You survived the Embodied AI Workshop and all you got was that lousy t-shirt!
I'm promising myself not to over-complicate this post, so here's the short story: it went well! But we were making changes up to the previous day, so between the time that we printed the above poster and the actual talk, two of the speakers had changed - one speaker replaced their own backup, and another speaker who had dropped out was replaced by a volunteer speaker the afternoon before!
As CVPR (our parent conference) said, "Printed materials may be out of date ... check the website!" Which we did keep up to date: https://embodied-ai.org/cvpr2026 ... overall, though, the workshop was well attended. The best attended talk was my buddy Lewis Chiang's, a roboticist at Google DeepMind who I always thought was a superstar and I guess he's well on his way:
Over 70 people attended the talk and at least a dozen people were remote. While there were a few open seats up front, it still created a standing-room-only vibe:
All in all we had nine speakers, two highlight sessions for embodied AI challenges and accepted papers, a poster session, and a concluding debate. The very first picture is me, Lewis and Dinesh, another speaker at the workshop, discussing the nuances and challenges of safety in long-horizon embodied AI - a fancy way of asking "how to keep our agents from killing us if we let them loose."
There's more to say about this - CVPR is huge, so huge that it perhaps it was a mistake to go see the Backrooms movie after wandering around the massive Colorado Convention Center:
But, the long and the short of it is, we survived!
And now it's time to enjoy the rest of the conference ... at a much slower pace.
-the Centaur
Pictured: the final debate, the image of the schedule poster, the schedule poster in action, Lewis's talk, the standing room only audience, the keynote rooms, the expo floor and CVPR's massive collection of posters, the EAI7 dinner, and me in front of the expo proper. Now it's time for a nap.
Friday, August 29 7:00pm Hyatt Regency VI-VII Jeremiah Willstone: The Plague of Gears – Ep01 Hour of the Wolf Written by Anthony Francis, adapted for audio by Tony Sarrecchia. Two fisted steampunk adventure! Victoria cadet Jeremiah Willstone battles clockwork monsters and time-bending ghosts in a whirlwind of romance, danger, and daring heroics! Also featuring Maid of the Mirror Written for audio by Ellie Cook
Sunday, August 31 7:00pm Hyatt Regency VI-VII Jeremiah Willstone: The Plague of Gears – Ep02 The Time of Ghosts Written by Anthony Francis, adapted for audio by Tony Sarrecchia. Two fisted steampunk adventure! Victoria cadet Jeremiah Willstone battles clockwork monsters and time-bending ghosts in a whirlwind of romance, danger, and daring heroics! Also featuring Nothing-at-All Written for audio by Kelley S. Ceccato
The stories behind these were written by me for the Twelve Hours Later anthology, adapted by my friend Tony Sarrecchia, and performed by ARTC, my favorite radio theater company. I am working with Tony and ARTC to put together full audio dramatizations which we're hoping to bring to Dragon Con 2026.
But that's a bit far out! This year, my full schedule is:
Fri 01:00 pm ~ Hyatt Embassy EF From Story Seed to Plot Tyra Burton(M), Gerald L. Coleman, Anthony Francis, Paige L. Christie, DL Wainright, Nancy Knight How do you go from having your initial story idea---which may only be a character, scene, or setting---to a full-fledged story plot? Our panelists will share their tips and tricks.
Fri 07:00 pm - Hyatt Regency VI-VII ARTC Presents: Maid of the Mirror & Jeremiah Willstone Ep01 Atlanta Radio Theatre Company, Anthony Francis(O), Tony Sarrecchia(O) An audio drama extravaganza: Deep below the mountains of Ireland, a faerie warrior guards a magic mirror & its occupant, the Knight of Scars. By Ellie Cook. ALSO Cadet Jeremiah Willstone battles monsters & ghosts in two-fisted steampunk adventures. By Anthony Francis, adapted by Tony Sarrecchia.
Sat 04:00 pm ~ Hyatt Learning Center Reading Session: Anthony Francis I will be reading from my latest work!
