Confinement V

The Con was pretty neat. Since it was my first time at such a con I didn't quite know what to expect. Confinement is a smaller convention and seems to draw a crowd of friendly and welcoming sci-fi/fantasy fans, and they're some pretty smart and erudite people, too.

There was a well-stocked hospitality room where there were plenty of snacks, beverages of all sorts, and lots of flowing conversation. This was where we also got to see some of Mad Mike's fun items he had brought along, which was much fun. The man has good taste in fun things.

The main conference room held a variety of speakers on multiple topics, everything from the Silurian hypothesis, to firearms in books, to advice to writers.

Then there was the vendor room, with authors aplenty cheerfully selling their books and interacting with their current fans, and those who might become fans.

Some of the best conversations however were unstructured and happened to take place in the lounge by the entrance to the hotel. 

This included a fun multi-topic wandering chat with an actual, no kidding, rocket scientist.

A propulsion engineer for NASA to be exact.

He also came to the Con with a working Tesla Coil gun for extra geekery.

You don't see that very often, or get to hear from a real rocket scientist either.

Daddybear of Daddybears Den, along with his son, was also present at the con and it was good to chat with him again and catch up after far too long. Good people.

I did purchase a book that had one of his stories in it (as well as many by other authors I know) and he kindly autographed it.

Saints of Malta

I then did kinda go on a bit of a book-buying spree.  After all, it's good to support authors of your tribe, and they're right there after all.  They cheerfully tell you about the story in the books, which piques your interest.  You then give them green pieces of paper and you then get books to read in the bargain. It's a good deal.

Pack Dynamics

   

Theft of Fire

Standing the Final Watch 

Salvage Title

A Reluctant Druid

Blood and Jade - I actually purchased this one in the hospitality room chatting with the author on completely unrelated subjects.  Very nice fellow.

In short if you like sci-fi, urban fantasy or fantasy there was an author there with a book for you and they're worth checking out the books above. 

All the authors were fun to meet and I look forward to getting through this new pile of books I have.

Mr. B's Plane was not quite out of weight and balance on our departure due to all the books, but it was a close-run thing (not really).

The Con was a very fun time, and we said our goodbyes and headed back to the airport on Sunday in the late morning.