Tag: science fiction conference

Confluence SF Conference Pittsburgh 2020

Confluence SF Conference Pittsburgh 2020

Introduction

They canceled Confluence SF Conference Pittsburgh 2020 because of COVID-19. They had planned to hold confluence 2020 from July 24 to 26, 2020 with author guest of honor Martha Wells. I plan to go to Confluence from July 23 to July 25, 2021. They held a virtual conference called C’monfluence the Novelization 2020, from October 2 to October 4. The Guest of Honor was Martha Wells. I attended the conference virtually. Programming began on Friday, October 2 at 10 AM and concluded on Sunday, October 4 at 4:25 PM.

I also attended the conference in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. The Parsec organization of Pittsburgh runs the literary science fiction, fantasy, and horror conference. The events included panels, readings, interviews, writing workshops, and filk concerts. They held the conference on four tracks, so they held up to four activities at the same time. They held each event on Zoom, and the attendees had to register for each event to attend the event. I attended the opening ceremony, five panels, three readings, one presentation, the guest of honor presentation, and the conference breakdown.

Confluence SF Conference Pittsburgh 2020

Videos of the conference are found at the confluence-SFF you tube channel linked below.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC37uvCJAKMsSf2rh-NlBDSQ/videos

The link to the Confluence website.

http://parsec-sff.org/confluence/

Summary for Confluence SF Conference Pittsburgh 2020

Friday, October 2nd at 7 PM

A reading by Marie Vibbert.

Marie read from her novel Galactic Hellcats, which will be released in March 2021. The novel is a story about a female biker gang in outer space, saving a gay prince.

She read four chapters that she selected because each introduced one of her four principal characters; Key, Margo, Zuaka, and the Prince.

The reading had a lot of action and the characters were distinctive. Sounds like a fun book to read next year.

This is the Goodreads link to Galactic Hellcats.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53388150-galactic-hellcats

They held the reading on Track 3: Kish Karad with 15 attendees.

Friday, October 2nd at 9 PM

The opening ceremonies featuring Guest of Honor, Martha Wells.

Kevin Hayes introduced Martha Wells and read her bio. Diane Turnshek talked about the anthology book Triangulation: Extinction which she edited and was sponsored by the Parsec group which is also a sponsor of Confluence. Kevin read off the planned events for the conference. Karen Yun-Lutz mentioned that SFWA is a sponsor for the conference. Greg Clumpner talked about the forums on Discord which were open for panelists and attendees to mingle on when they were not attending an activity.

The opening presentation ended with a short interview with Martha Wells. Martha said she wrote the first book in the Murderbot series because she needed some place to put her anger. She said it disappointed her that they postponed the conference in July because she had wanted to explore sites in Pittsburgh this year. She said she had been to Pittsburgh twice to attend the Nebula Awards, but hadn’t had the opportunity to explore the city at that time.

They held the opening ceremonies on Track 1: Sanctuary Moon.

Saturday, October 3rd at 10:30 AM

A Reading by Brandon McNulty.

Brandon read three chapters from his novel Bad Parts that was published on June 23, 2020. It is subtitled a supernatural thriller. In chapter one, Mac is 70 years old and has failing kidneys. In chapter two, Ash Hudson is the lead guitar player in a heavy metal band named Bad Parts. She has to find her lead singer and replace her rhythm guitarist to play the show they have scheduled for that night. In chapter three, they play the show and load up their gear in the van. Some scary dude tails them. How are they going to getaway?

It sounds like an interesting book. I have put it on my want-to-read list on Goodreads.

Confluence SF Conference Pittsburgh 2020

This is the Goodreads link for Bad Parts.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53447482-bad-parts

They held the reading on Track 3: Kish Karad with 6 attendees.

Saturday, October 3rd at 12 PM

Where Does Your World Come From? Panel with Michelle Sagara. Joe Haldeman, Aliette de Bodard, and Tobias Buckell.

Michelle Sagara was the moderator. Her first question to the panel was; where do your worlds come from? They talked about how they got their ideas. Do you build the story to the world or do you build the world to the story? It comes down to the concept that world-building and characterization are intertwined. How had your education, other work experiences, and travel influenced your writing? The answers show that their background influences their writing. How has the pandemic affected your writing? Inconclusive. Is there a difference in world-building between a short story versus a novel? The answers varied.

The moderator’s questions were interesting and the responses from the panel were instructive to an attendee who is a writer.

They held the panel on Track 1: Sanctuary Moon.

This is a link for the you tube video for the panel.

Saturday, October 3rd at 2 PM

The Business of Writing panel with Gay Haldeman, Neil Clarke, Gail Carriger, Tamora Pierce, and Herb Kauderer.

Gay Haldeman was the moderator. She asked questions about the business of writing. The panel related their experiences. Some interesting responses followed. Read your contracts. Don’t be discouraged by rejections. Review guidelines when submitting work every time. Consider Patreon. Work on your social media platform. Everything is tax deductible for a writer. When submitting short fiction start at the top of the market and work your way down. Most agents and editors want a rewrite, so be ready for the rewrite and be flexible. Set up a literary estate.

They held the panel on Track 1: Sanctuary Moon.

This is a link for the you tube video for the panel.

Saturday, October 3rd at 3 PM

An interview with Guest of Honor Martha Wells conducted by Wenmimareba Klobah Collins.

Wenmimareba asks Martha questions, and she answered them. Martha talked about the differences in writing Murderbot, an SF story, in close first person, and her fantasy stories in the third person. She takes about three months to write a Murderbot novella. Fugitive Telemetry is finished, and she doesn’t know what she will write next. Martha doesn’t enjoy plotting; she writes as a pantser. She doesn’t want to figure out too much beforehand because she doesn’t want to get bored with the story before she finishes it.

The interviewer asked for the author’s book recommendations. Some recommendations were: Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo, and The Best of all Possible Worlds by Karen Lord.

I enjoyed getting to know more about the author’s writing process and thoughts about writing.

They held the interview on Track 1: Sanctuary Moon.

This is a link for the you tube video for the interview.

Saturday, October 3rd at 4 PM

A reading by Guest of Honor Martha Wells.

Martha Wells read from her novella, Fugitive Telemetry.

Fugitive Telemetry is a prequel to the Murderbot novel, Network Effect.

She read Chapter One of the novella first. Dr. Mensa has hired Murderbot as a consultant for her on Preservation Station. There has been a murder and Murderbot evaluates the scene.

She read Chapter Three next. Murderbot has to connect to the Preservation Station network and must tell as little of the truth as Murderbot can. This is Murderbot’s first job as a consultant. At the end of the meeting, Murderbot walks with Dr. Mensa.

The channel moderator asked two questions with the time remaining. Martha talked about how her Murderbot short story from May 2020 on Tor.com (Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory) was given to people who pre-ordered Network Effect.

The reason she wrote this prequel was because she wanted to show how Preservation Station would function with Sec Unit Murderbot working as a consultant.

Confluence SF Conference Pittsburgh 2020

This is the link to Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries #6) by Martha Wells, published on April 27, 2021.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53205854-fugitive-telemetry

They held the reading on Track 1: Sanctuary Moon with 45 attendees at the start building to a maximum of 58 attendees.

Saturday, October 3rd at 5 PM

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants panel with Marie Vibbert, Joe Haldeman, Bud Sparhawk, and Steven H. Silver.

Marie Vibbert was the moderator. A few questions posed as follows. Is there an SF canon? The answer is; There is a canon, but it doesn’t matter anymore, because the next generation responds to the ideas of the canon without reading the canon. Do you read outside the genre? Reading outside the genre helps you to grow as a writer.

At the end of the panel, they fielded questions from the audience. What are the examples of the lost works of early SF? Examples are Clare Winger Harris and Stanley G. Weinbaum. Who are the giants now? Some authors mentioned were N. K. Jemisin, Martha Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Rebecca Roanhorse.

I checked out a letter that Clare Winger Harris wrote to Wonder Stories in August 1938 on her sixteen plots in SF. Interesting reading. I found a link below.

http://www.openculture.com/2020/08/every-possible-kind-of-science-fiction-story-1931.html

Confluence SF Conference Pittsburgh 2020

I took The Artificial Man and other Stories by Clare Winger Harris out from the library. It collects ten of her best short stories. Goodreads link below.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44304225-the-artificial-man-and-other-stories

They held the panel on Track 1: Sanctuary Moon.

