OSFest Program Participants - part 8

Omaha’s Own – Matthew S. Rotundo

Not all the writers coming to The Omaha Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival will be from out of town; award winning author, Matthew S. Rotundo lives right here in Omaha.

At eight years of age, Matt wrote his first story; "The Elephant and the Cheese". It was the first time he had ever filled an entire page with writing. To his young mind this was really something. He soon decided that writing stories was what he wanted to do with his life.

In 1998, Matt attended Odyssey Writing Workshop where he studied under the expert tutelage of famous writers such Harlan Ellison (this emotional photo was taken by his wife, Tracy). This six-week workshop for writers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror led directly to his first sale; "Black Boxes," in Absolute Magnitude. In 2002, Matt won a Phobos Award for "Hitting the Skids in Pixeltown," which appeared in the anthology of the same name. In 2008, his short story, “Gone Black”, was a first quarter winner in the Writers of the Future Contest. His fiction has appeared or will soon appear in Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show, Cosmos, Prime Codex, and Paradox.

Matt also plays guitar and has been known to sing karaoke. He married his lovely wife, Tracy, in 1992. He has husked corn only once in his life, and has never been detasseling, so he insists he is not a hick.He pens his own blog at http://matthewsrotundo.livejournal.com/.

Join Matt and other writers, artists, and fans at The Omaha Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival, July 11-13th, 2008 at the Comfort Inn & Suites at 7007 Grover Street Omaha, NE. 3-day memberships are available on line or by mail, with the form available on our website. I hope to see you there.

OSFest Program Participants - part 7

Carrie Vaughn - Meet Miss Kitty

Plans are moving together with an increasing pace as we approach our July Festival weekend. Carrie Vaughn, a co-attendee of the Odyssey Writing Workshop with Matthew Rotundo, has just agreed to become another one of our Program Participants. Meaning she will be available to do some panels, readings, and generally be available all weekend. Her photo is courtesy of Timony Siobhan

Carrie currently lives in Boulder Colorado with her dog, Lily. She was a member of the Odyssey Writing Workshop class of 98, where she was under the tutelage of Harlan Ellison. Since then she has had stories published in Realms of Fantasy and Weird Tales. Recently she has published a series of novels about a werewolf, Kitty Norville, who is the host of the radio talk show, 'The Midnight Hour’. Check them out on Amazon.com (but remember to go through the link on the OSFES website to help fund our convention.) Then bring them to OSFest, track her down, and politely ask her to sign them. Just remember, it is looking like we will have a full moon that weekend.

The Omaha Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival will be July 11-13th, 2008 at the Comfort Inn & Suites at 7007 Grover Street Omaha, NE. 3-day memberships are available on line or by mail, with the form available on our website. I hope to see you there.

The Great Book Giveaway

The Omaha Science Fiction Education Society, the non-profit organization running OSFest, has received two very substantial donations of science fiction and fantasy books. Enough books in fact that every full weekend attendee of the Omaha Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival will receive a free book when they receive their membership packet.
Since there are so many random titles in this collection, you may receive a book that you either have or have already read. No problem! We also plan to give out name badge ribbons that you can attach to your convention badge that reads “Book Trader”. Simply attach this ribbon on the bottom of your name badge and you will announce to the rest of the convention attendees that you are willing to trade your book.
Why are we doing this, you ask? (I know this is a blog and so I have to ask the questions of myself that you want to ask me if you could reach me through cyberspace as I write this.) Good question. This is our way of encouraging SF/F fans to talk to someone they have never met about the books they have, they like, and yes, even the ones they didn’t like. This is an excuse to go up to someone you have never met, with a similar interest, and talk about the genre you both love.
Can you bring your own books? Sure, the whole idea is to tap into the experience base of Midwest fandom, pass on which are the really good books and hopefully keep them circulating enough that they will stay in print.
The Omaha Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival will be July 11-13th, 2008 at the Comfort Inn & Suites at 7007 Grover Street Omaha, NE. 3-day memberships are available on line or by mail, with the form available on our website. I hope to see you there.

Omaha Fan Groups - part 1

The R2-Central Builders Club

Since the days of the first Worldcon ™ in 1939, fans have recreated their favorite props from the movies and shows they enjoyed. I can remember seeing fans drive up at conventions in vans that had been converted into replicas of the LandRams from the first Battlestar Galactica series. I’m just guessing that they mounted the cannons after they got to the convention center’s parking lot.

We have a group here in Omaha that is coming to OSFest to show their love of building these props. The R2-Central Builders Club will show off their work, instruct you in how you to can have your own astromech droid, and invite you to partner with them in their dreams. They will present a split two-hour workshop (that means there is an hour break between them). In the first workshop they will be showing how to make various body parts out of different materials like wood, resin, and aluminum. In the second session they will talk about the electronics and motors and what they can make their droids do.

