Month: March 2019

Introduction

I attended the SF conference Cleveland ConCoction 2018 at 600 North Aurora Road Aurora, Ohio at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 9, 2018, to March 11, 2018. The 2019 convention was from March 1 to 3, 2019 and I realized when I wrote a recap for that conference, I had not posted a recap for the 2018 conference. This is a recap of the 2018 conference. I attended the opening ceremony, five panels, two author showcases, a performance, and the closing ceremony. I also volunteered in the ConSuite for eight hours.

Cleveland ConCoction Banner

Cleveland ConCoction 2018 Program Guide Cover

The link to the ConCoction website.

http://www.clevelandconcoction.org/

Picture of my badge from Cleveland ConCoction 2018

Summary

Friday, March 9th at 5 PM

Opening Ceremonies

Mogchelle, the mistress of ceremonies, started the event. She introduced the Con Co-chairs Laura and Stan. Sean Owen Roberts was the Media Guest of Honor and Seanan McGuire was the Author Guest of Honor. The Harp Twins were the Music Guest of Honor. Knightmage was the Cosplay Guest of Honor and Stitches was the Fan Cosplay Guest of Honor. The event was a chance to meet the Guests of Honor before they took part in the weekend events.

They held the ceremonies in the McKinley A Room.

Friday, March 9th at 6 PM

Author Showcase (Session 1)

Five authors read from their works. They were all different and interesting.

J. Thorn read a scene from his novel Barren. It was about the protagonist on a sailboat near Kelly’s Island in a post-apocalyptic world.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35282947-barren

Vik Walker read from the novel The Crystal Dragon of Nital. It’s a humorous middle-grade book about the adventures of Nathan and Zozz, his cat-like being friend.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34769784-the-crystal-dragon-of-nital

Geoffrey Landis read his short story called Chatbot and the Drone. It’s about the conversation between a Chatbot and a Drone.

They published it in the July 2014 issue of Communications of the ACM, linked below.

https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2014/7/176207-future-tense-the-chatbot-and-the-drone/abstract

Marie Vibbert read the short story called Flying Cars.

http://www.marievibbert.com/

Olivia Berrier read from her novel A Book Without Dragons. The novel uses five different points of view.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29456965-a-book-without-dragons

They held the panel in the Presidential Boardroom with 6 attendees.

Friday, March 9th at 7 PM

Villains, More Than Just Black Hats, a panel with Addie King, Barbara Doran, Brent Seth, J. D. Blackrose, and Cindy Matthews.

The panel sat at the end of the table farthest from the window and the attendees sat at the other end of the table. Examples of good villains are Darth Vader (not in the prequel movies), Voldemort (from Harry Potter), and Cersai (from Game of Thrones).

They held the panel in the Presidential Boardroom with 14 attendees.

Saturday, March 10th from 9 AM to 5 PM

I volunteered in the ConSuite Department for eight hours on Saturday. The ConSuite in 2018 at The Bertram differed from 2017 when the con was at the Sheraton at the Airport. The ConSuite was in a back bar at the Sheraton. The new area, the Garfield ballroom, is a nicer and light-filled windowed open space.

Saturday, March 10th at 7 PM

Elevator Pitch and Publishing Expectations Tutorial, a panel with Adrian Matthews, Addie King, Weston Kincade, Mary Turzillo, and Geoffrey Landis.

An Elevator Pitch explains the essence of a novel. The idea is to give the pitch to someone who could be interested in representing your book in the time it would take an elevator to go six floors. Suggestions were to not use character names in a pitch and to get the pitch down to one sentence. I presented my pitch for my novel in process, Assassin in New Marl City. The panel understood my pitch, but Geoffrey Landis suggested that I not use the phrase telepathic detective, since deception would not fool a telepath. It was a good suggestion. I revised it to a mind-reading detective since a mind reader is more constricted than a telepath.

They held the panel in the McKinley B Room with 9 attendees.

Saturday, March 10th at 8 PM

The Performance of the Letter of the Travails of Victor Frankenstein (While at University)

This was a performance staged by the Confused Greenies from the Player’s Patchwork Theater Company. The story was a humorous tale of a young Victor Frankenstein working on a special extra credit project at University (the monster).

