And so my Bubonicon adventures come to an end. At least for this year.
I got to the hotel early because I wanted to check out the con suite, something I hadn’t done in my previous years’ attendance. I’m glad I did this because, thanks to sharing a lift back to the lobby, I ended up talking with Caroline Spector for the best part of a half hour. She was very gracious and didn’t mind that I wasn’t going to the panel she was about to be taking part in.
Instead, I went to a reading with David Lee Summers and Gene Mederos. The hour or so was split pretty much evenly between them; with Mr. Mederos reading from his story, Thirteens (appearing in Maximum Velocity) and Mr. Summer reading what seemed like his full story Calamari Rodeo from Kelper’s Cowboys.
After that, it was the guests of honour presentation with with toastmaster Ursula Vernon asking C.J. Cherryh & Sherwood Smith the questions. There were some amusing anecdotes and I got to ask a question, although that did bring up some past brushes with the law for some of them.
Next up was another reading. Victor Milan told us the first half of the short story Patrimony, which takes place in the world from his Dinosaur Lords novels. I certainly enjoyed the story and I enjoyed the Q&A afterwards which focused a bit more on the Wild Cards series.
After the reading was the first of three panels for the day. Ye Olde Want of Teknologie: Fantasy Defined, with S.M. Stirling, Yvonne Coats, Jeffe Kennedy, Diana Gabaldon & Brenda Drake, covered a range of idea, first and foremost being what actually counts as a fantasy novel. From there, it moved into why so many fantasy novels seem to have a medieval setting and why so many have either magic or technology but not both.
The second panel was Watch Out for that Butterfly: The Lure of Literary Time Travel with John Jos Miller, S.M. Stirling, John Maddox Roberts & Stephen R. Donaldson. As you might guess from the title, some time was spent on the stories where the past, or the present, or the future (time travel hurts your head) is changed by the smallest action. Then there were the various methods of time travel used, the history of time travel fiction and a few other topics that I can’t quite bring to mind at this time.
The final panel was When We Were Young: Early Faves, with Sherwood Smith, Elizabeth Leggett, C.J. Cherryh, Corie Weaver & Ursula Vernon. There was much discussion of which books were fondly remembered and which were remembered for other reasons. Plenty of laughs and a welcome way to finish up the day.
Well, not quite finish the day. Finally, there were the closing ceremonies, thanking the guests of honour and everyone involved and also give us the date and guest of honour for Bubonicon 50, coming in 2018.
I really enjoyed this year’s Bubonicon. True, there were some things I wish I hadn’t missed but I got something out of everything that I did go to. And frankly, the only way I could have done everything I wanted would either have involved cloning or time travel, which would have been appropriate considering this year’s theme. Now I just need to decide where to put those signed books…
My reports on days one and two can be found here: Day One, Day Two.
The Scribblings 