I hadn’t been planning on going to Lunacon, but it’s only an hour and fifteen minutes from home and we didn’t have plans for Saturday. Despite some confusion on the Cross County Parkway, I eventually arrived at the con around noon and registered for the day. I put out postcards for Clarkesworld, Realms, Shriek, and Memorare and then headed off to the dealer’s room where I spent more time talking than browsing. In the ten hours I was there, I only managed to get to three panels:
The Secret Handshake: Part joke, part reality. A look into how authors land their deals. Amusing and informative.
The State of Short Fiction: Typical is short fiction dead or dieing topic but well-managed by having a well-balance set of panelists who represented a print magazine (Realms of Fantasy), online magazine (Abyss and Apex), and someone who had worked on anthologies in the past. I don’t usually see these this balanced.
The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts: What makes a good anthology, how they sell and once again, is the short story dieing. Unfortunately there wasn’t that big a crowd and only a few questions.
The rest of the time was spent at the bar or at some of the con parties. It’s always nice to run into Joshua Palmatier, Patricia Bray, Jennifer Dunne, and Sam Butler. A lot of my bar/party time was spent with them. I also had the pleasure of meeting Wendy Delmater (from Abyss and Apex) and chatted with her for a while about online magazines, life in general, and jokes.
Lunacon may not be my kind of con (I lean more towards the literary, not so much the gaming, filking, and costumes), but I had a great time and wish I could have spent more time there.
slrose
Lunacon has strong literary tracks, and you don’t have to go to any of the gaming, filking, anime, media, or costume events.
I was at the Secret Handshake panel, which I greatly enjoyed.
One of the things I like about Lunacon, (aside from the fact that it’s 20 minutes from home) is that there is such a variety of stuff available. This year I was mostly at literary track panels, but in other years I have chosen differently.
wyrmadmin
Oh I understand that… It’s just that the presence of the other tracks and events does change the flavor of a con. It doesn’t mean it’s bad, it just means that in some situations it isn’t as good a fit for me personally as something like Readercon is. Arisa goes one way, I-Con another, and CapClave another. The diversity is good for the genre. Something good is gained from all in their own unique ways.