This is a link for the you tube video for the panel.

Sunday, October 4th at 10 AM

I Sing the Plotting Electric panel with Geoffrey Landis, Bud Sparhawk, Joe Haldeman, Bo Balder, and Scot Noel.

Geoffrey Landis was the moderator. He asked the questions, and the panel gave the answers. The panel was a look at the resurgence of space opera. Space opera came from the pulp SF stories of authors like E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith, Edmond Hamilton, Leigh Brackett, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. The term was an extrapolation of the western horse opera to the SF space opera. It began as a derogatory term, but that changed over time as more authors used the trope.

Why do you think there has been a resurgence of space opera? There is a frontier feeling to the stories, a chance for the characters to reinvent their selves. It brings back an old-style plot, good versus evil. With commercial space opening up with Space-X and Virgin Galactic, it stimulates the need for space opera.

They held the panel on Track 2: Opal Night with 28 attendees.

Sunday, October 4th at 11 AM

Let’s get series-ish panel with Michelle Sagara, Martha Wells, Robert Angell, and Jennifer Foehner.

Robert Angell was the moderator. He asked questions, and the panel answered them. What are the pitfalls and pluses? What is it about the stories that dictate the need for more stories? Do the characters demand it, or is there just no end to plots?

They held the panel on Track 1: Sanctuary Moon.

Sunday, October 4th at 1 PM

Mission to Triton presentation given by Geoffrey Landis.

Geoffrey Landis is an aerospace engineer who works for NASA. He presented his proposed future mission to Triton, the largest moon of Neptune. It is an interesting moon that has only been visited once on a fly-by from the Voyager-2 probe in 1989. Triton might be like Pluto, a captured Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) created when the solar system formed. Triton’s mountains are made of water ice, it orbits Neptune in a retrograde orbit, and its pink color is from complex organic molecules on its surface.

When brainstorming the project, he determined that the mission should use the resources of Triton for a long term mission. The vehicle will land on Triton and hop from site to site using a radioisotope powered rocket. Each probe hop would be 5 km each and use Nitrogen as fuel. The probe will do core drills in the Nitrogen ice and test the cores.

The presentation ended with questions from the audience.

They held the presentation on Track 1: Sanctuary Moon.

This is a link for the you tube video for the presentation.

Sunday, October 4th at 4 PM

C’monfluence Breakdown with the Con Committee; Karen Yun-Lutz, Kevin Hayes, John Thompson, Heidi Pilewski, and Diane Turnshek. Also, the tech guy, Greg Clumpner.

They learned a lot about presenting their first virtual conference. Discord was an essential area for discussion before and after the presentations.

There were some challenges. Panelists’ time zones were different, preventing Zoom bombers, and there wasn’t enough staff to monitor a potential Zoom meeting room. Time remaining flashes at the ten minutes and five minutes to go was distracting to the panelists and the attendees. The webinars went very well, the meetings were iffy, and the readings were bad, the lesson learned.

The Kaffeeklatsches had a 15-attendee max, but only 20% were full. Workshops were the most attended panels. A component of the next conference could be virtual because of the success this year of the virtual conference.

They held the presentation on Track 2: Opal Night with 21 attendees at the start building to 24 attendees.

Conclusion for Confluence SF Conference Pittsburgh 2020

I’m glad that they could hold the Confluence SF Conference Pittsburgh 2020 virtually. My star of the con was Guest of Honor, Martha Wells. I viewed her at the opening ceremonies, an interview, a reading, and on a panel. She was interesting and entertaining in every activity that I attended. She was named the Guest of Honor before they postponed the conference, and she remained the GOH for the virtual conference.

I attended the opening ceremony, five panels, three readings, one presentation, the guest of honor presentation, and the conference breakdown. My other highlights were the Triton Presentation by Geoffrey Landis and the SF influences panel. (because it led me to Clare Winger Harris’s sixteen SF plots.) I also attended Confluence in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 and plan to return in 2021. They will hold confluence 2021 from July 23 to 25, 2021.

Links for Confluence SF Conference Pittsburgh 2020

Recap for the Confluence SF Conference on July 30 and July 31, 2016, at the Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport Hotel. I attended 15 panels and the U.S.S. Improvise improv sketch comedy routine.

Confluence 2016 Conference

They held the Confluence Conference from August 4 to August 6, 2017, at the Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport Hotel. I attended seven panels, one writing workshop, one author reading, and the guests of honor presentation.

Confluence Conference 2017

They held the Confluence Conference from July 27, 2018, to July 29, 2018, at the Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport Hotel. I attended two lectures, two panels, one fiction writing seminar, one author reading, and the guest of honor presentation.

Confluence SF Conference Pittsburgh 2018

Recap for the Confluence SF Conference Pittsburgh on July 27 & 28, 2019, at the Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport Hotel. I also attended Confluence in 2016, 2017, and 2018. I attended five panels, two fiction writing workshops, and the guest of honor presentation.

Confluence Conference Pittsburgh 2019

Dragon Con Atlanta 2020

Dragon Con Atlanta 2020

Conference Recap Dragon Con Atlanta 2020

Introduction

They held Dragon Con Atlanta 2020 from September 3 to 7, 2020. This year with Covid-19, it was a virtual conference. I viewed 5 panels, 1 interview, and 2 Dragon Con updates. Three tracks could be viewed at the same time for 24 hours a day from 6:30 PM Thursday to 3:30 PM Monday. The tracks were the main track, a fan track, and a classic track (replays of taped panels from 2008 to 2019). It was a great opportunity for me because Atlanta is far away from me, and I am not likely to attend this con in person.

The Logo for Dragon Con Atlanta 2020.

Dragon Con Atlanta 2020

This is a link to Dragon Con’s website.

https://www.dragoncon.org/

Summary

Friday, September 4th, at 11 PM

Games of Thrones panel from 2015 on the Classic Track:

The panel’s moderator was Marc Lee. The panelists were actors from the Game of Thrones show Kristian Nairn (Hodor), Finn Jones (Loras Tyrell), and Julian Glover (Grand Maester Pycelle).

Kristian talked about filming in Iceland, Finn talked about performing a gay scene on his first day of shooting, and Julian talked about always playing the villain in movies, so he was never in the sequels.

I thought it was a fun panel and the panelists were engaging.

Saturday, September 5th, at 1 PM

John Scalzi: Tour of an Author’s Life (and Kitchen), an interview with John Scalzi on the Main Track:

This was a taped interview by Brian Robertson of author John Scalzi. He interviewed Scalzi by remote from each of their homes. The interview was done in three parts.

First, John Scalzi talked about his career in his office. He started as a journalist and posted his work in progress on his blog. That novel was Old Man’s War and the success of that book launched his career as a novelist. He considers it an accidental career.

The second part of the interview was from John Scalzi’s basement. He keeps his musical instruments down there. Playing music is a release for him between writing.

The last part of the interview was from John Scalzi’s kitchen. He enjoys making burritos with anything goes. The burrito he made here featured two-day-old lasagna and parmesan dip. He finished the interview mentioning that his latest novel was nominated for the Dragon Award for Science Fiction Novel.

John Scalzi’s latest novel is The Last Emperox. It is the third and final book of the Interdependency Trilogy and was released on April 14, 2020. This is the link to the Goodreads page.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38322550-the-last-emperox

The panel started with 298 attendees, increased to 335 attendees at 1:10 PM, and ended with 361 attendees at the end of the interview.

I thought it was a great interview. I’ve seen John Scalzi many times and he is always interesting and engaging.

Saturday, September 5th, at 5 PM

Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey panel from 2008 on the Classic Track:

The beginning of the panel was Todd interviewing his mother Anne and the rest of the panel was questions from the audience. She said she got inspired to write because she needed money for her three small kids at home. Anne wrote the Dragonriders of Pern series which became more popular with the success of Harry Potter.

She said that sometimes it is the names that inspire the story other times it is the characters. Geology fascinated her and cartography was important to her novels. She moved to Ireland and horses were important to her. At one point he owned 23 horses.

