Category Archives: Conventions

My First Mid-Summer Scream

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Last week was a bit of a jumble with dental appointments and all so I did not get in any blog entries. (And despite what JD Vance might fear Blogs are neither more or less ‘masculine’ than a diary.)

Saturday, I attended my first Mid-Summer Scream a convention focused on horror in the arts. It is in Long Beach so it’s just a couple of hour drive from home, so the plan was up in the morning stay the day and return home late evening.

I posted on Facebook that this was like Comic-Con, going on the same weekend in San Deigo, but for horror. That impression is dead on target. The line to get into the convention wound around the complex for nearly a mile and took nearly an hour to navigate.

Inside the major attraction to people were the Dealer’s Floor, a massive space crammed with dealers in booth selling all sort of things and celebrities there for paid for autographs and photo opportunities. Upstairs and on the main floor were panels discussion, presentations, and performances which I had planned to take up the majority of my time.

I had a brief and pleasant conversation with Victoria Price daughter of legendary actor Vincent Price but my plans for the day were ruined.

About an hour or maybe more after I got into the facility the fire alarm began blaring and flashing. There was no fire or emergency. Perhaps some idiot had pulled the alarm as a stupid prank. Announcements were made that they was no cause for alarm at the alarm and technicians were trying to deal with it.

Forty minutes later it continued to sound and flash. I knew it would not take much more continued exposure on my part to instigate a migraine attack. I still had a long drive home and the prospect of that while suffering a migraine looked unbearable.

I left, the fire alarm still blaring, and made my way home.

Mid-Summer Scream is great for some people but not for me. Like Comic-Con it is simply too large too populated for my taste or enjoyment. I do not regret by day trip, but I shall not repeat it.

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StokerCon 2024

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StokerCon, is a premier Horror Convention where the Horror Writers Association hands out their award for excellence and achievements.

When I learned last year that 2024’s convention would be held here, San Diego California, I was stoked to attend.

Then in January of this year, after nearly 4 years of dodging the damned virus, COVID-19 caught up with me. Due to my vaccinations and boosters, it was a very mild case. It seemed hardly worth noticing.

And then the cough arrived.

No fever. No fluid in my lungs. No further infections just a deep, hard, and dry cough that refused treatment.

Weeks passed and nothing I or the doctors did stopped the coughing. If I remained silent, I did not cough but even a few sentences provoked attacks. I knew I could not attend a convention in this state. It would be fun for me or fair to the people around me who would have no way to be sure I wasn’t infected with something. I would be a walking source of anxiety, particularly for those with weakened immune systems.

Ironically the last two weeks the newest therapy seems to be working. The coughing was far less than it had been but not yet fully conquered. I elected that it would still be best for me and for others if I didn’t attend.

Instead, I ran my tabletop role playing game and discovered the limited of my recovery. A mere two and half hours into play the cough resurfaced and quite strongly. I ended the session earlier and with rest the cough subsided again but there is no doubt had I attempted to attend the convention it would have been provoked, so it turns out my decision to stay home had in the end been fully justified.

It breaks my heart that this turned out to be the right course of action. I had really wanted to hang out with fellow scribes, many much more talented than myself, but at heart I could not induced such anxiety in others.

From the reports I have read it appears that convention was a success, and I am thrilled for everyone who attended.

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General Catchup:

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Posting here of late has been quite sporadic for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, the current novel in progress has consumed most of the creative CPU cycles in my brain. Perhaps the fact that I am ‘pantsing’ the book, that is writing it without a pre-created outline means I need more synapses on station or perhaps because it is my first novel length horror project, or some other reason, it’s been front and center of my brain for weeks. Either way there has been creative output toward the blog and more in the direct of these Family Value Fascist werewolves.

Secondly, we have entered the busy season at my day-job. The non-profit healthcare HMO I work for get very busy from October thru January as this is the yearly ‘open enrollment’ period of member’s with Medicare to enroll, disenroll, or make changed to the Medicare HMO coverage. Overtime becomes plentiful and work takes up loads of hours.

Still, this weekend, after shifting my working on Friday to 7am until 4pm, my sweetie-wife and I sped up to L.A. and enjoyed the weekend with the Los Angeles Area SF Convention, LosCon. This year I did not participate as a panelist, but enjoyed going to panels on writing, movies, and technology. In the evenings there were room parties, lengthy discussion and I ended each night in the lobby with a soda, my laptop, and the final chapter of my horror novel. Which I completed on Saturday night.

