InConJunction XXIX - Science Fiction, Fantasy, and just a dash of Paganism

July 8, 9:48 AMIndianapolis Pagan Issues ExaminerAndrah Wyrdfire

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http://www.inconjunction.org/

On July 3, 2009, I arrived with my husband at the Sheraton Indianapolis Hotel and Suites wearing a Geek Squad t-shirt while my husband wore a t-shirt that said "No, I will not fix your computer".  There was a good size crowd of people there, some registering, some pre-registered, and some who were volunteers.  Having already pre-registered, we waited for our packet that would include our badges to the Science Fiction and Fantasy convention that is InConJunction.  

We weren't there for very long before we were approached by a young lady wearing a blue wedge cap and a white lab-style coat, pushing around a cart full of candy and toys asking people if they wanted to take any of the items in her cart being given away.  This young lady was seen throughout the convention pushing around her cart of goodies.   

Although I've never considered myself much of a Sci-Fi or Fantasy geek, my husband thinks I'm just in denial.  I will say that I did manage to have quite a bit of fun.  Among the many panels that were available, our first panel was one about who could have been the next Doctor Who; it included two men by the name of Jonathan Fesmire, and Mark Dooley.  Even though it was a small panel that started out with very few people in attendance watching two guys having a discussion, it became an open discussion with the attendees about who is to become the next Doctor Who and who else might have been a good choice.  People here and there, including my husband and me, raised hands and happily participated in the conversation.

The next panel discussion on our schedule was about Time Travel in Star Trek lead by Sarah Canfield-Fuller, Ron Hawkins, Michael West, and Richard Lile.  This was a discussion in which I was able to be more active because I was very much into Star Trek, primarily Next Generation.  It was a lively hour as we talked about the many episodes in all of Star Trek which had a time travel theme to it and how we felt about each one, what we liked and what we disliked and what we might have changed.

After taking time to eat dinner, my husband and I parted ways for an hour so he could watch an episode of Space: 1999 while I attended a discussion called Comics in Movies lead by Mike Wickliff and Maurice Broaddus.  Everything from Batman to X-Men, to Watchmen, and Iron Man was mentioned as comic books that have become hit movies as well as the future of comic book movies and what to expect.  It was an entertaining conversation that we had talking about what comics should be made into movies and which ones shouldn't.  Included in the discussion was a list of people who would be good to be cast as certain superheroes.

In one of the suites, the next thing on our itinerary was Sonic Spatula, a one hour panel lead by Wendy Carson and Melissa Kocias that demonstrated how to make everything from a Dalek-shaped cake called "Extermination by Chocolate" and a hot drink beverage with hot cocoa, coffee, and allspice called Klah (from Anne McCaffrey's book "The Dragonriders of Pern"), as well as some melted cheese on a griddle that was as tasty as it was simple.  Although the cake didn't turn out quite the way it should have, due to some unforeseen difficulties, there was a picture of the finished product when it was successfully made in the past and everyone had the opportunity to taste the product as it was made at the time as well as the drink and cheesy treat.  All in all, despite the cake slightly falling apart during the demonstration, the panel leaders did a good job of keeping the demonstration going and it was a very enjoyable time.

After eating a few treats at Sonic Spatula, we moved on to the Opening Ceremonies, which was emceed by Tom Smith, The World's Fastest Filker and one of the most manic people in the history of fandom.*  At the Opening Ceremonies, we heard from Ellen Patterson, the ConChair for this year's convention.  One of the things mentioned during the ceremonies was the Charity Auction that was split into two sessions and was to benefit two charities; The Indiana Literacy Association (http://www.indianaliteracy.org/) and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (http://www.jdrf.org/).  

As we walked around the rest of the convention, we checked out the many tables of authors, artists, and vendors both inside and outside of what was referred to as the Dealer Room.  The Dealer Room, several aisles worth of people who sold and bought everything from amusing t-shirts, to Celtic jewelry, to colorful stones-both by themselves and in other jewelry, to Science Fiction and Fantasy books and CDs, Dr. Who action figures, a vendor who sold swords, and other vendors who sold a wide variety of other products.  One vendor table truly caught my eyes when I saw the sweetest looking calico cat in a large cage on top of a table for Cat's Haven (http://www.catshaven.org/).  They are one of Indiana's oldest no-kill shelters that always needs support for their almost 200 cats.  On their table is a variety of cat toys and information about their shelter.  For a small donation of $1 you could take home a small, hand-made, catnip-stuffed pillow or mouse.

Next on the agenda was the Doctor Who room, the one room at the convention where you could talk about and watch everything related to the show every hour of the convention.  In the Doctor Who room, most of the time, was the viewing of episodes from the show, episodes of both past and present Doctor Whos.  At the time we attended, Mark "De Boss" Dooley was leading the group with Greetings from the Whoosier Network.  Among the topics discussed was Doctor Who news updates and club activities.  Mark Dooley was a very outgoing leader of the group who could be seen wearing one of many Hawaiian shirts.  Friendly and funny, Mark did a good job throughout the weekend at keeping people entertained and conducted a Science Fiction trivia contest called Are You Smarter Than a Sci-Fi Geek on Saturday night; a contest where I took third place, beating out my husband, the one person I thought would win for sure.

