On Saturday, October 28th, a few hundred longtime attendees of Farpoint and Shore Leave SF conventions descended on the Marriott Delta in Hunt Valley, MD to bid the hotel goodbye. After 40+ years of hosting genre conventions, the hotel will close on October 31. According to the rumor mill, the building will be demolished and replaced by a Tesla dealership or condos or both.
My wife and I spent part of the day wandering the hotel and taking final pictures all while a dog show was in progress. Adorable pooches everywhere, which added an element of fun to an otherwise bittersweet occasion.
It was wonderful to spend time with so many old friends including Sharon VanBlarcom, Steve and Renee Wilson, June Swords, Daniel Patrick Corcoran, Cindy Shockey, Bob Greenberger, Royce Essig, Sashi German, Susanna Reilly, Rhonda Greene, Diane Baron, Blair Learn, Paul Balze, Lance and Cindy Woods, Inge Heyer, Jay and Pam Smith, Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Mike McPhail, Ann Hande, Susan Staneslow Olesen, and more. Apologies if I’m forgetting anyone.
While at the farewell party, Farpoint announced their new home at the Hilton Doubletree in Pikesville, MD. Shore Leave will make a similar announcement in the coming weeks.
Last weekend, the Shore LeaveSF convention celebrated its 41st anniversary with yet another stellar line-up of celebrity guests, writers, scientists, and artists.
My wife and I arrived on Friday evening straight from our vacation in Rehoboth Beach, DE. Due to an accident on 695, we were delayed and by the time we arrived, checked in to the hotel, and registered for the con, I was exhausted, sweaty, and in some physical pain. As a result, I missed my 6PM panel (for which I received a lecture from Bob Greenberger).
After a brief rest, my wife and I caught up with several friends in the restaurant including my buddy and former co-worker, Dan Torok, and his daughter, as well as writer pal Richard White, and Farpoint chairwoman Sharon Van Blarcom. Ultimately, the best reason for attending cons is not the celebrities, autographs, or collectibles, but to reunite with friends.
At 9PM, I met up with the entire cadre of writer guests to set up for the traditional Friday night book fair, Meet the Pros, where fellow Firebringer Press writer Diane Baron debuted her latest book, The Fandom Fifty: 50+ Fascinating People of the Maryland Science Fiction Conventions (aka, The Fandom Fifty for short). Since many of the people interviewed for the book (myself included) were present at the con, Diane’s launch was extremely successful and generated quite the buzz around the con! Everyone interviewed for the book who attended Shore Leave was chasing the others for autographs throughout the weekend, myself included. I believe Diane sold nearly 20 books by the end of the night and another 10 or more by the close of the con.
The Fandom Fifty was published by Firebringer Press, owned by writer pal, Steven H. Wilson who was, of course, with us at Meet the Pros. (As an aside, my wife and I co-rented the beach house in Rehoboth with Steve, his wife Renee, and their son and future daughter-in-law, all of whom had also volunteered to work Shore Leave!)
I managed to sell a few copies of my latest anthology, Beach Pulp, and signed many copies of The Fandom Fifty (which I also helped edit along with Diane and Steve).
Before breakfast on Saturday morning, I met up with veteran author Howard Weinstein who gifted me with More of the Monkees on vinyl. We arranged this before the con as Howie was reducing his vinyl collection and knew that I was a Monkees fan.
At 1PM, Steve, Diane, and I gathered once more for Firebringer Press Presents, our one-hour discussion panel where we talk about our current and upcoming releases. Of course, the hot topic was The Fandom Fifty, but we also discussed the third volume in our Middle of Eternity anthology series.
As usual, we carved out a few minutes near the end of the panel to mention publishing successes outside of Firebringer. Steve will have his first western tale included in Five Star Publishing’s next anthology, Hobnail and Other Frontier Stories and I was pleased to announce that I will have a Christmas story published in Over the River and Through the Woods by Year of the Book Press.
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At 3PM, I joined fellow scribes Kim Headlee, Jenifer Rosenberg, Amy Imhoff, and Richard White for Getting the Word Out, our discussion panel on book promotion. We discussed the various methods and tools that writers can use to promote their work, from the social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to book trailers on YouTube and from Goodreads and LibraryThing giveaways to the importance of creating your Author Central page on Amazon. More items were expounded, but as I write this, the clock is ticking past my bedtime and I worked a 12-hour day so my brain is beyond weary.
