Sunday

Panelbending

Liz Barr, Moya Carroll, Zoe Holmes, Darren Sanderson

Avatar: the Last Airbender displayed a level of sophistication not often found in American cartoons for tweens. Discuss.

Games Room

Board and card games provided – or bring your own!

The Resurgence of the Costume Drama

Alison Goodman, Stephanie Lai, Dee Pirko, Paul Poulton

Costume dramas on the small screen are back in force. But it’s not just all Downton Abbey. Are they beating a dead horse? Are they a fascinating look at a bygone era?

Still Stranger Than Fiction

Hespa, Michelle Goldsmith, Gareth Hodges, Ben McKenzie

Based on the success of last year’s panel, we take another look at weird creature that really exist and why fictional aliens and monsters don’t have nothin’ on these beasties.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Tsana Dolichva

From the very big to the very small.

Plot 101

Trudi Canavan, Richard Harland, Amanda Pillar, David Witteveen

Tangled in your own story? Plotting can be a challenge even for the most experienced author. Learn some tricks and tips from the professionals here.

Genderbending

Lucy Baker, Liz Barr, Rachel Holkner

Rule 63: “For any given male character, there is a female version.” And usually, fandom itself has created her. We take a look at depictions and subversions of gender and femininity in rule 63 fanworks!

Game Demo: Small World

Hespa

This world ain’t big enough for the both of us! Pick your race and special power and get ready to carve out your place in a fantasy land that just isn’t quiet big enough for everyone.

Guest of Honour Speech

Paul Collins

Book Launch: Song of the Slums

Richard Harland, Cat Sparks

Richard Harland launches his new novel, Song of the Slums.

Author Signings

Paul Collins, N. K. Jemisin

Games Room

Board and card games provided – or bring your own!

The Charming Brotherhood

m1k3y , PRK , Dee Pirko, Julia Svaganovic

Sons of Anarchy has been compared to Hamlet and Dynasty, how did a show about a gang of brutally violent outlaw bikies become so popular?

Fan Fund Auction

Hespa, Justin Ackroyd

One person’s trash is another’s collectable! The best place to find cheap books, unexpected delights and the downright bizarre. All proceeds to NAFF, GUFF, DUFF or FFANZ. Don’t know what a fan fund is? Come along and find out!

Silence in the Library

Liz Barr, George Ivanoff, Ben McKenzie, John Richards

No horrible monsters in this library, just a lot of books about Doctor Who! Fans and contributors to recent anthologies talk about their work, and the other stand-outs in the special subgenre of Books About Who.

The Devil in the Details

Pete Aldin, Tsana Dolichva, Richard Harland

How does a Universal Translator actually work? How could Conan Doyle put an entire desert on the wrong side of Salt Lake City? And does any of this really matter?

Readings

Jane Routley, David Witteveen, George Ivanoff, Jack Dann, Narrelle Harris, Ander Louis, Tim Hehir

Crime and Fantasy

PRK, Alison Goodman, Narrelle Harris

From vampire assassins to wizard private eyes to undead thugs, crime has been mixing it up with fantasy for years. What is it about crime, noir and the paranormal that’s so appealing?

Racebending and [race]face in the 21st Century

Liz Barr, N. K. Jemisin, Stephanie Lai

The Last Airbender, Cloud Atlas, Earthsea, book covers that portray characters of colour as white. Why do they keep doing this? And why doesn’t it ever go the other way?

We Do This Stuff So You Can Write About It

Hespa, Steve Cameron, Trudi Canavan, Tsana Dolichva, Amanda Elliott, Lisa Lagergren, Amanda Pillar

What does a park ranger actually do? How do traditional handcrafts actually feel? What’s it like to cross swords?

Podcast: Splendid Chaps

Ben McKenzie, John Richards

Podcast: Splendid Chaps (cont.)

In this very special edition of the Splendid Chaps podcast, Ben, John and Petra will be joined by guests to discuss surprises in Doctor Who. From leaked torrents to give-away titles, from shock deaths to surprise guests, Who has done it all. So do spoilers ruin everything? Are cliff-hangers an integral part of the show? And just how important is plot, anyway?

