The body is weak, but the mind is chillin’. Back from Baltimore at last, I can barely move a muscle, I’m so tired. Some unforgettable moments and late nights of great conversations with brilliant people made this the best Balticon I’ve ever attended. Sharing it with my wife and son made it that much better.

I have only one complaint, and I’ll share it now to get it over with: <begin rant> PLEASE FIX THE DAMN A/C IN THE NEW MEDIA ROOM OR PLEASE GIVE US A BIGGER ROOM NEXT YEAR! SHEEEEESH! </end rant>

Seriously, I sweat buckets in the Chesapeake room this year. If it weren’t for some merciful souls handing out paper plates to fan our corner of the smoldering room during Tee Morris’ and Philippa Ballantine’s big announcement, I would have missed one of those great moments at Balticon! (And BTW, Tee and Pip were fantastic. I can’t say this enough: I love Pip’s voice.)

In all fairness to the designers of the A/C system, it was more an issue of sheer body heat. No A/C system could adequately accommodate the number of human beings that stuffed themselves willingly into that tiny, hot sanctuary of media madness. Solution: get a bigger room, please, I beg of the organizers!

Alright, I said I’d share my complaint and be done with it, so now I’ll get on to some of my other thoughts and impressions of a truly great Memorial Day weekend.

Where to begin? Well, what jumped out at me this year (surprise, surprise) were the cool people I got to spend time with, both in and out of the sessions. Old friendships reaffirmed and new friendships kindled, combined to enlighten and inspire me to create more and better work. More music, more stories. More, more, better, better, that’s what I wanted to do as I hauled out my gear to the car in the humid May afterglow of a truly memorable weekend.

Standout highlight of the convention for me this year? Well, besides participating in the program in some fun sessions (more on that later), it HAD to be the PG Holyfield, Nathan Lowell and Patrick McLean book launch on Saturday night. For me, that was a sublime moment of pure awesome.

Now, I don’t make it a secret that PG Holyfield has been a big influence on my podcasting, and anyone who knows him knows what a talented storyteller and great guy he is. As a fan, I hope for his success. As a friend, I hope for his happiness. It was particularly exciting to see him launch his book, something that has meant so much to him for so long, something that he spent years developing and pouring his heart and time into… all to have that distilled down into one soul-satisfying physical object in his hand. What a great moment by any standard.

Now, the event included two other ridiculously talented writers who also launched books that evening, and so it was a great moment in the New Media family, and we all felt the excitement and — to be blunt — joy, of the event. But then, it got really interesting…

They were each going to read excerpts from their own books, but someone — perhaps one of the authors or someone in the audience — suggested that they take turns reading from each other’s works… not their own. Whoever came up with this spontaneous flash of brilliance made the evening the stand-out session of Balticon for me. And what happened next was magic.

They agreed to take turns reading from one of the other authors’ books, and it was clear this was not planned in advance. These would be cold (as in, unprepared), honest, pure reads from esteemed colleagues, in an intimate audience of friends and fans. The magic started with Nathan Lowell reading a short story from Patrick McLean’s book, and that set the tone for the other readings.

Nathan’s reading was nothing short of brilliant, and Patrick’s story was so clever, pithy and perfectly written, I honestly felt like I was witnessing a live Sci-Fi/Fantasy version of a secret Dead Poets Society gathering. Only the writers weren’t dead. And they weren’t poets. (Although, Patrick’s work might qualify in terms of bang-for-the-buck per word.) But you get the basic idea.

And then a murmur of restrained awe seemed to spread through the room, when we realized no one was recording the event. And this, in the New Media room, where everything is recorded. The unspoken message was loud and clear: this would be a one-off moment in time. Something to etch in your memory. And we better pay attention, ’cause it was gonna be special.

PG, Patrick and Nathan each took turns reading, and the stories came alive in a way that reminded me of my childhood — in a golden-hued memory of a magical campfire evening with a master storyteller.

Damn, it was simply awesome. I love going to conventions in the hope of experiencing just one of those types of moments, and sure enough, it was Saturday night with PG, Patrick and Nathan for me.

Now, Balticon this year was filled with great moments in many different ways. I had the excitement of participating in the program with some panels and presentations. I did a session called “Podcast Production Gorefest” about audio production which I think turned out reasonably well. I also did a reading from another novel I’m working on (insert evil laugh here), which I was pretty damn nervous about, but I think it also went well. I participated on a lively panel with Guest of Honor Tanya Huff and Gary Ehrlich about music in science fiction stories, which is a topic I love.  And I was blown away by joining Mattie Brahen, Kim the Comic Book Goddess and Norm Sherman on an insanely fun songwriting panel.

When the excitement and fun of my own panels were over, I enjoyed other events at Balticon, from great New Media panels and presentations to the film fest, the masquerade, and so forth. That is, if I could make it to the sessions. What happened was that I kept on running into great people in the hallways and lobby and engaging in some great conversations, late into the night.

Highlights include many discussions and run-ins with some amazing writers, podcasters, musicians, costumers, social-media-acquaintances-turned-friends, and I could go on and on. That’s what makes Balticon special for me.

