Writing Excuses is headed to Worldcon from August 13th-17th and there are several opportunities to meetup with other fans, see the hosts in person for panels or casual meet & greets to a full suite party at the Sheraton Grand Seattle!

Find any of the hosts attending (Mary Robinette Kowal, Erin Roberts, & Howard Tayler), or staff members Sandra Tayler, Sarah Sward & Jes Honard during the con to get an “Out of Excuses Badge Ribbon”

Writing Excuses Schedule

Thursday, August 14th: Official Fan Meetup!

• Terrace Lounge (4F)
• Get Swag! Meet other fans!

Thursday, August 14th: Suite Party!

• At the Grand Sheraton Seattle
• Time and details to be updated soon

Friday, August 15th: Live Podcast Q&A

• Room: 420-422
• 7:30-8:30 PM
• Mary Robinette, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler

Host & Staff Schedule

Wednesday, August 13th

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM

And Then I was Hooked: Space Exploration with Mary Robinette

• Room: 447-448
• What first sparked your interest in space and space exploration? What is the first spacecraft you saw silently sweeping through the night sky? The first landing on the Moon? Come hear what our panel of professionals have to say and add your own stories. Audience participation strongly encouraged!
• Dr. Corey Frazier (M), Dr. Laura Woodney, Julie Nováková, Mary Robinette Kowal, Sue Burke

4:30 PM – 5:30 PM

Muppets, Puppets and Marionettes with Mary Robinette

• Room: 447-448
• We love bringing puppets into our movies and shows. What is the mystique? Why do we love them and how come they can say what we can’t?
• David D. Levine (M), Andrew Penn Romine, Mary Robinette Kowal, Merav Hoffman, Sho Glick

6:00 PM – 7:00 PM

The Second Novel with Mary Robinette

• Room: 443-444
• After spending years on your first novel, lightning strikes and you get the three-book deal. How do you make sure you can get the second novel done, on time andon target, and avoid the “sophomore slump” when you have 12 months or less to produce it? Our panelists of series authors explain what they did, how and why it worked—or didn’t.
• Mary Robinette Kowal (M), J. L. Doty, Kamilah Cole, Randy Henderson

Thursday, August 14th

Note: Erin Roberts is at Con Current on Thursday along with a bunch of other fantastic panelists. We highly encourage you to check it out! Registration is free for everyone and you don’t have to be attending worldcon to attend.*

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Writing Excuses Fan Meetup

• Terrace Lounge (4F)
• Also for Lady Astronaut Fans! Mary Robinette will have fun swag for everyone, both for the podcast and for the Lady Astronaut Universe

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Table Talk with Mary Robinette

• Room: 427
• Have an intimate discussion (up to six participants) with your favorite creators. Advance sign-up is required (sign-up info coming soon).

2:30 PM – 3:30 PM

Music & Monsters: A Sinners Panel with Erin Roberts at Con Current Seattle*

• ACT Theatre across from the Grand Sheraton Seattle
• LD Lewis, LP Kindred, Rebecca Roanhorse, Erin Roberts, Nicole Glover
• In this panel based on Ryan Coogler’s instant horror classic, our panelists discuss music and monsters as transcendent cultural traditions and the magic that happens when we share them.

4:30 PM – 5:30 PM

Fantastical Worlds and Authorial Bias with Erin Roberts

• Room 420-422
• When inventing new worlds, it’s easy to include elements from the author’s own experience without examining their role. Despite having all possibilities available to us, patriarchal societies, colonialist narratives, and stories focused on the ruling class abound in speculative fiction. Panelists share great examples and discuss ways to unchain our brains—finding ways to recognize unconscious biases so that these elements can be included (or not) in a deliberate fashion.
• Corry L. Lee (M), Ehigbor Okosun, Erin Roberts, Jo Miles, Wren Handman

7:30 PM – 9:00 PM

Northwest Speculative Reading with Mary Robinette

• Join the authors as they a read their stories from Grimoire: A Grim Oak Press Anthology. It’s an amazing opportunity to hear these stories as read by the brilliant minds behind their creation. A short Q&A and signing session will follow.
• G.R. Theron, Fonda Lee, Jason Denzel, Laura Anne Gilman, Mary Robinette Kowal, Patrick Swenson, Brenda Cooper, Andy Peloquin

Writing Excuses Suite Party (more details coming soon)

• At the Grand Sheraton Seattle
• Swag, Drinks, and Snacks!

