Can*Con is pleased to announce two new science workshops this year! This is part of a programming pattern designed to help Ottawa writers have the tools they need to write great science fiction. Since 2012, we’ve had a strong science track with practicing Canadian scientists and science journalists.
For three out of the last four years, we’ve had Editors Guests of Honour from the science fiction field to expand the networks of aspiring scifi writers: Bundoran Press, Analog Science Fiction and Fact and Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine.
Those editors are looking for science-grounded science fiction because high-tech and visionary futures sell. Science fiction on other worlds and in strange parts of the universe sells. And you don’t need to have a science background to write great scifi.
This year, we’ve asked Science Guest of Honour Eric Choi, and Gillian Clinton, to talk about the space technology of today. Attendees to this workshop will leave with a good sense of how to portray (and research) space technology.
We’ve also asked water ecologist Nina Munteanu to give a workshop on what a writer would need to think about to realistically portray an underwater civilization in science fiction or fantasy. The literary metaphors and possibilities of including mythic symbolism in underwater worlds are too numerous to count. My own first sale to Asimov’s was a story set on the bottom of an extrasolar ocean and my first novel includes a lots of underwater scenes, because those are some of the safest places around once you leave the Earth. And don’t forget the possibilities of underwater settings in fantasy 🙂
Each of these science workshops are 2 hours long and only $20. Check them out and take advantage of these experts we’re bringing in! Register here!
Derek