Armadillocon 32: Arboretum edition

The difficult thing about life is that it doesn't respect best-laid plans. To wit, I've had more and more conflicts disrupting my convention-going schedule in recent years. This year is the first time I missed Apollocon since the very first one (and I only missed that one because they didn't invite me). Conflict reared its ugly head again, forcing me to bow out of the Friday night festivities at Armadillocon 32. I did get to enjoy Saturday and Sunday, fortunately, but it's tough to get into a comfortable rhythm without a Friday primer. I got to see old friends like Amy Sisson and Rosemary Clement-Moore (below) only in passing, and even lunch with the No Fear of the Future gang was rushed because I had a panel to make. That was the weekend in a nutshell--everything was rushed for me, and leisurely sit-down conversations were notable in their absence.



The one possible exception to my frenzied pace was Lillian Steward Carl and her husband Paul (below). Old friend going back 20 years now, Lillian was an instructor at my very first writers workshop. The pace slowed down whenever they were around, and we got to catch up on family and other non-convention updates.



And then there's the Space Squid crew. What can you say about a specfic humor magazines that takes the anti-Kindle movement to the extreme by publishing their latest edition on clay tablets? Genius. Sick, twisted genius, but genius nonetheless.



I had two panels on Saturday, "The Trials and Tribulations of the Short Story" and "Steampunk: Literary or Social Movement?" Both were very well attended and the panelists quote engaging and knowledgeable. There was some particularly good back-and-forth on the short fiction panel, as we dissected what goes into making a short story more than just a fictionalized encyclopedia entry and how the form differs from, say, a novel. I must point out that it succeeded despite my ham-fisted attempts at moderating. The steampunk panel was wildly successful if for no other reason than several panelists came in costume and brought scratch-built steampunk toys. Scott Bobo and Renee Babcock, pictured below, attended neither panel.



Special Guest Michael Bishop, however, did attend. In fact, he was one of the best contributors to the short story panel, which also featured short fiction guru Howard Waldrop. I confess we veered more than once into "Let's talk about this awesome story Howard wrote and analyze why it's so great" more than once, but when the stories in question are "The Ugly Chickens" and "Custer's Last Jump," I think that's pretty understandable.



Saturday night saw Kasey Lansdale, the daughter of Joe R. Lansdale (His Ownself) give a concert. She's a country singer, and the girl's got some pipes. Her sound is something akin to Joplin meets Cline, with a dash of Reba. She's got a full album and a new EP out, and I swear I'm going to give both a proper writeup eventually, but until then, here's Oklahoma artist David Lee Anderson playing lead guitar in a wicked cool pic.



And finally, no Kasey Lansdale concert is complete without Mark Finn showing up to perform a heartfelt a capella duet of Finn's 2007 smash, "Don't Shoot That Monkey Down!" I'm telling you, folks, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. If that Lansdale girl knew what was good for her, she'd include that little ditty on her next album. I'm just saying.


Anyone interested in perusing a whole heck of a lot more Armadillocon 32 images should mosey on over to Lisa on Location. The Wife was in full-on pro photographer mode Saturday, and got a lot of good ones. Enjoy.

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