As many of you know, I'm a writer and editor, but for the last five years I've also volunteered to run the program at Lunacon, the New York regional science fiction convention, run by a nonprofit group called the Lunarians. The convention features about 400 hours of literary, media, science, art, gaming, music, and other programming over the weekend of March 16-18. It also has a world class art show, 24-hour gaming and anime rooms, and a hopping bar where you can meet about 200 writers, artists, and editors who you didn't catch up with during the day.
And because there's so much overlap between genre fans, genre professionals, and Kossacks, this year there is a DKos meet and greet on the actual program schedule.
I've diaried about literary conventions before if you're not familiar with them, but suffice it to say that nonprofit conventions like Lunacon are a very different animal than the for-profit conventions you see on TV where lots of people are running around in Klingon costumes. That's not to say there won't be some Trek related panels on the program - but there's a lot more for political, literary, or art junkies. This year is the 50th anniversary of the convention, and my last year running the program (a former student of mine is taking it over next year and I'll have to find another way of avoiding deadlines) so there's a lot going on.
You can see a current list of programs here, or look at the current version of the full grid (with hotlinks to the description on each item) for each of the convention's three days here. (The program database and interface were designed by another Kossack, Tita Weng generously volunteering her time. The con chair is Kossack APK - all names mentioned with permission) This isn't the final program yet - a few items are still being added and people shifted around - but it's pretty close.
If you want to attend the convention, you can still get discounted admission ($40 for the whole weekend) at the convention website for a few more days. (It costs $50 at the door.) You can also book hotel rooms through the website, but you want to do that quickly as well - once the block is sold out, you'll get bumped to the backup hotel, and last I heard it was within about 100 room nights of filling.
The DailyKos meet & greet is at 10:00 p.m. on Friday night of the convention (just after the Meet the Pros), and I'll be hosting it.
This year's author guest of honor is Christopher Moore, and the artist guest of honor is Dave Seeley, but you're also likely to find many of your favorite writers, artists and editors there. All of the professionals are there as volunteers, so the conference has a feel of being both business and pleasure. (The guests of honor get their rooms and travel comped, but all of the other pros pay for everything except their admission and a discounted guest.)
I hope to see a bunch of you there. Get a few drinks into me and I could probably be convinced to run a session of Rove: The Roleplaying Game in the gaming room over the weekend. And I hope to have copies of the cover for Unitary Moonbat's first book at the convention as well.