Sat 07:00 pm ~ Hyatt Embassy CD IP Here, There, & Everywhere! Intellectual Property! James P. Nettles(M), Anthony Francis, Courtney Lytle, Dwayne K. Goetzel, Scott Macmann, John Goodwin Its great to have an idea or create a new world---but how do you go about that while still making sure your shiny stays yours? Join experts in a discussion about what this means for creatives. Can you trademark a genre? How about a term? Game mechanics? If one person can dream it, what comes next?
Sun 01:00 pm ~ Courtland Grand Augusta Courtland A Master Class: Introducing Technology to Alternate History Henry Herz, Robert W Ross(M), S. M. Stirling, Steve Saffel, Anthony Francis Join our masters of writing as they discuss how they decide what technology they keep, what they remove, and what they completely reinvent for their novels. What influences these decisions, and how do they make their world feel like a shift from the real world? Joint with the Writers Track.
Sun 07:00 pm ~ Hyatt Regency VI-VII ARTC Presents: Nothing-at-All and Jeremiah Willstone Ep02 Atlanta Radio Theatre Company, Anthony Francis(O), Tony Sarrecchia(O) When a healer with no name, a patient with no hope, and a Wizard with no heart cross paths, will magic, love, and redemption follow? By Kelley S. Ceccato. ALSO Cadet Jeremiah Willstone battles monsters and ghosts in two-fisted Steampunk adventures. By Anthony Francis, adapted by Tony Sarrecchia.
Sun 10:00 pm ~ Hyatt Embassy EF The Evolution of the Vampire in Speculative Fiction Anthony Francis(M), Violette L Meier, Patricia L. Briggs, R. E. Carr, Elizabeth Donald, DL Wainright From Carmilla to Sinners, vampires have been monsters, heroes, and everything in between. This discussion aims to break down how vampires have evolved in our entertainment, why they're so alluring to readers and viewers alike, and how to use them in our fiction effectively.
I hope to see you all there!
-the Centaur Pictured: Fans on Thursday morning, watching Star Wars robots!
So! Worldcon 2025 is at an end! And what a wild blast it was. I enjoyed the previous Worldcon I attended in San Jose, but I wasn't really prepared to take advantage of it. This year, I couldn't swing a sonic screwdriver without bapping a friend or colleague, or without making a new business or academic contact. I credit at least some of that to the prepwork that I and the Thinking Ink Press team did, and at least some of it to having the Clockwork Alchemy / Milford Workshop table as a "home base" to go back to.
After the Hugos, the Fountain bar at the Sheraton was so packed they couldn't even take my order before close, but I wanted to get more writing done, and I was just up the street last year for CVPR 2024, so I remembered the Elephant and Castle bar, right up the street, open until 2. I got a goodly chunk of THE WATCHTOWER OF DESTINY done right here in the table in the center, until roughly 1am.
BUT! Even as a night owl, I understand the value of early to bed, early to rise, and to convince myself to do that, I try to get up for a hearty breakfast. I don't always make it, but I made it today. The TIP gang has been keeping tabs of each other on Signal, and so my colleague Liza Olmsted and I realized we were at the same restaurant, got together (as I was starting my breakfast and she was finishing hers) and during our discussions came up with the idea for a brand new anthology! Woohoo.
The simple expedient of bringing Clockwork Edgar (Sandra's messenger raven) attracted a lot of people to the Clockwork Alchemy table, and the backstory Sandra had built around Edgar's messenger bag (complete with spare gear, compass, message and a few other items) was very entertaining.
After a neurodivergence talk at noon, which was very productive for me and Liza, I returned to the show floor to close up and found that we had two more hours before close due to a typo in an email. So, I had one last chance to attend a talk by my new friend Dr. Paul Price, who lectured on "exponential plots" (think Goku getting more and more powerful in Dragon Ball Z) with a strongly evidence-based lecture built on a close read of old space opera.
