Wagner, who is most known for his stories about the dark hero Kane, came to UNC's medical school in 1970 to be near science fiction great Manly Wade Wellman, who will also be at the convention. Wagner never left Chapel Hill, and after a year's residency at John Umpstead Hospital in Butner, he gave up his psychiatry career to write full-time. Fifteen years and 24 books later, Wagner will be the keynote speaker at Chimera's second fantasy and science fiction convention. In his address Saturday, Wagner, who is writing the Conan III screenplay for producer Dino De Laurentiis, said he will talk about what it's like to write for a living. He also will participate in several panel discussions with other authors, including Wellman, John Kessel of Raleigh, David Drake of Chapel Hill, and Orson Scott Card and M.A. Foster of Greensboro.
Science fiction attracts fans like no other genre of literature.
Other people are interested in it just as English majors are interested in literature as a whole. I'm interested in the literature primarily as a by-product of my interest in science and technology as a whole.