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MileHiCon 44

By lytspeed Posted in Conventions, Geek, Poetry, Writing 1 Reply

As promised, here is my schedule for MileHiCon 44.  The convention is taking place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in the Denver Tech Center from Friday, October 19th through Sunday, October 21st.

Saturday

Online Alphabet Soup, Grand Mesa B-C, 11:00 AM
This promises to be a fun panel about SOPA, PIPA, CISPA, and various other attempts to control the Internet. I’ll be in the esteemed company of Andrew Burt (former SFWA vice president, notorious Critter Captain, founder of the world’s first ISP, and e-publisher of out-of-print works by Ben Bova, among others), Marie DesJardin (technical writer and author of For the Time Being), Arlen Feldman (software developer, computer book author, and recovering costumer), and Doris Beetem (a longtime fixture of MileHiCon and short story author.)

Playing with Participants, Atrium, Table 2, 2 PM
This is an opportunity to sit down for an hour or so and play a game of … something … with me.  Assuming I can find them in the sea of boxes that materialized after my recent move, I’m likely to bring along some of my old Magic: The Gathering decks or my Car Wars boxed edition.  Any takers?

Sunday

Falling Skies, Terra Nova, and Primeval, Mesa Verde A, 12 PM
Join me, Daniel Dvorkin (the writer, not the Chicagoan who hired a hitman to kill a rival businessman), Patrick Hester (from the Hugo nominated Functional Nerds podcast), Christopher M. Salas (Colorado Springs author and martial arts expert), and SFWA Grand Master Connie Willis (!!!) as we discuss the above television shows.  I followed Terra Nova all the way through its short run, and enjoyed it quite a bit, but I’m going to have to brush up on the other two a bit.

Poetry Fantastique, Wind River A, 3 PM
I have the honor of moderating the poetry panel this year, and with guests like Gail R. Barton (who read some wonderful poetry last year), Daniel Landes (Westword writer), Dr. Rob S. Rice (historian specializing in ancient and military history, poet, fiction writer, non-fiction writer, and steampunk fan), and anyone else who happens to show up (Owen Allen and Laura Deal, I’m looking your way), it should be a great hour of poetry. I may even get up the guts to read the steampunk rewrite of “The Windhover” that’s been rolling around in my brain.  (Imagine if Gerard Manley Hopkins had never entered the priesthood, and instead became an early Vorticist or Pre-Raphaelite.  Does your brain hurt yet?)

When I’m not on panels, I’ll probably be checking out other people’s panels, getting books signed, or wandering around with my lovely steampunk-bedecked wife.  I’m looking forward to it!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

By lytspeed Posted in General, Writing 2 Replies

It’s been a busy couple of weeks. I took a business trip to Atlanta and got sick in the middle of it, then when I got back, we fell into an opportunity to move into a brick Tudor Revival house that we have loved for years. So, for the last week, we’ve been frantically moving stuff from the old mobile home to the new house, and now that everything’s moved, we begin the process of unboxing and evaluating how much of this stuff we actually need.  (Yeah, I know, it’s a bit backwards, but we didn’t have a lot of time to go through things before moving.)

As always, there are casualties in moving. For me, the biggest casualty has been my signed first-edition hardback of Contact, by Carl Sagan.  It was destroyed by water damage while in storage at the old house.  The book is was worth a fair amount of money, but the sentimental value of the book was much greater to me because it was given to me by a writing group friend a decade or so ago.  There were other signed hardbacks in the same box, by authors like Dan Simmons and Leslie Marmon Silko, and my beloved trade paperback of Silko’s Ceremony was ruined as well, but none of those books held the same emotional attachment for me that Contact did.  Ah, well.

I received my preliminary schedule for MileHiCon 44 today, and will post that later, but for now, I wanted to take the time to just write something on this long-neglected blog.

My MileHiCon 43 Schedule

By lytspeed Posted in Conventions, Poetry, Writing Leave a reply

It’s October once again, which means MileHiCon is taking place at the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center on October 21-23, 2011.

I’m not normally much of a convention goer, but I do enjoy attending MileHiCon every year, and I’m honored to be chosen for some panels again this time.  If you’re interested in attending any of my panels, here’s where I’ll be and when I’ll be there.

