Mabfan's Musings

On Friday night (well, technically Saturday morning) gnomi and I caught up on some much-needed sleep. We had arranged my panel schedule knowing that we might be tired due to the overnight train, so my first panel wasn't until 1 PM. We used the morning for shabbat ritual, including kiddush and lunch.



1 PM. Panel: "Blogs and Webcomics: Is This the New Look of Fanzines?" Panelists: Michael A. Burstein (moderator), Mike Allen (time_shark), Barbara Fischer, Robert Jeschonek, Bryan Prindiville. Since I was moderating this panel, it gave me a chance to steer the discussion. As it is, most of what the panelists discussed were, well, blogs and webcomics. I asked about fanzines, and although everyone knew what they were, no one had had as much experience with them as they have with on-line communication. (Nomi and I have participated in APAs, written for fanzines, and published two issues of a fanzine of our own.) The general feeling from the panelists is that blogs and webcomics have indeed become the new fanzines.

One of the threads we discussed was on the instantaneous feedback people can now receive on their work. Such feedback has both pros and cons, which I would detail if I could remember what they were.

At 2 PM, along with madwriter, we went to wait on the autographing line for Terry Brooks. The line was long for a regional convention, and I was worried about making it to my Koffe Klatch on time. I ended up being five minutes late, but since the Koffe Klatch table was nearby I was able to wave to one of the folks there so they could see I would be right over.

Terry Brooks is a gentleman, and he provided me with a small bit of egoboo. When I introduced myself, I started to explain that I've been publishing science fiction short stories for about eleven years. He said, "Oh, I know who you are." Apparently, he makes a point of keeping up with the field. I have no idea if he's actually read any of my stories, but he'd have no reason to tell me he knew my name if it wasn't true.

3 PM. Koffe Klatch. I shared the slot with writer Laura J. Underwood. We were joined by Sam Lubell, Julia Burgess, and Danny Adams (again!). And, of course, Nomi.

After the panel, Nomi and I once again went back to our room to relax.

At 6 PM Nomi and I went to the panel "The Future of Star Trek -- Has the Epitaph Already Been Written?" Panelists: Robert Jeschonek (moderator), Rich White, Peter Prellwitz, and Steve Cross. By an amusing coincidence, only the day before Paramount had announced that J.J. Abrams had been hired to write a new Star Trek movie. So instead of a panel focused on the books, e-books, fanfic, fan films, and what Paramount might eventually do, we ended up with a lot of discussion of the new film. My own feelings have already been summed up by others; I'm looking forward to the film, but if they choose to go backwards and tell a story about Kirk and Spock during their academy days, I think that will be a mistake.

After the panel, Nomi and I hung out briefly in the Con Suite, which was run very well by Kathleen Morrison and Dennis McCunney.

The Masquerade was scheduled to start at 8 PM. We got there around 7:53 PM to discover that Wombat had already begun the proceedings, mostly by just telling people what would be tranpsiring. Because there were so few entrants, we were treated to a variety of sketches performed by Luna-C, a comedy troupe doing parodies of SF film and TV shows. It was a little hard for us to see and hear them, because we were in the back of the room, but I found them very funny. They were also quick on their feet to make jokes about missed cues when cues were, um, missed.

As for the costumes created for the Masquerade, they all looked very nice.

During the Masquerade shabbat ended, so Nomi and I were once more able to use our room key. We returned to our room and spent the rest of the night talking with Danny Adams (madwriter), Christina Yoder (rivendelldragon) and Steve Yoder. We never did get to Bud Webster's room; sorry about that, Bud.



And finally, sometime after midnight, everyone else left and Nomi and I once again collapsed with exhaustion.