Balticon 39 ReportMay 27-30, 2005Friday, May 27 - After a too-long car trip on Thursday (with the kids) that got us into Baltimore at 2 a.m., we awoke on Friday morning later than I would have liked for our planned family day-trip to D.C. Then, our trip troubles returned as we forgot our directions and ended up driving around Baltimore for an hour just trying to find our way to a freeway that would take us out of the city. We returned to the hotel, retrived the directions and set out again. The rest of the day went well. We easily found our way to Union Station in D.C., bought five tickets for the little red trolley to take us around our nation's capital and had a wonderful day seeing the Capital Dome, the White House, Ford's Theater, the Lincoln Memorial, the WWII memorial, Washington Monument, the Air and Space Museum, and The Wall. My two favorite parts of the day were taking a leisurely walk by the reflecting pool and The Wall. We literally walked at a baby duck's pace from the Lincoln Memorial to the WWII Memorial as my daughter followed a family of ducks the entire length of the Reflecting Pool. The Wall was just awe-inspiring. I could feel the power of the place as soon as we rounded the corner of the path and started down into that well of souls. At the Lincoln Memorial there were signs saying "Please be silent out of respect." No such signs were needed at The Wall. After showing my boys the Apollo Command Module, the Lunar Lander, the Spirit of St. Louis, and the Wright Brother's Kitty Hawk biplane at the Air and Space Museum, we took the red trolley back to Union Station and drove back to Baltimore. We only had time to check in at Con Registration and take a quick tour through the Dealer's Room, but I got to see some of my good friends like Danielle Ackley-McPhail and Tony Ruggiero before retiring to the room for some much-needed sleep. Saturday, May 28 - By Saturday morning, I was feeling more rested and headed down for my first panel. It was on "Schools of Magic." the other panelists were Peter Prellwitz, a new author who was saddled with moderating because our moderator couldn't make it, and several writers from the No Longer Dreams anthology - Jeff Lyman, Tee Morris, and Darrell Schweitzer. If you know Darrell and Tee, then you know that Peter had his hands full with this panel They both are full of information and prolific talkers. But Peter handled his duties like a seasoned professional, and it turned out to be one of the panels of the weekend for me. All five writers contributed to the discussion equally and the room was packed (the definition of a good panel, for me). We discussed everything from where does Magic come from (external, internal, divine), to how do you control the power of Magic in your stories, and how do you avoid deus ex machina (or McGuyver) problems where Magic is used as a cure-all. I then had about four hours to kill before the No Longer Dreams Launch party. I spend a considerable amount of that time talking to Peter Prellwitz (whom you can no find on my friends page) and Tee Morris in the Dealer's Room. As luck would have it, their booths were right next to one another. I even bought Peter's debut novel, Horizons, and am enjoying it right now. He's a good egg and one heck of a writer, considering this is his first published novel. Tee was, as always, ebullient. He showed off pictures of his baby and we talked about conventions, new books, and places to see in Washington D.C. when I bring the family down for next year's Balticon. Then it was time for the launch party. Again, the room was packed. We had a ton of food, including desert sushi made from Twinkies and Fruit by the Foot (provided by my wife, Daneen). At least a dozen of the authors were on hand, along with a couple of the artists from the book. Most of us read a short passage from our stories while the audience ate and Danielle sold copies of the book. It was hugely successful, and I think that Danielle did a fantastic job with the party as well as putting together an excellent anthology. My next two panels were just a little odd. First, I was put on a panel about the future of multiple (group) marriages in the U.S. Apparently the program coordinator read my "In Defense of Marriage" sermon and thought I would be a good addition to the panel. I was, basically, the token monogamous married guy on the panel. But the topic was very interesting, and I could see myself using some of panelists and audience members as characters in future stories. After the multiple marriages panel, I went to sit on a Game Design panel with Mike McPhail (Danielle's husband). It was an interesting topic and I had good information to impart, but it was up against the masquerade and had been misprinted in the pocket program as being an hour later in a different room. Needless to say, we had no audience. The Saturday night parties were a little dull, but I eventually hooked up with Jane Jewell, the nicest lady in Science Fiction, at the Space Party. Jane is the Executive Director of SFWA (the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) and was a great help to me a few years back when my SFWA membership disappeared into the aether. Jane, Peter Heck, and I talked for a couple of hours on subjects ranging from the new Star Wars movie (which we all felt was the best of the three prequels but still not up to the standards of the original movies), to the war and continuing hostilities in Iraq and the state of the democratic party. It was the kind of exhilirating conversation I have come to expect from a science fiction convention. Sunday, May 29 - After a late night discussing movies and politics, I dragged myself out of bed on Sunday morning