OmegaCon - Lessons Learned

I have to give OmegaCon two ratings, one for my personal experience and one for my professional experience. I did, after all, attend with ulterior motives: I was looking for ways to reach SF fans in such a way that they'd become more interested/involved in space advocacy, which is different from fandom. Personally, I had fun. But then I don't mind talking SF with like-minded fans or dressing up like a damn fool as a means of joining the fun. Professionally, I have a lot of thinking to do. A comment from Ben Bova, who is both an eminent SF writer and space advocate, gave me pause. I explained my mission, more or less, saying, "There are more SF fans than space advocates. How do we get all these folks to be advocates?" He smiled and said, "I have no idea. I've been trying for 50 years. If you figure it out, let me know." How scary is that?

I wasn't nearly as pushy at this conference as I could have been. I'm probably more comfortable dealing with people my age or older, and maybe half the con was under 30, and as a lady in the elevator said, they were more interested in costuming and playing video games. I did talk to a couple of Xers and listen to a lot of people in and out of my panel sessions, and here are the "magic words" I heard in passing:

• "It needs to be fun."
• "NASA is too stodgy."
• "A lot of people are more interested in the commercial aspect, even if it's from the self-interest angle. They're imagining themselves going up into space. You can't do that with NASA."
• There was a lot of concern in the Moon, Mars, and Beyond track about the progress the Chinese were making and what, if anything, NASA was doing about it. (Answer, given the current administration's budget and priorities: zip.)
• One gentleman was upset that there were no official Ares I or Ares V model rockets available. This same person felt the commercial space thing was "dangerous," as it could lead to a de-scoping of NASA if proven successful.
• A couple of SF editors and writers expressed the opinion that commercial industry was better equipped to handle space transportation issues. I noted that those expressing such opinions were Xers like me. There is a strong libertarian streak in a lot of hard SF (begun by Heinlein), which probably feeds the libertarian ethos in some aspects of the space advocacy community today.
• Nanotechnology was of much greater interest than the space program. What, if anything, is NASA doing with nanotechnology? Ah, the glories of Google. Ames Research Center is working on this stuff. Is there any way to incorporate nanotech into Constellation?
• There were a couple of rooms full of kids playing video games. NASA is taking steps in this direction, but one hopes that those steps will be taken in the company of people who have actually played video games.
• The discussions I had with the English professors was interesting, as one of them suggested that their students, despite getting a lot of PC miseducation, might still get behind space exploration if it was doing things that were relevant to them now, like global warming or energy production. Is Constellation set up to do that? No, not necessarily...

These answers shouldn't really come as a surprise. If SF fans are into exciting adventures that either offer hope for the future or expand their horizons, surely the space program can offer them both, right? Um...well, maybe. I mean, I think going to the Moon, Mars, and beyond is cool, but if you want to sell space to the more hard-headed pragmatists out there, even the SF fans are going to want to know that the space program is about more than just keeping the existing infrastructure employed.

The challenge, of course, is that NASA has such a limited range of control over its destiny. On the one hand, advocates are saying, "If you guys do something cool, we'll support you." Meanwhile, the reality is that NASA can only do something cool if the general public persuades the nation's elected officials that they want to see them done. Thus the chicken and the egg face off once again.

*

From a freelance writer point of view, I picked up some useful information in the event I ever find the time/inclination to write SF professionally. Some choice bits of intel include:

