convention

Going to Virginia, hoping to not sleep in my car

~ ianrandalstrock ~ Leave a comment
Looking at my upcoming trip to Virginia, and yeah, I know, I waited way too long to do this.
I’ll be attending Ravencon in Glen Allen, Virginia, the weekend of the 29th. I’ve got the dealer table, I’m on programming, I’m all set… except that I don’t have a place to sleep. The convention hotel has been sold out for several weeks (I keep checking) and the overflow hotel, likewise, has been sold out for at least a month. So now I’m doing the serious find-a-place-to-stay stuff. Priceline is offering me a 2.5-star hotel somewhere in the Glen Allen area for $79 a night, though of course I’d be much happier in the convention hotel, if anyone is looking for a roommate. On the other hand, if anyone else is in the same situation as me, I’m willing to split that room once I reserve it.
Also, I’m planning to get into town Thursday, the 28th, kind of late, so that early Friday morning, before setting up at the convention, I can go to the Hollywood Cemetery to visit Presidents Monroe and Tyler (and possibly Jefferson Davis), if anyone wants to join me.

Trepidatiously returning to the convention scene

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It occurs to me that, in the before-times, when I had a scheduled convention upcoming, I would tell my followers about it: where I was going to be and when, in case any of my stalkers were interested in seeing me in person. The last convention I attended was Arisia in January 2020 (there was also a Mensa Gathering, Snowball, in March 2020). Well, I’m fully vaccinated, and the convention is requiring all attendees to be vaccinated, so I’m going to take my first steps out into the world next weekend at Capclave (https://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave21/), a science fiction convention in Rockville, Maryland. I’ll be spending a lot of time at the Fantastic Books table in the dealers’ room (there are a bunch of new books to show since the last convention), which is open Friday from 3 to 6pm, Saturday from 10am to 6pm, and Sunday from 10am to 2pm. In addition to that, I’ll be on several panels, all of which are scheduled for the Truman room:

Friday at 6:00 pm: “Seductive Evils” with Martin Berman-Gorvine, Carolyn Ives Gilman, and Larry Hodges

Friday at 8:00 pm: “Why the Bumbling Sidekick?” with Suzanne Palmer, Karlo Yeager Rodriguez, and Hildy Silverman

Saturday at 5:00 pm: “Power and Social Structures” with Carolyn Ives Gilman, Darrell Schweitzer, Caias Ward, and A.C. Wise

Saturday at 11:00 pm: “Eye of Argon” with Walter H. Hunt, Hildy Silverman, and Michael A. Ventrella (unplanned, it’s an all-Fantastic Books authors event)

I hope to see a bunch of you there, to help me reintegrate with society (at least, as much of “society” as one might find at a science fiction convention).

Virtual Convention Weekend

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Virtual convention weekend: Philcon has moved most of the con online, and I’m doing four panels for them (the most I’ve had at any virtual convention this year). One of them was already this evening, but the two tomorrow and one Sunday I thought I had are actually three on Saturday (November 21):

10am: “Heinlein’s Third Rule of Writing” with Barbara Barnett, Lawrence M. Schoen, Michael Swanwick, and Elektra Hammond.

2:30pm: “Kickstarting Your Next Project” with Keith DeCandido, Danielle Ackley-Mcphail, Neil Clarke, and Alex Shvartsman.

8:30pm: “What Else Might Have Changed?” with Simone Zelitch, Miriam Scheiber Seidel, and Tom Doyle.

The panels are on Zoom, with after-panel discussions on Discord. Details on the Philcon web site.