MileHiCon Day 3

MileHiCon has now come and gone, and I feel like it flew by. This year's Con was a very good time, but I have to admit that by not staying at the hotel, I feel like I missed out on a lot. Next year, I will hopefully stay the entire weekend...although with WorldCon here in August, I'm going to have to sell a lot of copies of The Opium of the People, and my other books, in order to make it work.

Before I get into day 3, there was one thing I failed to mention about day 2. I had the opportunity on a couple of different occasions to talk to Tony Ruggiero. Tony had been publishing with ProMart Publishing when I first started out as a writer, and then I published a couple of his stories when I started editing for ProMart. In a lot of ways, James Baker, the founder of ProMart, was as instrumental in starting Tony's career as he was in starting mine. I hadn't realized that Tony had actually dedicated his short story collection to Jim. We talked a lot about how much Jim had meant to both of us, even though neither of us actually met the man.

Anyway, on to day 3...I started out by going to the Guest of Honor Speeches, or the Frank Wu and Friends Show as many of us were thinking of it. I like the fact that unlike a lot of Cons, MileHiCon just lets the guests talk about whatever they want. Frank used his time...well, actually it wasn't his time, but he talked about how baseball is like life, and the importance of "Glory and Redemption." Believe me, if you'd been at the speeches, you'd be laughing your asses off right about now...

Frank later went on to talk about microbes in space, while the other guests talked about more mundane things. Ed Bryant, who is a brilliant individual, and has his own quiet sense of humor, made a great foil for Frank. I think they should take the show on the road.

I then went to a panel about SF pirates. It's normally not my kind of thing, but David Lee Summers is doing an anthology on the subject, and he's invited me to contribute...so I figured I should find out a little on the subject. Unfortunately, I thought the panel was very one sided, with one person hogging most of the spotlight, and with way too much feedback from the audience. I'd have to say that Con audiences are great because they love their subject matter so much, and because they really are interested in what people in the field have to say...but sometimes I think they get a bit too exuberant in their desire to participate. Still, con guests are some of the best people in the world!!!!

After the pirates panel, it was off to do my reading. I read two different section from The Opium of the People. I'd have to say that I don't think the audience was ready. The other author with me was Rebecca Rowe, and I could literally hear her cringing at some of the imagery I used. Yes, one of the scenes I read was the torture scene from early in the novel. Rebecca then read a Halloween short story, which was very enjoyable. She's a brilliant writer, and I see big things in her future.

After the reading, I decided to go to a panel about cover art. My main reason for wanting to do this was because Frank Wu and Laura Givens were both on the panel. Given their, shall we say vibrant personalities, I figured the universe wouldn't be able to handle the excitement. It was definitely a great panel. Unfortunately, Frank had to leave early because he had tickets to this little baseball game here in Denver, and he was hoping that the Rockies would find "Glory and Redemption." After he left, Laura and the other panelist, Deb Taber, forged on and I thought they did a great presentation. Deb is the art director for Apex Digest and Laura is the art director for Tales of the Talisman. Both of them really knew their stuff and did a great job of explaining what works and what doesn't work.

I will have a wrap-up of the Con a bit later. I'm dead tired and can barely think straight...which means it must have been a GREAT con!!!