Posts Tagged ‘Conventions’

Earlier this morning I responded to a Live Journal post from an acquaintance on the desirability of attending the Worldcon. She’d never been to one before, and was asking for opinions and suggestions. A number of people chimed in. After I added my two cents, I kept thinking about it. I really love the Worldcon, and it seemed worth expanding on my original post and sharing it with you here.
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First, I had a blast! Seriously, I’ve always enjoyed Lunacon, so having the opportunity to enjoy it from the POV of GoH just ratcheted everything up several notches.

Yes, there were some programming snafus, and yes, attendance was a bit down from past years (blamed variously on a WickedFaire type event, Purim, ICFA, and people afraid of the Super Moon), but none of that diminished the event for me in the least.

As usual, I got to spend lots of time visiting with old friends in and around the convention, in the green room, on panels, and at parties. I was interviewed by special GoH Eric in the Elevator for his show, and Artist GoH Rachael Mayo and I put on a small interview about our mutual joys and frustrations working together as I tried to describe what I intended for a cover and she tried to read my mind, sometimes to fantastic success and sometimes to dismal failure.

There were also the usual random people accosting me in the hallways (as fans are wont to do) demanding snippets in Klingon, but after nearly twenty years of that I’d probably be disappointed if it didn’t happen.

And I had a book launch for Buffalito Contingency which involved two long tables loaded up with copies of the new novel, the previous collection, the first novel, assorted chapbooks, copies of books from Paper Golem, and even a Klingon translation. Also an assortment of shiny artwork prints by Rachael Mayo. My wife, Valerie, and our assigned minion, Roadkill (aka Mom), sat at the far end selling people books as they waited in line for the privilege. Then I signed and inscribed with a brand new purple pen, and passed the books to Rachael on my right to sign as well (when she wasn’t busy selling art prints). This went on for about an hour and a half and was one of the highlights of the convention. I was overwhelmed by the people who came up and wanted to tell me how much they’d loved the first novel or a given short story. Fortunately, we were doing the book launch in a ballroom, or my expanding ego might have crushed us all.

Another highlight was actually getting time to sit and chat with Rachael. We’ve been working together for years, but almost never get to see one another, let alone brain storm on ideas in rapid fire back and forth chatter (one result of which may well be a painting on black velvet of buffalo dogs playing poker, but I digress).

As things wound down on Sunday, and the art show closed up, I crept in and negotiated for the purchase of the framed cover art to both Amazing Conroy novels. I so rarely buy anything for myself, and this made me very happy.

Thank you to everyone who made the convention possible, organizers and con com and staff, pros and guests, attendees and dealers. I had an amazing time at Lunacon, and I’ll be back again next year because whether I’m the GoH or not this is one incredibly fun convention!

Book Launch Siging with Artist GoH Rachael Mayo

The first day of Lunacon was a whirlwind and much fun. As usual, the convention is full of wonderful people, the hotel is excellent, and I’m enjoying myself mightily.

My schedule has been amended in several places (these are the items in green), and if for some reason you’re reading this on Saturday morning you might find an update helpful. So let’s get to it:

SATURDAY:
10am (Elijah Budd) GoH Reading – They’ve given me the opening reading slot this morning, and on the assumption that there may be some people showing up who aren’t at all familiar with my work, I’m going to be reading the very first Conroy story, “Buffalo Dogs.” If time allows, I might read a teaser bit from a current work in progress as well.

11am (Maple) How NOT to get published – Tips on submissions, contacting agents, and all the other myriad challenges that face an aspiring author. What works, what doesn’t, and what will work against you completely.
Neil Levin, Neil Clarke, Esther Friesner, Ginjer Buchanan

1pm (West Chester B) Airing of Grievances: Author and Artist – Artist GoH Rachael Mayo (who has been responsible for all my cover art) and I will be interviewing one another in front of an audience, and likely grumbling about the problems of authors giving art direction and artists being insufficiently telepathic.
Rachael Mayo

2pm (Symour Boton) Eric in the Elevator Season 10.5 Filming Session – Another GoH on GoH interview, this time with me being skewered by Eric. I have no idea what to expect, but then again, neither does he!
Eric in the Elevator

3pm (West Chester B) Buffalito Contingency book launch! – Two hours of shameless self-promotion for the new book. Artist GoH Rachael Mayo will also be on hand to autograph copies of the second Amazing Conroy novel. Plus, free food!

5pm (West Chester A3) Building a mythos in a gaming world – So your character is a cleric, but what does he/she know about rituals, lore, and “holy hardware”? Yeah, this could get very entertaining very quickly.
Jane Sibley, Neil Levin, Paul Calhoun

SUNDAY:
12pm (Maple) Writing a first chapter that sells – The title really says it all. I’ll be sitting in with three much more successful authors and you can watch us argue with one another as to what needs to go in (and stay out) of that opening chapter.
Gail Martin, Joshua Palmatier, Michael Ventrella

3pm (Grand Ballroom North) Closing Ceremonies – This is the part of the convention where I think I’m supposed to variously apologize for whatever I did / blame Rachael and Eric for whatever they made me do / deny deny deny / show up and try not to look too clueless after the long weekend of lunacy. No, seriously.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go fuel up with a hearty breakfast. See you around the convention!

