Harp Twins Archives - Gary David Gillen

Conference Recap Cleveland Concoction 2023

Introduction

I attended the SF conference, Cleveland Concoction, at 600 North Aurora Road, Aurora, Ohio, at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 17 to 19, 2023. I attended Cleveland Concoction in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2023, 2024, and 2025. (2020, 2021, and 2022 were canceled due to COVID-19).I attended the opening ceremony, seven panels, three concerts, one performance, the state of the convention meeting, and the closing ceremonies.

The link to the Concoction website.

http://www.clevelandconcoction.org/

Concoction 2023 Banner

Cleveland Concoction 2023 Program Guide Cover

ConCoction 2023 Badge

Bertram Inn and Conference Center

Summary

Friday, March 17 at 2 PM

Mistakes Beginning Authors Make 1.0, a panel with Linda Robertson Reinhardt, Marcus V. Calvert, J. D. Blackrose, Joelle Presby, and Tory Gates.

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They held the showcase in Hayes A Room with 8 attendees.

Friday, March 17 at 3 PM

Animal Sidekicks, a panel with Cassandra Morgan, Addie J. King, Olivia Berrier, James Fadeley, and David F. Balog.

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They held the showcase in Hayes A Room with 12 attendees.

Friday, March 17 at 5 PM

The Opening Ceremonies.

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They held the ceremonies in the Pegasus Room with 40 attendees.

Friday, March 17 at 6 PM

A Concert by The Harp Twins

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They held the showcase in the Pegasus Room with 60 attendees.

Friday, March 17 at 8 PM

Flash Fiction, a panel with Olivia Berrier, Weston Kincaide, and Marie Vibbert.

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They held the showcase in Hayes A Room with 7 attendees.

Saturday, March 18 at 10 AM

Mistakes Beginning Authors Make 2.0, a panel with Jason R. Lady, Marie Vibbert, James Fadeley, and Clif Flynt.

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They held the showcase in Hayes A Room with 10 attendees.

Saturday, March 18 at 12 PM

Difficulties in Dating, a performance with The Confused Greenies.

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They held the showcase in the Pegasus Room with 12 attendees.

Saturday, March 18 at 1 PM

Star Maps and Alternate Earths, a panel with Andy Presby

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They held the showcase in the Hayes C & D Room with 7 attendees.

Saturday, March 18 at 3:30 PM

A Concert by The Harp Twins

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They held the showcase in the Pegasus Room with 110 attendees. (A Full House)

Saturday, March 18 at 7 PM

Quitting Your Day Job, a panel with J. D. Blackrose, Joelle Presby, Olivia Berrier, and Linda Robertson Reinhardt.

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They held the showcase in Hayes A Room with 7 attendees.

Sunday, March 19 at 10 AM

Structuring Your Story, a panel with Evan Graham, Marie Vibbert, Weston Kincade, and Tony Gates.

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They held the showcase in Hayes A Room with 9 attendees.

Sunday, March 19 at 11 AM

A Concert by The Harp Twins

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They held the showcase in the Pegasus Room with 65 attendees.

Sunday, March 19 at 1 PM

The State of the Convention

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They held the showcase in the Pegasus Room with 12 attendees.

Sunday, March 19 at 2 PM

Closing Ceremonies

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They held the showcase in the Hayes C&D room with 37 attendees.

Recommendation – Conclusion

Conference Recap Cleveland Concoction 2023

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Links

I attended the SF conference, Cleveland Concoction, at 600 North Aurora Road, Aurora, Ohio, at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 7 to 9, 2025. I attended 11 activities. My star of the con was Marie Vibbert. The con returns in March 2026.

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2025

I attended the SF conference called Cleveland Concoction at 600 North Aurora Road Aurora, Ohio at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 8 to 10, 2024. I attended the opening ceremony, eight panels, two author showcases, and the closing ceremony. This year’s theme was the Neverending dungeon. My star of the con was Becca Lynn Mathis. The con returns from March 7 to March 9, 2025.

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2024

Links Continued

I attended the SF conference Cleveland Concoction 2019, at 600 North Aurora Road, Aurora, Ohio, at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 1 to 3, 2019. I attended the opening ceremony, four panels, and the closing ceremony. This is a link to my conference recap. I also volunteered in the Programming Department for four hours and in the ConSuite for four hours.

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2019

I attended the SF conference Cleveland Concoction at 600 North Aurora Road Aurora, Ohio at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 9, 2018, to March 11, 2018. The 2019 convention was from March 1 to 3, 2019 and I realized as I was writing a recap for that conference, I had not posted a recap for the 2018 conference. This is a recap for the conference from last year. I attended the opening ceremony, five panels, two author showcases, a performance, and the closing ceremony. I also volunteered in the ConSuite for eight hours.

