Confluence SF Conference Pittsburgh 2018
Introduction
I attended the Confluence SF Conference Pittsburgh 2018 on July 28, 2018. They held the conference at 1160 Thorn Run Road Coraopolis, PA in the Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport Hotel. The drive from Cleveland, Ohio was two hours taken in the morning and back in the evening. I also attended the conference in 2016 and 2017. I missed writing this post in 2018, so I am writing it now to prepare for writing my post for the 2019 conference. To write this post, I followed my notes and recollections in writing this post. The Parsec organization of Pittsburgh runs the conference. It is a literary science fiction, fantasy, and horror conference. The events included panels, readings, interviews, writing workshops, and filk concerts. I attended two lectures, two panels, one fiction writing seminar, one author reading, and the guest of honor presentation.
The link to the Confluence website.
http://parsec-sff.org/confluence/
They held the Confluence SF Conference Pittsburgh 2018 at the Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport.
Confluence SF Conference Pittsburgh 2018 Program Guide Cover
Picture of my badge from Confluence SF Conference Pittsburgh 2018
Summary
Saturday, July 28th at 10 AM
AI: The Real Deal, a lecture by Ken Chiacchia.
The presenter explained what they know in the artificial intelligence field and what still needs to be figured out. Machine intelligences do some tasks well, but not other tasks. Steps in the advancement of AI are to identify items in pictures, to identify phrases spoken, to perform written language translations, and to perform speech recognition. Task-specific tasks are current but general tasks are not possible now. Other tasks AI is good at are improving images, predicting severe thunderstorm, and materials discovery for energy applications. A challenge to getting AI right is that bias can lead to large errors. To put AI advancement in SF terms, the Matrix is happening, while Skynet probably won’t.
They held the lecture in Comm0nwealth West with 15 attendees.
Saturday, July 28th at 11 AM
Set the Controls for the Edge of the Sun, a lecture by Geoffrey Landis.
They scheduled the Parker Solar Probe to launch on August 8, 2018. This lecture was about what’s planned and what they hope to learn. The lecturer started as a solar cell designer. He went to the Mars project, then the Venus/Mercury project, and now is examining ways to exploring the sun. The issue with a solar probe is that near the sun the heat is too much. We can fix this with angles solar panels or split panels using mirrors.
The Parker Solar Probe goals are to trace the energy that heats the sun’s corona and accelerates the solar wind. Also, to examine the magnetic fields at the sources of the solar wind. The Parker Solar Probe launched on August 12, 2018. Its mission is to fly by the sun from 2018 to 2025. On October 29, 2018, it became the artificial object that has been the closest to the sun.
Geoffrey Landis’s SF novel about a manned mission to Mars.
They held the lecture in Commonwealth West with 30 attendees.
Saturday, July 28th at 12:30 PM
A Reading by Brenda Clough
She read from a Neo-Victorian novel in progress. The assassination of Czar Alexander was a prominent plot point in this part of the novel. The viewpoints alternated between two characters. It was melodramatic and featured cliffhangers including a rail accident and a hippo stampede. She had planned to read from her Time Travel Trilogy Edge to Center due to be released in 2019 but her iPad wouldn’t cooperate.
The River Twice is the first novel of the Edge to Center Trilogy.
They held the reading in the Equinox room with 10 attendees.
Saturday, July 28th at 1 PM
Fiction Skills Seminar given by Frederic S. Durbin.
The essential writing skills are action, description, dialogue, and point of view. The seminar covered three skills by using prompts given randomly on slips of paper. He gave us five minutes to write and volunteers read their responses. Critiques followed. I will detail those prompts and my response to them.
My Action Prompt was soldiers in combat. I wrote: The sweat dripped through my eyebrow but I could not flinch. It stung my eye and I bit my lip. The enemy was near, A snap of a twig signaled my reaction. I threw off the leaf blanket and jumped into the clearing. I read this response.
