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More Summer Story Events

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2018 Gen Con, Indianapolis, IN. Between writing symposia, I played a game of Jonny Quest: Pirates of Mars, using the Ubiquity System. Morgan Hazel ran the session and provided these excellent figs. Photo credit: Kathy L. Brown

It’s the first day of spring according to the moon and modern calendars, anyway, and I’m looking over my summer schedule again.

St. Louis Pen Show, June 21-23, 2019, Westport Plaza, St. Louis, Missouri, USA. My latest nerdish passion is fountain pens, and the place to be is the Pen Show. Last year, I only chatted and shopped, but this year I hope to attend some classes. Maybe improve my vile handwriting. I understand there will be an auction. That might be dangerous.

Illinois Shakespeare Festival, June 27-August 10, 2019, Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, USA. I’m a creature of habit, I guess, and have attended at least one of the festival plays every summer for a long, long time. The plays this year are As You Like It, Julius Caesar, and Pride and Prejudice. Most performances are in a beautiful outdoor theater on the grounds of Ewing Manor in Bloomington. Indoor performances are in the theater on the campus of Illinois State University.

Gen Con, August 1-4, 2019, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. I don’t know—or care—if Gen Con is the mother of all gaming conventions, but it is huge (over 60,000 badges sold) and celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2017. It also hosts the Gen Con Writer’s Symposium, with 200 hours of planned programming and more than seventy author’s and experts scheduled to appear. http://genconwriters.com/news

Archon, October 4-6, 2019, Collinsville, Illinois, USA. Archon is my regional science fiction/fantasy convention (St. Louis Science Fiction and Fantasy Club), and I’ve attended every fall for at least twenty-five years. This year’s author guest of honor is James S. A. Corey (Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck), author of “The Expanse” book series, which is also a popular SciFi Network show. The artist guest of honor is Mitch Bentley of https://www.atomicflystudios.com Archon is a great general-interest, fan-run convention, with panels on everything from robotics to filking, writing and art craft talks, costuming demos, and all sorts of gaming. Not too big, not too small, it’s a great weekend, and the price is right.