I’m in the midst of frantically packing up for tomorrow’s trip to Lunacon, and I realized that I haven’t posted my schedule. Whoops!

The fine folks in programming are still putting the finishing touches on a few things, so I can’t tell you when or where I’ll be doing Readings or Signings. I apologize for that, but I’m sure they’ll have it all worked out by the time you get to the convention. Here’s what I do know:

FRIDAY:
4pm (West Chester A1) Opening Ceremonies – My guess is this is your first “official” look at the various GoHs: myself, Rachael Mayo, and Eric in the Elevator (presumably sans elevator). Please do not throw fruit or poo at us. Thank you.

7pm (Elijah Budd) Dark Quest Publishing reading – since I had a story in Breach the Hull ( Book 1 of the “Defending the Future” series) I offered to be a part of this. Should be fun, particularly because I turned the story into a novel.
KT Pinto, Hildy Silverman

SATURDAY:
11am (Maple) How NOT to get published – Tips on submissions, contacting agents, and all the other myriad challenges that face an aspiring author. What works, what doesn’t, and what will work against you completely.
Neil Levin, Neil Clarke, Esther Friesner, Ginjer Buchanan

3pm (West Chester B) Buffalito Contingency book launch! – Two hours of shameless self-promotion for the new book. Artist GoH Rachael Mayo will also be on hand to autograph copies of the second Amazing Conroy novel. Plus, free food!

5pm (West Chester A3) Building a mythos in a gaming world – So your character is a cleric, but what does he/she know about rituals, lore, and “holy hardware”? Yeah, this could get very entertaining very quickly.
Jane Sibley, Neil Levin, Paul Calhoun

SUNDAY:
12pm (Maple) Writing a first chapter that sells – The title really says it all. I’ll be sitting in with three much more successful authors and you can watch us argue with one another as to what needs to go in (and stay out) of that opening chapter.
Gail Martin, Joshua Palmatier, Michael Ventrella

3pm (Grand Ballroom North) Closing Ceremonies – This is the part of the convention where I think I’m supposed to variously apologize for whatever I did / blame Rachael and Eric for whatever they made me do / deny deny deny / show up and try not to look too clueless after the long weekend of lunacy. No, seriously.

In addition to all of the above (and any Readings and/or Signings that get added to my schedule), I’ll be wandering around the convention and sticking my head in at all the parties. To my mind, that’s what a GoH is supposed to do, have a good time and try to ensure that everyone else is having a good time too.

Oh, and one more thing: when you see me at the convention, don’t forget to ask to have your picture taken with Barry. He has his own Facebook page you know!

Lunacon is racing our way, now less than three weeks away.

One of the things that will be in the program book is a reprint of my story “Pidgin,” a short tale of an alien who wanders into a store in sunny Los Angeles hoping to buy some fruit. Except… it’s a hardware store.

I first read “Pidgin” aloud at a Lunacon some years back, and I’m very happy to see it return to the convention.

Artist GoH Rachael Mayo has done up a brand new drawing for it, which will also be included in the program book.

Here’s a sneak peak:

Although the deadline for submitting your nominations for this year’s Hugo (and Campbell) Awards is not until Saturday, March 26th*, I am reminded that in order to be eligible to nominate you must either have been a member of Aussiecon or be either “an attending or supporting member of Renovation as of 31 January 2011”**, i.e., tomorrow.

This deadline seems odd to me, if for no other reason than that it’s not tied to the next price increase for membership, which happens four weeks later on the last day of February. But what do I know? I’m a Pro, not a SMOF.

Having done my public service by reminding all readers of this, important deadline I will now cheerfully revert to my usual self-serving nature and remind you to consider one or both of the following for your Hugo nominating pleasure:

“The Wrestler and the Spearfisher” – My Polynesian fantasy about two young men who both have legitimate claims to lead their community and the resulting conflict that gets muddled by intervention of magical spirits. The story originally saw print in The Stories in Between, published in January of 2010, and was reprinted in my collection Sweet Potato Pie and Other Surrealities from Hadley Rille Books.

“Mars Needs Baby Seals” – A fluffy bit of SF silliness involving interplanetary time travel, ecological restoration, flipperball, and paradox. This story appeared in the anthology Destination: Future, edited by Z.S. Adani and Eric T. Reynolds, and published in February 2010 by Hadley Rille Books.

If you need a copy of either story, leave me a comment requesting one, and I’ll pop it off to you via email.

*hugo awards website
**Renovation website, Hugo FAQ