I enjoy going to Capclave, hosted by the Washington Science Fiction Association (WSFA), as it tends to be more literary-inclined and about writers and readers. I was busy all day as I was on four panels. *gasp* What?! No, really…I had a blast.

My first panel was about “How We Imagine the Future and What It Says About Us” about scifi’s visionaries since its inception (such as Verne and Wells) and others such as Gernsback, Heinlein and Asimov. I take a historian’s long view on things, such as their writing being a reflection of the concerns, morals and challenges of their times. We talked about technology and governments, dystopic futures and utopias. It was a great panel. My next was about “Overcoming Assumptions” and how we as writers deal with challenges related to gender, LGBTQ identity, disability and race.

Kenesha Williams and Sherin Nicole of Geek Girl Riot joined the DWASF crew for “Afrofuturism and Black Speculative Fiction.” We were kind of goofing off in this photo. I was doing my poses like Jet magazine*…

We then had a DWASF Meet and Greet. Lots of fun and good conversations. We showed Chad’s films and had book giveaways. I had to dip out for a moment to go to my last panel of the day about “Writing for Anthologies.” We had a nice discussion with the audience with tips for submitting to and writing for anthologies. Afterwards, I ran back for the rest of our meet and greet. I really enjoy talking to the public. I mean, scifi and speculative fiction…what’s not to like?

Oh and if, you didn’t get my Jet magazine reference, look no further than this clip from Eddie Murphy’s “Boomerang” around 0:42.