Thoughts from Balticon 50!

Balticon 50 was the largest gathering of nerds I have ever been a part of. I saw people dressed up as Boba Fett, Daenerys Targaryen, Dr. Strange, Hodor, a Jedi Knight, Dr. Who, Arya, Princess Leia, and someone dressed up as a demon, with face and arms painted red, horns out of the forehead, and carrying a huge club that had fake metal spikes and a ridiculous tongue coming out the middle of it, like it was smiling (not sure if the demon was from a computer game or anime series or anything at all), and lots of other cool costumes. They were all awesome. Some dude was walking around as the Winter Soldier and if the guy had admitted he was really Sebastian Stan in real life I wouldn't have been surprised. Here's the one picture (below) I snapped of some cosplayers. They were really nice, from Washington state, and I later saw a picture of the same guy at the convention photo booth. He was wearing a different costume. I think he brought one for every day of the event. Again, I shamefully admit I am not sure what they are referencing:

The photo was snapped during the only major hiccup I experienced at the convention. On Friday evening the fog machine for one of the presentations sounded the fire alarm and the entire hotel had to evacuate:

This photo doesn't do the crowd justice. It was packed outside with people. Thankfully, there was no fire and we proceeded back in.

Balticon is the Baltimore Science Fiction Society's annual science fiction and fantasy convention. It was the 50th anniversary of the event and they landed the big guy, George R.R. Martin, as their guest of honor. (I saw at least three people dress up like him too, with costumes so good I had to stop and look them over for a second or two to confirm they weren't him.) There were also loads of other people there too. On Saturday morning my friend and I got into an elevator and Connie Willis walked in to ride up with us. She's the award-winning author of the novels Blackout and All Clear and is the most decorated science fiction author ever. Her books are awesome and I was just about to tell her I thought so when the bell dinged and we were getting off and going our separate ways. We were in that little box for about twenty seconds but I never said anything. I'll get a word in next time, but it exemplified to me that this would be a random and fun event.

GRRM spoke for an hour on Saturday. He was interviewed by some guy I had never heard of (he's the one on the left of the picture for those who have no idea what George looks like). Julia and I caught most of it, which didn't concern itself much with A Song of Fire and Ice. He did explain his thought process as his novel A Game of Thrones ballooned into the epic fantasy series that it has become today. He also talked about the Vietnam War, New Jersey, and comics books. He is very well spoken and entertaining. Sadly he didn't comment on the current state of The Winds of Winter. I did hear that on Sunday he read a new chapter from the Greyjoy POV.

I apologize for the terrible quality of this photograph. Clearly, I am not good at taking pictures.

The rest of the time I was sitting in seminars, watching panels, and meeting really nice people. I learned a lot about writing science fiction and fantasy. Sarah Pinkser, in particular, was phenomenal. She's a local Baltimore resident (like myself) and winner of this year's Nebula for Best Novelette, called Our Lady of the Open Road. She gave a wonderful workshop on prepping stories for publication and she gave great input and advice about the craft. Congratulations Sarah!

All in all it was a successful Balticon, in addition to my sister visiting for the weekend, which was a blast!