London Book Fair 2024 and more

[2024: London Book Fair Mar 11-14, The Shard March 15, Liquid History Tours Mar 16 – London UK]

London Book Fair (LBF) is an annual event (held in Olympia Exhibition Centre) in London. Publishers from around the world descend into London and every square inch of the convention center is filled. I went to LBF to hawk Rebecca O’Donnell’s books as well as my stuff.

The trip was interesting. At MSP (Minneapolis) airport, I boarded the Delta Airbus 330 with a Comfort+ seat (which is between the Economy section and the First Class or Delta One section). The plane was oversold of course. Some guy comes up to me and says I am in his seat. I am like, no, this is mine. So he gets the gate agent ad the gate agent takes my ticket – and returns and tells me I was upgraded to First Class! That was cool.

Pre-LBF trade show, on Monday, there was a Writer’s Conference sponsored by LBF. Met a bunch of writers from all over the world. The talks ranged from how to self-publish and get noticed (social media, social media, and social media) to how to get it published traditionally. Yeah, well, doesn’t everyone want to do it “traditionally” – which is excessively difficult, of course… Anyway, the talks were interesting. The seminar included lunch as well as a wine and mingle afterwards.

The next day at the London Book Fair, the guy who kicked me out of my seat just happened to be the VP of Sales for Lerner Publishing Group! Not missing a beat, I said I represent Rebecca O’Donnell, and here is one of her children’s books! He said he was upgraded to my seat; hence I got upgraded to first class. (He gave me his card and I contacted him a week later… he said he’ll “pass” on it – oh, well, still was cool encounter.)

So I went every day and dumping flyers on tables and trying to see who I can bump into and so on so forth. No luck of course. On the last day I saw the Alliance of Independent Authors booth and went around the corner to talk to them when I bumped into the CEO of a small publishing house. We talked for about fourty minutes and to make the long story short, she gave me her card and told me to have Rebecca O’Donnell call her! (When I got back, I told Beck to talk to her and they ‘clicked’ immediately. So now I am formatting all of Beck’s books to get it pushed through the publisher! Is that cool or what? That was a great last day.

Time to leave Olympia Exhibition Centre. And, the most annoying and worthless tube stop in London is the “Kensington Olympia” station. It’s supposed to be open on weekends and special events (oh, like the LBF) but it wasn’t open, and even when scheduled to be opened, it doesn’t. So, don’t ever count on it ever being open! Use the Overground for that station, even though it’s a pain to connect to the tube (underground). At any rate, continue with more adventures below…

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The Shard

After the London Book Fair, I went to The on a “Mastercard Priceless VIP Tour of the Shard”. (If you have any Mastercard, you can book this, just search on “Mastercard Priceless VIP Tour of the Shard”.) The link always changes, so do a search. (For general information on the building, click here: The Shard.) Go to the bottom of this page to see all of the pictures.

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Afternoon Tea in the Shangri-La Hotel

Back-to-back, went to the Ting Afternoon Tea in the Shangri-La Hotel. I had to take the elevator down from the observation deck to the ground floor, then walk around the building to the Shangri-La Hotel and take the elevator back up to the hotel level. They continually rotate the theme of the tea so you will get a different experience each time. Go to the bottom of this page to see all of the pictures.

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Liquid History Tours

Third time is a charm. I booked this tour twice before but had to cancel due to unforseen issues (conflict of events the first time and the Iceland volcano going off which may have caused flights to be cancelled on the way back…) So made it this time! And the tour stopped at the Black Friar’s Pub so that was awesome – I always walked or “tubed” past it but never went in, so that was a super cool treat. Tours are really inexpensive if you want to go (and the tour does not include drinks but plenty of time to drink at least one pint – or two half-pints.) Go here for information: Liquid History Tours. Go to the bottom of this page to see all of the pictures.

