Yesterday was another good day at the 76th World Science Fiction Convention.  The most irritat8ing aspect of this year’s con is that the convention has done a terrible job of estimating which size room which events panels require. Over and over again the room are stuffed to capacity and beyond. It is good that there are numerous panels of interest and having an alternate is very advantageous.

I have run into old friend that I generally see only at panels, fellow writers, fans, and scientists. Two most useful panels for me yesterday were Idea to Story and primer on how to work one into the other and that sparked some fresh though I have for a story that was having trouble making the leap from concept to tale, and ‘Houston We have a Problem…” which about trouble in space and how your prepare and deal with it. One of the panelist in addition to being a fan was an astronaut who had served aboard the ISS and gave tiny facts about life in microgravity that were quite useful. (Such as that people when they first get into zero g move around in a ‘superman’ pose, but as they get more experienced they transition in an upright posture which seems odd but turns out to be efficient.

Least favorite thing was an evening film ‘Black Wave.’ The filmmakers tried to combine the zombie apocalypse story with a Lovecraftian elder god from the stars plot by way of a found footage approach. It was terrible. 90 percent of the run time was used for bland exposition and points were driven home again and again as though they did not expect the audience to remember what had happened just ten minutes earlier. Though to be fair those ten minutes felt more like an hour.

I am looking forward to another packed day at the convention.

TTFN