Congratulations to all the participants and winners of this year’s Masquerade costume contest! Best Mashup: Brian K. Johnson — Maar Vin the Mandalorian Sabaac Champion Best Video Game: Michelle Berry, Ty Shaffer, Atlas Faeryn, Trevor Johnson — 2 yarnies, 1 ball of light, and 1 flame monster from Unravel 2 Best Animated: Avery Anderson, Lydia Scheuermann — Callum and Rayla… Read more →
Highlights of the last three workshops follow. Sign up for a few or for the total adventure of the writer’s hourly workshops at next year’s Dragon Con. Your writing will thank you! “How Shall I Kill Thee?,” Benji Richards, Sunday 2:30PM: Author and educator Richards promised to take a fresh look at weapons, beginning with these questions: What makes a… Read more →
The plot thickens! No, not one of the plots that Michael Stackpole crafted in his “Plotting” workshop but experiencing the Stackpole and Company workshops in successive Dragon Con years. I took notes in Stackpole’s 2023 workshops and annotated them in 2024. Many of his best points were clarified, expanded, or amplified. New and relevant material arose in answer to questions… Read more →
On my way to the Westin Friday night, I spotted a pair of luminous sea creatures drifting among the crowd. I’m always awed by the wonderful costumes at Dragon Con, but these two were so unique, their use of LED lighting so captivating, that I had to stop and snap a picture. As usual for cosplayers at Dragon Con, Jessica… Read more →
On Sunday afternoon, I continued to pursue the goal of attending all 18 of the Hourly Writer’s Workshops on offer by Michael Stackpole and company, Hyatt Inman. The title of the first workshop (almost) inspired me to arrive with a tall tomato-juice-and-vodka drink complete with celery stir and veggie garnish UNTIL I grasped that wasn’t the “Bloody Mary” meant. The… Read more →
During the panel “From Myth to Magic” on Sunday at 1PM in Hyatt Embassy EF, Kaitlin Bevis, Elizabeth Donald, Bill Fawcett, Nancy Northcott, Jody Lynn Nye, and DL Wainright discussed how to creatively use myths, legends, and folklore while being respectful of original sources and cultures. Fawcett began the panel by asking each author to describe the advantages of incorporating… Read more →
Michael Stackpole presented Saturday’s first three hourly workshops, Hyatt Inman, all by his lonesome. I attended two of these workshops last year and marveled at the nuances he added to the same topics this go-around. Incredibly, he made them all pass by in a sprint when I had expected a marathon. (I even had plenty of java left for the… Read more →
A panel of talented Black creators shared advice about crafting compelling narratives in Monday’s “Enchanting Realms: Black Voices in Fantasy,” held in Hyatt Hanover AB at 10AM. Moderated by children’s author Christine H. Taylor-Butler, the panel featured commentary from Isabelle Hardesty, Sebastian A. Jones, Violette L. Meier, Glenn Parris, and L. Marie Wood. The panelists stress the value of drawing… Read more →
