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2016 Ad Astra - Day Two (Night)

The afternoon and evening were much less eventful from the I-apparently-can't-human-today perspective.

In "Crossing the Gender Divide", I learned that whether or not your character is male or female matters less than making them a person first. As authors, we need to refrain from making assumptions like gender=female therefore, likes pink. Examples (good and bad) included:

  1. James Tiptree Jr.

  2. Andre Norton

  3. Wally Lamb

  4. The Wheel of Time Series

  5. Gail Simone


Next, I was off to "Does Diversity Sell?" where I mainly just enjoyed the discussion. It gave me something to think about. I think it's good to write diversely, but I also think it's good to connect with readers. There might be a Goldilocks zone there somewhere.

In "Loving the Villain" I learned that Frodo and Sam are the assholes that screwed up everything. Resources included:

  1. Once Upon A Time

  2. Legend (Tim Curry)

  3. Sons of Anarchy

  4. It (Book)

  5. Dexter

  6. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

  7. Shirley Jackson


Then I went to "The Disappearance of the Beginning, Middle, and End", which turned out to be quite different than I thought it would be. One thing that stuck with me was, "Things always find their natural shape". We talked about how many TV shows are keeping things going at all costs. The obvious example was Supernatural. How many times have Sam and Dean died? Some other examples included:

  1. Unbreakable

  2. Jemma

  3. American Horror Story

  4. True Detective


After that it was off to "The Rise of Kink" which was very interesting. Resources mentioned were:

  1. fanfiction.net

  2. reddit

  3. Erika Moen

  4. Cliterature

  5. Sexapalooza


After a quick bite to eat, I headed up to the Chizine Party to see friends. We worked out details for a future panel I'll be part of in the fall.

Stay tuned for my final post on 2016 Ad Astra, which is coming *soon*.

Ciao,
R~
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