I will be a panelist at three events in Calgary this year, from August 14 to 16th, 2026, for the When Words Collide convention!
Survival Skills in Dystopian Fiction
- August 14th, 12 PM MDT (2 PM Eastern) in the Herald room.
- “Let’s explore a few different dystopian scenarios and see what a person would absolutely need to actually survive for years and years. Most of us know the basic survival needs for humans. Could you do it? What settings may have special requirements for survival? What type of person is best suited for survival in a dystopian setting? What might your character’s strengths and weaknesses be?”
- Alongside Susan Forest, Sandy Fitzpatrick, and Gary Renshaw.
- Moderated by Valerie L. King.
Cinematic Storytelling: Does Hollywood Flair Work in Speculative Fiction?
- August 15th, 4:30 PM MDT (6:30 PM Eastern) in the Doll room.
- “Cinematic storytelling in fiction is often seen in a negative light. It can reduce character agency and emotion, pulling away from the introspective side, instead relying on tense action and big explosions. Books and movies are very different media. What works in one doesn’t necessarily translate to the other. But is there a way to adapt the techniques of the visual medium and utilize it for the written word? Has the overwhelming rise in movies and television altered the way people read and what they expect?”
- Alongside Rick Overwater, James Downe, and Michael Peterson.
- Moderated by Chris Corvan.
Hard Science Fiction Shouldn’t Be Hard
- August 16th, 12:00 PM MDT (2:00 PM Eastern) in the Doll room.
- “From the World War II style of Star Wars to the physics-bound solar system of 2001: A Space Odyssey, authors have a spectrum of how accurate and detailed the science should be.
- Will pages of mathematical formulae on black holes turn readers away?
- Will characters breathing in space cause your audience to laugh during a tense, dramatic scene?
- Do you need a PhD in neuroscience, or will a quick glance at the Wikipedia page on brains suffice?
- Just how did Andy Weir make growing potatoes exciting?
- A story’s science is as much about world building as a magic system is to a fantasy setting, and communicating that to readers is no less important. In this forum, panelists will discuss the pros and cons of hard science, how to go about researching a topic, and how best to integrate it into their writing.”
- Alongside Robert J. Sawyer and Calvin Jim.
- Moderated by Sarah Johnson.
