Scifi on the Rock V: The Most Awesome Convention This Side of Canada!

HELLO SCI-FI FANS!!!!

This year’s Scifi on the Rock took place on April 15th – 17th at the Holiday Inn here in St. John’s, Newfoundland.  And let me tell ya, they really outdone themselves this time.  With five awesome guests this time around, it made for a memorable weekend.  So sit back and enjoy my little adventure.

Do I ever have a treat for you.  Oh my gosh, where do I begin??  As I sit here, trying to process everything that I have seen and everyone I have met, it still feels like a dream.  I guess the best place to begin is in the beginning.

Well being a Saturday morning, I was excited and anxious all in one.  And not wanting to sleep in, we all seem to have gotten up early.  Though I did not really realize how early it was until I got downstairs and looked at the time – 7:32am.  WTH???

Registration was not until 9am, so what the devil was I doing up this early?  Oh well, good thing too I guess, so I could go over the list of things to make sure I had packed in my purse to take.  As well as to commandeer Brett’s book bag for my laptop to go in.

Well first off, things did not start to really happen until around 10am.  I got there around 9-ish.  So I had a bit of time to walk around, see who was about and check out where everything was.  And as I had my own panel/workshop, I did not have to pay for today’s activities.

It was almost 9am and there was a little line up starting to form already.  They had a different line to get into to buy a ticket for Dinner with the Stars.  And let me tell you, what an amazing experience I have ever had.  I will touch on this a little later.

Now, this is where my blond roots came through.  And I do not mean it in a bad way, but having forgotten to check the batteries for my regular digital camera, I started snapping off pictures on my cell phone.  I was able to send a couple to my friend so she could post on twitter for you all to see what I was seeing.  Thanks babe for that.  And you know who you are. 🙂

So as I ventured downstairs on my way to the Dealers Room, I started going through some sort of schedule for today’s exciting line-up of people to see.  As I walk into the room, this is what you get to see.

Then I took a look around.  A lot of the things were the same as before.  With the same tables set up having all their things on display to lure you in to buy their product.  I must say though, there were so many things there that pleases would appeal to everyone.

As I was walking around, looking at the awesome merchandise, I came across this table with a very nice looking guy at a very wicked set-up.  I walked over to him and immediately introduced myself as KarenFord1 from twitter.  He smiled and walked over to me and said told me that it was his partner in crime who I have been tweeting with these past few months.

I immediately giggled.  He introduced himself as Tom Brown.  Very easy name to remember – and pronounce, LOL.  The other Tom, who went by the name Thomas Gofton – not so easy to pronounce, but an awesome guy nonetheless.  Of course I am talking about the guys from Mind’s Eye Series.  Mind’s Eye is a new web series and is a MUST SEE!!!

As soon as Thomas got back to their table, Tom started pointing towards me.  I had the biggest smile and when I told him who I was, he immediately came over and gave me the biggest hug.  He has awesome hugs.  As do Tom, and I was so excited to have met them finally.  But sorry girls,, they are taken already.  But I had such an amazing time with them.  They were so funny and so passionate about Mind’s Eye that it was cool seeing them get people come up to them asking them about what Mind’s Eye was all about.

I was having such a great time with the two Tom’s, that I forgot all track of time.  Mainly because I left my watch at home.  I know – DUH!  I ended up missing the first Q&A that I had planned for today.  Good thing I will get to see it the next day.

I ran into Peggy Dixon who is one of the committee members for the convention in the lobby and asked her where the room was for Ms. Suzie Plaxtson‘s Q&A (the one I missed), so after getting the directions, and finding where the room was located, I went back to where I had last seen Peggy.  She asked me if I had seen David Nykl yet?  I answered her with a “no”. With that she told me that he should be coming by here any minute and that she will get his attention and introduce me to him.

Well, not only is he a bit on the shorter side (he looked much taller on TV), he zoomed right past us.  Leaving me to only see the back of his head so no picture at that time.  I told Peggy that it was okay, I would catch him at his table downstairs.

I looked on the schedule and the next Q&A was Mike Savva, so if I was to get a video of this one, I would have to go ask his permission.  So hurried on back to the Dealers Room to see if I could catch Mike.  And in case there was any chit-chat, I wanted to leave myself some room to spare for setting up.

I got to Mike’s table, introduced myself and asked if I would be allowed to video his Q&A for this site.  He asked about the website, so I explained who and what we are, gave him my card and he agreed to my request.  We got to talking about the fact that he was supposed to have came last year, but because of the Iceland Volcano that erupted, it caused him to be literally stuck in the United Kingdom.

We touched a little on his role in the Star Wars movie and he was also in Band of Brothers.  We also mentioned that when Christian J. Simpson was here for Sci-fi on the Rock 3 and that his name (meaning Mike Savva’s) was brought up a few times.  This appeared to concern Mike, but I told him that it was somewhat all good.  But you will get to see that Q&A soon.

I asked for a picture with him, and he was gracious to accommodate.  He was a lot of fun to chat with, and I thank him for the opportunity to interact with him.

Then I went to David Nykl‘s table.  Again, I done same thing I had with Mr. Savva. Even though I had an hour between Mike and David’s Q&A’s, I figured I would ask now and get it over with.  Again I gave David my card, he knew who we were.  And he gave me a “Yes” as well.