 

SF (and Otherwise) Poetry Slam — Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 1:00 PM in Mesa Verde A

Like last year, Rhysling Award nominee David Lee Summers will be moderating this event, and I get to share the panel with Robin M. Ambrozic (author of the Piccolo epic fantasy novels), artist Gail R. Barton, and others to be determined.  This is likely to be less of a poetry slam and more of a reading, if David runs it like he did last year (and I hope he does!)

 

Sounds Like Steampunk — Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 4:00 PM in Wind River A

New York Times bestselling author Carrie Vaughn will moderate this panel.  I’ll join panelists Jason Heller (Westword music writer), artist Alisia Silliman, and David Lee Summers (who is evidently stalking me, or vice versa), presumably to discuss Steampunk’s influence on music.

 

Polyamory in SF/F — Sunday, October 23, 2011 at Noon in Wind River B

If someone were to create a Venn diagram of SF/F literature and alternative lifestyles (and somebody probably has), the area of intersection would probably be greater than in a similar diagram made about mainstream literature.  This makes sense, because science fiction and fantasy allow for a wide range of thematic exploration, and a number of SF & F authors have explored polyamory in their work.  Join moderator and author Thea Hutcheson, author Jane Bigelow, self-defense author Marc MacYoung, Loving More Non-Profit Managing Director Robyn Trask, and Yours Truly as we discuss polyamory in the context of science fiction and fantasy literature.

 

I hope to see some of you there!

Connections (Vorticism 2010)

By lytspeed Posted in Conventions, Original Poetry, Poetry, Writing Leave a reply

This is a poem I wrote for a poetry panel at MileHiCon 42.  It’s the third in my series of Vorticism poems (which are not really about Vorticism as much as they are about embracing technology in general.)  Like most technology-related creative writing, it’s already outdated (Google+, anyone?), but it’s an interesting snapshot of where technology and my mind were at the time.

 

Connections (Vorticism 2010)

iPhones and Androids and tablets, oh my!
Twitter, Facebook, and SMS in the
Palm of your hand
Instant availability
Instant accessibility
Instant interruptions
Disconnected communication
Never before have we been so
Connected, yet so fragmented.

These are not the ‘droids we were
Looking for.

— Stace Johnson
© 2010

MileHiCon 41

By lytspeed Posted in Conventions, Writing 1 Reply

You asked for it, you got it:  My MileHiCon 41 panel schedule!

(Okay, so no one asked for it, but here it is anyway!)

Hyatt Regency — DTC
Saturday, October 24

10:00 AM, Mesa Verde Room A: “GM 101 – A Thief, A Mage, and a Paladin Walk Into the Tavern” — I’m moderating this panel about how a GM can make the difference between a good role-playing campaign and a tortuous one.  Featuring Ephemeris game designer J. Alan Erwine and three other experienced GMs.

12:00 PM, Wind River B: “Disabled Fen and Con Challenges” — Disabled people are SF fans, too!  I expect this to be a frank discussion about what works and what doesn’t for disabled individuals in a convention setting.

2:00 PM, location TBD: “Playing with Stace Johnson” — This probably won’t be as pornographic as it sounds; it’s more likely to be me sitting at a table somewhere armed with one of my favorite games, looking for someone to game with for an hour.  (Unfortunately, it looks like Brandon Sanderson has already claimed Magic: The Gathering.  I’ll have to think of something else.)

4:00 PM, Grand Mesa B-C Stage: “SciFi Theatre” — I don’t know what this is about yet, though I have a guess that it involves either improv or one-act plays.  Either way, Connie Willis is one of the other scheduled participants, so I’m excited.

Sunday, October 25

12:00 PM, Wind River A: “It’s Almost 2010: What is Your Computer Up To?” — I get to be on another tech panel this year, with Andrew Burt, David Dvorkin (I don’t think it’s Daniel), Drupal Master John Fiala, and the mysterious L. Rowe (could be any number of people!)

If you’re coming to MileHiCon, I hope to see you there.  If you’re not, why the hell not?!