• "If you have a manuscript [novel], expect that someone will hold onto it for two years."
• "No simultaneous submissions."
• "Writers must know the business end of writing."
• "About half my money goes toward taxes." --David Drake
• "Set up a post office box to force yourself out of the house." --Drake (again)
• "I've written more books under pseudonyms than under my real name." --Mike Resnick
• Most of the best paying professional magazines are now online.
• SF is now taking over all forms of entertainment and is becoming part of the mainstream.
• "Knowing what to steal is a lot of this business."
• "The greatest threat to writers isn't piracy, it's obscurity." --Cory Doctorow (quoted, he wasn't at the con)
• "Don't write according to trends. By the time it's a trend, it's already dead."
• Gen Xers seem to have taken over the editorial chores in the SF world.
• Listening to the science professionals talk in the Hard Science track made me realize why I'm an English major. Some of that stuff just zoomed over my head.
• Cover art matters a great deal in the ability to sell a book. The writer often has little to no control over the cover art.
• There are more than 2,000 new books every year in the fantasy and science fiction genre.
• Books generally remain on the shelves 30-60 days.
• Borders distributes books based on national sales numbers. What this means in practical terms is that they will buy the same number of a particular author's works for every location despite local or regional increases or decreases in interest.
• "If you're going to get rejected, it'll happen immediately." --Eric Flint
• Publisher consider a hardcover book doing well if it sells 70% of its print run; 55% for paperbacks.
• Entry into the fiction world is determined by writing quality; entry to the non-fiction writing world is based more on credentials.
• When dealing with agents, don't pay reading fees. "Money should flow to the writer."
• Editors see agents as "bastions holding back the slush pile."
• "Most of the bestselling authors at Baen came from the slush pile.
• Editor Lou Anders on deadlines: "I have fake deadline one and fake deadline two."
• American authors earn more from American customers buying books from American publishers than from American customers buying editions of their books from overseas.
• There are mixed opinions about self-publishing. Aside from one writer, most of those who have sold through large or small presses believe that self-publishing works against you.
• Agents are valuable because they know the market and have the contacts necessary to get stories into the hands of the right editors.
• "Make sure you understand your temperament and get along with your agent."
• It's okay to check back with an editor after a six-month gap if your manucript hasn't been rejected right away. If a story hasn't been rejected right away, it goes into a "guilt pile." Those are the stories that are good enough to survive the first cut ("Editors are looking for ways to eliminate you up front"), but not urgent enough to be read right away.
• The top performers (Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, etc.) get the most attention because they bring in most of the money. First-time authors are an unknown quantity, so the system is not set up to support them until they become a known quantity.
• Conventions are a good opportunity to meet fans and sell a few books, but they are not a cost-effective way of selling a lot of books.
• "Opinions are like assholes: everybody's got one." Publishing industry corollary: "Editors are assholes, but everybody wants one."

Book/Story/Reference/Web Site Recommendations

Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward
Murray Leinster, A Logic Named Joe
David Louis Edelman, Infoquake
Dean Koontz, Lightning
David Walton, Terminal Mind
Joy Ward, Haint
Baen Free Library
Jodee Blanco, The Complete Guide to Book Publicity
Miss Snark
L. Sprague DeCamp, The Incomplete Enchanter
Travis Taylor, Warp Speed, One Day on Mars, Von Neumann's War, and Quantum Connection
A.E. van Vogt, World of Null-A
Fred Hoyle, October the First is Too Late
Hal Duncan, Vellum: The Book of All Hours, Ink: The Book of All Hours
SFWA.org
Steven Erickson, The Malazan Book of the Fallen

OmegaCon Pictures and Comments, Day Three

I didn't take nearly as many pictures on Sunday as I did on the first two days. Like most conventions, things calm down after the traditional Saturday blowout. I did manage to snag a picture of these two nice young (28ish?) ladies, Emily and Sarah. We got to talking in the hotel bar on Friday night, and come to find out they were both English lit majors--Ph.D.s and teachers no less--so we got to chatting about literature, SF, what have you. They're striving to write in the fantasy field. We also talked a bit about why Gen Y doesn't give a flip about exploring/settling space. Their explanations did not give me much hope. Apparently any hint of "colonialism" is considered racist, supremacist, etc., even if there are no natives on the Moon or Mars. The current generation of college students is also getting fed a lot of propaganda about how humanity is destroying this planet, and that extending human civilization out to other worlds would be polluting those worlds as well. I don't think they necessarily believed that, but that's what their students are thinking. Ye flippin' gods. Anyhow, I got a couple of business cards, so maybe I can ping them later for more on the Gen Y thing. There's got to be a way to reach those kids...













