Since there has not been a post in this space for quite a while, and a request has come down from the Program Coordinator to post some "teasers" for the Balticon 43 program, I humbly present the following Balticon 43 update:

Guests of Honor

• Author Guest of Honor: Charles Stross, award winning author of Singularity, Accelerando, Glasshouse and many other works of SF.


• Art Guest of Honor: Kurt Miller, artist and illustrator whose works have graced book, magazine and video game covers, board games, video games and my wall at home.


• Music / Filk Guest of Honor: Mary Crowell, singer, songwriter, musician, composer and teacher whose musical forays include filk, jazz, classical piano and composition for brass and wind instruments.


• Special Guest of Honor: Scott Sigler, Future Dark Overlord and ground-breaking podcaster whose novels Infected and Contagious have proven that one can make the leap from digital media to mainstream print media.


• Ghost of Honor: Edgar Allan Poe, American poet and writer of tales of mystery and the macabre, whose 100th birthday we honor at Balticon 43.


• 2008 Compton Crook Winner: Mark L. Van Name, author of One Jump Ahead, its sequel Slanted Jack, and the forthcoming Overthrowing Heaven.

Program Highlights

• Friday Face Time (Friday @ 9 PM): After the opening ceremonies meet and mingle with writers, artists, podcasters, scientists and more at receptions in the Con Suite, Art Show and Science Program room.


• Dancing in the Gears (Friday @ 10 PM): Attention all aeronauts, aethernauts, lady and gentleman adventurers, mad scientists, inventors, and other Steampunks and neo-Victorians! Join us Friday night at for a time-traveling formal evening at the Steampunk Ball! Become part of the living clockwork of Victorian and Victorian-inspired set dances and spin madly with your partner to romantic waltzes and lively polkas. No previous experience is needed; all dances will be taught by dance mistress Susan de Guardiola. Music will be an eclectic mix of modern and nineteenth century. Steampunk, neo-Victorian, or Victorian costume encouraged and admired but not required. Airships and time machines should be parked outside the ballroom. No sabers, ray guns, or clanks permitted on the dance floor.


• Medieval Dance (Saturday @ 4 PM): Steampunk not your style? Prefer the rythyms of a simpler time before the Age of Steam? Have no fear - Patches and her merry band of musicians and dancers return to Balticon 43 so that thou might get thy Medieval boogie on. Upwardly noble or pleasantly peasant, come comfortably dressed (as always, period dress encouraged, but not at all required) and get thee down in excellent company. Take a break from sitting in panels and surrender to two hours of music, dance and merriment!


• Book Launches (Schedule TBA): Every year more and more authors choose Balticon as the "launch pad" for their latest book releases, and Balticon 43 has even more book launch goodness than ever before! Book launches currently in the pipeline for Balticon 43 include (check website for the latest list and schedules):
  • Wicca Girl by R. Allen Leider
  • Buffalito Destiny by Lawrence Schoen
  • The Halflings Court: A Bad-Ass Faerie Tale by Danielle Ackley-McPhail
  • So It Begins, an anthology edited by Mike McPhail
  • Nina Kimberly the Merciless by Christiana Ellis

As always, program items and schedules are subject to change, so please check the Balticon 43 web site on a regular basis. We will try to update this journal more regularly as the date of the convention draws near.

Greetings citizen! This is a gentle [albeit a bit late] reminder that the Balticon 43 membership rate goes up to $53 for adults (from $48) and $26 for children (from $24) at 12:00 AM March 1, 2009. That would be midnight tonight!

Short, sweet and to the point: if you've been waiting for online registration for Balticon 43, your wait is over. You can browse over the the Balticon 43 web site, or you can click here to access the registration form directly.

So, Balticon 42 weekend has come and gone. Many hours from many dedicated people were consumed in preparing for the weekend, and then making the weekend a reality. I'm part of the machine that makes it all happen, so I don't have the same perspective as attendees and program participants, but I wanted to briefly share some observations prior to issuing a more formal convention report:

• The Guests of Honor have been effusive in their praise for Balticon 42, particularly in regards to the convention programming and the incredible friendliness of everyone that they met during the weekend - staff, participants and attendees alike.


