By Contstance Lightwood

New Orleans saw the re-turn of something wonder-ful to her murky shores the weekend of Nov. 4. Since Hurricane Katrina devas-tated the region, the Cres-cent City has been severely lacking a convention scene. In the years following, we have seen the creation of a comic convention, an anime convention has mi-grated from another part of the state and we have had our fi rst Wizard World visit. However, despite a long history of science fi c-tion conventions in the area - even hosting WorldCon in 1951 and 1988 - the city had yet to see the return of the science fi ction conven-tion.

That all changed over the fi rst weekend in November with the inaugural CONtra-fl ow.

I was fortunate enough to volunteer at this fl edg-ling convention as part of a local steampunk group, Ironclad Cairo. While my free exploration time was limited because of volun-teering, I think I can safely

say that this convention is going to have a long and prosperous future. The or-ganizers took their time to plan a wonderful show for the attendees.

I wasn’t surprised by the small size of the conven-tion, but I was thrilled by the variety of events, deal-ers and panels available. The convention had four panel rooms, a huge game

room and a fair sized deal-er’s room for the size of the convention, in addition to an amazing hospitality suite and art show. They also had panels scheduled for several hours after the dealer’s room closed. The game room was open the entire weekend, had games on loan from a local shop, and people were available to demo the games at near-

ly every hour. The dealer’s room con-

tained various book and game sellers, a couple of people selling t-shirts and CDs, a sword dealer, a dice dealer, a couple of people selling jewelry (of all fen-nish varieties) and a mas-sage therapist (Best. Idea.

November 2011 ~ Vol. 5, Issue 3

CONtrafl ow: the birth of a Sci-Fi convention

Photo by Contstance LightwoodCONtrafl ow’s contest winner was a Zombie Lego Man

See CONtrafl owPage 11

WHAT’S INSIDE

Female Stormtroopers?

Page 5

Tolkien opens world of “nerd” to

young girlPage 4

GoldRun, a leader in augmented reality marketing programs, announced today it has partnered with Clut-ter Magazine, the world’s premier media source for Designer Toys, to create the first-ever augmented real-ity scavenger hunt of a cu-rated collection of coveted Designer Toys, representing the work of more than 30 ac-claimed artists.

Launching on Nov. 10, fans can participate by downloading the free Gol-dRun app and following the “GoldRun X Clutter Maga-zine Designer Toy Run” to participate.

Through GoldRun, users will see virtual representa-tions of real Designer Toys, which they can capture to gain points and compete against each other to win the real toys. This groundbreak-ing campaign will bring to-gether the sculptural world of designer toys and their tight-knit, international fanbase to a global audience through cutting-edge mobile technol-ogy. “AR technology is cre-

ating a paradigm shift from a world of search to a world of discovery. Now, an inter-national artist and collector community can engage on a level never before possible, changing the landscape for how art is consumed as col-lectibles, both in the virtual and real worlds,” says Viv-ian Rosenthal, CEO and Founder of GoldRun.

The GoldRun X Clutter Magazine Designer Toy Run will consist of three different types of runs all varying in geographic scope to maxi-mize community gameplay: first, a globally available hunt; second, a city-specific hunt available in New York, London, San Francisco, and Chicago; and third, a loca-tion-specific hunt that will be deployed within three high-traffic locations throughout the four available cities. Running over the course of six weeks, the toys will be rotated twice a week in the GoldRun app to optimize exposure for all 30 artists in participation and provide a diverse selection of collect-

ibles for those playing. All players are encour-

aged to share photos over Facebook and Twitter for a chance to win the toy of their choice. Competing against each other across the lead-erboard, the players with the most points win actual de-signer toys. With a selection of over 250 toys, there is a wealth of prizes to be had for the seasoned Designer Toy collector or the budding fan.

“GoldRun is a great op-portunity to increase fans’ knowledge about designer toys using the latest in app technology,” says Josh Kim-berg, Clutter’s Managing Partner.

