Drop-In Gaming

Start off your Foolscap and make some new friends the fun way: by dropping into a board game in the Commons! We'll be running a rotating selection of games, with folks available to teach the rules. Come play or kibitz, and get into the participatory spirit!

Open Space Pre-Planning

Foolscap runs on your ideas for program items, and this year we're getting an early start on the Open Space planning process! Drop by Open Space Pre-Planning to write down an idea or two for something we can do later in the con, or browse the things folks have already added. All the events from pre-planning will be up for voting at the Open Space Planning on Saturday morning.

Two Heads, Four Hands, One Story

Find out how working (and selling) writers have collaborated. Three writers discuss their experience writing both short stories and novels, and provide several exercises that will get you working together. Space is limited, advance sign-up required

Ad-Hoc Haberdashery

Foolscap is named after a hat - or is it named after paper? Either way, get into the Foolscap spirit by making hats out of paper! We'll provide the paper, supplies for decorating it, and some hat-making techniques. You provide the creativity and the head!

Afternoon Tea

Enjoy afternoon tea, conversation, and some light snacks at our Friday tea-time! We'll be steeping a small variety of teas: caffeinated, non-caffeinated, herbal, and maybe something adventurous. Come try a cup and learn what you like!

Opening Ceremonies and Reception

Enjoy Foolscap's traditionally brief opening ceremony with Captain Doug Beal, then stick around for tasty snacks and meet our Guest of Honor, novelist Cherie Priest!

Bring Your Own Book

Explore the Magic Book Box with this twist on Bring Your Own Book, the party game of finding apropos passages! Don't worry about bringing your own book, though - we'll be finding all our books from the wide variety of things folks brought to share in the Magic Book Box! If you find a book you like, you can bring it home with you!

Writing and Selling Flash Fiction

Flash fiction does not often get the same level of awards attention as short fiction, but it can be fun to write. Learn about some of the pitfalls of writing flash fiction, as well as some tips and tricks to make your flash fiction better. We'll also talk about places to sell flash fiction, which can also be a great way to read and learn more about writing it!

Publishing in the Digital Age

Technology is changing the way we read, and making new tools available for publishers. Come talk with people from local small presses and learn about how they see the changing landscape.

Randomness and Fun

Whether it’s a critical hit on a die, a card draw that starts a combo, or getting a tetromino piece that you absolutely did not need right now, randomness plays a large role in games and puzzles. This is a quick talk about how game designers and programmers make random numbers and how to make them more fun and less frustrating.

Pen & Paper & Ink

Come show off your writing implements and methods, and see what fun tools and techniques other folks have to demonstrate. Learn something new… or old… or just enjoy some time to talk about the analog writing experience.

Discoveries: Our New Follows

What new discoveries have you made this year? Want to make some more? Come to this round-table panel where each participant will have two minutes to tell the group about a new author, artist, director, designer or other creator they've come across in the past year. Share why their work excites you, and tell us where we can find it!

How Open Space Works

What’s this “open space” thing? How do we use it at Foolscap, and why? We’ll talk about what it is and where it came from - but, more importantly, we’ll go over how we use it to keep Foolscap fresh and focused on our membership, and how to get involved! Open space pre-planning will be going on throughout this hour, so come by and get a head-start on your program ideas!

Best of the Best of the Year

Share recommendations for books that knocked your socks off, shows that made binging a thing, or whatever else made an impression. Come share fresh new works, or older things that you've discovered in the last year. Bring your own list of favorites, and leave some room to add some new things to go check out!

Open Space Planning

Look at all that unplanned space on the Foolscap schedule. It's time for us to get together, gather up all our ideas, and build a plan for the rest of the con! Everyone is encouraged to join in, propose panels, and vote on what they'd like to see happen. The panels we're most excited about as a group will be built into a schedule.

A Conversation with Cherie Priest

Come spend a lovely hour with Cherie Priest, our guest of honor, as she is interviewed by Dawn Vogel. Hear her talk about her books, her pets, and other fun things. Fans of Southern gothic horror, doggos, steampunk zombies, and large cats should not miss this panel!