Paul showed that cyclical (episodic) plots work well with no-growth (think Sherlock Holmes versus case of the week) or slow-growth plots (think a slowly learning protagonist) but can get out of hand if a ridiculous enemy attacks every week with a similarly ridiculous growth in the protagonist's power - nevertheless, if you build in humanizing elements from the start, it can still work.
The coolest thing in his lecture was his critique of gender roles in the old space operas - I don't remember the precise numbers, but the gist was, in an entire space opera series by John Campbell, there were 25 instances of the pronoun "she" - but 18 of those referred to a ship, 6 to love interests, and the remaining was a stenographer who was alien, but was nevertheless depicted in a stereotypical gender role.
After that, we did close, and even as we did so, I kept on making contacts, meeting people, and so on. Even trying to buy a last-minute gift from a friend ended up with a vendor taking my card and inquiring about my writing as they were a voracious reader and were interested in my series.
Paul and I, who just met, nevertheless found many similarities in our research styles, and got together tonight to discuss next steps on using his data in our corpus or our code to analyze his data. A laser-guided question from an audience member at my talk got me thinking about DEI issues with our corpus, and Paul's "usages of the pronoun she" analysis sounds like a perfect candidate for implementation by an LLM.
On the way back, we had an interesting conversation about religion, mortality, transhumanism, the weird giant statue we saw in front of an art museum, and the crowd of filkers still filking away in the hotel when we finally got back.
I ended up retiring to the hotel bar - which I interpreted as the right thing to do because on my way down there I ran into someone I had wanted to run into at the con but had only passed and waved. We had a great conversation, and I got a lot of work done at the hotel bar before closing it up.
On that note, that's a wrap for Worldcon 2025. I may have more to say about it ... but it's gonna have to be tomorrow.
-the Centaur
Pictured: Me at the photo booth, the courtyard of Elephant and Castle, fresh fruit for breakfast, Edgar the clockwork raven, Paul giving his talk at the academic track, packing up our booth at the con, a giant statue on the street, a giant crowd of filkers, and me and a giant tray of oysters - all rendered with my "make it look like an illustration" series of Photoshop filters.
Well, we made it through WorldCon Day 4! My talk apparently went well, as I was mobbed when it was over and a half-dozen people actually dropped by the poster session - some of them, interested in serious academic followup! And one guy said, "Your talk was the fastest thirty minutes of my life. I loved it."
Mission accomplished!
The Clockwork Alchemy contingent finally arrived in force, so we at last had a proper table setup!
So I got to head out to see the show floor, which was pretty amazing! There was a Star Trek Jack Skellington, holding what appears to be either a Babylon 5 Shadow Ship or a modified Klingon batleth sword.
There were too many cool things for this post, but, I always have time for ... robots!
Sonic screwdrivers!
Wand duels!
Our books continuing to sell! (The stack isn't shorter, but we've been replenishing it)
Later that night I attended the Hugo ceremony, which was pretty awesome, with singing by Nisi Shawl that is still echoing in my head because they did it as a "bit" between the different presentations ("Down, down, down the Hugo road ...) and a really funny video bit from the actual Hugo Best Novel winner.
Afterwards, some of the award winners came to the Fountain bar in the Sheraton for a victory lap!
I also got to see a lot of friends at the con. All in all, a pretty good day!
-the Centaur
Pictured: The fan tables, me at my poster, Sandra Forrer talking to a steampunk fan, our table, the giant Jack Skellington in a Next Generation uniform, a youth robot team, a sonic screwdriver collection, a LARP wand duel, the Neurodiversiverse at the Liminal Fiction table, the Hugos, and the hotel afterparty.
Not a lot of pictures from today proper because our Friday volunteer had an unexpectedly rough trip in, and I'm again stuck at the Clockwork Alchemy / Milford Workshop table:
But the costumes have been great! I've seen a fair bit of Oz this year ...
