OryCon 44: Full Schedule

Welcome to the not-quite-ready-for-prime-time schedule for OryCon 44! Seriously - we’re still hard at work on the schedule, but we want to give you an idea of what wonders await you in just a few more weeks. Please check back frequently for changes and additions, and see you in October!

3:00pm PDT

Robots and Spaceships and Computers Oh My!

Friday October 18, 2024 3:00pm - 3:50pm PDT

Madison

Most early science fiction was action-oriented and centered around robots, spaceships and computers in futuristic societies. Nowadays there's far more to the genre than that. How has SF changed since the heyday of Asimov et al, for better and for worse?

Moderators

Erik Grove

Panelists

Mark Chapman

Bob Brown

Manny Frishberg

Friday October 18, 2024 3:00pm - 3:50pm PDT
Madison

SCIENCE FICTION

4:00pm PDT

Genre Hybrids

Friday October 18, 2024 4:00pm - 4:50pm PDT

Madison

Stories that incorporate core concepts and elements of more than one traditional genre offer something particularly satisfying for those drawn to them. A discussion on these with writers who create them.

Moderators

Maquel A. Jacob

Panelists

Brenda Clough

Rhiannon Louve

Tara Campbell

Fiction Editor, Barrelhouse

Tara Campbell is a writer, teacher, Kimbilio Fellow, and fiction co-editor at Barrelhouse. She received her MFA from American University. Previous publication credits include SmokeLong Quarterly, Masters Review, Wigleaf, Booth, Jellyfish Review, Strange Horizons, and CRAFT Literary... Read More →

Friday October 18, 2024 4:00pm - 4:50pm PDT
Madison

SCIENCE FICTION

6:00pm PDT

Interstellar Migration: Wishful Thinking or Future Possibility?

Friday October 18, 2024 6:00pm - 6:50pm PDT

Broadway

Most SF stories deal with humans visiting and often settling on other planets in other star systems, which might or might not have their own indigenous intelligent life forms. Given our own understanding of space here and now, can we actually consider this as a foreseeable future? How and why?

Moderators

Dave Bara

Panelists

Andrew Nisbet

Hugh S. Gregory

Anne Davenport

Friday October 18, 2024 6:00pm - 6:50pm PDT
Broadway

SCIENCE FICTION

6:00pm PDT

Variety is the Spice of Life: Celebrating the Anthology

Friday October 18, 2024 6:00pm - 6:50pm PDT

Ross Island

They go back decades, from collections of award-winning to stories to the "best of" print magazines to early themes around creators or concepts. Today, they\'re often found as crowd-funded projects or as a reliable part of publisher lineups. What\'s the appeal to anthologies, what makes for a good one, and who\'s publishing the ones you need to seek out today?

Moderators

Robert B McMonigal

Panelists

Tom Whitmore

Bob Brown

Remy Nakamura

Friday October 18, 2024 6:00pm - 6:50pm PDT
Ross Island

SCIENCE FICTION

7:00pm PDT

Scifi Utopias Dystopias and Everything in Between

Friday October 18, 2024 7:00pm - 7:50pm PDT

Morrison

Science Fiction is often seen as a harbinger of things to come. Future universes can be friendly/ utopian, scary or depressingly dystopian, or a mixture. Where, when, and how do our favorite science fiction scenarios occur? Do some seem more likely than others? Can we change that?

Moderators

Bart Kemper

Panelists

Erica L. Satifka

Arwen Spicer

Tara Campbell

Fiction Editor, Barrelhouse

Friday October 18, 2024 7:00pm - 7:50pm PDT
Morrison

SCIENCE FICTION

8:00pm PDT

Losing Track of Reality

Friday October 18, 2024 8:00pm - 8:50pm PDT

Ross Island

Whether from false news stories created and exploited by politicians and the media, disinformation promulgated for profit, and entertainment fantasy taken too seriously, reality in history and science seem under attack. Is this actually getting worse? Could the inability of a faux-news fed public to deal realistically with the scientific issues of diseases, overpopulation, and climate change pose an existential threat to humanity? What, as writers and readers, should we do about it?

Moderators

Bart Kemper

Panelists

D.L. Solum

Debut Author of the Dark-Thriller-Urban-Fantasy series: Persephone-A Tale of Darker Seattle. Long time medieval re-enactor and arms and armor specialist.

Shoshana Glick

Daimei Jaybird Marmaduke

Friday October 18, 2024 8:00pm - 8:50pm PDT
Ross Island

SCIENCE FICTION

11:00am PDT

SARS-CoV-2 Did Everything Wrong

Saturday October 19, 2024 11:00am - 11:50am PDT

Madison

Fast movement. High mortality. Clear and obvious symptoms. Transmission only after illness starts. Vaccines that grant full and permanent immunity. These are common tropes in fictional plagues, but we saw almost none of this things with the COVID-19 pandemic. How did our narratives of plague wind up this way, and what kind of stories do we need to prepare for the next one?

Moderators

Karen L. Black

Panelists

Tom Whitmore

Kristi Charish

Jim Kling

Saturday October 19, 2024 11:00am - 11:50am PDT
Madison

SCIENCE FICTION

12:00pm PDT

Cross-Cultural Future Histories

Saturday October 19, 2024 12:00pm - 12:50pm PDT

Weidler

In many future universes, humans and other intelligent beings live on a variety of planets and travel between them in some form of interplanetary society. Discussion of multicultural, multi-planet future civilizations.