Recognized alongside a specific movement of illus-trative and modern pop art, designer toys are not played with but enjoyed for their aesthetic appeal. With the in-novative idea of using indus-trial manufacturing methods to create miniature works of art, the Designer Toy Move-ment gained momentum in the early 2000s when designers, comic book art-

ists, illustrators, and graffiti artists, inspired by popular culture, had a new outlet for their creative energies and soon collectors were lining up to buy their releases.

The latest product designs represent a convergence of numerous subcultures, in-cluding underground com-ics, rock poster, street art, subversive culture and skateboard graphics. Clutter, which has been at the fore-front of the movement since 2004, has harnessed this new energy with the launch of the inaugural Designer Toy Awards in 2011.

“It's cool to see the physi-cal sculptural world merge with the augmented reality world for this cool toy hunt. Fans and followers will get a chance to get their hands on some amazing limited edi-tion pieces, all though this cool new technology,” says Jonathan Cathey, Owner The Loyal Subjects, who provided limited edition toys designed by CA artists Alex Pardee and Buff Monster.

Elizabeth TurnerTait Torkelson Abi Selvidge

LLaura Latterman

Contstance Lightwood

Designer toy scavenger hunt to go worldwide

4

By Tait Torkelson & Abi “AbiSue” SelvidgeWashington D20 Girls

SEATTLE, WA - The Zombie Horde took Seattle by storm in October with Zombie Walk followed by a Con dedicated completely to zombies and zombie culture, ZomBCon. The Seattle D20 Girls were lucky enough to be provided with a Vendors booth and several passes for this event.

We had a great showing of girls in some fantastic costumes both Zombie and Zombie hunter. I was rather impressed not just with the turn out for the event, but the big names our humble Con in its second year managed to attract. There were a fair number of vendors offering everything from Zombie Combat manuals to candied zombie body parts (which where oddly popular).

The attendees that I inter-acted with all seemed rather excited and impressed by the whole event and one of the biggest complaints I heard was that not enough people dressed up. I too can agree with that sentiment as I saw a great lack of cosplay and costumes then one would have expected, but the Con-vention staff cannot be held accountable for that.

We also managed to have one of our local girls attend several panels and she has kindly offered up feedback on how those turned out in her opinion.

We were able to attend a few of the panels hosted by Boondock Saints Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flannery. Panel: The Walk-ing Dead: Stories of Surviv-al SEASON 2 in which Nor-man Reedus (Daryl Dixon in the show) talked about how it’s been being a part of the show. He was very friendly and responsive to any and all questions from the audience. Sadly he couldn’t let out anything about season 2, he didn’t want to get in trouble because he loves being a part of the show. Also there was actress Melissa Cowan who played the zombie Bicycle Girl, as well as many other zombies from the Walking Dead. She told us that the

zombie makeup takes about 6 hours or so before every shoot! Wow and I think it takes me forever to get into some of my cosplays, that’s dedication to her craft!

We also attended the Pan-el: Raging Fists & Rotting Flesh: Hand to Hand Com-bat With the Undead hosted by Sean Patrick Flannery. The panel as a whole was kind of funny because it was mostly about how to win in a fight against a zombie. Roger Ma, Thom Carnell and Jonathan Mayberry au-thors of some serious books about zombie combat were trying to discuss all tactics that go into defeating a zom-bie. Sean Patrick Flannery would have none of that! He continued to interject with

statements about how zom-bies are fictional characters so the best defense against them is a pair of running shoes. Also, which every question he would come in with, if the director said the zombie could do that, then they can! He would also pe-riodically check his phone and state the opinion of Norman Reedus, who, little known to us, was hanging out in the back of the panel. At the end, it pretty much degenerated to a hilarious yelling match between Sean and the authors, all in all a very funny panel.

We had a great time at ZomBcon, and we highly recommend it to anyone thinking about attending next year!

Zombie horde invades SeattleWeekend brings stars from shows like “Walking Dead”

Far left: Tail Torkelson; Far right: Abi “AbiSue” Selvidge - both with the Wash-ington D20 Girls - posing with a group of ZomBCon attendees.