They held the performance in the McKinley A Room with 20 attendees.

Saturday, March 10th at 9 PM

Flash Fiction, a panel with Addie King, Marie Vibbert, Megan Engelhardt, Olivia Berrier, Weston Kincade, and Josef Matulich

The best way to find a potential market for flash fiction is the submission grinder. Some markets are Apex, Daily Science Fiction, Everyday Fiction, and 101 Fiction. Flash fiction is short, has a high concept, and has an implied ending. They suggested reading the story aloud to see if it worked.

Examples of one line flash fiction follow. “Baby shoes for sale, never worn.” “I put a ring on her finger and pulled the pin.” “The last man on earth sits in a room and hears a knock.”

They held the panel in the McKinley B Room with 11 attendees.

Sunday, March 11th at 10 AM

Publishing in the 21^st Century, a panel with Addie King, Linda Robertson, Daniel Willis, and Weston Kincade.

Addie King was the moderator of the panel and handed out a printed power point presentation on the topic. The two paths to publishing are novels and short stories. Traditional, small press, vanity, or self-publishing can publish novels. For novel publication, get an agent to represent you by following submission guidelines and submitting a query letter with a synopsis. She handed out examples of her query letter and synopsis. For short stories, find markets and submit stories with a cover letter. Resources for finding markets are Ralan.com, Duotrope.com, and Locus magazine at locusmag.com. Understand what rights you are giving in any contract you sign. Don’t quit your day job. Write to have a career, not a one hit wonder.

They held the panel in the McKinley B Room with 6 attendees.

Sunday, March 11th at 12 PM

Author Showcase (Session 6)

Four authors read from their works.

Mackenzie Flohr read from her novel Rite of Abnegation, the soon to be published book #2 in the Rite of Wands series.

https://mackenzieflohrblog.wordpress.com/

Adrian Matthews read from his novel Fire on the Sands (Book #1 of a prequel series to the BloodDark series)

http://adrianjmatthews.blogspot.com/

Cindy Matthews read from her novel Olivia’s Return (BloodDark Book #2)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34197040-olivia-s-return

Mary Turzillo read from her NaNoWriMo project titled “Cat, Sword, Dragon”.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7849252.Mary_Turzillo

They held the panel in the Presidential Boardroom with 8 attendees.

Sunday, March 11th at 1 PM

Marketing, an Author’s Best Friend, a panel with Weston Kincade, Marcus Calvert, Olivia Berrier, Sara Dobie Bauer, and Troy Maynard.

The panelists gave advice about marketing yourself and your work. Create an author platform for an online presence, make yourself an LLC, use Amazon Marketing, Facebook snippets, Instagram, and Bookbub. Consider using a professional web design for your website and use a professional photographer for your author picture. Buy bookmarks, business cards, and items to give away free at conventions related to yourself and your works.

They held the panel in the Presidential Boardroom with 5 attendees.

Sunday, March 11th at 2 PM

Closing Ceremonies

The Guests of Honor were presented and thanked.

They held the panel in the McKinley A Room with 25 attendees.

Recommendation – Conclusion

I had a great time at Cleveland ConCoction 2018. The location was different. It was better for me and the parking was free. I worked eight hours straight in the ConSuite and I don’t plan on doing that again because I missed events I wanted to see and it was too exhausting to work in one block of time. My star of the con was Addie King. I attended four panels where she was a panelist and I liked her handouts for publishing. My other highlights were the performance by the Confused Greenies and Geoffrey Landis’s comments on my elevator pitch. I attended Cleveland ConCoction in 2019 and I bought my pass for 2020.

Links

The most recent SF conference I attended was Cleveland ConCoction 2019 at 600 North Aurora Road Aurora, Ohio at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 1 to 3, 2019. I attended the opening ceremony, four panels, and the closing ceremony. I also volunteered in the Programming Department for four hours and in the ConSuite for four hours. This is a link to my conference recap.

