Conflux 8 Report – Part 4: Day 2 Before-Lunch Panels

Day 1 of Conflux 8 was full of activity and broadened my understanding on not only techniques or styles, but of the publishing industry itself. I headed into Day 2 with hopes for more of the same—I was not disappointed.

Conflux 8—Day 2

0900-1000: Using lessons from apocalypses past in your fiction with Ian McHugh

He made me cry—or rather, the presentation on the Lakota, on top of the other tragedies and localised apocalypses, made me cry, but I challenge any one to put themselves in the shoes of this people and not be touched and angered and hurt on their behalf, and I challenge any writer to put themselves in the post-apocalyptic zone and not come away emotionally limping. If you do, go back over your manuscript and make sure you’ve captured what you want out of this genre of disaster and tragedy and conveyed it so your reader is pulled right in. And this is the point Ian made very well when he said ‘It doesn’t matter if your apocalypse is fast or slow or what the death count is. What matters is that you capture what it feels like, the human side of the apocalypse. This was an excellent presentation that not only gave different forms and definitions of apocalypse, but on where to go to research how a story’s characters might feel in the face of one. I am sorry to say, I failed entirely to take any photographs of this session. My apologies, Ian.

1000-1100: Independent publishing and speculative fiction with Keith Stevenson, Keri Arthur, Jodi Cleghorn, Bill Congreve and Simon Petrie

Panelists (from left to right): Jodi Cleghorn (Emergent Publishing), Bill Congreve (Mirrordance), Keith Stevenson (Coeur de Lion), Keri Arthur (traditionally and independently publishing via agent), Simon Petrie (Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine - ASIM).

I approached this panel with some trepidation, not knowing what to expect, but half-expecting some adverse attitudes towards writers who, like myself, independently publish at venues like Amazon and Smashwords. I also expected some kind of defence against authors independently publishing and a strong push towards publishing houses as ‘the proper’ path, but then I’m a cynic.

This panel was pleasantly open-minded about independently publishing authors, and focused more on the effects small independent presses had experienced as a result of the recent changes in the publishing industry—an area most were eminently qualified to speak about.

What they all agreed on was that no matter how an author is published, they needed to focus on professional presentation and editing, at the very least. They also noted that the world of publishing was still in a state of flux and that more changes would be seen in the future.

1100-1200: Urban fantasy as alternate reality with Keri Arthur, Claire McKenna, Ross Hamilton and Tracey O’Hara

The main focus of this discussion was the way an urban environment causes a reader to react differently to elements of fantasy. Keri also pointed out it was easier for readers to springboard into a story that had elements they already knew about than for them to make the leap into a more unfamiliar fantasy world. They all agreed that placing fantasy creatures in a real-world setting had to be done with thought and care for the ripple effect the creatures’ needs would have on the social infrastructure, if the reader was going to be able to sustain a suspension of disbelief.

Panelists (from left to right): Claire McKenna, Keri Arthur, Ross Hamilton, Tracey O'Hara