Apologies--another lousy picture. This was one of a troupe of bagpipers we had playing at random intervals during the con. I seem to recall that her last name was Ryan. We got to talking briefly about Irish heritage during the Saturday evening fog. Nice lady, but I have to be in the right mood for bagpipes, and I think the right mood for bagpipes would be a funeral, in which I was the corpse.

I asked this gentleman if he would mind having his medical condition documented for posterity. He agreed. I recommended that he steer clear of eating spaghetti.













Books a Million had a pretty good-sized booth in the Dealers' Room. They were selling lightsabers ($100 if you had their discount card) and miniature R2D2s. This little guy stood maybe 12 inches tall, but he made all the right beeps and whistles.













I saw this Jabba the Hutt on the local Star Wars fan club table. Near as I can figure, Jabba is wearing a grass skirt so he can attend his hula classes later. Otherwise, I'm drawing a blank.












That's all for pictures. The rest will be covered in a follow-up posting on lessons learned.

OmegaCon Pictures and Comments, Day Two and Movie Review: Yesterday Was a Lie



The next "big event" for the morning was a 30-minute session with Peter Mayhew talking and answering questions about his experiences with Star Wars. I took a couple pictures of the crowd because it was instructive. This was one event in one track at this convention, and they probably had around 200 people in the room. My last space advocacy con had 200 people at the whole event.

























Tiny horns seemed to be a "costume" of choice among the otherwise-normally dressed.

























This kid put a lot of work into his costume. A shame I couldn't keep my camera steady. Thus my career as a writer, not a photographer.
























Another costume too real for its own good. SF author Mike Resnick didn't understand why so many people were trying to imitate/live in George Lucas's world ("which is not science fiction," he was quick to add) "when there are so many other worlds they could create on their own...but then I wasn't [part of] a generation raised on television."



























The gentleman in the wheelchair was named Lightning Bear ("I'm a Native American, in case you didn't know"). Apparently, he had a couple of extra roles as a Storm Trooper in the original Star Wars and a Scout Trooper in Return of the Jedi. Both of these men looked a little worn out to be doing the convention thing. Mr. Mayhew, who is a very tall (7'4" in his youth), hobbled in on a cane and just had that "God, will you people stop making me go to these things?" expression that you see on the Trek actors occasionally. I have a lot of notes written during his talk, but only a few one-liners stuck out as being worth sharing:

• "I keep getting taken for Howard Stern, for some reason."


• "I used to be 7'4". You shrink."


• "Most of our lunches [during the making of Star Wars] were liquid."


• "I was told [on the Endor set] not to go off set in costume. That was apparently Bigfoot country."

On my way upstairs to the Hard Science track (the track I was assigned to), I heard the following comment in the elevator: "They're just geeks. All they know how to do is costume and play video games." I was tempted to respond, but why bother?

As I was eating lunch, I saw this trio of little 'uns practicing some sort of Riverdance routine in the lobby. They were quite good, from what I could see of their practice. I missed the actual performance. C'est la vie.

The image below is a nice shot of the Sheraton atrium. Being somewhat acrophobic, I was quite happy that my session was only one flight up. The fourth floor also provided some good bird's-eye views of the various alien life forms. Vader's 501st Stormtrooper Legion, Alabama Garrison, was there in force, along with several other creatures that you had to catch quickly, if at all.

Prior to my first panel, "Flying Cars and Ray Guns: Where the Hell Are They?" The track chair, Travis Taylor, and a couple of scientists (Dr. David Finkelstein and Dr. Perry Gerakines, below) got into a rather vigorous debate about the nature and purpose of quantum mechanics.

