Shore Leave (US convention)/2012
| Convention | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Shore Leave (US convention) |
| Dates: | August 3-5, 2012 |
| Frequency: | |
| Location: | Baltimore, Maryland |
| Type: | |
| Focus: | multi-fandom |
| Organization: | |
| Founder: | |
| Founding Date: | |
| URL: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Shore Leave is an annual fan-run convention that takes place in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
It was founded by the Star Trek Association of Towson which continues to run it. The first convention took place in 1979; the con was still running as of 2025.
The con's focus was initially on Star Trek, but it has since broadened to include other science fiction media.
2012: Shore Leave 34
It was held August 3-5, 2012.
This was the first Shore Leave that wasn't on the second weekend in July. The far more hugigantinormous San Diego Comic-Con had decided that its 2012 and 2013 assemblages will be on that same weekend, which would have left Shore Leave scrambling for actor guests. For the next two years, Shore Leave would be held on the first weekend of August.
2012: Programming
- Showcase: Con Skit: Episode MST-ed: TOS: “The Cage” by Mystery Trekkie Theater (see for more information on the con's skits in general)
- The Chromatics (music)
- other unknown
2012: Con Reports
Got a tan Toyota Corolla from Hertz and took off for Hunt Valley. The drive was smooth; as usual, I only got lost for a couple of minutes. It’s much easier with a navigator, and I’m too cheap to rent a GPS for a half-hour trip. Found a parking space, got the room, and was startled to find out that the room was only two doors from the elevator. Trust me, the Hunt Valley Inn needs it’s very own GPS system.
[...]
I wanted to see the “Star Trek: Complete Unauthorized History” panel with Robert Greenberger, Scott Pearson, and Dave Galanter at 7:00, so we got back in plenty enough time… Robert Greenberger, Scott Pearson, and Dave Galanter
I believe I went back to my room after this panel and unpacked, watched TV a bit, and then went to the Meet the Pros, which means that all invited authors sit in a hallway and sign books or whatever. This for me is a very humbling experience — this time, Rigel and I sat towards the front of the hall and watched people pass by, going to Peter David and the other authors. I amused myself by taking pictures of other people. Rigel noted that we were at Levar Burton’s table — where he had signed autographs in the afternoon, so I took a picture of the sign.
I believe I signed one thing all night. As I had said the year before, I signed more checks for my day job than I do at Shore Leave — *grin*. I did get a bunch of autographs, and I arranged at the book seller at the con to sell my book, “How I learned to Hate the Shadows.”
Looked into the bar after the Meet the Pros shut down, but there were no seats and I don’t really drink anyway, so I went to bed.
The next day was the busy day. Since I had felt I hadn’t done enough the previous years, I signed up to be on lots of panels. The first one was the Eureka farewell, which also had Aaron Rosenberg, Phil Giunta, T. Alan Chafin, and Terri Osborne. As I remember, there were enough people talking that I didn’t need to say much. After all, Aaron had written two of the three Eureka books, and Terri was on the Eureka Lab on Facebook.
The next panel I went to — but obviously wasn’t on — was the “Crazy 8 turns one” panel. Crazy 8 is a collaborative press between six writers...
[...]
The next panel I was on was “Everything is Better in a Tardis,” with Allyn Gibson, T. Alan Chafin, Kieryn Nicolas, Phil Giunta, Terri Osborne, and Kathleen David — or what I like to say — a cast of thousands. This ended up being a talk about what shows we would like to see crossed with Dr. Who, and I brought up my Dr. Who/Mary Poppins fan story crossover: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4480217/1/Meripopindular. Only a week later I saw a picture on FB suggesting the same thing. Great minds think alike.
I was going to go to the fan fiction panel, but I got sidelined by the bookseller — she wanted me to sit at the book table and hopefully sell books and sign autographs. I sat there for a little over a half hour, talked to a couple of people, talked to the bookseller, didn’t sell one book or sign one thing. But I took more pictures from the little nook in the wall..
Left the bookseller and went to the “Warehouse 13: What’s New” panel with Greg Cox. Neither of us knew what was new — since the program had only aired two new episodes — so we basically speculated what would happen and what we thought should happen. Since Greg wrote the only “Warehouse 13” novel “A Touch of Fever,” I felt once again outclassed and refrained mentioning my fan story Warehouse 13/The Librarian crossover.
Can’t remember what I did between 5 and 6. I think I grabbed a hamburger from the hotel. I did wander in the Dealer’s room at one point and checked with Mysti Frank — www.agentwithstyle.com — to see if her new fanzine I was in was out. (It never made it out, her printer person was having equipment problems.)
At six I was on a “Self Publishing and Small Press Publishing” panel, again with a cast of thousands: Terri Osborne, Susan Olesen, Kelly Medding, Steve Wilson, Aaron Rosenberg, and Glenn Haumen. Once again, I was outclassed, once again, I didn’t contribute much except to introduce myself. S’all right, I still enjoyed it.
Went back to the room. At 8:30, I went to the masquerade and enjoyed all of the costumes and took a bunch of pictures, most of which were blurry, because I was taking them without flash. I did get to see the “Boogie Knights” parody song group — I had missed them in the morning — and enjoyed them as usual.
Trolled the bar again, but decided to go to bed, instead.
Sunday was more of a blur. I remember going to the Media Tie-Ins Vs. Original Fiction panel, but I don’t remember much of it except that again, it had a cast of thousands: Keith RA DeCandido, Aaron Rosenberg, Kathleen David, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Christopher Bennett, and Ann C. Crispin. Probably I don’t remember much because they covered things I already knew, for example, in Tie-In fiction, anything an author creates in a particular universe belongs to the copyright holder, but in original fiction, everything belongs to the author.
The next panel I went to was “The Business Side of Pro Writing,” with Kelly Meding, Peter J. Wacks, Aaron Rosenberg, and Keith R.A. DeCandido. As I remember, setting a time every day to write was part of the panel, and the point was made that if one is going to be a pro writer, one has to treat it as a business. Once again, most stuff I already knew.
[...]
The last panel — and the last one I was on — was the “Latchkeys: A New EBook series” panel with Bob Greenberger, Aaron Rosenberg, and Rigel Ailur. This rapidly ended up being a business meeting, because the only people who showed up was Bob’s wife and daughter, and Aaron’s wife and son (who ended up watching TV on the other side of the suite.) We discussed the current status of the Latchkeys series, I asked whether I should set up a Latchkeys FB page, and we took picture of the three of us (Rigel is camera shy.)
[...]
I got an autograph from Kate Mulgrew. Sometime earlier in the weekend, I got an autograph from Levar Burton, but refrained telling him that we had sat at his table. Somewhere around this time, I retrieved my books from the bookseller — not a one had sold. She bought one for the store, anyway, and I wished her luck selling it. I certainly hadn’t much luck.
The last panel of the night was the Mystery Trekkie Theater 3000, where Peter David, Bob Greenberger, and Michael Jan Friedman sit behind a screen and make fun of a classic trek episode. Trust me, it’s funnier than it looks on paper. [1]
References
- ^ Back from Shore Leave 2012, Archived version, some photos by Lorraine J. Anderson (August 2012)