Tag Archives: convention

Story Sale, and Some Space History

By | |
Comments Off on Story Sale, and Some Space History

First things first: my story “Sensitive, Compartmented” is tentatively slated for the April/May 2012 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction. I’m very happy about that, so it gets top billing on the blog.

For today’s space history tidbit: 40 years ago today — October 28, 1971 — Great Britain became the sixth nation to launch a satellite on its own rocket when a Black Arrow launch vehicle lifted the Prospero satellite out of the Woomera Test Range in Australia.

And speaking of Australia: the Australia party last night at World Fantasy Con seemed to go very well — a good crowd, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

And so it goes!

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

STEREO-A and STEREO-B

By | |
Comments Off on STEREO-A and STEREO-B

I haven’t had a lot of space history posts recently. I try to limit myself to anniversaries in multiples of 5 years, to keep from repeating things, and to keep the pace from getting overwhelming. I also try not to include “routine” events like the launch of the Nth in a series of satellites … not that anything about space operations has become truly routine, of course. But here’s one for the record:

Five years ago today — October 26, 2006 — a Delta 2 rocket out of Cape Canaveral placed two solar observatories in orbit.


(STEREO spacecraft. NASA image.)

The Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory consisted of two identical spacecraft, STEREO-A and STEREO-B. Once in space, the two satellites were allowed to drift into different heliocentric orbits: STEREO-B ahead of the Earth (leading), and STEREO-A behind the Earth (lagging). From those vantage points, their observations could be combined to image the Sun “stereographically” and predict whether a coronal mass ejection was heading toward the Earth.

On February 6th of this year, STEREO A and B reached 180 degrees of separation, which “enabled, for the first time, the simultaneous observation of the entire Sun.”

In other news, I’m heading to the World Fantasy Convention today. Folks have been urging me to go to WFC for years; it’s a small convention, primarily of SF&F professionals. It seems a little odd to think of myself as an SF&F professional in my own right, but my 3rd and 4th professional sales are forthcoming: more on those later, when the contracts are signed (or when the editors give me the okay).

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Dragon*Con 2011 Pictures, Part 3: Fun

By | |
Comments Off on Dragon*Con 2011 Pictures, Part 3: Fun

For reference: Pictures, Part 1 were of me and my friends, and Pictures, Part 2 were of the filk track.

Conventions like Dragon*Con are a lot of fun, and at a convention the size of D*C a lot of the fun comes in seeing the costumes … or, in some cases, the lack of costumes!

Here, the family that cosplays together stays together:

As do the Stormtroopers and Sand People who play together:

The workmanship of some of the costumes is remarkable. It’s hard to see, but parts of this costume lit up:

And, of course, there’s always the danger that someone else will show up with the same costume:

Which, if you haven’t seen it, reminds me of the cosplay public service announcement starring Kaley Cuoco.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Dragon*Con 2011 Pictures, Part 2: Filk

By | |
Comments Off on Dragon*Con 2011 Pictures, Part 2: Filk

(In case you missed them: Dragon*Con Pictures, Part 1: My Friends.)

This year I’ve discovered that I really enjoy filk (genre-related folk music) and filking (playing and singing same). Part of that is the warm reception “The Monster Hunter Ballad” has received over the last few months, and part of it is an immense sense of joy at doing something I never thought I could: writing and performing original music.

How did I get into this filking thing? It was an overly long journey:

  • Way back in the mid-90s I penned Titan-rocket-program-related lyrics to a number of different Beatles tunes.* So far as I know they’ve all been lost, and probably just as well. But I didn’t play an instrument, so I never considered the possibility of writing an original Titan tune.
  • In 2000 I got stationed overseas, where during my off hours I wrote a novel** and learned a few chords on the guitar. For my farewell dinner at Thule Air Base I wrote “Home on the Tundra” (to the tune of “Home on the Range”). As proof, you can look at the last page of the September 2001 issue of the Thule Times.
  • In 2008 I wrote the first of what has become an annual series of songs for the Industrial Extension Service: “The I-E-S Song.” It hasn’t made it onto YouTube yet, but there’s still hope … though you can watch the video montage for the 2009 song, “The Economic Recovery Blues.”
  • At MarsCon this January I got the idea for a Dungeons-&-Dragons-based song, which eventually became “Saving Throws” (sung to the tune of “Edelweiss”). And somewhere along the line I got the idea for the Monster Hunter song, which I debuted at StellarCon in March.
  • And at ConCarolinas this June I actually took part in a “Filk Circle” for the first time, and had a great time — which naturally led me to look up the filk track at Dragon*Con.

