MESA OF LOST COPPERCON

I didn't get much rest this summer, then Labor Day hits like a missile attack, and more is happening than I can keep up with. This is going to be kinda gonzo, or like a twisted old sci-fi flick.

And we were off to exotic Mesa, Arizona to attend CopperCon in the Windemere Hotel, in a lost, underdeveloped sector of Mesa with lots of trailer parks, where they never quite figured out air-conditioning and had something against restaurants. Down the street was the Buckhorn Baths Motel, that offered Hot Mineral Baths and had a Wildlife Museum. Thank Tezcatlipoca for Jimbo's Good Time Grill, and their Voodoo Chicken Wrap.

Em and I were “Light-headed and a little out of touch with reality,” as the Firesign Theater so wisely put it. I made a cheat-sheet to keep track of all the things I was trying to promote. Em brought chemistry homework in her pink backpack. Co-incidentally, we both wore our Day of the Dead Taos T-shirts – telepathy?

I tried to mention Flurb #10, and “Doctora Xilbalba's Datura Enema” when ever possible. And the La Bloga Charla/Interview, Parts One and Two. With a bit of prompting, the audiences got responsive, they had things on their minds in these “interesting” times. Arizona Right-Wing/Libertarians seemed disturbed when I told them about online bullfight videos. The costumes were mostly Wild West steampunk, rather than attempts to worship any corporate franchises.

For a “What is SF?” panel, I meant to quote I meant to quote from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas:

“Naw!” he said. “That's science fiction stuff!”

“Not where we operate,” said my attorney.

But I got distracted.

Rick Novy editor of the upcoming anthology 2020 Visions showed up with a copy of the cover art. It will include Em's story “If the Sun's at Twelve O'Clock, It Must be Yellow Daisies” and my own “Radiation is Groovy, Kill the Pigs.” He asked if I had a drawing of Señor Apocalypse, the villain . . . I hadn't, but got inspired.

Later, I tried not to trip over the life-sized R2D2s buzzing and beeping around the dealer room as I autographed and gave a copy of Cortez on Jupiter to David Lee Summers that he won in the La Bloga contest. He also gave me pre-order flyers for Space Horrors, that have the Em&Ern collaboration, “Plan 9 in Outer Space.”

Michelle M. Welch was there promoting her Theme and Variations (Opus2) where you can hear Em's “The Cat at the End of the World” and other podcasts (with music) of stories with musical themes.

DragonCon and WorldCon were happening the same weekend. I threw out the idea of linking them up through the Web. A World Wide Con? Why not?

Now I'm home. There's too much to do piling up all over the place. Gotta get back to the Aztec Western horror story I promised . . .