It was interesting to see this panel from 2008. Anne McCaffrey is one of my favorite authors.

The panel started with 208 attendees.

Sunday, September 6th, at 3 PM

Perseverance – Mars 2020 panel with Dr. Sarah Milkovich and Kim Steadman on the Fan Track:

This was a slideshow presentation with two engineers of the surface operation for the Perseverance rover that launched to Mars on July 30, 2020. The presentation was filmed on July 31, 2020. They plan to land the probe at Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. It was built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology. The mission is to seek signs of ancient life at an ancient river delta.

The engineers discussed the instruments on the rover. The rover will take readings and collect 30 samples at various locations. A second mission will collect the samples and launch them to orbit. A third mission will collect the samples and return them to earth.

These are links to the mission briefing on the JPL website and the NASA website.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mars-2020-perseverance-rover/

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

This is a projected photo of the rover on Mars.

I thought it was a great presentation. I hope the rover has a safe landing next year.

Sunday, September 6th, at 6 PM

The 2020 Dragon Awards announced by Cooper Andrews on the Main Track:

The 2020 Dragon Awards were announced. There are 15 categories including gaming, literature, and visual medium. There were nominees in each category and the winners were announced in this half-hour presentation. The last award was for the Science Fiction novel. John Scalzi, the writing Guest of Honor, won for his novel The Last Emperox.

Sunday, September 6th, at 6:30 PM

The Dragon Con Update with Will and Bee:

Will and Bee interviewed Leigh and Jon. Leigh and Jon conduct interviews of the leaders of different tracks at the conference. They want to bring attention to the behind the scenes people at the con. They post the interviews at the unique geek.

https://theuniquegeek.com/

The Dragon Con update finished with a heck with Beth about the Fan Interactions Report. She showed pictures from four hashtags that they used.

Monday, September 6th, at 9 AM

Award-Winning and Best-selling Authors panel on the Fan Track:

Bill Fawcett was the Moderator of the panel. The panel was Tasmin Silver (writes urban fantasy and historical fantasy), Robert Sawyer (his most recent novel is the alternate history, The Oppenheimer Alternative), Jody Lynn Nye (wrote in the Myth Adventures series and co-wrote with Anne McCaffery), and John Scalzi (Dragon Con Writing Guest of Honor and winner of the Dragon Award for Science Fiction Novel, for the Last Emperox).

Bill asked the panel a series of questions. The main point was what makes a novel an award winner versus a best-seller. Robert’s answer was a best seller needs a likable protagonist while an award winner might have an unlikeable protagonist. John answered that best-sellers are marketable books with the goal to entertain, while award winners have a bold view and are written for writers.

Other questions included are best sellers a product of the time they are read, social media advice, and advice for new writers.

I thought that all four writers gave insightful answers to the moderator’s questions. I wish the had more time to talk.

Monday, September 6th, at 1 PM

Let’s Build a World panel on the Fan Track:

Michael G. Williams was the Moderator of the panel. The panel was Cecilia Dominic (writes urban fantasy and steampunk), Charles E. Gannon (writes hard SF and Alternate history), and Chris Kennedy (SF author, publisher, and editor).

The panel was about how writers build their worlds. The first question was about how the authors created their setting. The second question was about the most important decision to make in world-building. What do you most hate about world-building? Is it characters first or later when you are designing a setting? Is believability important to you?

They played an exercise on world-building picking four answers to important questions. They picked religion (ancestor worship that is not based on reality), family (with gender fluidity), social conformity (the worst thing to them is to be shunned), and tech (low tech).

I thought the plan was interesting especially how the writers completed the world-building exercise.

Recommendation – Conclusion

Virtual Dragon Con Atlanta 2020 was a great experience. Viewing the virtual con was nice since I would not have made it to Atlanta this year. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I checked out a few presentations Friday evening to see how it was. Before the Game of Thrones panel, I looked at the end of Improvised Dungeons and Dragons. The panelists took a humorous take on a random D & D game. What I saw was funny. I wish I had seen the whole panel. My star of the con was John Scalzi. Other highlights were the Let’s Build a World panel and the Mars 2020 presentation. I hope to attend Dragon Con sometime in the future.

Links

This is my post for a similar conference that I attended in person in January 2020.

I attended the SF conference ConFusion in Detroit, Michigan from January 16 to 19, 2020. I attended four panels, two readings, and one interview. The theme of the con was How to Train Your ConFusion, based on the movie, How to Train Your Dragon. My star of the con was John Scalzi. He gave an excellent reading of Chapter Two of his upcoming book named The Last Emperox. My other highlights were Kameron Hurley’s interview and the lecture on Edible Insects and Human Evolution. I’ll be back next year.

Conference Recap ConFusion Detroit 2020

Conference Recap ConFusion Detroit 2020

Conference Recap ConFusion Detroit 2020

Introduction

I attended the SF conference named ConFusion Detroit 2020 at 21111 Haggerty Road Novi, Michigan at the Sheraton Detroit Novi from January 16 to 19, 2020. The Ann Arbor Science Fiction Association sponsors ConFusion Detroit 2020. I attended four panels, two readings, and one interview. The theme of the conference was How to Train Your Confusion. It was a play on words promoting the movie How to Train Your Dragon. They showed the movie in the boardroom, but I did not watch it then.

This is a link to the ConFusion website.

http://confusionsf.org/

The Ann Arbor Science Fiction Association sponsors Detroit ConFusion.

Outside the Sheraton in snowy Michigan at the ConFusion Detroit 2020 Science Fiction Conference.

The 2020 Logo for ConFusion Detroit 2020.

ConFusion Detroit 2020 Program Guide Cover

This is my badge for ConFusion Detroit 2020.

Summary

Saturday, January 18th at 10 AM

The Future of Space Travel panel with Jeff Beeler, Elly Bangs, Shannon Eichhorn, and Tobias Buckell:

What do the future of space travel hold for us in the near term and the far future? They talked about playing the game Kerbal Space Program. It is a space flight simulation game where the player manages a space program using green-skinned Kerbals. https://www.kerbalspaceprogram.com/ For the current state of the space program they talked about the 2020 Mars Lander and BFR Plus spaceship designed by SpaceX. Recommended books and websites followed. The Case for Mars by Robert Zubin. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56713.The_Case_for_Mars The Elon Musk Blog Series, Wait but Why by Tim Urban. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29437730-the-elon-musk-blog-series The SpaceX feed at https://twitter.com/SpaceX  They suggest following Gwynne Shotwell, who is the President and Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX. She is the one who makes Elon Musk’s ideas become reality.

They held the panel in the Interlochen room with 28 attendees. There weren’t enough chairs in the room, so six people were standing, including me.

Saturday, January 18th at 11 AM

Interstellar Nations and Warfare: Space Opera Worldbuilding panel with Karen Burnham, Marquel Jacob, Jenn Lyons, and Glynn Stewart:

The first point is why write space opera if the physics tells us it is not likely that we will communicate instantly through space and there is no faster than light space travel? We write space opera because it is fun to extrapolate on current technology. If the writer keeps the rules consistent internally, then it is okay to write space opera.

If civilization is interstellar, then there should not be a scarcity of resources. So, where does the conflict come from? The conflict could come with ideas and the scarcity of specific resources. The primal motivations are land, money, and lies. Examples used with FTL travel as conflicts are an unstable FTL travel method in The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi and the scarcity of the spice used for FTL travel in Dune by Frank Hebert. The panel talked about pet peeves where authors get Worldbuilding wrong. Not following the rules of artificial gravity, there is no FTL travel in the story, but there is a fast trip to Jupiter, a one ecosystem planet, and no normal people left.

They held the panel in the Manitou room with 22 attendees.

Saturday, January 18th at 4 PM

Reading by John Scalzi:

John Scalzi read from his soon to be released novel named the Last Emperox, a story from his book A Very Scalzi Christmas, a post from his blog, and he ended the hour with a question-and-answer session.

He read Chapter Two of The Last Emperox. It is the third and final book of the Interdependency Trilogy and will be released on April 14, 2020. The Chapter was from Kiva Lagos’s perspective and concerns the events that occurred at the end of the previous novel in the series.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38322550-the-last-emperox

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A Very Scalzi Christmas collects 15 short tales about the holiday season. He read one tale named Resolutions for the New Year–A Bullet Point List. It was brief and was hilarious.