Moderators

Andrew Nisbet

Panelists

Erica L. Satifka

Bart Kemper

Alma Alexander

Saturday October 19, 2024 12:00pm - 12:50pm PDT
Weidler

SCIENCE FICTION

1:00pm PDT

Alien Invasion Tropes We Are Tired of Seeing

Saturday October 19, 2024 1:00pm - 1:50pm PDT

Ross Island

Aliens are not going to invade Earth to steal our water and other silly invasion tropes. There are plenty of legitimate reasons for an invasion, let's see those!

Moderators

Gibbitt Rhys-Jones

Panelists

Ken Scholes

Rosiee Thor

Bart Kemper

Saturday October 19, 2024 1:00pm - 1:50pm PDT
Ross Island

SCIENCE FICTION

4:00pm PDT

Intimate Adventure: No It's Not What You Think It Is

Saturday October 19, 2024 4:00pm - 4:50pm PDT

Lincoln

SF/F author Jacqueline Lichtenberg coined the term "intimate adventure" for a subgenre of SF/F whose the main theme centers around the protagonist's personal growth through the challenge of experiencing other cultures, other ways of being than what they are used to. Often with resultant culture-shock. The archetypal Hero's Journey is one form of intimate adventure. What are some other examples, and how are intimate adventure stories helpful for those of us living in 21st-century reality?

Moderators

Seanara Coyote

Panelists

Remy Nakamura

Erik Grove

Tara Campbell

Fiction Editor, Barrelhouse

Saturday October 19, 2024 4:00pm - 4:50pm PDT
Lincoln

SCIENCE FICTION

4:00pm PDT

Space Opera - What is it?

Saturday October 19, 2024 4:00pm - 4:50pm PDT

Washington

What's the difference between hard science, space opera and space fantasy? Does it matter? There are many different opinions about this; what's yours?

Moderators

Rhiannon Held/R. Z. Held

Panelists

Clayton Callahan

J.S. Fields

Dave Bara

Saturday October 19, 2024 4:00pm - 4:50pm PDT
Washington

SCIENCE FICTION

5:00pm PDT

The Rules for Multiple Dimensions

Saturday October 19, 2024 5:00pm - 5:50pm PDT

Ross Island

Lots of stories engage parallel dimension concepts in fantasy, science fiction, and comics, including the manipulation of time. How are these concepts engaged, and what are the philosophical and scientific frameworks that people use to explain them?

Moderators

Dave Bara

Panelists

Rhiannon Held/R. Z. Held

Bob Brown

A.M. Brosius

Saturday October 19, 2024 5:00pm - 5:50pm PDT
Ross Island

SCIENCE FICTION

6:00pm PDT

It's All in the Details

Saturday October 19, 2024 6:00pm - 6:50pm PDT

Washington

Or is it? Do I really need to create an entire language for those aliens? Are complete schematics for that space vehicle necessary? Should I describe each plant in the garden? When so details get in the way of the story?

Moderators

Maquel A. Jacob

Panelists

Bart Kemper

Rosiee Thor

Rhiannon Held/R. Z. Held

Remy Nakamura

Saturday October 19, 2024 6:00pm - 6:50pm PDT
Washington

SCIENCE FICTION

7:00pm PDT

Beyond One World and One Species

Saturday October 19, 2024 7:00pm - 7:50pm PDT

Morrison

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?

Moderators

Manny Frishberg

Panelists

Bart Kemper

Erica L. Satifka

Shoshana Glick

Saturday October 19, 2024 7:00pm - 7:50pm PDT
Morrison

SCIENCE FICTION

7:00pm PDT

Humor in Science Fiction

Saturday October 19, 2024 7:00pm - 7:50pm PDT

Madison

Humor can be challenging enough to present in "our" time and place in light of what different human cultures of the here-and-now may consider humorous -- or insulting. How much more difficult might it be when we also factor in the variables of future alien civilizations with nonhuman intelligent beings?

Moderators

Bob Brown

Panelists

Dave Bara

Alan Olsen

Maquel A. Jacob

Saturday October 19, 2024 7:00pm - 7:50pm PDT
Madison

SCIENCE FICTION

10:00am PDT

Mixing Genres

Sunday October 20, 2024 10:00am - 10:50am PDT

Madison

Science fiction mysteries? Yes please! Genre cocktails for the win! What works? What doesn't? Recommendations.

Moderators

Tara Campbell

Fiction Editor, Barrelhouse

Panelists

Kat Richardson

Maquel A. Jacob

Erik Grove

Sunday October 20, 2024 10:00am - 10:50am PDT
Madison

SCIENCE FICTION

12:00pm PDT

We all love a good caper story

Sunday October 20, 2024 12:00pm - 12:50pm PDT

Morrison

Whether it's on screen or in print like The Kuiper Job the caper story is a framework that can be stretched in multiple directions

Moderators

David D. Levine

David D. Levine is the author of Norton Award winning novel Arabella of Mars (Tor 2016), sequels Arabella and the Battle of Venus (Tor 2017) and Arabella the Traitor of Mars (Tor 2018), and over fifty science fiction and fantasy stories. His story “Tk’Tk’Tk” won the Hugo... Read More →

Panelists