Thus endeth my discussion panels for Saturday. After Evon and I shared a wonderful dinner at the Iron Rooster with writer friends Susanna Reilly and Heather Hutsell, we returned to the hotel where I met up with Dan and his daughter again in the restaurant while Evon crashed in our room for a few hours.
Shortly after we sat down at a table, Anson Mount (Hell on Wheels, Star Trek: Discovery) ambled up to the bar for a late dinner. To our surprise, only a handful of fans interrupted him in an attempt to schmooze, but he handled it well before making his way to the back of the restaurant to hang out with the Star Trek authors.
Before calling it a night, I was invited via text message to a small gathering up in Sharon Van Blarcom’s room. By the time I arrived, Evon was already there and we were shortly joined by Steve and Renee Wilson, Brian Sarcinelli, and Ethan Wilson. We chatted about cons, fandom, and all the mayhem and chaos intrinsic to both.
After packing up the car on Sunday morning, I made my way to the McCormick Suite at 10AM for a conversation on How to Cut that Story or Novel Down. My fellow panelists included Joshua Palmatier, Hildy Silverman, Susan Olesen, and Kathleen David. We discussed ways to trim the fat our of your novel or short story. Some examples included removal of excess dialogue tags, cutting extraneous descriptions, avoiding infodumps, combining two or more characters into one where possible, and more.
Next up was Building an Anthology with Mike McPhail, Joshua Palmatier, Danielle Ackley-McPhail, and Michael Jan Friedman. As the name implies, discussion points included all of the ingredients that go into creating an anthology whether multi-genre, themed, or shared universe. We touched on invitation-only versus open call, the importance of cover art and back cover copy, using a series bible, editing, formatting, and much more.
Photo credit: Lorraine J. Anderson
With that, another Shore Leave came to an end almost as quickly as it took you to read this blog post. One thing to note was that after 26 years of attendance, this was the first time I did not stand in line for autographs and/or photo ops with any of the celebrities. It certainly made for a more relaxing convention experience and permitted me more time to chat with friends in between discussion panels and take a quick tour of the dealer room.
One of the dealers is perennial fan favorite, Mike Riehl (aka “The Ornament Guy”) who once again had a dazzling display of hand-painted ornaments and several beautifully finished sci-fi model ships.
Photo credit: The Ornament GuyPhoto credit: The Ornament Guy
One item that definitely captured much attention in the dealer hallway was the Star Trek Operations Simulator arcade game from 1982. No, I did not play!
It should be noted that Shore Leave 41 was one of the final stops for Nichelle Nichols during her farewell tour. At 86, Ms. Nichols is retiring from the convention circuit this year. I have fond memories of meeting her several times in my 30 years of con attendance. She is an elegant lady and unfailingly gracious to the fans.
Nichelle Nichols (Photo credit: Larry Berman)
Of course, it would not be a genre convention without a healthy coterie of cosplayers and Shore Leave never disappoints in that area! Pictured below are merely a few amazing examples.
Clear skies and milder temperatures ushered in Shore Leave’s 40th anniversary SF convention in Hunt Valley, MD this past weekend. Celebrity guests included William Shatner, Ming-Na Wen, Allison Scagliotti, Peter Williams, Peter Kelamis, Chase Masterson, and Aron Eisenberg.
After checking into the hotel and collecting my convention materials (badge and program book), I made an initial round of the dealer room and convention areas to get the lay of the land—which hasn’t changed much in the 25 years I’ve been attending Shore Leave.
For me, Friday’s events kicked off at 7PM with an hour-long discussion panel called “Anthologies: Share the Love,” which turned out to be a lively round-table discussion among several writers about what attracts readers to short story collections, themed anthologies versus mixed genre, and what draws writers to submit to anthologies. In addition to myself, participants included Keith R.A. DeCandido, Richard White, Joshua Palmatier, Christopher Bennett, Jenifer Rosenberg, and our moderator, Greg Cox.
