My 2014 Salt Lake Comic-Con FanX Schedule

I have my tentative FanX schedule. Things are subject to be added or subtracted, but this is, for the most part, the schedule I'll be sticking to. For the rest of the time at the convention, I'll be at my booth signing books or haunting the Big Shiny Robot! booth.

As far as I know, "A Children's Illustrated History of Presidential Assassination" will be available at the con.

I'm not on as many writing panels as Star Wars panels this year, but there are still a couple in there. Star Wars fans coming to the convention should be excited, though.

Hit the Salt Lake City Comic-Con website for tickets.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

1:00 pm: Why Who Framed Roger Rabbit is One of the Greatest Noir Films Ever Made
2:00 pm: The History of Robin and Why Batman’s Sidekick is Great (M)
5:00 pm: The Boba Fetts – Daniel Logan and Jeremy Bulloch (M)
6:00 pm: The Corporate Takeover of Geekdom: Is Disney’s Owning Marvel and Lucasfilm a Boon or Bane to our Favorite Franchises?

Friday, April 18, 2014

11:00 am: The Writers of Star Wars (M) (Michael A. Stackpole, Dave Wolverton, Kevin J. Anderson.)
3:00 pm: Star Wars Rebels: A Look at the Upcoming Disney XD Series (M)
4:00 pm: Indiana Jones: A Look at the Character Young & Old (M)
8:00 pm: What We Know and What We Think We Know About Star Wars Episode VII (M)

Saturday, April 19, 2014

10:00 am: Downton Abby: How a Stuffy British Drama Became One of TV’s Most Addictive Shows (M)
1:00 pm: Writing Children’s Books
2:00 pm: Star Trek v. Star Wars: Living in a Post-JJ Abrams World, Part Deux (M)
4:00 pm: Spotlight on Michael A. Stackpole (M)
5:00 pm: Full of Sith Podcast
8:00 pm: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (M)

Anatomy of an Opening: The End of the Affair

Instead of breaking down a scene from a movie, this time we'll break down the opening of a book. (Previously, I've done scenes from City Lights, Citizen Kane, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I've also broken down the opening to Starship Troopers.)

Graham Greene's The End of the Affair is absolutely one of my favorite books. The writing is lyrical and story heart-wrenching and beautiful. Greene's style of writing is such that he always has me gripped, whether it's the beginning of the book or the end. And he shows you so much about the character in his opening lines.

So, here are the first two paragraphs from the book:
A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which, to look ahead. I say 'one chooses' with the inaccurate pride of a professional writer who - when he has been seriously noted at all - has been praised for his technical ability, but d…

The Symbiotic Relationship Between Art and Politics

Art is inherently political.

Let's just get that out of the way. We all have things we want to say (or things we want to not say) in our personal lives that shape the art we make. And artists, more often than not, are trying to say something with their art, even if their goal is to not say something.

There is no doubt that this has been a turbulent week in the country I live in. There are many of us that are confused and shocked and afraid of what might be to come in the future. That's understandable. As artists and writers, I feel like we're typically more empathetic than the general population. It's easy to think about what it's like to be in someone else's shoes because we spend so much of our creative time almost literally in someone else's shoes. And we need to pass that understanding on to our readers or viewers or however else they're consuming this art.

I've seen this troubling idea, though, that art needs to be purely for escape and that p…

Writing is Listening

In many social situations, I'm a talker. I like to think of myself as a raconteur, but it's more just like I don't know how to shut up. At least in the right situation. I've done a lot and know just a little bit about so many different things, it's easy for me to find something to talk about with people. When I can come out of my social anxiety shell, I actually like talking to people. But there are times when I can't really talk, I don't have the energy, emotional or physical, to do it. Instead, I just drink in the surroundings.

I like to listen. I like to observe.

It's something we writers have to do. We have to take in all the input we can. And sometimes that means shutting the hell up and just listening. Listen to your friends tell their stories. Listen to how they talk about other people and describe them. Listen to the words they use. Listen to the emotion in people's voices as they're talking. Watch how they talk. What sorts of things th…

The stories of Bryan Young

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