Caped CONduit round up with video

Well, I tried to upload the videos from my Streak, but it's not working at the moment. I'll try a different method, and spread out my report over the week instead. So today, let me just give you a little about Caped CONduit.

This is the longest running SFF convention in Salt Lake, and apparently there are a LOT of genre fiction conventions and writers who live in the area. Who'd have thought Utah would be a breeding ground for sci-fi, fantasy and horror? Yet another reason to wish to retire here.

I signed up and on a whim, decided to get a dealer's booth. My daughter, Amber, wants to be an artist (right now, she's leaning toward animation/character development, but she's also thought manga and anime), so she wanted to join us. The dealer's room came with 2 tickets to the con.

I also signed up to be on some panels, although none of my ideas were chosen and I have to maneuver a bit to get on some. I ended up on the Doctor Who panel (as a last-minute add-in when two folks dropped out), Humor in Horror, Mystery in Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Building Your Audience. I was tempted to drop out of that one, incidentally, since I'm feeling a little down on marketing, but I'm glad I didn't as there were only three of us (one person had a severe allergic reaction to something in the hotel and had to go home.)

We bought tickets for all the kids, but in the end, only Alex went more than the mandatory first day. Fortunately, they had a D&D game going the first day, so Steven and Liam weren't too terribly disappointed. They just weren't into the stuff that the con offered.

If I can get the video and photos up, I'll spend the rest of the week telling you the things about the con, but here's a sneak peek:

* Good things come to those who wait
* How to get interviews at a con
* See my brain get splattered on the ceiling, scraped, poked and otherwise abused
* Anime eyes and funny faces

Sadly, all my interviews did not turn out well. My Dell Streak's mike is not good. Wah. Tech fail. Next time, I bring my video camera or actual computer. Was hoping the pad would do the job. Figures.

Five Random Memories of My Dad and Me

In honor of the Why God Matters: How to Recognize Him in Daily Life book tour, I thought I'd share five memories I have of my dad and me. These are totally off the top of my head.

1. Dad saved me. I was about 11, I think. We were always building something at my house and that year, Dad was finishing the car port. I was climbing up the ladder to go help when the thing slipped right out from under me. I had no purchase, but faster than thought, my dad grabbed my wrist and pulled me up.
2. Dad's retirement party. My sister Gina and I wanted to do something special for him to commemorate his 30 years in the state patrol. Since we knew Dad's favorite stories of his years there, we satirized them into the Really Real Stories of the State Patrol. Gina's husband, Chuck, played Dad. Poor Dad was totally roasted and loved every minute.

3. "Shall I keep her?" My dad loved to say this about my mom: "Isn't she wonderful? Shall I keep her?" "I love your mom--shall I keep her?" We used to get annoyed about it, especially when that really demeaning commercial came out with the tag line, "My wife--think I'll keep her." (Was it for shampoo?) You could not deny how much they loved each other.

4. Their 40th wedding anniversary. My mom is from Puerto Rico, and when they married, she moved "to the mainland" and made her home in Colorado for most of their marriage. On their 40th wedding anniversary, she went ahead to Puerto Rico for a couple of months to plan the renewal of vows and reception and be with her sisters. She loved it. At the reception, Dad got on one knee, gave her a new ring, and said, "You gave me 40 years of living where I want to live. It's your turn." They're debating about moving back to Puerto Rico.

5. "Coo-Coo!" When I was about seven, my best friend Vicki Gross and I were getting very silly and making up really bad jokes that we'd run and tell my dad. We told him the following while he was shaving, "What time is it, old witch? Coo-coo time! Coo-coo time!" then we ran off to tell my mom. As we headed back to my room, My dad leaned out of the bathroom doorway, like a cuckoo bird, saying "Coo-coo! Coo-coo!" We about fell over laughing.

Learn more about my dad and me--specifically our journeys in faith--in Why God Matters: How to Recognize Him in Daily Life


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