{"id":39109,"date":"2026-06-18T14:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T18:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/?p=39109"},"modified":"2026-06-18T14:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T18:18:14","slug":"2026-readercon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2026\/06\/18\/2026-readercon\/","title":{"rendered":"What I&#8217;ll be up to during the 2026 Readercon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/readercon.org\">Readercon 35<\/a> kicks off three weeks from today in Burlington, Massachusetts, and if you&#8217;ll be there, too, here&#8217;s where you&#8217;ll be able to find me (when I&#8217;m not off hunting down donuts or recording episodes of <a href=\"http:\/\/eatingthefantastic.com\">Eating the Fantastic<\/a>, that is) &#8212;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Readercon35.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Readercon35-300x97.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"97\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-39113\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Readercon35-300x97.png 300w, https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Readercon35-1024x332.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Readercon35-768x249.png 768w, https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Readercon35-1536x498.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Readercon35.png 1852w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Writing Horror in Horrifying Times<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Thursday, July 9, 8:00 p.m., Salon A-B<\/em><br \/>\nFrom its opening in 1897 to its closing in 1962, the Th\u00e9\u00e2tre du Grand-Guignol in Paris specialized in horror shows. In an interview conducted after its closure, its last director explained, &#8216;We could never compete with Buchenwald. Before the war, everyone believed that what happened on stage was purely imaginary; now we know that these things&#8211;and worse&#8211;are possible.&#8221; How does one produce meaningful horror fiction when the tools feel blunted by reality? What elements of horror have retained their effectiveness in the face of daily headlines?<br \/>\n<em>with F. Brett Cox, Gillian Daniels, Ian Muneshwar, Mike Allen, and Terence Taylor<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Finding Your Writing Posse<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Friday, July 10, 11:00 a.m., Salon C-D<\/em><br \/>\nFrom your local critique group that meets in a coffee shop to national (and international) organizations like SFWA and RWA, there are writing peer communities and professional organizations on many scales offering many things to prospective members. But how do you find the right one(s) for you? What if you write in multiple genres or have just switched genres? This panel will discuss how to discover what&#8217;s available and find your best fit.<br \/>\n<em>with A. T. Greenblatt, Bethany Powell, E. C. Ambrose, and Rachel Gutin<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Meet the Pros(e) Party<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Friday, July 10, 10:15 p.m., Salon E<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Kaffeeklatsch<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Saturday, July 11, 3:00 p.m., Suite 830<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Reading<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Saturday, July 19, 6:00 p.m., Envision\/Enliven<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>If you&#8217;re there, please track me down so we can catch up!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Readercon 35 kicks off three weeks from today in Burlington, Massachusetts, and if you&#8217;ll be there, too, here&#8217;s where you&#8217;ll be able to find me (when I&#8217;m not off hunting down donuts or recording episodes of Eating the Fantastic, that is) &#8212; Writing Horror in Horrifying Times Thursday, July 9, 8:00 p.m., Salon A-B From [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-39109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-readercon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39109"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39118,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39109\/revisions\/39118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}