That first night, we had planned on attending the Dance that was scheduled to start around 11 p.m., however, due to some technical difficulties, the dance didn't start until sometime after midnight and we had already left for the night, drained and wishing for our bed.  Up and early the next day, we ate a quick breakfast and made it to the convention and went to our first panel for the day called Dollhouse being lead by Jessica Bunn, Samuel Travis Clemmons, Karen Nagel, Jonathan Fesmire, and Michael West.  It was a very lively discussion about the show Dollhouse and what we'd like to see happen as well as what we felt should have been done differently.  

Afterwards, it was time for us to donate blood at the Robert A. Heinlein Memorial Blood Drive.  Earlier in the day, we had made an attempt at donating blood, but instead, opted to put our names on a list to arrive at noon to avoid the long line that would be there throughout the blood drive time period.  I've given blood many times, but at least I can say that I'll remember giving blood on July 4th.  Once we were done giving blood, we headed to a nearby food court to eat lunch.

After eating lunch and walking around the convention for a while and making a few purchases, we went to participate in Pub Trivia where everyone was separated into teams of three people, initially, but some groups ended up with one or two more people due to increased interest and lagging scores from certain teams.  Lou Harry was a very energetic man who served as host of the trivia contest.  Each round went by revealing the strengths and weaknesses of each team. In the end every team member got a prize and left the contest with a smile on their face after having so much fun coming up with answers to tricky trivia questions.  This was supposed to last two hours, but instead, lasted only one hour, giving us time to go eat an early dinner

More purchases and walking time later, our next panel was Mistakes Beginning Writers Make, a discussion lead by Michael Z. Williamson-author guest of honor, Rosemary Laurey, Lou Harry, Steven Marsh, Jason Sizemore, James S. Dorr, and David L. Burkhead.  The primary focus of this discussion was the mistakes that beginning writers sometimes make when trying to get published and agents (pros and cons).  Even though what I'm most adept at is writing articles, even I learned a few things should I ever decide to go beyond writing articles.  It was most informative for my husband, an aspiring writer who has self-published two books on Lulu.com, Four 'til Late and Sinking Down, under the name of Eric Garrison.  Just to plug for my husband, both of his books can be found at http://homebrew.net/roadghosts/ in both paperback and Kindle formats.

We went to a very amusing and entertaining masquerade next, which was emceed by Tom Smith and judged by Steven Marsh, Veronica Rich, and Melissa Kocias.  The costumes were very funny and creative; some were made ahead of the convention, others were made in the Create Your Own Costume room on Friday afternoon.  From a Vulcan, to some aliens, to a green wolf, the Joker, a zombie and many more, the masquerade was a very inventive and whimsical display.  The masquerade ended early, so we proceeded to the Doctor Who room for a few episodes to kill time before attempting to watch the midnight showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show.  Unfortunately, we both were too tired to stay up for the show and we went home and went to bed.

The dash of Paganism that was mentioned in the title of this article was the Pagan Ritual that took place in one of the suites of the hotel on Sunday, July 5th, the last day of the convention.  Before the ritual, I spoke to Katari, next year's ConChair, a solitary practitioner, and former member of Thalia Clan; she was the Priestess for the ritual and requested that no one else's name be mentioned to protect their identity from those people who may not know that they're Pagan.  I happily volunteered to call one of the quarters and my husband helped with the lighting of the candles on the altar.  There was a meditation focused on community and we all shared some water and Nilla Cakesters.  After the ritual was completed and the circle closed, I had a better chance to speak with Katari about being Pagan and the acceptance of Paganism by the Science Fiction and Fantasy crowd in general.

According to Katari, having a Pagan Ritual at InConJunction started about six years ago.  There had been a Christian, non-denominational service, but after doing that for a few years, she questioned why there wasn't a Pagan Ritual as well.  She was told that, as long as she could find someone to run it or had contact names of people who could run it, they had no problems with it.  A few groups had done it in the past, but Katari has been doing it the past few years just to make sure it doesn't die out.  She was raised Catholic, she tried Church of God, then she was Baha'i for a while before becoming Pagan; Katari's been Pagan for 16-17 years now.  "In the Science Fiction community in general," she told me, "you find a lot more openness because those people who are into Science Fiction and Fantasy and stuff like that are used to being looked at a little strange, so it's nice to be in a community where everybody accepts almost everybody."  Katari went on to say, "Well that's one of the reasons that, because I see that inter-relation within the community, is one of the reasons that the theme for my convention next year is how all those communities do inter-weave…the science fiction, the fantasy, the pagan community, the horror community, gamers, etc.…"  When asked if there's been any reaction to the inclusion of a Pagan ritual from the hotel itself, people who weren't part of the convention, she said, "Nope".  

After speaking with Katari, we viewed another episode of Doctor Who and watched a sneak preview of The 11th Doctor in the Doctor Who room before we went home for the day.

It was a weekend full of entertainment, informative panels, and fun games; definitely tiring, but definitely fun and worth checking out again next year!

For more info: Go to http://www.inconjunction.org/

*Taken from page 4 of the InConJunction Program book.