DCC 2017 Preview: Authors!

Comic Cons are always a series of difficult nerd choices. Who do I meet? Which panels do I go to? What do I do when I’m not buying more art than I have wall space for. (I’m considering putting art on my ceiling now.) I’ve been studying the Denver Comic Con guest list and panel schedules. Here are the authors I plan to attend at least one panel for. They’ve written some pretty amazing things, and if we all sit very quietly in a room as they talk, maybe we’ll hear something incredible, funny, true, and/or insightful.

(Updated, sadly, to remove Bonnie Burton. She had a last minute emergency and can’t make Denver Comic Con this year.)

Catherynne M. Valente is a New York Times Best Selling and award winning fantasy and scifi author. She’s written a lot of things, but my favorite so far is The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making which starts out wonderfully: “Once upon a time, a girl named September grew very tired indeed of her parents’ house, where she washed the same pink-and-yellow teacups and matching gravy boats every day, slept on the same embroidered pillow, and played with the same small and amiable dog. Because she had been born in May, and because she had a mole on her left cheek, and because her feet were very large and ungainly, the Green Wind took pity on her and flew to her window one evening just after her twelfth birthday.”

Catherynne M. Valente’s DCC Schedule:

Mistakes Were Made (Friday 6/30 2:30PM Room 402),               The Writing Process of Best Sellers (Saturday 7/1 12PM Room 407), Millennials Rising -YA Literature Today (Saturday 7/1 3:30PM Room 402), Start Short, Get Good (Saturday 7/1 5PM Room 407), Is This a Kissing Book? (Sunday 7/2 10:30AM Room  402), The Best Writing Advice I Was Ever Given (Sunday 7/2 3PM Room 407).

She also has signings on Friday 6/30 (11AM-1pm Author Signing Booth 2), Saturday 7/1 (1:30-2:30pm Tattered Cover Signing Booth), Sunday 7/2 (12-2PM Author Signing Booth 1).

Charlie Jane Anders is the author of All the Birds in the Sky, which won a Nebula award. She’s also co-founder of i09, and has published a lot of short stories. All the Birds in the Sky is pretty hilarious, but a heart breaking kind of hilarious that most of us nerds understand. Based on her writing she may also know how to program spells. I’m going to all her panels just in case.

Charlie Jane Anders DCC Schedule:

Steampunk vs. Cyberpunk (Friday 6/30 12PM Room 407), Avadakedavra! Magic in Literature (Friday 6/30 1PM Room 407), Fight the Power! Fiction for Political Change (Friday 6/30 4:30PM Room 402), I Wish Someone Had Told Me (Saturday 7/1 4PM DCCP4 Keystone City Room), Representing Gender Non-Conforming People in Fiction (Sunday 7/2 11:30AM Room 402), Writing Strong Women in Fantasy and Scifi (Sunday 7/2 1PM 8bit Stage @ Kids’ Lab).

She also has signings on Saturday from 11AM-1PM at Author Signing Booth 3 and Sunday from 4PM-6PM at Author Signing Booth 3.

Cory Doctorow is the award winning scifi author of Little Brother and Homeland. Books that delve into protecting our privacy and personal freedoms against a surveillance state. He’s also a co-editor of Boing Boing, a journalist, an activist, and has a mention in Ready Player One by Ernest Cline as a geezer who “had been doing a kick-ass job of protecting user rights for over a decade.”

Cory Doctorow’s DCC Schedule:

The Future is Here (Friday 6/30 1:30PM Room 402), Fight the Power! Fiction for Political Change (Friday 6/30 4:30PM Room 402), The Writing Process of Best Sellers (Saturday 7/1 12PM Room 407), Creating the Anti-Hero (Saturday 7/1 1:30PM  Room 402), Millennials Rising -YA Literature Today (Saturday 7/1 3:30PM Room 402), Economics, Value and Motivating Your Character (Sunday 7/2 11AM Room 407), Urban Science Fiction (Sunday 7/2 3PM DCCP4 Keystone City Room)

He also has signings on Friday 6/30 from 2:30-4:30PM at the Tattered Cover Signing Booth, on Saturday 7/1 from 4:30-6:30PM at the Tattered Cover Signing Booth, and on Sunday 7/2 from 12:30-2:30PM at the Tattered Cover Signing Booth.

Diana Gabaldon is the best selling, award winning author of The Outlander series that is now a TV series on Starz. There time travel. There is action, doctoring of gross wounds caused by the action, and sexy times with kilts. What more do you need?

Diana Gabaldon DCC Schedule:

Young Women – Write Yourself a Novel Career! (Friday 6/30 1pm 8bit Stage @Kids’ Lab), Mistakes Were Made (Friday 6/30 2:30PM Room 402), Outlander – with Diana Gabaldon & Andrew Gower (Saturday 7/1 11:30AM Night Lynx Stage @ Main Events), From Page to Screen (Saturday 7/1 1PM Room 407), The Art of the Complex Villian (Saturday 7/1 4pm Room 407), Is This a Kissing Book? (Sunday 7/2 10:30AM Room 402).

