The Vancouver Writers Fest just announced its 2014 lineup, and it’s another great one. I’ll be hosting two panels — details below. The full lineup is pretty great — check it out if you can.

Familiar Haunts

Friday, October 24, 2014 – 6:00pm to 7:15pm

Waterfront Theatre

$20

Ready for some hair-raising tales from three frightfully good Canadian writers? Meet Jacqueline Baker, whose compelling, creepy novel features the ailing, impoverished and frightening H.P. Lovecraft, a true historical figure who was America’s first horror writer. Eric McCormack’s masterpiece of literary Gothicism stars a man haunted, literally and figuratively, byhis past in an isolated Scottish village. And Russell Wangersky’s dark psychological thriller spotlights a grocery store cleaner who collects the shopping lists people leave behind, providing him with an invisible net to throw over those who leave traces of their life in his path. This is perfect fodder for a fall Friday.

Probables and Impossibles

Saturday, October 25, 2014 – 10:30am

Granville Island Stage

$20

What’s the difference between fantasy and science fiction? Fantasy can’t happen. Science fiction is something that hasn’t happened, but could. Two fantasy writers and one science fiction writertalk about the worlds of the probable and the impossible that they’ve imagined onto the pages of their new novels. William Gibson’s The Peripheral is his latest invention in a long string of inventive novels that have earned him rave reviews and a worldwide following over three decades. Working in the world of the impossible are fantasy writers A.M. Dellamonica and Sebastien de Castell. Travel to Dellamonica’s Stormwrack, an ocean- based world on the other side of the portal. Or duck the barbarians at the borders of de Castell’s Tristia. Good thing these worlds are impossible—and very entertaining.