I want to list names, but I swear I’m going to pass out from lack of sleep at any moment, and chances are I’ll miss a couple of names of some wonderful people that I really enjoyed meeting, conversations that made Balticon so memorable this year. Some people I still only know from their social media handles! <sigh> What has become of old social norms? Are we all just physical avatars of our online personas?

The only thing I regret is my lack of stamina to talk with everyone for as long as I would have liked to. There are some loose threads of conversations I’d love to resume one day soon. Conversations about music, favorite writers, publishing ventures, crime scene investigation issues, film noir favorites, dreams/hopes/aspirations, love-hate relationships with movies and directors, life and family conversations, the supportive nature of the podcasting community, things like Second Life and the anthropological implications of the future of social media. Alright, I better stop there.

In the end, time passed too quickly. My wife and son were awesome and we all had a great time. It was filled with a quality of experience that, thanks to some old and new friends, made this year the best Balticon I’ve ever attended. It inspired me and fueled me for a huge upcoming summer of intense work and production as I wrap up all the remaining FETIDUS episodes (woo-hoo!) and a killer score for 95ers. Thank you so much!

And now, for some sleep.

Alright, I will admit, I’m slipping into heavy geek mode here with this post, but I just had to write something about my favorite science fiction and fantasy convention… <drum roll please>… Balticon! But why is that? Why do I love thee, Balticon?

Here’s why: The people.

That’s the most exciting thing about Balticon, “The Maryland Regional Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention” held every Memorial Day weekend in the Baltimore area (www.balticon.org).

Yes, it’s because of the people that I enjoy it so much.

Unique, stimulating, intelligent, opinionated, educated, strange in good ways, creative, and unashamed of their areas of interest, the Balticon attendees seem to come from every walk of life and a vast array of personal and professional backgrounds. To be honest, I think it would be a great seed group of humans if some alien civilization wanted to abduct one hotel in its entirety and start a new human experimental colony. Okay, that might be disgusting… back to my point.

The people I have met there are creators, artists, fans, writers, gamers, scientists, journalists, musicians, avid readers, teachers, professors, techno geeks, programmers, publishers, artisans, dreamers, thinkers, social bunnies, anti-social hermits, entrepreneurs, IT experts, engineers, anime experts, social media gurus, obscure dance technique evangelists, fantasy nuts, hard SF veterans, Browncoats, trans-humanists, uber-bright kids, movie fanatics, indie filmmakers, podcasters, critics, history authorities, linguists, researchers, whole con families, people with wildly different concepts of personal hygiene, experts in arcana, open lovers of the bizarre and fascinating and more, more, more!

But that’s not all. What makes Balticon especially good for me is the unique mix of people — the size and ratio of attendees and “official guests” of different backgrounds and expertise. Goldilocks would say, “This con is just right!”

That’s the best part of Balticon for me now… meeting amazing people. And at Balticon, all the best features of large cons and small cons seem to co-exist in a unique, almost paradoxical combination.

From long conversations with admired (or even not-so-admired) writers on a lunch break, to running into favorite gurus in the hallway, to meeting a like-minded fan who you just know could one day be a life-long friend, to putting a face to someone you’ve always wondered about, to meeting a scientist with fascinating theories you never considered, to meeting a genius kid that knows more about gaming than you thought possible, to sitting next to a world-class author by accident at a local restaurant, to discovering new and unusual things to explore, Balticon is my favorite convention!

Let me put it this way. I believe Balticon has reached a magical critical mass of size and quality. Just so, that you can maintain anonymity and just “browse” if you want to, but also intimate and personal enough so that you can dive in and get to know a lot of people who really know what they are talking about. Also, any personality type is welcome, and you are not forced into one con social behavior pattern over another. There is enough diversity there to support several “sub-clans,” so to speak, with their own unique pools of people and activities, and yet they seem to be open enough to anyone new. And because of all that, they have reached a very well balanced program that covers a wide range of topics from some seriously top-flight presenters and a great group of fans and peers to interact with, should you choose to do so.

One specific example is how I had the great opportunity to meet Matthew Wayne Selznick (www.mattselznick.com) a couple of years ago. Matt is a pioneer in the podcasting community, and he was incredibly gracious to spend quite a bit of time discussing his perspective of new media with me. It was partly because of him that I was inspired to start my own podcast, and I’m very grateful for his willingness to connect with me that fateful day a couple of years ago. I believe that Balticon helped facilitate our meeting with just the right combination of factors that made it possible for us to talk in such detail. Had Balticon been any smaller, or had a lesser podcasting track, for example, Matt might not have come. Had Balticon been any larger, neither Matt nor I might have found the time or circumstance to cross paths and interact. Thank you, Matt, and thank you, Balticon!

And Matt is just one of many examples of fantastic people I’ve met because of the unique properties of Balticon. I’ve started new friendships and expanded my creative horizon, in part because of what Balticon offers.

And thus, In my years of convention attendance I’ve seen enough now to know that not all cons are created equally. Balticon has its own unique signature and for me, I look forward to it more and more each time. I hope to see some of you there this year, and get to know a few more amazing human (and not-so-human) beings!

Sincerely a Balticon fan,
James Durham