FantaSci 2022 AAR

Teal Deer: Great con. The venue is great, the size is about perfect for me (roughly 500 this year, which I'm told is small for it) to be comfortable, the folks that run it and the folks that attend are friendly and fun. Go if you can.

Also, North Carolina at this time of year is beautiful. Flowers everywhere.

Longer version! I was invited to be a Guest at FantaSci 2022, and it wound up being a bit of a personal saga, but it was so worth it, and I am so very happy I went. Even before I arrived, I was being involved in ways I did not expect, but am tickled to have been able to help with, and I got to see friends and family* that I'd been missing, as it's two years and counting since my last LibertyCon. No, I will not be at LibertyCon this year, sorry if you were hoping to see me there, there has just been too much going on and the tickets sell out too fast.

A conversation, one of many: Kal Spriggs and his lovely wife, the author known as CV Walters, the fan's fan Ben Yalow, Jim Curtis glowing behind costumer Jonna Hayden. Jonna isn't an author but her cat, Henry, is. 

I arrived in Raleigh NC for the fourth annual FantaSci on Thursday afternoon, and immediately was among friends who took care of me (i.e. fed me because that is what you do with people you love). I'd thought that I would write that afternoon, then check into my hotel room at 3 pm. Spoiler alert: I didn't write a word of fiction this weekend. I was much too busy having fun and working at being an author/artist/publisher. Almost as soon as we got there I was seeing familiar faces, and the con-before-the-con was great fun, relaxed conversations, and plenty of hugs.

Faith Hunter talking with Hillbilly (Three Ravens Publishing) over a jar of his amazing blackberry elderberry mead.  The jar was making the rounds, not a single serving. That stuff was good!

Friday the con really got rolling. My first panel was Music and Art in Fantasy and SciFi, and we spent most of the time talking about the music, understandable as Ian J Malone, the moderator, started in radio. Chaz Kemp, the Art Guest, is an artist and a talented musician, like the other talented combo of author and musician, David Butler. That was great fun, and David informed me that I am likely not tone deaf, just someone was being mean when I was told that in highschool. So perhaps I'll attempt singing again! And Ian recommended a new group to me, Lacuna Coil.

Another traditional audience... all in the back!

The Cover Art and Design panel was lightly attended, to the level where 'adjourn to the bar' was an option per con tradition. Pity, as John Harkness, Toni Weisskopf, Chaz Kemp and myself were really enjoying talking about cover design, SF cover art history, and much more. I did get to introduce Chaz and Toni, though, a very great pleasure. I love getting to connect friends old and new and hopefully facilitate great collaborations in the future. I love Chaz's Art Nouveau-inspired art style, and am going to be getting prints for the new house. 

One of my traditional shots of the audience as we were getting ready for a panel.

My Friday panels ended up with the utterly campy and hilarious Jolene's Dating Game. Two rounds of three author guests, role playing one of their characters, competed to allure... or flat out lure! a member of the audience into dating them. I played Jade Star, and as I was doing the outro of revealing who I was, the contestant blurted 'I should have picked her!' because really, who doesn't want to date a rejuvenated feisty granny who'd been building the galaxy's largest intelligence operation for a hundred years to fight off mind-controlling aliens? The real star of the show, though, was Dr. Chuck Gannon playing deadpan as one of his protagonists who did not understand humans, but managing to slip innuendos in every response brilliantly. The panel got Hillbilly to blush, and I have photographic proof.

Jolene's Dating Game, round two: Chuck Gannon, the blushing Hillbilly, and lucky contestant Skurge

The rest of Friday was warm conversations and a quick meal from the hotel bar. I trudged down to my hotel immensely happy I had come.  One of the things I did on Friday was play (part of!) my very first D&D game. The Rogue DM was running brief one-shot adventures, brilliantly funny, and I was sad I didn't have time to finish out the game. My deep thanks to friend and fan Cary K. for standing in with my rogue, Peregrine. And for taking photos of me and taking me to the airport! I have the best friends, really.

Photo of me playing, courtesy of Cary K.

Saturday kicked off with A Hero's Got to Eat, which was a fun panel with food as the center (and drink, as we established early that coffee is a food). Back to back with this, I moderated Science & Technology in Alt History. I always enjoy moderating, bringing out any shy guests (totally unnecessary at this con) and steering the conversation into hilarious directions. This panel it was my comment on how Alt Hist always reminds me of the great Sir Pterry's comments on going down the wrong leg of the pants of time, which led to Stephanie Osborn giggling at the significance of the crotch of the pants, and me cracking up every man in the room with a quip about dressing right or left... time travel. Going places you never expected!

The Alt. History panel: Stephanie Osborn, Henry Vogel, Jacob Holo, and myself. Photo courtesy of Cary K.

As the GOH in absentia was Eric Flint, the theme of time travel and alternate histories was woven throughout the programming, in honor of his Ring of Fire series (which starts with 1632, and you can pick that up for free if you haven't yet had the pleasure). On the Time Travel and Medicine panel, moderated by the ubergeek Speaker to Lab Animals, with myself, Faith Hunter, and Josh Palmatier (who commented plaintively, 'I'm a mathematician, not a doctor!') we all unanimously agreed that we did NOT want to travel back in time, even if we could pack a case of modern medicine. Too many perils of disease and infections. It was a fun exercise to talk about recreating medicine from the ground up, or what we couldn't live without.

Dinner at The Angus Barn was delectable, but the displays would have been worth the time to fully explore had we not been so hungry.

My final panel on Saturday was Voyages in the World of Self-Publishing, which went in unexpected directions and didn't include the small audience much. Still, hopefully Jim Curtis and I managed to slide some useful info in between the other panelist's talks.

Dave Cleric roped me into this by simply not telling me what I was doing until I'd already done most of it. Sneaky wise man! I'm so thrilled my art wound up on the cover of the program!

Sunday was a relaxacon with a KaffeeKlatsch where we sat at round tables and chatted with fans, about books, art, and many other topics. I had a reading at noon, and I have finally cracked the code of getting an audience to a reading: bribe them! I talked up the reading at the end of panels, and told everyone who'd listen that I'd only packed a few books, I wasn't selling them... but I'd give attendees at my reading a free book! Which as it turned out, was great fun, and I think the ghost of Jim Baen was smiling in the corner as the first taste was given out free. 

FantaSci is the 'home con' for a couple of small presses, but the Baen offices are not far away, so you will find Baen authors and editors mingling with the crowd. This is not, as one attendee noted, a formal group. The guests don't retreat to a separate place away from the crowd, they mingle and chat and pose for photos and sign books or art. In my case, programs, as my art was used for the front cover of the program at FantaSci this year. (squee!)

I will be back again soon. This con was more family reunion for me, meeting chosen family and friends for the first time in two years or more. It's too far for me to travel every year, sadly, but I'm not going to say I can't do it. I can, and I will, it's worth it. The people who run the con are great, and made it a lovely experience as a guest and a fan. Thank you! 

*I know I told all and sundry my Dad would be there, and enjoying his first SFF con. I wish he could have been, I'd have loved to show him off and have him see me as Guest. Sadly he wasn't up to it. 

Fun, games, and hanging with friends you've only just met. That's what it's all about! (photo courtesy of Cary K)