The last couple of panels of the convention were of only middling interest to us and so we left about 2:30 pm to get home to San Diego. Once home we settled on simply microwave meals and watched the new Doctor Who special.

All in all it was a good weekend and today I start the corrections and revision to ‘The Wolves of Wallace Point.’

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Well, This Blows

 

I had been scheduled to participate in the programming for this year’s WesterCon, a science fiction convention that moves about the American West from city to city each year.

Yesterday, I got an email from the con committee that the convention has been canceled. It was of course written in a passive voice, so it was impossible to determine what had happened behind the scenes to destroy this year’s event, but WesterCon number 75 is not going to happen.

In addition to the fun of panel pontification this was going to be my chance to see an old friend, Gail Carriger, who had been named the convention’s Guest of Honor, and perhaps even share a panel or two with her.

At least the news came down before I had ordered copies of my novel, Vulcan’s Forge to hand sell at the convention.

Still, this is a bummer.

A gentle reminder that I have my own SF novel available from any bookseller. Vulcan’s Forge is about the final human colony, one that attempt to live by the social standard of 1950s America and the sole surviving outpost following Earth’s destruction. Jason Kessler doesn’t fit into the repressive 50s social constraints, and he desire for a more libertine lifestyle leads him into conspiracies and crime.

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SPEAK OUT OR COLLABORATE IN SILENCE

Many, if not most, people with some understanding of history are at least familiar with the poem by Pastor Neimoller. A confession and an awareness of where his support for the NAZIs and his apathy for the suffering of others had ultimately led. If you are not, here is the text.

 

First They Came by Pastor Martin Neimoller

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.

‘They’ are coming. Right now, here in the United States of America, they are coming for the Trans Community and most of you are not Trans, maybe you don’t know anyone who is or who has transitioned, but they are coming for them, and you have the choice of speaking out and standing by and saying nothing because it does not harm you. ‘They’ will make all manner of ‘justifications’ for their actions, invoking the ‘children’ as the noble reasons for their actions but these are lies. They know that they are lies, we know that they are lies. If you stay silent you murder the truth for their lies.

Just as the poem progressed, so will their march of suppress and destroy everything that they do not approve of. You may be number on their list, or number two, or number three, but they will eventually reach you.

Do not wait until it is your pain and torment to see their evil. Open your eyes and see it now. They are counting on your apathy for those quite unlike you, prove them wrong.

Conservatism does not equal fascism, but the modern GOP has surrendered to it fascistic elements. Until that cancer is excised from the body politic and burned back into the shadows no member of that party deserves any position of power. Your vote is your voice, use it or be complicit.

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Post-Convention Report

 

As I warned everyone visiting this site posting will be thin during the Medicare Annual Enrollment Period as I work 10-hour days five days a week and half days on Saturdays. Still, the money looks nice every two weeks.

Last week was Thanksgiving and for the first time since November of 2019 I returned to LosCon, the annual Los Angeles area science-fiction convention. They did hold an in-person convention in 2021 but I was not yet feeling secure enough with the pandemic to venture out of my home for crowded rooms. But this year, yes, and it felt so good to mingle again with my people.

After finishing work on Friday my sweetie-wife picked me up and we immediately headed out for Los Angeles. Luckily, the Friday following thanksgiving is light in traffic and we made good time arriving at the hotel just after 6 in the evening. Of course, arriving in the evening and after checking in, getting our convention badges, and having dinner, there were few panels left to attend. Still, there was one on writing effective horror that had small enough attendance that it turned into a pleasant round-table conversation between the pair of panelists and the audience. Exhausted from work and the trip I made it an early night and slept for just over 9 hours.

Saturday started early with breakfast and then the first panel which I was on and moderated, Everything You Need to Know About Editing. I had a pair of ladies, Jessica Brawner and Rebecca Inch-Partridge and I think we had a pretty good discussion.

I followed that up with a presentation on space imagery from a couple of JPL scientists.

Towards the end of the panels, I moderated another one, this time the subject was Finding Your Own Voice in Writing. I had a great full panel of writers with loads of good advice. Voice is particularly hard to define and that is doubly so when looking at your own writing.

That evening I rolled the dice and toured the parties. Unusually sociable I had a nice time talking with people I hadn’t seen in years and a few who enjoyed some of my panels.

