MarsCon 2025 - Virginia Beach: Full Schedule

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10:00am EST

Genre Blending

Sunday January 19, 2025 10:00am - 11:00am EST

Many authors, when asked to define the genre of their writing, often hemming and hawing between two or more genres. "It's like urban fantasy, but there are also elements of mystery and thriller." Can we blend together more than one genre? Should we? Are their genres that should not be combined? Which combos are you most interested in reading? Join our panelists as they discuss cool things about writing in multiple genres at the very same time.

Speakers

Alyssa Hazel

Featured Horror Guest

Alyssa Hazel is a Weird Fiction and Horror writer who enjoys exploring the weird, horrible and wonderful through her work. Her pieces have found homes in Bluestem, the Red Coyote, and the Dark River Review. While her specialty is anthologies (she has four) she’s rather proud of... Read More →

Sam Robb

Author

Sam Robb is a Pittsburgh native, a former US Navy officer, and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University. Over the course of his life, he has acquired a wife, three daughters, several quadrupeds, and a penchant for walking down back alleys and taking pictures of graffiti. When he's... Read More →

Scott Sykes

Author

S.M. Sykes never saw himself as a writer, facing struggles with English classes in school. Even his wife, who doubles as his editor, can attest to occasional challenges with organizing his thoughts. However, despite these obstacles, he discovered a passion for storytelling that he... Read More →

Kacey Ezell

Featured Space Opera Guest

Kacey Ezell writes emotionally charged adventure fantasy and science fiction. She is a two-time Dragon Award Finalist for Best Alternate History and won the 2018 Year's Best Military and Adventure Science Fiction Readers' Choice Award. She has written multiple bestselling novels published... Read More →

Sunday January 19, 2025 10:00am - 11:00am EST
Main Programming Room

Literature, Writing Techniques

11:00am EST

Rhiannon's Lark Concert C

Sunday January 19, 2025 11:00am - 12:00pm EST

Main Programming Room

Speakers

Rhiannon's Lark

Musician Guest of Honor

Have you ever wanted to hear a Disney princess singing about the things you love…board games, ninjas, and krakens? Rhiannon’s Lark is happy to make your wish come true. Alyssa Yeager is an accolade-winning musician including the Pegasus award for “Best Performer” and Guest... Read More →

Sunday January 19, 2025 11:00am - 12:00pm EST
Main Programming Room

Events & Demos, Concerts

12:00pm EST

Dueling Writers

Sunday January 19, 2025 12:00pm - 1:00pm EST

Main Programming Room

Come watch as our author guests of honor and author featured guests, along with some wonderful author friends, play a writing game. In two teams, authors are given prompts from the audience and a time limit. They write to the prompt before passing off the story to a teammate, who must continue the story and add details based on other prompts from the audience. The team that creates the best story from the prompts gets bragging rights and a cheesy trophy to pass between them.

Moderator

Gray Rinehart

Literary Guest

Gray Rinehart is a writer, an editor, a singer/songwriter, and a retired Air Force officer. He is the only person to have commanded a USAF satellite tracking station, written speeches for Presidential appointees, devised a poetic form, and had music on The Dr. Demento Show. He is... Read More →

Speakers

David Shadoin

Author

David "Shady" Shadoin is a trouble-making, corn-fed Nebraska boy the United States Air Force managed to turn into a somewhat decent pilot of whirly birds. An avid reader from a young age, he has always found inspiration listening to rock music while reading Fantasy and Sci Fi novels... Read More →

Nicole Glover

Author

Nicole Glover is the author of the historical fantasy series, Murder and Magic, which begins with The Conductors. When she's not writing, she's working as a UX researcher where her knowledge about murder and other mysteries is surprisingly useful.

Brad Goodman

Scientist

Brad has been a guest at local science fiction conventions for more than thirty years. Now retired, he worked for NASA Langley Research Center, at their Visitor Center, and in support of traveling exhibits. Later he worked for the Science Museum of Virginia. These assignments came... Read More →

Cassandra Clarke

Author Co- Guest of Honor

Cassandra Rose Clarke’s novels have been finalists for the Philip K. Dick Award, the Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award, and YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults. Her poetry has placed second in the Rhysling Awards, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and appeared in... Read More →

Adam Oyebanji

Featured Science Fiction Guest

I was born in Coatbridge, in the West of Scotland, more years ago than I care to remember. Though, now I come to think about it, who actually remembers being born? I moved east to Edinburgh, by way of Birmingham, London, Lagos, Nigeria, Chicago, Pittsburgh and New York: a necessary... Read More →

Alyssa Hazel

Featured Horror Guest

Sunday January 19, 2025 12:00pm - 1:00pm EST
Main Programming Room

Events & Demos

1:00pm EST

The Blibbering Humdinger Concert B

Sunday January 19, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm EST

Main Programming Room

Speakers

The Blibbering Humdingers

Featured Musical Guest

We are Scott, Kirsten, Aiden, Liam, and Chuck! We create acoustic nerdrock for –Gamers, geeks, and galactic guardians, browncoats, centaurs, and mandalorians;Hobbits, elves, and wizard gangsters; avengers, defenders, and black-belt hamsters;Elder gods, small gods, fans of Tripod... Read More →

Sunday January 19, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm EST
Main Programming Room

Events & Demos, Concerts

2:00pm EST

Galactic Empires & Epic Interstellar Legends

Sunday January 19, 2025 2:00pm - 3:00pm EST

Main Programming Room

Join our Guests of Honor as they discuss what makes empires, especially galatic ones, and interstellar legends. Which empires and legends do we want to know more about? Which ones have been overdone? It's the MarsCon theme this year, but what does it mean?

Moderator

David Shadoin

Author

Speakers

David Hensley

Author

David is an East Coast Hepaw born and raised in southwest Colorado. The town of Dolores, to be specific. He's been a lot of places and done a lot of things since then, including cowboying in the Utah desert and twenty years as an aviation structural mechanic for the United States... Read More →

Cassandra Clarke

Author Co- Guest of Honor

Christopher Ruocchio

Author Co- Guest of Honor

Christopher Ruocchio is the internationally award-winning author of the Sun Eater, a series blending elements of both science fiction and fantasy, as well as more than twenty works of short fiction. Born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, Christopher received a degree in English... Read More →

Jake Clark

Artist Guest of Honor

Jake Clark makes badass art for badass stories. Full of grit and storytelling, his work is geared to instantly capture attention. Using 3-d modeling software combined with digital painting, his fully custom creations play with perspective and scale in a way few other covers in the... Read More →

Sunday January 19, 2025 2:00pm - 3:00pm EST
Main Programming Room

Fandom, It's in the Details

3:00pm EST

Closing Ceremonies

Sunday January 19, 2025 3:00pm - 4:00pm EST

Main Programming Room

Speakers

Teresa Bhaile

Guest Liaison and Programming Director, Mars Con Inc (Virginia)

Amy Cardona

Swag and Charity Auction, Treasurer, Mars Con Inc (Virginia)

Sunday January 19, 2025 3:00pm - 4:00pm EST
Main Programming Room

Events & Demos