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Travel | November 16, 2009

TusCon 36: Return of the Masquerade

Debe Branning's photo
Arizona Haunted Sites Examiner

TusCon 36, “Return of the Masquerade” arrived at the Tucson Suites in full force this past November 13, 14 and 15th. Nicknamed the “Best Little Sci Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Convention in Arizona, it lived up to its fame and more. This year TusCon 36 added paranormal panels that opened up some new interests for Con participants. 

Friday afternoon’s program opened with a Star Trek panel. The Art Show and Dealer rooms were filled with lots of treasures everyone wanted to fill their shopping bags with. It was a great opportunity to meet the guests and re unite with old friends from various Arizona Cons.

Saturday morning began with an action packed schedule and events. I popped into the Ghost Hunting Technology and Equipment demonstration featuring Paul Bradford and Brian Gross. Brian demonstrated a lot of tools the every day ghost hunter has readily available and explained their functions. Paul Bradford the newest team member from Syfy Channel’s Ghost Hunters International, showed the crowd some of the latest hi-tech meters and some of the new ghost hunting gadgets used on the show. Being somewhat o f a “paranormal MacGyver”, Paul demonstrated one of his latest  inventions.    

                                                                      

This was followed up by a panel of Ghost Stories featuring Bradford, Gross, and “Ghost Girl Tour” owner Rebecca Petithory-Hayes. They each took a turn sharing their most memorable paranormal moment.

                                             

 
The day continued with Art demos, autograph sessions,  and great gaming demos.  I ran into author/educator, Todd VanHooser, promoting his game “Laughing Moon Chronicles” based on his fantasy novel. The Gaming room looked like the place to be most of the weekend. 
 
 
I was on hand to witness the judging of the masquerade costume competition. It was fun to see how original some of these Con participants could be modeling their hand sewn creations. Rebecca Petithory-Hayes walked off with the grand prize.
                                                           
 
 
There was Belly Dancing and Regency Dancing to keep you moving through the evening. I opted to take the special historic ghost tour provided by “Ghost Tour Girl” tours and learned many new things about the Tucson early settlers and their ghosts.
                                             
 
 
The final day of action started Sunday with tips on “How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse”, sci fi writing classes, and the art auction. What could be a better way to end the exciting weekend than to celebrate at the Dead Dog Party featuring Bruce Wiley’s nuclear chili!  As the Con participants packed up and headed home to their more “down to Earth” daily lives, they are already planning a weekend of fantasy, fact, and fun for TusCon 37 in 2010. 
 
For more information:  www.tusconscificon.com
 
Debe Branning  nazanza@aol.com
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Arizona Haunted Sites Examiner

Debe Branning is the Director of the MVD Ghostchasers paranormal team which conducts regular investigations of haunted, historical locations...

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