Sunday, I had a more economical breakfast at a fast-food spot and enjoyed another day of panels including two more that I sat on, How to Write For a Specific Genre and What the Publishing Landscape Looks Like Today.

Once I finished the final panel my sweetie-wife and piled into my Kia and headed back to San Diego. Stopping only for our Sunday shopping trip, we made it home with enough time for us to watch the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special and then it was bedtime to get up early for another 10-hour day at my job.

It was a good weekend.

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I am Participating on Panels For LosCon

 

LosCon is the Los Angeles area science-fiction convention held over Thanksgiving weekend. (This year November 25th thru the 27th.) Finally, after two years of COVID I am returning to Loscon one of my beloved conventions and this year I will be participating on 4 panel discussions.

I will be moderating Everything You Need to Know About Editing Saturday at 10:00 am.

I will be a panelist on Finding Your Own Voice in Writing. Also Saturday at 5:30 PM

Sunday at 11:30 am I will moderate How to Write for a Specific Genre

And I will conclude my panel discussions moderating What the Publishing Landscape Looks Like Today 2:30 on Sunday.

If you are in the L.A. area, I urge you to attend. LosCon is fun and I have missed it terribly.

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Anticipation

This year there has been precious little to look forward to. It started well with the release of my book in March and my first in-person author event at the tremendous Mysterious Galaxy but the pandemic swept the globe, shuttering society, collapsing the economy, and leaving a terrible toll of death in its wake. In the face of cataclysmic events my little novel and its release seemed such a small thing. Still, I am grateful to everyone who has been ordering on-line and those who have left such positive reviews. Honest, I did not pay them for that.

Normally science-fiction conventions are events that help moderate my mood but naturally those have been canceled or moved to purely on-line gatherings.

Luckily the pandemic has not stolen from me entirely one of the year’s most enjoyable and anticipated events the Horrible Imaginings Horror Film Festival.

The festival was founded in 2009 by my pal Miguel Rodriguez and year after year has grown. Due to scheduling and other real-life issues I was never able to attend until 2015 but each year after that this has been one of my go to jams for good times, good people, and great discoveries.

Naturally this year there is no in-person festival but there will be an on-line celebration and exhibition. This is not as fun as a few hundred attendees jamming into the terrific Freda Cinema in Orange County for big screen presentations of short and feature length horror films from around the globe but there still will be new and exciting cinema to discover. I have already experienced the on-line presentation with Miguel’s quarterly mini-festival Campfire Tales and the process works well and while it is no substitute for a proper theater screen my 55” 4K television is passable for experiencing new and exciting film.

I have already purchased my all access pass for the festival and the next year’s worth of Campfire Tales so September should have a least a few moments of horrifying escapism to make life more bearable.

 

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Comic Con Online

I won’t have a lot to say about this as I have never been a regular attendee of San Diego’s famous Comic-Con. My interest in the Comic industry has always been light, never a collector myself but during the 80s reading the issues purchased by my collector friends. That said I am not putting down the Comic-Con. It’s a tremendous event that now puts a global spotlight on things geeky and nerdy and I am thrilled that so many of my friends have such a good time most years.

The pandemic, just as it has with some many other fun events, canceled in person Comic-Con but the organizers have thrown together a virtual convention with panel discussions and presentations now available on YouTube. Yesterday my sweetie-wife and I watched a pair of these, first a cast discussion for What We Do in the Shadows, FX’s hit vampire comedy and this was quite enjoyable and then an interview discussion with Charlize Theron about her evolution in an action star and general all around badass on-screen.

The online presentation is a poor substitute for the crowded chaos that is Comic-Con and I dearly hope that my friends can soon return to in person geekery.

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Just a Few Thoughts

I don’t have a lot of time and there is prose writing to be done but I have a few thoughts to share.

 

It is abundantly clear that in the nation we have a police brutality problem. Far too often they act as occupiers with the rest of the population subjugated.

It is also abundantly clear that systemic racism amplifies this brutality and black and brown people suffer disproportionately because of it.

The president in the words of a conservative podcaster ‘fetishizes brutality,’ and his most devoted followers fetishize his illusionary strength.

That which cannot be endured will not be. All people, individually and collectively, have their breaking points and when those are reach chaos predictably follows.

People who so confidently asserted that the GOP 94 victory averted a ‘civil war’ will remain blind to the causes of the current unrest.

And finally;

This is all far from over.

 

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