August 15th

9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

The Indie Comics Panel: the Big 25% with Howard Tayler

• Room: 431-432
• The “Big Two” comic book publishers control 75% of the market and get plenty of attention. If you’re curious about who makes up the independent comics market and where you fit in as a fan, this might be the panel for you!
• Liz Argall (M), Howard Tayler, Kel McDonald, Rob McMonigal

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM

Table Talk with Sandra Tayler

• Room 427
• Have an intimate discussion (up to six participants) with your favorite creators. Advance sign-up is required (sign-up info coming soon).

1:30 PM – 2:30 PM

Nasa’s Unsung Heroes with Mary Robinette

• Room: 447-448
• Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, the NASA mathematicians whose stories were dramatized in the 2016 film Hidden Figures, weren’t the only women and people of color who delivered distinguished service during NASA’s early decades. Come learn about the Mercury 13, Margaret Hamilton, Major Robert H. Lawrence Jr., and others who crossed the gender and color lines.
• Mary Robinette Kowal (M), Dr. Corey Frazier, Gideon Marcus, Nicole Glover, Peter Glaskowsky

Signing with Howard Tayler

• Garden Lounge (3F)

6:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Alternate Histories of the Space Program with Mary Robinette

• Room: 320
• More than 50 years after the race to the moon, how might space exploration have gone differently? Which contemporary writers are giving us more hopeful, or more distressing, versions of what might have been? Where might we be today? (The Sidewise Award for Alternate History will be presented at this panel.)
• Olav Rokne (M), Dr. Laura Woodney, Elektra Hammond, Mary Robinette Kowal, Rosemary Claire Smith

7:30 PM – 8:30 PM

Writing Excuses Live Podcast

• Writing Excuses is a fast-paced, educational podcast for writers and by writers. Our goal is to help our listeners become better at their craft. Whether they write for fun or for profit, whether they’re new to the domain or old hands, Writing Excuses has something to offer. We love to write, and our listeners do, too. Join our panel for a live Q&A—no excuses!
• Mary Robinette Kowal (M), Erin Roberts, Howard Tayler

August 16th

12:00 PM – 1:30 PM

Spilling Tea and Coffee: Women in the Industry Meetup with Sandra Tayler

• For Industry Pros Only
• Terrace Lounge (4F)

Signing with Mary Robinette

• Garden Lounge (3F)

3:00 PM – 3:30 PM

Reading with Mary Robinette

• Room: 429

Writing and Publishing in Different Genres with Sandra Tayler

• Room 433-434
• How might authors approach writing and publishing in multiple genres? What are the challenges of marketing to different types of readers? How can we navigate the tricky waters of finding new editors and publishers (much less, agents)? Is it better to publish under different nom de plumes for different audiences? Will audiences from one series or genre try a book from a different genre? This panel aims to unpack this broad strategy to writing and publishing, one that brings with it many challenges and many opportunities.
• Coral Alejandra Moore (M), Ash Huang, Gail Carriger, Sandra Tayler, Van Hoang, Victor Manibo

Fun with Astrophysics with Howard Tayler

• Room 334
• Our understanding of the solar system has changed repeatedly as we build better telescopes and probes. If you know enough, you can see the funny parts and write about them.
• Larry Niven (M), Frank Wu, Howard Tayler, Steven Saltman, Todd Brun

Trains, the Answer is Always Trains with Erin Roberts

• Room 447-448
• If the question is how to move a lot of stuff, whether people or cargo, efficiently and cost-effectively, the answer is trains. Unless it’s ships, and even then trains might be involved. But what kind(s) of trains, and how could they be different in the real-world future, in alternative pasts, and in fiction?
• Erin Roberts (M), Alex Kingsley, Dan Dubrick, Ed Buchan, Ric Bretschneider

6:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Signing with Sandra Tayler

• Garden Lounge (3F)

August 17th

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM

AI, and Aliens, Oh My! Writing Nonhumans with Mary Robinette

• Room: 420-422
• Some of the best characters aren’t humans at all. They’re animals, aliens, AI, or any number of real or imagined nonhuman species. But how do you write a believable character that senses and experiences the world in an entirely different way? This panel will talk about some of the leading science exploring how animals, computers, plants, and even fungi sense and communicate about the world. Then let’s discuss how to use that science to write rich and compelling nonhuman characters.
• Aaron Scott (M), Kathryn Sullivan, Mary Robinette Kowal, Martha Wells, Matt Dinniman