I have divided the panels I attended at Aussiecon be divided into five categories:
1. Writing Young Adult Fiction
Including the following sessions:
Border Crossing: YA Authors Writing for Adults
Wrought From the Very Living Rock: World Building in YA Fiction
Nuts and Bolts: Editing YA Fiction
2. Climate Change:
Destroying the Future to Save the Planet: The Environmental Politics of SFF
Geoengineering
Climate Change and Utopia
Climate Change: Possible Futures for Planet Earth
3. Speculative Fiction Markets
What we Publish
How to Market Short Stories
The Future of Short Fiction
4. The Digital Revolution
Copyright in the 21st Century
Did the Future Just Arrive – ebooks
5. The Future
The Future is Overtaking Us
Who Wants to Live Forever
The Problems with First Contact
The Race to the Red Planet
I also attended the opening ceremony and watched the guest of honour speeches by Shaun Tan and Kim Stanley Robinson.
The Hugo awards (probably the world’s most prestigious science fiction awards) took place at the convention and, as I had voted, I had more interest in the winners than usual. I only voted in four categories and picked the winner in three of those categories: Best Short Story, Bridesicle by Will McIntosh; Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form, Moon; and Best Dramatic Presentation Short Form, Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars.
I also voted for the Best Novella which was won by Palimpsest by Charles Stross. I found that novella too complicated with large information dumps constantly throwing me out of the story, and I did not care if the main character survived. It was a real struggle to read. I thought all of the other novellas were better written and more involving, voting for Vishnu at the Cat Circus, by Ian McDonald. But each to their own.
I took a lot of notes while at the panel sessions and will write a little about each in the coming weeks – cold permitting.
Graham.