HyperiCon, Nashville’s speculative fiction and gaming convention, returns this year after taking a breather for 2012. The eighth HyperiCon convention will be held June 14-16 at the Holiday Inn Express, Nashville Airport Hotel at 1111 Airways Drive, Nashville, Tenn. 37214. HyperiCon 8 will feature three days of writing, gaming, fandom, art and costuming, panels, video programming, and a gaming room. The convention also features its ever-popular Worst Opening Line contest, the one-and-only HyperiCon Spam Slam, a Costume Contest, Art Show, Silent Auction and the ever-funtastic Con-suite.
This year’s Writing Guest of Honor is Robin Hobb, author of The Rain Wild Chronicles and The Farseer Trilogy, among others. Special guests include: Dennis R. Upkins, Sara M. Harvey, Glen Cook, H. David Blalock, Herika Raymer, Stephen Zimmer, A.J. Scudiere, J. Ardian Lee, and Shane Ivey. Upkins, best known for Hollowstone and Stranger Than Fiction is a freelance artist, digital photographer, and a regular contributor to Ars Marginal and Prism Comics.
This year’s panels will include such things as: ‘An Hour with Robin Hobb,’ Game demos, Small press publishing, game design, couponing, The Spam Slam, costuming, MMORPGs, the Worst First Line contest, author signings, ‘world building,’ Art demos, How to Succeed as a Freelance Artist, and a wide variety of other pop-culture subjects, such as this author’s fascinating look at the Canadian Contributions to American Science-Fiction Television and Film.
Nashville’s coolest summer event begins on Friday, June 14. Come out and be part of the celebration all weekend long! For Friday night’s Worst First Line contest, write a hypothetical sentence that would be the first of a story that would make folks cringe, groan, or otherwise react in such a way that they might not want to read any more unless they are gluttons for punishment or want to prove that a writer that awful really exists. Read it to a grateful audience and (if you are voted Hypericon 2013’s Worst Author) they promise to keep it to themselves!
The Art Show and Dealers’ Room is open Friday 2-7 pm, Saturday 10 am-6 pm, and Sunday 10 am-2 pm. Dealers include Glen Cook-BookSeller, Seventh Star Press, Golden Knots, The World of Strange, Twisted Heroes, and Bobby Nash Writer at Large. A Silent Auction will be held for the Books From Birth charity.
There’s round-the-clock gaming, both video and board games; the famous Hospitality Suite; and Chattacon hosts a cookout Saturday afternoon.
Weekend badges are on the Hypericon website for $35 through June 10. After that, on-site registration will be $45. For registration or more information, visit the website at hypericon.us. The room rates are $93 per night if you use the HYP code when you register online or tell hotel registration you are with Hypericon when you call the front desk at 615-883-1366 or the hotline at 1-888-HOLIDAY (1-888-465-4329).