No one was rude, but you could tell that this was still contentious territory among scientists. I confess to being less well-educated than I should be about such things. Most of us are acquainted with "classical physics," which deals with issues like gravity and motion, which can be seen with the human eye. However, when you get down to the atomic level, there's a whole new level of events going on that is not nearly so neatly explained or described. Indeed, the nature of the discussion between Taylor and the other two panelists was on whether quantum mechanics was used to describe or explain phenomena at the atomic level. The argument was largely semantic to me, and the three men seemed to agree on some interpretations of QM, but applications were hazy, and issues like string theory, which is seemingly elegant, but untestable. Despite the rather esoteric nature of the discussion, the room was mostly full (50 people). More than half of those folks cleared out when it came time for my panel, which was irritating but beyond my control, unless I barred the door.

For my session, Dr. Finkelstein left, I took a chair, Perry remained, and Dr. Laura Edwards, a nanotechnologist joined as well. One thing about panel sessions is that they go very quickly. No formal presentations, just a bunch of folks sitting at a table in front of the room. We introduce ourselves, have some discussions about our opinions of the subject, and then kick it out to the audience for any questions, which leads to more questions. I'm not sure how much folks got out of this session. There was a similar discussion on Friday on the ability of SF to predict the future. My personal view, which I naturally shared with the group, is that SF is much better at predicting technological and sociological changes. For example, SF easily predicted the development of rockets, but missed the invention of the transistor. An early work by Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward, predicted powered flight, but it was via zeppelin, not heavier-than-air craft, and women in his imagined future were still not allowed to vote. Et cetera. Fun discussion, at any rate, though as the only non-scientist on the panel, I was definitely in over my head when they started talking about specific applications of this or that. My fault for getting degrees in English and jobs in marketing.

After the panel, I wandered back to the literary track, where a trio of writers I hadn't heard of before--Haley Elizabeth Garwood, Joy Ward, and Louise Marley--talked about writing "across genres." One of the more useful items in this discussion was on the content of a query letter:

• Here's my [story] setup


• Here's my character


• Here's their problem


• Here's what happens in the first 50 pages that will hook you

I'll get more into lessons learned after I get through the daily summaries, but there was some really good stuff in this session that I took to heart as a writer. Looking back, I probably should've made a better effort to attend some more of the sessions on writing. I was very diligent about attending the sessions on the business angles of things, but someone less so about mechanics; and those, after all, are what have kept me from writing sellable SF. Fortunately, I'm a) a reasonably decent nonfiction writer, and b) very persistent. (In fact, an editor in another track quoted Calvin Coolidge on persistence, a lesson I've definitely taken to heart:

Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

One of the funnier lines from the bridging genres session was, "If you want to start a fight at a romance convention, tell someone they wrote a 'bodice ripper'."

And so, having promised myself (and the lady herself) that I would do so, I headed for the screening of Yesterday Was a Lie, starring Chase Masterson. One of the reasons I gave this movie a shot, aside from its concept (altered states of reality, SF-film noir) was that James Kerwin, the writer/director, was an astronomy minor, and so knew what he was talking about, at least in theory. Brother, did he ever!

This was a seriously amazing movie. Way too smart for Hollywood, which is probably why it's had a hard time getting into some film festivals. Try this for a multi-layered movie: you've got a black-and-white film noir with dark, brooding cinematography to match anything made "back in the day." You've got a troubled, hard-bitten female detective who's having seriously bad cases of deja vu or disjointed experiences that come out of nowhere. You've got a mysterious man who appears to hold the secrets to all of this. You've got Peter Mayhew as an equally mysterious, dangerous figure. Somewhere in the mix, you've got a love story. And yes, you've got Chase Masterson starring as a lounge singer with many other roles to either help explain things or make them muddier, depending on how you interpret the dialogue. I should stress that this story is set in the present day, but it still has a lot of '40s technological artifacts, like analog telephones, old cars, and snap-brim hats. However, items like computers bring us back to the present. Thus it is what it is: a purposeful homage to film-noir set in the present day. The tone and style might evoke Raymond Chandler or The Third Man, but the story structure is more like something by Alfred Bester. As a piece of science fiction filmmaking, Yesterday Was a Lie is superb.