While the workshops are currently scheduled for Sunday, they will we around all weekend. In our dealer’s room they will have a fan table where you can find photo opportunities with their R2 units, view a DVD presentation on their other activities, and find more information about them, as well as how to join their group.

The Omaha Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival will be July 11-13th, 2008 at the Comfort Inn & Suites at 7007 Grover Street Omaha, NE. I hope to see you there.

Shhhhhhhh, be vewwwy, vewwwy quiet; I'm hunting conventions, heheheheheheh. It's Convention Season

Winter is behind us, though in Nebraska you can never be sure until the next winter begins. That means it is time to get out of our burrows and travel to exotic locations for nearby activities. No wait, reverse that! Travel to nearby facilities for exotic activities, otherwise known as science fiction conventions.

Annually Willycon in early April is the convention that kicks off my convention travels. A mere two hours from Omaha, Wayne State College’s Science Fiction Club has been putting on a small intimate little convention for the past ten years. This is no relax-a-con though. Without the monetary hit of needing to purchase function space, these guys are able to kick more money into acquiring their lineup of guests. Authors have included; Jack McDevitt, Jullie Czerneda, Eric Flint, and James Hogan; Artists; Terese Nielsen, Frank Wu, John Kaufmann, and Lucy Synk. And believe me; being two hours from a major airport, this is no mean feat. And they do all this while keeping the at the door price down to 1980 prices; $20.

Their attendance is small but that means you have more time to spend one on one with the guests and you will never be one of a mob in a panel. Yes, they sometimes violate the panelist-audience rule; their panelists don’t switch places with the audience if they outnumber them. Their Art Show is on par with other local conventions three times their size and gaming is going on everywhere. I can’t even drag my kid back to our room at night from the video game room. So if you are looking for something to break out of the winter humdrums next year consider WillyCon XI. While the dates are yet to be confirmed, they are hosting; author M.R.Sellers, artist Maria William, and Lincoln fan Rod Vasek.

But this is just the beginning. Demicon and Conquest are in May, OtakuOmaha is the first part of June and The Omaha Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival (OSFest) is July 11-13 at the Comfort Inn & Suites 7007 Grover Street here in Omaha. Come out, meet new fans along with ones you haven’t seen in a while, but above all get out of your winter burrows and have a great time.

OSFest Program Partipants - part 6

Travis Heerman – Blogging the Groove

Travis is a local author, born and raised in Nebraska. And like most good science fiction authors, went and got himself a science degree, electrical engineering to be exact. Though now he is working on a M.A. in English, he has taken courses in computer programming, linguistics, and Japanese language. I’ll bet the latter came in handy when he spent those three years in Fukuoka, Japan teaching English. Anyone need some Anime translated?

Travis has a solo novel out, though probably not still in print. If you’re planning on hitting any used book markets in the near future keep your eyes out for his 1996 novel, The Ivory Star. His second book will be out Spring 2009 entitled, Heart of the Ronin. He has published numerous works of short fiction, gaming supplements and magazine articles. In addition to running his own copywriting service, Travis has started a blog of interviews with various authors. Check out: Blogging the Groove, where if you scroll down you will find an interview with the Guest of Honor for this year’s ConQuesT: Joe R. Lansdale. He hopes to catch up with a few more authors this summer at OSFest, hopefully as a function at the convention. So be there and witness live action blogging.

The Omaha Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival will be July 11-13th, 2008 at the Comfort Inn & Suites at 7007 Grover Street Omaha, NE. I hope to see you there.

OSFest Program Participants part 5

Eric Coleman – Songwriter - Singer - Curmudgeon
Filk is a word created by a misspelling of ‘folk singing’ in a convention program book that has stuck with us. A Filk Song is a song created by re-writing the lyrics of another song, or writing lyrics to their own music, that has a fannish theme. Filk songs will be about TV shows and movies, books and their characters, or even events that have happened within the fannish community. Learn all about creating filk songs and performing them in “Filksinging: From Word to Sung”, then come to our nightly After Hours Filk sessions to have a good time with your new skills. Like with anything else, it takes practice, practice, practice.

So who’s going to introduce you into this wonderful new world? Why Eric Coleman, of course. Who is Eric Coleman, you ask? “He has spent much of the last 3 years claiming that is not a comedy musician. It looks like he is losing that battle (or perhaps winning it) as more and more he becomes part of the Dementia Underground that will eventually take over the airwaves from the corporate scum who rule it now. He may end up a martyr in this, but he is definitely not leaving a good looking corpse.” His words not mine. It must be a songwriter thing, writing about yourself in the third person. So some spend the weekend with the self described curmudgeon, learn about and do some filk singing, and spend some time with a really great guy.

The Omaha Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival will be July 11-13th, 2008 at the Comfort Inn & Suites at 7007 Grover Street Omaha, NE. I hope to see you there.