She also has signings on Friday 6/30 from 11AM-12:50PM at Random House / Del Rey Signing Booth, on Saturday 7/1 2pm-3:50PM at The Tattered Cover Signing Booth 2, and on Sunday 7/2 12-2pm at The Tattered Cover Signing Booth 2.

Felicia Day is an actress, creator, and writer of the web series of The Guild, and author of You’re Never Weird on the Internet (almost). She’s also a co-host/creator of the web series Vaginal Fantasy Book Club.

Felicia Day’s DCC Schedule:

Felicia Day (Saturday 7/1 4:30PM Night Lynx Stage @ Main Events)

She also has photo ops on Saturday 7/1 from 12-12:30PM and Sunday 7/2 from 12:30-1PM at the Celebrity Summit that require tickets.

John Scalzi is the author of many fun Scifi books with some serious bits. He likes to pull you in with silliness and sarcasm then break everything and get serious. He’s known for his series Old Man’s War and Hugo award winning Red Shirts. He’s also hilarious on twitter and his blog.

John Scalzi’s DCC Schedule:

Laughter in the Face of Disaster (Friday 6/30 11AM Room 407), Military Scifi an Institution (Friday 6/30 3PM DCCP4 – Keystone City Room), Fight the Power! Fiction for Political Change (Friday 6/30 4:30PM Room 402), The Writing Process of Best Sellers (Saturday 7/1 12PM Room 407), The Hardness Scale – Is Fiction Better Squishy or Solid? (Saturday 7/1 3PM Room 407), Economics, Value and Motivating Your Character (Sunday 7/2 11AM Room 407).

He also has signings on Friday 6/30 from 1PM-2:50PM at Tattered Cover Signing Booth 2, and on Saturday 7/1 from  10:30AM-12:30PM at the Tattered Cover Signing Booth, and on Sunday 7/2 from 2PM-4PM at Tattered Cover Signing Booth 2.

Mary Robinette Kowal is an award winning author of the Glamourist History Series, which is like Jane Austen with cool magic. She’s also an award winning puppeteer, and has cool picks of dragon puppets and weirdo creepy hearts on her webpage.

Mary Robinette Kowal’s DCC Schedule:

Kicking Butts in Corsets (Friday 6/30 2PM Room 407), The Past is Here – Writing Romantic Fiction with an Historical Backdrop (Friday 6/30 5:30PM Room 402), Let the Wookiee Win! It’s Okay to an Uplifting Story (Saturday 7/1 11AM DCCP4 Keystone City Room), I Wish Someone Had Told Me (Saturday 7/1 4PM DCCP4 Keystone City Room), Is This a Kissing Book? (Sunday 7/2 10:30AM Room 402).

She also has signings on Friday 6/30 from 10:30AM-12:30PM at Author Signing Booth 2, and on Sunday 7/2 from 2:30PM-4:30PM at Author Signing Booth 2.

Robin Hobb is an award winning, best selling fantasy author known for her Farseer Trilogy. From her writing, I assume that she possesses all the writing secrets in the world. I’m so glad she’s coming to Denver Comic Con. I can’t wait to hear her talk.

Robin Hobb’s DCC Schedule:

Avadakedavra! Magic in Literature (Friday 6/30 1PM Room 407), Mistakes Were Made (Friday 6/30 2:30PM Room 402), Creating the Anti-Hero (Saturday 7/1 1:30PM  Room 402), The Art of the Complex Villian (Saturday 7/1 4pm Room 407), But is it Epic Enough? (Sunday 7/2 11AM DCCP4 Keystone City Room), The Best Writing Advice I Was Ever Given (Sunday 7/2 3PM Room 407).

She also has signings on Friday 6/30 from 4-5PM at the Random House / Del Rey Signing Booth, on Saturday 7/1 from 11AM-1PM at the Tattered Cover Signing Booth 2 and 2:30-3:30PM at the Random House / Del Rey Signing Booth, and on Sunday 7/2 from 4-6PM at the Tattered Cover Signing Booth 2.

Finally, some of our favorite authors from previous years are returning to Denver Comic Con to impart more of their writing wisdom, including: Amalie Howard, Kristi Helvig, Sherry Ficklin (Booth D12 and D14), Corinne O’Flynn, and Sue Duff. Also, Callie Bates has her debut book The Waking Lands due out tomorrow! Possibly not enough time to read it before DCC, but it has some great early reviews so it might be worth catching some of her panels too!

Download the new 2017 Denver Comic Con app to view the full schedule and add these and other panels to your schedule!