Some Star Trek / Steampunk riffs:
And whatever these folks sitting at the far table are:
My buddy RM Ambrose gave a good talk on framework for discussing violence and nonviolence in fiction:
I have even finished a rough cut of Saturday's presentation, and despite the fact that it is +110 plus slides, because many of my slides are sequences that add elements to existing slides, there are only like 30-40 content slides, and I was consistently able to get through it in ~20 minutes, well under time.
Don't you think he looks a little tired?
-the Centaur
Pictured: The WorldCon Bar, our table, various costumes, Ralph's talk, my slides, and the Centaur, sleepy.
SO! We're out at Worldcon. I've already run into fellow TIPster Betsy Miller, author Clara Ward, and several other folks who either knew me or I knew them.
Today and tomorrow I am volunteering at the Clockwork Alchemy / Milford Workshop joint table! Compared to the GeekGirlCon and LARP booths around us, our table display is a little underwhelming as a lot of the Milford and Clockwork contingent either couldn't make it or were delayed. So we just have the brochures and stands I could fit in my suitcase, which was a fair trick as I brought 30 books to the Book Nook!
I'll be signing there today at 3pm. Then on Saturday at 11, I'll be in Room 320 presenting on "The Cognitive Science of Scenes and Sequels," joint work with my colleague Kenneth Moorman of Transylvania University. The poster session will be from 12-1 on the fourth floor Paramount Lounge:
I hope to see you there! You'd appear somewhere in the image below ...
-the Centaur
Pictured: Some Daleks and the TARDIS, the Clockwork Alchemy / Milford shared table, my book at the Book Nook, my poster up at the Paramount Lounge, and the view behind the table.
Hey folks! I'll be attending WorldCon as part of the Academic Track! My presentation is on "The Cognitive Science of Scenes and Sequels" - an exploration of the real science behind writing teacher Dwight Swain's theory that you should write stories in action scenes followed by reaction sequels - and will be held Saturday, August 16th, at 11am, with a poster session in the Paramount Lounge from 12-1:
Many of my colleagues will also be there - Liza Olmsted and Betsy Miller of Thinking Ink, and our Neurodiversiverse authors Clara Ward (author of Be the Sea) and Cat Rambo (author of You Sexy Thing). Fellow Taos Toolbox alumnus RM Ambrose, editor of Vital: The Future of Healthcare will also be on a panel.
Hey folks, I will be at Con Carolinas this weekend. This year I'm on four panels: "Playing with AI", "Science Fiction, Science Fact, Science Future", "Neurodiversity in Science", and "There and Back Again: A Doctor Who Tale". I'll be moderating the AI and neurodiversity panels (natch?) and the full skinny is below:
Please come join us in Charlotte for a very writer-friendly, fan-friendly convention at the Hilton!
Or we'll send the cow catcher your way.
-the Centaur
Pictured: Events from Con Carolinas 2024, since my time machine is on the fritz, along with a screencap of my schedule, because I'm too lazy^H^H^H^Hout of time to cut-and-paste it and reformat it, much less type it all in if the PDF ends up being persnickety.
Hey folks! One more sticky post reminding y'all that coming up next week is the Fifth Annual Embodied AI Workshop, Tuesday, June 18th, at CVPR, the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference. I am the lead organizer, though you'll probably only hear me yapping for any extended length of time if you show up in the first ten minutes - I give the intro talk at 8:50am.
In case the travel process goes kazoo, I'm nabbing tomorrow's post in today - looks like on June 6th I will be at the meet and greet space Thursday at 2:30pm (Meet-and-Greet Table E Anthony Francis Pasadena – Fountain Foyer), no matter what the sticky post says.
I will have books, and will sign them; hope to see you there.
Hey folks, another "sticky post" for my next three events: The Nebula Conference, the Embodied AI Workshop, and the Workshop on Unsolved Problems in Social Robot Navigation!
Back at Con Carolinas for day two (but once again images from the archives while my blog is getting updated in the background).
Today I was on a lively panel about the "Trials and Tribulations of AI" and if there's anything I could take away from that, it would be that "modern AIs do not check their work, so if you use them, you have to."