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2018

This is my recap for the SF conference Cleveland Concoction from 2017. They held it from March 10, 2017, to March 12, 2017. I attended nine activities and volunteered in the ConSuite for twelve hours.

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2017

Conference Marcon Columbus 2022 Recap

Introduction

I attended the SF Conference Marcon Columbus 2022 on May 7, 2022. They held the conference at 350 North High Street Columbus, Ohio 43215 at the Hyatt Regency Columbus. The drive was two-plus hours taken in the morning and back in the evening. I also attended Marcon in 2017, 2018, and 2019. The missing two years were because the conference was canceled those years. The story going around the con this year was that this might be the last Marcon because the coordinating group of this con will no longer do it going forward. Will someone run the con next year? Stay tuned. I attended three panels and one concert at the 2022 conference.

This is a link to the Marcon Conference Facebook account. Their website was down then and still is down.

https://www.facebook.com/MARConOH/

Summary

Saturday, May 7th at 11:00 AM

It was the best of Kynes, it was the worst of Kynes: The new Dune film, a panel with Denver Karchner, Ted Dickinson, Paul Hahn, Emily Lydic, and Sean Mead.

The panel debated what they liked and didn’t like about the Dune (2021) film. The film covered the first part of the novel Dune. They will make a second film covering the rest of the novel and its scheduled release is on October 20, 2023. They compared the current film with the Dune (1984) film and the Sci-Fi Channel series from 2000. The panelists enjoyed the movie but felt that some concepts could have been explained better for non-book readers. They are cautiously optimistic that the second film will answer their questions.

They held the panel in Salon B/C Room with 19 attendees.

Saturday, May 7th at 12:00 PM

The Harp Twins, a concert with Camille Kitt and Kennerly Kitt.

The Harp twins are identical twins that both play electric harps. They arrange their music. They played nine songs in the concert including Nothing Else Matter by Metallica and Fear of the Dark by Iron Maiden. In between songs they engaged in humorous banter between them and introduced each piece before they played them. A very enjoyable concert, not what I expected, but they won me over.

This is a link to their website which has a bio, links to purchase their music, music videos, and a schedule of upcoming performances.

https://www.harptwins.com/

They held the concert in the Buckeye Room with 70 attendees.

Saturday, May 7th at 1:00 PM

Writing for Hire, a discussion with Marie Vibbert.

The discussion was about the author’s experience in taking a writing for-hire job. She says that a lot of mass-market books are ghostwritten. She told us what it’s like writing someone else’s property to a specification. The book is expected to be released on July 12, 2022. The book is named MegaDeath with the name of the author Tory Quinn. The interesting thing is that the book says Tory Quinn with Marie Vibbert. The other two books “written” by Tory Quinn were written by other ghostwriters. Marie said it was an interesting experience. She was given a specific outline that must be followed in writing the book. The business model for the publisher was pitching a movie concept by having a written novel adapted into a screenplay. There wasn’t much room for creativity but the pay was good.

This is the link to the Goodreads page for MegaDeath by Tory Quinn

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56603442-megadeath

They held the discussion in the Capital Room with 7 attendees.

Saturday, May 7th at 2:00 PM

Babylon 5: Reborn or Retreaded, a panel with Lee Shamblin, Rachael Thurston, Denver Karshner, Emily Lydic, and Ken Keisel.

The reason for the panel was to discuss the proposed reboot of the series by the original show writer, J. Michael Straczynski. At the time of the panel, the details of the reboot were hazy. What complicates matters is that the CW channel planned to produce it with a projected release in 2023. Nexstar will purchase CW and that might impact the status of the Babylon 5 reboot. The panel questioned what would happen going forward.

They held the panel in Salon B/C with 27 attendees.

Recommendation – Conclusion

I had a great time at Conference Marcon Columbus 2022. My co-stars of the con were The Harp Twins for their concert and the Writing for Hire discussion presented by Marie Vibbert. I also attended Marcon in 2017, 2018, and 2019 and hope the con will return in 2023.

Links

Recap for SF Conference Marcon Columbus on May 11, 2019. They held it at Crowne Plaza – Columbus North. I also attended Marcon in 2017 and 2018. This year I attended four panels, a performance, and an interview.

Recap Marcon Conference 2019

Recap for SF Conference Marcon Columbus I attended on May 12, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio. I attended four panels and two game shows.

Marcon Conference 2018

Recap for SF Conference Marcon Columbus on May 13, 2017. They held the conference at the Hyatt Regency Columbus. I also attended Marcon in 2018 and 2019. I attended five panels at the 2017 conference.

Conference Recap Marcon Columbus 2017