Category: Travel
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My ChiCon Schedule
This year the 70th annual World Science Fiction Convention is being held in Chicago over Labor Day weekend. ChiCon 7 starts on Thursday, August 30, and runs through Monday, September 3. The Guests of Honor include legendary science fiction writer Mike Resnick, and even-more-legendary astronaut Story Musgrave. And, of course, me. My schedule is as…
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Pi Fight!
Pi-Con is the Pioneer Valley's oldest and biggest science fiction and fantasy convention. This year's con runs August 17-19 at the Holiday Inn in Enfield, Connecticut (just south of the Massachusetts border on I-91). The guests of honor are Julie Czerneda, Robert M. Price, and Shira Lipkin; other guest include Elizabeth Bear, Emily Lewis, and…
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Readercon After-Action Report
This past weekend I was a participant at the 23rd annual Readercon convention in Burlington, Massachusetts. As always, I had a great time. The con (-vention) committee did their usual superb job of keeping everything running smoothly. These are fans who do this for fun, and yet manage to do a better job than many…
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Read About Readercon
Just as I do most summers, I'm going to be a participant at this year's Readercon. If you don't know what Readercon is, and you're interested in science fiction or fantasy literature, then you're missing what is simply the best annual meeting of its kind. This year they're working me hard on Friday, then I…
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Ozblogging: The Emerald City of Oz, Part 4
Dorothy and her traveling companions camp for the night after visiting the Fuddles, and we get to see the Wonderful Wizard do some actual wizarding. Agent Diggs is evidently a quick study, for in just a year of Glinda's tutoring he has mastered some pretty impressive magic. He's still a humbug at heart, though. His…
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An Old-Fashioned Science Fiction Gathering (Day 2)
On Sunday the 27th, most of the participants rose early (since both the Hartwell and Cambias households involve young children who think that sleeping past 7:30 is "late"). We breakfasted at one of the inns in Westport called The Inn In Westport, then gathered again at the bookstore to watch David Hartwell interview Gregory Benford.…
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An Old-Fashioned Science Fiction Gathering (Day 1)
Over the weekend of May 25-27 I was a guest of David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer at their bookstore in Westport, NY. The occasion was a "mini-con" devoted to Hard Science Fiction. The headliner on the card was Gregory Benford, who inspired the theme of the weekend with his famous remark about writing Hard SF…
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Ozblogging: The Emerald City of Oz, Part 3
Since Aunt Em and Uncle Henry have come to Oz for good, it only makes sense for them to see some of the country. Accordingly, Dorothy, the Wizard, Em and Henry, Omby Amby (the commander of Oz's all-officer Army), Billina the Hen, and the Shaggy Man all set out aboard a wagon drawn by the…
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Out For Pizza: Epilogue
What did we learn from this trip? 1. Plan for bad weather. Even if it seems highly unlikely, plan for it anyway. We went to the driest, sunniest part of Italy, and got rained on. Next time I travel, I'm definitely bringing a sweater and some form of rain gear. Packing my sweater this time…
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Out For Pizza, Day 7
Our final day was spent traveling. We got up at 4 a.m. but were unable to savor the brief silence on the streets of Naples because we had to get in a cab and tear off to the airport to make our flight to Milan. I slept most of the way, but did wake in…
The Cambias Digression 