MarsCon 2025 - Virginia Beach: Full Schedule

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12:00am EST

Smash or Pass: Space Opera Characters

Sunday January 19, 2025 12:00am - 2:00am EST

What are your favorite space operas? Which characters from this subgenre would you smash in a hot second, and which ones would you pass on? And most importantly, why? Join our panelists for this NSFW panel. Not recommended for children 14 and under without parent attendance.

Speakers

H.Y. Gregor

Author

H.Y. Gregor was born in Portland, Oregon, but will always call the mountains of Colorado home. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science but put it down often enough to narrowly avoid law school. Now she spends her free time weaving fantasy tales and battling plot gremlins... Read More →

J.E. Pittman

Author, Dealer

J.E. Pittman dabbles in many speculative worlds. He blurs the borders between genre and crafts salient lies to tell a measure of truth. His work has been described as: capriciously chimeric, dreamlike, and a vivid enigma with indelible images stamped on your brain. He’s currently... Read More →

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 →

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 12:00am - 2:00am EST
Salon L

Literature, NSFW

8:30am EST

Quiet Meditation and Contemplation

Sunday January 19, 2025 8:30am - 9:30am EST

Salon L

Speakers

Jen Cooper

2025 Conchair, Mars Con Inc (Virginia)

Sunday January 19, 2025 8:30am - 9:30am EST
Salon L

10:00am EST

So, You Wanna Host a Podcast...

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

Salon L

You have a great idea for a podcast, but how do you get one recorded? How do you get it out there? How do you get more than just your mom to listen to it? Come talk with these veteran podcasters and find out.

Speakers

Mikey Mason

Featured Musical Guest

Mikey Mason spent more than a decade as a full-time standup comedian. He headlined on all four coasts, performed multiple times each on NBC, at the legendary House of Blues, and the Hard Rock Casino. He even headlined the Atlantis Resort and Casino in the Bahamas. But it wasn’t... Read More →

H.Y. Gregor

Author

Ben Davis

Scientist, ECPI University

Ben Davis has a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics and an M.S. in Nuclear Astrophysics from the University of Notre Dame. He taught at the college level for several years on a number of technical subjects ranging from computer programming and math to, of course, astronomy and physics. In the... Read More →

John Holmes

Publisher

J.F. Holmes is a retired Army Senior Noncommissioned Officer, having served for 22 years in both the Regular Army and Army National Guard. During that time, he served as everything from an artillery section leader to a member of a Division level planning staff, with tours in Cuba... Read More →

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

Fandom, Being a Fan

11:00am EST

Unblocking Writer's Block

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

Salon L

How do you write when the words just aren’t wordin’? See what these authors do to re-inspire the muse once they stop screaming at their empty pages.

Speakers

Dennis Myers

Author

Born and raised in central Minnesota, Dennis M. Myers developed a serious reading habit early in life due to the influence of his grandmother. In late high school he read one particularly "awful" book and, with all that teenage hubris, decided that he could do better. After spending... Read More →

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 →

J.E. Pittman

Author, Dealer

J.F. Posthumus

Author

Wife and a mother of five, J.F. Posthumus is an IT Tech with over a decade of experience. When she isn’t arguing with computers and their inherent gremlins, or being mom to the four younger monsters (the eldest was a police officer, lost to us all in June of 2023), she’s crafting... Read More →

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

Literature, Writing Techniques

12:00pm EST

Cannon Publishing Roundtable

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

Salon L

Join the senior staff at Cannon Publishing and their principal authors as they discuss their new and upcoming projects.

Speakers

John Holmes

Publisher

Daniel Kemp

Author

Finishing at Ole Miss in 1998, Dan spent the next decade in infantry assignments in South Korea and the 101st Airborne. That lasted as long as his knees and his back held out. A master's in military history (Norwich University '12) and a somewhat turbulent personal life after the... Read More →

Michael Morton

Author, USSF

Michael Morton is a retired USAF space operations officer and wishes the Space Force happened earlier. Still, he gets to work for them as a civilian, so life isn't all bad. He writes award-winning military sci-fi and fantasy and lives in Colorado Springs with his family. When he's... Read More →

H.Y. Gregor

Author

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

Literature, What to Read

1:00pm EST

"Them's Fightin' Words!" Writing Combat Scenes in Speculative Fiction

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

Salon L

Many science fiction works include some sort of combat as an integral part of the story. If you've been in the military, how do you write combat scenes that don't overwhelm the reader and stay authentic? If you haven't personally seen combat, how do you write combat scenes that are realistic? Come work with these veteran writers of combat scenes. Bring your current work and get some tips and pointers.

Speakers

Wayland Smith

Author, Gamer, Fandom

Wayland Smith is the pen name for a native Texan who has lived in Massachusetts, New York, Washington DC, and presently makes his home in Virginia. His rather unlikely list of jobs includes private investigator, comic book shop owner, ring crew for a circus (then he ran away from... Read More →

Jacob Holo

Author

Jacob Holo has been a recreational geek since childhood, when he discovered Star Wars and Star Trek, and a professional geek since college, when he graduated from Youngstown State University with a degree in Electrical and Controls Engineering. He started writing when his parents... Read More →

Chris Kennedy Publishing

Dealer, Chris Kennedy Publishing

Welcome to Chris Kennedy Publishing, where the focus is on fun, message-free science fiction and fantasy!

Jason Cordova

Author

Bestselling author Jason Cordova has had his novels published in multiple languages around the world. He was both a John W. Campbell Award and Dragon Award finalist (though not in the same year). Author of the Black Tide Rising novel Mountain of Fire, and co-author of Monster Hunter... Read More →

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

Workshops

2:00pm EST

The Business of Writing

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

Salon L

Come learn about the nuts of bolts of getting your writing to produce income. How do you find a publisher? Is it worth is to try and publish your own work? How difficult is it navigate services such as Amazon for distribution? Should you even try?

Speakers

Claire Merrick

Author

Tired of writing about bad news as a producer at a news station, Claire Merrick began using her free time to write urban fantasy stories. She attended FantaSci in Durham, hoping to learn from authors about the business side of publishing. One of the guests, Kevin Ikenberry, asked... Read More →

H.Y. Gregor

Author

John Holmes

Publisher

Kim Iverson Headlee

Author

Kim Iverson Headlee lives on a farm in the mountains of southwestern Virginia with her family, cats, fish, goats, Great Pyrenees goat guards, someone else's cattle, half a million honey bees, and assorted wildlife. People and creatures come and go, but the cave and the 250-year-old... Read More →

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

Literature, Writing Techniques