As many of you know(or used to before the Publishing for Kossacks series went on hiatus), I'm a writer and editor, but I'm also a regular program participant and sometime organizer at Lunacon, the New York regional science fiction convention, run by a nonprofit group called the Lunarians. The convention features about 600 hours of literary, media, science, art, gaming, music, and other programming over this coming weekend (March 14-16). 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, for the second straight year there will be 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. And most of all it's for people who like to read and to think and to argue and discuss - which is probably why there's so much overlap between SF professionals and Democratic politics.
You can see the list of programs and participants 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, and last year's con chair was also a Kossack.)
If you want to attend the convention, you can attend for the whole weekend for $50. (There's a day rate as well, but I don't know what it is.)
The DailyKos meet & greet is at 9:00 p.m. on Friday night of the convention (just before the Meet the Pros), and I'll be hosting it. (I'll also be doing a reading, signing, and several panels, including my take on why candidate diaries are good for student writing and some of my adventures in developing online learning programs in the U.S. and Asia.)
This year's author guest of honor is Jacqueline Carey, and the artist guest of honor is sculptor Johnna Y. Klukas, 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'll have some sneak peaks at Unitary Moonbat's first book at the convention as well.