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Shore Leave 41 After Action Report

Last weekend, the Shore Leave SF convention celebrated its 41st anniversary with yet another stellar line-up of celebrity guests, writers, scientists, and artists.

Shore Leave 41 Celebrity Guests

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).

Diane Baron and Ana Eigen at Meet the Pros-Shore Leave 41 Phil and Evon at Meet the Pros-Shore Leave 41 Firebringer Press at Meet the Pros-Shore Leave 41

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.

More of the Monkees Vinyl

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.

Firebringer Press Presents panel at Shore Leave 41 Firebringer Press Presents panel at Shore Leave 41 Firebringer Press Presents panel at Shore Leave 41

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.

Hobnail and Other Frontier StoriesOver the River and Through the Woods

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.

Building an Anthology discussion panel
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.

Mike Riehl's Ornaments
Photo credit: The Ornament Guy
Mike Riehl's Models
Photo 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!

Star Trek Operations Simulator Arcade Game

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)
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.

Astromech Droid

Astromech Droid

Borg!

Captain America and Agent Carter

Klingon Stormtroopers

Mandalorian Bounty Hunter
(Photo credit: Shore Leave)
Mary Marvel and Shazam
(Photo credit: Shore Leave)

Sallah from Raiders of the Lost Ark

Doctors Strange and Doom

Supergirl and Matt Murdock

Star Trek Cosplayers

Wonder Woman and Agent Carter
Photo credit: Elisheva Atara Marks

 

 

After Action Report: Lehigh Valley Comic Con

Good times at the Lehigh Valley Comic Con, held at Lehigh Carbon Community College in Schnecksville, PA. I sold six books, four of them to one new fan who attended the con just to see me. I was honored!
 
It was great to chat with writer pal Jack Hillman, and my buddy Kevin Miles showed up to keep me company for the day. I was interviewed by a representative of the convention, and of course, there were cosplayers galore.
 
The next show is August 17th. I can’t make it to that one, but I look forward to returning for the October 12th and December 7th shows.
My table at LV Comic Con
Ghostbusters Jeep
Ghostly Passenger!
Halloween Cosplayers Phil meets a new fan, Jamie! Kylo Ren Stormtrooper & Jawa
Spiderman
The Joker!

 

The Gratitude Box

The Gratitude Jar has become an increasingly popular method for recording positive moments in one’s life and reinforcing a mindset of—you guessed it!—gratitude. If you’re not familiar with the concept, it’s simple. There are several variations, but the basic steps are:

  1. Find a jar.
  2. Whenever something good happens in your life, write a short note about it, fold it up, and drop it into the jar.
  3. At the end of the year, open the jar and review all of these wonderful moments in your life for which you’re grateful.
  4. The following year, repeat steps one through three.

Mine is a clear acrylic box, the kind used to store trading cards. I have plenty of empty jars at home, but I chose a small container  when I started it because at the time, I was spiraling into yet another bout of depression and anxiety, two demons that have plagued me since childhood. Gratitude was the furthest thing from my mind. 

The past ten months have been turbulent for me and I’ve been struggling to adjust to the changes. I won’t bore you with the details and I’m certainly not fishing for sympathy. Suffice it to say that it’s been an enervating experience which exacerbated my chronic depression and sent my writing productivity—not to mention my outlook on life—plummeting. As a result, I felt myself foundering, failing, and generally falling apart.

Given all of that, I couldn’t see too many positive moments in my future, so why bother with a jar?

Gratitude Box

As you can see from the above image, the box is nearly full and we’re only halfway through the year. I also tossed in some uplifting fortunes from the occasional cookie.

Thus, I stand corrected. Clearly, I have much to be grateful for and seeing it manifested in this collection of notes reminds of this even through the darkest times. 

While I’m still working to find the right direction for myself and struggling to surface from what has become the longest bout of depression in my life, perhaps I need to upgrade to a jar after all.