• We (the ConCom) observed a phenomena that blew our minds: near the top of the hour, the halls would fill with people in motion, and shortly after the top of the hour the halls would be empty. Based on un-scientific observation, we've come to the conclusion that people were indeed attending programming - and for all tracks.


• Sunday evening at 10 PM we had four (4) major activities that were all very well attended: the Sunday Night Film Festival, a book launch party with a concert by a local band with music written for / inspired by the book, George Hrab in concert in the hotel lounge / lobby, and an open filk circle with close to 50 people. On a Sunday night we had four events that had significant attendance.


• Even though attendance was slightly down from last year, we had record participation / attendance in the Tabletop Gaming Room, LARP, and regency and medieval dances.

As Chair the only role I am going to claim in these successes is getting the right people into the right jobs. The actual heavy lifting with regards to the program, to the wrangling of the Guests of Honor, to the running of the many events during the weekend, came from those department heads and an excellent group of dedicated staffers and volunteers.

There will be more on Balticon 42, of course, but I wanted to get my first thoughts out before my brain ate them. In the meantime, if you have photos from Balticon 42 that you are willing to share, please post a comment with a link to your photos. It is always cool to see what attendees find interesting enough to take a picture of, and I'm sure all members of this community would be interested in what caught your eye during Balticon 42.

Cheers,
Greg Wright, Balticon 42 Chair

Are you attending Balticon 42 this Memorial Day weekend?

If you ARE attending, what factors influenced your decision? (Feel free to expand on your answer in the comments)

If you ARE NOT attending, what factors influenced your decision? (Feel free to expand on your answer in the comments)

How many times have you attended Balticon in the past?

When was the last time you attended Balticon?

If you ARE attending, are you staying at the hotel, commuting, what?

If you are not staying at the convention hotel (Marriott Hunt Valley), what influenced your decision?

What days will you be attending the convention?

If you purchased or will be purchasing a membership, did/are you:

What program tracks hold the most interest for you?

What kind of events / activities hold the most interest for you?

I started a post on the topic of video gaming and Balticon 42, and where things stand with the Baltimore Gamers Alliance, but my LJ client decided to exercise "editorial oversight" by tanking on me before I could post or save the draft. Therefore this post will be shorter by far than the original, but will cover the same ground in bullet form. To whit:

1. There will be no official video game room at Balticon 42.
2. The reasoning for this is as follows:
• With the departure of the BGA, there was no "heir apparent" to take over the video game room.
• Certain tracks within programming had gotten short shrift at Balticon 41, and therefore we wanted to ensure that adequate space and time were provided to those tracks for Balticon 42.
• Of all the activities supported by Balticon in the past, video gaming is the most tangentially related to the core focus of Balticon, which is the written expression of the genres of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.
• If we were going to experiment with not having video gaming at Balticon, this seemed like the best time to do so.
3. The decision was ultimately mine as Chair to not have a video game room at Balticon 42.
4. The departure of the BGA was largely driven by the BGA, for the following reasons:
• The BGA was getting burnt out by the demands of staffing the room, providing the equipment and dealing with situations such as parents using the video game room as a substitute for babysitting.
• In spite of this, the BGA had a desire to offer additional related program content outside of the video game room, in addition to the effort they were putting forth in the video game room.
• Although this desire had been communicated by the BGA, the program coordinator at the time (that would be yours truly) dropped the ball in terms of following up with the BGA.
• During the same time period we "split" what had been "General Programming" into Literary, Fannish and New Media tracks, which consumed most of the available time and space in the schedule.
• With the reality of the fact that the video game room would quite likely remain not much more than an "amenity" for Balticon, the BGA informed me during Balticon 41 that they would not be returning to run the video game room.
5. The BGA were not asked to "leave" Balticon - they decided that it was in the best interest of the member of BGA to not continue to staff the video game room.
6. I, for one, am extremely grateful to George and the crew from BGA for all of the work they put into the video game room in recent years. They introduced a number of new features, ran tournaments and made the best of the situation when the space for the video gaming room shrunk with the move to the Marriott Hunt Valley.
7. Contrary to some rumors, the door was not "slammed" on the relationship between Balticon and BGA - they did a heck of alot for Balticon, and we only wish the BGA the best with its future projects. If you see George or one of the other folks from BGA, and you've reaped the benefits of their efforts in the Balticon video game room, please be sure to thank them - they deserve that at the very least.