My Description Prompt was a teenager at their first job. I wrote: Burnt chicken odor filled the air. I walked behind the counter into another world. The cook’s knife was flying as he sliced the meat and filled the tin. My manager pointed at the counter. The band on my hat was tight and the new tee-shirt was dry. A tray of green peppers lay on the counter. That was my job.
My Dialogue Prompt was an abandoned house. I wrote:
“Quiet, Jerry, I think the house is abandoned but I’m not sure.”
“Don’t be afraid. We can get in and out before anyone sees us.”
“This is a crazy idea.”
“Come on. I picked the lock. Let’s go in.”
It was fun seeing what I would come up with under time pressure. I’m glad I took part in this seminar.
They held the seminar in the Board Room with 12 attendees.
Saturday, July 28th at 2 PM
Private Enterprise in Space panel with Ian Randal Strock, Kenneth B. Chiacchia, Lawrence Connolly, Herb Kauderer, and Mark Painter
The panel was about business in space. What happens after Musk, Bezos, and Branson pave the way? We should sell business in space as something exciting. The issue is balancing short term profit versus long term benefit. There must be many draws to make it work in space. This was a panel of skeptics because big projects need big reasons and it’s not clear what those are yet.
They held the panel in the Solstice Room with 20 attendees.
Saturday, July 28th at 3 PM
The Guest of Honor Presentation with Catherynne M. Valente
She read from her recent novel, Space Opera. It was a chapter from the beginning of her novel with the point of view character named Decibel Jones is chosen to perform in an intergalactic singing contest. After the reading, she said that the pitch for the novel was to write a novel depicting Eurovision in space. She had fun with have the galaxy like Earth acts that most current people dislike such as Yoko Ono. Sounded like a fun book. It’s a nominee for the biggest SF awards for 2018.
They have held the Eurovision song contest every year since 1956. One act from each country enters the contest and votes cast determines the winner where the voters cannot vote for their own country’s entrant.
They held the presentation in Ballroom 1 with 70 attendees.
Saturday, July 28th at 5 PM
Integrating Character, Plot, and Worldbuilding lecture by David Levine.
He showed his process for developing characters, plot, and worldbuilding simultaneously and cohesively. His analogy of the interrelation of the three parts is a plant. A plant must have roots (setting), a stem (plot), and leaves (character). The writer’s superpower is revision. Make the story internally consistent. A story has seven points which the author must answer. A person in a situation with a problem tries to overcome it but continues to fail (through three to five-try/fail cycles) until the character succeeds (resolution) and is rewarded (proving it was worth attempting the problem). So, fill in those blanks to have a successful story.
The lecturer had a handout asking questions an author should ask when creating a story. The three main questions asked when thinking about the interrelationship between the three aspects of story writing.
World to Character. What do they want and why can’t they get it?
World to Plot. What changes can you make in the magic or the tech to make characters’ jobs easier or harder?
Character to Plot. How does the story end?
They held the panel in the Solstice Room with 20 attendees.
Recommendation – Conclusion
I enjoyed attending the Confluence SF Conference Pittsburgh 2018. My star of the con was Catherynne M. Valente. She was engaging with her reading of Space Opera and Q and A after her reading. I added her novel to my Goodreads to-read list. I attended two lectures, two panels, one fiction writing seminar, one author reading, and the guest of honor presentation. My other highlights were the fiction writing seminar and the Integrating Character, Plot, and Worldbuilding lecture. I also attended Confluence in 2016, 2017 and 2019 and plan to return in 2020. They will hold Confluence 2020 from July 24 to 26, 2020 with author guest of honor Martha Wells.
Links
Recap for the Confluence SF Conference on July 30 and July 31, 2016, at the Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport Hotel. I attended 15 panels and the U.S.S. Improvise improv sketch comedy routine.
They held the Confluence Conference from August 4 to August 6, 2017, at the Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport Hotel. I attended seven panels, one writing workshop, one author reading, and the guests of honor presentation.