WorldCon

MAC2_Logo_061314_LightBG_jpg_360x540_autocrop-True_q85Kansas City will be hosting the 74th Annual World Science Fiction Convention from August 17-21th.

I am extremely humbled to have been asked to participate as a panelist.

For those of you who will be attending, my panel schedule is as follows:

• The Imaginary Book Club

Thursday 11:00 – 12:00, 2502A (Kansas City Convention Center)

Let’s think beyond today as our panelists review movies and books that have not yet been written or filmed. Come and hear about wonderful entertainment possibilities that you’ll never have the option of actually enjoying…because they don’t (yet) exist! Our panelists longingly discuss their favorite (but, alas, non-existent) SF and fantasy books and movies that have never been written.

• Authors Before, During and After the Adaptation Process

Thursday 14:00 – 15:00, 2208 (Kansas City Convention Center)

I’m moderating this panel, which will feature Charlaine Harris (TRUE BLOOD), Melinda Snodgrass (WILD CARDS, STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION) and Steven Gould (JUMPER).

Books are getting turned into films and television shows at a staggering rate. Our panelists include authors and screenwriters who share their experiences from different sides of the process as they discuss what it is like to see their creations reimagined before their eyes. From TV shows like True Blood to action films like Jumper, how does the adaptation process work? How much input does the original creator have in the final product? How does this experience translate to other mediums, and what happens when it deviates from the original to take on its own life within a shared world like Star Trek or Wild Cards?

• Attack the Gazebo! Running a Great RPG Session

Thursday 19:00 – 20:00, 2209 (Kansas City Convention Center)

We’ve all played bad or boring games, but how do we make a really good one? Our panel think of exciting ways to make your game really work, and also consider some ‘do-nots’ when planning a tabletop game.

• Game World, Fictional World: RPGs and Authorship

Saturday 14:00 – 15:00, 2504B (Kansas City Convention Center)

In Roleplaying Games, things don’t always go to plan. What happens when our games become fiction? Authors who love RPGs, have used them as a basis for their work, or have had their work made into RPGs discuss how roleplaying can help the creative process…or make it go horribly, horribly wrong.

The rest of the show, I’ll be attending other folks’ panels, and floating around the bar area.  If you’re going to be in KC for the show, drop me an email and give me a way to get in touch with you and we’ll meet up!

Trek Stuff

07df3N8mA bunch of Star Trek related news hit this week, as you might expect from the 50th anniversary year.

And on a related note: Wow, Paramount is blowing this anniversary, aren’t they? Compare what they’re doing with how the BBC handled the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. Paramount is doing (as far as I can tell) a single retrospective TV special later this Fall, a new installment in the JJ-Abrams-Reboot film series (with no ‘anniversary’ implications) and they’re not even launching the new series until NEXT YEAR. What the fuck, Paramount? Did the calendar sneak up on you?

Speaking of the new series, CBS showed a teaser during their Upfront presentation to advertisers this week:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXpPweAooeE

Not much there, but what is there is interesting — especially “New Crews.” Plural. That lends some credence to the rumor that this show is going to be an “American Horror Story”/”True Detective”/”Fargo”-esque anthology series, where each season is a different story with a different set of characters. I’m looking forward to finding out more about it as 2017 approaches.

It appears that CBS/Paramount wants to pivot into creating stuff for fans to be excited about, rather than suing them in court — at a Trek fan event held last night, JJ Abrams told the assembled crowd that Paramount would be dropping their lawsuit against the fan film “Axanar.”

axanarAxanar Productions definitely crossed the line. Not in their acquisition of a studio space, which they admit will be used for for-profit ventures outside of their film (shady, but not line-crossing, IMO), but in paying themselves 5-figure salaries. Plus, the producers are, bluntly, jerks, who have basically been swaggering around clothing themselves in borrowed glory — practically daring Paramount to sue.

I’m glad to see the lawsuit dropped (although I’ll wait until an official announcement from Paramount — how wild would it be if JJ Abrams said this in order to force their hands, because he saw the PR hurting the forthcoming Abrams-produced film?) — because of the chilling effect this was having on other fan films.

Star Trek Continues (my favorite), does it right: Registered as a non-profit, books available for audit on-demand, volunteer labor, and not trying to present themselves as a source of new, modern-day Trek, but specifically emulating the look, feel, and sound of the 1966 original. Their 6th episode, “Come Not Between Dragons” debuts later this month.

UPDATE: A Buzzfeed reporter tweeted an official response from CBS/Paramount, confirming the dropping of the case, and the additional news that they’re working on a set of fan film guidelines:

13244686_10209530890093293_1470372696386249470_n-480x295

And, lastly: This morning the second trailer for the new J.J. Abrams-reboot Trek film, Star Trek Beyond, was released:



I think I’m going to have to view the reboot films the way that I view pizza outside of the Northeast. The stuff you get may be perfectly tasty for what it is, but it’s not actually pizza.

I actually was excited by the potential unlocked by the first film, but then they blew it with “Star Trek Into Darkness.” I don’t have high hopes for this one. Looks like a generally acceptable blow-em-up-real-good space opera spectacle, though.

Throughout my life, I’ve been a fan of both Star Wars and Star Trek — but I have to admit, that right now, I am far more excited about what’s coming for Star Wars than I am for anything Trek-related. I’d love it if CBS/Paramount would take a page from Lucasfilm’s post-Disney-acquisition playbook, at least as far as transmedia brand management goes, but I’m not holding my breath.

How great would that be, though?

 
 

ChupacabraCon

12643014_10209103011479458_3990374962151699209_nGot back home yesterday from a trip to the Austin area — Round Rock, Texas, specifically, where I was a guest at ChupacabraCon.

I’ll cut right to the chase: This is, hands-down, the best local games convention I’ve ever attended.

A staff who is on top of every detail, a schedule full of interesting panels and entertaining games, and, unusual for a convention of this size, a guest list featuring three dozen game industry pros from all over the country. That’s a bigger featured speaker list than some of the largest shows I’ve attended. The result is a convivial atmosphere where attendees and guests mingle and hang out together, with the guests not feeling run ragged by the busier schedules and packed crowds of the larger shows.

Plus, the added bonus of not being able to swing a dead armadillo without hitting a source of Texas barbecue and Tex-Mex nearby. So, a win-win, really.

In short: It’s fucking AWESOME. (Feel free to use that as your pull-quote for next year, Chupa-folks.)

Now, after a couple of days on I-35, I’m back home, and back to work — and I have ChupacabraCon, the attendees, the staff, and my fellow guests to thank for my freshly re-charged batteries, which are affording me the newfound energy to dive into the work ahead.

I hope to make this a regular stop on my yearly schedule, and, if you’re reading this, I hope to see you there as well — I cannot recommend the convention strongly enough.