Best regards,
Greg Wright, Balticon 42 Chair

Many people have been asking that very same question, and now they can get an answer through the Balticon 42 web site! The all-powerful ninja coders of KCS (Kamikaze Computing Services) have provided an "Am I Registered?" feature for verifying both online and mail-in pre-registrations online.

Please keep in mind that pre-registration processing is done in "batches", so allow five (5) business days from the time you register online until you check your registration status online. Mail-in pre-registrations will also show up online, but will take at least ten (10) working days from the date of mailing, due to variances in postal delivery speeds.

The "Am I Registered" feature can be access by going to the Balticon 42 web site, and clicking on the "Am I Registered?" link under the Registration section. As always, thank you for your continued interest in and support for Balticon!

Greg Wright, Balticon 42 Chair

Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at Balticon? Have you ever wondered if there was some way to contribute to the success of Balticon? Have you ever wondered where people got those really cool Berserker / Berzerker t-shirts? Well wonder no more - sign up to work as a volunteer at Balticon 42 and join in the fun! There are many benefits of being a volunteer depending upon how many hours you work during the convention, including a t-shirt, priority seating at the Masquerade and or even a free membership to Balticon 43.

If you're interested in volunteering, or even just interested in more information before you make up your mind about volunteering, please contact our Volunteer Coordinator at volunteers@balticon.org. We can always use extra hands at all times during the convention, and volunteering is not only an excellent way to to find out more about how a convention is run, but it is also a great opportunity to meet other people who share your interest in Science Fiction and Fantasy. It's a great group of people, and we have numerous people who have returned to volunteer year after year. So send e-mail to volunteers@balticon.org today for more information or to sign up to volunteer at Balticon 42!

Thank you - Greg Wright, Balticon 42 Chair

The web site for Balticon 42 has been updated with a number of useful bits of information, including:

• Confirmed Literary and Fannish Program participants
• Confirmed Science Program participants
• Balticon 42 LARP description and registration instructions
• Balticon 42 Art Show rules and registration forms
• The Balticon 42 four-page mailer and the latest Balticon 42 one page flyer

If you have not made your reservations at the hotel, please make a point of doing so sooner rather than later, as the hotel will fill up fast. If you have not pre-registered for Balticon 42, online registration is open and will be $46 for the whole weekend through February 29, after which time the price will go up to $51. Full details on pre-registration are available on the web site.

Tee Morris, long time Balticon program participant, author, podcaster and man about town has graciously OK'ed the sharing of his photos from the podcasting panels at Balticon 41*. Lots of smiling faces, and lots of good times.

*NOTE: This is a link to a page that is not under the control of Balticon or the Baltimore Science Fiction Society, Inc., and therefore neither entity is responsible for the content of this page and other associated pages.

As of this evening, we have confirmed the Art Guest of Honor for Balticon 42, and therefore the Guest of Honor slate is complete:

• Guest of Honor:  Connie Willis (http://www.conniewillis.net), Hugo and Nebula Award winning author of novels including Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, as well as numerous short stories.


• Art Guest of Honor:  John Jude Palencar (http://www.johnjudepalencar.com), Chesley Award winning illustrator and painter of many fine works, including the cover to Connie Willis' latest short story collection The Winds of Marble Arch.


• Filk Guests of Honor:  Urban Tapestry (http://www.urbantapestry.org/), the Pegasus and Aurora Award winning trio of Allison Durno, Jodi Krangle and Debbi Ridpath Ohi from Toronto.