World Steam Expo: Convention Report

[dime_novel_hero]

Another week, another convention (the third in five weeks). This time a con that has become one of my favorites, the World Steam Expo in Dearborn. Why so? I think it's the people. Something about the steampunks in the Midwest clicks with me better than those on the East coast.

A few months back, I ordered a pair of shirts from Milanoo because they were cheaper than the specific dress shirts I was finding anywhere else. When they arrived, I thought they were very nice shirts except that they were extremely small. I typically wear a large or sometimes an extra-large depending on the cut. What I've gotten from Gentleman's Emporium have been size large. But from Milanoo I would have needed to get an quadruple-extra-large for it to fit me properly. Since they don't make that size I was out of luck and would have to go back to Gentleman's Emporium at twice the price.

I am pretty harsh on shirts so I thought I could get more life out of them by buying the Fairchild shirt and a few detachable collars. When the collar gets too sweat stained I could simply spend $7 and replace the collar. But getting dressed at the con I found I didn't like how it looked. The collar was obviously a detachable collar and tended to sit on top of the collar of the vest. It wouldn't be so obvious if I were wearing a frock coat over that but I spend most of my con in just the shirt and the vest and, while even then most people wouldn't notice, I noticed so I'll be ordering another shirt.

Standing in line for the opening ceremony, one of the con staff told me that, if I wanted, I could get up on stage during the opening event to promote my presentations. All I needed to do was go to the MC and have myself put on the list. I was humbled. Opening ceremonies are for the headliner guests. The people listed on the website. Gail Carriger, Jay Lake, G.D. Falksen, Abney Park and other misical artists, The League of S.T.E.A.M., the Imperial Anti-Piracy Squadron and other groups that were helping to build the con. I felt that I was just doing a few presentations and didn't warrant that sort of formalized attention.

Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps I have arrived. In either case, I felt a little embarrassed by the offer and chose against it.

One of the panels I attended on Saturday morning was the IAPS's presentation on men's personal care. Specifically, shaving with a straight razor. When it comes to shaving, I'm pretty lazy and don't want to take the time or expense of shaving with a straight razor but some of the techniques that were gone over are applicable to modern shaving.

Three passes. First with the grain, then across the grain, then against the grain. On my face, the grain of my beard is pretty much vertical so, the next morning when I shaved with a disposable razor, the first pass was down. The next across, the third drawing up. I used to do it with one pass down then another up, all the while pressing too hard. Doing it in three passes left me with a smoother shave and no significant razor burn.

Maybe I should try with a straight razor.

No. I'm still too lazy.

In the afternoon, Euphorbia and I went to a high tea with Gail Carriger and, in a way, we were both disappointed. My experience with such things have been at other science fiction conventions and the kaffeklatsch where you sit with the author in a completely casual manner. I specifically remember one such kaffeklatsch where myself and about half a dozen other people spent an hour or so talking with authors Hal Clement and William Tenn. Clement talked about his experience flying B-24s during WWII. Tenn knew L. Ron Hubbard and talked about the birth of Scientology. They both talked about their experiences listening to Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" broadcast of Halloween, 1939. The experience left a powerful impression.

This event had a score of people having tea and cakes while someone asked Gail Carriger a number of questions. The exact same thing could have been done in a more traditional presentation format and not cost me $30 for three cups of tea and some snacks. (I did learn that I don't like Earl Grey). In a kaffeklatsch setting we probably would have heard things that we would never get in a con presentation format, such as archeology dig stories.

One thing I did get out of the program is that when she is working on a book she looks at it as a job. Five days a week she dedicates herself to writing 2000 words a day for six months. Since I have to write the history of the Civil War for TeslaCon, I am going to take that tack and dedicate myself to writing a certain amount on a daily basis. I haven't quite decided on how much to write. 500 words, perhaps, which converts into a few pages. I can probably write more than that but I will set that as a minimum.

And another thing: Peruvian fat vampires!

I didn't go to the dance or burlesque show but instead loitered out in the hallway. I spoke with someone for whom the Expo was their first steampunk experience. Even so, he had gotten it right in that he was dressed like a cyclist of the late 19th Century. As a 21st Century cyclist the transition wasn't that difficult.

In the hallway there was an ice sculpture of Boba Fett's helmet. Later, Steampunk Boba Fett was walking around with this ice helmet on his head instead of his regular helmet. It was hysterical.

Lord Bobbins had been running into me all weekend saying that he wanted to talk to me about the writing I was doing for TeslaCon, chronicling the alternate American Civil War. Saturday evening he finally had his chance to sit down with me. Mostly he talked about the people who have gotten the idea in their heads that he should write a coffee table book with the story and the photomanipulations he is doing. Very much like Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett's "Frank Reade" book. Lord Bobbins was resistant to the idea and I tend to agree. Firstly, it takes him hours to do each illustration and, in addition to finding the right illustrations that he can modify, most of the pictures he is finding are lower resolution. Appropriate for posting online or in a binder at a convention but not so suitable for publication. Secondly, his plate is full building the convention. Thirdly, is there really a market for it? Guinan and Bennett are professional authors and illustrators. This is what they do. Lord Bobbins (and myself, since I am doing the writing) are amateurs in that field. Would we be able to create a generally marketable product? Personally, while I think we could do a reasonable job, our skills are much more valuable and would be much more productive in focusing on TeslaCon and its needs. Lord Bobbins is already being called "The Disney of Steampunk", trying to produce this book would be more of a distraction.

