Monday, the third day of the con, involved an 11 hour ride home (starting at noon in Baltimore) and I was unable to post anything. Sunday’s news will appear this coming Sunday, owing to the (unfortunately usual) convention software glitches. (Bookmarks were unobtainable for some reason.)
Regardless, we soldier on.
Sunday saw us hosting two panels, a short story pitch session (have you ever heard of such a thing? No? Neither had anyone else!). I ended up with 7 erstwhile and eager writers, including Bud Sparhawk, gave them some idea of what we were doing and what we were looking for, listened to several interesting ideas and was told that the panel was interesting and enjoyable.
Later on that evening, Kermit and I did the Intro to Amazing Stories Q+A panel. We had good attendance, a lively audience and received a lot of compliments and good wishes. (Would that every day of my life had a roomful of people offering encouragement).
The last panel started at 8 in the evening and there was a panel scheduled after us (my apologies for running over but our audience WAS enthusiastic); my former experience with late scheduled panels says “we do not do this thing as the evening panels are called ‘parties””. On the other hand, my experience with the parties at Balticon (I’ve gotten old and cranky and can’t stay up late to party anymore, so experience IS limited) was that they were sparsely attended/there were fewer than usual. (Was there a restriction on parties of some kind? Hotel imposed? Culturally imposed? 40 years ago, Balticon was all about the parties! Boy that Murphy’s Irish Whiskey is SMOOOOOOOOOOOOTH! Pass that bottle!) I’ve not had a chance to research.
We had a good time. We also had a successful promotion (any promotion that pays for itself is a good one!) and, if this convention is any indication, word is definitately spreading; we’e gone from “Amazing Stories…isn’t that a tv show?” or “I had no idea it was back” to “I’ve heard it was back.” Which, marketing-wise, means that we’ve established some brand awareness.
There are two subjects that just about everyone seems to find fascinating; the intellectual property issues surrounding the name – both trademark issues and legacy rights issues – and dealing with Hollywood. Maybe I’ll devote a post or two to those subjects.
All in all and despite the long travel times, it was great to be back at Balticon!
