sansuki wrote:Now this is fascinating. I was actually considering offering to *run* a panel dealing with the history of alternate history or something similar if I commit to Dragoncon, or be a panelist if panelists are needed. If there is history where they didn't draw much, well, I'd probably still make the offer but I will ratchet expectations down markedly. It might be for the best if that fission does happen; it's never any fun for anyone when one track has two wildly tonally different things under its roof, such as when the Brit Track was 50% Whose Line Is It Anyway.
If you do, depending on the kind of response you get, you might actually consider proposing it under the umbrella of Sci-Fi Lit anyway? I think the old dogs that Linaweaver and Resnick appealed to are mostly at the Hyatt now anyway (if you're aiming to gather those folks), but the Writing/Sci-Fi tracks are always poaching steampunk as a topic, and AltHistory/Steampunk is always poaching Fantasy/Sci-Fi topics. Personally, I think Steampunk and AltHistory -do- belong together, but I'm quite likely a minority view on that.
sansuki wrote:I actually ended up running a panel on accident and unintentionally back in... god, 2005 or so. Wasn't very hard, even though I was a last second fill-in for another fan who had a medical issue and the track director I'd been talking to earlier collared me and threw me behind the microphone. Compared to that, actually volunteering for one should be much more fun!
No... I think it should be remarkably easy to run a panel - at least most of the ones I've been in, particularly if you're prepared.
sansuki wrote:I personally tend to get... bored... by the entire Victorian era; my historical interests start tailing off around Napoleon and pick back up in WW1. The British Empire era just bores me to tears.
As well it should! That's why it's so ripe for "alternating". It needs fixing. Or magic. Or aether-powered airships. Or furries. Or corsets on the outside.
sansuki wrote:*waves cane around, clutches her copy of the paper pocket grid*
Hah! I was lucky I hadn't thrown mine away. I spent a whole session marking it all up to the best of my memory. But luckier you!