My Trip to Hal-Con: A Recap for #CoffinHop

On Saturday Oct. 27th I set out on a mission: to explore the wilds of the Hal-Con Sci-Fi Convention (held deep with the bowels of the World Trade and Convention Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia) and report back for Coffin Hop.  And to celebrate a successful mission, one lucky person who leaves a comment will win an ebook copy of the Coffin Hop sampler anthology, Death by Drive-In.  Now here is my report:

My Trip to the Hal-Con Sci-Fi Convention

The day started before sunrise and with a road trip, because the city of Halifax is about a two hour drive from where I live and making the first event required an early start.  I did not venture forth alone, as I went with my friend Dorothy.  Yes, we were just two sophisticated girls getting their geek on. Upon arrival, and after checking in, we headed off to the Haven Panel.

For those of you not in the privileged geeky circle, Haven is a TV show from SyFy filmed in various locations on the South Shore of Nova Scotia and loosely based on Stephen King’s novel The Colorado Kid. The panel opened with a short behind-the-scenes film and an amusing, filmed, greeting from two of the show’s stars Emily Rose (Audrey) and Lucas Bryant (Nathan) who could not attend the Con. Then the audience got to view the Halloween episode of Haven (which has yet to be aired in Canada) before the main event.
That was a Q and A session with Haven’s mysterious newspaper duo, Vince and Dave, otherwise known as Richard Donat and John Dunsworth in real life. The session was quite fun, with the pair being charming and amusing. A good time was had by everyone.

After the Haven panel, we popped around to check out some of the vendors. There were the usual booths of appealing books and models, collectables and steampunk accessories, but two booths caught my eye. The first was Eternal Elf Creations, with their wonderful collection of jewellery; they had a skeleton head cameo necklace I just had to buy. They also have an Etsy store. The second vendor was an artist, Shawn Orne, who does exquisite fantasy paintings and prints. His work is well worth checking out.

To round out the morning we spent a few minutes viewing the costume contest (some great costumes paraded on stage) and then it was off to lunch.














After lunch, I stopped by the Game of Thrones discussion panel while my friend went to see Rene Auberjonois and catch some of the John Rhys-Davies Q and A (which apparently was fabulous; alas I missed most of it). I enjoyed the Game of Thrones discussion though; they were an animated bunch of folks who knew their stuff. Then I was off to a Steampunk session (hosted by the Jules Verne Phantastical Society) for a lively lecture on Black Powder and Steel: Weapons of the 17th and 18th Century. I learned quite a bit about muskets and an interesting tidbit that there were in fact grenade launchers available as musket accessories.

After the taste of steampunk, my friend and I enjoyed some of the Dramatic Reading of Kill Shakespeare, a graphic novel, and watched some of the SCA medieval style sword play. And thus ended the day at Hal-Con.




Kill Shakespeare

An epic adventure that will change the way you look at Shakespeare forever.

In this dark tale, the Bard’s most famous heroes embark upon a journey to discover a long-lost soul.  Hamlet, Juliet, Othello, Falstaff, Romeo and Puck search for a reclusive wizard who may have the ability to assist them in their battle against the evil forces led by the villains Richard III, Lady Macbeth and Iago.  That reclusive wizard?  William Shakespeare.