He read from his Blog called Whatever. It was a piece from his answers to reader requests. This one was on civility, question #5 from 2019. See the article through the link. https://whatever.scalzi.com/2019/11/20/reader-request-week-2019-5-civility/

A short Q and A followed. Scalzi had a question about using the first person in his novel named Lock In. He remarked that seven years ago there was no narrative about binary gender identification. Now, only seven years later, it’s not even an issue anymore. Someone asked Scalzi about how he got the military culture correct in the Old Man’s War series. He said his father and brother were in the service and he did a lot of research to make the story work. Someone asked Scalzi about TV and movie projects. He confirmed that the Redshirts project is dead… twice dead. Scalzi confirmed that he has delivered 4 of the 13 novels contacted by Tor. The trilogy is a trilogy and no more, though his original proposal included a book set 5000 years in the Interdependency’s future.

The whole hour was fun and perfect. It was my best hour of the conference.

They held the reading in Ballroom C & D with 33 attendees.

Saturday, January 18th at 5 PM

Science Guest of Honor Reading of Edible Insects and Human Evolution by Dr. Julie Lesnik:

She read from her book Edible Insects and Human Evolution. Images projected on a screen accompanied the reading. Most of the images were humorous.

First, we must understand our aversion to eating insects. Humans display fear and disgust for the concept of eating bugs. Fear goes with spiders and disgust goes with an aversion to disease. By taste, humans associate sweet and salty to good and bitter to bad. Uncooked insects are bitter; thus, people consider them bad to eat.

Insects in the human diet have gone for absent to adverse through time. Romans consumed insects. Something happened where insects have become absent in Western Civilization’s diet, and this absence has transformed into an aversion to eating insects. In modern times, people in Equatorial regions consume insects. Why is this behavior observed?

Will humans overcome the aversion to eating insects? Insects are a great source of protein. They use Black Soldier fly larva in pet food and they use mealworms in bioconversion. The most likely source for insect consumption is crickets. They are not economical now, but the price point is coming closer to feasibility. She brought edible crickets for those audience members who wanted to try them.

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They held the reading in the Keweenaw room with 31 attendees. There weren’t enough chairs in the room, so four people stood.

Saturday, January 18th at 6 PM

Short Fiction Submission: Advice from the Editor panel with Jeff Chapman, Jennie Ivins, Scott Andrews, Mur Lafferty, and Alvin Mullin:

The editors in the panel answered about the dos and don’ts when submitting for magazines and anthologies. The panelists have a varied background as editors.

Jeff Chapman reaches writing and is an editor for a literary magazine.

Jennie Ivins is the editor for http://fantasy-faction.com/

Scott Andrews is the editor for http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/

Mur Lafferty is the editor for https://escapepod.org/

Alvin Mullin is an anthology editor.

Advice for successfully submitting short fiction includes use no special formatting, learn about special requirements for each market where you are submitting, and read an issue of the magazine to understand the stories the magazine accepts. Read the submission guidelines and know your market. Note that the submission grinder gives example turnaround times for each magazine. https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/

Keep your cover letters short. Try to emotionally detach yourself from rejection. Form rejections are part of the process. A mistake is a moment to learn. If they reject you, then you are a working writer.

Here are other links to websites detailing magazines looking for stories in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. Ralan https://www.ralan.com/, Duotrope https://duotrope.com/, and Locus magazine https://locusmag.com/

Don’t follow the trends. Good stories create trends. Write the story from your heart. Don’t reply to rejection with anger.

They held the panel in the Isle Royale room with 22 attendees.

Sunday, January 19th, at 10 AM

Black Gate Interview with Author Guest of Honor Kameron Hurley by Brandon Crilly:

They recorded this interview for Black Gate Publishing at https://www.blackgate.com/

She talked about the great time she had on her Spanish tour in 2019. She talked about pushing for getting a breakout book which caused her to burnout. It took her four years to write book three of a series when she lost her agent and wondered if she could make a living as a writer. She persevered, got a new agent, and wrote three books in a year. Keep doing the work because you don’t know what book will break out. Continue your journey on how to take feedback. Turn off your critic’s brain when you are reading as an author. Create a realistic success metric for yourself. Write the book of your heart.

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They held the panel in the Charlevoix room with 12 attendees.

Sunday, January 19th at 11 AM

Plan Your Outbreak! lecture with Keren Landsman:

Keren Landsman is an Israeli writer and doctor specializing in Epidemiology and Public Health. Her science lecture was about from influenza to the black death, discussing what made the largest biological disasters happen and how to use that knowledge in Worldbuilding an outbreak.

Worldbuilding is a character on its own. It needs a significant role in the story’s plot. A pathogen causes disease. She talked about various diseases including Tuberculosis, syphilis, the black plague, rabies, cholera, and Ebola. An example was the Broad Street Pump. Dr. John Snow figures out the cause for a cholera outbreak by interviewing patients to determine they all used a single contaminated water pump.

One thing to remember is that doctors and nurses always get the disease they are treating. The family members are the next to get the disease. Rabies is not a good disease to build an outbreak story from since it is only transmitted from animal to human by biting. Traveling Italian merchants brought The Black Death to Europe. It is normal to have quarantine for 40 days.

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They held the panel in the Leelanaw room with 10 attendees.

Recommendation – Conclusion

As I drove up I-75 into Michigan, I drove into a snowstorm. I drove slowly and got there safely. The ConFusion Detroit 2020 conference was held in this location previously. In 2019, I attended the con in another location, so it took me a while to figure out how to get to the conference center from inside the hotel. Once I got to the conference center, the locations were easy to navigate. There was more room at this location and it had more activities than in 2019. I enjoyed the variety. My star of the con was John Scalzi. He gave an excellent reading of Chapter Two of his upcoming book named The Last Emperox. My other highlights were Kameron Hurley’s interview and the lecture on Edible Insects and Human Evolution. I’m planning to return next year.

Links

I attended the SF conference 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 came. 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.

Conference Recap ConFusion Detroit 2019

Conference Recap Marcon Columbus 2017

Marcon Columbus 2017

Conference Recap Marcon Columbus 2017

Introduction

I attended the SF Conference Marcon Columbus 2017 on May 13, 2017. They held the conference at 350 North High Street Columbus, Ohio 43215 at the Hyatt Regency Columbus. The drive was two-plus hours taken in the morning and back in the evening. I also attended Marcon in 2018 and 2019. The 2019 convention was from May 10 to 12, 2019 and I realized when I wrote a recap for that conference, I had not posted a recap for the 2017 conference. This is my recap of the 2017 conference. I attended five panels at the 2017 conference.

The link to the Marcon website.

http://marcon.org/

Marcon Columbus 2017 Program Guide Cover

Picture of my badge from Marcon Columbus 2017

Summary

Saturday, May 13th at 11:30 AM

Dystopias 2: this is the way the world ends, a panel with Karen Dollinger, Courtney Bliss, Joaryn Bailey, Donald Haynes, and Alyssa Pence.

The discussion was about dystopias. You don’t need an apocalypse to get a dystopia. Someone benefits from a dystopia. The story helps us to question how things are now. Books in this genre are a lens for social commentary. Human nature is not to be static. Recommended books are Newsflesh by Mira Grant, The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau, and 1984 by George Orwell.

They held the panel in the McKinley Room with 15 attendees.

Saturday, May 13th at 1 PM

Humorous Science Fiction and Fantasy, a panel with Addie J. King, Kandi Hopkins, Deb Wallace, and L. Anne Wooley.

Who does humor well? The answers were Terry Pratchett, John Scalzi, Christopher Moore, J. K. Rowling, Robert Asprin, Spider Robinson, and Jim Butcher.

What makes it work? If you find it funny, then you may be able to write it. Use humor to break up the serious parts of your novel. Give the readers a break by using humor. Try not to over-explain the humor or it will lose its impact.

They held the panel in the McKinley Room with 16 attendees.

Saturday, May 13th at 2:30 PM

Antiheroes: When the main character could easily be the villain, a panel with Denice Verrico, Karen Dollinger, Faye Malcolm, Erin Reilly-Sanders, Van Siegling.

