MileHiCon 40

Denver‘s MileHiCon celebrates its fortieth anniversary with a full slate of guests: authors Jim Butcher, Tim Powers, and Patricia Briggs, and artist Michael Carroll. MileHiCon 40 will take place this coming October 24-26 weekend.

The full press release appears behind the cut.

40th Annual MileHiCon, October 24-26, 2008

Denver, CO, 22 April 2008 –  MileHiCon, the Rocky Mountain Region’s largest literary science fiction convention will be celebrating its 40th anniversary October 24-26 at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center-Denver. Run entirely by volunteers, MileHiCon will feature more than 80 authors and speakers, programming on every aspect of the SF and fantasy genres, the largest SF/fantasy art show in the region, round-the-clock gaming, a room full of dealers of SF-, fantasy-, and horror-related materials, and a masquerade (costume contest). The convention will also feature video and anime rooms, as well as the Critter Crunch- the first robotic combat competition, from which all others came.

MileHiCon has been run by local SF fans since its beginning in 1969. The convention, which has approximately 1,000 attendees, is still run and staffed entirely by volunteers. Its purpose is to further interest in reading and writing SF and related genres, although it has long since branched out to include television, film, anime, and gaming.

This year’s guests of honor will be authors Jim Butcher, Tim Powers, and Patricia Briggs, and artist Michael Carroll. Butcher is best known as the author of the Dresden Files, a series of novels about wizard/detective Harry Dresden, which served as the basis for the 2007 television series on the SciFi Channel. Powers’ works are usually based on actual historical events, with a supernatural twist. He received the World Fantasy Award for his novels Last Call and Declare. Briggs has been writing Fantasy since the early 1990s. Carroll, from Littleton is best known for his accurate paintings of astronomical and palaeontological subjects.  He is also an internationally published science journalist and has written several children’s books. Carrie Vaughn, the Boulder author best known for her series of fantasy works about Kitty Norville, combining the topics of werewolves, vampires, and talk radio, will be toastmaster.  This year’s media guest of honor is Ed Kramer, a 12-year veteran of Industrial Light and Magic, who is now VFX supervisor at Impossible Pictures in Denver. Kramer has worked on visual effects for over 20 movies, including titles in the Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Pirates of the Caribbean series.

In addition to the guests of honor, MileHiCon will be attended by other SF, fantasy, and horror authors, many of them local. They will give readings of work in progress and participate in programs on various aspects of writing and publishing. They and other special guests will also give presentations and participate in panels on various topics, including science, literature, and media. The MileHiCon annual literacy auction of SF-, fantasy-, and horror-related materials, which benefits a local literacy program, will be held on Saturday night, while the masquerade judges deliberate.

All MileHiCon activities will be at The Hyatt Regency Tech Center-Denver, located at 7800 E. Tufts Ave.

For more information, see the convention website: http://www.milehicon.org/