Contrast, argue strengths and weaknesses of each!

What determines whether you want to read more by this author? Is using it to start a series really cheating, or does that promise more of a good story?

Bring your favorite and tell us about it!

Choose, discuss and defend your choices!

Figure out how to figure it out, then discuss it!

Has any SF “made it” into the pantheon of Academia’s “Good Books?” How about fantasy? Does that get in more easily? If so, why?

Choose, discuss and defend your choices!

Good, evil, or just misunderstood?

Who should write them? Who does write them?

Retelling well-known fairy tales, folk tales, old myths, like Wicked, Mercedes Lackey’s Elemental Masters, Card’s Enchantment. Name your own and tell us how it’s done!

Anyone who shows up does short insulting monologues and tall tales, with the rest of the audience as judges. Have fun and laugh a lot!