I played a few songs on Friday night, and went back on Saturday night to listen even though I had a headache. Then I was back again to play on Sunday night — where I took pictures!

First, the director of the Filk Track, Robby Hilliard:


(Dragon*Con Filk Track head honcho, Robby Hilliard.)

That guitar he’s playing looks awfully familiar. (I actually loaned my guitar out a couple of times.) Robby did a great job organizing the track, and his whole staff was very friendly.

Here’s Alex Boyd, who on Sunday night set himself the challenge of playing only original filk that he had made up that day.


(Alex Boyd.)

One of the songs he did was, “Don’t Bring Your Guitar to Dragon*Con.” Given the difficulty of maneuvering through the crowds, he had a point. I bought one of his CDs.

And here’s Tally Deushane, singing “The Dragon*Con Song”:


(Tally Deushane.)

Tally got very tired of singing “The Dragon*Con Song” by Sunday night; she probably sang it a dozen times over the course of the weekend. After Dragon*Con she posted on her Facebook fan page that she had been named one of Glamour Magazine’s “Top 10 College Women of 2011.” If I’d known we had a celebrity in our midst, I would’ve asked her to autograph her CD when I bought it.

Finally, guitars and ukuleles were not the only instruments to be found in the filk circle:


(The anonymous accordion player who wowed us all on Sunday night.)

In summary, a splendid time was had by all.

And meanwhile I keep coming up with new song ideas, which is both a little scary and (to me, at least) a little cool.

___
*I included some of this history in a previous blog post.
**It was okay, not great. I think my second novel is better, though neither one has been published.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Dragon*Con 2011 Pictures, Part 1: My Friends

By | |
Comments Off on Dragon*Con 2011 Pictures, Part 1: My Friends

It’s hard to believe Dragon*Con was over a week ago already. My life is very blurry these days, so it’s good that I have pictures to look at.

The best thing about conventions, even huge ones like Dragon*Con, is spending time with friends. I wasn’t able to get pictures of all my friends, but here are a few.

Here I am with “Genre Princess” Alethea Kontis and other members of her “Traveling Sideshow.”


(L-R: Danielle Friedman, Alethea Kontis, me, Leanna Renee Hieber.)

Alethea was kind enough to bring me in off the bench to pinch hit for a sideshow member who couldn’t make it. Danielle Friedman performed a lovely New Zealand “poi” dance routine, while both Alethea and Leanna Hieber read from their work.

Note that I’m sporting my Monster Hunter International hat — it seemed appropriate, since I sang “The Monster Hunter Ballad.”

I also got my picture with Mary Robinette Kowal, who this year won the Hugo Award for best short story.


(Me with awesome author Mary Robinette Kowal.)

And who do you expect to run into when you go to Dragon*Con? Why, the person who turned over command of the Thule Tracking Station to you 11 years ago, whom you haven’t seen since! Rudy Ridolfi commanded POGO (our AF Satellite Control Network callsign) from 1999-2000, and I took over from him in July 2000. We only spent a week together, and I never realized he was a Klingon-speaking geek. It was great to see him and to meet his wife, Heather, who is a big fan of Baen Books.


(Two former commanders of Detachment 3, 22nd Space Operations Squadron, Thule Air Base, Greenland: me, and Rudy Ridolfi.)

Note that all of the above happened on the FIRST DAY of the convention! Dragon*Con, of course, is a frenzied and confusing 4-day-long hive of activity. Thankfully, I was able to enjoy breakfast one morning with some of my fellow Codex Writers:


(L-R: David M. Gill, David’s son Justin, Hel Bell, Danielle Friedman.)

My pictures from the Baen lunch didn’t turn out well enough to post, but I have pictures from the filking and random costumed folks that I will post on another day.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

My Dragon*Con Schedule

By | |
Comments Off on My Dragon*Con Schedule

I’m not an official guest of Dragon*Con 2011 — maybe someday I will be — but it turns out I will be participating in a few events:

  • Friday, 09/02, 5:30 p.m. in the Hyatt: due to a cancellation, I will either sing a song (“Monster Hunter Ballad,” maybe?) or read part of a story during “Princess Alethea’s Traveling Sideshow,” hosted by the inimitable Alethea Kontis
  • Saturday, 09/03, 2:30 p.m. in the Hyatt: I’ll do whatever my boss needs me to do at the Baen Books Traveling Road Show
  • Monday, 09/05, 1:00 p.m. in the Hilton: I’ve offered to fill in on a panel discussing “The Science of Zombies” … the final line-up is still TBD

In between, I will go to a few readings and panels featuring my writing friends, and probably attend some of the filk track; I enjoyed playing in the filk circle at ConCarolinas, and if I’m toting my guitar around on Friday afternoon I may as well show up to see what’s what. Whether I work the door or tend bar at the Baen party remains to be seen. And, of course, I have every intention of working on a short story while I’m there.