However, being a relentless critic, there are a couple of things that I didn't like, but they are minor, and one of them eventually corrected themselves. It took awhile to warm up to the lead character actress, Kipleigh Brown, who plays the grumpy, and at times frumpy detective, Hoyle. The '40s fedora and baggy suits don't (shall we say) suit her, but that costume isn't seen after the early part of the film. The whiskey-drinking, cigarette-smoking tough-gal act struck me as a tad ridiculous, but this, too, seems to be shed as the story develops. I asked the director afterward which scenes were shot first, because it seemed as if Brown gradually became more comfortable with the role.

The other challenge of the film is that it is, as I told the director, simply too smart for Hollywood. As a science fiction fan and occasional fan of old movies, I got it. Hell, I loved the concept! However, I might be a very niche audience. You have to be comfortable with nonlinear time-travel stories (which this isn't, really, but it's the closest I can come to explaining it without blowing the whole thing). And the concept is very high, the sort of thing that SF fans read SF for: to expand our minds and horizons. As such, it is entertainment of a specific type for a very specific audience. You either dig it or you don't. (I recall Ms. Masterson saying, "I love you guys!" as the audience debreifed afterward and was getting the whole concept. Apparently a few people had told her or the director, "I don't get it.") I hope like hell someone picks up this film and distributes it because it deserves better treatment than it's received so far.

My second panel was "The Moon, Mars, and Beyond," which featured Travis Taylor (again), Les Johnson (a NASA guy who was there on his own dime and accord), and me. One thing I discovered is that I'm not nearly as glib or smooth about explaining the Ares Project as I'd like to think, as my brain got ahead of my tongue in a few places, but I think I got in all the points I wanted to make (we're not remaking Apollo, we'll be doing things we haven't done before, etc.). Another problem, however, is that the new presentation I was given to use does not play nicely with Microsoft Windows Vista. Something new for the graphics people to work out. The picture below is Travis after a full day of track speaking, the poor guy. We had maybe 15 people in our track after (again) a full-room discussion on nanotechnology. So apparently nanotech is worth 50 people's attention, but the Moon, Mars, and beyond are not. Frustrating, given a conference of 4,000 people.






































After finishing up with the second track, I headed for the car so I too could participate in the traditional con silliness. Imagine Indiana Jones if he spent more time teaching and snagging donuts from the teachers' lounge and somewhat less time on the road running from Nazis...









































Everything after this is strictly the result of running loose with a camera and some adult beverages. I did restrain myself, as I was staying at the Embassy Suites a few miles away, not at the con hotel. Perhaps that's just as well.





Remember: "Quien no sabe" is Spanish for "He Who Knows Nothing."




























































Duff Man showed up for a few brews. Oh, yeah!









































These two were so much fun, they got their picture taken. The guy was "a reaper," he said, without specifying if he was the head Grim Reaper in Charge (I think I saw him in the OmegaCon Tavern, though). The girl was "an evil fairy." Nice.







































Unless I'm out of it completely, I believe this is a grown man dressed up as one of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. But then I showed up as Indiana Jones; who the hell am I to talk?





































































































This hallway party called itself "Bedlam." The big gent in the white-and-blue shirt and black cowboy hat was the King of Bedlam, and everyone else was part of the court. When I introduced myself, I was dubbed Court Archaeologist. You just can't get this sort of entertainment at a NASA conference.


































The ribbons holding this girl's top on were attached to a set of eight rings pierced into her back. Yee-ow!






































I visited the gaming room briefly and caught Darth Maul and this Twi'lek deeply engaged in one of the games.


