There's a whole debate on whether they're "really intelligent" and you probably can bet where I come down on that - or maybe you can't; here goes:
Yes, modern AI's are "artificial intelligence" - they literally are what that phrase was invented to describe.
No, modern AI's are not artificial general intelligence (AGI) - yet - and I can point you to a raft of papers describing either the limitations of these systems or what is needed for a full AGI.
Yes, they're doing things we would normally describe as intelligent, but ...
No, they're doing "thinking on a rocket sled", facing backward, tossing words on the track in a reverse of the Wallace and Gromit track-laying meme, unable to check or correct their own work.
These systems "hallucinate", just like humans are mistaken and make things up, but do so in ways alien to human thought, so if we use them in areas we can't check their work, we must do so with extreme caution.
And then there's the whole RAFT of ethics issues which I will get to another day.
Next up: "Neurodivergence and Writing" at 6:30pm, and "Is THAT even POSSIBLE" at 9:30pm!
Onward!
-the Centaur
Pictured: NOT Con Carolinas - I think this was Cafe Intermezzo.
Journaling: Today's Event: Con Carolinas. Today's Exercise, 30 pushups, planning a walk later today. Today's Drawing: finished one five three yesterday, will tackle one five four after I tackle my fix-my-roof thing.
This is the day after day one five two, but, whatevz, I had to deal with a minor emergency yesterday, so you have to deal with a late post. Regardless, I was at Con Carolinas, at the "Hooked" panel, which went well, and if there's anything I could take away from that panel, it would be the following:
Your hook for your story isn't just your first line, but it encompasses everything from your genre, your prior output as a writer, the cover, the title, the subtitle or blurb, the first line, the first paragraph, the first page, the first chapter.
All of those can attract your reader's attention; to engage their interest, you need to raise a story question which needs answering. This can be the surface problem, the deeper story-worthy question, an exciting incident, the voice of the main character, an intriguing setup, or a mystery ... that makes people want more.
Most of the panelists felt that you should leave out of your hook any excess description or backstory that does not help build that story question. Those issues can be raised later, once the story is moving; only when your readers are desperate to have questions answered should you spend time answering them.
I'm sure I could say more, but I'm not, because I have a leak in a roof to deal with. BUT, since I am not going to be able to post new images for a bit, I'm going to change my strategy for my "Blogging Every Day" posts with a little Livejournal-style annotation! Lo:
Today's event? Con Carolinas, where I saw a lot of old friends and was on the "Hooked" panel. Today's exercise? Just thirty pushups and a relatively brief walk. Today's drawing? More Goldman studies: by my count, I am up to day one five three, which means I'm caught up (as this blogpost is one day behind).
That's it! Here's hoping I have enough bits left to post.
-the Centaur
Pictured: From the archives, the red editor's pen, over a redacted manuscript. Full disclosure: my normal editing pen is blue, as I am partially colorblind - while I can see red, it doesn't stand out for me the way blue does. There is no such thing for me as "fire engine red" unless I'm wearing Enchroma glasses (which do not give you true color vision, by the way, but they certainly can make certain colors stand out more). I was probably using the red pen in this case either because the blue one blew up, or I need two kinds of notes.
Hey folks! I am appearing at several conventions in the next few weeks, so I'm creating a "sticky post" to let y'all know about my schedule - in case the problems I'm having with my blog software get worse, at least this will be up here to let y'all know I'll be talking about AI, robots and writing in the next few weeks!
First up is Con Carolinas, the Carolinas' longest running science fiction convention, where I will be on four panels and an author signing, talking about book openings, artificial intelligence, neurodivergence, and what's possible and what's not in science and science fiction!
So we had a great first day at Clockwork Alchemy! I got a great Guest of Honor banner for my table, and we had a delightful Tea with the Author Guest of Honor in the con's amazing Tea Room!
My co-editor for The Neurodiversiverse, Liza Olmsted (far left on the picture below), was on an #ownvoices panel, which was very informative! I particularly liked her quote:
The world is so much more beautiful with intersectionality ... everything is so much more nuanced."
