They have me in for a really well-stacked set of my current central topic panels for DisCon III, this year’s D.C. 79th Worldcon next month in December, 15-19. I love just seeing myself on these program items, and with these other names. These are mine:

1 – Balancing Story and Scientific Authenticity
Many readers love real science, or just the appearance of real science, in their science fiction. It is no small challenge to create compelling literature that also triggers a scientific sense of wonder. Panelists discuss how to do it right.

• John Ashmead, Seanan McGuire, Derek Kunsken, Eva L. Elasigue, Lezli Robyn, Maquel A. Jacob, Catherine Asaro

2 – The Morphology of Fantasy Creatures
Do elves and pixies have better hearing because their ears are pointed, and if so, why do they need it? Big Bird is eight feet tall, has thumbs, and forward-facing eyes. Does that make him an apex pursuit predator? (No, he’s a charismatic herbivorous megafauna.) And don’t get us started on Cookie Monster…

• DW “Lemur” Rowlands, Fonda Lee, Rodrigo Juri, Eva L. Elasigue, Benjamin C. Kinney

3 – The Phylogenetic Tree of Space Opera
Cowboy Bebop and Dune are back on screens but it’s not 1965, 1984, or 1998. Is it that everything old is new again, or is space opera just a genre that keeps on giving? If E.E. “Doc” Smith’s The Skylark of Space is the root of the tree and Asimov’s Foundation series is the trunk, where do the branches lead us?

• John Scalzi, Walter Jon Williams, Leonardo Espinoza Benavides, Arkady, Catherynne Valente, Eva L. Elasigue