Much to my dismay, my flash was not cooperating in the Tavern, so this is the only good shot I have from the Masquerade Ball. However, if you look carefully, you can see the Lone Ranger, Wonder Woman, and (best guess) Captain Morgan. Every time he passed by, I wanted to place my foot up on a railing somewhere.
















And that, dear reader(s), is what a Saturday night at a science fiction convention looks like. Welcome to my world.

OmegaCon Pictures and Comments, Day One

I spent the weekend at OmegaCon in Birmingham, Alabama. Overall, I'd say I had a good time. However, it's been 16 years since I attended a sci-fi convention. I'm more at home with the space advocates now, I suppose. SF is what got me into space advocacy, of course, but somewhere along the line I made the transition from SF fan to advocate. I wanted things to happen in space now, and I wanted to be a part of it.

For those who have never attended an SF con, understand that SF is a rather "big tent," encompassing as it does hard science fiction (what most people think of when they hear the label and say "I don't like that"); space opera (things like Star Trek and Star Wars, which are space opera, not science fiction); fantasy (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and a variety of swords-and-sorcery epics); horror; paranormal studies (ghosts and spirtualism; role-playing games (RPGs) based on existing or completely new SF/fantasy worlds; American comic books like Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, etc., and Japanese anime.

When you go to a con, you have to be in a receptive and reasonably bright frame of mind because the audience tends to be very bright, very creative, sometimes introverted, and often not supreme examples of physical magnificence (I place myself in this category as well). The costuming is often the most entertaining aspect of a con, so those are the pictures I captured most often. And so, on with the show. What I'll do here is run Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3 pictures, and then a fourth entry on my concluding thoughts from the con, as I did go there with a few specific tasks in mind.

This was my first encounter with a costumed fan: a Stormtrooper in a kilt.








The dealers' room (sometimes called the hawkers' room) is where you can find SF book and prop vendors, as well as celebrities who are there as guests and sometimes there to hawk their latest project or movie. Richard Kiel, whom I remember best as Jaws in some of the Roger Moore James Bond films, was there, as was Richard Hatch, who starred in the original Battlestar Galactica and has a recurring role in the new version. Hatch was selling a new RPG. I didn't get his picture because I must confess to not being THAT big a fan. I did plunk down a twenty to get Chase Masterson's autograph. I liked her from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and she's now got a role in the fan-made Trek movie, Of Gods and Men. I also got the autograph because she's just plain gorgeous. More on Ms. Masterson later.









Here's a superhero you don't see very often: The Phantom, which was a pretty decent comic book that nearly got killed by Billy Zane's godawful acting in the live-action movie. You don't realize how bizarre some of these outfits are until you see them face to face. Mind you, this guy did a good job with it, but you've got to wonder what the original creators were thinking when they first came up with this getup.








The dealers' room is also a great place for buying supplies for RPGs, like Star Wars.








I have no idea what these two dolls in the middle were, but they were creeping me out.









Another superhero among the stacks: Green Lantern. This guy got interviewed by the local Fox News affiliate.









The hawkers' room is also a good place for the weapons fetishist. The two weapons below were the most ornate that I saw. I'm sure they help make particular costumes more complete; I just have no idea which ones.

















And, of course, what con would be complete without a light saber?











Outside the hawkers' room, this gent was part of the group Starship Lexington, which is also producing fan films on the Internet.












As a fan of Firefly, I couldn't resist talking to the kids at the Dixie Browncoats table. There they were selling a couple of Hawaiian shirts, a common costume item for the Firefly's pilot, Wash. The first time we saw Wash in the show, he's playing with his toy dinosaurs, which he keeps by the helm. The back-and-forth of Wash's play is worth repeating, or the next picture will make no damn sense whatsoever.

