Man, it’s been a long time since I’ve been to a good science fiction convention. Don’t take that as a knock to cons in general, because it’s been a long time since I’ve been to ANY science fiction convention. Mostly, I’ve been too busy to travel anywhere unless it’s got something to do with family. Fortunately for me, there was a great con here in Omaha this weekend.
OSFest ’08 was a hell of a good time. There were cool panels to attend, a jam packed dealer’s room full of knives and Star Wars stuff. Plenty of Stormtroopers walking around, other writers wearing name tags. . .actually it sounds kind of weird when you spool it all together like that. Maybe that’s what makes it so cool. Just walking around and taking in all the delicious nerdiness is refreshing. See, I can say stuff like “nerdiness” and “geektastic” or “freakenberry” because I freely admit I’m 100% geek. All right, I made up Freakenberry. I just like the sound of it.
Anyway, I met a lot of great folks and had a lot of fun. With SKINNERS coming out, I plan on going to a lot more of these things. The big difference is that I may get my publisher to help pay for a trip or two. At the very least, I’ll be able to write them off my taxes. I may not get medical benefits for being a full-time writer, but I get to count science fiction cons as a business expense!
I also met up with Nevermore Paranormal. They’re a local ghost hunting group and just an all around good bunch of guys (and gals) who put up with me talking to them for a while after their presentation. Of course, they couldn’t exactly run away, but they did a good job of nodding politely at the crazy man with the tattoos (me). I hope to tap these guys for information here and there about the technical side of paranormal investigations since they seemed to know their stuff. I’ll put a link to their MySpace page on here, so give them a look for yourselves if you like.
Also, I consider it to be a personal triumph that I got my wife to come along with me today. She almost bowed out at the last moment. I guess she just wasn’t sure if she wanted to be seen in public with her husband in full-on dork mode when she could have had the house to herself for a few hours. It’s a tough decision, but she came along with me and couldn’t wipe the smile off her face from the moment she saw someone piloting a full size R2-D2 replica through the hotel lobby. I’m the luckiest bastard in the world!
