Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 3, 1995 TAG: 9510030053
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"What kind of a convention did you say this is?" an astounded cab driver once asked upon picking up some passengers at such a gathering.
Serious costumers have been known to spend up to a year readying fantastic outfits for their few minutes on a masquerade contest stage at conventions like last weekend's Rising Star in Roanoke, last month's Kaleidoscope in Lynchburg or the annual Technicon at Virginia Tech. But, to me, some of the most memorable costumes were also the most simple: dark-haired Jody McGhee in glasses and an old-fashioned blue suit, his white shirt and tie pulled open to reveal a colorful letter "S" underneath ("Clark Kent changing into Superman") or two people acting as poles with a rope between them holding such items as a six-fingered glove and three-cupped bra ("The Extraterrestrial Clothesline").
As a long-time science fiction reader, I usually go to one or two of these gatherings a year (as myself). Such conventions began in the 1930s with a handful of fans meeting once a year. Now, if you didn't mind traveling, you could attend more than one every week. Non-SF-oriented folks who might like to know what one is like could read Sharyn McCrumb's Edgar Award-winning mystery, "Bimbos of the Death Sun," or its sequel, "Zombies of the Gene Pool." But the short answer is: They're fun.
Different cons emphasize different things besides costumes, such as media or writer or artist guests (and sometimes all three), panels, workshops, role-playing games, filk-singing (the same thing as folk-singing, except with sci-fi lyrics, supposedly so named because of a typo on some long-ago con program), movies and TV shows from the new to the obscure. There are programs on producing and creating special effects for your own movies, film animation, editing and publishing fanzines (nonprofessional magazines circulated among fans just for the fun of it), vampires (it's Anne Rice's fault), collectibles and sci-fi trivia. Usually, there's a dealers' room featuring an amazing variety of merchandise: T-shirts inscribed "Damn it, Janeway, I'm a hologram, not a doctor"; comic books you remember owning as a kid now going for as much as a hundred bucks, or framed pictures showing absolutely nothing titled "Romulan Warbird - Cloaked".
The panel topics usually have something for everyone. As a newspaper reporter, I attended one at Kaleidoscope titled "Is Print Dead?" and was happy to hear that it's not.
"How to Get Published" drew established and aspiring writers in fields from sci-fi to fantasy to horror and back. A North Carolina writer on a panel about "The Influence of Star Trek on SF" stalked out when his fellow panelists, Trekkers all, wouldn't hear his arguments on Trek books crowding out "good" stuff. People get passionate about their pastimes, but, heck, everybody should have one.
Cons are also good places to meet not only established writers but rising ones, including Virginians. John Maddox Roberts of Wise County has a bunch of novels out, and Steve White of Charlottesville has published some in recent years. Professional credits are growing for people like Charles Saplak of Christiansburg, Mike Allen and Vickie Murphy of Roanoke. A comic short story titled "Bubba Pritchert and the Space Aliens" by Richmond's Bud Webster recently won the Analog magazine readers' poll as most popular of the year.
Anyway, it's all a neat way for some of us to spend a weekend.
by CNB