More seriously...

[desperance]

There's a call-for-papers gone out from an academic conference on detective fiction, right here in N'cle. I'm kind of interested, especially as they want to talk about the confines of genre - this is, after all, something I know somewhat about, indeed have just been writing about for that Gabe Chouinard person - but I've never been to an academic conference, and I don't actually know where (or indeed whether) to begin. They ask for abstracts, and I have noooo idea what an academic abstract looks like.

So the obvious question is, does this in itself answer my question? Is my own ignorance trying to tell me something, like "put the paper down and back away now, sir, before we have to shoot you"? Or should I barge straight in there and get down & dirty with academe...?