This was actually a Capricon panel discussion topic, but I didn't have time to get to it over the weekend. However, it really meshes with the concern I've heard from a lot of long-time fannish friends, that old-school fan-run conventions are dying as the younger generation goes more and more to the commercially-run comic conventions and anime ( Read more... )

Capricon XV back in 1995 was my first introduction to fandom, and I fell in love with it so hard that I decided I definitely wanted to find a way to attend more conventions. And that took my life in a direction I never would've expected.

But much as I would love to be at this year's Capricon, it's just not possible. The last time we sold there, we ( Read more... )

I've been so busy that I'd completely forgotten that this weekend was Capricon 42. That's somewhat embarrassing because Capricon 15 was my first convention ever. I was invited to help with a writers' workshop, and I ended up enjoying it so much that I started going to conventions on a regular basis ( Read more... )

Here's one last panel discussion topic from Capricon 40 -- the jungle world we once imagined Venus to be. When astronomers developed telescopes with sufficient resolving power to get a good look at Venus, they discovered it to be completely covered with clouds. As a result, many assumed that they were looking at clouds of water vapor, not that ( Read more... )

Here's yet another interesting Capricon 40 panel discussion topic. In many ways, the subject goes back to the very dawn of science fiction, if we consider Frankenstein to be the first sf novel. It deals with a man's effort to create artificial life, although it was biological rather than mechanical, and it set the pattern of stories about robots, ( Read more... )

Here's a panel discussion topic from Capricon that should be guaranteed to spark a lively debate. I just hope that it can stay civil, and not become acrimonious, because there are a lot of people who have very definite opinions on fanfiction, and unfortunately, some of them can become intense when they encounter someone who has a different opinion ( Read more... )

This weekend is Capricon, the Chicago area's other old-school science fiction convention. I have plenty of fond memories of Capricon, since Capricon XV in 1995 was my first ever science fiction convention and the place where I fell in love with organized fandom and conventions ( Read more... )

Here's an interesting retrofuturistic how-to panel at Capricon. The slide rule as calculating tool is all over the hard sf of the John W. Campbell era -- Heinlein even had a character nicknamed "Slipstick Libby" for his skill at rapid mental calculations ( Read more... )

Here's another interesting panel from Capricon. What is it about reboots that brings out such extreme reactions from fans? Especially in visual media, since there's been a long history of comics rebooting their major characters, especially superheroes, for a new generation of readers.

Especially with movies such as Ghostbusters and TV series such ( Read more... )

Here's an interesting panel from Capricon -- how to write plausible and convincing military spec fic when you have no first-hand experience in the military. It was certainly a problem for Larry Niven, who felt so uncomfortable about writing stories within the Man-Kzin Wars era of his Known Space universe that Jim Baen ended up creating an anthology ( Read more... )