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Barry Hunter of Baryon Online does every convention he can.
And in most cases he takes his laptop and camera and signs on during the convention from a party or convention hall to report on the goings on.
Here are pictures and logs of his latest.
When I picked up my packet with the program book and the schedule, I noticed a sticker proclaiming the 15th anniversary of DragonCon. That’s a pretty big accomplishment in a world full of fickle fans and other things being taken into account. After I realized that the first one I attended was in 1989, this made my thirteenth trip to join the folks at what may be the largest science fiction/media convention in the world. There were around 20,000 in attendance again this year and the only major difference was in the usage of the Marriott for the Art Show and Dealers Room with the major programming being held in the Regency Hyatt.
Although the guest list contained 339 guests, a lot of the regular science fiction writers were absent due to the WorldCon being held the same weekend. We did have our share of notable guests. Robert Aspirin made one of his rare appearances. I managed to catch him on a panel with Jan Siegel and Tim Powers about Mythology and how it is used today. Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta also managed to join us for a lot of conversation and camaraderie.
Harlan Ellison was the Featured Guest and he was and always will be Harlan. There were more people in his autograph lines than you would think and he did signings until his hand was numb. It was amazing how many people still get nervous around him when seeking autographs. I can’t say how nice and gracious he was because he told me I couldn’t and it might ruin his image.
My panels were entitled “I-Pub, E-Pub, We-Pub: Where do you fit into Internet publishing?” “E-Zines and I-Pubs: Where is the Internet taking fantastic fiction?”; and, “The Future of Fantastic Fiction: Where is the marketplace - the reader - the editor - taking us?” The final panel of the con was the one on Fantastic Fiction and Paula Guran, Frank Fradella and I managed to keep the panel going overtime and with a packed house as well. It is unusual for a panel to go over and to a packed house as well.
I also managed to see Frank Kelly Freas, dgk goldberg, James A. Moore, John Shirley, Garrett Peck, and Laurell Hamilton. The dealer’s room was filled with everything from comics to swords to rogue films and plenty of actors and other folks hawking their wares. I did enjoy seeing Brinke Stevens again and meeting Erin Gray for the first time. Baryon cover artists Lawrence A. Williams (www.lawilliams.com), Nene Thomas (www.nenethomas.com) and Ruth Thompson (www.tarnishedimages.com) were in attendance with a lot of new art. They all seemed to do well and I came home with four new prints from Ruth and a marvelous tee shirt based on her HOWL painting. Check out their websites to see an example or three of their tremendous works.
For the next three or four years DragonCon will be held over the Labor Day weekend and will cause folks to have to choose between it and the WorldCon so the guest lists are going to be interesting to see who decides to go where.
Tenacity 1, DeepSouthCon 39
Tenacity 1, DeepSouthCon 39, was held in Birmingham,Alabama the first weekend in May.
Catherine Asaro, Sharon Green, Jana Oliver and I were the writer guests with Catherine being the featured guest of honor and
Sharon Green was the Toastmistress. 
Cary Guffey
of Close Encounters of the Third Kind was a surprise guest and freaked out some folks when he started talking about being an
alien abductee until people realized who he was. I was on several panels with all the other guests discussing epublishing, ebooks,
self publishing and other related topics.
Laurence J. DeLucas, one of the current NASA shuttle pilots was there to fill us in on the current status of the space station and Mars missions. The guests were readily available for the fans and a good time was had by all. This was the first con for Birmingham and hopefully it will not be the last. Arthur and Paulette Baker did a wonderful job and even though it was their first time running a convention, they did a very commendable job. Kudos for an all around good time.
LibertyCon 15 was held in Chattanooga, Tennessee over the Memorial Day weekend. Guests included David Drake-Guest of Honor, Gary Rudell-Artist Guest, Eric Flint-Toastmaster, and a contingent of other guests from the sf field. Sharon Green had a panel on SF stereotypes, I was on a panel with Jimmy Grimsley about internet piracy and Baen's policy on free books on the net. Most of the writer guests were in the audience and we had a lively discussion before coming to the conclusion that it is not a problem as long as someone is reading and then possibly buying other books they can't find on the internet. I had an afternoon Patio Panel about the changing of Fanzines into Ezines and the ways fans communicate now versus the older conventional ways. It was a good relaxacon only saddened with the moment of silence for Rick Shelly who died after having a heart attack at ChattaCon in January. Rick was almost a permanent fixture at LibertyCon and was a teddy bear of a man and will be missed.
Next up is DragonCon over Labor Day, details coming then.
This year's convention is the 2nd Barry has attended, and the third in it's run. The first Fantasm was held in Spartanburg, but apparently the attendees "scared the horses," and it's been moved to a hotel outside Atlanta since then.
Read Barry's log below for more...
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