By Elizabeth Turner

I’ve always been a cos-tumer. I dressed up all the time as a kid just for fun or for Halloween, but my junior year of college, I discovered that I could wear my costumes for a greater purpose. By pure accident and just a little luck, I stumbled across the 501st Legion while study-ing abroad in Singapore. The sheer awesomeness of getting to take my pho-to with Stormtroopers led me to look up more about the organization.

Doing so, I found out that the 501st Legion, and their sister organiza-tion the Rebel Legion, were more than just Star Wars costuming groups. I learned that they were charity organizations and that there were many other similar groups out there. I helped out a few troops with the Singapore Garri-son and started research-ing my own costumes.

I had to decide what I wanted to be. All the 501st approved costumes are canon costumes of the bad guys from the movies, TV series, or comic books of the Star Wars Universe. I wanted something rec-ognizable, and let’s face it: the first costumes that anyone notices at a 501st/Rebel Legion troop are the

Stormtroop-ers.

T h e y ’ r e usually the most numer-ous and by far the most r e c o g n i z -able costume with that nice shiny, white armor. Even the av-erage viewer knows that Stormtroop-ers mean Star Wars.

You’d think they’d know Darth Vader, but every troop, some-one mistakes a TIE Pilot (also in black) for Vader. For the 501st Legion, the vast majority of the approved costumes are armored ones, even if they branch out from the basic Stormtrooper.

These include Clone Troopers and the differ-ent specialty Troopers from both Trilogies, but the same basic concept of armor and a helmet still exists. Troopers are the backbone of every Garri-son.

Put on the “bucket,” and you become a face-less pawn of the Empire:

awesome, intimidating, masculine.

There was my problem. The options for dressing as a Star Wars baddie are very limited for female costumers.

The only female charac-ters are face characters and frequently scantily clad ones at that (take Darth Talon for example). What if you don’t have the body for it? What if you can’t do full-body makeup?

Take it from someone who has a still incomplete Asajj Ventress costume,

the female face character options for 501st member-ship are very difficult for most women. In order to become a member of the 501st, we would have to either sacrifice our femi-ninity by wearing a mas-culine costume or put our femininity on an uncom-fortable level of display.

Neither option was ide-al for me or many other women. That’s not to say that there aren’t female

5

See STORMTROOPERPage 10

Women In White:The Introduction of Canon Female Stormtroopers

6

By Laura “Cryshayn” Latterman

I, Laura Latterman, am a nerd. It is some-thing I am proud of. It is reflected

in almost everything I do, but most importantly through my reading writ-ing. My love of writing grew from my fascination with reading. In seventh grade, Mr. Vanderkamp’s English class was required to read “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. I had never been exposed to that type of a story before. I was always a reader, but this was not “The Babysitter’s Club” that I was brought up on. Instead this was plot and imagery, love and revenge, dialogue and vo-cabulary that I occasion-ally had to look up, and I couldn’t get enough of it. Our class partook in “pop-corn” reading, where a student would read a sec-tion, then randomly select a peer to read the next sec-tion, subjecting the “pop-corn” recipient to embar-rassment if their place was lost. This was a difficult class for me. Not because I couldn’t keep up; I just couldn’t slow down. I would sit there with two books on my desk, and, as I continued plowing ahead

into “The Two Towers,” I would have to ask my neighbor what page they were on in “The Fellow-ship of the Rings.” I was hooked and thankfully Mr. Vanderkamp appreciated my rapacious reading.

After Tolkien, I couldn’t return to the children's or young adult sections of my local bookstore. Instead, I perused the Science-Fic-tion and Fantasy isle. My newly discovered appetite for fantastical fiction was mirrored in the media: the original Star Wars trilogy was re-released. I was al-ways a fan of Star Wars – growing up, my father made sure my brother and I were privy to the televi-sion reruns and films that he considered classics, in-cluding the likes of John Wayne, Jean Luke Picard, Han Solo and Dick Tracy. Now, I had the opportunity to see the Star Wars films on the big screen, but bet-ter yet, there was an en-tire book series. Tolkien led the way to Star Wars, and, although the writing was of a different quality, it still carried with it that infectious element of fan-tasy.

