Dayton's Blog: A pimple on the ass of the Internet.

Still playing catch-up, but here's a rundown of our trip to Denver for Starfest 2009.

( Read all about it! )

Earlier today, I received an e-Mail from one of the fine folks at Starfest who work so hard every year making it look like putting on a con is easy. It was from a fan who attended the convention with her young son and daughter. We'd already seen them a time or two before the kids performed in the talent show held on Sunday morning (Kevin acted as emcee; I was a judge). During their act, the son got a bit flustered, flubbed his lines during the song they were singing, and then stage fright set in and despite our best efforts to encourage him he opted to step down. His sister, awesome little trooper that she was, stayed put, and belted out the rest of the song to earn a standing ovation. Though they ended up not winning, we made sure they received a prize when it was all over.

This is an excerpt from the e-Mail the con representative received:

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I never got a chance to thank you for the talent-show-consolation-prize-Star-Trek-bracelets you left for my kids, , at the authors' table. That was very kind of you and the children were thrilled. My daughter left you a note with a man at the information table before we left on Sunday. It was just a quick note to thank you for the bracelets, but since I couldn't be sure you ever actually received it, I thought I would send you a note myself.

And speaking of those two authors, Dilmore and Ward - if you have access to an email address for them, I wish you would forward this note to both of them so that I could thank them for how kind they were to my children throughout the weekend. They were really a couple of class-act guys, and my kids were delighted that one or both of them would take time to chat each time we went by their table. I had a chance to thank Mr Ward before we left, but Mr Dilmore was busy talking to someone at the time, and I didn't get a chance to thank him.

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Maybe I'm turning into a big softie, but reading that was the high point of my day.

Tags: cons, starfest

After a leisurely drive out from Kansas City, Kevin and I arrived in Denver around 4:30pm local time. We grabbed some dinner and then checked into the con hotel (the Denver Tech Center Marriott), and also scoped out the Barnes & Noble where we'll be doing our signing on Friday. I was pleased to see Trek nicely represented on the store's shelves, including a couple of our titles, as well as Wet Work, The Last World War, and even The Genesis Protocol. There were a few signs posted around store, including at the front door and at one endcap which had been loaded up with assorted Trek titles.

The Starfest folks are already hard at work setting up for the con, which will be officially underway Friday evening at 6pm. There's supposed to be snow on the way for Friday, but...hell, this is Denver. People live with snow pretty much all year long (except for a couple of weeks in September during NFL pre-season), right? To the snow, I say "Pfffft."

Bring on the con!

Now that I've dug myself out from the backlog of e-Mails and other administrative detritus, I finally can provide a somewhat tardy after-action report on our annual pilgrimage to Denver for Starfest 2008:

Got an e-Mail last night with the first go at the activities for Starfest. Among the various interesting goings-on you'll find at the con that weekend, are these distractions:

Saturday, 12pm-1pm: "How the Military is Portrayed in Sci-Fi," Moderated by author David Boop, with me and author Mario Acevedo. I was invited to sit in on this panel, so I'm not 100% sure what our jumping-off point for discussion will be. I'm sure stereotypes will be a large part of the conversation, as well as the various depictions of military folk as "good" and "bad," "awesome" and "dumbass," etc.

Sunday, 10am-12pm: "Stories from A Hat," with me and Kevin. I'm borrowing an idea I've seen used at another con I attend each year, ConQuesT, which they call "Story in A Bag." Essentially, brave souls will draw slips of paper from each of five hats, which will give them one each of the following: Character, Setting, Theme, Item/Object, and Opening Line. They'll then have an hour to write a short story (500+ words) using all of the components they've drawn. Stories will be judged and prizes awarded, courtesy of the con. During the 2-hour block, we'll also be carrying on with whatever writing-related discussions might fester.

Sunday, 1pm-2:30pm: "Pocket Books Preview," with me and Kevin. We did this as an experiment one year when the con's activities committee came to us looking to fill an hour, and it's actually turned out to be one of our more popular panels. Just like it sounds, find out the latest in the pipeline from Pocket, including upcoming releases in the worlds of Star Trek, Warcraft, Starcraft, and other licenses, as well as whatever else might sound interesting. This essentially is the same presentation that Pocket Books editors will be giving the same weekend at the New York Comic-Con, but their version will suffer simply because Bubba and I -- along with our sophomoric wit -- will be in Denver.... :)

I'm sure the schedule is tentative and subject to change, and it's possible Kevin and/or I will be asked to participate in some other activities not yet listed.

A few days late getting to this. Chalk it up to a backlog of things in a variety of areas, all of which required attention as we settled back into something resembling a "normal" routine.

Okay. So, Starfest 2007.

Getting ready to head to the airport for our flight to Denver. It's our fifth year attending this con as guests, and it's one of the two cons to which I most look forward (Shore Leave being the other one). Kevin's already en route, and we'll be joining up with him later this evening.

Starfest is planned and put on by Stephen Walker and his family, as well as an army of dedicated volunteers who bust their ass every year to put on a full weekend of multi-track programming. We're nowhere near the top of the marquee so far as guests are concerned, but they always treat us like part of the family. We'll spend the weekend doing panel discussions, selling a few books, and hanging out with friend and fellow writer and Trek novelist Christie Golden and her husband Michael, as well as all the other friends we've made over the years. Looking forward to seeing those folks again, as well as meeting a batch of new friends.

So, since my internet access will likely be limited during the next few days, feel free to chat amongst yourselves while I'm gone. Just keep your feet off the furniture, don't screw with the settings on my stereo, and leave me at least a beer or two in the fridge.

Oh, and if someone were to wash and wax my truck, it wouldn't go unnoticed or unappreciated.