Convention Report: CoreCon V – Saturday

Ah. Saturday. The meat and potatoes day of any three day convention. We stumbled around bleary-eyed until I left to go man the dealers table, letting everyone else catch up and wake up at their own pace. In the dealers room we were all tired and dragging, but still cheerful and ready to commit commerce. I continued to make friends with the other dealers, but my time was short, for after an hour I was off to lunch with the other special guests and the concom. Leaving the table in the more than capable hands of the Booth Babes, I was whisked off to a gorgeously decorated restaurant called the Speak-Easy, which as you might have guessed, was 1930s Gangster themed. The food was good, the conversation interesting, and I was grateful for the chance at hot food for what was to be a long, fun-filled day (read: I forgot to eat dinner).

Back in the Dealers Room, our neighbor, artist Terance Brown II received this wonderful Thor’s Hammer as a gift from a fan. Little did he know it would soon be used against him by his own sweetie, Melissa! But we needed all the weapons we could muster, because we were visited first by a Dalek , and then there was some Trouble with Tribbles.

Fortunately there were enough different Dr. Whos to deal with the Dalek (ask Sherry about her ride in the Tardis!) and I discovered a new marketing ploy. Buy my book and you can use it as a heavy weight to drop on those troublesome tribble terrors.

Leaving the table manned by Kev the Roadie, Sherry and I went to watch Joseph Scrimshaw’s Obsessed podcast be recorded live. We were both in the hat to be possible interviewees and Fate intervened, causing Joseph to draw both of our names. As you might guess from the name, the podcast is about your obsessions. In Sherry’s case it is squirrels (something she shares with Joseph) and for me, streetcars. My understanding is that we were funny, at least the guy recording it to video for the con said he had to keep biting down on his own arm to stifle his laughter so it wouldn’t ruin his recording. You probably want to hear this for all the frank couple talk. And the moment when I do the sounds of streetcars having sex (seriously). It was great show, and we were still laughing as we walked back to the dealer’s table.

Then the fire alarm went off.

Kudos to everyone involved. We evacuated the 700 member convention, hotel staff, and miscellaneous others in 5 minutes (I know, because I was one of four people holding the front doors open to assist in an orderly evacuation) and the Moorhead Fire Department arrived in 7 minutes We waited for a bit, then the MFD gave the all-clear (it was faulty alarm) and with a great cheer, CoreCon was on again.

There were also some great moments. Terence and Melissa were just a joy to hang out with. Sherry bought a CoreCon t-shirt and Terence signed it. Kev the Roadie indulged his love of B-rate Horror movies, and we all just had a good time. CoreCon staff and concom members kept coming by and asking if I needed anything, but honestly, I was surrounded by fun people, what else did I need? I worked my table with the help of the ever delightful Roy C. Booth while Sherry went to the Patricia Tallman Q&A (Sherry reported back that Patricia was funny, down to earth, seemed as pleased as me to be at CoreCon, and says “fuck” a lot).

After Patricia’s Q&A was my Q&A. I think it went pretty well, even with the second round of fire alarms going off (this time we knew it was a false alarm quickly, so the distraction was minimal and I picked up right where I left off). I answered questions about my work, about my process, and a little about my books. I didn’t even need to leave the room because next up was Joseph Scrimshaw and I doing the Spoken Word panel. We each started by telling a story, then we talked about story, story construction, and judging your audience. We kind of made a joke about the fact that we’ve both been performing in the Twin Cities and it took going to Moorhead to get on stage together. At the end of the panel we each told another short tale. It was interesting to contrast our different styles and themes. The fire alarm went off a third time during the panel, but we were told that, unless someone said there was smoke or fire, we could ignore it (I got the impression it was being worked on at that point).

I went back to the dealer’s room afterward and worked the table for another hour before the room closed in preparation of the Costume Contest. A quick word about the costume contest: they had asked me, as Special Guest, to help judge the contest and I told them I would be pleased to do so, but…

Well, they could have me—who is blind—or they could have my wife Sherry, who is an award winning costume designer. It was an easy choice. I enjoyed the costumes, and Sherry and Patricia Tallman really seemed to have a great time together, probably because of this guy,
who they kept asking to see over and over. In general,there were some truly amazing costumes.

Once the costume contest was over, I went back to the room and had some food, then caught a little of the Kamikaze Snowmen doing some kind of game where Terence drew and the others ad libbed a song. Once that was over, we took a turnaround the upstairs party rooms. I really enjoyed the layout of the rooms. It was easy for me to get around and move from room to room, something that has been an issue at other conventions. I especially enjoyed the Star Trek Café & Lounge (vegan marshmallows rock!) Anime Domicile (delicious homemade pumpkin and cranberry bread with bonus comfy couches!) and the Fairy Room (Giant Pickles!).

Then there was a second turn at the Artemis Bridge Simulator. This time we had some serious gamers on the crew, and a couple of people who were very experienced. The mission was more successful, though we still lost two space stations.

 
And then Bed.