Mr. Vanderkamp was kind enough to help sign me into Honors level English, which carried over into high school. My freshman year, I met Juli-

anna. We hit it off immedi-ately. She was smart, fun-ny, outgoing, loud and had interests right in line with my own. It was with Juli-anna that I first attempted actual writing. I’d writ-ten some poetry typical of teenage angst, but what high-schooler didn’t? No. This was dialogue; it was plot; it was fan fiction (the genre of want-to-be-writers’ literary contribu-tions based on their favor-ite novels or films). Our attempt at Star Wars fan fiction was…well, it was not good. Dialogue was kept to inside jokes, nar-rative was a novelty and action was just awkward. We didn’t have the expe-rience we needed in either life or writing to truly get what we wanted on paper, regardless of our fandom. This was, however, a start. I was writing, instead of just reading.

Somewhere between the Star Wars books and writing, my avid partici-pation in choir and drama, and my promising GPA, it dawned on me: I am a nerd. It was a very impor-tant realization. By label-ing myself as a geek or nerd, I was admitting to the world that I was a little “off” and not quite normal. Apparently, most people don’t know that Harrison Ford never actually audi-tioned for the role of Han

Solo, or that a diamond actually sparkles because the combination of the angles and density of the carbon-based diamond literally traps particles or that the ‘and’ symbol is called an ampersand. Who knew? Well, I guess I did. And, that, ladies and gentleman, constituted my nerdom.

Thankfully, as I got older, my nerdiness be-came an asset. My mature vocabulary, desire to learn and outgoing nature meant that I would never have to flip a burger for minimum wage. Instead, I worked for a tutoring and home-school facility, where I was given free range to write newsletters and cre-ate marketing materials. It was a novel experience for an 18-year-old, but it was one I took to instantly.

From then on, I worked in offices of all sorts: edu-cational, real-estate, med-ical, religious, etc. And, while working, I always took classes. Over the next ten years, thirty plus hours of work a week and three classes a semester got me a solid resume, a ton of experience, my As-sociate’s degree and most of the way through my Bachelor’s. Then I moved to Denver.

“Nerdy” woman finds strength in her differences

See NERDPage 8

7

Featuring

Saturday,Dec. 1711 p.m.

at theLate Night Rave

& Dance Co-sponsored

by The D20 Girls

By: LCOLUMBUS, OH -

MidOhioCon made its way into 2011 as its fi rst time being run by Wizard World in the Greater Co-lumbus Convention Cen-ter.

It has always been a great show, but this years guest list had the stingiest of nerds really to squeel in delight. Adam West, James Masrters and Billy Dee Williams were just a few, with other guests from classics like Star Trek OST and Babylon 5 were in attendence. Lines were long to see these guests, but the wait was worth it to have your own one-on-one for autographs and photos with some of these epic convention guests.

There were a few pan-els for the special guests to go over shows and review projects during this two day event. Unfortunately just about everything cost extra money. Autograph? $20 bucks. Photo? Hand shake? Panel? Be ready to shell out cash for each one of these. Sure, it's worth it to meet your idol, but some people just can't afford to pay that along with all the other con fees, which is a major bummer and something to plan ahead for when attending a convention with guests such as these.

However, the dealer's room entry came with the entrance to the convention and it had much to offer convention goers with a

wide variety of booths, vendors and artists to of-fer MidO-hioCon at-tendees a f a n t a s t i c time wheth-er or not they could afford to shell out the extra cash for autho-graphs and one-on-one time with stars in the ranks with Billy Dee W i l l i a m s and Adam West.

Photo by LD20 Girl “Badger” dressed as an Ewok

Wizard Wolrd and MidOhioCon merge:Guest lineup among the many benefi ts of bigger better October Con

8

Moving was difficult. Finding thirty-ish female friends with similar nerdy interests is even more dif-ficult when brand knew to a state. I dated a little and I was able to find men with common interests, but women were more difficult to relate geeky interests too without scaring them off. I was disheartened to see the lack of nerds in Denver, until I noticed a posting on a network-ing website about D20 Girls. It caught my eye because of the Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) name reference and the picture of a woman my own age dressed up in a costume and with the smile of an experienced model. DnD, costumes, women, and smiles? I needed to know more instantly.

