OryCon 43 is coming, November 10-12 at the Holiday Inn Portland – Columbia Riverfront, and I’ll be appearing in the following program events!

NOVEMBER 10 • FRIDAY

4:00pm – 4:50pm: Returning from Hiatus, White Stag

Speakers: Christopher Sebela, David D. Levine, Anthony Pryor
You’re finally ready to start creating again, but you feel like your creative muscles atrophied. How do you take the shaky first steps? What pressures do you face from yourself and society to suddenly run and catch up?

5:00pm – 5:50pm: Creators in Chaos, White Stag

Speakers: Theresa Reed (M), David D. Levine, Matt Haynes, John M Lovett, Anthony Pryor
To be alive is to exist in chaos. There’s always something to interrupt. Family, finances, death, disarray. You say, I would make that, but- and most excuses are genuine concerns. How do you prepare for the worst, get organized, and focus enough to create?

NOVEMBER 11 • SATURDAY

11:00am – 11:50am: Beyond One World and One Species, Rm 256

Speakers: Walt Boyes, Mark Niemann-Ross, Manny Frishberg, David D. Levine, G. David Nordley
Millennia of diaspora from Old Home Terra would almost certainly produce any number of subvariants of humanity including genetically engineered transhumans and cyborgs. Consider not “the” future of humanity but “the futures” of humanity. Save for a common heritage distant in time, they might be alien species. What might that be like?

12:00pm – 12:50pm: The Sensitive Manly Man, Pendleton

Speakers: Neil Cochrane (M), Steven Barnes, Stoney Compton, David D. Levine, Frog Jones
Empathy, reflection, and emotional vulnerability are essential to character growth, but not easy to employ if your protagonist is cut from the patriarchy. How do you give depth and redefine masculinity with today’s gender norms evolving?

3:00pm – 3:50pm: David D. Levine Reading & Novel Launch, Flanders

Speakers: David D. Levine
David D. Levine discusses and reads from his new novel, The Kuiper Belt Job.

4:00pm – 4:50pm: Science and Speculative Fiction, Lovejoy

Speakers: David D. Levine (M), Alma Alexander, Rhiannon Held/R. Z. Held, Walt Boyes
What role does science play in fantasy and horror (as opposed to “hard” science fiction), particularly in light of genre conventions? To what extent can speculative fiction authors and creators play “fast and loose” with science?

NOVEMBER 12 • SUNDAY

2:00pm – 2:50pm: The Concept of “Civility”: Needful Myth or Trap?, Pettygrove

Speakers: David D. Levine (M), Andrew M Ross, Andrew Nisbet, Manny Frishberg
Definitions of “being civil” span a range in communities with wide world views. How does the idea of “civility” influence writing, art, and media in the sci-fi/fantasy creation community? Does “being civil” limit free expression, or expand it?