Hypnerotomachiapet

I'm going to be at the combination science fiction/tech geekery convention PenguiCon, in Dearborn, Michigan, today (Friday 4/27) through Sunday 4/29. I'm only scheduled for one panel, though, on Friday 4/27 at 6 pm: "Fantasy vs. Dark Fantasy vs. Horror: What Happened to the Boundaries?" Essentially its a look at how dark fantasy as a subgenre blurs the boundaries between fantasy and horror, and why its appeal is so strong. It looks like I'm gonna be running that panel solo, too, so whoever attends will be subjected to my eccentric views on all of this. I'll be heavily caffeinated, so if nothing else, it'll be entertaining!

I'll also be giving away a couple signed copies of my dark fantasy novel Brutal Light to panel attendees. So if you're in the SW Michigan area, or even farther out, drop in and say hi! PenguiCon has become, in my opinion, the premier fan-run con in Michigan, and there's always a lot going on. Even though I'm only on one panel, I'll be bopping about through the whole convention.

Kristyn and I did make it to PenguiCon 2008 this year, though we only made it for Saturday evening through Sunday early afternoon. It was a good time, all told (and before you ask, I was entirely oblivious to this controversial activity). I picked up a couple intriguing books (Where's My Jetpack by Daniel H. Wilson, and Discarded Science by John Grant), saw a number of I-seem-to-see-them-only-at-con friends, and generally had a fun time.

But by far, the coolest thing that went on at PenguiCon 2008 was this (as captured in this YouTube video):

The Singing Tesla Coils

(Note: this is the first of what looks like a series of videos chronicling the Tesla Coils at Penguicon, which had concerts on both Friday and Saturday evenings.)

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