Dinosaur 1: (Calm, somber voice) "This is a good land, and we shall call it...This Land."
Dinosaur 2: (Nasty voice) "I think we should call it your grave."
Dinosaur 1: "Ah! Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!" Wash then sets Dinosaur 2 on Dinosaur 1, with the betraying dinosaur making growling sounds and Dinosaur 1 bellowing, "Oh, dear God!" (Another attack.) "Oh, dear God in Heaven!" All the time, Wash's voice doesn't waver from its sonorous calm. At this point the toy dinosaur melee is broken up by actual ship's business. This is just one of the quirky little bits that made the show so damned entertaining.
Anyhow, Wash, in addition to playing with dinosaurs, wears these loud shirts. The Dixie Browncoats had "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal" imprinted on the front and an image of a dinosaur head imprinted on the back. I had cash in my wallet, and an evil urge to spend it and so, yes, the inevitable happened...











Some costumes are harder to explain in a science fictional context, like the numerous pirates walking about. This young lady did, however, have her arm festooned with a couple of small dragons, thus fitting in nicely with the fantasy motif.








Below is one of about a dozen RPG boards set up in the RPG room. To be clear, some of these games are straightforward board games, like Axis and Allies, while some involve play-acting in connection with a variety of dice, which determine the success of various efforts.









After meandering the hallways for a bit, I attened some panel sessions that were of interest to me. The lady below is Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc (http://www.thelosttheforgottenthedamned.com/), a funny but rather opinionated horror writer. She had several tales to tell about her wars with the traditional publishers, and is one of those exceptions in the business, as she managed to work her self-published stories into bestsellers--something almost unheard-of in the business. She was proving that it could be done, but it also sounded like she had fought a lot of battles and worked as hard or harder on the promotional aspects of her work as the writing itself. (And here I must confess that I haven't read her writing, so it's hard for me to judge that specific point.) All I'd say is that if I ever get the urge to get something written, I'll try the traditional route of submit-wait-submit-again until I get fed up. At which point I might end up following Van Scoyoc's path as well.









Another pirate. No dragons to be found, she was just too cute not to photograph.









These two dudes were members of a band called Coyote Run. Their outfits consisted primarily of leather and kilts. I asked them how many competitors they had to skin to make them. They seemed to be amused. I only heard a little of their music, but it's sort of like Off Kilter, who I heard at Epcot a few times: rock 'n' roll + bagpipes.









Bat girl and kitten girl. Again, hard to resist.










I attended a session on authors using pseudonyms. The reasons authors used them were varied and instructive. Ann Aguirre (below, left) used different names for her fantasy and romance work to keep the names' "brands" separate. Why? Because often readers have a mental block about a particular writer changing genres, so it's just easier to just use a different name (imagine, for example, finding your favorite romance writer's name on the mystery shelf, taking the book home, and discovering that s/he had written a hack-and-slash serial killer novel). Mike Resnick, a Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning author (below, right), has written something like 300 books, 150 of them under a pseudonym of one sort or another. He says he finally stopped using pseudonyms when he started writing stuff he didn't mind other people reading under his own name. Other famous authors have used pen names while learning their craft (Robert Silverberg and Harlan Ellison are two of my favorites). Silverberg, for example, once filled an entire magazine with his stories, but used half a dozen pen names so that all the stories weren't "his."









Returning to the subject of Chase Masterson, she was promoting a new indie SF film she was starring in called Yesterday Was a Lie. Friday night, she, the director James Kerwin, and her costars Peter Mayhew (better known as Chewbacca) and John Newton (who has been a regular on shows like Melrose Place and Superboy) were there to talk with SF fans about the movie without any of us seeing the film. Mind you, they did have a preview to show us, which they cued up after some difficulty. After 10:30 at night, I have to confess that my level of patience was pretty low. However, I was sufficiently intrigued by the concept that I was determined to show up. A science fiction film noir? How often do you see that? More on the film in the Day Two summary. But suffice to say here that I'm glad I took the time to see it.


James Kerwin (left) and Chase Masterson








Peter Mayhew









James Kerwin

Chase Masterson and Peter Mayhew

John Newton