There is a spectrum of characters from the worst villain Sauron from Lord of the Rings to the best hero Dudley Doo Right. An antihero works as long as the protagonist is more hero-like on the spectrum than the antagonist. An Antihero rejects the norms of society. Examples of antiheroes are Dexter, protagonists in bank heist stories, Walter White, Saul Goodman, and Scarlett O’Hara.

They held the panel in the McKinley Room with 21 attendees.

Saturday,May 13th at 4 PM

The Difference Between Story and Plot, a panel with Shannon Eichhorn, Charles Ebert, Addie J. King, Linda Robertson, Scott M. Sandridge.

The story is how you get there and the plot is the mechanics of the story. Ask yourself, does the plot move the story along? Read what you write. You need to be in love with your story as you are writing it. Write what you want too in the first draft but be prepared to kill your darlings in editing to strengthen your story. When constructing a story understand if your genre expects a series.

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

Saturday, May 13th at 5:30 PM

Cursed Children and Fantastic Beasts, a panel with Karen Dollinger, Hannah Blosser, Emily Lydic, Leah Nicola, and Amanda Caskey.

The panelists were experts in all things Harry Potter. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two is a stage play of the theater production. They held the stage production on July 30, 2016, and the book was released on July 31, 2016. The panelists talked about both presentations. They released the movie named Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them on November 18, 2016. The panel talked about the movie and the expected four sequels.

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

Recommendation – Conclusion

I had a great time at Marcon Columbus 2017. My star of the con was the panel on Cursed Children and Fantastic Beasts. I had read the printed stage play for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and watched the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, so I understood the panel and enjoyed what they had to say. I also attended Marcon in 2018 and 2019 and plan to return on May 9, 2020.

Links

Recap for SF Conference Marcon Columbus I attended on May 12, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio. I attended four panels and two game shows.

Marcon Conference 2018

Recap for SF Conference Marcon Columbus on May 11, 2019. They held it at Crowne Plaza – Columbus North. I also attended Marcon in 2017 and 2018. This year I attended four panels, a performance, and an interview.

Recap Marcon Conference 2019

Goodreads page for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29056083-harry-potter-and-the-cursed-child

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2017

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2017

Introduction

I attended the SF conference Cleveland ConCoction 2017 at 5300 Riverside Drive Cleveland, Ohio at the Sheraton Cleveland Airport Hotel from March 10, 2017, to March 12, 2017. 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 2017 conference. This is a recap of the 2017 conference. I attended three panels, two author showcases, two performances, the state of the con panel, and the closing ceremony. I also volunteered in the ConSuite for twelve hours.

The link to the ConCoction website.

http://www.clevelandconcoction.org/

Cleveland ConCoction Banner

Cleveland ConCoction 2017 Program Guide Cover. Even though the cover has 2016 listed, this was the 2017 program. The theme was Grimm’s’ Fairy Tales.

Picture of my badge from Cleveland ConCoction 2017

Summary

Friday, March 10th from 4 PM to 9 PM

I volunteered in the ConSuite Department for five hours on Friday. The ConSuite was in a back bar at the Sheraton Hotel.

Friday, March 10th at 9 PM

A concert by the Blibbering Humdingers

This duo played what they called wizard rock. Most of the songs in this concert dealt with themes from Harry Potter. The songs played were “Love Song of Sirius Black (Dementor in Love)”, “Voldemort made me crap my pants”, “Lily’s Worst Memory,” “Best Game Ever,” “Hot Girl in the Comic Shop,” and “Awkward Hug.” I thought “Best Game Ever” was the best song they played at this session.

They held the concert in the Orion A Room.

Saturday, March 11th from 9 AM to 4 PM

I volunteered in the ConSuite Department for seven hours on Friday. The ConSuite was in a back bar at the Sheraton Hotel. During this time, I was helping to make Rice Krispy blocks used in patterns. When I did that, I saw the coffee session with Glen Cook, but I didn’t hear much of the conversation.

Saturday, March 11th at 5 PM

Author Showcase (Session 4)

Four authors read from their works in the showcase.

Brent D. Seth read from his novel named Shortfuse.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25456172-short-fuse

Mary Turzillo read a short story from her short story collection named Bonsai Babies.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32269487-bonsai-babies

Addie J. King read from her novel Shades of Gray. It is about a rookie cop and werewolves.

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

Kathy Callahan read from her vampire novel.

They held the showcase in the Lyra room with 8 attendees.

Saturday, March 11th at 6 PM

Common Problems New Writers Encounter, a panel with Shannon Eichhorn, Sara Dobie Bauer, J. Thorn, and James Barnes.

J. Thorn outlined his process. He recommended the book The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne. Know what you need next he suggests. Look into getting a developmental editor, a line editor, a copy editor, and then beta readers. Other suggestions for new writers from the panel were as follows. Write what you are passionate about. Don’t have a fear of breaking rules. Be cautious of giving too much back story and info dumps. Know your genre. Books used as examples were Pet Semetary by Stephen King and The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25455700-the-story-grid

They held the panel in the Pegasus room with 13 attendees.

Saturday, March 11th at 7 PM

Elevator Pitch Tutorial Session, a panel with Addie J. King, James Barnes, J. Thorn, Mary Turzillo, and Linda Robertson.

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. In the pitch, you want to describe what your book is about. Think about your ideal customer when you are designing the pitch. Think about how you would describe your book to an editor. The Pixar Pitch is a six-line template that can tell the story of your work developed by Emma Coats. You can find the pitch in Daniel H. Pink’s book named To Sell Is Human. The pitch fits for the Pixar movies but can be adapted to any written work. Linda Robertson gave out a handout. In it the main points were that you need a concept, a premise, ask questions, and understand the character’s stakes in your story. The concept and the premise when read together is your elevator pitch.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13593553-to-sell-is-human

They held the panel in the Lyra Room with 7 attendees.

Saturday, March 11th at 8 PM

A concert by the Blibbering Humdingers

I liked the first concert, so I came back to see them again. This duo played what they called wizard rock. Most of the songs in this concert dealt with themes from Harry Potter. The songs I saw played in this session were “Hufflepuff Sandwich,” “Zip Me Up,” and “Natural 20 (a song about playing the Dungeons and Dragons Game).”

They held the concert in the Orion A Room.

Sunday, March 12th at 10 AM

State of the Con Q and A

The Con Chairs talked about how Cleveland ConCoction 2017 went this week and about plans for 2018.

They held the panel in the Orion A Room with 10 attendees.

Sunday, March 12th at 11 AM

Post-Apocalypse–How Will It End?, a panel with J. L. Gribble, Weston Kincade, and Brent D. Seth.

The panelists talked about the novels Flood by Stephen Baxter and The Road by Cormac McCarthy. They also talked about the TV show called The 100.

They held the panel in the Pegasus Room.

Sunday, March 12th at 12 PM

Author Showcase (Session 5)

Four authors read from their works.

Linda Robertson read from her novel Jovienne.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32713330-jovienne

J. D. Blackrose read a story about Vampires and Valkyries.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/16065546.J_D_Blackrose

Adrian Matthews read from his novel Olivia’s Return (BloodDark Book #1)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31670766-olivia-s-escape

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

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

They held the panel in the Lyra Room with 3 attendees.

Sunday, March 12th at 2 PM

Closing Ceremonies

The Guests of Honor were presented and thanked for Cleveland ConCoction 2017.

They held the panel in the Orion A Room.

Recommendation – Conclusion

I had a great time at Cleveland ConCoction 2017. It was my first time at this con. I worked twelve hours in the ConSuite and I don’t plan on doing that again because I missed events I wanted to see. My star of the con was the Blibbering Humdingers. I liked both of the concerts they performed. My other highlights were the Elevator Pitch panel and listening to eight authors who read their work in two showcases. I attended Cleveland ConCoction in 2018 and 2019 and I bought my pass for 2020.

Links

I attended Cleveland ConCoction 2019 at 600 North Aurora Road Aurora, Ohio at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 1 to 3, 2019. 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

I also attended Cleveland ConCoction at 600 North Aurora Road Aurora, Ohio at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 9, 2018, to March 11, 2018. Attended the opening ceremony, five panels, two author showcases, a performance, and the closing ceremony. I also volunteered in the ConSuite for eight hours. This is a Link to my conference recap.

