Balticon 40 ReportMay 26-29, 2006Well, the highlights of this weekend were definitely the book launch for my new Kal Jerico novel, Cardinal Crimson, our family trip to the National Aquarium on the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, and the artwork of Artist Guest of Honor, Lisa Snellings-Clark. Unfortunately, I let a couple months pass between the convention and my report (moving across the country to take a new job tends to screw up your schedule), so this report will be somewhat shorter than normal. Before I forget, I do need to mention all the friends I talked with during the weekend and how much I will miss seeing them at conventions now that I'm on the left coast. This was actually a great send-off convention because so many of my friends attend Balticon. During the weekend, I got to talk with Tee Morris, Tony Ruggiero, two great authors who work harder at conventions that just about anyone I know; Peter Prellwitz, a wonderful, new author, whom I met at Balticon 39 and have become fast friends with in the last year; Danielle Ackley-McPhail and her husband, Mike McPhail; Tom Easton, one of the most influential people in the genre; and Ruth Lampi, a quite talented, up-and-coming artist who is also one of the sweetest people in the world. As usual, I also made some great new friends, like Richard A. Lovett, a West Coast writer who made the trip across the country only to have to crash panels because he never got his schedule. Richard is a member of the Analog Mafia (those Analog writers who have appeared in teh magazine a significant number of times); and Bryan J. Prindiville, creator of the Bassetville webcomic, whom I met at the RavenCon party. Bryan origninally hails from Hamburg, New York, and like me finally escaped the snow belt. Friday, May 26 - The highlight of Friday was our trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore' Inner Harbor. First of all, the Harbor is fantastic. If Buffalo could revitalize their Lake Erie port area like Baltimore has done with their harbor, the city might just come alive again. The best part of the Aquarium was the four-story circular area rising up from their shark and manta ray pool. Amazing architecture combined with all manner of marine life and hanging skeletons (including a whale skeleton that spanned several floors. Just amazing. You could spend an entire day in that one section. The dolphin show was okay, but not spectacular, but the frog room was very cool. I never knew there were so many different types of frogs. I had only one panel on Friday, and it was a gaming panel titled: Is there More to Role-Playing than Medieval Fantasy. It was a fun panel and I got to see one of my many friends in attendance, Mike McPhail, who has asked me to submit a story for his next anthology. Later, I attended the Guest Reception in the Art Show room. I cannot tell you how much I was blown away by the art of Lisa Snellings-Clark, the artist GoH. It is some of the most imaginative and disturbing artwork I've ever seen. That night we all slept well in our enormous suite at the Chase Suites. This is a small chain of apartment-like motels with huge amounts of space and a full kitchen. We will definitely look for Chase Suites during our travels in the future. Saturday, May 27 - Saturday was the day of my Cardinal Crimson book launch and much of the day was spent getting ready for that event. The bad news about Balticon 40 was that the AC didn't get turned on in time to actually cool down the panel rooms before the end of the weekend, so it was sweltering during the book launch and I probably looked like a drowned rat by the end. but it was a lot of fun. We had about a dozen people attend even though I was up against the Neil Gaiman autograph session. I read from the book a couple of times and talked about my life as a writer. We sold seven copies at the end of the hour and I signed them all. Other highlights from Saturday included the collaboration panel with all of the Guests of Honor. I attended this one to listen to Neil Gaiman and I wasn't disappointed. He told some great stories, including one about the writing of Good Omens with Terry Pratchett. He also talked a little about his next children's book, titled The Graveyard, which is a story about a baby raised by ghosts in a graveyard (a la Mowgli, who was raised by animals in The Jungle Book). I loved Coraline, so I am really looking forward to The Graveyard. I sat on two panels as well on Saturday. Separating Villains from Heroes was a lot of un because I got to re-connect with Jeff Lyman, a fellow author on the No Longer Dreams anthology and talk about villains and anti-heroes, one of my favorite panel subjects. Games as a Gateway to Literature was also a lot of fun. At one point we all went around the room and talked about the book that had turned us into geeks (I mean, SFF readers). For me, it was The Hobbit (see the About Me page for that story) Sunday, May 28 - On Sunday, I got to talk abotu how Publishing is Changing for Authors with my good friend Danielle-Ackley McPhail (editor of the No Longer Dreams anthology) and I had a reading at 7 p.m. I read "On the Off-Ramp of the Inter-Galactic Superhighway," my pulpy story for the Golden Age SF: Tales of a Bygone Future anthology to small but rapt audience. one of the new friends I met that weekend, Richard A. Lovett, a California author I need to look up now that we share a coast, attended and really enjoyed the story. He said one part (that I had worried about from a technical standpoint) really worked for him. This made my heart leap for joy, for as a member of the Analog Mafia (a group of writers who have appeared in Analog a lot), Richard should know a thing or two about hard SF. David Goldstein (a member of the Danielle Ackley-McPhail listserv) and one other fan who had come to the Cardinal Crimson book launch also attended the reading and commented that the story kept them guessing up to the end. Monday, May 29 - We headed out early for the nine-hour drive home, so there was only time to say good bye to my many friends. It was bittersweet because at that point, already knew I might be moving and that it might be a long time until I saw some of them again. So, that was my (probably) farewell appearance at Balticon. I loved this convention the last two years and wish I had found it earlier. It has a great crowd and a wonderful feel to it. I hope to make it back East to attend in the future, but we'll just have to see. |
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