Liza Olmsted
"Intersectionality" is a funky word for the simple concept that people aren't a single attribute, like "black" or "women" or "gay" but that each person is a combination of all these things - and discrimination isn't just additive, but can compound in interesting ways. In one famous court case, for example, a court ruled that a group of black women weren't discriminated against because the company had hired a lot of black men (in a factory setting) and a lot of white women (in an office setting) thus improving the percentage of blacks in the factory and women in the office - but the point was, the women were being discriminated against for being black and women at the same time, and the court was essentially arguing you couldn't be one or the other. But, if you acknowledge that people can be more than one thing, you can take their distinctive appearances into account into how you treat them, rather than sweeping it under the rug.
Neurodiversiverse author Clara Ward dropped by and left us a few of her new book, "Be the Sea", which is (as I gathered from discussions) a climatepunk story featuring neurodiverse and nonbinary characters. I worked with Clara before on Doorways to Extra Time and we're excited to have her back for this one!
We hope to see you tomorrow at the con! Next up, Steampunk Vehicles, Bringing Anthologies to Life, and the world premiere reading of "Jeremiah Willstone and the Choir of Demons"!
"Off we go towards Clockwork Alchemy ... there we'll have tea with all of our fans." I'd say "sung to the theme of 'Wild Blue Yonder'" but I actually don't remember the words to that other than the first line - and it's relatively hard to parody something you don't know all that well.
Regardless, we'll have books, and panels, and the debut of Jeremiah Willstone and the Choir of Demons!
-the Centaur
Pictured: an accidentally blurred shot of my book stock, and a fortuitous super closeup of the books that I had taken pictures of at the Kickstarter.
Hey folks! This is a "sticky" post up for the next week or so to remind you that I will be Author Guest of Honor at Clockwork Alchemy - and that we're running a Kickstarter for The Neurodiversiverse! Please check out the Kickstarter - and click to be notified when it goes live, I'm told that helps "the algorithm" when it launches.
I was selected as Clockwork Alchemy GOH not just because of the Jeremiah Willstone steampunk series, comprising one novel and a dozen stories featuring the rayguns-corsets-and-aliens world of Victoriana, but also because I've been involved in Clockwork Alchemy since its inception. Please visit us at the con!
At Clockwork Alchemy, I will be joined by my Neurodiversiverse coeditor and friend Liza Olmsted. Our schedule at the event is the following - including a Tea with the Author on Friday and the debut of the audio drama "Jeremiah Willstone and the Choir of Demons" on the anthology panel on Saturday:
Friday, April 19
Own Voice Stories - 2:30pm / Synergy 5 - Liza Olmsted, M.D. Neu, Sumiko Saulson, Emily Flummox Why promoting and celebrating 'own voices' stories is imperative!
Tea with the Author Guest of Honor - 4pm / Synergy 2-3 - Anthony Francis Come have tea with me! Ask your questions. I don't promise enigmatic answers!
Author Signing with Anthony Francis - 6pm / Convene Lobby Come get your books signed!
Saturday, April 20
Steampunk Vehicles - 1pm / Inspire 1 - Anthony Francis and Michael Tierney We'll talk about airships, land walkers, behemoths, and time machines!
Author Signing with Anthony Francis - 4pm / Convene Lobby Buy more of my books in Author's Alley, and I'll sign them too!
Bringing Anthologies to Life - 5:30pm / Synergy 5 - Anthony Francis, Liza Olmsted and Dover Whitecliff We'll discuss the challenges of bringing anthologies to life, and debut the very first Jeremiah Willstone audio drama, "The Choir of Demons"
Sunday, April 21
Favorite Steampunk Books - 10am / Synergy 5 - Anthony Francis, Madeline Holly-Rosing, Dover Whitecliff What are the greatest steampunk books and series? We have opinions! And will share.
Author Signing with Anthony Francis - noon / Convene Lobby Buy more of my books in Author's Alley, and I'll sign them too!
