FenCon Ho!

Headed for Texas
Ty and I are on the road once more.This time we're set for the Westin DFW Airport Hotel in Irving, TX, and FenCon XV. It's a new convention for us, but we hope to make new friends and meet up with some familiar faces. If you're in the area, I hope to see you there! Please note: events on the schedule have been updated since this post was originally published. Please check the online FenCon schedule to make sure you have the most current version!

My Schedule 
Click the links for more details about these panels!
Friday September 21
4:00-5:00 p.m. (Chinaberry Room) – Women Heroes in a Male-Dominated World
5:00-6:00 p.m. (Chinaberry Room) – The Sexes . . . . in Space!
6:30-7:00 p.m. (Pecan Room) – Reading (see below!)
Saturday September 22
12:00-1:00 p.m. (Irving Lecture Hall) – We Can Make Them Faster Stronger … and Better!
1:00-2:00 p.m. (Chinaberry Room) – Yesterday’s Tomorrow

My Reading
As I did at Worldcon, I've created a postcard about my reading at FenCon. I'll read an excerpt (or two?) from my soon-to-be published novel, What's Bred in the Bone. 

I don't yet have finished cover art from Jody A. Lee, but she sent me a color comp that gives a pretty good idea how the finished project will look. It illustrates a scene from around the middle of the novel, when Rex and LSA Shiva Shimon, an agent from the Station Bureau of Investigation, venture into the infamous underworld neighborhood known as the Five-Ten.

What's Bred in the Bone is the first novel of an in-the-works trilogy about XK9 Officer Rex Dieter-Nell, his partner Detective Charlie Morgan, his mate XK9 Officer Shady Jacob-Belle, and their Packmates and friends on Rana Habitat Space Station. Look for it this winter. Subscribe to my newsletter for updates and exclusive extras!

My Artwork in the FenConXV Art Show! 
I laid all my artwork out on a measured-off box on my living room floor--and I think I can squeeze it all in! I'm taking an example of every current piece of paper sculpture in my collection to the FenCon Art Show. Don't miss:
The Art Show Reception at 8:00 p.m. Friday at the Gallery
The Art and Charity Auction at 6:00 Saturday in the Irving Lecture Hall
Note: you can still buy art on Sunday morning.

This was my display panel at Westercon 71/MALCon 6. Most of these designs will be available at the FenCon Art Show.

IMAGES: Many thanks to FenCon XV for their website header/logo! The color comp for my soon-to-be cover is by Jody A. Lee, and is used by agreement. I took the photo of my own Westercon 71/MALCon 6 display. You may reblog or re-post it with my blessings, as long as you include an attribution and an link back to this post. Thanks!

Preparing to blast off

Atomic Avenue #1 by Glen Orbik

Going to a Worldcon isn't nearly as exotic as blasting off to the stars, but it's an endeavor. This year my son and I aren't leaving the country--Silicon Valley is different from Kansas in a great many ways, but they're both in the same U.S.A. Next year it'll be in Dublin (we'll see whether we can afford that one).

Meanwhile, I'm facing the eternal question. Once I get to the con, and I’m out of reach of all my resources here at home, what will I regret having forgotten about, left behind, failed to print, forgotten to consider, or otherwise left myself unprepared to do/have/use?

Yoda may be right that “always in motion is the future,” but in the meantime, always short of something is the Jan, at most cons. I usually muddle through just fine, but I always try to control for it better next time.

Well, it’s next time, right now. Where did I put my list?

See you in San Jose?

IMAGES: Many thanks to Glen Orbik, discovered via SciFi at Dark Roasted Blend, for Atomic Avenue #1, to AAlto University's "My Courses" page for the Yoda quote-image, and to Anna Franchi's Life in a Suitcase, for the overloaded-baggage-cart picture. 

Memories of the 2017 NASFiC

Perhaps you'd like to see a presentation my son Tyrell Gephardt and I prepared, about our experiences at this year's North American Science Fiction Convention (NASFiC), held anytime the Worldcon is not in North America (which it is not this year; it's in Helsinki).



We hope you'll enjoy it--we certainly enjoyed our time there! We've also shared this presentation with KACSFFS, our local Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society, both at the July meeting last Saturday and on the KaCSFFS Blog (scroll down).

Ty and I also spent a couple of days afterward, wandering around in fascinating Old San Juan. It's possible some of the thoughts and photos from those peregrinations may end up in future blog posts here!

