Tower of the Archmage: Balticon 51

Another Balticon has passed. As usual, it was great to see nearly everyone again. A special shout out to my friend and author J.L. Gribble who attended this year as a panelist! It’s always cool to see someone you know behind the table giving their expert opinions.

You should totally buy her books!

Several of my favorite authors weren’t on the program this year, including Myke Cole who was at Phoenix Comicon. With his books doing well, and his TV career developing, and a new game in the works, he’s outgrown Balticon as he’s outgrown his t-shirts. Maria V. Snyder had just returned from Africa, so wasn’t on the schedule, but she did stop by the registration desk to say hi.

Spent some time chatting with Keith DeCandido about books, Star Trek, Supernatural, and life in NYC. I was shocked and saddened to learn that his Star Trek novel Articles of Federation is apparently out of print. One of my top favorite Star Trek books out there. Well worth reading, and it’s available as an e-book. I snagged the first 2 Supernatural books he wrote (my only swag this year!) and am already about halfway through the first one.

As usual, I spent a lot of time at registration. Enough that I not only got the tshirt, but also a free pass for next year!

After going to Balticon for over a decade, some of the panels get repetitive, and the science track (my favorite) no longer has the appeal it once did. With everything available on the internet in terms of science news, there’s rarely anything discussed that I don’t already know about. I do intentionally avoid paleontology news specifically so that I can fully enjoy Dr. Holtz’s Dino Update.

Once change this year which I was thrilled to see was the inclusion of games, not just game related panels, on the program! In specific slots! When I first went to Balticon gaming was very much shuffled off into a back corner and mostly ignored. It’s nice to see it being more fully embraced.

The costumes/cosplay this year were, as usual, fantastic.