Marie Parks
Speaker
Marie Parks (she/her) is an award-winning LGBTQIA+ fantasy author and founder of Sandia Starforgers writing retreats for speculative <span class="il">fiction</span> writers. She coauthored The Grigori Cycle with Jes Honard, including Unrelenting, which won the New Mexico Book Awards for best LGBTQ book and was a finalist in the categories of <span class="il">Fiction</span>: Sci-Fi/Fantasy and First Book. Marie was a finalist for the Futurescapes Award for Most Promising New Author for her fantasy heist, Flightless. Additionally, she is a New Mexico Writers Annual Grant recipient and was a finalist for the Book Pipeline Unpublished Contest in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy category. Marie lives in New Mexico with her dogs, where she loves to camp, hike, and eat green chile.
1:00PM - 2:30PM EDT
Saturday July 11th
Aspec Love: Putting the A in Romance
Most stories assume that romantic and sexual attraction are universal, intertwined, and necessary for a fulfilling relationship. But asexual, aromantic, and other aspectrum experiences challenge that assumption and reveal hidden mechanics behind all human connections. This panel explores what writers can learn about aspectrum romance in fiction, whether their characters are allo, ace, aro, or anywhere else on the vast spectrum of attraction. (Moderator: R.A. Shadel)