Crafting with Computers

With technology like laser cutters and 3d printers, making physical artifacts can start out with time spent staring at a screen. Let’s talk about tools, techniques, pitfalls and triumphs with using computers for crafting!

Make Magic: Write, then Read It Aloud - A Workshop with Two Hour Transport

There’s something magical about reading new work aloud. In the first hour of this workshop you will read a short story by a well-known author and write a piece of flash fiction, or a longer scene, that responds to the story in some way. In the second half of the workshop you will perform what you have written and we will give you guidance on how to use the mic, proper posture, and eye contact. Participants should expect to come ready to read, write, and perform. Space is limited, advance sign-up required.

Tea and Chocolate Pairings

Would you like to try some interesting teas? How about some chocolates? What about putting them together? If so, come to this panel and see how great flavors can taste great together!

The Foolscap Cabaret

It’s an open mic! It’s an auction! It’s a game show! It’s trivia! It’s a concert! It’s a Foolscap variety show! Come celebrate the various performers and entertainers of the Foolscap community as we perform and entertain you! In keeping with Foolscap tradition, we'll be auctioning off some interesting things, oddities, and experiences to support Foolscap's continuing mission of being open and accessible to as many people as possible. Plus, a bar with tasty drinks (with and without alcohol), and a few more surprises… Want to perform in the Foolscap Cabaret? Drop by Registration and sign up!

Symbols and Patterns: Creating and Reading Tarot

Draque Thompson recently designed and produced the Lomisht, a Tarot deck built from the mythology of their story world, Darisa. Draque will lead a discussion about the creative process of designing their deck, collaborating with artist Karen Swartz to fully visualize it, and the process of reading Tarot as a form of storytelling.

Cities and their Secrets: Urban Exploration

Did you know that urban exploration is one of Cherie Priest’s interests? And that urban exploration is really freakin’ cool? While we have her here as our guest of honor, we thought we’d have her share some of the things she knows with us!

Foolscap Nosh

A wizard will cast Create Food and Water in the Commons. Please come enjoy food in the Commons or Hospitality. It’ll be tasty and made of magic. (Food may not actually be made of magic.)

Story Circle

A story circle is just like a song circle, but with fewer notes. We go around the circle, and when it’s your turn you can “pick, pass, or play”. “Pick” someone else to tell a 3-4 minute story, pass, or “play” by telling a 4-5 minute tale of your own. It can be a true life story (like The Moth) or pure fiction. Your choice, your story.

Building Better Board Game Bits

With the application of crafting skills, you can make your board games awesome to look at and even more fun to play! Let’s talk about ways to improve your tabletop experience, from paints to 3d prints and beyond!

Crafting Circle

Hanging out in the Commons and crafting is a thing lots of people do at Foolscap. But what if we did minimal coordination and did it together? Come join us with your handcrafts! Share what you have, make new friends, geek out over that weird clippy thing that does a very specific but useful thing on someone’s loom, and have fun!

Folding Geometry: Hands-On with Modular Origami

The traditional image of origami conjures up paper cranes and decorative boxes, folded from single sheets of paper. But modular origami is a fascinating subfield that involves building structures from many individually-folded units, with beautiful, often geometric results. Come learn a little bit about this subdomain, and try your hand at folding a few different modules. If time allows, we can even collaborate on one large structure together!

The Geometry of Folding: Origami Math

Underneath the beautiful physical structures of origami, there's another beautiful world of mathematical structures. We'll talk about the math of origami, especially looking at how origami-based constructions can yield results that are impossible to achieve with ruler and compass.

60 Minutes, 60 Panels

There were a lot of panels that happened, but even more that didn’t. Let’s go into warp speed and have the 60 second versions of some of the panels we missed out on having in full this year. Maybe we’ll find some to expand for next year!

Closing Ceremony

The official ending of Foolscap. Come bid this year’s con farewell.

Post-Con Dinner

Foolscap is over for the year. Let’s all go out somewhere, eat hot food that didn’t come from the hotel kitchen, and talk about whatever we want for a final bit of community before everyone heads home again. Location will be somewhere nearish con site, as determined by a vote held at the con and announced Sunday morning.