Warming the Winter with a trip to CAPRICON 40! (UPDATED with pix)

It’s CAPRICON 40 Weekend! This year, the venerable SF/F convention returns to the Wheeling, IL Westin with a “Tropics of Capricon” theme. Consequently, the first panel I’ll be on will be about IPAs – Beers From the Tropics (well, the IPA was really a beer brewed to GO to the tropics!).

You know a con that STARTS with a panel on beer is gonna be good!

I’ll be around with books in tow all weekend, but here’s my main panel schedule for the weekend:

Friday, February 14
2:30pm
Beers from the Tropics
Food Room – 1509 (15), 2:30pm – 4pm

Saturday, February 15
12:15pm
Reading: John Everson & Richard Garfinkle
River C (1), 12:15pm – 1pm

5:30pm
How Not to Kill Yourself Over a Deadline
Willow A (1), 5:30pm – 7pm
Sunday, February 16

Sunday, February 16
10am
Social Media Pitfalls for Aspiring Creatives
Ravinia A (1), 10am – 11:30am

POST CON UPDATE

Had a great time at Capricon this year! I went there for the first time last year with my friends W.D. Gagliani, Dave Benton and Brian Pinkerton.  This year, the rest of my gang couldn’t make it, but I made some new friends, thanks to the “Beer From The Tropics” panel that I helped with on Valentine’s Day.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love IPAs, and four of us introduced an audience to samples from some of our favorites. Claire Humphrey brought some great stuff (including Goblin Sauce!) down from Toronto, Dan Berger covered the north Chicago area and John Wardale tapped Michigan.  Me? I introduced people to my go-tos:  Revolution Anti-Hero, Two Brothers’ Love of Hops and, given the tropics theme, I brought some Stone Brewing Tangerine Express. 

On Saturday, I did a reading of “Preserve” and “The Right Instrument” from Vigilantes of Love, in the con Cafe (where they also hosted live music throughout the weekend, and also sat on a panel on meeting deadlines.

I took some “me” time then, and decamped to Spears Burgers & Bourbon for dinner and a couple hours of brainstorming — I needed to work on developing some pitch ideas for my next novel.

After I got a few things down on paper (well, on digital paper), I went back to the hotel and walked the room parties, from the Beer & Books event to Barfleet. I didn’t stay too long since I didn’t know anyone, but it was enjoyable to wander the party floor for a while!

I closed the weekend with a pretty lively panel for a Sunday morning on Social Media. All great fun!

Coming up next…

I’ll be appearing at the Naperville Library on May 7 as part of the Horror Writers Association 4th Annual Librarians Day event with a bunch of authors (including some from Flame Tree Press, as well as my editor!)

After that… starts the countdown to one of my favorite events of the year, Flashback Weekend! I’ve already got my booth booked there for July 31.