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2019

Introduction

I attended the SF conference called Cleveland ConCoction at 600 North Aurora Road Aurora, Ohio at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 1 to 3, 2019. I attended the opening ceremony, four panels, and the closing ceremony. I also volunteered in the Programming Department for four hours and in the ConSuite for four hours.

ConCoction Banner

ConCoction 2019 Program Guide Cover

The link to the ConCoction website.

http://www.clevelandconcoction.org/

Bertram Inn and Conference Center

Summary

Friday, March 1 at 2 PM

Writing a Story in Three Parts, a panel with Addie J. King:

She handed out a copy of a PowerPoint presentation with 27 slides titled Telling a Story in Three Parts. The three parts of a story are the beginning, the middle, and the end. She plans the first third of her novel and has a roadmap for the rest of the novel so she can improvise the ending since the story could end up at a different spot than the original idea. First, she suggests creating a concept which is the coolest thing about the story written in one sentence. Then figure out the conflict and develop three-part story arcs. There should be multiple story arcs in a novel. Write one sentence for the start, middle, and resolution for each arc. She went over examples from her fiction and in other fiction. She suggested resources for writing.

Her website is https://addiejking.com/

She is the author of the Grimm Legacy series and the Hochenwalt Files series linked below.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13848293-the-grimm-legacy

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26850087-shades-of-gray

They held the panel in the Pegasus Room with 12 attendees.

Friday, March 1 at 4 PM

Outlining Your Novel, a panel with Malcolm Wood.

The panelist found out he was throwing way too much of his work because he had too many false starts, so he tried something different. Outlining your novel gives the author a roadmap to keep you going where you want to go. He took a 3-ring binder for each of his novels and put his research and notes into it. A novel starts with an idea and he made a sheet for the idea. Main character sheets come next. The idea and the characters lead to a situation. You build scenes on index cards and you refine the plot. In the beginning, you state the problem, in the middle are the plot complications, and at the end, you fulfill the promises created at the beginning. You can create a plot outline. He handed out an example for his novel named Trash. Each scene has a POV character, an event or action description, a location or a setting, a date for when the events occurred, and the chapter where the scene occurs. Now you can write the novel from the beginning to the end without false starts and dead ends. He also showed us one of his completed notebooks. His method gives a more structured way of creating a novel than the method described by Addie J. King in the earlier panel.

His website is http://www.malcolm-wood.com/Welcome.html

They held the panel in the McKinley B Room with 6 attendees.

Friday, March 1 at 5 PM

The Opening Ceremonies

The Con Co-chair, Laura, opened the ceremonies. She introduced the media guest of honor Jim O’Rear, next was the EmCee from asklovecraft.com, Leeman Kessler, and then the artist guest of honor, Stephen Hickman. The cosplay guests of honor were Knightmage and Nerd Girl. The gaming guests of honor from Rogue Cthulhu were last introduced. Con co-chair Stan finished the program by turning his smiley face tee-shirt to a frown with a permanent marker to fit the theme of the con ‘It came from the dark side of the…’ more closely. It was nice to see the guests up close and personal to start off the Con.

They held the ceremonies in the McKinley B Room with 40 attendees.

Saturday, March 2 at 4 PM

Mars Needs Love, a panel with substitute panelist Geoffrey Landis.

Geoffrey Landis is a scientist who works for NASA Glenn on projects such as scientific probes going to Mars including the photovoltaic cells used by the probes. He is also an award-winning hard science fiction writer. He started the panel talking about the current situation in Mars probes. The Opportunity rover’s last contact was on June 10, 2018, before a dust storm and NASA declared the mission complete on February 13, 2019. The Curiosity rover and the Insight lander are still operational. The European-Russian rover named Rosalind Franklin is scheduled to launch in 2020 and the American rover named Mars 2020 is also scheduled to launch in 2020. NASA’s plan is to send a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s, but no money is associated with that directive. A Dutch commercial venture named Mars One formed in 2011 planned to send a one-way manned mission to Mars and set up a colony but went bankrupt on January 10, 2019. The mission was flawed. The talk went on to other space-related topics. In the long term, it’s critical to develop a practical economic model for space. One route is to mine platinum from asteroids. He talked about examples of  Mars in books and movies. This was a great impromptu talk that covered a lot of interesting topics.