It should be noted that while my wife was with me—and had begun attending Shore Leave three years before I—she did not stay at the con beyond Friday evening. Following Shore Leave, we were scheduled to begin a weeklong vacation in Rehoboth Beach, DE. Evon wanted to get there a few days sooner, so we planned for her to leave on Saturday morning with our friends Steve and Renee Wilson, with whom we rent a house for a week each summer. I would then join then on Sunday evening.
At 10PM on Friday, it was time for Meet the Pros, where all 45 writers in attendance gathered to sell and sign books. It was also where I finally had the pleasure of meeting Michael and Denise Okuda, who collectively worked in graphic design, and other capacities, for Star Trek: The Next Generation through Enterprise. I’d brought with me three of their Star Trek reference books to be autographed including the Star Trek Chronology, Star Trek Encyclopedia, and Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual.
During the remainder of Meet the Pros, I managed to sell a few books and catch up with fellow writers Diane Baron, Kelly Meding, Heather Hutsell, Michael Jan Friedman, Bob Greenberger, Aaron Rosenberg, Russ Colchamiro, David Mack, Kelli Fitzpatrick, Derek Tyler Attico, Lorraine Anderson, and others.
Saturday began at 9AM with “Science Fact” an edifying discussion panel about incorporating real science into your fiction and what scientific advancements have been most exciting to write about. My fellow panelists included Christopher Bennett, Marie Louise Davie, and moderator Kelli Fitzpatrick. The panel afforded me the perfect opportunity to chat about the SF novel I’m currently writing and the various sciences involved including advances in personal communication and space ship propulsion as well as the soft sciences such as the socioeconomic effects of the events in the story.
After that, it was back to my hotel room to change for my photo ops with Ming-Na Wen and Allison Scagliotti, and William Shatner. First, however, I stopped by Allison’s autograph table and picked up a Warehouse 13 photo. It was an honor to meet her, given how much I enjoyed her character on the show.
A minor delay and some scheduling confusion caused a brief imbroglio with the photo op lines, but everything worked out well in the end. At the start of my photo op with Allison and Ming-Na, I stood between them and said, “fanboys, eat your hearts out,” which got a laugh out of Allison. Ming-Na didn’t hear me until I repeated the comment after the photo was taken and it gave her a chuckle.
After that, it was time for two more discussion panels. The first, Firebringer Press Presents, was supposed to be a one hour update about what books are forthcoming from Firebringer—the small press I work with most and owned by the aforementioned Steve Wilson—but we were scheduled opposite Ming-Na’s stage talk and she was only at Shore Leave for one day. Needless to say, our panel had no audience other than my friend Omar who just happened to cross paths with me in the hallway and wanted to catch up. Thus, Ethan Wilson, Diane Baron, and I sat and talked with Omar for about 25 minutes before abandoning the room.
However, I returned to the room at 4PM for my final panel of the day, “Robert Heinlein’s Five Rules of Writing,” moderated by Laura Ware. My fellow panelists included Jim Johnson, Lorraine Anderson, and Dayton Ward. We managed to actively fill the entire hour expounding on each of Heinlein’s Rules of Writing, which are:
You must write.
You must finish what you write.
You must refrain from rewriting except to editorial order.
You must put your work on the market.
You must keep your work on the market until it sells.
The final task of the day was obtaining a Ming-Na autograph, which I managed to do surprisingly quickly during the official 5PM autograph session.
Then it was out to dinner at Andy Nelson’s BBQ with several writer friends, then back to the hotel to hang out with Farpoint Con Chair Sharon VanBlarcom for a few hours before finally crashing in my room.
Sunday began with an overpriced breakfast buffet in the hotel’s Cinnamon Tree restaurant before my 11AM panel, “The Writing Life” with Heather Hutsell, Roberta Rogow, Richard White, and Diane Baron. The panel covered such topics as writing schedule, obstacles and distractions to writing, and overcoming burnout.
As that was my final panel for the day, I packed up my car, said my final goodbyes to as many friends as I could track down, then hit the road to meet up with my wife and friends in Rehoboth Beach, DE, from which this blog post was written.
