Many years ago, before the Chief Wombat arrived in Las Vegas, there was an SF convention called Silvercon. I gather it eventually failed for lack of staff and attendees, though I don’t know all the details; what I do know is that nobody’s tried to stage another one.
What I do know is that there are several fan groups in Las Vegas, several game stores, an entire bar devoted to geek culture, and every so often there’s an anime convention and/or media convention in town. Plus, there’s UNLV, CSN, and Dixie State University just a couple hours u the ’15. Seems to me that from all this, it should be possible to assemble a martial arts army of extraordinary magnitudedecent little SF convention along the lines of Libertycon, which is unfortunately constrained by a membership limit built into its bylaws.
So, despite the short time left to us before October, I’m going to give it a shot. If we get enough people, we’ll hold it at the Plaza Hotel in downtown Las Vegas; if we don’t, we’ll find a smaller venue, perhaps one of the Best Western hotels in the area. Which is what we wound up doing. See the updated WHERE info below.
The details so far:
WHAT: Son of Silvercon. “It is like Libertycon, but it is not Libertycon.” – Lennier, or somebody like him
WHEN: September 28-30, 2023 October 13-15, 2023
WHO: You, me, Hoyt’s Huns, Monster Hunter Nation, libertarians, conservatives, and other malcontents & wrongthinkers. Our Guest of Honor is M.C.A. Hogarth, artist, author, cartoonist and all-round nice lady. You can check out all her cool stuff at Studio MCAH. Also attending – Special guests Sarah Hoyt and Daniel Hoyt. Sarah blogs at According to Hoyt, Instapundit, and Mad Genius Club; in her copious free time (sic) she also writes some pretty cool SF. Daniel Hoyt is the author of 9th Euclid’s Prince and Sarah’s husband. Also also, Jon Del Arroz, author, cartoonist & YouTube dude.
WHERE: The Best Western Plus in Henderson, Nevada, a suburb of Las Vegas about the size of St. Louis but not nearly as crappy.
HOW: Send us money! Buy memberships and T-shirts! Well, for now just buy memberships. We’re working with our GoH on a suitable design for the T-shirts.
Attending memberships: $40 in advance; $35 for current members of the N3F, military personnel, and veterans. $20 for supporting memberships (may be converted to attending by paying the difference through May 15).
Vendor tables: $100 per table (limit of 2); each table includes one attending membership. Please note that you MUST have a Nevada sales tax permit to sell stuff at the convention!
Are you a professional writer? Would you like to earn a reduced-price membership by hanging out with Daniel, Maggie, and/or Sarah on a panel and talking about Stuff and Things? We have a limited number of panelist slots available. Contact me on Twitter (@wombat.socho), MeWe, or Gab.
Send checks or money orders to Friends of Fission-chan, PO Box 143, Tonopah NV 89049.