Geoffrey Landis’s website is http://www.geoffreylandis.com/

They held the panel in the Pegasus Room with 10 attendees.

Saturday, March 2 from 5 PM to 9 PM

I volunteered in the Programming Department for four hours on Saturday.

When there were ten minutes remaining in the program, I went to each of the programs. I held up a sign to show to the panelists there were ten minutes left to go in the program. I also counted the number of panelists and attendees at each panel. They stationed me in the green room, a room where the panelists could go to relax, to help them as needed. I worked with Lisa and her two kids. It was fun, and I learned something new.

Saturday, March 2 at 9 PM

Time Travel in your Writing: It’s About Time, a panel with Cindy Matthews, J.L. Gribble, Geoffrey Landis, and Carma Haley Shoemaker.

The panelists started the panel by naming their favorite examples of time travel in books, TV, or movies. They were Legends of Tomorrow airing on the CW network, Supernatural also airing on the CW network, The novel The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, The novel Time after Time by Karl Alexander (and the show airing on ABC), and the short story All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein. Things to think about when designing a time travel story are the opportunity to change time and the Butterfly effect where a small change in initial conditions leads to a significant result.

Geoffrey Landis stated four reasons that time travel stories are intriguing.

1. The setting because the past is exotic.
2. Adventure
3. The nature of paradox
4. Playing the what if game.

Time travel stories work well for sending a contemporary person to the past or future to compare it to today. The best and most used time travel mechanism today is the wormhole because it can act as a portal to anywhere.

The website recommended by the panel was http://timetravelnexus.com/

The articles on the site cover time travel found in TV, books, film, audio, and comics. It is a great website that covers this topic well.

They held the panel in the McKinley B Room with 10 attendees.

Sunday, March 3 from 10 AM to 2 PM

I volunteered in the ConSuite Department for four hours on Sunday.

My responsibilities were to set out food and clean up the ConSuite. They put a deli tray out before I arrived and we put the trays away throughout the day. We put out chips and pop as needed, but our main function seemed to keep making coffee. There was always a new pot brewing. The ConSuite closed down at 2 PM, so I helped break down the shelves and put items out for the hotel to store away. I worked with Badger and Chris. This was the third year I volunteered in the ConSuite and I have enjoyed helping every year. I plan to help again next year.

Sunday, March 3 from 2 PM

The Closing Ceremonies

The co-chair Laura and Stann announced the theme and date for next year’s con. Next year’s theme is MeeplePunk, all things to do with cyberpunk (SF subgenre focused on a mix of lowlife and high tech) and meeples (gaming pieces shaped like people and animals used in Euro-style board games). They will hold ConCoction 2019 at the Bertram Inn from March 6 to 8, 2020. The audience applauded the guests of honor Jim O’Rear, Knightmage, and Nerd Girl. They made a volunteer shoutout. The Con was closed until next year.

They held the ceremonies in the McKinley B Room with 38 attendees

Recommendation – Conclusion

I had a great experience at ConCoction 2019. The Bertram Conference center is nice. The only problem I encountered was that half of the activities are in another building. It was cold this time of the year traveling between the buildings. The Bertram is much better than the Conference’s earlier location at the Sheraton Hotel at the Airport. My star of the con was Geoffrey Landis. He substituted at the last minute to give a solo panel on Mars and was engaging in the Time Travel panel I attended. My other highlights were the writing talks that Addie J. King and Malcolm Wood gave. I’m planning on attending next year.

Links

A recent SF conference I attended was ConFusion in Detroit, Michigan from January 18 to 20, 2019. The theme of the con was Storming the ConFusion, so they designated the areas with names related to the movie, The Princess Bride. I had a great drive to Detroit just before the snowstorm struck. My star of the con was John Scalzi. He gave an excellent reading and was engaging in the panel I attended. My other highlights were Ada Palmer’s interview and watching The Princess Bride at the con. I’ll be back next year.

This is a link to my recap of the con.

Conference Recap ConFusion Detroit 2019