We also talked a little bit about Lincoln. I won't reveal the details except to say that Lord Bobbins had a specific series of events in his outline and, if that series of events is to happen then Lincoln must be dealt with in a specific way. Change the one and the other must invariably change as well. It is a plot point that I'm not sure he considered (which is why I'm writing the narrative for him.) We seemed to settle on the first plot path though I assured him that I could write it either way, just that plot required both events or neither.

On Sunday, the IAPS redid their airship combat presentation. Version 2. Last year it had been interesting enough but needed some work. I thought they might make it more like a miniatures game but they took another tack making it much more like a LARP. Instead of having the crews designs their ships and take them into combat, they were allowed to equip the ships on the fly, as it were. When the first ship deployed their guns, they used Nerf guns in an attempt to shoot at the foam football that stood in for the other ship. The second ship intended to drop incinderies from above (ping pong balls) but missed. When the first airship couldn't handle the recoil of the heavy guns they deployed wires to collect static electricity from the a gathering storm to power their lightning gun. Their opponent engaged their time machine to allow them to close the distance and then called a pterodactyl through time to act as reconnaissance above the clouds.

It was more performance art than combat and I approve. I think they should use pop bottles for airship, though. A little paint and they could be fun and more recognizable as airships.

Even though the schedule had half an hour between presentations, I left the airship combat one a little bit early so I could collect up my projector and script for my Mystery Airships presentation.The supplied projector worked find so I didn't need mine but I had seen it go badly before and didn't want to get caught out. At the previous week's Steampunk World's Fair they had a projector available but it was a piece of crap.

I am told my presentation was a spectacular success. It's sometime difficult to judge ones own presentation but there were sixty people in attendance and afterwards there were a number of people who, throughout the rest of the weekend,approached me with compliments. Humbled is, perhaps, the best word I've been able to come up with to describe my own reaction.

I should have spent more time in the I.C.E. Lounge. Set up by the IAPS and the Intrigue Factory, the In Character Experience Lounge was an opportunity to sit about and play in character. Or not. When I was there on Sunday night the conversations were contemporary in nature. It was a nice place to relax, though, and the air conditioning was working.

As I was there, setup started for the IAPS night of ribaldry and recollection. The pony keg of 1919 brand root beer I had brought last year was such a hit that I promised to bring two kegs this year. Unfortunately, the two distributors in Pittsburgh that even stocked them were sold out and, after two weeks, had not restocked. I will need to make sure I have what I need for TeslaCon many weeks in advance.

The party proper got under way and as the ribaldry waxed my interest waned. I'm simply not a drunken party person and so it was off to bed. Before showering and hitting the sack I decided to pack up so that, in the morning, I could load the car first thing. It was then that I realized that I was missing my stereoscopic viewer. I thought that I must have left it on the table after my Mystery Airships presentation and hoped that someone had picked it up and taken it to ConOps. I wasn't terribly worried because the con techs seemed to be on top of those sorts of things.

After loading the car first thing Monday morning, talking to several more people for whom this was their first steampunk convention and after attending the League of S.T.E.A.M.'s advanced prop-making presentation I was able to get back to ConOps and find that indeed someone had recovered my stereoscope. Huzzaah!

My Victorian Spacecraft presentation went well. Not quite as well attended as Mystery Airships but it was the morning of the last day of the con and many people had already left or were in the process of leaving. I was surprised at the end when no one had any questions. Had I really been that complete? It was a bit disturbing, actually.

I had originally intended to go to Greenfield Village as I had last year to get another tintype photograph but Euphorbia had been able to go on Saturday and I didn't think it fair to make her either pay again or wait in the car while I rushed in to have my photograph taken and then need to rush out again without having had my own opportunity to see the village for the cost of my admission. Perhaps I'll be able to manage a better schedule next year.

On the way home I was thinking about an alternate history panel. Lord Bobbins had mentioned his idea to do a presentation about his alternative Civil War but, as I thought about it, I thought the idea was not very useful. By TeslaCon, the people who were interested would have already read the document, posted earlier in the summer, and those who hadn't would attend the panel at the con with it being too late to do anything with the information.

But what would be useful would be to have a panel on writing alternate history with the TeslaCon Civil War as an example. The I.A.A.C. presentation at the World's Fair was along those lines and useful. Alternative History: How we did it and you can, too."

The steampunk con season is now over. There are still events and such coming up but no full weekend conventions until TeslaCon at the end of November. I have a lot to do for that but thankfully some months to gear up and accomplish them.