My Au Contraire Schedule

Next weekend July 12-14 I'm heading to Wellington for this year's national con, Au Contraire.

My participation includes:

• "Regeneration" Book Launch, Friday 6pm, L-Space
• Non-normative Bodies in Science Fiction, Saturday 10am, L-Space, with Anna Caro
       A discussion on how speculative fiction depicts disabled bodies, fat bodies, gender-diverse
       bodies and other real world deviations from the assumed default.
• Trends in Short SFF/H, Sunday 10am, L-Space, with Marie Hodgkinson and Dan Rabarts
       Short fiction is a rapidly changing market. Long gone are the days when print  
       anthologies and magazines were the only place to get your stories published. Join some of
       the heavyweights of New Zealand's short fiction writing market to learn how the rise of the
       ezine, podcast, and social media have changed the short fiction landscape, and how you can
       tap into the power of new media streams to get your work out there.
• SpecFicNZ Meet Up 4pm, followed by AGM 5pm, The Throne Room

I have also volunteered myself as "harassment liaison officer" for the weekend. This means I'm "Eyes Open" as a #SFFragette. I've adopted John Scalzi's anti-harassment con pledge - any con I attend must have a clear and well represented sexual harassment policy. Having seen the growing conversation around con harassment the last few weeks, I knew it was time to stand up and put words into action.

If you are attending and want to report harassment, anonymously or officially, I'm your first point of call. You can come to me in person (I'll have a security badge and I'll wear my smiley face rainbow badge too), Twitter me via @AJFitzwater or the official con hashtag #AC2013, email me via pickledfitz@gmail.com, or contact me via one of the other concom.

And dudes - Wheaton's First Law applies: Don't Be a Dick.