2024 has been one heck of a year. It’s gone by blazingly fast, because I’ve been busier than I could imagine. Major things happened, new avenues opened while others permanently closed. Seems like a good time to stop and take stock. It has been my intention to check back in here every month or so to keep a running tab of updates. But as I moved into the summer months all my best-laid plans got scrambled. For the first eight…
By Jan S. Gephardt Last week I wrote about the artists. Now it’s time to write about the authors of Archon 44. Followers of this blog know that I recently attended Archon 44. As the “44” at the end indicates, this is a science fiction convention with a long history in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Their most recent venue is the Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville, IL. My focus at conventions is mostly split between artists and authors. I…
Authors, Reading–Part Three In the last two weeks I’ve published photos and information about readings I attended at SoonerCon 28. Part One profiled science fiction, alternate history, and fantasy readings. Part Two spotlighted two fantasy and two alternate history writers. Today’s authors include one each who write fantasy, science fiction, and middle-grade whimsical “creepy stories.” Since each brought a physical copy of their book and was kind enough to hold it up for me, I did composites of each person….
Authors, Reading–Part Two Last week I posted about several authors whose readings I attended and enjoyed at SoonerCon 28. But wait! There are more! I hope you enjoy this series of posts. Wherever I could, I’ve linked the authors’ names to their websites and/or books, so you can learn more about any who interest you. I have one more “Authors, Reading” collection to share next week. I hope you’re enjoying this series. IMAGE CREDITS Many thanks to SoonerCon 28, and artist Matt Frank, for…
Authors, Reading–Part One I’m apparently weird, but I enjoy going to readings. I attended a lot of them at SoonerCon 28, and thought you might enjoy seeing the photos I took of the authors. You may have heard of some or all of them. SoonerCon 28tried to group their readings thematically–but sometimes the authors didn’t get the memo, so we had kind of a nice smorgasbord. I hope you enjoy this series of posts. Wherever I could, I’ve linked the authors’ names to their websites and/or books,…
The Artdog Image(s) of Interest I hope you can endure one more post about SoonerCon 27, held June 22-24, 2018 in Midwest City, OK. This one’s about Kansas City artists at SoonerCon 27. At left is my SoonerCon 27 Art Show display; at right is my friend Rachael Mayo, another Kansas City-based artist who specializes in dragons. One of hers, titled Shadowgorge 4, very deservedly won a Peer Choice Nucleon Award in the Professional Artist category. She came in second to John Picacio, which is not doing badly at all. Rachael and I…
I’m freshly back from SoonerCon 27, and what an excellent convention it was! They had some great guests, excellent programming and fun special events. One blog post (or even several) couldn’t do justice to it, but here’s a small taste of what I enjoyed most. SoonerCon 27’s lineup of featured guests included: L-R: Lloyd Lee Barnett, Glenn Garland, Jerry Bennett, Carrie Vaughn, John Picacio, Stan Love, Larry Nemecek, and Selina Rosen. Here they are at Opening Ceremonies on Friday, June 22, 2018. One last time at the Reed Center in Midwest City As ever,…
The Artdog Image of Interest Surprise Encounter (2015-2018), a one-of-a-kind original mixed media paper sculpture by Jan S. Gephardt. This is my newest fantasy paper sculpture, titled Surprise Encounter (2015-2018). I’ll be showing it in public for the first time at the SoonerCon 27 Art Show, June 22-24, 2018. It features two of my favorite fantasy creatures, dragons. As in all of the Gemflower Series, they are tiny dragons, but still quite fierce! Their iridescent wings and bodies consist of several layers, including touches of interference metallic acrylic paint on the scales and feathers of the uppermost layer….
I’m on the road again this week. This time I’ll travel with my fantasy paper sculpture artwork (including a new piece! Stay tuned for this week’s Image of Interest!), an excerpt to read, from my soon-to-be published sf novel What’s Bred in the Bone, and a whole sheaf of program notes to SoonerCon 27 (I’m moderating five panels this weekend). I hope to see you there! SoonerCon 27 is this year’s edition of what has become one of my favorite science fiction conventions in recent years. Held at the Reed Center…
I always plan to do better with my social media at sf conventions than I do. I get involved, and forget to tweet or upload Facebook photo albums. So I thought, “Why not make a blog post from a collection of things I should have posted from SoonerCon 26?” Wait. What’s SoonerCon 26, you ask? It’s a science fiction convention held in Midwest City, Oklahoma (metro Oklahoma City), that brings together some of the best aspects of literary, media, gaming, comic, and costuming conventions. This year’s edition began Thursday, June 22 with…