January is on the waning end, and I have exciting news.

LTUE is coming up in about three weeks, and I will be appearing on five panels, listed below. (You can also see my event schedule under the “Events” tab in the top menu bar). LTUE has been a huge highlight for me over the past several years, and I can’t wait to meet and get together with all you creative, writerly people once again for this fabulous symposium. Oh, yeah…and I’m scheduled to be on a panel with Todd McCaffrey and Brandon Sanderson! (And other cool people, too). *Freaking out over the awesome just a little*

February 15-17 at the Marriott Hotel & Conference Center in Provo

Thursday

1. 9:00-9:45 AM (Bryce) Terraforming and Colonizing Venus
   We tend to think of Mars as more hospitable for colonization than Venus, but Venus has certain advantages for colonization as well. What can we do to colonize Venus right now? What might we do to make Venus more hospitable to human life?
   Brad R. Torgersen, Scott R. Parkin (Moderator), Darci Rhoades Stone, Kevin Evans, Sarah E. Seeley
   
2. 2:00-2:45 PM (Maple) How Weather Works
   Weather is affected by all sorts of factors. How do oceans, mountains, latitude, tilt, and magnetic fields all contribute to weather? What happens when these variables are changed?
   Erekson Holt, Shannon Babb, Sarah E. Seeley (Moderator), Darci Rhoades Stone
3. 5:00-5:45 PM (Bryce) Paleontology for the Created World
   Now that you’ve created or discovered a new world, what can you expect its prehistoric life to be like? How would the fossil record be affected by life (mythical or otherwise) or robots that were created?
   Dr. Jonh K. Lundwall, Josi Russell, Nikhil Pillarisetti Rao, Sarah E. Seeley, Rowan North (Moderator)
   

Friday

1. 7:00 PM Mass Author Signing–Open to the public!

Saturday

1. 10:00-10:45 AM (Arches) Biology & Physiology of Mythical Creatures
   Dragons, griffins, centaurs, werewolves, and so forth. What do we understand about the biology of mythical creatures?
   Nikhil Pillarisetti Rao, Sarah E. Seeley, C.A. Preece (Moderator), D.W. Dalton, Devon Dorrity
   
2. 2:00-2:45 PM (Canyon) What It’s Like: Writing in Somebody Else’s Milieu
   This is NOT a “how to write in somebody else’s milieu”; this is “what is it like?” Did you still like the milieu afterwards? We want stories from those invited to write.
   Karen Evans, Sarah E. Seeley, Todd McCaffrey, Brad R. Torgersen (Moderator), Brandon Sanderson

In other news, I have just finished up yet another round of grad school applications. I’m applying to one US school, two schools in Canada, and one school in the UK, all programs with specialists in paleo-archaeology. My plan is to try and shoot for a Master’s to see if that will help me be more competitive for PhD programs. Fingers crossed that this is my year!

I’m also giving a poster presentation of my Koobi Fora mentored research project at the Society for American Archaeology conference in April. Super excited!

Keep writing and dreaming  ya’ll! 🙂