Conflux 2015
Conflux, the science fiction convention held in Canberra, always has an interesting program. This year is no different.
Unfortunately, for us, it also usually coincides with the culmination of a large project for me, and in the busiest work period of the year for Sherylyn.
This year my project finishes on 30 September, two days before the Conflux weekend, which is the 2-5 of October. And then, the government of Victorian turned Friday the 2nd into a public holiday.*
Maybe we could manage it this year. Or even just one day. Particularly the Saturday, which has such neat things as:
Panel: SF and the Speed of Light
It’s the elephant in the room. We don’t know how to do it, but it’s essential technology for just about any story set in space. This panel looks at how sci fi handles FTL tech: the good, the bad and the downright ridiculous.
We’ve had a range of responses to the faster-than-light travel in Linesman. Everything from “the FTL travel is believable” to “I just can’t buy the lines as FTL”. I know, myself, if I don’t believe the the way FTL works, it does spoil a story for me.
Guest presentation: “Tax stuff for authors” by Robert Douglass
It’s a strange thing to get excited about, but it’s difficult to get tax information specific to authors. I don’t know what Robert plans to talk about but I think this is a vital topic for any author.
(And Robert, if you’re ever doing the same session in Melbourne, please drop us a line, because we’d love to come.)
In the end we decided not to go
It came down to cost versus time, and because we’d left it so late that one day at Conflux was going to cost us over a thousand dollars. Just for a day.
In the end we decided not to go.
If anyone does go and wants to tell us about it, we’d love to hear about it. (If you’re interested, we’ll even offer a guest post on our blog.)
* The public holiday is grand final eve, which is the day before the football final (big news here in Australia, but especially in the southern states of Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia). If you think it strange, don’t forget, we’re also the state that gives a public holiday for a horse race. If you think that strange, then you should really visit Melbourne during grand final week and stay on for the Spring racing carnival. It’s magic.