By Jan S. Gephardt I had so much fun at SoonerCon 30 – not the least of which came from the kaleidoscope of cosplay that I encountered everywhere. I had many lovely moments at this science fiction convention. But the cosplay was in a class of its own. The sheer, rich, visual diversity of these costumes provided a weekend of riches, just by themselves. Even more than most of the other “cons” I attend (short for the admittedly-unwieldy term “science…
By G. S. Norwood This past weekend America celebrated a new federal holiday called Juneteenth. It has been a holiday—official and unofficial—in Texas for a long time, and those celebrations have slowly spread to other states across our nation, but June 19, 2022, was only the second time the whole country had the opportunity to celebrate the day when human enslavement was finally banished from our shores. Which seems like an excellent thing to celebrate, don’t you think? A Bit…
By Jan S. Gephardt The ConQuesT 53 Art Show was certainly a “Show full of GoHs.” Perhaps I should unpack that a bit. In fannish circles the acronym “GoH” stands for “Guest of Honor,” and is pronounced “go.” Every science fiction convention invites several headline guests. They appear, generally all- or most-expenses-paid by the convention committee, to attract people to the convention. In the early years, the GoHs (plural for “GoH,” pronounced “goes”) were nearly all authors. And still today…
By Jan S. Gephardt ConQuesT 53 offered quite a sampler excellent artists. It really was a beautiful show, a credit to both the artists and the Art Show director, Mikah McCullough (ably assisted by his wife Katarina Gibb, and his Corgi Renji). I don’t have time or room to feature them all, but several of them impressed me with the range, beauty, and inventiveness of their work. Most had new things that I haven’t seen at ConQuesT before. For the…
By Jan S. Gephardt When faced with the fact that an old tactic doesn’t work, it’s time to try something new. That was the choice that confronted me when I started this “sf convention season.” My son Tyrell E. Gephardt and I typically attend 6-8 sf conventions in a normal year. Because I don’t have a lot of different books available to sell in paperback format, I haven’t seriously considered setting up at a dealers table. I also don’t “do…