Wednesday, March 14, 2012

StellarCon 2012


By: Sharon Stogner
Co-Creator & Media Relations

StellarCon is held every year in High Point, NC (right down the road from me!) and is North Carolina's longest running convention. It's an intimate gathering of science fiction, fantasy, gaming, podcasting, and costuming fans, averaging about 500 attendees a year.

It may seem small, but the access fans have to the special guests and vendors is amazing. No long lines and plenty of opportunity to talk. This was my first year attending and the folks at StellarCon were kind enough to offer me a press pass. On top of that, they provided complementary lunch/snack buffet in one of the suites for attendees! It was a well run event with many panel options.

Find StellarCon: FB-twitter

[Baaart and Patrick having a moment]
A few of the Special Guests:
NY Times #1 best selling author Patrick Rothfuss. He wrote The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicles Day 1) and its sequel The Wise Man's Fear (Kingkiller Chronicles Day 2).



John Kovalic, co-founder and co-owner of Out of the Box Games (helped create Apples to Apples) and cartoonist of Dork Tower comics.








Mark Poole is an artist who has illustrated over 1000 cards for various companies including Magic: The Gathering, Vampire, Battletech, World of Warcraft and Boomtown.







Have you ever played the game Humans VS Zombies? The creators of this fun role playing game were there. It is basically a game of tag you can play at any large event. You choose to be team Human or team Zombie. It was a blast to play. I stayed human the whole time, but a 3 year old zombie took my last defense card! Check out their website and see about organizing a game at your next event.
find HvsZ on FB-Twitter
Baaart choose Team Ovis, but was disappointed it didn't exist in the game
I also met Jeremy Whitley and Jason Strrutz from Firetower Studios, an independent company out of NC with two ongoing comic series: Jeremy and Jasons's "The Order of Dragonet" and Jeremy's "Princeless" in association with Action Lab Entertainment. They also produce 5 webcomics that can be found on their site. They were kind enough to give me two signed copies of Princeless Issue #1, an adventure comic about a young princess who doesn't want to wait for a prince to rescue her "thank you very much" but rescues herself along with her guardian dragon Sparky. They also gave me issues 1-3 of "The Order of Dragonet". Cleverly funny parody of British culture as a band of so called modern day knights are called to service by Merlin to help protect England from the creatures of legend and myth who have come to claim their land back. I will be doing a review of both comics very soon. I recommend checking them out.

Find Firetower Studios on FB-Twitter


I can't wait to check out John G. Hartness' The Black Knight Chronicles. A series about two nerd friends who get turned into vampires and decide combine their new powers and love of superheros (the nerd in them) to help others. The premise is just too good to not try. There are currently 3 books in the series: Hard Days Knight (only $.99), Back in Black and Knight Moves.

Find John on FB-Twitter



I also had the pleasure of meeting author/screenwriter Michael D'Ambrosio. He gave me copy of Fractured Time Book One of the Fractured Time Trilogy a book of time travel, adventure, fantasy and romance! He also gave me a copy of Night Creeps A Adult Horror Tale which is about aliens, deputies and a mutant. Looks fabulous. He is currently in talks with producers and directors about both these books. I wish him the best of luck!

Find Michael on FB
I wanted to give some shout outs to some of the vendors and other people I met:
Author Debra Killeen
Author Diana Bastine
Author/screenwriter/actress Glenda C. Finkelstein
Tina R. McSwain of the Charlotte Area Paranormal Society (CAPS)
The Carolina Garrison (501st Legion) for bringing R2-KT
Quarterly Magazine BULL SPEC
Erotic Author RaeLynn Blue




There were a few groups promoting their conventions
This is their first convention and they will be celebrating all things sci-fi. This isn't a Steampunk only convention, but it is a big theme.
June 21-24 Chapel Hill, NC
Convention dedicated to Science Fiction in all media.
January 11-13 Cary, NC
fantasy, sci-fi, gaming and more- I will be a guest blogger here next year!
Feburary 22-24 Roanoke, VA

I had a wonderful time, here are a few pictures.
I look forward to StellarCon 37!
Lauren was there as the Con Prombie


Baaart made friends with some Tribbles



5 comments:

  1. I looks like you had a great time, I love the pic of Bart and R2-KT.

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  2. that was the coolest robot! It was remote control and made all the same sounds as R2-D2. thanks for commenting, it was a good time :)

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  3. Cool page, love the storm trooper helmet!

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  4. Looked like such a good time you had. Some pretty cool folks and an intimate event that most don't have. Baaart seems to be a hit with R2!! :)

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  5. Wow, looks like it has gotten bigger since I went! Glad you had fun!

    Scott

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