for my 10 a.m. reading. Unfortunately, the hangover hour is not conducive to readings held in the farthest corner of the convention meeting rooms, and nobody showed up. So, with many hours to kill before my next panel on Sunday evening, I wandered the convention to see what was happening. My first stop was the Sleuthing and Crime-Solving Panel. The room was packed so I sat in back and listened to CJ Henderson, my new friend Peter Prellwitz, and Tamara Siler Jones, winner of the 2004 Compton Crook award discuss how to combine detective fiction with science fiction. It was fascinating and even thought Henderson was the main draw of this panel and is a dominating force in a conversation, Prellwitz and Jones kept up with him. Of course, the most memorable quotes came from CJ Henderson. My favorite was: "Science Fiction is a thinking man's field." After this panel, I spent more time in the dealer room talking with Tee Morris and Peter Prellwitz. Tee and I reminisced about my first convention, Astronomicon in 2002. I met Tee, Danielle, Walter Hunt, and Rob Sawyer all at this first convention. All of whom have become good friends. I also bought Peter's novel, Horizons, which I have since read and thoroughly enjoyed. He is an excellent story-teller and I was drawn into the book from the very first paragraph and couldn't put it down. Peter is writing for a small publisher right now, but his work is as good as any of the toplist authors I have read in the last few years. Later on, I took my two boys to the Drawing Dinosaurs with Bob kid's panel. Bob was Artist Guest of Honor Bob Eggleton, who sat in front of a dozen kids and drew dinosaurs for them, trying to teach them a little about actual dinosaur physiology as well as how to draw the cool bits. I must say that Bob Eggleton is a very brave man. Young kids (boys epecially) know a lot about dinosaurs, and are not shy about sharing their knowledge and their opinions. Even with constant interruptions, Bob drew a number of wonderful dinosaur sketches and never lost his cool with the precocious bunch of kids. Best moment of this session was when my boy, Ian showed Bob his Triceratops drawing, and Bob autographed it. That picture is now framed and hanging in our home. I don;'t know about Bob, but I needed a break after this session, so stopped in the Green Room for a soda and some snacks. While there, I got pulled into a game of Loot, which is a new card game by famed game designer Reiner Knizia. This is a FUN game; one of the best card games I've played in a long time. It is easy to learn but the strategies involved care complex (especially as more people get into the game). I had a blast and used some late-strategy to win my first game. I had two panels Sunday evening, and both were well-atteneded. The first was on Writing Groups. I was the moderator. On the panel with me were fellow No Longer Dreams authors Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Jeff Lyman, and L. Jagi Lamplighter, as well as Dr. Carl Frederick, who has published extensively in Analog. Dr. Frederick uses Critters, an online writer's group, for his critiquing needs. He had a lot of praise for this group. Also mentioned were Hatrack River, the Orson Scott Card website, which runs an online writing group, and Danielle's Yesterday's Dreamers group, which is an online discussion group for writers and readers, which also runs critique sessions on a regular basis. My last panel of the convention was The Series You're Reading Right Now. I got to sit with an old friend of mine, Keith DeCandido, a well-known author of Star Trek novels who also has written the novelization of the upcoming Serenity movie (way too cool). And I also got to meet Tamora Pierce. This panel was a great trip down memory lane, as we all talked about book series that we have read and loved, and why some work and others suffer, as Keith called it, "Series Fatigue." The best quote of the convention, though was when were discussing the death of beloved characters in SFF series. Someone in the audience asked "What's so good about people dying?" to which Tamora replied, "It's not good. It's just normal." Sunday's parties were a little more lively, but still don't compare to the room parties at Arisia (one of my favorite convention, which is in January in Boston). I spent most of my evening talking with Diane Weinstein in Chicago Bid Party (Chicago and Columbus are bidding on the 2008 WorldCon). Diane is an amazing person who has led quite an interesting life. We talked about conventions good and bad, life in fandom, and the problems with the democratic party (again). I guess the nearness of Washington D.C. made me more politically philosophical than normal this weekend. Monday, May 30 - I awoke even later on Monday morning and, since I had no more panels, got going pretty slowly. I did have time to spend one last hour in the Dealer room talking with Peter and Tee, and got to say goodbye to all of my friends. But the coolest thing that happened on Monday morning was taping an hour-long podcast with Tee Morris. We talked about writing, movies, books we love, and much more. As soon as this podcast airs online, I will point to it from my front page. Then it was back on the long road home. We stopped in Hershey, Pennsylvania on the way back and spent a couple hours in Chocolate World. The kids had fun, and I have to admit that the tour was pretty interesting (although it was hard to think with the chocolate fumes permeating my nostrils. I think I salivated all the way to the checkout line. All in all, an excellent convetion experience. I will definitely go back to Balticon again next year. |
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