07/08/07

The Heinlein Convention Was Disappointing (permalink)

kansas_city book scifi science_fiction centennial con convention heinlein

Last Saturday, I attended the Robert A. Heinlein Centennial held at the Westin Crown Center Hotel here in Kansas City, Mo -- Robert A Heinlein's hometown. I am sorry to say that the event was a disappointment. It felt as if it was planned to be a high profile convention with a few thousand attendees that would inspire some genuinely insightful looks into the author's life. Instead, the convention felt almost second rate, thrown together and lifeless.

To be fair, I only purchased the visitor's pass, which did not allow full access to the convention, and I only spent a couple hours wandering around taking it all in. However, the turnout was such that we were assured by the attendant at registration that we would not be turned away if we wanted to attend any panels we wished to, excepting the gala dinner. In fact, the panels we did see as we wandered the halls seemed to rarely have more than five or ten attendees, and looked to be very somber lifeless affairs.

The dealers room was filled with about 5-8 different merchants, and most of them were very loosely connected to Heinlein. The only memorable aspects of the dealers room were the Yard Dog Press booth, an offering by an indy publisher I am fond of, and my discovery of the Heinlein Prize scholarship program which was genuinely interesting. I also took the opportunity to sign up for KaCSFFS, The Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society in which Heinlein was a member when he was alive.

The most disappointing feature of the convention was the Heinlein "Life museum." This collection of scanned-in printouts of various documents provided less insight and history into Heinlein's life than a short trip to Wikipedia would. Most of the information on display was basic biographical fluff that anyone paying to go to a convention for the author likely already knew. I wondered as I wandered passed the sparse offering when I would come across the insight or revelations about Heinlein that I expected,

but it never came. The highlight and culmination of the "museum" was a bunch of scans from an old Starship Troopers board game and a few shots of storyboard art from the movie of that story.

In the end, I am glad I attended the parts of the con that I did, and I feel that it was at least minimally interesting. In fairness, organizing an event like this is a massive undertaking and takes hundreds if not thousands of man hours of work to complete. Adding to the problems, several guests canceled just before the convention and circumstances caused some of the more interesting events, like the bus tour, to be canceled as well. If the organizers had not tried for so much and instead concentrated on improving the quality of fewer offerings, I do feel the convention could have been a greater success.

05/31/07

Conquest: Story in a Bag (permalink)

conquest kansas_city convention con writing book scifi science_fiction fantasy competition

While attending the Conquest KC science fiction and fantasy convention this year, I participated in the Story in a Bag contest. For the contest, the conquest staff prepared a series of bags containing short sentences or words that had to be incorporated into a new, custom written story which the contestants had one hour to complete. The best stories in each of three categories (science fiction, fantasy and horror) were judged within three skill levels (youth, adult amateur, and adult professional/published).

For my entry, I chose to write within the Science Fiction category and qualified for the Adult Amateur level. My topics were as follows:

• Theme: A Trip Home.
• Character: A Crying Baby.
• Item: A Box of Chocolates
• Setting: A Run Down Apartment Building
• Starting Sentence: "Seven years ago today my life changed completely when..."

I ended up writing a story about a researcher who was indentured into service only to return to his home planet seven years later and try to pick up his old life. It turned out ok, considering it took me 20 minutes to decide on a plot which left me only 40 minutes to write and edit the 6 page story.

All of the stories were judged by convention attendees, and in the end out of the four stories that were submitted in my category and level, I won a close second place. I hope to compete again next year and try for first.

05/29/07

Conquest Idol (permalink)

music science_ficiton scifi convention con kansas_city

One of the main events at the 2007 Conquest Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention was the Conquest Idol Competition. This was the first year for this event at Conquest, but its popularity will ensure that it will continue next year.

The effect of listening to a bunch of dedicated nerds get up on stage and try to sing was both painful and hilarious. The best acts, unsurprisingly, were those that embraced their bad singing and used it along with intentionally horrible song choices for maximum comedic effect.

Though the singing was almost universally bad, the event was a blast and I hope to see what next year's entrants can do.

05/25/07

This Weekend: Conquest KC (permalink)

conquest books scifi science_fiction fantasy convention con kansas_city anime

This weekend, I will be spending some time at the Conquest science fiction convention here in Kansas City, MO at the airport Hilton hotel. This is the 38th year for the con, but will be the first time I attend. I met one of the con organizers at Naka-Kon a few months ago, and saw him again at Anime St. Louis/ShoMeCon last month. It seems to be a very well organized convention and they have a lot of interesting events, so it should be a good experience. I will be posting several updates and photos after the con, so check back for more next week.