Ruminations of an Old Goat

ReConStruction, aka the Occasional North American Science Fiction Convention (NASFIC), is coming up fast, with the opening date of August 5 being slightly more than two months away. Held only when the World Science Fiction Convention is being held outside of North America, NASFIC is likely to be the largest convention dedicated solely to science fiction in the U.S. this year and it's being held in downtown Raleigh, NC, my current hometown. If you scan the Membership List, you'll even find that two Vogels -- the Boy and me -- are listed as attending members. Adult memberships are up to $120.00 while youth and child rates remain unchanged.

As if having the chance to meet me wasn't enough, the convention has a long list of well known attendees, among them David Gerrold (tentative), Joe Haldeman, Sharron Lee, Steve Miller, Robert Sawyer, Stanley Schmidt, Mark Van Name and Lawrence Watt-Evans. I only listed the people whose names I immediately recognized. I'm equally sure my geek cred has been damaged because of the large number of people I didn't recognize. I'm surprised Orson Scott Card isn't on the list, seeing as he lives just down the road in Greensboro, NC. And I'm hoping Lois McMaster Bujold or Elizabeth Moon will be on the list by the time the convention starts.

The web site for the convention is still very short on details, but I found the same thing last time I took a look at the web site for Worldcon. After consideration, this seems reasonable. The convention committee for a rotating convention such as this has to contact and arrange everything within a fairly short period of time. Permanent conventions maintain regular relationships and can probably copy/paste a fair bit of information from one year to the next. I remain confident the event will be worth attending.

And that brings me around to who from the Friday Challenge will be there. I have not kept a list, which will change after this column, but I know the Bethke household is expected to be represented by Bruce, Karen, and the Kid. Vidad and his lovely wife, Rachel, have been planning to come from Tennessee. I'm assuming M, who lives only slightly farther from the convention site than I do, will be attending, though verification of that would be nice. And doesn't Avery live in that area, too? If so, perhaps we'll see him, as well. I know Arisia and Torainfor would both like to attend, but weren't sure they'd be able to do so at last check. And that's about all my memory can bring up. In the comments, could you folks let me know if you'll be attending or not? This time I'll keep a list! As scattered around the country and the world as we all are, this may be the best chance to meet many of your fellow Challengers in person.

At last check, which was at 5:00 PM on Sunday, both of the convention hotels -- the Marriott and the Sheraton -- had rooms. Note that the Marriott is listed as both the main hotel and the party hotel. If you're hoping for quiet at night, I strongly recommend you aim for the Sheraton (or a hotel unaffiliated with the convention). And for those looking to keep costs down, I have floor space at my house and permission from my wife to have people sleep on it during the convention. Floor space is free, but we need to know how many people to expect. Just include that information when you tell us whether you'll be attending or not.

The convention could also be a good time to promote Stupefying Stories and, for those who have stories appear in the first issue, perhaps even sign some autographs!

Eight months have passed since I first discovered that Raleigh would be hosting NASFIC. The wait is nearly over for the largest gathering of Friday Challengers ever held. I hope you'll be one of them.