Mary's Minute: Dream Panel: Teenagers in Space

This week I have the opportunity to do something unique and cool. I was asked to create my own dream panel of authors and/or characters for a fictional conference. I totally love this idea, especially considering I had the ability to use Big Name People or even characters.

I have a few ideas for this so I might do some more panels in the future. However, lately I've been really into science fiction, but only the ones that go where no man has gone before. Therefore I have brought in my favorite epic space authors and a few special guests (because when I reach for the stars, I literally reach for movie stars). Behold, I bring you:

Featuring:

Basically, Teenagers in Space would be a panel all about creating and enriching stories set in space. I would moderate because this is my dream panel, and I'm not passing up on an opportunity to meet Melissa, Chris, Sigourney, and Joss (the others I have had the pleasure of previously both meeting and moderating panels for!). We'd talk about boss ladies (Sigourney would monologue about Ripley, obviously) and sassy boys (Chris and Jay would discuss Star-Lord and Nik). We'd talk technology (what's up, AIDAN?) and badass spaceships, space battles and alien monsters, contagious diseases and loneliness in the big black. Research and gross stuff would also be a hot topic, and Beth would make the audience queasy with stories about boiling spit and other delightful effects of the human body in the vacuum of space (I have heard her talk about this & it's amazingly horrifying). 

If I blew this up into a festival or convention or if my picks weren't available (because sometimes you do need backups for your dreams), potential guests would include:
Mindee Arnett - Avalon series
Karen Bao - Dove Chronicles
Rhoda Belleza - Empress of a Thousand Skies (out in February!)
Pierce Brown - Red Rising trilogy
Alexandra Duncan - Salvage duology
Tessa Elwood - Inherit the Stars series
Claudia Gray - Lost Stars, Defy the Stars
Ava Jae - Beyond the Red trilogy
RC Lewis - Stitching Snow, Spinning Starlight
Marissa Meyer - The Lunar Chronicles 
Michael Miller - Kaitan Chronicles (book 1 Shadow Run released next year!)
Kass Morgan - The 100 trilogy
Phoebe North - Starglass duology
Adam Rex - The True Meaning of Smek Day (book that Home was based on)
Megan Shepherd - The Cage trilogy
AdriAnne Strickland - Kaitan Chronicles
the cast of Firefly
the cast of The 100
the cast of Star-Crossed (still mad this got cancelled)
the writers of Halo

Do you have any favorite space-based books? Who would be on your dream panel & what would it be about? Let me know in the comments!

Eventbrite is the the largest self-service ticketing platform in the world that helps people find and plan events. Be sure to check out their conference management page, which is a great resource for locating or planning conferences and events in your local area!