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2018

Recap Marcon Conference 2019

Recap Marcon Conference 2019 in Columbus

Introduction

I attended the SF Conference Marcon Conference 2019 in Columbus on May 11. They held it at 6500 Doubletree Avenue Worthington, Ohio at the Crown Plaza – Columbus North. The drive was two-plus hours taken in the morning and back in the evening. I also attended Marcon in 2017 and 2018. This year I attended four panels, a performance, and an interview.

The link to the Marcon website.

http://marcon.org/

Leaving the Crown Plaza Saturday evening.

Marcon Conference 2019 Columbus Banner

Marcon Conference 2019 Columbus Program Guide Cover

Picture of my badge from Marcon Conference 2019 Columbus

Summary

Saturday, May 11th at 10 AM

Game of Thrones: Winter Has Finally Come, a panel with Vicki Meece, Ella Shurr, John Boone, Leslie Mehne, and John Picacio.

The scheduled room for the is panel was Salon B-C, but it was locked so we went into the empty Salon E room.

One of the panelists was the artist guest of honor John Picacio. His artwork was used for the program cover and the Marcon badge shown in the pictures in the introduction of this post. He was commissioned by George R. R, Martin to produce a 2012 calendar using Game of Thrones characters. This was before the HBO show was cast and he related that his artwork was displayed at the auditions and inspired the casting choices.

This is a link to the twelve Games of Thrones artworks John Picacio made for the calendar in 2011.

http://www.johnpicacio.com/portfolio/2011/index.html

Game of Thrones Season Eight Review

The panel reviewed each of the four episodes of season eight that had been aired before the panel took place.

Season Eight, Episode One

Season Eight, Episode One: The panel liked the many reunions highlighted in this episode. Their favorite reunions were Jon and Arya, Brienne and Jamie, The Hound and Arya, Gendry and Arya, Sansa and Theon.

Season Eight, Episode Two

Season Eight, Episode Two: This episode was the setup for the battle of Winterfell between the living and the Night King’s dead army. One question that wasn’t clear was did Jon tell Dany that Bran and not Sam told him that R + L = J?

Season Eight, Episode Three

Season Eight, Episode Three: The episode was shot and set in the dark which made it hard for the viewer to see what was going on in the episode. “It’s a carnival ride.” A highlight of the episode was when Bran called Theon a good man. One theory debated was if Jon was saying
“Go, go, go” to Arya as she headed to the God’s wood to face the Night King.

Season Eight, Episode Four

Season Eight, Episode Four: The theory being debated was whether Dany was becoming the Mad Queen.

Season Eight, Episode Five predictions: The fifth episode aired the day after the panel on May 12th. The panel thought that the Hound and Varys were the most likely to die in that episode.

Overall Season Eight: The panel was disappointed in the scant use of the Direwolves this season and in the absence of information about the situation in Dorne.

They held the panel in Salon E with 10 attendees.

Saturday, May 11th at 11 AM

Science Fiction is the Conversation That Starts Things, a panel with David Gerrold.

This panel was David Gerrold reminiscing about his career as a TV show writer, director, and novel writer. I’ll detail the topics he addressed as he presented them.

He recently turned in a novel called Hela. It will be the fourth novel in the Dingilliad series (aka Starsiders) which began with Jumping Off the Planet, linked below.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1111868.Jumping_Off_the_Planet

David Gerrold on The War Against the Chtorr

Gerrold contributes regularly to his patreon page. The book he started the page for has been sold but he continues to posts stories and reviews on the page although some of the content is available only to subscribers. He has been updating The War Against The Chtorr series on the page. The first 20 chapters were posted for free as linked below.

https://www.patreon.com/DavidGerrold

David Gerrold on The Martian Child

Gerrold talked about The Martian Child which was inspired by his relationship with his adopted son. He decided to adopt late in life as a single parent. It was challenging and rewarding for him. He published a novelette in 1994 which won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards. Gerrold expanded the story into a novel. He wrote the screenplay for the movie that was produced in 2007 starring John Cusack.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/709750.The_Martian_Child

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0415965/

He is working on a graphic novel for his 1973 novel The Man Who Folded Himself.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/624122.The_Man_Who_Folded_Himself

David Gerrold on Star Trek

Gerrold wrote many Star Trek episode from multiple series. The most famous episode was The Trouble With Tribbles from the original series, season two, episode 15. He wrote a book called The Trouble With Tribbles about his experiences writing for the show.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77101.The_Trouble_with_Tribbles

Gerrold also wrote The Cloud Minders and I, Mudd for the original series, More Tribbles, More Troubles and BEM for the animated series. He wrote the novelization of the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Encounter at Farpoint.

David Gerrold on Star Trek Blood and Fire

He had a falling out with the showrunners of The Next Generation when they did not accept his script for Blood and Fire in 1987. The script featured an allegory for AIDS and included gay characters so it was not produced then. He sold copies of the script and donated the proceeds to AIDS research L. A. Star Trek: New Voyages was a fan-created webisode series. David Gerrold wrote and directed two episodes based in his screenplay and novel for Blood and Fire in 2008 and 2009 linked below.

Gerrold’s final thoughts were about thinking of it at the time “Who would remember these shows in twenty years? and who’d have thought we’d be talking about them for the last fifty years.”

They held the panel in Ballroom 1 and 2 with 16 attendees.

Saturday, May 11th at 12 PM

A Furry Thing Happened on the Way to Tranquility Base, a performance by the Confused Greenies.

Note: The Confused Greenies performed at Marcon ten years ago as well. This performance was inspired by David Gerrold’s works and other sci-fi influences. It starts with a holodeck recreation celebrating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing at tranquility base. The holodeck malfunctions through sabotage. The Saturn V rocket is infested with tribbles and the Dalek saves the day.

https://www.facebook.com/TheConfusedGreenies/

They held the performance in the Cardinal room with 7 attendees.

Saturday, May 11th at 1 PM

Avengers Endgame: Half the World awaits, a panel with Roy Minamide, Paul Hahn, Chris Stephenson, Joe Beale, and Jeff Wolfe.

Avengers: Endgame was widely released on April 26, 2019, and the panel talked about their impressions of the movie and its place as the last of 22 movies in Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The panel began with the panelists and the audience members stating their favorite moments of the movie.

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Endgame Questions

They went on to ask questions about the movie. How exactly did they create a GPS of the quantum realm? Where did Captain America get more Pym particles? The heroes are too powerful which leads to “superman syndrome” where the villains must become overwhelmingly powerful, so how do you manage that? 

Three characters had satisfying growth arcs in the movie. They were Nebula’s redemption, Scott Lang’s redemption through conceiving the Time Heist, and Rocket’s embracing his new family.

The last topic was about how the writers will address the Snap in the new movie Spiderman: Far From Home which will be released on July 2, 2019. It may be related to Tony Stark’s comment to the Time Heist crew about “Bring them back, but don’t change the past.”

They held the panel in Salon B-C with 21 attendees.

Saturday, May 11th at 2 PM

David Gerrold Interview conducted by Julie Washington.

Julie Washington interviewed David Gerrold. She mostly asked him one question and he would have an interesting anecdote to answer her. He grew up in L. A. and then moved to the San Fernando Valley. He would go to the Van Neys public library every Friday and get 10 books to read for the next that week. Rocket Ship Galileo by Robert Heinlein started him reading SF. He says he became a writer because “There were stories I wanted to read but no one was writing them so I had to write them myself.”

He wanted to write SF where the laws of physics were followed and wrote “When Harlie Was One” about a computer with artificial intelligence.

He found the transition from writing screenplays to novel a tough one. In novels, the writer must describe the setting for the reader to get a mental picture while TV sets do that for you.

David Gerrold on Star Trek

On the Deep Space 9 episode Trials and Tribble-ations (Season 5, Episode 6) he was disappointed that he didn’t get a writing credit but he was given acknowledgment of his work and a cameo appearance in the episode in compensation.

Gerrold went over his story about the Blood and Fire script written for The Next Generation detailed in his 11 AM talk. He also wrote an episode of Babylon 5.