I sort of squirmed my way in behind the table to where Mr. Nykl was sitting.  He had all his pictures that he had brought all set out and ready for signing.  He stood as I approached and gave a smile with a funny ‘good morning’ greeting.  I asked him if he could sign my chosen Stargate Atlantis novel that I had taken with me.  I do not think that he knew about these novels, cause when I took it out, he asked if i knew the author.  I told him not personally, but I have a full collection of these.

I cannot wait to email Elizabeth Christensen and tell her that her novel – Casualties of War – was signed by Dr. Radek Zelenka himself.  After our brief conversation (as there were others that were lining up to get signed pictures), I headed back upstairs to check the time and head get ready for Mr. Savva’s Q&A.  So I informed Mr. Nykl that I would catch him later and went on my merry way. Before I actually went out the door I was able to get a nice picture of where the guests tables were.

So I headed back to the Roddenberry Room and get ready for Mike Savva’s Q&A and I am looking everywhere for my digital video camera.  It was missing.  Oh just great!  Well I never had time to go out to the truck and check if I had left it there because when I turned around, here was Janet (another committee member) introducing him.

So I frantically set up my laptop, turned on the web cam program and clicked to start recording the session.  And praying that the mic was working to capture what was being said in the room.  I never had time to test it out, so I hoped that it worked.  Because for those of you who catch me on Skype knows that my mic has a mind of it’s own and sometimes I have to fiddle with it to work.  This time luck was on my side and I had no cause to have to do this again.

The panel video turned out well. I will be posting that video shortly for you all to see and hear soon.  It is almost an hour long and I hope you enjoy what Mike Savva had to say.  And being that it came from the laptop, I hope you can hear it fine.  Though you might have to turn up the volume a bit.  So I won’t go into any detail as to what was said in the Q&A in here, I will leave that for the video.  Just know that Star Wars and Band of Brothers were mentioned.

So with his Q&A done, I should have gone to J. G. Hertzler‘s next.  However with a missing video camera, I had to go look for that above all else.  I went out to the truck, looked in the front seat, then the back.  Nope.  Nada.  I then headed back inside and went back downstairs to where the Mind’s Eye guys were, thinking I may have laid it down when I had a picture done with them, that it might have been left there.  Tom helped me look around, but nope, no camera.  I told him the kind it was and he said he would keep an eye out for it.

So I went back upstairs again.  I thought of the table where I had purchased the ticket for Dinner with the Stars.  And low and behold, there it was!  There were two volunteer girls there and I pointed to the camera asking if someone had left that there for me.  They did not know, so I asked to see it, I informed them that I had misplaced mine.  They were reluctant on passing me the camera, but they did anyway.  I took one look and sure enough, it was mine.  Thank God because I cannot do shorthand trust me! Even if I make a quick note about anything and I have a problem reading my own writing 😛

Because I had ran into Peggy just prior to this and informed her that the camera was missing I told her that I found it and where it was.  She was just as relieved as I was.  So because of that, I had missed J. G.’s Q&A.  This was becoming a habit.  But knowing that he had another one for the next day, I did not fret about it.

So while I was waiting for David’s Q&A, I popped in the batteries to my regular camera and went back downstairs to see what pictures I could get.  There was one just as you get in the room and down the ramp, an awesome display of leather jackets.  They had a suggestion
box on their table for anyone who would like to see a certain product.

I put in a suggestion for some jackets from the Sanctuary TV series.  Magnus has the most awesome clothes.  I would love to have her style.  Click on the picture above and check out their line of awesome products .

And you cannot have a convention of any kind without our Star Wars lovable robot – R2D2!  Maybe the creators will have a C3P0 in the future? I hope so!

Next the lady below, Sarah MacAulay, had a very cool set-up.  The name of her table was “Serendipity”.  She makes aliens and mermaids, among other very cool creatures.  Unfortunately, she does not have a website, but I do have her email address. If you are interested you can tweet to me and I will forward it on to her.

As I rounded the corner, I ran into Peggy again, though this time she was sitting at David Nykl’s table.  Unfortunately, he was off mingling, so I took his seat.  We were not there long when we were pleasantly surprised by the one and only Tony Stark (Ryan Skanes).

And what makes this so awesome is that the chest thingy (gotta love my technobabble) took him six months to actually make.  You cannot tell by the picture, but it really lights up!

Then there was a regular who is always dressed up in one thing or another.  This time he was costumed as a Jedi Knight.  His name is Dion Hicks.  His light sabers were made overseas and were spectacular.  Especially with the fact that it changed colors and had with the sound to go with it!

With so much fun and using up my hour wisely, I then headed to David Nykl’s Q&A.  I have a video of this panel that will post soon so I will not go into deep detail as to precisely what was said at the present time.  Although I will share that this was his first time back to Newfoundland since way back when he was in Grade 10 in Stevenville.  So this was his first trip back to St. John’s in quite a while and he said was loving it!

And on that note, I shall stop right there.  My next write up will be a bit shorter as it will be about my time during the Dinner with the Stars and the Cantina improvization  caberet. The ambiance was wonderful.  During the evenings festivities an auction was conducted to help a local charity group raise money for a worthy cause, the St. Johns Community Youth Network – School Lunch Association.

Thank you for taking the time to read about what an awesome convention here on THE ROCK.  I hope you enjoyed it and if anything, has made you think of coming for a visit for the next one.  Trust me, you will not regret it.

And thanks also for stopping by WormholeRiders News Agency Conventions Corner web site.

Please feel free to leave a comment here, click an icon below to share this interview or you can nab me on Twitter by clicking on my avatar to the right.

Come again.

Karen Ford XO