Monday, January 11, 2010

Life, the Universe & Everything


Also known as LTUE.

It's kind of an ominous name. February 11-13, it's the The Marion K. “Doc” Smith Symposium on Science Fiction & Fantasy.

Who's it for?
Anyone. But if I had to be more specific, I would say artists, teachers-especially English, Writing and Reading and all elementary school teachers- librarians, writers, fans of Science Fiction and/or Fantasy, people who want to meet a ton of authors in person and people who want a place to go and hang out for free.

BECAUSE it's free. No charge.

They are specifically calling Saturday from 9-3 the Educators' Conference, so all you teachers out there, plan to go if you can!

Have you ever heard of a conference with tons of well known authors presenting and there is no charge? Until I got invited to this, I hadn't either.

Where? BYU- Provo, Utah. If you live anywhere in Utah, you should seriously consider going. If you're reading this blog it means you are the right kind of person to have a blast there. Since there's no fee, there's no pressure to go the entire time. Go for whatever you can.

The schedule hasn't been posted officially, but what I've got looks like they start on Thursday morning at 9:00 and go til 8:00. That means you can catch just the morning, or afternoon, or evening- or all day. Everyday goes 9-8 except Saturday they're going to be done by 7:00.

What are some of the topics? There are tons. Seriously, it would take pages to write them all, so here are just a few.....(the ones in blue are the topics I'll be presenting with other authors)

*Killer openings- how to write a gripping first paragraph
*Fantasy without magic
*How to become an Idea Factory: Where do you find ideas? How do you go from an idea to a story?
*Why Mormons and Fantasy?
*Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction for a discerning audience: How to write believable child characters.
*A Thousand words for Sand
*How to build aliens and fantastic (but believable) monsters
*How to draw wings
*A Guy's take on Romance
*What Exactly Does an Editor Do, Anyway?
*Horror and Dark Fantasy
*Writing Excuses Broadcast
*Edgy YA vs. not-so-edgy
*Making a living as an artist
*Writing comics and webcomics
*Current trends in children's genres: what subjects are hot?

And, to the sheer relief of those who want it all, there are repeating quite a few of these discussions so you can catch all the ones you really want to hear about. Did I mention that I didn't mention over half the topics? Lots of stuff for artists. Tons of stuff for writers. Amazing stuff for teachers.

And I haven't mentioned the coolest part yet. The Guests of Honor are Brandon Sanderson (author of the Mistborn Trilogy, the Alcatraz booksand the new Wheel of Time books), Marty Brenneis (Special Effects Wizard)Formerly with ILM, now with Kerner Studios.
Artist GoH -but you're going to see some other amazing people too....

*Jake Black, comic writer
*Larry Corriea, author
*James Dashner, author
*Nathan Hale, artist
*Lisa Mangum, editor
*L.E. Modesitt, Jr. author
*Brandon Mull, author
*Howard Tayler, author/artist
*Linda Brummett, BYU Bookstore General book department manager

And tons more authors and artists not on the list- like me. I'm still not sure how I lucked out to be invited to be a part of this event, but I'm super excited. They are going to be selling books there and doing book signings, so if you're still hoping for a signed copy of something, COME!!! Lots of cool people to meet- even more ideas to stuff into your head.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, I'm so there, baby!

I had a BLAST at LTUE last year and I wouldn't miss it. Fabulous, fabulous time and people. Can't wait to see you again!

Marny said...

No fee, but there IS registration so we can have a head count to prove to the university people are interested in coming. :) See you there!

Melissa said...

Very cool! Wish I could be there!