Tag: conventions

Okay that’s better

On By Luther M. SilerIn Writing2 Comments

Boothified!

Hall of Heroes Con this weekend!

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IMG_7616.JPGBEHOLD: My booth, such as it is.  I generally take pictures after I’ve got myself set up but it clean escaped me to do so until after I’d covered everything up and gotten ready to go, so have a picture of a table with a black cloth on it!  There are books and shit under there!  Exciting!

The Hall of Heroes Con is in the Lerner Theater and the surrounding area in scenic downtown Elkhart, Indiana.  I’m in booth H4, which is basically immediately outside the main vendor area on the second floor.  I’m of two minds about the space; on the one hand, virtually everyone who goes into the vendor hall is going to walk right past my booth, but on the other hand it’s kind of at the end of a hallway and people will walk past me as they’re walking out of the main vendor area– so hopefully they won’t have spent all their money already.

I will, of course, post as many cosplay pictures as I’m able to take; I heard from the main organizer dude that they’re expecting about 15,000 people over two days, but the weather forecast is set to “Noah,” so hopefully that won’t depress turnout any.  But one way or another, I’ll be there from 9 to 6 tomorrow and from 9 to 5 on Sunday!  With Oreos!  Come on out!

It is 7:56 PM

On By Luther M. SilerIn lifeLeave a comment

…and this is basically the first time I’ve sat down all day today.  We are putting the boy to bed in a few minutes.  It has been a long day.

Go ahead; guess how long I’m going to last after that.

(Tomorrow after work I’m setting up for Hall of Heroes Con!  Come see me!)

My con appearances for the rest of the year (and January!)

On By Luther M. SilerIn Writing2 Comments

comiconlogo-Retina.pngJust because it’s been on my mind lately, and also because I’m not really interested in talking about school right now, here’s some information about upcoming conventions I’m going to be attending:

FIRST!  I will be at the 2nd Hall of Heroes Con in Elkhart, Indiana on September 8th and 9th– just a few days from now!  This will be the first con I’ve attended that was close enough to my house that I will be able to just drive to the con each day rather than having to worry about couchsurfing or getting a hotel room, so I’m pretty excited about it.  I’m on the 2nd floor of the Lerner theater in booth H4, directly across from the entrance to the Crystal Ballroom.  Folks who have been there in the past tell me this is a pretty primo spot, so I’m excited.

SECOND!  I will be at Kokomo-Con on October 13 in Kokomo, IN.  I went to this con last year and had an absolute blast, and had bought my booth for this year’s show before I even left last year’s.  It’s only a one-day show but I had a tremendous time last year and I have high expectations for this year’s show.  I just found out today that I’ll be at a three- day ed conference in Noblesville (just south of Kokomo) on the 10th-12th, so the logistics of getting down there just got sorta complicated and I’m gonna be tired and crabby, but still!  High expectations!  No word on the booth yet, but I don’t expect to be hard to find.

MAYBE!  I have been to Indy Pop Con twice, and am already signed up for next summer’s show, but they just announced that they’re expanding to Fort Wayne and will be doing a two-day Pop Con on December 29-30.  I will probably be doing this con, but I’m waiting for a paycheck or two from the new job before I put the money into it and I also need to be sure I want to do a first year con.  I’ve found Pop Con really well-run, though, so it ought to be okay, even though it’s on really short notice and it’s probably going to be a damn disaster but what the hell let’s risk $150.  Fun!

PROBABLY, I HOPE!  I am signed up for ConFusion 2019, which is January 17-20, and I need to figure out if it’s really all four days, but the vendor tables are juried and the deadline isn’t until August 31 so I don’t know if I’m actually officially accepted as a vendor yet.  I mean, I’ve never not been accepted for one of these things, so I have high hopes, but it’s still possible they’ll say no.  A lot of authors who I’m huge fans of are regulars at this con, so I’m crossing every digit I have that I get to go.

Mark your calendars and come see me, dammit!

In which my ambitions exceed my talents but not my sense

On By Luther M. SilerIn art7 Comments

fb image-finalIt’s old news by now, I know, but I’m still grooving on the fact that I don’t work weekends any longer, and whenever I get to go do something that I haven’t been able to do for a while– like the zoo last weekend, or Art Beat with my wife today, I’m still enjoying it just that much more than I might have otherwise.

