Ad Astra

[rintaran]

This weekend I head down to Toronto for the Ad Astra science fiction, fantasy and horror convention. This will be my first year attending the event and I hope to get a tonne of advice out of it. At Ad Astra, there will be numerous fans of the genres, but more importantly, writers, editors and maybe even publishers may be in attendance. It's fully possible to hang out at the bar with someone like Robert Sawyer and pick up a few tricks of trade. That's why I'm heading down there. I'm not a well-published author, nor have I had much experience in the field. There are a lot of areas within which I can learn and grow. This will be a working weekend for me. Although I would love to see the Steampunk Fashion Show, or attend the Masquerade and Dance, that's not what I'm heading down to see. Instead of enjoying that stuff, I will be attending panel after panel. Check out my time-table:

Friday Mar 27:

7:00pm Opening Ceremonies
8:00pm Paranormal Research
9:00pm Hectic Day Jobs: Sparking Creativity?
10:00pm Instant Fiction
11:00pm Urban Legends

Saturday Mar 28:

10:00am What's in a name?
11:00am Effective Combat Scenes
12:00pm How Not to Submit Your Work
1:00pm Editing Yourself
2:00pm Different Kinds of Fantasy: Epic, Urban & Everything in Between
3:00pm What is Real Evil?
4:00pm Creative Block
5:00pm Supper Break
6:00pm Strategies for Short Stories Publication
7:00pm Gore and Torture: Is it Horror?
8:00pm Free time?
9:00pm Move over Meatbrains
10:00pm Evolution of the Zombie

Sunday Mar 29:

10:00am Conflict Within
11:00am Working with a Smaller Press
12:00pm Dueling Openings
1:00 pm Marketing Yourself
2:00 pm Tesseracts Anthology
3:00 pm First Contact
4:00 pm Closing Ceremonies

Maybe next year I'll be able to take in a few of the lighter events!