Author Signing - Last Call with the Author's Alley - 4pm / Convene Lobby Buy more of ANYONE's books in Author's Alley, and we'll all sign them! Or sign our own. Whatevz.
Finally, for the duration of the campaign, neurodiversiverse.com will link through to the Kickstarter! We're campaigning to get enough funds to pay our authors full "pro" SFWA rates, and if we surpass that, the funds will go to the planned second book in the series: The Neurodiversiverse - Binary Stars! Back and share, folks!
So! I'm back at Dragon Con once again. So good to be back in Atlanta after almost a year! (Well, actually, I was down here a month or so ago, but that was swinging through just for the day zip zap zop to see a little movie answering to no-one, but that's not a real visit in my mind).
The fans are already starting to gather, and so are the curious onlookers, pouncing with questions if you wear a Dragon Con shirt! (Ask me how I know).
This year, I'll mostly be at the Writer's Track, except for my reading on Friday:
Welcome to Writers' Track 2023 - Thu 08:30 pm - Embassy EF Hyatt Join us for an introduction to the best Writers' Track ever! Let us give you a hint of what's coming up for Dragon Con 2023 - and get you started on your way to becoming a professional author, if you aren't already. Panelists: Yasmin Bakhtiari, Anthony Francis, Vanessa Guinta, Nancy Knight(M), John Robinson
Reading Session: Anthony Francis - Fri 02:30 pm - Learning Center Hyatt This will be me reading from my books and essays. Panelists: Uh, the me.
Social Media: Your Friend, Enemy or Frenemy? - Sat 02:30 pm - Embassy EF Hyatt Description: Social media can boost your career or torpedo it. What's a writer's best approach to all the social media, both old and new? How do you develop a strategy that makes sense for your career? Panelists: Gail Z. Martin, Venessa Guinta(M), Anthony Francis, Bob McGough, J F Brink, Noel Plaugher
AI and What It Means for Writers - Sun 11:30 am - Embassy EF Hyatt Hearing a lot about the 'takeover' of AI? Let's dispel some of the myths, while we confirm some of the truths. Panelists: Anthony Francis(M), Rich Gatz, Andrew Greenberg, Amie Stepanovich, D.J. Bodden, Phillip Pournelle Note your beanie: possibly the most apropos panel I've ever been on.
Career Advice: WHAT? - Sun 01:00 pm - Embassy EF Hyatt People give advice freely. How to raise your children, save money - they even want to tell you how to develop and maintain your writing career. Who should you listen to? Listen up for some great advice from people who've been there and done that. Panelists: Greg Keyes, Bill Fawcett(M), Anthony Francis, Esther Friesner, Jeanne C Stein, Drew Hayes
How to Be a Professional Writer in One Easy Lesson - Mon 01:00 pm - Embassy EF Hyatt What's the difference between a professional writer and a hack? Let's draw some boundaries… Panelists: Trisha J. Wooldridge(M), Anthony Francis, Mel Todd, Ryan DeBruyn, Richard Lee Byers, Jeffrey L Kohanek
Hope to see you all there!
-the Centaur
Pictured: A view from the Hilton Garden Inn, a pretty good hotel to stay in at Dragon Con if you don't mind a walk and if you missed signing up for a closer hotel, Francis.
So, day 3 begins! The con is going swimmingly: there are lots of people, everyone seems happy, the organizers feel it's going well, and I sold all my number ones! Even on Easter Sunday, people are still showing up!
[still busy at the author's alley]
Yesterday evening after panels were done, I chilled at the bar, worked on SPECTRAL IRON, struck up a conversation with a writer who saw me writing and had a lot of questions about getting back into the game. (Talk about doing the right thing putting you into the right places!), and still had time to catch the end of the Lee Presson and the Nails concert!
[lee as the easter bunny]
All in all Clockwork Alchemy appears to be a success. Here's hoping we do it again!
-the Centaur
P.S. Almost forgot: at 2pm I will be on the panel for "Getting Past Chapter One" to help writers overcome their creative barriers!
