Fourth Street panels
I've seen a few people post their panel schedules for Fourth Street, so here's mine, in case you care:
7:30 p.m. Friday: Reasons Things Go Wrong. With Pamela Dean, Sarah Monette, Catherynne Valente, and Jo Walton. (In construction of stories, apparently; we will not have time to get into the fall of the Roman Empire on the panel.) (I expect. Do not hold me to that lack. Particularly considering my fellow panelists--I don't know Catherynne and couldn't say whether she has strongly informed opinions on that particular thing going wrong, but oh, I know the rest.)
1:30 p.m. Saturday: Fantasy and the Family. With Kelly Barnhill, Liza Furr, Kit Gordon, Beth Meacham, and Deb Notkin. I am so excited about this panel. This is the panel I always wanted. (Where by "always" we mean "since last 4th St.")
10:00 a.m. Sunday: How to Give and Take Critique. With Beth Meacham, Michael Merriam, Jo Walton, and Tom Whitmore. The programming webpage notes, "from editors, as a beta readers, in writers groups, or from your dog (how to take a critique from your cat would require its own panel, if not its own convention)." This is good, as I have no experience with cats in this regard.
I'm not sure how to say this without sounding passive-aggressive about Minicon programming, but I'll go ahead and try: it's really nice to have my panel schedule two weeks out. (Not quite two weeks now! Week and a half now! But I got my panel schedule before today.) In this case, there's only one of the panels for which I'd want to do preparatory reading--the "Fantasy and the Family" panel--but knowing that is good, rather than saying, "Well, crap, if I'd known I was going to be on a panel about Heinlein juveniles, I'd have made sure I'd reread at least one or two of them more recently than five years or so ago," or similar sentiments adjusted for the panels in question. Time to chew over my reactions and think, "Am I wrong about that? Can I come up with counterexamples to that sweeping generalization I have the urge to make?" before I'm in front of an audience is a definite plus.
Also having an idea when to turn up Friday so as not to miss things is a great goodness I could derive from examining the e-mail because it had other people's schedules in it. (First panel is 3:30 Friday. Which, even given my theory of morning and lunch, fits neatly within my theory of a pleasant Fourth Street Friday.)
7:30 p.m. Friday: Reasons Things Go Wrong. With Pamela Dean, Sarah Monette, Catherynne Valente, and Jo Walton. (In construction of stories, apparently; we will not have time to get into the fall of the Roman Empire on the panel.) (I expect. Do not hold me to that lack. Particularly considering my fellow panelists--I don't know Catherynne and couldn't say whether she has strongly informed opinions on that particular thing going wrong, but oh, I know the rest.)
1:30 p.m. Saturday: Fantasy and the Family. With Kelly Barnhill, Liza Furr, Kit Gordon, Beth Meacham, and Deb Notkin. I am so excited about this panel. This is the panel I always wanted. (Where by "always" we mean "since last 4th St.")
10:00 a.m. Sunday: How to Give and Take Critique. With Beth Meacham, Michael Merriam, Jo Walton, and Tom Whitmore. The programming webpage notes, "from editors, as a beta readers, in writers groups, or from your dog (how to take a critique from your cat would require its own panel, if not its own convention)." This is good, as I have no experience with cats in this regard.
I'm not sure how to say this without sounding passive-aggressive about Minicon programming, but I'll go ahead and try: it's really nice to have my panel schedule two weeks out. (Not quite two weeks now! Week and a half now! But I got my panel schedule before today.) In this case, there's only one of the panels for which I'd want to do preparatory reading--the "Fantasy and the Family" panel--but knowing that is good, rather than saying, "Well, crap, if I'd known I was going to be on a panel about Heinlein juveniles, I'd have made sure I'd reread at least one or two of them more recently than five years or so ago," or similar sentiments adjusted for the panels in question. Time to chew over my reactions and think, "Am I wrong about that? Can I come up with counterexamples to that sweeping generalization I have the urge to make?" before I'm in front of an audience is a definite plus.
Also having an idea when to turn up Friday so as not to miss things is a great goodness I could derive from examining the e-mail because it had other people's schedules in it. (First panel is 3:30 Friday. Which, even given my theory of morning and lunch, fits neatly within my theory of a pleasant Fourth Street Friday.)