Gerrold talked about his cameos in the TV show Big Bang Theory especially the ones at Wil Wheaton’s party on the show and as a booth owner at the fictional Van Nyes comicon. This was poignant because the series finale of Big Bang Theory was scheduled for May 16, 2019, the next Thursday after Marcon.

Gerrold talked about getting the rights to republish his War Against the Chtorr series. He used a Kickstarter campaign to republish the four previously published novels. He has completed four more novels in the series and is in the editing stage leading to publication.

David Gerrold on Kickstarter

Checking on kicktrac.com, Gerrold has two projects that were on Kickstarter. There was a project in 2013 that would have adapted his first novel in the Star Wolf series but it was not fully funded and abandoned. Another project in 2016 was a mash-up of Star Trek and Dr. Suess named Oh, The Places You’ll Boldly Go! It was fully funded but could not proceed because the Ted Gisell estate (Dr. Suess himself) blocked the project. The projects are detailed at the following link.

http://www.kicktraq.com/search/?find=david+gerrold

Gerrold finished the interview detailing a few more projects he participated in. He wrote the screenplay for the webisode adaption of his Blood and Fire story. It was 96 pages, he was the director, and they only had ten days to shoot it. He wrote the Land of the Lost pilot. Gerrold also wrote adaptions of TV shows and movies. Some of his novel adaptations were for Encounter at Farpoint, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, and Enemy Mine.

They held the panel in Ballroom 1 and 2 with 26 attendees.

Saturday, May 11th at 7 PM

The Expanse: Earthers, Mickeys and Belters Beware, a panel with Ralph Winans, Ella Shurr, Lee Shamblin, Amelia Brownstein, and Kathy Knese

The panel liked that the show depicted a technologically believable future. They could understand how Mars and the Belt could develop the way it was depicted in the show but found it unlikely that the Earth could be unified under the United Nations. The showrunners were faithful to the books but not exact.

The Expanse Season Four began shooting.

A panel attendee described the series as “crunchy” sci-fi meaning that it was true to how things actually work in space.

The Expanse Book to Show Changes

The panel understood that the TV show could not portray belters as tall and thin as described in the books without using extensive CGI. They wondered about the motivation of Jules-Pierre Mao. It is not clear in the series. The panel asked how far the attendees had read in the novels and the response varied. Some had not read any of the novels will others have read the most recent novel Tiamat’s Wrath (The Expanse Book #8, released 03-26-19). Season three depicts events from parts of book two and three while season four will depict part of book three and book four. The ninth and last novel is unnamed but scheduled to be released sometime in 2020.

The first three seasons of The Expanse show was aired by SyFy network. The show was picked up by Amazon Video and it has been reported that the fourth season has completed shooting. At this time, the airdate has not been set except that Amazon expects to release it sometime in 2019.

https://screenrant.com/expanse-season-4-release-date-story-amazon/

They held the panel in Salon D with 9 attendees.

Recommendation – Conclusion

I had a great time at Marcon Conference 2019 in Columbus. The location was different from last year. It was easier for me to get to and the parking was free. My star of the con was David Gerrold. He was engaging in the panel and the interview that I attended with him. This year I plan to read his book on writing named Worlds of Wonder and am interested in his Trouble with Tribbles memoir. This year I attended four panels, a performance, and an interview. My other highlights of Marcon Conference 2019 in Columbus were the Game of Thrones panel and the performance by the Confused Greenies. I also attended Marcon in 2017 and 2018 and plan to return in 2020.

Links

Recap for SF Conference Marcon Conference 2018 in Columbus which I attended on May 12, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio. I attended four panels and two game shows.

Marcon Conference 2018

I attended SF Conference Marcon Columbus on May 13, 2017, at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio. I attended four panels. I did not post a recap of this conference. If I post a recap in the future I will link it here.

Marcon Conference 2018

The Marcon Conference 2018 was held from May 11 to May 13, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio.

This is the link to the Marcon website.

http://marcon.org/

Introduction

I attended the Marcon Conference 2018 on Saturday, May 12. I drove to Columbus from Cleveland in the morning. The first activities were scheduled at 10:00 AM. I arrived at 10:30 AM, registered for the day, and went to the con suite for an early lunch. Activities were spaced in 90-minute blocks. The activities generally lasted 75 minutes with a 15-minute break until the next activity. The categories of the activities were Anime, Art, Comics, Cosplay, Fan Life, Filk, Gaming, Literary, Media, Science, and Youth. I attended four panels and two game shows at the Marcon Conference 2018.

Summary

Saturday: May 12, 2018

11:30 AM – Destination Mars

The three panelists debated about how and when humans will travel to Mars. All three had different viewpoints. It will happen in the next five years, it will happen a little later when the technology improves, and manned missions are too expensive and dangerous compared to unmanned missions. They asked if the missions will be one way which will make them similar to the colonization of America. Space tourism will probably fund the way to space travel.

1:00 PM – Game of Thrones Jeopardy!

The Psi Phi Columbus Game Show Network presented this activity. The jeopardy categories were projected on a big screen and the questions were written by the organizers. I volunteered to be on the first three-person panel. The game went back and forth until I pulled ahead by 3000 points in double jeopardy. The final jeopardy question was: What way don’t you want to leave the Eyrie? We all had the correct response: What is the Moon Door? I risked 2000 points because if the second place finisher had risked none and I lost 2000 points, I would still win the game. Using that strategy, I won the panel with 13200 points. I watched the second group. I would have had a hard time winning against the second winner. It was fun. The prize that I took for participating was a Targaryen lanyard.

It’s hard to read the numbers on the picture but my name is in blue and I won.

2:30 PM – That Was the Year in Science

There were two panelists that covered the most important scientific events that happened in the past year. The bulk of the conversation was about the collision of two neutron stars that occurred on 08-17-17. Other topics included a picture of a pulse of light, Homo sapiens are believed to have appeared 300000 years ago, the use of 3-D printing of polymerized chainmail for other uses (It was originally made for the Lord of the Rings movies), a lamb born from an artificial womb, and mice and rats may be able to pass memories to their offspring.

4:00 PM – What’s Going on in Commercial Space

This presentation began as a power point presentation about the recent commercial activities in space. The premise of the talk was how the current commercial space race was similar to the plot of The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert Heinlein published in 1950.

The current commercial space race has four major players.

SpaceX

Elon Musk is the founder and CEO of SpaceX. SpaceX uses the Falcon 9 rocket to launch satellites and to service a contract from NASA to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). The company’s next goal is to use the bigger Falcon Heavy rocket to launch the Dragon spacecraft which will carry humans to the ISS. After that, the goal is to use the even bigger BFR rocket to launch a manned mission to Mars.

Bigelow Aerospace

Robert Bigelow is the founder and president of Bigelow Aerospace. The company manufactures expandable space station modules. The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM, 16 cubic meters) was attached to the ISS in 2016 and remains operational today. The B330 (330 cubic meters, 20 times bigger than the BEAM) is projected to be launched in 2020. It could be part of the ISS or become its own space station. The company’s plan is to lease space on the module for experiments and manufacturing.

Blue Origin

Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, is also the founder of Blue Origin. Their New Shepard rocket delivered its first payload on April 29, 2018. The bigger New Glenn rocket has enough power to put people into space with a planned launch in 2020.

Virgin Galactic

Richard Branson founded the Virgin Group which includes Virgin Galactic. The company wants to provide suborbital flights to space tourists and suborbital flights for space science missions. Test flights have been performed and paid flights are near.

The Future

Money can be made in space right now by supplying the ISS, putting satellites into orbit, and servicing those satellites. Future money making opportunities include telescopes, colonies, mining, radioactive waste storage, prisons, military bases, and garbage removal. The rest of the presentation was watching internet videos that gave different perspectives on the subject.

The whole presentation was informative and well designed.

5:30 PM – Break

I had dinner and relaxed at the con suite.

7:00 PM – Sci-Fi Wheel of Fortune

This game was presented by the Psi Phi Columbus Game Show Nexus. There were two games run before another group took the projector at 8 PM. In game one some of the puzzles were to name the power puff girls and name the teen titans. In game two there were a couple of Before and After puzzles and also name that person. I did not participate but it was fun to guess the puzzles in the audience.

