MileHiCon 41 will be held in Denver, October 23-25, 2009 with guests of honor Barbara Hambly, Nancy Kress and John Picacio. Brandon Sanderson will be toastmaster.

The full press release appears following the jump.

41st Annual MileHiCon, October 23-25, 2009

Denver, CO, 23 March 2009 –  The forty-first MileHiCon, the Rocky Mountain Region’s largest literary science fiction convention, will be October 23-25 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 celebrated its fortieth anniversary in 2008, has approximately 1,000 attendees, and 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 are authors Barbara Hambly and Nancy Kress and artist John Picacio. Author Brandon Sanderson is toastmaster. Hambly is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter, best known for her fantasy and vampire novels. She has also written novels set in the Star Wars and Star Trek universes, a novelization of the television series Beauty and the Beast, and historical fiction. Kress, who started writing science fiction in 1976, has written twenty-three books, including three nonfiction books on writing. Since winning the Hugo and Nebula awards in 1991 for her novella, “Beggars in Spain,” she has received numerous other awards for her work. Her novella, “The Erdmann Nexus,” is a nominee for the 2009 Hugo award.  Picacio is an acclaimed illustrator whose illustrations and book covers have won numerous awards in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.  Sanderson, since the 2005 publication of his first novel, Elantris, has published the Mistborn Trilogy, Warbreaker, and the juvenile series Alcatraz. He has recently been asked to complete the novel A Memory of Light, the twelfth and final title in the late Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time 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.

Mischief Managed Entertainment will once again present its popular “Tales From Avistrum” in tandem with MileHiCon.  The top floor of the Hyatt Regency will be transformed into the wizarding school called ‘Avistrum Academy’ where students help solve a mystery and fight the villains. The weekend is complete with The Sorting Ceremony, Start of Term Feast, the Quidditch Cup Tournament and a full schedule of classes, including Potions, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration. All classes will include a craft project that students can take home.

All MileHiCon activities will be at The Hyatt Regency Tech Center-Denver, located at 7800 E. Tufts Ave., Denver, CO 80237.

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

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