Gen Con never fails to deliver – and I did ultimately find the Stormtroopers (see previous post), though one was wearing a kilt.  I nice tartan if I do say so but a kilt on a Stormtrooper?  Indeed.  Scottish Stormtrooper or the kilts have become like bacon – they make everything better.

Another great trip to Gen Con this year.  I would have posted more but wifi continues to be a purchased commodity at the Indy convention center.  $14.99/day for internet access.  The opposite was true of the hotel.  Free, but connections maxed out.  I am betting the $14.99 pay internet was not maxed out.  So what is the right price for free internet?

So on to the highlights:

Elizabeth Vaughan was a treat.  She sat on a number of the panels I attended and though she writes a genre that I have never been interested in (romance) I found her engaging and interesting.  I met her afterward and thanked her for the enthusiasm and encouragement.  Just a real fun, nice, and energetic person.  The comment that she made that stuck with me (paraphrased): while writing you need to hear the things your pre-readers like as encouragement, when done with the draft, you need to hear all the things they don’t like.

I also enjoyed Maurice Broaddus.  He was on the Steampunk panel somewhat by accident from the sounds of it.  As it turned out, I think he had some of the most interesting commentary on the evolution of the Steampunk genre.  The overall opinion was that of an evolution of the genre to something of a Steampunk v2.0 that is more focused on the gadgets and less on the “punk” portion that emphasizes counter-cultural resistance and class warfare.  In that regard, I think my work on The West Wind holds more true to the original Steampunk genre definitions despite being a western mashup.  Overall, expansion of steampunk into other areas (aliens, magic, etc.) being the major trend.  His best story – an offhanded tweet on the needing to correct the racial bias of traditional steampunk by proposing to write “pimp my airship” followed by being forced to write it after hearing back from five editors that they wanted to buy it.

Rigormortis: A Zombie Love Story.  A romantic comedy musical about zombies.  It works and was a lot of fun.  Follow the link and watch for yourself.  I snuck in about half way through and found, after the movie, that I was sitting next to the director and his mom.  I love indie movie fests.

Unicorn City was the hit of the movies for me.  About a slacker gamer that organizes a LARP to prove he has leadership skills in order to get a management position at a game company.  It was superb.  Writing, acting, directing, camera and effects were all perfect for this level of a movie.  Hit al the right buttons for me with some extremely hilarious parts usually involving the centaur.  Check it out if you can at a local movie fest if you can while they are touring.  Their FB page is saying early 2012 for DVD/Blueray.  I’m in.

Aside from the traditional sleep deprivation, sore feet and legs, and too much junk food, it was a great trip as usual.