I had a great time at Archon 48. I stayed super-busy, and that’s how I prefer it. As I normally do, I displayed artwork in this convention’s excellent Art Show – and also brought selections from my late sister and brother-in-law’s art collection to display in the Resale Gallery. I had a full programming schedule. That meant it was a good thing I also had an excellent partner, K. R. Gastreich, to help share the duties at our dealers’ table!…
I had so much fun at DemiCon 36 earlier this month! It’s been a while since a whole convention felt quite so easy and joyous to me as it did at this year’s edition of the long-running Des Moines science fiction convention. It was an especially welcome experience because so many other things so far this year have seemed hard and unhappy. I’ve noted this before, in some of the few blog posts I’ve been able to produce in the…
It’s high time I shared some thoughts on FenCon XX, since Ty and I attended it a month ago! But then, this FenCon reflection is late for the same reason this is also the first blog post of the year. Since my sister died in September, I’ve been meeting myself coming and going between KC and Texas. Something had to give. This wasn’t our first FenCon – we’d attended several FenCons before the Pandemic. We liked the crowd size (bustling,…
No two ways about it: change is hard. It’s inevitable, but that doesn’t make it any easier to manage. And when innovation butts heads with tradition, change is really hard. SoonerCon 32 offers a sometimes-painful, sometimes-cautiously hopeful, case in point. I remember decades ago when my husband and I witnessed another painful transition. We were assistant directors of a summer camp unit that had seen a complete change of staff from one summer to the next. The camp organization was…
Now it’s time for the “New Year Dragon Gentlemen” whose dragon-themed artwork I want to highlight. I Introduced two “New Year Dragon Ladies” in last week’s post, figuring it’s hard to go wrong with “ladies first.” But I didn’t want to leave the guys hanging for too long. When I found out that 2024 is the Year of the Dragon, I knew I wanted to feature dragon-themed artwork in my social media. I know a lot of excellent artists who…
Allow me to introduce my two “New Year Dragon Ladies,” Theresa Mather and Rachael Mayo. When I discovered that this Chinese New Year’s animal was the Dragon, I immediately thought about all the amazing artists I know, who paint or sculpt – indeed, specialize – in dragons. You could even say that in my paper sculpture I myself lean heavily toward dragons. Full disclosure: I also was working every spare second to complete a near-finished draft of Bone of Contention,…
By Jan S. Gephardt Last week I wrote about the artists. Now it’s time to write about the authors of Archon 44. Followers of this blog know that I recently attended Archon 44. As the “44” at the end indicates, this is a science fiction convention with a long history in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Their most recent venue is the Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville, IL. My focus at conventions is mostly split between artists and authors. I…
By Jan S. Gephardt If I may judge from my own experience, it was a pretty good weekend for artists at Archon 44. There was only a little space left over in the Art Show, but not much. And there was a nice variety of media and art styles represented. The Artists’/Creators’ Alley looked full and busy to me, even though the overall crowd was definitely smaller this year. It seemed as if people had been cooped up for close…
By Jan S. Gephardt I am happy to report that I’m going to Archon 44 after all. Why? Because—and only because—Archon’s doing it right. The Email That Changed Everything You may recall that a few weeks ago, I very reluctantly decided to withdraw from this year’s FenCon, a Texas science fiction convention that my son and I have come to love. I had been watching the COVID-19 trends in the St. Louis area and growing more and more convinced I’d…
By Jan S. Gephardt One schedule-change. That’s all it technically boils down to. One simple scratch-out on a calendar. I’d planned on going, but now I’m not. Except, it’s not a simple thing at all. Not simply one schedule-change. No, it’s actually a whole end-of-summer tipped upside-down in a cascade of if-this-then-that change, after change, after change. Deciding not to go to FenCon, it turned out (as I knew it would), led to way more than one schedule-change. I Love…