Philcon!

I’m very excited to have been invited to participate as a guest at this year’s Philcon. The convention is taking place next weekend and I’m very excited to be headed there. It even looks like I got all panels I was interested in / am qualified to talk about. That reduces my anxiety a great deal. It should be a great weekend. IF you can, get out to the convention!

Here is my schedule:

Fri 9:00 PM in Plaza III (Three) (1 hour)
TECHNOLOGICAL DEPENDENCE (1867)

[Panelists: Bernie Mojzes (mod), David M. Axler, Mark Wolverton,
Daniel Grotta, Eric Hardenbrook]

Is our society too dependent on technology? Are we becoming
cybermen? From smartphones and tablets to online communities and
relationships, have we become unable to function without our
mechanical assistants

Sat 12:00 PM in Plaza III (Three) (1 hour)
ART AND COMPROMISE (1953)

[Panelists: Eric Hardenbrook (mod), Robert Kauffmann, Mike McPhail,
Ray Ridenour]

Discussing the differences between approaching art as a hobby versus
art as a professional career

Sat 2:00 PM in Plaza III (Three) (1 hour)
ART IN THE DIGITAL AGE (1951)

[Panelists: Ray Ridenour (mod), Eric Hardenbrook, Robert Kauffmann,
Luke Stelmaszek, Brian Thomas]

The blending of art and technology is more and more common. Can
artists even work without their computers anymore? Has the digital
world overtaken the traditional paintbrush? Artists discuss the
latest trends of these two world colliding into each other, and what
techniques they use now to create their art

Sat 3:00 PM in Crystal Ballroom Three (1 hour)
HOW LONG IS TOO LONG? (1739)

[Panelists: Tom Purdom (mod), D.L. Carter, Eric Hardenbrook, Neal
Levin]

Is anyone really going to start a 14-volume bug-crusher fantasy
series? (Not mentioning any names, of course). At what point does
the sheer size of a series discourage new readers

Sat 9:00 PM in Plaza III (Three) (1 hour)
BOOK INTO GAME (1777)

[Panelists: Robert C Roman (mod), Eric Hardenbrook, Anna Kashina,
Joan Wendland]

How is a literary work made into a game? Are there some books that
just aren’t suitable or can gamers game everything

Sun 10:00 AM in Plaza III (Three) (1 hour)
FAN WRITING IN THE INTERNET AGE (1840)

[Panelists: Anastasia Klimchynskaya (mod), Eric Hardenbrook, Berakha
Lana Guggenheim, Diane Kovalcin, Deborah Stanish]

There was a time when paper fanzines were the dominant source of fan
writing. Now, with the internet and the World Wide Web, other forms
of fan writing have taken the stage, such as blogs, vlogs, websites
and podcasts. What has fan writing become and what might it be like
in the future

Intervention 5

Normally I would keep a convention review and publish it in Watch The Skies, but this convention happened to fall the weekend directly after this month’s publication. Rather than wait out the weeks between I’m going to put my notes up here first.

This year was the 5th for Intervention and the 5th for me as well. While I wasn’t on staff every year, I have always been at least a volunteer. I really do think the folks in charge of this convention are doing it right. It has been as smooth and uncomplicated as I’ve seen for any event I’ve been involved with. Behind the scenes prep work shows clearly.

The Friday of the convention as I arrived at the hotel genuinely felt more like a finish line than a starting line for me. My personal schedule had me on the run and busy for what felt like weeks before the convention. It took conscious effort to get into the right mind set. The convention itself, the atmosphere actually helped with that.

I would give a review of other parts of the convention or talk about the panels, but I didn’t really see a lot of those. I spent some time in the stand-up arcade playing some old school games and did get the chance to squeeze in a board game right before we headed home, but the vast majority of the time I was in the children’s programing room. That was where the fun was happening. Coloring, creating, building steampunk dinosaurs, creating homemade glow in the dark slime along with a bunch of other stuff. Making, making a mess and enjoying the work (or the destruction of the work) at the end were all parts of the fun. I give credit to Corinne as the head of the program – she really pulled together some great stuff for this year.

Whatever other details there were about the convention, this was posted on Facebook by the convention creator and I think it sums up the weekend better than anything else I can say,

READ THIS: If you don’t know what we do, why we are different, and why you should support us with donations and registrations, Monica Marier just summed it up: “Something amazing happened today. I brought my daughter to Intervention today and she made an LIFE-CHANGING discovery.
Since she started school, this kid had been told that she was weird, and wrong, and an outcast because she was a girl who liked things like skeletons, and steampunk, and Dr. Who, instead of American Girl Dolls and Horses.
Today she saw and met a ton of women and girls who liked all those “geek” things that she liked and that they were proud of it. And she realized:
SHE WAS NOT ALONE.
She was a part of something. And she was among people who thought that she was wonderful. IT’S SO GREAT that her first great con adventure was in such a safe, warm, friendly convention like Intervention and it was everything I hoped it would be and MORE. She’s already bouncing up and down in anticipation of ReGeneration Who.
THANKS SO MUCH, to Oni Hartstein, James Harknell , Pete Abrams and all the staff and artists that made this a truly fantastic weekend.
You guys put this smile here.”
Http://www.interventioncon.com

Balticon Follow Up

The title here is a bit of a tease honestly. I don’t have enough of my thoughts pulled together to write anything even remotely coherent about the convention just now. I want to do the review justice. It was a short week back at work, but I suspect they crammed more into the schedule just to be certain they made up for Monday’s lost time. This has put the squeeze on my writing time.

Short version – it was a really good convention that once again flew past far more quickly than it should have. IF you’ve not been out to a local convention and you’re a fan, you’re missing out.

I normally hold off until the next WTS fanzine, but I think the number of weeks beyond the convention we’ll be at that point would lose some of the impact.

So – more to follow – starting with my first panel this year… the one where I was sitting next to Brandon Sanderson. Yes, that Brandon Sanderson.

Balticon 48!

I am very excited to be heading to Hunt Valley today for Balticon. For anyone that missed my original post on Facebrick – here’s where I’ll be:

Writing the Economics of Magic (Panel) (Participant), Fri 18:00 – 18:50, Salon C (Hunt Valley Inn)
Fortress Press Book Launch (Other) (Participant), Sat 18:00 – 20:00, Con Suite (Hunt Valley Inn)
Film the Raven Evermore: Films Based on the Tales of Poe (Panel) (Participant), Sun 22:00 – 22:50, Belmont (Hunt Valley Inn)
Long-term Career Planning for Creatives: Surviving the Next 10 Revolutions (Panel) (Participant), Mon 08:00 – 08:50, Chase (Hunt Valley Inn)

I am also looking forward to seeing the liar’s panel and Mark Van Name’s new spoken word show. IF you’re headed to the convention I highly suggest both of these panels!

Looking forward to seeing everyone there!