Phx Local Event News - Koenig at Alice's, Zahn, Foster & Stackpole at Book fest

I havent posted here in a bit due to life being a bit more hectic than usual...

A few notes for all of you on author appearances and some other events.

First of all, the turnout for the James Lucerno signing last November was large enough that it has gotten the Desert Ridge Barnes and Noble (and more importantly, B&N Corporate in New York) to look at bringing in more Science Fiction and Fantasy authors for signings in Arizona. Last night they had William Gibson for a signing and reading and 160+ people showed up. This is pretty significant since for years, most genre author book tours have skipped over Arizona completely. All of you showing up for the signing in November looks to have really gotten the ball rolling. Look for more signings there and other B&N stores in the future.

This Friday night, Feb 13th, will be a film short premiere by Caribou Moving Pictures at Alice Coopers'town for "The Message". The short was directed by Ethan Moe, who has been doing the Modern Dances at the local cons for the last few years. Also appearing at the event is Walter Koenig, who will be working with Caribou on a future project. Cost is free. I don't know if Koenig will be doing any formal autographing or not. More details at http://www.geocities.com/stanrobinson2002/UpcomingEvents.html

In case you haven't heard, William Shatner will be in Mesa at the Mesa Hilton for Creation show on Sat, Feb 14th. Sun, Feb 15th will be a SciFi Super Sale with free admission. It was originally to be a Buffy/Angel day but that was scrapped due to slow ticket sales. More details at www.creationent.com. Members of the United Federation of Phoenix will be doing our usual volunteer stint. I'll be in Los Angeles for Gallifrey One, though.

The Arizona Book Festival - April 3rd, Carnegie Center at 1101 W. Washington 10 am to 5 pm

This year's book festival (the seventh) looks to be the best one for science fiction and fantasy fans, especially Star Wrs fans. Appearing on the main stage for the book festival will be Ursula K. Le Guin, Alan Dean Foster, and Diana Gabaldon. Appearing at the CASFS booth and participating in a two hour programming block on "The Worlds of Speculative Fiction" will be Timothy Zahn, Michael A. Stackpole, John Vornholt, Michelle M. Welch, Lee Hogan (aka Emily Devenport), Ernest Hogan, and Dennis L. McKiernan. This is a free event and draws 15,000+ people for the day. I'm in charge of the CASFS/LepreCon booths and also making the arrangements for bringing Timothy Zahn in for the event. If there is any interest in doing something special with Mr. Zahn, let me know and I'll see what we might be able to arrange.

For more info on the book festival in general, visit www.azbookfestival.org.

for more info on the CASFS authors and programming, visit www.casfs.org/azbookfest

If you have any questions, let me know.

Just to make that weekend even more fun, the next Phoenix Cactus Comic con will be Sunday, April 4th, at the Glendale Civic Center. www.phoenixcomicon.com for more details.

That's it for now. That is just the beginning for the year...

Lee Whiteside

 

Awesome! I want to meet Timothy Zahn! Hook me up!

If you need any Fan involvement, Lee, let me know. I'd love to help out in anyway I can.

 

Great, thanks for the info. Any chance the Az Book Festival needs some costumed Star Wars characters to meet and greet fans?

 

Sweet info! Also, for those that dont know, my girlfreind is a young adult fiction writer. She has her own booth at the AZ book festival and will be selling copies of her first book. Be sure to look us up (i'll be manning the booth with her). The name of her business is Gemini Mojo Press. ahem...plug... www.geminimojopress.com Her website(click here) Sign the her guestbook too. It'll make her day.

Again, sweet info on the Comic Con. I will be there for sure. Thanks leew, I was wondering about the con.

 

Ahem, you're welcome...


Well, I'm probably going!

 

lol... awesome Steve! I'll be sure to drop by her booth!

YES! COSTUMED CHARACTERS ARE A MUST! You can count Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors in! Maybe I can convince Dooku to come this time!

 

Meeting the authors would be awesome!

Steve, I will be sure to look for you two at the festival.

 

I PM'd Lee offering help with any fan involvement but he hasn't responded yet. I hope he gets it.

 

He's probably not back from Gallifrey One (in Van Nuys, CA). See his post above.

 

I'm sure that's the case. I wasn't really thinking.

Does anybody else want to go to this event? Costumes? Anything? Sand_Dancer and I want to go (Personally I just need another excuse for her to sport around her new JAN ORS Costume...and you thought the Tomb Raider one was hot!).



Even if you haven't forgiven Stackpole for the sins he's commited against STAR WARS...c'mon! It's Timothy Zahn!

 

Do you even have to ask? Grand Admiral Thrawn will definitely make an appearance to any event featuring Tim Zahn.

 

Yay!!! I miss the Grand Admiral! It'll be nice to see him again!
Like I said, Kyle and Jan will be there!

 

I'm interested in attending.

 

I'm catching up on things after Gallifrey (and heading out to ConDor in San Diego this weekend).

It might be best to start up a new thread specifically for the Book Festival and talk about things there.

Lee Whiteside
leewsftv@yahoo.com

 

I would hereby like to retract my earlier statement about Stackpole. For some strange reason my brain wasn't functioning correctly when I posted there. I mistook him for R. A. Salvatore. I apologies!

(Drops head in shame)