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.
- The setting because the past is exotic.
- Adventure
- The nature of paradox
- 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.