IMAGES: At least half of those in the NASFiC presentation, are by Jan S. Gephardt. Most of the other photos in the presentation are by Tyrell E. Gephardt; the remaining photos (credited at the end of the NASFiC presentation) are from the official website of the Sheraton Puerto Rico Hotel & Casino, where the NASFiC was held. Thanks!

Readings as Worldcon networking venues?

I first started going to Worldcons in the 1980s. The times have changed, but the World Science Fiction Convention still moves to a different city in the world each year.

This year it's MidAmericon II in Kansas City, practically in my back yard. Next year it's Worldcon 75 in Helsinki, Finland. 

Wherever they're held, Worldcons are a great place to meet science fiction fans from all over the world, and network with others in our niche of fandom. 

The 1976 Hugo Award base, sculpted
by Tim Kirk, changed the look of the
award in subsequent years.

Worldcon also is a place where innovations happen. Sometimes the innovations are accepted and continued from year to year. For example, at the first MidAmericon, held in Kansas City in1976, the base of the Hugo Award trophy was sculpted by Tim Kirk. Previous award bases had been rather traditional wooden trophy bases, but after 1976 the Hugo bases became more elaborate.

This year one of the innovations the concom is trying is a change in the parties that are held after-hours. Traditionally, these are hotel-room-centered parties, held in hotel rooms and suites by individuals, groups, or publishing companies. 

They are traditionally a hotbed of networking between all the various players in sf fandom (bid parties for the right to host future Worldcons, or parties to promote other, regional conventions), and in the publishing industry (writers, editors, agents, and artists).

Arianne "Tex" Thompson came to her
reading expecting a much smaller crowd. 

This year, however, all parties are to be held in the event space in Bartle Hall, in adjacent, tent-like lounge areas with couch-like seating and high, small-topped round tables. Traditional sf convention parties last well into the wee hours; these were closed down by the venue tonight at 11:30. 

This severely limits both the number of parties that can be held (three, tonight), and the amount of networking that can be done at them (since you couldn't have heard it thunder in those exhibit-hall parties).

I have absolutely no doubt that individuals will privately host parties in their hotel rooms, although the hotels don't want them to. However, at the end of the panel schedule a totally new (to me) phenomenon cropped up: Author readings as networking opportunities. 

C. Taylor-Butler read from the second
book in her new middle-grades series,
The Lost Tribes: Safe Harbor.

My first glimpse of this was the comparative crowd that showed up for the first of three readings I attended today. The featured author was Arianne "Tex" Thompson, who writes alternate-history fantasy with an interesting twist. Authors are conditioned to expect very few people at their readings--for some reason they aren't well attended. But so far the readings for this year's Worldcon have been much better-attended. 

When I returned for the back-to-back readings by C. Taylor-Butler and Tonya Adolfson (a.k.a. Tanglwyst de Holloway), I was treated not only to more engaging fiction, but also to a spontaneous discussion--actually, a veritable symposium--on indie fiction, audiobooks, and the ways that publishers, distributors, and reviewers game the system. 

Tonya Adolfson read from two of her books

Tonya and her husband, John W. Farmer, also made a case for better--and better-remunerated--audiobook production values and standards. Their company, Fantastic Journey Publishing, is attempting to set new standards of excellence with full-cast audio recordings of not only Tonya's books, but also those of other indie authors. 

They made the case that indie authors who don't do the diligent work of learning the craft, being edited professionally, and maintaining high production values for their work are feeding the double standard that plagues indie authors who do strive for excellence. Unfortunately, I completely agree. 

I remember being a graphic designer during the 1990s, when something similar was happening in that field--any fool and his/her sibling thought that because s/he owned a copy of MS Publisher, that meant graphic design was "easy." Good design isn't, of course. It never has been. Thank goodness, a certain amount of sanity on that subject has returned--but in the meantime, there was some seriously stinko design foisted upon the hapless world.

It is my fervent hope that something similar will occur with indie publishing. Back in the 1980s when I first went to Worldcons, the only game in town for writers was publishers. You found an agent, you got published, if possible, and you played according to their rules. The networking parties were essential.

Today, it's a wild new world, but the networking is as essential as ever. Where will we do it? Perhaps at each others' readings.

IMAGES: Many thanks to MidAmericon II's website for its logo, and to the Worldcon 75 website for its logo. Thanks to the Hugo Awards archive for the photo with the 1976 base. The photos of Tex, Christine, and Tonya were taken by me, with their permission.

Are we there yet? Preparing for MidAmericon II

The 74th World Science Fiction Convention is in Kansas City this year. They were setting up today. Here's a preview:

IMAGES: I took these in Bartle Hall in downtown Kansas City on 8/16/2016.