Day 1 at Natcon
Well, I suppose Day 1 was really last night when the Con launched, but today has been the first “full on” day where I both attended and participated in panels, as well as attending a reading by fellow Christchurch author, Beulah Pragg.
The panels I participated in were “Women in Fantasy and SF” with fellow authors Trudi Canavan, Mary Victoria and Lyn McConchie, where we discussed how the roles of women in Fantasy & SF writing have evolved, as well as the scope available to women authors writing now and thoughts for the future—with a brief side foray into that perennial favourite, cover depictions!
Points of interest included the importance of publishers’ perception of the market for female led Fantasy & SciFi, but also of keeping the focus on “character”, as well as a discussion of what motivated the respective authors on the panel when writing female characters.
The second panel, on World Building, comprised Russell Kirkpatrick, Trudi Canavan, Simon Petrie and me—three authors at the epic end of the Fantasy spectrum with Simon carrying the flag for hard SciFi.
This led to an interesting and wide-ranging conversation on topics as diverse as what motivates us when we world build and also how we approach it, with processes varying from the structured and planned to the “instant spark” and subsequent evolution of the world from that point. Discussion also covered the forces that shape world building, from environment and culture to magic and the laws of physics, as well as the extent to which the mechanics of a world, whether scientific or magical, need to be explained.
The power of successful world building to create the standout Fantasy & SF that sticks with us was canvassed, with examples such as Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings cited. But also raised was the inherent dichotomy that no matter how fascinating a world, if the characters fail to achieve the same level of interest, then the story and the world building ultimately may not succeed.
Overall I am enjoying the Con and meeting up with a range of people involved in the SFF scene in NZ, and to a lesser extent Australia.
And tomorrow, of course, as well as a further round of panels and readings, we also have the Sir Julius Vogel Awards for excellence in Science Ficton and Fantasy. Although I am not up for anything myself this year, I know plenty of people who are and am looking forward to the award ceremony tomorrow night.
I see the talking with the hands thing, again ๐
Ha—rumbled! ๐
it’s sounds like great fun! I’ve been following the tweets today ๐ I hope everyone has a blast!
Thanks, Wen—things do seem to have been going well.:)