{"id":49,"date":"2011-09-27T13:55:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-27T13:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/report-on-fencon\/"},"modified":"2011-09-27T13:55:00","modified_gmt":"2011-09-27T13:55:00","slug":"report-on-fencon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/report-on-fencon\/","title":{"rendered":"Report on Fencon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nFencon VII\/Deep South Con 49<\/a> was held in Dallas (well really, Addison), TX on September 23-25.\u00a0 While I can’t say that a good time was had by all, a good time was certainly had by me.\u00a0 Everything had a steampunk theme, with many of the guests being steampunk authors.<\/p>\n

As usual, there was much more on the programming than I had time to attend.\u00a0 I didn’t make it to either slide show by the artist guests, Vincent DiFate or Stephan Martiniere. Not because I don’t like those artists.\u00a0 I do.\u00a0 It was just that there were other things conflicting with their slideshows.<\/p>\n

Rather than try to sum up the whole convention, I’ll hit some of the high points of the events I attended, then post some pictures.<\/p>\n

<\/a>My favorite panel was the one Saturday afternoon devoted to Phineas and Ferb<\/i>.\u00a0 Yes, yes it was.\u00a0 It was the most fun I’ve had at a panel in years.\u00a0 I hadn’t had a chance to check the schedule in detail before I left, so it was only coincidence when I put on my Perry the Platypus T-shirt that morning.\u00a0 Really.<\/p>\n

I met Phillipa Ballantine<\/a> (see my review <\/a>of Geist<\/i>) and Tee Morris<\/a>.\u00a0 They were a lot of fun.\u00a0 I hope the convention brings them back.\u00a0 In addition to being two of the nicest people, they were also funny, high energy, and more approachable than many professionals I’ve encountered.<\/p>\n

Other good panels include remembrances of the Shuttle, discussions of near space exploration (more than I was able to attend), and a panel on publishing scams that could have been twice as long and still not exhausted the subject.<\/p>\n

I got a chance to visit a little with Lou Anders<\/a>, editor of Pyr books<\/a>. <\/p>\n

There were plenty of room parties, although I found it offensive that the hotel posted a uniformed security guard in the hall near where the parties were being held.<\/p>\n

Finally, one of the things I like most about Fencon is there is an entire track of programming devoted to music.\u00a0 This, I’ve discovered, is a great way to keep me financially solvent<\/strike>\u00a0 out of the dealer’s room<\/strike> occupied when there’s not a panel or reading I want to attend.\u00a0 I just read and listen to the music.<\/p>\n

I had a good time and came back much more relaxed than when I went.\u00a0 (I really, really, really<\/b> needed the break)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Phineas and Ferb Panel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Toastmaster Brad Denton signs for a fan.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tee Morris and Phillipa Ballantine<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Lou Antonelli channels Harlan Ellison by writing in public.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Attendees came from the North, South, East, and West<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Publishing scams panel<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Steampunking<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Who’s Who in the pictures, if not identified in the captions:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 l. to r. :\u00a0 Gloria Oliver, Shanna Swendson, Perry the Platypus, Cathy Clamp, Todd Caldwell, Rhonda Eudaly
2.\u00a0 Brad Denton and Steven Silver
5.\u00a0 unidentified
6.\u00a0 L. to r.:\u00a0 A. Lee Martinez, Rachel Caine, Tee Morris, Cathy Clamp, Selina Rosen, Amy Sisson
7.\u00a0 unidentified<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fencon VII\/Deep South Con 49 was held in Dallas (well really, Addison), TX on September 23-25.\u00a0 While I can’t say that a good time was had by all, a good time was certainly had by me.\u00a0 Everything had a steampunk theme, with many of the guests being steampunk authors. As usual, there was much more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[81,80,85,82,84,83,79,18,78,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brad-denton","category-deep-south-con","category-fencon","category-lou-anders","category-lou-antonelli","category-phillipa-ballantine","category-phineas-and-ferb","category-pyr-books","category-steampunk","category-tee-morris"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3P5pJ-N","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}