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The Pictures

Here are all of the pictures I took in chronological order, just click on the picture or link below:

During the “Liquid History Tours”, it’s an eight-TARDIS building 🙂

ConPossible Atlanta 2024

[2024 February 15 thru 18, Atlanta, GA US]

Back to Atlanta, the city has more cons (conventions) year round for all tastes. This was the inaugural for a new con, based on a rebirth of the old con, previously known as “The Atlanta Steampunk Exposition”.

The con had the usual vendor room, con suite, seminars, and the like. They had a full time tea room where you can have tea all day and night long, supplied by local tea vendors. It was awesome just hanging in the room – because hanging in the vender hall is dangerous, as in depleting your wallet on cool thing to buy 🙂

There was one party room sponsored by River City Steampunk Expo which will be held 31-May through 2-June. I helped them get their room set up for the party. And the party room was a blast. I will be going to this con and meeting up with the friends I made here, the time traveling fairy Ophelia and her sidekick Otto. (And I didn’t even get a picture of them at ConPossible – I will at do that at River City!

Here are the some pictures from the con. I should have taken a lot more pictures but I was having too much fun to remember to ‘click’ more!

A few of the ConPossible 2024 pics are here!

See you at the next ConPossible in Atlanta in 2025!

July 4th Fireworks on the Raven at the Mensa AG 2023 BWI

[2023-July-04-thru-09, Baltimore, MD US]

So I decided to go to the 2023 Mensa AG or Annual Gathering in Baltimore, MD. Didn’t take any pictures at the convention since it was really just people walking around, going to seminars, and hanging in the hospitality suite.

However, I did take pictures aboard the Raven and cruised around the inner harbor area and then watched the fireworks. So if you want to see a few pics of the ship and a bunch of the fireworks, click on the piture or link below:


July 4th 2023 Fireworks aboard the Raven – Baltimore, MD US

International Steampunk Symposium Cincinnati 2023

[2023-June-16-thru-18, Cincinnati, OH US]

Haven’t been to a con, for a long, long time. So this is to rebooting my con scene adventures, starting out with the International Steampunk Symposium in Cincinnati from 16 through 18 of June, 2023. I went for the afternoon tea on Saturday, everything else is a bonus…

Thursday
Arrived late as always, since I have to fly after work. Hit the hotel, got two bottles of water, and snoozed.

Friday
Worked during the day as usual. Later afternoon, I went wandering. The vendor room was fantastic. (Sorry, I didn’t get any pics there.) And the Great Grandiloquent Wordsmith and his wife were at the con! We chatted for the longest time. It was major fun and a huge bonus meeting them! If you are not familiar, please do go visit: GrandiloquentWordOfTheDay.com

 

I bought a flask with a leather carrying case to add to my steampunk belt and also got a two inch suspender stretcher. (The suspenders are fine back to front but they keep on falling off the shoulder so I wear it in an “X” on the back, which makes it short and then I fell hunched down all day so this alleviates the problem. And of course, I just noticed that the emblems on them match (not that it matters, the suspender extenders will be under multiple layers of clothing).

 

Saturday
Okay, the tea event was rather weird. Just walk in, get seated, eat, and drink. No intro, no hello, or welcome. I was randomly seated with another guest; but that was fine, we had a nice chat. The big thing was, though, no three tier tray for the food – I mean with Steampunk, presentation is everything, no? (And no Pimm’s. No Pimm’s! Not that I expected that of course.) The food was actually great, with scones and everything.

 

Sunday – Was travel back to reality time. But you can suspend disbelief for a few more minutes perusing the (very few, sorry) pics I have taken. See all the pictures by clicking on the picture or link below:


International Steampunk Symposium Cincinnati 2023

Tiki Oasis 2021

[28-JUL through 91-Aug 2021, San Diego, CA, US]

Back in 2019, my sci-fi con buddy Nathan said I gotta go to Tiki Oasis – it is over the top fun. SO I said okay, I’m game. Registered for Tiki Oasis 2020 and -BOOM- COVID hit. So – I rolled over my tickets to 2021 and here are my pictures in no particular order… Few pictures are from Angela, as marked. Click on the pic or link below to check out all of the Tiki photos:

Tiki Oasis 2021 -Live entertainment day and night!