Throw a bunch of speculative fiction authors and editors on a panel and ask them to define a hero and you’re likely to get a lot of different answers. Add Ed Greenwood into the mix and you’re almost guaranteed to have something different! But with a few vocal exceptions, on this panel we actually had a lot of similar thoughts about the construction, development and appeal of the hero, and the result was an interesting journey through heroism in the world of speculative fiction. I served on my final panel for Ad Astra 2011 with David Clink, Gabrielle Harbowy, Tamora Pierce and, of course, the irrepressible Mr. Greenwood. (Sorry about the audio in this one–there was a lot of ambient noise outside and inside the room which wasn’t easy to filter out in post production.)

I think the panel title says it all, and it’s something which isn’t said enough. Matt Moore, Scott Edelman, Adrienne Kress, Mandy Slater, the inimitable Howard Tayler and I worked through various definitions and concepts of professionalism in the speculative fiction industry, trading war stories about those who exhibited (and didn’t) said quality. It was a fun panel, and we lived up to the title by not straying too far away from the topic at hand!

Okay, this might not sound like the most fascinating topic, but if you think about how much attention writers and readers pay to things like backstory, character description and worldbuilding, you’ll realize the relevance of what we talked about on this panel. Matthew Johnson, Claude Lalumiere, Marc Mackay, Sandra Kasturi and I wrestled for nearly an hour with what works (and doesn’t) in presenting exposition in written work, and I think the result was an interesting and sometimes amusing panel.

My first panel at the 2011 version of Ad Astra, and an interesting one about how travel informs writing, even if you’re traveling virtually rather than actually. I was joined by Tony Pi, Jana Paniccia, and (crashing the panel, according to him) Claude Lalumiere, all of whom seem to have traveled a lot more than me!