Two weeks ago I wrote that I’ll be a guest at Farpoint this year. Farpoint, I should note, is a science-fiction convention held near Baltimore every February, and the headlining guests are writer David Gerrold and Firefly actor Sean Maher.
Before the weekend, I received my schedule for the convention, but I haven’t had a chance to post it. Here’s what I’ll be doing in two weeks.
Autograph Session
Friday 6PM – Dulaney 1
Farpoint Book Fair
Friday 10PM – Dulaney 1
Autograph Session
Saturday 10AM – Dulaney 1
Blogging for Fun and Profit
Do you have something to say to the world? Why not start or join a blog? Is it really that easy? Our panelists will talk about the fun parts and the not so fun parts — about making your blog and online writing successful and possibly even profitable.
Saturday 11AM – Ridgely 1
Becoming a Mainstream Super Hero
Pros and cons of superheroes becoming popular culture for more than comic fans.
Saturday 2PM – Chesapeake 1
50 Years Past and Future
How has science fiction (both in the written and visual forms) changed in the last fifty years? How might it survive and develop in the next fifty? We’re already living in a future that was very much science fiction to people fifty years ago. Will there even still be space for science fiction in fifty years?
Sunday 10AM – Chesapeake 1
What’s Changed with the All-New All-Different Marvel Comics?
In the aftermath of 2015’s Secret Wars, Marvel Comics streamlined their universes and launched new series in new directions with familiar characters — for example, Invincible Iron Man, co-starring Mary Jane Watson; Amazing Spider-Man, with Peter Parker as the head of a global technology company; and more. How does the new improved Marvel universe differ from what came before? What would fans like to see from the new Marvel?
Sunday Noon – Dulaney 2
A Charlie Brown Farpoint: Sixty-Five Years of Charles Schulz and Peanuts
In October, 1950, a cartoonist names Charles Schulz debuted one of the 20th-century’s most enduring creations — the comic strip Peanuts. Last year, fans celebrated the comic strip’s 65th-anniversary and movie audiences were excited by the brand new Peanuts movie. Some of your favorite Farpoint guests talk about the comic strip, movie, and television specials as well as the influence Schulz and Peanuts have had on their own lives and careers.
Sunday 1PM – Dulaney 2
The schedule is chock full of interesting stuff for pretty much every age, from the Opening Ceremony and the Prometheus Radio Theater, to programming on comics and television, to the Masquerade on Saturday night.
For myself, I’m looking forward to meeting David Gerrold. I can’t find my copy of The World of Star Trek for an autograph, but I did locate my near mint edition of The Trouble with Tribbles, first printing, May 1973. (I wasn’t even born then.) And while I also can’t find my copy of The Martian Child (the movie tie-in trade paperback with John Cusask on the cover), I do have my copy of Worlds of Wonder at hand. Well, it’s on the bookshelf in my bedroom, so I know precisely where it is.
If you’re in the area February 12-14, stop on by! Maybe I’ll see some of you there. 🙂