It didn’t take much footwork for me to dis-cover that the D20 Girls Project was a fusion of social networking, event spokes-modeling and magazine writing all spe-cifically geared towards empowering and encour-aging nerdy women. I found what I never knew I needed to find. It was as if everything I was looking for was wrapped up with a bow on it: social and geeky females focused on friendships and careers in writing and costumed modeling. In May of 2011, I applied to be a D20 Girl,

and at the age of 28 I began a sec-ond career as a model and maga-zine contributor.

My nerdiness paid off. I started marketing and networking with local businesses and women. I made new friends and attended con-ventions.

I dressed up in comic book based outfits for photo shoots and I felt cool and comfort-able doing it. I became actively nerdy. I began building a circle of friends that appreciated and sup-ported the same interests. My mother and boyfriend were proud and happy to see me so engaged. I was completely inspired by the recent developments in my life, and, so inspired, I sat down and wrote about everything and anything I could think of.

I took advantage of the opportunity that “D20 Girls Magazine” present-ed me with and began to brainstorm ideas for ar-ticles. Up to this point, most of the recent writing I had done was graded for class and then forgotten on my laptop’s hard drive; this was a chance to have something appreciated on a whole new level: publi-

cation!In the Fall 2011 issue

of the magazine seven out of forty pages bared my name between two articles and a recipe sub-mission. My pride and joy is a cover story with its own four page spread: a combination press release and review on a Steam-punk (a popular genre of fantasy fiction combin-ing the Victorian era with Jules Vern-esque steam powered science) themed fashion show at the Den-ver TACtile Arts Center. Also in the issue was be my meatball recipe, and a societal commentary on convention attendees and the cultural microcosm they present.

I am beyond excited.

I have yet to feel a sense of accomplishment and pride that compared to the moment I saw my name in print as a contributor, and I’m fairly certain that my family’s Christmas gifts this year will be au-tographed copies of the magazine, courtesy of yours truly.

Because of Tolkien and Mr. Vanderkamp, I found Star Wars. Because of Star Wars and Julianna, I found my voice and my inner nerd. Because I embraced all that is nerdy and be-came involved with D20 Girls, I am a writer. I end where the other version of me begins: me, nerdy me, and the writer in me are inseparable. The Force is strong with this writer.

NERD

Photo by Britton ShermanLatterman gets down and nerdy with her geeky favs.

9

By Jondi Soper

BLOOMINGTON, IN - More than five years ago, a horror film festival was born. The Dark Carnival Film Festival, according to their website at www.darkcarnival f i lmfes t .com, strives to be the “ premier event in the Mid-west for screening the best independent horror, sci-fi, and dark fantasy films from all over the world.”

Since 2007 they have shown over 150 films from two dozen countries all over the world.

The 2011 Dark Carnival Film Festival was Oct. 21-23 at the Buskirk-Chum-ley Theater in downtown Bloomington. This old theatre was transformed into a house of horror with scary clowns, giant spi-ders and other monsters one could only dream up in the wilds of their imagi-nation.

But none of the decor cold hold a light to the phenomenal quality of the films shown at the festival. Some were, while in the horror genre, hilariously fully; such as “VelociPas-tor,” directed by Brendan Steere. This four-minute film chronicles the story of a priest who, after be-ing scratched by amber, begins turning into a dino-saur.

Other films at this year’s even included an animat-ed short called “A Cock Tale,” directed by Greg Bro about two roosters on a farm and what happens after one tires of living in the shadow of the other.

This year’s award win-ning Best Feature Film, and don’t let the name fool you, was a film called “Some Guy Who Kills People.” This 97-minute film had everyone talk-ing. about its quality. The film is about a lonely man, fresh out of the loony bin, returns to his hometown and seeks revenge on those

he deems responsible for his miserable life.

