Ad Astra 2008 Report

I must say this was one of the better cons I've been to. Probabaly because this is my fourth and I'm more comfortable with what is going on and know more people in the SF community.

Right off the bat I met up with fellow Writers of the Future Tony Pi and Stephen Kotowych. Both are nominated for the the Aurora, Canada's SF award. Other nominees in attendance were, Hayden Trenholm, David Klink, Douglas Smith and the venerable Rob Sawyer for his novel, Rollback.

My three panels went exceptionally well. This was the second year for the Writers of the Future panel, this time moderated by Jim Hines, and though lightly attended, was a lot of fun.

Tony Pi and I teamed up once again with Jessica Strider for Julie Czerneda's Misspelled anthology book launch game. Tony, Stephen and I were 'Goblin Lovers' helping Jim C. Hines launch his Goblin War, the third installment in Jig the Goblin novels.

Saturday night I attended the Julie Czerneda's Newsgroup Pizza Party for the first time. I got to meet some of the newsgroup denizens and even got a caricature of myself drawn. I went home early that evening, which according to Tony, was a mistake, as Guest of Honor, Kevin Anderson was holding court in the hotel bar. Ah, well.

And the costumer's were in full force this year. The 501st (?) Storm Troopers were in full force as were a stronger than usual anime contingent. I should have gotten some pictures of them.

On the whole I didn't take many pictures. I never really was a picture taker, but here is what I did get:




Is that Jig the Goblin? No, just his creator, Jim C. Hines talking to his fans at his Goblin War book launch.



It's the Casablanca Conference all over again. No, just Jim Hines, Stephen Kotowych, and Tony Pi at the the Writer's of the Future panel.



A captivated crowd at the WoTF panel. Or is that captive. We wouldn't let him out of the room. Seriously, he was early. More people came later. Enough, at least, to make it a fair fight.



Tony Pi, Guests of Honor Kevin Anderson and his lovely and talented wife, Rebecca Moesta, and some nobody who got in the shot.