“One Question: Your Ideal Antagonist” at CONfusion 2013 (pt II of II)

Mary Robinette Kowal – Hugo Award-winning author of Shades of Milk and Honey, Glamour in Glass, Without a Summer, and Valor and Vanity – returns to the Big Chair at the Roundtable to workshop a tale of supernatural murder.

If you’re gonna shake the pillars of literary heaven, then you’ll definitely want Sam Sykes – author of the “Aeon’s Gate” series…

Join Dave Robison and Ben Delano as they explore the insights and experience offered by Saladin Ahmed, Peter V. Brett, Myke Cole, Carrie Harris, Jim C. Hines, and Kat Howard regarding this one simple question:

What is your ideal antagonist?

Sam Sykes – author of the Aeon’s Gate series and the newly released “The City Stained Red” – is a distinctive…

Ben Delano, The Roundtable’s Wandering Alchemist, strolled the halls of WorldCon asking some truly remarkable individuals this question: Describe your ideal protagonist. We know what you’re thinking (’cause it’s the same thing we were thinking), “These are all going to be the same answer.” Oh no, dear friends… the diversity of response that we got affirms the depth of these writer’s perceptions within their craft. Literary Gold abounds… get yours!

Mary Robinette Kowal – renowned and lauded puppeteer, author of the exquisite “Shades of Milk and Honey”, “Glamour in Glass”, and “Without a Summer”, co-host of the “Writing Excuses” podcast, and general purveyor of wonders – combines two qualities that make her an astonishing artist: an incisive and informed perception blended with a playful spontaneity. The result is a graceful, surprising, and often lush and luxurious storytelling experience.

Brion and I were grateful for the opportunity to share 20(ish) minutes of rare conversation as Mary shares her thoughts and insights regarding the “work” of the writing craft, genre issues and what she “really wants to write”, how she cultivates her writerly mojo, and more!