My personal favorite film was “Tha Familiar,” a directed by Kody Zimmer-man. This vampire film was a nice refreshing take on the vampire fad that has taken the horror genre by storm, as it chronicles not the life of a vampire, but instead the dismal life of his servant.

The whole festival was pulled together by the co-medic entertainment of “Atomic Age Cinema,” which consists of Baron Mardi, Dr. Calamari, Woody and Basement

Boy, as the resident Mon-sters of Ceremonies. More information on this fine monster crew and their friends, visit their website at www.atomicagecinema.org.

The festival attracted a couple of talented comic book artists who came to sell their wares, a record vender, an Indiana home-grown horror author named Jace Epple, whose books can be found at www.jaceepple.com, and the Indiana chapter of the D20 Girls - a recipe for a fun, horror-filled week-end.

ABOVE: Doc Tor Calamari, Basement Boy and Woody (three of the monsters that make up “Atomic Age Cinema” pose with Cole Nicolson, who has them airbrushed on his leather vest.

Monsters of ceremonies? Oh my!Indiana town hosts premier Indie Horror film festival

10

Stormtroopers in the 501st Legion. There actually are a handful of women who wear the white armor with pride and many more who wear the Imperial Officer uniform, a non-armored costume. However many women, myself included, choose to branch out to the Rebel Legion instead, where there are literally dozens of options for women because of main characters such as Leia and Padme. I earned my membership to the Rebel Legion earlier this year after recreating the cos-tume of Jedi Master Depa Billaba.

While I loved trooping in my Jedi costume, I still wanted to be a bad guy. I wanted to find something that would magically fit everything I wanted from a costume, and then I came across the promotional images of the new Gen-tle Giant figurine of Jes Gistang, the first named female Stormtrooper.

At first I was skepti-cal. I thought it might be a publicity stunt or Lucas Film, Ltd.’s response to the non-canon “femtroop-er” costumes floating around. You know, the one with the infamous “boob plate.” Sexy, yes, but not what I was look-ing for. I searched for Jes Gistang’s name on the in-ternet and was surprised

to find that her character came from the Star Wars: Legacy comic series. I was further surprised to see that the feminine take on Stormtrooper armor featured on the figurine was actually canon and that the new, form-fitting armor was both for men and women.

The series takes place 100 years post-movie se-ries, and the armor is a mix of original and pre-quel movie styles. This armor, nicknamed Legacy Trooper armor, is sup-posed to represent the evolution of Stormtrooper armor, so that it can fit any size or shape trooper, be they female or nonhuman-oid. The result was a set of armor far closer to the male equivalent without sacrificing femininity.

You can clearly tell that Jes’s character is a girl, even with her helmet on. My female friends that wear helmeted costumes frequently get “thanks, mister!” after taking a pic-ture with a fan, but I doubt anyone would mistake a female Legacy Trooper for a guy. At the same time, the costume doesn’t hyper-sexualize female Stormtroopers the way the “femtrooper” costume does.

Jes is a woman in ar-mor, not a sex kitten in armor. There is a huge dif-

ference. I totally get sexy nerd costumes, don’t get me wrong. I even have a Slave Leia costume, but there’s a time and a place for it. Sometimes you want to be convention eye candy, but sometimes you don’t want your extremi-ties ogled at.

Sometimes you just want a practical costume that doesn’t get you mis-taken for a guy while wearing it.

I’ve been working with the guys (and girls) over at the First Imperial Stormtrooper Detachment to get the Legacy Trooper costume resource library (CRL) written and to get the costume eventually approved for membership. Writing the CRL for Jes Gistang’s armor has been a challenge. The Gentle Giant statue is still in pro-duction, and we only have a few pictures to go by (most of which only show details from the front). The comic has a myriad of images, but as with all comics, individual details

change from shot to shot, or from artist to artist.

The overall style is a mix of original and prequel trilogy armor, which has made the proj-ect very enticing to both Stormtrooper and Clone Trooper costumers. Slow-ly as our research team works out all the little de-tails, a unified design for the Legacy Trooper armor is emerging.