All told, it was a triumphant 40th birthday celebration for Shore Leave! Kudos to the Star Trek Association of Towson, organizers of the convention. Next stop, Farpoint SF convention in February.
Farpoint 25 Program Book Cover by Todd Brugmans featuring caricatures of the entire Farpoint Convention Committee
Just returned home from the 25th annual Farpoint SF convention in Hunt Valley, MD and I am proud to say that I’ve been attending since day one waaaaay back in 1993 when I first met the convention’s co-founder and fellow writer, Steven H. Wilson.
We struck up a friendship that has only become stronger over the years since both of my novels and our Middle of Eternity anthology series were all published under Steve’s imprint, Firebringer Press. In fact, we have more books coming soon as we discussed during our Saturday morning panel along with fellow Firebringer writers Susanna Reilly, Michael Critzer, Diane Baron, Daniel Patrick (Renfield) Corcoran, and our layout specialist, Ethan Wilson.
In its early days, Farpoint sponsored a short story contest. My first submission was in 1995 when I entered a Star Trek story and took second place after a tie-breaker. The contest faded away through the decades until this year, when author track manager Steve Lesnik resurrected it. This time around, entries had to be 2,500 words or less and be based on a common photograph taken by Steve during his trip to Europe. No details about the origin of the photo were divulged, but I happened to recognize it.
I am ecstatic to report that, once again after a tie-breaker, I took second place for my post-WWII short story, “All That Matters is What You Believe.”
Now that the contest is over, I can dish the details. Click here to read the stories from the contest! Not sure how long the link will remain up. There were 13 entries total. Mine is #12: “All That Matters Is What You Believe.” First place winner was #4: “Splitting Arrows” by Eric Bakutis and Third Place was #6: “Hillfolk” by Aaron Rosenberg. All three of our stories will be printed in next year’s Farpoint program book.
As for the rest of the convention, I had a great time reuniting with many friends, some of whom I only get to see twice a year at the Maryland conventions (Farpoint and Shore Leave). Many of these friends are my fellow author guests such as the aforementioned Firebringer Press writers, but also Aaron Rosenberg, Russ Colchamiro, David Mack, Heather Hutsell, Diane Baron, Howard Weinstein, Keith DeCandido, Allyn Gibson, and many more!
The celebrity guests included Matt Frewer (Max Headroom, Timeless, Orphan Black, Watchmen, Eureka, the list goes on), Nana Visitor (most known to SF fans as Kira from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Nora McLellan (Killjoys), and popular SF and Star Wars author, Timothy Zahn.
While I’ve met Ms. Visitor at many cons in the past, this was my first time meeting Matt Frewer and it was a delight. He was funny, gracious, and kind to the fans. A truly positive experience.
On Friday night, Farpoint hosted the traditional book fair for all of the published author guests. It was a great opportunity for me to catch up with many of my fellow word slingers. Below are just some of my colleague at Firebringer Press (from left to right: Steven H Wilson is chatting with a friend while Michael Critzer and Susanna Reilly smile for the camera).
Writer pal Heather Hutsell (below) was one of a few authors who had book premieres at Farpoint 25.
I actually set up at two different tables over the weekend. During the book fair (above) and on Saturday (below) where I spent about two hours at the assigned Firebringer Press table with my wife and long time convention pals Kathy and Kevin.
Evon, Phil, Kathy, Kevin at Farpoint 25 (Photo by Blair Learn)
Of course, what SF convention would be complete without props and costumes! I’m sorry to say that while there were many fans in wonderful costumes during the convention (as always), I didn’t have an opportunity this time to take pictures. Worse, I did not feel well enough to attend the masquerade contest on Saturday night, but with credit to the photographers, here are a few of this year’s props and cosplayers…
Willy Wonka vs. Darth Vader (Photo by Blair Learn)
Overall, my compliments to the Farpoint committee on a marvelous 25th anniversary celebration. Here’s to another 25 years!
Of course, what SF convention would be complete without props and costumes! I’m sorry to say that while there were many fans in wonderful costumes during the convention (as always), I didn’t have an opportunity this time to take pictures. Worse, I did not feel well enough to attend the masquerade contest on Saturday night, but with credit to the photographers, here are a few of this year’s props and cosplayers…