Readings (cont.)

Historical Realism in Fantasy

Alison Goodman, Amanda Pillar, Paul Poulton, Jane Routley, Darren Sanderson

What do fantasy authors tend to get right and wrong, and does it matter anyway when they’re throwing magic into the mix?

Workshop: Writing Sex and Intimacy

Narrelle Harris

Scenes involving sex and intimacy are an important tool for writers, even in books unrelated to romance and erotica, but they can be difficult to create. 18+ only.

Book Launch: Caution: Contains Small Parts

Talie Helene, Kirstyn McDermott, Jason Nahrung

Twelth Planet Press presents the launch of CAUTION: CONTAINS SMALL PARTS by Kirstyn McDermott and BLOOD AND DUST by Jason Nahrung.

Games Room

Board and card games provided – or bring your own!

Deeper Than Swords

David McDonald, Ben McKenzie, Jane Routley, Darren Sanderson

The Panel of Ice and Fire!

Spacetime and Spaceships

Tsana Dolichva, Gareth Hodges, Adrian Melchiori

Space! The final frontier. These are the voyages of the panelship Astroprise. It’s Continuum mission: to seek out new questions and new civilised discussion.

The Lurker Panel

Liz Barr, Moya Carroll, Zoe Holmes, Caitlin Noble, Dee Pirko

We give a lot of attention in fandom to people who make a lot of noise, but what about the quiet types? What are the easily-overlooked contributions of lurkers?

Gestalt Publishing

Trevor Clark

An exciting new force in the comics industry.

Doc Rat

Jenner

The artist behind the webcomic talks!

SFQI

Narrelle Harris, George Ivanoff, Ben McKenzie, John Richards, Grant Watson

A distinctly spec fic take on the legendary comedy panel game show, QI.

50 Shades of Reinterpretation

Kathryn Andersen, Lucy Baker, N. K. Jemisin, Kirsty Sculler

Fan fiction, fan art and even fan films – is this just borrowing someone else’s ideas, or is it an artform?

Presentation: Year of the Geek

Jason Groves

Hear the creators talk about the project.

Zombies Go Mainstream

Gareth Hodges, Adrian Melchiori, Darren Sanderson

Walking Dead, I Am Legend, World War Z… Much like superheroes, zombies have lurched, groaning, into the public eye.

Trailer Park

Mitch, Paul Poulton

The best part of going to the movies is the trailers! Get a big-screen look at upcoming films here!

Theory of Magic

N. K. Jemisin, Jason Nahrung, Darren Sanderson, Elaine Walker

Unlike future science, which is often seen as needing to be systematic and coherently explained, magic can be a source of mystery, random and inexplicable.

Speculative Fiction, Craft and Shifting Gender Roles

Kathryn Andersen, Lucy Baker, Jane Routley

So, only boys like science fiction, right? But only girls like craft. So where is all this SF craft coming from anyway?!

Thinking Outside the Genre

Lindy Cameron, Alison Goodman, Richard Harland, Narrelle Harris

Once you’ve written in one genre, are you doomed to remain there for the rest of your career? Our panellists discuss how they’ve been able to write across borders.

Screening: Star Wars Uncut

The call went out for people to recreate 15 second clips from Star Wars: A New Hope — and this acclaimed fan production was the result.

Better Than They Have Any Right to Be

Elaine Cuyegkeng, Aidan Doyle, N. K. Jemisin, Brendan Podger, John Samuel

Anime that works, even though on paper it looks like it shouldn’t.

Spooky Stories

Jason Franks, Richard Harland, Talie Helene, Robert Hood, Kirstyn McDermott, Jason Nahrung

Ready to shiver in your seat? Find out what scares the scare-masters, when (mostly) horror authors read from their own favourite scary stories.

Inside Lewis Carroll’s Mirror: Warehouse 13

PRK, Alison Goodman, Paul Poulton, Elaine Walker

Join fans of this excellent series as they discuss these and many other questions about the show.

The Vid Show

Liz Barr

An overview of fanvids recent and classic. (Note: may contain spoilers for various series, violence, coarse language, etc.)