Looking forward to it!

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

RavenCon 2011: My Schedule

By | |
Comments Off on RavenCon 2011: My Schedule

This weekend I’ll be in Richmond, Virginia, for the RavenCon science fiction and fantasy convention. I’ve been to Raven a few times before, and it’s always been a good time.

My schedule for the weekend is pretty light:

  • Friday, 04/08, 7 p.m. — Opening Ceremonies
  • Friday, 04/08, 10 p.m. — I’ll help out with the Baen Traveling Road Show
  • Saturday, 04/09, 8 p.m. — “A Workshop Was Held” — I’ll try to help folks recognize and correct passive writing
  • Sunday, 04/10, 9 a.m. — “Praise and Prayer Service” — some singing, some Scripture, and a time of prayer and Christian fellowship
  • Sunday, 04/10, 11 a.m. — “Why Can’t I Find What I Want?” — asking readers what they want but can’t find

While I’m there, I hope to get some work done on a short story. I’ll certainly have enough time for that … as long as I don’t go to too many of my friends’ panels!

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

The Monster Hunter Ballad, and a Story Sale

By | |
Comments Off on The Monster Hunter Ballad, and a Story Sale

This past weekend at StellarCon, I debuted my first official attempt at true “filk,” in the form of “The Monster Hunter Ballad.”

The song is based on the Monster Hunter books by Larry Correia and published by Baen Books.* Larry was at StellarCon, and I enjoyed several conversations with him over the weekend, but he unfortunately was not present at the DeepSouthCon 50 party to see the debut. However, thanks to the cinematography and web-posting acumen of Tedd Roberts, Larry and everyone else can see my silliness on YouTube.

In other news, I returned home from StellarCon to find a story acceptance in the e-mail: my short story “The Tower” will appear in an upcoming installment of Crossed Genres.

___
*Full Disclosure: I am a “Contributing Editor” for Baen — not an employee, just a slimy contractor, but affiliated with Baen nonetheless.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

StellarCon Schedule, and Another HM

By | |
Comments Off on StellarCon Schedule, and Another HM

This afternoon I head to StellarCon, my second convention in as many weekends. I have a fairly light schedule, which means more time to write! For anyone who cares, my schedule shapes up as follows:

Friday, 03/04/11

  • 7 p.m. – Politics and Religion in Sci-Fi and Fantasy (I’m moderating this one!)

Saturday, 03/05/11

  • 10 a.m. – Effective Use of POV in Fiction
  • 2 p.m. – Science VS. the Story
  • 4 p.m. – Tony Ruggiero’s Quick Write!

And that’s it. I’ll also be working at the Baen “Traveling Road Show,” which is always a hoot, and of course I’ll show up to provide moral support at some of my friends’ panels. (And, if history is any indicator, I’ll get recruited to participate in at least one of them.)

I haven’t decided what I’m going to write this weekend. Last weekend at MystiCon I concentrated on songwriting, which is a struggle for me but also a lot of fun.

And speaking of writing, the short story I sent to the Writers of the Future contest last quarter rated an “Honorable Mention.” (I’m actually pleased it did that well.) My WoTF tally now stands at 5 Honorable Mentions and 1 Semi-Finalist out of 12 stories judged. Hopefully they’ll like my 13th entry (sent last month) better!

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

MystiCon Schedule

By | |
Comments Off on MystiCon Schedule

Next weekend I’ll be at MystiCon in Roanoke, Virginia. I’m scheduled to participate on several panels:

Friday, 02/25

  • 8 p.m. – When SF Goes Wrong – SF’s Abuses of Real Science
  • 10 p.m. – From SF to US – Making It Real

Saturday, 02/26

  • 10 a.m. – Allen Wold’s Writing Workshop
  • 2 p.m. – Star Trek – Where To From Here?
  • 5 p.m. – When Is It Time to STOP

Sunday, 02/27

  • 10 a.m. – Allen Wold’s Writing Workshop (conclusion)
  • 11 a.m. – Stroking Your Editor’s Ego

I took Allen Wold‘s writing workshop at CapClave many years ago — I like to think I learned a little about writing better story openings — and I look forward to working it from the other side of the desk, as it were. And, of course, I look forward to spending time with my writing friends, and especially to learning from David Gerrold, the MystiCon Guest of Honor.

Should be a good weekend!

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather