RadCon Road Trip Report Part One

by Lillian Csernica on February 18, 2015

I’ve been away on a week-long mini-vacation to the Wonderful World of RadCon.  I’m sorry I couldn’t blog each day from the con the way I did when I was at Clockwork Alchemy last year.  The hotel’s wifi and my laptop never did settle their differences.

 

http://www.davidicke.com

Two lenticular clouds over Shastina

 

Our fabulous hotel room.  It didn’t have the fireplace, but it did have two big plasma TVs and a kitchenette.

 

 

 

My school visit went really well.  I spoke to three middle school classes with the invaluable support of my longtime collaborator, best friend and wheelwoman, Patricia H. MacEwen.  The kids were great.  Smart, eager, and full of really good ideas.  Much to my joy, among them was a young lady also named Lillian.  One young man asked me if I would read the first two chapters of his novel.  I did, and sent him feedback.  One of the younger boys asked for one of my business cards.  His sister writes stories, so he wanted the card to give to her.  He’d met a “real writer,” and couldn’t wait to tell her.

 

At the last minute I was added to the NaNoWriMo panel, where I met Jason Andrew Bond.  Read his Hammerhead series!  I’m looking forward to doing so.  His main character Jeffrey Holt sounds fascinating.  Beyond that, Jason has donated 25% of the money he has made to the Disabled Veterans.  This is a man I can respect.

Best Western serves an astonishing breakfast buffet.  Custom-made omelets, plenty of pineapple, and excellent cinnamon rolls.  There was more bacon than I’ve ever seen in one place at one time.

 

 

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I got a reading slot on Saturday afternoon, which was pretty spiffy given that this was my first year at RadCon.  Four people were there, which is fine with me because it means I was outnumbered and that’s all I ask.  See that drawing?  That’s Amatsu Mikaboshi, August Star of Heaven, the Japanese god of chaos.  He’s the bad guy in my story “A Demon in the Noonday Sun.”  After my reading, a very tall gentleman named Big Dan introduced himself.  Turns out he’s into Japanese history too, so he was pleasantly surprised to discover the story I read was steampunk set in the Kyoto of 1880.  We got to talking, and it turns out he’s also a fan of “When the Last Sword is Drawn,” one of the best movies about the Shinsengumi.  It won all the Japanese Oscars.  I LOVE that movie.  The conversation led us to a place where Pat gave Dan her card so he could contact her about some research for his novel, which sounds quite original.  Lovely man.  I hope to hear from him soon.

 

The hallways of the hotel were packed with lots of wonderful people in great costumes.  I brought a bag of Mardi Gras coins with me just so I could give out my own version of Hall Costume Awards.  I went through a good two dozen of the coins.  My favorites were the Black Butler, the demon version of InuYasha, and the five different Deadpools who wandered around together in a group.  One of them was female, and she looked fantastic!

In the main lobby of the hotel, three women sat using spinning wheels.  This was fascinating in and of itself, but my attention was focused on the beautiful Samoyed stretched out on his side at the feet of one spinner.  Believe me when I tell you this was the biggest dog I have ever seen.  Fortunately he was also one of the sweetest.  When his owner gave me permission to pet him, I knelt down by his side and petted his thick, fluffy white fur.  I’m well known as a cat person, but if I ever get a dog, it will be a Samoyed.

 

Ignition!  This amazing, vastly talented fire troupe put on a display out in the hotel courtyard.  Pat and I had been invited to a room party by Esther Jones, who was on the Handicapped Heroes panel with me.  She had a second floor room, so we got to watch the fire display from her balcony!  Entirely by accident, I activated the video function on my phone, so I brought home some footage to show John.  To me the best part of the show happened when six of the performers lined up in a curve.  The first got the fireball started by spitting out what Pat thought was probably vodka.  The second performer “caught” the fireball and kept it moving until all six had sent the fireball around the curve.  That was just way too cool!

 

 

 

 

 

I had the pleasure of meeting Maggie Bonham from Sky Warrior Books. This is the publishing house that made available to the world Pat’s excellent novels Rough Magic and Dragon’s Kiss.

 

 

In my next post, I will continue with the highlights of RadCon and the further adventures we encountered on our 957 mile drive home!