It’s a huge step for the 501st to include more op-tions for women. The Legacy Trooper is the per-fect balance of femininity and Imperial power, ex-actly what I was looking for, and I believe, what many other women are as well. As the Legacy Trooper costume gets ap-proved for membership, I hope to see many more women join the 501st and its philanthropic efforts.

What’s more intimi-dating than an army of Stormtroopers?

An army of female Stormtroopers, that’s what.

STORMTROOPER

11

Ever.). Despite the small size of the dealer’s room, the variety was incredible! The New Orleans Public Library system was given a booth to sell used book because the convention profits were going to help the public library system rebuild after the hurricane, the local friends of the li-brary organization was giv-en a dealer’s booth to sell used books. My husband got some wonderful used books at a great price.

Most of my time on Fri-day was spent networking with friends and some of the other conventions in the area. I didn’t get a chance to go to any panels on Friday or to visit the art show, but I had a great time nonethe-less, just hanging out with my fellow fen. One very cool thing at the conven-tion was the British Ferret (a small street legal tank/armored vehicle) that was parked in the hotel parking lot.

CONtraflow’s second day was packed with pan-els and events. In addition to the charity and “slave” auctions, the con also held a costume contest, mini-concert and saw the com-missioning of the USS New Orleans chapter of STARFLEET, a Star Trek fan group.

I spent most of the day wandering between panels, chasing after my son, liter-ally, talking with my fellow 501st troopers, and spread-ing the love of steampunk.

One thing that I loved about Saturday, was the availabil-ity of activities for kids.

Called the Cadet Acad-emy, the children's activi-ties incorporated space and science fiction into fun and educational activities for children too young to fully enjoy the rest of the con-vention.

As a parent, I thought this was awesome! So did my son, who I literally had to drag away when the ladies running the kid's events needed to break for lunch. While he was occu-pied, I managed to sneak over to the art show.

The art show was rather small, with only three or four different artists do-nating to the event, but the work was beautiful. I want-ed to buy it all. Also in the art show room, there was an exhibit of the memorabilia from New Orleans’ sci-fi convention past. The con-vention was also collecting fan histories throughout the convention in the art show.

After the art show, I wandered to various pan-els and just soaked up the

con atmosphere. During my wanderings, I ran into a couple of fellow D20 Girls (www.d20girls.com), a K-9 (from Dr. Who), and a game of B.A.D. Zom-bie Dice (That’s Big A** Dice). I also managed to pick up three new books over the course of Saturday and got an old one signed by the guest of honor, Da-vid Brin.

While there was not much in the way of costum-ing this year, but I’m sure that will change in coming years.

The winner of the cos-tume contest was a guy who made a zombie LEGO man, and Best in Show was taken by a werewolf who incorporated running stilts into his costume. Dur-ing the costume contest’s intermission, there was a mini-concert by The Great Luke Ski, who was quite awesome. My steampunk group won Hall Costume awards for our steampunk gear.

Saturday night at CON-traflow was pretty amaz-ing. There were several

room parties, which were a great way to relax and get to know the rest of the con-goers. We didn’t make it to some of the parties, but the ones we did get to were amazing. They also had an All-Ages dance for those who could not attend the room parties.

Sunday was a very relax-ing day at the CONtraflow. After packing and checking out, I spent most of my time at the con/fan group row visiting with friends and oc-casionally strolled through the dealer’s room. I did get a massage, which was an amazing, yet surreal expe-rience. I am now convinced that every con should offer a dealer’s booth to a mas-sage therapist.

The hubby spent some time in a steampunk litera-ture panel while I wrangled our son. He was given a mini-D20 by the dealer at the GAMESSCIENCE dice booth, Col. Louis Zocchi, creator the D-100 and co-creator of the D-Any. We also spent some time in the game room playing Ticket to Ride.

While CONtraflow was small, it was a great place to get to meet and know people because of the inti-mate setting. I also found it refreshing to attend a con-vention where the focus was science fiction rather than anime because I have more in common with the sci-fi crowd. It was nice to be at a low-key convention for a change.

CONtraflow