8:30 PM – Writing Time Travel Sci-Fi and Doing it Right

This was a single person presentation. The presenter discussed the issues that the TV shows Timeless and Fringe had in depicting the ramifications of time travel. An example of a show that did better with the concept was the TV show 12 monkeys.

10:00 PM – Game of Thrones: Winter is Here.

I really wanted to stay and attend this panel but I could not. Sunday was Mother’s Day and I wanted to be home. I would have arrived too late if I had stayed for this panel. I returned to my car and left at 10:45 PM, arriving home at 12:30 AM.

Recommendations

My favorite activity at Marcon Conference 2018 was playing Game of Thrones Jeopardy. My stars of the con were Ken Keisel and Bob Lohman for their commitment to science. I’m glad that I made the trip to Columbus in 2018. There will be a new hotel and a new date for next year and I hope to attend the Marcon Conference in 2019.

Links

This is my recap for the SF conference Cleveland ConCoction 2018. They held it from March 9, 2018, to March 11, 2018. I attended ten activities and volunteered in the ConSuite for eight hours.

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2018

Confluence 2016 Conference

The Confluence 2016 Conference.

I attended the Confluence 2016 Conference.

Introduction

The Confluence 2016 Conference was held on from July 29 to July 31, 2016, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

I attended the Confluence 2016 Conference on July 30 and July 31, 2016. I drove from Cleveland, Ohio to the conference that was located at the Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport Hotel. The conference is run by the Parsec organization of Pittsburgh. It is a literary science fiction, fantasy, and horror conference. The events included panels, readings, interviews, writing workshops, and filk concerts. I was focused on attending as many panels as I possibly could on Saturday and Sunday. I attended 15 panels and the U.S.S. Improvise improv sketch comedy routine.

http://parsec-sff.org/confluence/

Saturday: July 30, 2016

Ancient Wonders Panel

Ancient Wonders was a talk about the earliest science fiction and fantasy writings.

Communicating with Aliens Panel

Communicating with Aliens was a talk about how communicating with aliens can be written about in science fiction. The nature of determining intelligence is not always clear. How the author describes the communication is determined by if humans have gone to find the intelligent life or the intelligent life has found humans on earth.

The Basics of Ancient Warfare Lecture

Next, Timons Esaias gave an interesting lecture on The Basics of Ancient Warfare. He began talking about local soldiers using their locally available weapons. Professional armies were a threat to the local king, so wars were fought by mercenaries, who were paid and then dismissed after the war was over. This did not change until the development of the heavy infantry of the Greeks, which was called the phalanx. There are three types of warriors; on foot, on animals, and on a ship. Other topics in the talk were the Welsh longbow, Roman artillery, and the Huns and Visigoths use of horses to defeat the Romans.

The How (Not) to Sabotage Your Writing Panel

How (Not) to Sabotage Your Writing was a panel where the panelists gave their unique advice on how they persevered in becoming writers. That advice included; be okay with criticism, collaborate with your editor, engage your audience, know your tools as a writer, and take the time to learn to be a better writer.

Alien Worlds and Races Panel

In the Alien Worlds and Races panel, the panelists talked about they designed alien lifeforms. The P.E.R.S.I.A. acronym for determining a race’s culture was discussed. It stands for political, economic, religious, social, intellectual, and artistic institutions.

What the U.S. Navy Taught me About Starfleet Lecture

Christopher Weuve gave a lecture on What the U.S. Navy Taught Me About Starfleet. He started with giving three points about the U.S. Navy. First point, the history of the U.S. Navy starts with battleships. The torpedo and then the airplane drastically changed naval warfare. Second point, a surface ship uses hiding to avoid enemies. Third point, hydrodynamics affects the ship’s maximum speed. The, he gave three points about Starfleet. First, Starfleet is really not like the navy. It is more like the coast guard because it has multiple missions including law enforcement. Second, Starfleet has a really hard problem. Space is really big. The ships do not have shore support and there is no international law in space. Third, Starfleet has it easy because no one is incompetent and stuff doesn’t break. A final observation was that rank is not a job description.

Promoting Your Writing Panel

The next panel explored how you should be Promoting Your Writing. The panel advises starting promoting a book at least six months before it comes out. The rule of thumb is to spend 80% of your time writing and 20% on marketing. The work does not end when you turn in the manuscript. You are your brand. Plan to attend cons, do readings at bookstores and libraries, participate in anthologies, and also use targeted Facebook and Twitter ads. Create publicity by having a newsletter, an author’s website, a mailing list, a blog, make guest posts on other blogs, and create podcasts.

Mapping the Fantastic Panel

Mapping the Fantastic was about how authors invent worlds that make spatial sense. A map is a perception. Geography dictates much about the plot of a story.

U.S.S Improvise Sketch Comedy Show

The only event at this time was held in the ballroom, where many conference goers arrived to see the sketch comedy show called U.S.S Improvise. I thought that the cast was engaging and funny. Most of their riffs were from Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was a welcome change to hearing seven panels and lectures.

Writing Alternative History Panel

The next panel described how they were Writing Alternate History. It’s important to do the research. There are many pivotal historical events, when changed for fiction lead to interesting stories.

Game of Thrones Panel

The last panel I went to on Saturday was on Game of Thrones. The moderator was unable to attend, so the audience became the panel. We debated different topics on the books and the HBO show. I was exhausted at the end of the day, so I went home after the abbreviated discussion.

Sunday: July 31, 2016

The Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851 lecture

The first lecture on Sunday was on The Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851 presented by Timons Esaias. The Industrial Revolution led to Iron, Steel, the Steam Engine, and the Railroad Engine. In 1851, an exhibition was planned to showcase the technology of the times. Joseph Paxton designed a huge modular greenhouse to hold the exhibit in Hyde Park in London, England. It was called the Crystal Palace. The event brought people, technology, and ideas from all over the world. In effect, the exhibition was the first World’s Fair.

Indistinguishable from Magic Panel

The next panel asked when do advanced technologies become Indistinguishable From Magic? This panel takes its premise from Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law, which states that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. In other words it was suggested that magic is technology that we do not understand yet.

Near Term Technology Panel

The panelists described what Near Term Technology is available.

Getting There Panel

The next topic was on the technology of space propulsion called Getting There. In non-manned flight laser propelled sails are being researched. The biggest change in manned flight has been the beginning of commercial means of getting to space. In the NASA approach, failure must be avoided because failure leads to review boards. Commercial flight companies are willing to fail because eventual success will pay off well. Nuclear rockets are needed now, electro propulsion should be seen in the near term, and wormhole technology is a long term option.

The Economics of Self-Publishing Panel

The last scheduled panel was on The Economics of Self-Publishing. All four of the panelists have self-published and related their experiences to the audience. Authors who self-publish must design, edit, publish, and market their work. They suggest that it is vital that the author spends money on a professional editor. Book covers sell the product, so money spent on a cover designer is necessary to promote the book. Purchase multiple ISBN codes, one for each format used such as hardcover, paperback, e-book, and audiobook.

Self-publishing is easier now because of print on demand. Self-published authors no longer must pay for a print run of books and then sell them one by one. There are two main print-on-demand formats, Ingram-spark and Createspace (An Amazon Company). I was inspired so much by the panel that I purchased a book from the panel’s moderator, Chris Kennedy. The book is called Self-Publishing for Profit. He details how he became a best-selling self-publishing author.

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Wrap-up

I had a great time at the Confluence 2016 Conference. It the first conference that I have ever attended. I learned many things and was glad that I made the time to take the trip. I plan to go to the next Confluence. It is scheduled for August 4 to August 6, 2017.

Links

A similar Conference to the Confluence 2016 Conference was the Western Reserve Writers Conference 2016. Winter Fiction Fest is sponsored by Literary Cleveland while the Cuyahoga County Public Library sponsors a similar event called the Western Reserve Writers Conference 2016.

This is my recap for the Western Reserve Writers Conference 2016 on September 24, 2016. It was located at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library at the new William N. Skirball writer’s center which is located at the branch. It was a one-day event with an introduction, a keynote speaker, three breakout sessions, and one Q & A panel.

Western Reserve Writers Conference