Flights of Foundry 2025 Round Up!

September ended with a bang in the form of the Flights of Foundry convention put on by Dream Foundry. This is one of my favorite conventions to attend each year, and every year I learn so much and my creative cup is refilled and overflowing by the end of the weekend.

If you missed the convention, fret not because 1) a lot of the program will eventually make it onto the Dream Foundry YouTube channel and past years’ content is there to tide you over, 2) it comes around each year, so you can catch it in 2026, and 3) I’ve got a round up for you of everything I attended! The events where I was a panelist/moderator are marked with an asterisk *.

Let’s dive in!

(All event descriptions are taken from the FoF program schedule.)

*The Added Depth of Speculative Worldbuilding

Moderator: Marianna Martin
Speakers: Valerie Valdes, Jeffery Reynolds, Kemi Ashing-Giwa, Catherine Tavares (it me!)
Description: A panel discussion on the skill and purpose behind speculative worldbuilding to add depth to character and theme, including why the speculative is uniquely suited to this as well as examples from publications.
Key Takeaways:

• Grounding speculative elements in how a person works, eats, and dresses can tell a lot about the world as a whole.

• At a point of imminent change is an excellent place to start a story.

• Funnel worldbuilding details through the POV of the characters to make them more believable and manageable.

• Focus on the load-bearing details of the world first and then add cool factors from there.

Understanding Publishing Contracts

Speakers: Marguerite Kenner, David Steffen
Description: Contracts are an unavoidable part of writing and publishing life. We take authors through the standard terms and conditions that they should want in any contract they receive.
Key Takeaways:

• First publication rights = the most valuable because you can only sell those once.

• Always be open, curious, and respectful when questioning contracts and then the response to your questions will tell you what kind of person/company you are dealing with.

• Red flags:

  • if a publisher is not responsive or respectful when you have questions or ask for changes about a contract

  • when a publisher asks for publication rights in all languages

  • when a publisher asks for rights to “media not yet invented.”

    • caveat: heavy hitters like Netflix will ask for this, but there should be a financial incentive for you to sign over those rights

Epigraphs as Worldbuilding Workshop

Presenter: Courtney Floyd
Description: In this 50 minute workshop, we'll discuss when and why writers started using epigraphs in Western literature and 3 major ways they function in stories--with an emphasis on how you can design and include epigraphs that make your fictional worlds come alive. By the end of the workshop, you'll have brainstormed epigraph ideas for your own WIP.
Key Takeaways:

• People skip epigraphs a lot, so don’t include important information exclusively within them. (But also, seriously people, read the epigraphs.)

• Epigraphs don’t need to be “texts.” Describe how these words/concepts are getting to the reader.

  • The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue has artifacts as epigraphs.

• Formatting elements can play a role in epigraphs from font choice to full illustration.

Writing in the Climate Change Era

Moderator: Sophia Babai
Speakers: M.C. Benner Dixon, Christy Climenhage, Malda Marlys
Description: Extreme temperatures, devastating storms, climate disasters, power outages, evacuations--how is one supposed to sit down and write during the chaos of climate change? This is a panel on practical tips and tools for self-care, surviving, and writing when the environment is dangerous.
Key Takeaways:

• Post-apocalyptic fiction can be hopeful because it is founded on there still being some world left to save.

• The world is always changing.

• Climate change is interwoven with so many other social justices and you can’t really address one with the others.

• If death is certain, why save the world and the human race? The answer to the why is your story.

Didactic Writing in an Age of Media Illiteracy

Moderator: Rachel A. Rosen
Speakers: Samantha Mills, Vajra Chandrasekera, Gregory A. Wilson, Rukman Ragas
Description: Seems like one of the worst things a critic can say about a piece of art is that it's "didactic" — in other words, that it intentionally tries to impart a moral lesson to the audience. But when authoritarianism, censorship, and media illiteracy are rising across the globe, is this a fair (or useful) criticism? Can a balance be struck between encouraging critical thinking and "shoving it down the consumer's throat," and if so, what tips or tricks do artists use to find it?
Key Takeaways:

• All art is political; this is nothing new.

• Resist the idea of oversimplifying (the root of fascist media) and instead layer within your work complexity via accessible nuance.

• Satire of the thing risks becoming a reproduction of the thing, and is therefore often not sufficient on its own for strong critique.

• Being didactic is a style choice and, like all styles, it can be done skillfully to inform, question, challenge, and entertain.

*Speculative Flash Fiction

Moderator: Catherine Tavares (it me!)
Speakers: Stephen Granade, Kai Delmas, Diana Dima, V. Astor Solomon
Description: The ins and outs of writing speculative flash fiction--what it is, the skills behind the stories, where to submit, and how to build a career off the format.
Key Takeaways:

• Flash fiction is the one true format of writing. (But, like, where’s the lie. 😆)

• Flash fiction is ripe for experimentation and can be used to try new and weird things with less risk than longer formats.

• Themes and challenges are a great way to learn to write in a more constrained word limit.

• Ambiguity in flash fiction can work really well so long as you go into the story with that intent and account for it as you shape the story.

The Art of the Retelling: Old Stories with Fresh Paint

Moderator: William Alexander
Speakers: M.R. Robinson, S.L. Dove Cooper, Sarena Ulibarri
Description: This panel focuses on the sources of inspiration and decision trees of people recreating from existing stories. What's the difference between a retelling and a story that's inspired by something? Where's the balance between fan expectation for core elements of the original story? What's most exciting about remaking something that already exists?
Key Takeaways:

• Retellings go in both directions; they’re conversations across space and time.