So, yeah, today’s excursion: Art Beat, South Bend’s annual one-day outdoor art festival, held in South Bend’s rapidly revitalizing downtown area.  Your town probably has something similar; local artists of varying stripes rent booth space, there’s live music, a bit of food, everybody shows up and spends money and goes home.  I got to see Michelle Wern and Melina Sapiano, my booth buddy and across-the-aisle buddy from IndyPopCon, and showered both of them with well-earned moneydollars.

“Why weren’t you at Art Beat, Luther?” you might be thinking right now.  Well, apparently wordwritin’ ain’t art.  I actually tried this year.  They won’t let me in.  There was a table for a local used bookstore there, but the used bookstore is actually downtown, and they only had a very small table and weren’t selling their own books.  And they aren’t even the good bookstore downtown, and that bookstore didn’t have a booth.

I have actually bugged the mayor on more than one occasion about letting authors into Art Beat.

South Bend needs a literary festival, guys.  And I have spent all goddamn day thinking about how I might bring such a thing about myself.  Which is a fucking terrible idea, because I have no idea how to run any such thing and I have read enough horror stories about nightmare failed cons to know good and well that this is not something I want to try and do myself.

But.

Maybe if I just got the ball rolling, by finding out how many other authors, independent or otherwise, South Bend and northern Indiana in general, actually has?  I mean, Notre Dame is here.  There are plenty of people who have written books.  I just don’t know of any other fiction people– the closest other author I know used to live in Elkhart and I believe has moved to Indianapolis since I’ve known him– and I’m not sure how to find more of them/us.  I did a couple of elementary Facebook searches and there don’t appear to be any relevant groups; there is probably more to be found with Google-Fu but I haven’t quite gotten there yet.

But yeah.  This needs to happen.  And I’m probably not the guy to do it.  But maybe if I put some legwork into it I can find that person.

Feel free to do my work for me by volunteering, y’all.

There will be a new short story– not a microfiction, a full-blown, downloadable and e-readerable short story– posted to my Patreon by tomorrow.  That makes two short stories, a bunch of microfictions, a WIP excerpt, and an audio story, all accessible for just $1 a month, with more getting added all the time!  Come join us, dammit.

IndyPopCon 2018, Day Three

On By Luther M. SilerIn Geek, PhotographyLeave a comment

Much of today was spent staring, glassy-eyed and half-asleep, into the middle distance rather than actively attempting to hawk books, and it also happened that frequently cosplayers whose costumes I might have wished to photograph chose to walk by at the precise moment that there was someone actually at my booth.  To wit, I don’t have nearly as many pictures today, but I suspect y’all will survive.

 

IndyPopCon 2018, Day Two

On By Luther M. SilerIn Geek, PhotographyLeave a comment

In accordance with prophecy, today was a much better day for sales; I’ve paid for my booth and then some and there’s still an entire day left for the con.  The cosplay contest was today, too, so folks brought their A game.  That picture of Iron Man down there was actually taken by my wife; I didn’t actually see him as he never entered the vendor floor, so my big winners were the Wookiee (who was at least eight feet tall; I should have gotten in the picture for scale) and Kratos, who was absolutely stone-cold perfect and is probably my favorite cosplay of the weekend so far.  Bonus points for the little girl in the BB-8 costume, who you have seen before, two years ago and hundreds of miles away.  Her mom’s reaction when I showed her my phone was all sorts of fun (and not in a “Why the hell do you have a picture of my kid from two years ago on your phone you creep?” sort of way, which was… well good.)

(Also, and for the record, any time I take a picture of a kid at one of these things I tell the parents I’m planning on posting the picture to the site and get specific permission from them for it.  I also usually give them a card so they can come look if they want.)

The other highlight was someone recognizing me from the previous IndyPopCon and coming over to tell me she loved Skylights and wanted to know what to read next.  I’ll have a sequel by the next time I come to this con, dear, I promise.

 

IndyPopCon 2018, Day One

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Not the greatest day of sales ever, but Friday never is.  Check out the cosplay, though.  Notably missing: the Shaggy cosplayer who I didn’t ask for a picture because no one around me could decide if he was cosplaying Shaggy or just looked like it, or the young woman who was definitely not cosplaying Domino but was nonetheless a dead ringer for a slightly younger Zazie Beetz.