Great times this weekend at Armadillocon 30 in Austin, TX. Rode to the show with Boxcar Satan‘s Sanford Allen early Friday morning. Over the next three days, we hung out with friends new and old including Author GOH John Scalzi, Editor GOH Sheila Williams, Artist GOH David Lee Anderson, Special Guests Joe and Gay Haldeman, Chris Roberson, Vincent Docherty, Rick Klaw, Scott Cupp, John Denardo, Mikal Trimm, Matthew Bey, Matt Sturges, Paul Benjamin, Jayme Blaschke, the Lansdales, the Moorcocks, William Browning Spencer, Peggy Hailey, Rocky Kelley, Joe McKinney, Josh Rountree, Mark Williams, Lee Thomas, Patrice Sarath (shoutout to my sister-in-law Rachel!) and more. Bill Crider proudly carried on the ‘Dillocon tradition of great Toastmasters. Hats off to Kurt Baty, Chuck Siros, Kimm Antell, Scott Zrubek, Fred Duarte, Karen Meschke, A.T. Campbell, and all FACT folk who threw another great con this year. Need to unpack and return to normal work mode, but first some pics:
YAY, FREE DRINK TICKETS!: (l to r) — Willie Siros, Sara Felix, and Scott Cupp at Friday night’s “Meet the Pros” reception
IT LIVES!: My original triptych assemblage art for Jeffrey Ford’s WELL-BUILT CITY survives the trip from Denvention (very grateful for that minor miracle), and gets ready for display in the Armadillocon Art Show
NO ORDINARY JOE: Rising star (and San Antonio homeboy) Joe McKinney signs copies of his zombie novel DEAD CITY
THE OTHER CON: Our hotel was also home to a completely different con which ran simultaneously with ‘Dillocon. Sanford Allen wonders which meaning of “con” is most appropriate here.
NECTAR OF VICTORY: ASIMOV’S editor supreme and GOH Sheila Williams drinks to the Pros’ victory in the Fannish Feud (martini by the great Scott Bobo)
GIMME SHELTER: Bradley Denton and Caroline Spector jam the Stones classic in an impromptu hotel room session
THEY KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE: Secret Masters of Fandom unite! Mary Kay Kare (far left) rocks Reno 2011’s party with members of Team Reno — Ben Yalow, Patty Wells, and Vincent Docherty.
MAKING THE ROUNDS: Author GOH John Scalzi (ZOE’S TALE) (far right) does his GOH thing and cruises the Saturday night fan parties.
BEHOLD THE MAN: (l to r) — The great Michael Moorcock, yours truly, and Sanford Allen outside Hyde Park Grill for Sunday lunch (photo by Linda Moorcock)
Thanks for the kind words, John. Always good to see you!
Yeah, you really did a great job, Bill….not just my opinion, but overheard from many folks as well. A lot of laughs!
Great photos, John! And you did a hell of a good job leading the New Space Opera panel.
Thanks, Joe! Pretty cool that they put an artist in the moderator position on a big writers panel like that one….felt like an honor. Glad to hear folks enjoyed it. The other panelists were the stars of the show, as it should be.
It was great seeing you again, John. Pictures of The Well-Built City piece do not do it justice – it looks absolutely spectacular in person.
JD —
Glad you were there, even though I know you were swamped back home. Thanks very much re: the Well-Built City. 🙂 I didn’t think it would make another public appearance after Denvention, but glad it worked out.
John: The Well-Built City looks awesome in that photo.
jeff ford
Looks like it was a great event. Sorry to have missed it. Thanks for posting the pics and the field report.
-Jonathan Maberry
Multiple Bram Stoker Award winning author
Co-Creator/Consulting Producer ON THE SLAB (ABC Disney)
http://www.jonathanmaberry.com
http://www.myspace.com/jonathan_maberry
Thanks, Jeff. Yeah, I thought the box wouldn’t really be able to survive another appearance at a con after getting shipped to Worldcon/Denver. However, it miraculously arrived intact days after that con, so it was able to make a surprise appearance in Austin. The con decided to display it right in front of the double-door entrance to the show, so it was the first thing everyone saw when they walked in. Pretty cool.
Thanks, Jonathan. Armadillocon’s one of the best regional literary sf/fantasy shows in the country, year-in and year-out. Pretty panel-intensive, and the FACT folks know how to run a show.
Hey John, enjoyed meeting you for lunch with Mark and Lawrence. Sorry I had to miss the convention.
All sounds amazing. Sure wish I could have been there!
Hi, Derek —
Didn’t realize you were part of the Dark Forces Book Group until just now. Very cool! Yeah, good to see you at Mangia…
Hey, Lou —
It was good times….but yeah, back-to-back cons are killer. Was looking at next year’s schedule and there’s an outside chance that I might have four consecutive weekends of cons across the US from mid-July to mid-August…..oy……I’m gonna have to think really, really hard about that….
Hi John, it was nice to see you over the weekend. And just so you’ll now be in the loop (hehe) I have decided to temporarily at least embrace my inner Goth. (I’m sure you were wondering about that.)
Hi, Renee —
Good to see you too…..I’ll bet it was nice to experience an Armadillocon where you weren’t working non-stop.