• Retelling is not the same as a re-imagining which is not the same as a response.

  • “So, is my story a retelling or a re-imagining?” Answer: Yes.

• Retellings can be a reclamation of history and identity for what was hidden, de-emphasized, or criticized in the original work.

The Nuts and Bolts of Novellas

Moderator: Felicia Martínez
Speakers: Sarena Ulibarri, Clara Madrigano, Kelsea Yu
Description: Novellas are defined as works 17,500-39,999 words long by most of the SFF award guidelines. But what makes a novella sing? And how does one write a novella successfully? Is a good novella just a more-developed short story or a less developed novel? Or something else entirely?
Key Takeaways:

• Novellas are free from a lot of the burdens and expectations placed on novels in terms of format and style.

  • Novellas are allowed to be weird and different and free.

• Novellas are built for escalation and momentum.

  • you don’t need the breathing space a novel needs because the novella is so short you can just go, go, go without exhausting the reader.

• Traditional publishing is a difficult route for novellas.

Language of Scent Workshop

Presenter: Risa Wolf
Description: Scent is one of the most evocative of human senses, triggering memories and directly influencing how people experience their surroundings. In writing, scent also ties into culture and worldbuilding, providing insight into how characters identify scents of comfort and home - or, conversely, discomfort and terror. In this workshop, we will discuss a wide range of descriptors that can be used to bring readers into your characters' sense of smell, along with exercises designed to map your personal scent language. We'll end with some writing games you can use to bring additional depth and richness to your stories.
Key Takeaways:

• Emotions are deeply tied to scents.

• Scent can show up as more than just adjectives or nouns. They can be used as verbs.

  • Ex: “The market spiced the air.”

• There is no such thing as a good or bad smell; we bring the bias, and what is good/bad to one person is not to another.

• Layering terms along with the scent descriptor allows you to get more specific and evoke an emotional response that can make up for a reader’s lack of familiarity with a scent.

• SCENT MAPS! Make one for yourself to understand your own scent bias and make ones for your characters/worlds to deepen the complexity of both.

Play Again to Find Out: Storytelling Through Iteration

Moderator: Valerie Valdes
Speakers: Stephen Granade, V.M. Ayala
Description: While many games have a clear, mostly-linear plot, others have a story, world and characters that emerge only by replaying them over and over. Whether in a roguelike game (Hades), an exploration/builder/puzzler (Blue Prince), or a logic mystery (Return of the Obra Dinn), we'll discuss how video games can tell stories through iterative game play.
Key Takeaways:

• Character arcs might not be main plot drivers, but on replays they reveal information that changes how you view and interact with the main plot.

• Iterative games figure out which parts are “boring” and how you can speed up those parts on replays so it is not annoying or tedious.

• Translating game mechanics to traditional prose: rewarding close reads/re-reads

  • Heists, plot twists, dramatic irony

*Drabbles and Micro Fiction

Moderator: Catherine Tavares (it me!)
Speakers: Kai Delmas, V. Astor Solomon, Dawn Vogel, Hannah Greer
Description: A panel on teeny tiny stories with big impact, to include tips and advice on writing, readings of drabbles, and / or maybe even live drabble writing.
Key Takeaways:

• Alien snail slime. 🐌

• Micro fiction focuses on a change rather than a full arc.

• Writing micro fiction teaches you to “wield language.”

• Theme/prompts are really good jumping off points to get into writing micro fiction.

• Kai’s recipe for a drabble: Theme + Emotion + Event

  • (Y’all this works so well. I use it all the time!)

The Money Stuff

Moderators: Marguerite Kenner, M-Jo Baker
Description: An opportunity for creators to ask questions about all the scary business stuff: accounting, taxes, contracts, etc.
Key Takeaways:

• Writing expenses are varied and can include travel, workshops, memberships, office supplies, programs, and retreats.

• Keep good records throughout the year.

  • have a separate credit card just for writing expenses if you can.

• Set up small, automatic savings for amounts you won’t miss to start building that buffer for future expenses (or tax surprises).

• Doesn’t matter if you only write as a hobby: act like a professional, especially around the money matters.

Sci Fi and AI

Moderator: Lauren C. Teffeau
Speakers: Lizzie Blackwood, Stephen Granade, Arturo Serrano, Malda Marlys
Description: Science fiction has relied on various handwaved artificial intelligences about as long as there's been science fiction. In a world where we all have to live with aggressive autocorrect, how does--and how should--the grim reality affect this tried and true trope?
Key Takeaways:

• Current, real world so-called “AIs” are bad. Full stop. Don’t use them.

• Western SF has a problem with viewing AI characters and plots only in extremes: dominance (evil AI overlords) or subservience (AI slaves to humanity).

• AI plots and characters can be used to explore how humans tend to de-humanize each other for small differences but are fully willing to humanize objects.

• More AI’s struggling with mental health issues, please and thank you.

• “It’s one thing to predict the car, another to predict the traffic jam.”

  • Cool method of thinking about how your tech collides with your world/characters.

As always, Flights of Foundry was a delight to attend and participate in. This is the best convention I have ever attended in terms of content, community, and coordination. Everyone is amazing to work and interact with. Huge thanks to the panelists, moderators, speakers, presenters, volunteers, and everyone at Dream Foundry that make this convention possible. Thank you!

Please do check out Dream Foundry and consider donating to support the work they do that goes far beyond just Flights of Foundry. They are a cornerstone of the SFFH community.