Nebula Awards Weekend 2011

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Previews

Published on Wednesday, 18 May 2011 05:00

Written by FFestivalTraveler Staff

The Nebula Awards Weekend are being held May 19 - May 22, 2011 at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C.

This year the Toastmaster is Michael Swanwick, a prolific science fiction and fantasy writer who has been awarded the Nebula Award, the Hugo Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Award and the World Fantasy Award, all in one lifetime.

Events during this weekend include:

• Workshops
• Program
• Tours
• SFWA Business Meeting
• Mass Autographing Session
• Friday Evening Reception to Honor the Nominees
• Nebula Awards Banquet and Presentations

The Workshops are:

Warfare for Writers – The basics for writing characters in battle, conducted by Timons Esaias. This workshop tackles three elements of this very vast subject:

• A Catechism for the Semi-Clueless – the fundamentals of military science:
  • What is War?
  • Why are there units?
  • Why officers?
  • What are strategy, tactics, logistics and camp-followers?

Other basic definitions will be addressed, and most importantly, for each element the question will be raised: "What Does This Mean for My Writing?"

• Fortifications 101 – a slide show discussing defenses through history. Hosts name the major parts of defenses, with the focus on the nine essential elements that tend to be missing when one visits castles, forts and bastions today.
• Getting Combat on the Page – a series of writing exercises to put theory into practice. The "battle" will be broken down into modular parts. Attendees learn to consider what to show the reader, and what to spare them. Remember also that battle is the writer‛s opportunity to stress one‛s fictional characters in a nicely extreme environment.

Cooking Up a Book Launch: Recipe, Essentials and Icing, conducted by Janice Shoults, EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing

• Creating Your Recipe
  • Why have a plan
  • What are your goals?
  • What is your plan?
• The Essentials
  • Back to the 5 w’s
  • Promotions plans
• The Icing
  • Brainstorming creative ideas around making a book launch unique to your book
  • Joint venturing
  • Online launch parties

Bonus Workshop: Cooking in a Test Kitchen – the chance for each participant to practice. Each group will be given the photo of a book cover, and a case study with details, and have an opportunity to work through the steps of creating a book launch and then presenting it back to the group.

TV Without Terror – Approaching a television interview without fear. Conducted by Mike Zipser and Tom Schaad of Fast Forward, a monthly half-hour cable TV show about the genres of SF, Fantasy & Horror, at the Arlington Independent Media studio.

This on-location practical workshop will give a taste of how television studios work, and what to expect.

In studio: See the workings of a small studio (and you would be surprised how small many studios really are).

Live experience: participants will take part in a mock interview and offer critiques of the mock interviews with peers. All participants will receive a DVD copy of the interview.

Practical tips related to little details that can make or break an interview:

• What to wear
• Makeup
• Interview length
• Do you look at the camera?
• Other issues
• Practical checklist

Improving Your Website – Evaluating and planning websites, conducted by Gayle Surrette and Paul Haggerty of SFRevu/Amperzen Design Studio
"Evaluating current sites" is the main focus of this workshop and will revolve around evaluating current author websites. This section also focuses on workshop attendee websites. Participates should provide a link to their current site so that the site can be easily accessed during the workshop.

Purpose of websites – Websites are an easy way to connect authors and fans, but do you need one? This section focuses on the importance and purpose of websites:
Is a website necessary for you?

• What should be included on your website?
• What should not be included on your website?
• Pro/Con of having a blog be your main website?
• Do you need to allow comments and reply?

There should also be time for a section related to Website Fundamentals to discuss the nuts and bolts of websites, if needed. There are numerous items that need to be included in website design plans. These are some of the main items the workshop will discuss:

• DNS & hosting
• Software
• Design
• Content
• HTML
• How often do you need to update?

Reading Aloud 201 – A Critique Workshop including Techniques of Voice Acting, conducted by Mary Robinette Kowal
(Attending the Saturday morning program item “Reading Aloud 101” on Saturday 11:00 a.m. is a pre-requisite to attending this workshop; different material will be covered in these two items)

People may audit this workshop, but auditors cannot ask questions or speak (people who wish to audit Reading Aloud 201 need to attend the program item Reading Aloud 101).

Other events include:

Visits to:

• National Museum of the American Indian
• Library of Congress
• Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum Tour
• Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum

Presentations include:

• Using Science in Science Fiction: A Presentation and Conversation
• Writers Incorporating
• Putting Your Backlist to Work
• Collecting Over a Writer’s Lifetime to Supplement Retirement Income
• Hints 4 Graceful & Subtle Self Promotion

Mass Book Signing – These authors will be present for autographs:

• John Joseph Adams
• Catherine Asaro
• Paolo Bacigalupi
• Christopher Barzak
• J. Kathleen Cheney
• Chris Claremont
• Brenda W. Clough
• Aliette de Bodard
• Scott Edelman
• Timons Esaias
• Cynthia Felice
• Andrew Fox
• Laura Anne Gilman
• Anne Groell
• Joe Haldeman
• Peter Heck
• M.K. (Mary) Hobson
• Vylar Kaftan
• David Keck
• John Kessel
• Alethea Kontis
• Mary Robinette Kowal
• Geoffrey A. Landis
• Lee Martindale
• James Morrow
• John Scalzi
• Lawrence Schoen
• Stanley Schmidt
• Bud Sparhawk
• Allen Steele
• Eric James Stone
• Michael J. Sullivan
• Michael Swanwick
• Darrell Schweitzer
• Judith Tarr
• Brandie Tarvin
• Mary Turzillo
• Michael Whelan
• Connie Willis

The Nebula Awards Banquet will be held Saturday evening, May 21, 2011 in the International Ballroom.

In addition to the Nebula Award nominees, announcement will be made for the 2011 Grand Master. The title Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master is bestowed upon a living author for a lifetime’s achievement in science fiction and/or fantasy.

James Tiptree Jr. Bake Sale

The Tiptree Award honors works of speculative fiction that "explore and expand gender." This year‛s award winner will be announced.

James Tiptree, Jr./Alice B. Sheldon will receive SFWA’s Solstice Award, posthumously, at this year’s Nebula Awards Weekend. To further highlight her work, a Tiptree Bake Sale will be held during the weekend.

For more information go to www.sfwa.org/nebula-weekend.

Nebula Awards Weekend
May 19 - May 22, 2011

Washington Hilton
1919 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C.
202-483-3000